It's been two days since he came back to Ningekai but the annoyance that he had been feeling since the spirit warrior named Kairan disturbed him and Botan never left his system. As more encounters occur between him and the deity his infatuation is also becoming harder and harder to ignore. I only came there to see the necklace..but when I saw Botan my reason for coming have completely shifted to something else.I wanted to stay for her.. The image of Botan standing so close to him, her eyes widening in surprise was stuck in his mind, and he could see it every time he close his eyes. "What would have happened if I kissed her?" why don't you go there and find out? His Youko side thought, daring him. The idea is tempting, its just like the old times, him sneaking into a guarded castle to steal his price, only this time the price is far more precious than any material thing he had ever wanted, and he wants to be with her with an increasing intensity. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
That night Kurama's dreams are full of the images of the deity, only in this dream she has huge white feathered wings, her hair is longer and untied flowing around her. Kurama rolled on his bed with a sigh as he watched in his dream how she was caressing his silver hair as his head rested on her lap.
The day of the celebration finally arrived and Botan is so excited to be part of it. She decided to bring a huge bouquet to give as a gift to Rumiko, she looked at combination of roses, carnation, and lilies and smelled the bulbs closing her eyes. The smell of the roses was the strongest and suddenly the face of a certain red head flashed across her mind. I wonder what is he doing right now. Botan looked down at the roses. It always reminds me of him, beautiful and delicate looking but with thorns. A flash back of his face moving closer to hers made her blush and she jumped out of her reverie when she heard Kairan's voice.
"Your face is all red." He pointed out watching her in a brooding manner that he was trying hard to hide. There was something about him these past few days that Botan finds cute. He's sulking. But why? She noticed that he had been moody and quiet the past 3 days but she doesn't have a clue as to what is the reason for it. They had been busy planning on which village to visit next and making paper reports to submit to King Enma about their progress and she noticed that he had been a bit snappy even though it's mostly being thrown towards Saijin who was like a brother to him than her. When she asked him if he was fine she could tell his surprise and embarrassment of being noticed by the light blush tinting his cheeks. Kairan looked away avoiding her eyes and shrugged, stating that he has no idea what she was asking. She was amused by his act of innocence but decided to leave him alone. She nodded and started walking away when he suddenly grabbed her hand. She looked back in surprise.
"Do you want to walk around the garden?" he asked with a furious blush, his eyes still avoiding her. She smiled and nodded. Someone from the balcony above them gave a whistling sound and when they looked up they saw Saijin looking down at them while chewing on an apple. He wiggled his eyebrows at them with a goofy smile is on his face.
"Baka.." Kairan whispered. He looked more embarrassed than before as he let her go and started walking away. Saijin started laughing hard but got hit on the head by Kaichou as the elderly man looked at him with disapproval.
"Stop ruining the moment and let them be you idiot" He scolded but a knowing smile spread across his good natured face. Smiling, Botan followed Kairan, at this moment she felt as if she was indulging a shy little kid than the powerful spirit warrior who could erase people's soul.
It was already dark outside, and despite the possible danger lurking around the woods of the demon world Botan felt safe trekking the forest with the three warriors surrounding her. They insisted that she wear something nice for the celebration and Kiachou oji chan surprised her by giving her a white kimono with reddish pink flowers and a yellow almost golden obi. It was beautiful, and upon learning that he ordered it from reikai after being invited to the celebration, the deity couldn't help but give the elderly a grateful hug.
They arrived at the village and found it full of cat demon kids playing around and other demons engaged in a lively conversation. There was a pause when they arrived but suddenly Rumiko appeared and greeted them warmly. The activity around them resumed, and now that the leader of the town welcomed them it seems that the inhabitant doesn't have any problem of them being there as well. Some smiled at them, but most of the demons just looked at them with curiosity. There was a huge bonfire at the middle of the village and soon they found themselves being offered roasted boars, and gigantic chickens boiled in stew, or sake and other beverages. Soon the entire village felt at ease with them and started drinking and laughing. They listened to stories told by the villagers to the younger ones about how Rumiko as a young demoness saved their people when her family was killed by a rampaging horde of demons trying to steal food from their camp. She stood up to them and managed to kill all of the attacking demons. Despite having fatal injuries and even losing one ear on the battle, she managed to survive and later on built this village for them. The deity looked around to find the beautiful demoness who was standing near a cauldron and adding some more spices to the stew. Her respect for the Rumiko increased greatly from the heroic stories that she heard.
With the sound of laughter Botan looked behind and found the elderly Kaichou being surrounded by kids. He was playing a tune using a single leaf he was holding in his lips. The cat demon children was looking at him in utter amazement as if he was doing magic, some of them are sitting in front of him while others are trying to get a closer look and see what he was doing. One demon child with golden eyes who seems to be around the age of 6 yrs. old crept too close to him and tripped while trying to stand on tiptoes, Botan suddenly gasp and stand up to be on his aid but the elder warrior grabbed the child before he hit the floor. The cat child was surprised and suddenly with a huge grin on his beautiful face jumped up and hugged the warrior who toppled over from shock and everyone in their little group started laughing. Botan couldn't help but think of Kurama when she saw those golden eyes. Kurama's child would be as beautiful as that child for sure! I wonder who would be the mother..She suddenly felt the heat rising up her cheeks as she suddenly imagined herself and kurama holding a baby. She let out a sigh feeling silly with her thoughts. Through the rest of the night the children followed Kaichou around playing with him, but it was the golden eyed kid who wouldn't go anywhere without him, even going as far as sitting on his lap.
It was nearing dawn and most of the demon males are already drunk when suddenly a loud roar was heard and out of nowhere demons carrying swords and spears appeared and started attacking the village. Everyone was in panic as chaos broke and the village started burning. Kairan, Saijin and Rumiko could be seen fighting aggressively, and some of the cat demons who are capable of fighting where protecting the rest of the villagers but they were no match for the stronger opponents attacking them. Botan summoned her oar as she saw a young woman cowering as a huge blue demon with 5 huge horns on his head was about to streak her with a scythe. The deity flew towards under the scythe and grabbed the woman, the end of her oar barely missing the scythe sweeping down at them. A ball of pure white light suddenly went pass them and straight to the demon instantly pulverizing it together with the scythe he was holding. Botan looked up to the direction where the attack came from and standing on top of the tree was an image of someone with very long and flowing silver hair. She couldn't see the face of whoever it is because he was standing in front of the full moon, blocking all the lights away from his face. The battle down the village was momentarily forgotten as once again the suffocating feeling came back to her, and from within her mind she saw a silver blue eyes staring back at her. The creature on top of the tree suddenly looked on his right side as if seeing someone coming towards them and suddenly he was gone. Botan searched the surrounding but he was nowhere to be found. All of a sudden a bat demon grabbed the female demon sitting beside Botan on her oar. The woman screamed as the bat dug his claws deeply on her chest before letting her go to fall on the ground. Botan dived as fast as she could and grabbed the falling woman but as they hit the ground she realized that the cat demoness is already dead, and there was a gaping hole on where her heart should have been. She saw Kairan throwing a spear to kill the bat demon that attacked the woman just now and then blocked an attack from the front with a sword and also saw Saijin fighting behind Kairan. Botan wondered why he isn't using his powers which could erase all these attacking demons. Not far away Rumiko can be seen fighting 7 demons and verywhere there were dead bodies of the villagers and their attackers. The children! She suddenly thought as she looked frantically for them and at the same time getting worried of Kiachou. She suddenly heard a scream from across the battlefield that made her blood turn cold.
"Oji chan!" screamed the golden eyed demon kid as he scrambled to his feet running toward the elderly spirit who was lying on the ground writhing in pain. Botan summoned her oar and she realized that she was she was too far, it seems as if the Kaichou was trying to get the children out of the village when demons caught up with them. Im not gonna make it.. She thought frantically as she saw the child stand between the fallen warrior and the pale demon who was holding a sword. He was about to strike the kid with a smile on his broad ugly face when suddenly Kaichou pulled the kid and shielded him with his own body while kneeling. Blood splattered around as the sword sliced through his back, the pain was excruciating and he found that it was starting to focus his gaze on anything due to the extreme blood lost caused by all the wounds but he need to protect Ren, the golden haired boy in his arm so he gathered all his remaining reiki and turned around sending out an energy wave from his left hand, blasting the demon and killing it on the spot. The elder warrior sighed in relief but he suddenly felt cold steel plunging painfully through his chest. He looked down as a cry escaped the child's lips and saw a demon in front of them holding a spear that was impaling both him and Ren, and on his other hand he was grasping a lifeless body of one of the children that ran earlier.
The demon pulled out the spear from them with a cruel smile, and as their bodies sunk to the ground a flash of white and blue collided with the demon so hard he was sent smashing to one of the unburnt houses destroying its walls with the impact. Botan body felt raw from the crash but she raised her head and tried crawling to Kaichou and the child but the demon got up almost unscathed and walked towards her. She saw him pick up his spear, she looked back and saw Kairan and Saijin being surrounded by other demons, and her heart sunk when she saw a motionless figure lying on the ground wearing what looked like Rumiko's kimono.
"Seems like no one is available to save you." She looked back at the laughing demon as he raised his hand, about to strike her with the spear. She closed her eyes waiting for the pain that never came. She opened her eyes when she heard a loud thud and saw the headless demon collapsed in front of her. She looked around and saw Kurama running towards them, retracting his rose whip with one hand, his golden eyes glinting in the rising sun. He rushed towards her but before he could reach she shouted and asked him to help Kairan and Saijin. Making sure that there were no demon near the deity he ran towards the two spirit warrior and within minutes the three managed to kill all of the demons.
Both Kurama and Kairan rushed towards Botan while Saijin ran to check on Rumiko. Botan was trying desperately to heal the golden eyed child but he'd lost too much blood already.
"Is oji chan going to be ok?" He asked in a very faint voice, worry evident in his innocent eyes.
Botan's eyes filled with sorrow as she tried to smile at the child to reassure him. "Shhh.. save your energy, don't worry for now alright?"
The child's brow furrowed weakly "Is he ok?" he asked again desperately this time. Botan nodded still trying to keep the smile that's threatening to break into a grimace. She'd always managed to find something positive in the most hopeless situation, in all of her assignments with the reikai tantei but not today. Today everything seems lost and she couldn't summon her cheerful voice no matter how much effort she is putting in it.
The child smiled content with her answer. "You're so beautiful, you look like an angel.." he said as his small hand slowly reached towards a lock of the deitys hair that was hanging in front of her. Botan smiled at the child and she was about to say something when his hand fell, his grasp leaving the blue strands of hair stained with the blood from his hand.
"No! Wake up! Onegai open your eyes!" Botan tried shaking the child awake but he never opened his eyes again. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Kurama. His eyes were solemn as he slowly shook his head confirming her fears. She saw Saijin gently putting Rumiko's body near them, he walked towards their fallen friend and knelt beside a shaking Kairan who was healing the open wounds on Kaichou's lifeless body, his face trying to conceal the pain he is feeling but failing miserably. As Saijin released a frustrated growl and punched the dirt he was kneeling on both his tears and Botan's started flowing. Realization hit her as she hugged the small body in her arms, she felt crushed and the only comfort she could find is coming from the warm hand on her shoulder. Kurama couldn't do anything but to make sure she knows that he was there for her and even in his Youko form he felt his heart constrict painfully as he thought of how close Botan had been to being one of the dead bodies lying around them.