"I don't know." Botan whimpered out. The oppressiveness of the bathroom felt like it was trying to drag her in by the arm, though she was almost certain that was just terror speaking.
She watched Hiei pull open the door the rest of the way. There was determination in his gaze as he looked directly at the mirror. Botan slowly turned her eyes to stare at it too. Nothing was out of the ordinary but she could barely breathe in the suffocating air of the bathroom. Hiei kept his gaze steadfast, patiently waiting.
"Onna, don't look away from your reflection." The jagan eye glowed under his headband as Hiei spoke to her. The ferry woman focused more intently, never once leaving her own stare. The reflection did the same but Botan could sense that it wasn't her own eyes staring back. She could see, in her peripheral, that Hiei was doing something but she didn't waver.
Reflected amethyst eyes flicked their gaze over toward the fire demon for a brief moment before going back to their original position. Sweat formed on the back of Botan's neck as her heart pounded in her chest. The eyes of her mirror counterpart were dark and devious; filled with horrible promise but of what, she didn't want to know.
"I saw you move, filth." Hiei suddenly spoke, cutting the air sharply. "Stop pretending and show yourself." Botan's reflection grinned sharply, though it looked far too villainous for her face. Its posture relaxed while turning toward the fire demon. The whole sight made the ferry woman sick to her stomach and a little disoriented.
"Oh, Leviathan's going to love meeting you, though hopefully that won't happen too soon." The reflection purred out in amusement. The voice was layered, sounding like a distorted version of Botan's dulcet tones. Its grin grew primal as it turned back to the ferry woman, who had gone pale as a sheet. "I'll be seeing you again, Botan." Her name from its lips felt like a burn on her soul.
It was quite traumatic to watch her reflection easily step right back into the form it was supposed to be and match her perfectly yet again. Botan didn't move, frozen in fear, but Hiei looked to his arm and found that the dragon settled down. He hadn't though, considering the power he felt from whatever that reflection had been. It was immense, larger than it had any right to be, which begged the question of why it was after the ferry woman.
"Onna?" Botan hadn't moved an inch, her eyes still wide and her heart racing as if running for her life. "Who is Levi-"
"Shut up!" Animated once again, the ferry woman rotated and clasped a hand tightly over his mouth. "Don't speak its name. Don't even think it." He'd never seen her more serious than she was in that moment. "To say its name is to evoke its presence and provide it strength." Botan swallowed thickly, panic seeping out of every pore. "This is so much worse than I thought."
"Come sit down." Yukina's voice spoke from behind them. Hiei pulled the bluette's hand off, giving her an arched eyebrow as a response. He pushed her hand away but Botan didn't even look offended, still petrified and a little frantic. "Your communicator is on the table."
She took off like a bolt of lightning, startling the siblings. Both of them hurried after her but the communication mirror was already in Botan's hands, shaking harshly as she tried to press the call button. Hiei reached over and took it from her, holding out the device instead. Finally she pressed call and it rang a few times before Koenma's irritated adult face came on screen.
"Botan, I told you I-"
"Listen to her, toddler." Hiei spoke, turning the screen towards himself. "This is more important than whatever you have going on." Koenma blinked in surprise before slowly nodding his head. The device was turned to face Botan again, her whole form trembling. She was pale as a ghost, her amethyst eyes wide with terror.
"Lord Koenma, I might have an idea of who's after me… and who's after Hiei." Botan spoke, trying to keep her composure. Her body trembled fiercely.
"How's Hiei involved?" He asked with surprised confusion, his brows shooting up upon hearing that.
"Because he has the Dragon of the Darkness Flame." Botan quietly answered. "The one that's after me said the name of who's coming after Hiei now."
"Who is it, Botan?" Koenma's voice went low, an intense seriousness in his tone.
"I can't say the name, sir; They would be able to hear me." She explained, her hands wringing in her lap. "But it's the ancient serpent."
"And the one after you?" Koenma kept the stress out of his voice, knowing exactly who she was speaking about.
"Someone from the same place I guess but I don't even know why they would be after me!" There was a slight wail to the end of her sentence.
"We'll figure this out. Keep notes of anything strange that happens. I'll start working on wards for you both but it may take a couple of days." Botan whimpered but nodded. "Hiei," The fire demon looked at the screen with mild interest, "Don't leave Botan's side. I believe you are both in terrible danger."
"Who is this beast, Koenma?" The question was asked sharply.
"One of the Demon Princes of Hell." Hiei blinked in surprise, glancing at Botan for a moment before looking back at Koenma. "It's unbelievably ancient and fought in a great battle that was far before even my father's time. It's kept locked within hell for… well, a lot of reasons." Koenma let out a deep sigh, stress marring his face. "Suffice to say, it's unbelievably strong and hard to contain. I'll explain more when I get there this evening. I assume the rest of the team has been called upon."
"Yes, Lord Koenma." Yukina answered quietly from beside Botan. "Kurama should arrive this evening."
"Good. We'll talk later." The call ended, leaving the three to sit there in silence for a long moment.
"What did you get yourself into?" Hiei finally asked, looking at the ferry woman in what she felt was befuddled astonishment.
"I didn't do anything!" Botan cried out in defense. "At least not that I know of." Just then the temple doors opened to reveal Kurama. He looked a little flustered but came over to them quickly.
"My last class was cancelled." The redhead explained for showing up earlier. Noting the tense atmosphere, Kurama gave Hiei a concerned look. "What happened?" To save them all the trouble (and some of the trauma) of retelling the story, Hiei merely showed him telepathically. Once done, Kurama looked over at Botan with concern. "Why would a demon prince of hell be after you, Botan?"
"Hey now! The beast is after Hiei, not me." Botan protested in confusion.
"I believe that the one after you may also be a Demon Prince." Her stomach dropped. If Kurama thought it, then it might as well be true. "The demon after Hiei and the one after you do not appear to have the same goal. It's easy to figure out why the beast is after the dragon and its owner, considering the potential bid for power down the line, but it doesn't explain why a demon would be after you."
"How many demon princes of hell are there?" Hiei asked. Yukina stood and began to prepare a meal for them all, needing a distraction. Kurama took a seat beside Botan, hoping to offer comfort.
"It depends on a lot of things but in our case, since it's dealing with the serpent, we're going to go with seven. These seven demons run realms within hell. Some problems emerge depending on the literature you're reading but, yet again, since we are dealing with the serpent, there's really only one place it falls into that might deal with other demons." While he was talking, Botan started to get lost in thought.
She ran through all of her remembered knowledge about the demon princes of hell and any theology around it. Even with as old as Lord Koenma and even Enma were, there was still a lot of lost or confused knowledge about what happened and to who. If she could turn into a spirit, the ferry woman would have been scouring Spirit World's libraries. Seeing as she couldn't, Botan was left with her own memories and the knowledge from those around her.
There was a knock at the front door and Botan could hear Yukina open it to greet the visitors. The comforting sounds of her friends filled the air, letting the ferry woman relax a little. Kurama left to go greet them as well and fill everyone in, knowing that Botan was too tired and stressed to do it herself. Hiei had stepped into the kitchen, watching the stove in Yukina's absence.
As this was all going on, the ferry woman remembered a key detail about the seven princes; they were all tied to a deadly sin. She wasn't sure which sin she had committed to cause the ire of one of those horrible beings but did remember that the serpent was tied to envy. It begged the question: Did Hiei commit the sin of envy or was Leviathan envious of the dragon of the darkness flame? Both seemed highly probably.
Focusing back on reality and not the spiraling thoughts in her head, Botan looked to where Hiei was. She could see the siblings bustling around in the kitchen, though they were both speaking in soft enough volumes that their words couldn't be picked out. Regardless, Botan enjoyed watching the two be brother and sister together.
The bluette couldn't stop her imagination from running a little, though, as always when it came to Hiei. Her mind took just the two of them to a kitchen in a different home, one that Botan used as her mind palace. She was rinsing veggies while he turned on a rice cooker. They moved around each other like planets in orbit, dancing around the kitchen as if they had memorized the steps.
The daydream had that soft quality to it, morphing between scenes like an actual dream. Next thing she knew, Botan was sitting on the counter in her mind palace kitchen with Hiei standing between her legs as they made out. The ferry woman shook her head, dispelling the imagery with a blush on her cheeks. Remembering the deadly sins, Botan had a feeling that she knew exactly what sin was tempting her.
The faint echoes of laughter that played in the very far reaches of her mind told the ferry woman that this demon prince had been waiting for this moment of realization. It was only then that Botan truly understood just how hard of a battle this was going to become. With a deep sigh, she could only pray that she had the strength to come out on top in the end.
Her thoughts were interrupted when another knock came from the door. Swiftly, Koenma walked in and headed straight for his chief ferry woman. He took one look at her before his eyes shut and he sighed deeply. Botan couldn't tell if it was from relief or defeat. Either way, when the god opened his eyes, they were devoid of emotion. This didn't ease any of her worries.
"We need to speak in private, Botan." The ferry woman nodded solemnly. She had a feeling that her boss and long time friend figured out which demon prince was after her and possibly even why. With heavy steps, the two made it outside and far from the temple and listening ears.
"Have you recently started liking someone?" Koenma asked, cutting to the chase. There was a bit of an edge to his words but she knew to attribute it to stress.
"Not recently, no." Her clarifying answer made him squint his eyes a little and Botan wilted under the scrutiny. "I've liked someone for quite awhile, okay! So it doesn't make sense for him to be after me now."
"Did you tell anyone else that you like this person?" She froze, her eyes going wide as it began adding up. Her confession at the sleepover must have kick-started this. It still begged the question of why that garnered the attention of a demon prince.
"I did but it still doesn't make sense why he's targeting me so hard. Besides, I've lived with my feelings for so long without acting on them. Why now and why almost immediately?" Botan put her hands on her hips in frustration but the god across from her sighed a little. His face softened a touch.
"Your role in Spirit World is quite important. Most demons, from Makai or Hell, would have reason to target you." The tone he took was suddenly very serious. "For a demon in hell to affect someone from the spirit world, they can only do it on the human or demon plane."
"Oh. So my physical form allowed him to find me." She clarified.
"Yes. To gather souls, demons must lure you in and have you commit sin. He's just been waiting to figure out what your weakest point is. Due to your spiritual purity and ranking, the moment you spoke it out loud evoked his presence and power into your life." Koenma gave her a once over, his eyes seeing something she couldn't. "Since he has his claws in you just enough, you can't transform into your spirit form until you break away from his hold."
"That's what I feared." She whispered.
"You can't fall prey to this, Botan. If you do, even I may not be able to save you." His voice was low, concern and stress coating it. The ferry woman swallowed thickly, fear seeping in.
"Then I'll work very hard to get rid of him." With a firm nod, the young god started back towards the temple. Botan followed behind him slowly, her feet dragging a little as a new weight settled in her stomach.
"You okay?" Shizuru gently asked the bluette when she came back inside. Kurama stood beside her, the two of them talking mythology only a moment before. Both stared at their friend with deep worry.
"Not really." Botan quietly spoke, her voice a little hollow.
"Have you figured out which Demon Prince is after you?" Kurama asked. She gave a faint nod, her eyes moving towards Hiei. The two watched her gaze before Shizuru gave a quiet 'ah'.
"What did Koenma have to say about it?" The brunette quietly questioned, trying to keep the conversation relatively private.
"I can't transform back until I break his hold over me."
"Do you think you can do it?" Shizuru asked, her voice low. Kurama and the psychic had speculated for years about Botan's attraction for the fire demon. Now it was being confirmed in the worst of ways. The ferry woman stared intently at the back of Hiei, her face painted with stress.
"I don't know."