A/N: Sadly, I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Spirit Detective Saga
Chapter Seven - The Poltergeist in the Attic
Another day of school went by in the usual way. Now that Botan knew about Maya, Keiko walked to Meiou High with her in the morning. Sometime shortly before or after their first class started, Keiko found a way to quietly pass off her spirit beast egg to Minamino. She and Maya would chat with each other and comment on the lessons. When the day ended and club activities finished, she swiped her egg back and headed out with Maya. Botan, who knew she was distracting and had little interest in attending classes, met up with them sometime after they left school grounds, at which point they hung out together for however long they wanted.
On the subject of Minamino, he remained his usual self. He was, in his own words, content with the new status quo so long as Keiko allowed him to remain in the shadows. It bothered her, though, that he couldn't ask her to be quiet in class if he needed to concentrate. She wouldn't be able to explain the change to Maya, nor could he shush her upon demand as Maya could without potentially drawing attention onto himself.
The solution to this was obvious: telekinesis. The sound of writing was ordinary background noise, and Keiko could pass the change to the written word off as practice controlling her ghostly powers. However, she had, though it shamed her to admit it, grown somewhat lax in her spiritual training. With Maya and those enviable physical hands of hers around, the need had grown somewhat less dire. But Keiko vowed to herself that she would master the ability as soon as possible.
It was for this precise reason that, when asked which part of the world she wanted to see tonight, Keiko suggested that they stay local so she could focus on her practice while hunting ghosts rather than sightseeing. As Botan had no problem with that, they wandered off together with no particular goal in mind.
Keiko recognized the neighborhood where they found their first ghost of the night. Shōta lived somewhere nearby. It wasn't him they were here for, however, though they might check in on him later. No, instead, whoever this ghost was had Botan visibly nervous. When they drew nearer, Keiko sensed why for herself.
Where one could describe Teijō's spiritual aura as heavy or gloomy, the one before them had a deep darkness that put them on edge. It prickled the skin and, against all reason, robbed Keiko of her breath. She felt it nip at her own spirit, always testing yet never sinking its teeth in.
They soon arrived at their destination, the feeling only having grown more intense the whole way. Within the house — no, the massive three-story mansion before them, they would find their ghost.
And it'd noticed them.
Botan stepped in front of Keiko as the ghost neared the attic window. To Keiko's surprise, she caught sight of a little girl no older than eight (in appearance, at least) through the glass, from where she stared down at them but made no move to approach. Her hime cut flowed around her shoulders and rested atop a one-piece dress suitable for either casual or night wear.
"That's not good," Botan mumbled.
If Keiko hadn't been wary before, she would be now. "Why?"
"Recall when I first tried to teach you to use your spirit energy. I had you use emotions to draw your power out in an explosive burst."
And that hadn't worked in the slightest for Keiko. She remembered, all right.
And then she realized the point of Botan bringing that up. "Oh."
"Yes," Botan said. "Children are very bad at regulating their emotions. What they feel, they feel very strongly."
The ghost in the window retreated further into the attic. With no apparent trouble coming, Botan allowed herself to relax. That, in turn, let the tension bleed out of Keiko.
"What do we do?"
Botan stared at the window for a few last moments before turning to Keiko. "Nothing right now," she said. "Children almost never become wandering ghosts; she'll be here tomorrow. I'll look into her while you're at school. Then, well, we'll go from there."
Keiko spared once last glance at the window where she'd seen the ghost before agreeing to the plan. If they weren't going to go in, then the sooner they got out of here, the better. That girl's aura sent shivers down her spine.
The next day passed more quickly than Keiko would have liked. While she wanted to go back and help that ghost girl, she dreaded returning in equal measure. And if a tiny little human could be so bad, she had to wonder what enduring the presence of one of the soul-devouring monsters Botan had mentioned would be like.
After school let out for the day, Keiko retrieved her spirit beast egg from Minamino in a smooth, secret handoff. Maya didn't have track practice today, so they set out right away. With that freedom came opportunity, and Keiko had a request that had become more and more common over time.
"Maya, I need to borrow your hands."
Less than an hour later, they'd made their way to Shōta's neighborhood and settled into the local library. There they pored over archived back issues of newspapers published in the area in search of information about their mystery ghost. While Botan had said she'd investigate and would probably return with Spirit World's case file on the girl, Keiko wanted to be of some use if she could. Maybe the world of the living would have something that they didn't.
The sun had long since set when Maya finally found a lead. "Hey, check this out."
Keiko floated through the table between them from her own newspaper to stand beside Maya. In the paper below, her friend pointed to a relatively recent obituary for a girl named Sayaka, age seven. No details were given as to the cause of death, but they very likely had a name now. Names made everything infinitely easier.
Eventually, they stumbled upon a few articles about Sayaka's parents. They had money, no surprise, and had made several charitable donations in the area over the years. Although none of the pictures contained Sayaka, one report did explicitly link the three together in writing.
When they looked further back, they found an ad placed in their name for a live-in housekeeper and nanny. Keiko and Maya guessed that Sayaka probably hadn't really known her parents. Finding her cause of death, however, eluded them. But they could make an educated guess.
"There's no public outcry in the records, so it probably wasn't the nanny's fault," Keiko mused. "And the parents weren't around much, so odds are it wasn't them, either. What do you think? Cancer, maybe?"
Maya shrugged. "Maybe. Hand me the… Sorry, I'll get it myself." Reaching through Keiko, she pulled the stack of papers they'd found Sayaka's obituary in. She skimmed each again, checking a week either forward or back from the date. "It doesn't look like the nanny died, so it probably wasn't a car crash or anything that would catch them both together."
"I think it would have been big news if a major incident of some sort occurred," Keiko said. "It has to have been a quiet death with no one at fault. No fire. No public drowning. No negligence. So on and so forth."
After a little thought, Maya agreed. "So she was sick, then. She wasn't in any of the publicity photos, so she must have struggled for years. You're probably right about it being cancer."
Keiko imagined what life would be like going through that. From what they'd uncovered, the facts painted a picture of isolation, weakness, and the ever-present specter of death. Was it any wonder Sayaka had turned into the ghost she had?
"So," Keiko concluded, "we're dealing with a lonely young girl bitterly jealous of everyone around her. Thoughts?"
"Seems as good a guess as any," Maya replied. "We can cross-reference with Botan when she gets here. Whenever she gets here. What time is it, anyway?"
A glance up at a clock revealed that it was hours past when Botan would usually meet them. If Botan was this late, then she'd either gotten caught up in another case, Spirit World had held her up, or, to Keiko's dawning horror, she'd gone in alone and couldn't come find them.
Maya's eyes widened as she came to that very conclusion at the same time Keiko did.
"Thank you for your help, Maya," Keiko said in a rush. "I need to find Botan. I'll let you know how everything went as soon as it's done."
Barely waiting for Maya to tell her to go, Keiko bolted from the library straight for Sayaka's haunt. The dark presence lingering there had grown only too obvious since the day before. It roiled and railed against her presence, agitated, and only one possible cause for its disturbance came to mind: Botan.
Throwing caution to the wind, Keiko charged through the window into the attic. The room inside had all the trappings of a little girl's, from dolls and stuffed animals to crayons and dresses, with all of the mess as well. In the center of it, Sayaka danced. A stuffed bear almost taller than her served as her partner, moving under the direction of her power precisely as she desired. If it weren't for her emotions spilling out with her spirit energy for anyone to read, Keiko might have dared say she looked happy.
But that facade faded quickly. Sayaka let the bear drop to the floor as she turned her attention onto her unwanted guest with narrowed eyes. "You," she mused. Then her voice grew sharp. "You were with the nuisance last night."
Keiko narrowed her own eyes. She recognized the particular brand of hostility in that tone well enough from growing up around Yūsuke. "Where is Botan?" She couldn't sense her nearby and hadn't spotted her on the way in, but then Keiko wasn't sure if she had the experience necessary to filter Botan's presence out from underneath Sayaka's smothering aura.
"I don't have to tell you anything," Sayaka said churlishly. "Now leave."
That confirmed it, then; Botan had returned here on her own. Something had gone horribly wrong, and now she could be out there bleeding ectoplasm or whatever happened when spirits became injured. Keiko had to find out what had happened here.
"I only want to find my friend. Tell me what happened to her, and I'll leave."
Sayaka looked on the verge of saying something childishly contrary before she abruptly stopped and allowed a smile to bloom across her face. "I blew her up," she said bluntly, gleefully.
And it set off Keiko's finely honed bullshit detectors. Was it possible? For human ghosts, perhaps, but Botan was an ancient ferrygirl. Even if it were, if some rando child could do it, she wouldn't have lived this long.
"Now leave," Sayaka continued, "or I'll do the same to you."
As if she would leave now! "You're lying," Keiko plainly stated.
Sayaka's eyes hardened the same way Yūsuke's would whenever he was about to get into a fight. "Fine. Have it your way."
The warning surge of power in Sayaka's hand came too late to dodge. She thrust her open palm forward and fired a beam of spirit energy with diameter nearly half her own height. At point-blank range, she barely had to aim.
But Keiko had anticipated the attack long before Sayaka had channeled the power for it. She threw herself through the floor and out of harm's way. The energy flew by overhead and just barely missed clipping her.
Not fool enough to think she was safe, Keiko kept on the move. Sayaka had sensed their approach last night. Line of sight meant less than it should.
To no surprise, another beam came for her a moment later. It emerged from the ceiling, having no effect upon the corporeal and spiritually inert materials. This one caught Keiko's trailing toes and sent her careening, screaming, and spinning wildly into the Earth. On the up side, Sayaka would have a hell of a time catching sight of her while she was down here. On the down side, the girl had enough accuracy with her spiritual senses that it didn't help much.
The second time Sayaka managed to clip Keiko's feet, she figured out what she was doing wrong.
Right. Evading in three-space. Keep a low profile. Don't lead with your head.
As Keiko frantically dodged subsequent attacks, she did her best to calm down, think, and piece together a plan.
Advantages. Sayaka is a fixated ghost. She won't leave her room.
And that was about all that came to mind.
Disadvantages. Unfortunately, she had to admit, Basically everything else.
She had no idea how to leverage Sayaka's unwillingness to leave her attic against her. Other than by just running away, that was, but that wouldn't do. If Sayaka had hit Botan with one of those beams, which would neatly explain her absence, then she could be anywhere and in need of help. Keiko couldn't search the universe for her friend. She needed Sayaka to guide her to where she should start looking.
An idea came to Keiko, an edge she rarely had and usually discounted for many reasons: she had a massive size advantage over Sayaka. If she could get in close and grapple, Sayaka's own perception of self that formed her ghostly body would, Keiko hoped, limit her physical strength.
That was two big ifs, though. And when she thought about it more, she recalled Sayaka dancing with a corporeal stuffed bear. If she got that close, the girl might just try to move her about like a puppet.
So close range wouldn't work, Keiko couldn't run away, and her own long-range options paled in comparison to Sayaka's.
Keiko told herself not to get jealous of some miserable kid who it all came naturally to. It didn't help much.
So what do I do?
Advice Yūsuke had once given Keiko came to mind. If she ever got into trouble, he'd said she should just run. She was fast and had a lot of endurance, he'd said. Eventually, he'd said, whoever was after her would grow tired and give up. Turning that pearl of wisdom over in her head, she found that it applied here. She didn't need to win. She just needed to wear Sayaka down enough for the girl to give up and capitulate. No one could fire death beams forever.
Keiko sincerely hoped that was true.
Now she just needed to survive long enough. What would Yūsuke do in this situation?
Of course, she knew what he would do, and as stupid as it sounded, it made sense. She needed Sayaka to wear herself down, not pace herself and keep enough in reserve to win a battle of attrition. Whether Sayaka had the awareness and experience that came with age to plan that far ahead didn't matter nearly so much as the possibility that she might. Keiko had to plan for the worst-case scenario.
So Keiko gave up the distance that had allowed her just enough warning to dodge Sayaka's attacks. She wound her way erratically, unpredictably, ever toward the surface. As she drew closer, the beams grew more frantic, less well-aimed, and easier to avoid. She kept her guard up, however, in case it turned out to be only a ploy.
Then at last, she broke back into the attic! Keiko locked eyes with Sayaka. The girl's hair was a frizzy mess, her face was a mask of fury, and her dress was a study in chaos. In short, she was a child with too much power throwing a tantrum, which served Keiko's needs perfectly well.
Sayaka moved, her arm thrusting forward.
Keiko slid aside the beam with forced calm plastered onto her face. Anyone in their right mind would see through it and probably most adults who weren't, too, but Sayaka only grew more visibly enraged. The effect doubled when Keiko threw out a taunt that sounded like something she thought Yūsuke would say.
"My grandmother aims better than you!"
The nearly feral scream of rage Sayaka let out as she rushed forward said Keiko had really struck a nerve. Both of her hands flared with power now.
Keiko hid a gulp. On the one hand, Sayaka had probably abandoned accuracy for density, which would tire her out faster. That was great! On the other hand, weaving through single fire had been hard enough. Quantity had a quality of its own that quality often lacked.
The first blast came straight on and heavily telegraphed. Keiko evaded it easily. The second Sayaka fired so that she would fly into it. Arresting her momentum would take too long, so she flipped over the beam instead. It came within a hair's breadth of her nose, but she made it.
"Stay still already!" Sayaka screamed as she pressed her attack.
Keiko stuck her tongue out and carried on not doing that as they danced all across the attic. She kept a close eye on Sayaka's hands, knowing that she only needed to stay out of line with them.
Then a strange rattling added to the chaos. Keiko flinched when a stuffed rabbit flew at her face. The toy went right through her, obviously, but it nearly distracted her enough to get blown away. Further though she couldn't spare the time to look around, she sensed Sayaka's spirit energy reaching out to more of her things. Tea cups and books and dolls flew through the air. Her wild power even grasped at the floor boards, wallpaper, ceiling, and anything else it could touch in an attempt to bring it all down upon her enemy.
The building groaned and warped under the psychic strain of a load it hadn't been designed to bear. Soon, Keiko heard snaps, cracks, and pops as fissures erupted in the walls. A wooden beam broke through and launched across the attic. It slammed into the opposite wall and then fell to the ground.
Only by some miracle had the entire structure not collapsed yet under its own weight. At a guess, Keiko assumed everything would need to be rebuilt anyway, so she let Sayaka carry on without speaking a word of caution. The damage had been done. The only good left this place could do is wear the girl down faster.
And Keiko could tell that Sayaka was indeed tiring. She panted for breath she didn't need. Her blasts came slower and of smaller size. Even the wild frenzy of items she tossed about arced through the air instead of shooting across it in a straight line. Soon, Keiko managed to stay ahead of her sloppy arm thrusts with ease.
Then finally, at long last, Sayaka screamed and put everything she had left into one final assault. She cupped her hands together, let her power swell and compress, and then thrust forward. The release of energy formed a blast nearly twice as wide as they'd been in the beginning. Worse, the thing tore through the physical as well as the spiritual. Keiko managed to slip out of the attic through the floor to avoid it, but it splintered the wall behind her. The roof sagged with an ominous moan but, after a few moments, miraculously settled in place without caving in.
The dust settled. Sayaka doubled over, exhausted beyond any ability to defend herself.
Keiko took her chance. She placed herself in front of Sayaka in a blink. When the girl in question stood up straight, she found Keiko's arm raised with a finger gun in her face.
"Bang."
The tiniest bit of spirit energy, just enough for a flick, struck Sayaka's head. Shocked, whether for actually being hit or for the restraint, her eyes widened. Her hands came up to cover the 'wound' as she stared at Keiko.
Keiko breathed a sigh. She had to remember she was dealing with a kid who life had dealt a terrible hand. So she momentarily set her frustration and worry aside. She let her extended hand fall atop Sayaka's head and rubbed her hair. "Did you let it all out?" she asked as kindly as she could managed right now.
A moment passed in silence. Then tears welled in the corner of Sayaka's eyes. With a sniff, she nodded and tried to hold herself together.
"Good. I know life hasn't been fair, but death won't get any better if you don't try to make friends."
Sayaka looked down and utterly failed to hide that she was wiping tears from her eyes. "I did!" she protested weakly. "B-but your friend said I couldn't."
While Keiko was absolutely certain that wasn't what Botan had said, it didn't surprise her to learn that was all a seven-year-old had taken away from it. She continued to brush her fingers through Sayaka's hair in hope of soothing the girl a little as she pried for details. "I believe you. Who were you trying to befriend?"
"Just the neighborhood children," Sayaka said. "I always saw them walk past my window, and…"
"I understand." That did raise an important question, however. "They can see you?"
Sayaka shook her head. "I call them here after they fall asleep."
That…sounds extraordinarily dangerous. The soul wasn't supposed to leave the body until death. All of Keiko's current problems came from trying to reverse that process. She couldn't just say that, though, and expect any better results than Botan had gotten. However, an alternative arrangement came to mind.
"How about a compromise?" Keiko waited until Sayaka looked up at her again and then suggested, "How about we be friends instead?"
Eyes wide, Sayaka asked, "Really?"
"Yep. We ghosts have to stick together."
"I — I-I won't have to leave?"
Keiko bit her lip. How did she answer that? "Someday, you'll want to move on," she tried. "But if that's not just yet, that's okay. So what do you say? Friends?"
Without hesitation, Sayaka threw herself into Keiko's arms. Had they not both been ghosts, she might have dropped the girl from the unexpectedness of it. What a start to a strange friendship that would have been.
Once the moment passed, Keiko released Sayaka from the hug. Her hand trailed through the girl's hair until it rested atop her head. "You feeling better?" Keiko asked.
Sayaka nodded.
With that sorted out, Keiko let her hand slide down to find Sayaka's ear. She ran a finger along the top, leaned down, said, "Now don't think I've forgotten about Botan," and then pinched the ear and pulled just sharply enough to get a reaction. Sayaka let out a quick string of distressed cries, but Keiko had no mercy. In a stern voice, she asked, "What happened to her?"
"I blew her away!"
"Where?" Keiko pressed, pulling just the tiniest bit harder. Privately, she wondered when Sayaka would recall she was a ghost and could fly.
"Ow, ow, ow! That way!" Sayaka pointed toward some nondescript section of the wall.
Keiko released Sayaka, who looked…oddly pleased by what just happened. Ignoring that, she held out a hand for the girl to take. "Come on," she said. "We're going to find Botan, you're going to apologize, and then we'll all be friends." There was no question in there, rhetorical or otherwise. It'd been decided and wasn't up for discussion.
"Fine," Sayaka said, sulking just a little. It might even have been an act.
Regardless, with Sayaka leading, they eventually picked up a sign of Botan's spirit energy in the next prefecture over. Once they had that, it became a simple matter of hunting her down. They found her soon enough up in the clouds, somehow unconscious and without her oar. Keiko mentally noted where they were in case they needed to come back for that and then tried to wake her.
Botan didn't stir.
In all honesty, Keiko hadn't expected that to work, but she'd really, really hoped it would. She had no idea how to care for an injured ferrygirl. She didn't know anyone who could. She couldn't get to Spirit World on her own. All she could do was take Botan to Maya for an extra pair of eyes and ears and hope Botan eventually recovered on her own.
Except that wasn't quite true, was it? There was an unknown element in her life who might know a thing or two. Or if not, he might be able to point her in the direction of someone who did.
"Sayaka, are you feeling able to riffle through a few school records for me?"
Keiko had no need to consider whether she should knock or simply barge inside. Minamino knew she was here, and judging by his frosty expression, he'd known she'd brought company long before she'd arrived.
"I'm sorry," Keiko led before he could send her away, "but I didn't know who else to turn to." She held Botan, still unconscious, up in her arms. Sayaka, who'd outright rejected Keiko leaving her behind with either Maya or Teijō, stood at her side. "Please. Do you know anything about…um, spirit healing?"
With a resigned sigh, Minamino pointed up. "My room is on the second floor on your right just past the bathroom. Wait for me there."
Keiko thanked him and made her way upstairs. His room turned out far more ordinary than she'd expected, almost impersonal, even. He had a bed, a desk, a small collection of reference books, a couple paintings of no particular note, and a small token plant that felt more like a concession to the aesthetic than any reflection of his unusual abilities. Keiko laid Botan out atop the bed, for what little good it did her, and sat at her bedside.
It was several long minutes before Minamino arrived.
When the soft click of the doorknob turning met Keiko's ears, her head perked up. She pulled Sayaka away from snooping in Minamino's desk while she'd been distracted with Botan and settled in for whatever came next.
Minamino entered his room with nary a smile but looked less like she'd just threatened to shoot his dog now. That was something. He spoke with his usual suave politeness and asked, "What happened?"
"I don't know the details" — Keiko very deliberately didn't look at Sayaka — "but she got into a scuffle with a poltergeist. I found her like this a prefecture away."
With a nod, Minamino kneeled beside the bed and placed his hands over Botan. He did something with his spirit energy to her. Although he offered no explanation as to what, Keiko assumed it to be a preliminary examination of some sort. It took him very little time to finish, which she hoped boded well. After that, he utilized another technique that had, for lack of a better description, a warm feel about it. As time passed, Botan seemed to rest a little easier, much to Keiko's relief.
"There," Minamino said as he cut the flow of his power. "She should wake within the next few hours. Healing isn't my specialty, however. If any complications develop, she should consult a professional in Spirit World."
Curious, Keiko asked, "What was wrong with her?"
"Nothing that a couple days' rest couldn't have fixed. Which, if you can manage it, she should now spend relaxing instead."
Keiko doubted Botan would fight her too hard on that, if at all. The weekend was coming up, too, so perhaps she could arrange something with Maya to keep them entertained all the while. They could have a girls' night in and hopefully not make Maya's parents think she's crazy in the process.
It was at this point that Sayaka, who had been obligingly silent while Minamino worked, stepped between them and barged into the conversation. "You feel…weird." Glancing at Botan, she added, "She does too, but not like you. Who are you?"
"No one of consequence," Minamino replied smoothly. "Just a man who desires to live his life in peace." He turned his attention to Keiko with a meaningful look to which she nodded in return. She would swear Sayaka to secrecy before Botan awoke. "And though it may make me a poor host," he continued, "I would thus ask that you please leave. I wish to avoid any entanglements with Spirit World."
"Of course. Again, I'm so sorry for dropping in unannounced like this, but—"
Minamino held up a hand. "I hold nothing against you. There are those for whom we would exhaust all possible avenues of aid, even the most outlandish."
It occurred to Keiko that Minamino had to be speaking of his mother. Back near when they'd first met, Maya had mentioned her being greatly ill. While Keiko wondered how far he'd delved into the spiritual for his mother's health, she politely didn't inquire. Nor did she offer to ask Botan to help, as she knew Spirit World and its denizens wouldn't meddle in the lives of the living if it had no reason to. In all honesty, she didn't think Botan even cared all that much. What did death mean, after all, to someone like her who daily ferried vulnerable souls to safety in the afterlife? Maybe that would change as she made friends among the living. Maybe it wouldn't. Maybe, even, it shouldn't.
But those were thoughts for another time. Keiko thanked Minamino again for his assistance and then gathered Botan in her arms. It was time for them to leave.
The first signs of Botan stirring came from a low groan emanating from Maya's bed. Keiko and Maya broke off their conversation to go to her bedside while Sayaka lingered behind awkwardly. Keiko, however, would have none of that and held her hand out expectedly for Sayaka to come join them. Reluctantly, the girl did so and held Keiko's hand tight with her own. There was no getting out of that apology she owed Botan.
Speaking of whom, Botan brought a hand up to massage her head and mumbled, "Ow… I hate when they do that."
"Welcome back to the waking world," Maya said with some amusement. Now that everything had turned out well, Keiko had no doubt that there would be much good-natured teasing over how tiny, adorable, innocent little Sayaka had overwhelmed Botan. "How are you feeling?"
"Maya?" The confusion in Botan's voice passed quickly. "Like a demon used me for a punching bag." Her eyes cracked open just long enough to figure out where she was. "Guess Keiko found me."
"I had some help with that."
Botan groaned as she sat upright. She raised her arms over her head, stretching and cracking her bones. Only once that was done did she ask, "Who?" and then froze in surprise when she saw Sayaka at Keiko's side, their hands clasped. "Well, I guess that answers that." She locked eyes with Keiko for a moment, silently conveying that they would need to talk, and then returned to her stretches. She finished quickly and then turned to face the other three girls. "So? What did I miss? Anything exciting?"
Courtesy of Maya, Botan enjoyed a stirring, dramatized rendition of the more minimal facts Keiko had given her. The whole thing had been over in a few minutes, and Keiko had spent the whole time frantically dodging while scrambling to put together a half-decent plan, hardly the fistfight with a kaiju Maya made it sound like. But it kept Botan enthralled, so she supposed it didn't matter all that much.
When the story finished, Keiko gently pushed Sayaka forward. "Don't you have something to say?"
In a tiny voice, Sayaka mumbled, "Sorry."
"A little louder," Keiko said, not scolding but firm.
Although she first hummed unhappily, Sayaka spoke clearly and said, "I'm sorry."
"For…" Keiko led.
"For blasting you a million miles away," Sayaka relented. "It wasn't very nice of me."
Botan, thankfully, wasn't one to hold a grudge. "That's okay. You're not the first ghost to give me a hard time."
With that settled, the subject of Botan's missing oar arose. She tried to head out to look for it once it became clear none of them had it, but Keiko put her foot down. She managed to convince Botan to rest and relax, and when that didn't work nearly as well as she'd hoped, she smugly said, "Well, have fun searching the whole country, then." Pulling Sayaka into her arms, she added, "We never told you where we found you, now did we? Well, we won't until you're all better, right?"
A happy, content Sayaka chirped back, "Right!"
"It'd be faster if you just waited," Keiko insisted.
Botan made a bit of a fuss past that but ultimately bowed her head once she accepted defeat. It wasn't like she needed her oar to survive, and it wasn't going anywhere.
The four of them fell into more idle conversation after that. Time passed quickly until Maya eventually distracted Sayaka with the opportunity to play games on her NES. The poor girl hadn't even known what an arcade was. Throwing her into the deep end with the infamously hard games Nintendo made turned out as hilarious as it was endearing.
But Botan took this opportunity to have a whispered side conversation with Keiko.
"You remember you're not supposed to forcibly remove fixated ghosts, right?"
It hadn't come to mind at the time, but Keiko bit her lip and nodded nonetheless.
"I won't tell anyone," Botan said, "but there are good reasons why we don't do that." Her voice then took on a distinctly teasing quality. "So enjoy your new haunting ghost; she's fixated on you now."
Botan laughed as Keiko paled and realized what she'd gotten herself into.