Hi! This is the author speaking! Well... yeah. Anyways, this is my first attempt on a Hiei and Botan fic. It is not a oneshot, so I need you to continue. I know some of the characters might be OOC, but PLEASE people, imagine what you would be like in such a situation. All that said, please go easy on me and REVIEW!

Happy reading, folks!

REVIEW!

By the way, in case some of you don't know, I've used the word "peony" in my title, because that's what Botan's name means in English.

Botan hummed a merry tune under her breath as she skipped along through the grassy fields of a Ningenkai park. She was so excited! Finally, her uptight boss, Koenma, had been kind enough to give her a two week vacation.

Botan squealed as she began listing down a few things to do during her free time. 'This is great!' thought Botan, as she continued her journey towards Keiko's house. 'Two weeks is a long time – but I think I deserve it for the hard work I put in these past hundred years!'

Giggling, Botan allowed her cerulean hair to be swept gently by a coming breeze. The weather was so nice, and Botan had decided, if she was going to live in the Ningen World, she might as well try acting as one.

Suddenly, a different sort of breeze swept the clearing. Shivering, Botan realized that the breeze most likely marked the presence of somebody elses Spirit Energy.

'W-who's there?' Botan stammered, hands getting ready to bring out her trusty metal bat. By the feel of it, Botan could tell that the unwanted presence was most likely a demon of sorts. A pretty weak demon, but a demon nonetheless. 'Stay back!' cried the distressed ferry onna some more, her pink eyes glinting in fear. 'I'm warning you! I have a bat – a-and I'm n-n-not afraid to use it!'

Botan's eyes scanned her surroundings, her hands held an iron grip on her metal bat. She stood in a fighting position, ready to fight or flee when the time came.

Suddenly, Botan's head was jerked back. Her mouth was forced shut by a scaly green hand. A bad odor filled her nostrils, as she mentally forced herself to do something.

'What a pretty face...' another demon hissed out, laying a clawed blue hand on Botan's smooth left cheek. Botan shivered, unable to turn away, for her captive had her in a tight grip.

'Too bad,' said the blue-clawed demon, as he lifted Botans delicate chin up, so that she and the demon could see eye to eye. 'Such a pretty face would later look so awful.'

The demon traced Botan's left cheek with a clawed had. Unable to run or turn away, her smooth skin was sliced open, blood pouring down almost instantly.

The blue-demon's eyes flashed with greed and hunger. He was then later joined by a group of other, similar looking demons. They all held the same nasty look in their eyes as they grinned menacingly down at her.

'Ever taste pain, girly?' hissed the blue demon. It seemed he was their leader.

Botan's eyes widened when he, and the rest of the demons, started to bare their fangs. In a moment of drastic measures, Botan squeezed her eyes shut, and bit down hard on the demon's hand.

'Aaaiiiihhhh!!!' screamed the demon who had been holding her as he immediately released his grip on Botan to begin jumping around, sending a string of unheard of curses as he tended to his bleeding hand.

'Get her!' cried the blue-demon, and instantly, the rest of the demons started to flock around her, making a circle so that she was in the middle, unable to turn or run away.

Botan looked around her. Twelve. There were twelve large, ugly, smelly demons who wanted nothing but to see her scream and die. What was the chances of someone being able to hear her this late at night? – in the middle of a very large park? – surrounded by a group of ugly, 6-feet tall demons?

Chances were low, but Botan took them anyways. Taking in a really deep breath, Botan screamed at the top of her lungs, 'HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLPPPPP!!!!!'. The scream was so high, so intense and so ear-splitting, that Botan could have turned whoever heard it, deaf.

Botan was out of breath when she had finally done screaming. It seemed to have used up all her energy. Lungs sore, face pale, eyes almost halfway shut, Botan felt her legs give way to the exhaustion, and she suddenly found herself on her knees between a group of demons.

It only took a second for the rest of the demons to really, truly recover from the ear-splitting scream. Once they had recovered from the shock, and their ears were functioning at normal frequencies, they continued on where they had left off. Their frowns of displeasure were replaced with their grins of lust and greed.

Botan's eyes were clouded, but she could still see them. They had whips and sharp objects, and they weren't hesitant when it came to hurting her.

Botan released a tortured gasp, as she felt the sting of a hot, leather whip against her thigh. Blood poured out.

The demons guffowed at her tortured state, then continued to hurt her. They used very thin wires, that seemed lethal when used, whips, blades and even blocks of wood and rods of hot metal.

Botan felt tears slide down her cheeks as she released yet another choked cry. She was unable to shout or scream anymore, because she had used up all her voice on the scream before. Botan winced beneath the pain of a metal rod whacking the back of her neck. She still couldn't believe it... why hadn't anyone heard her???

It was then that Botan realized a misplaced shadow in the trees. Botan winced, trying to make it out. It looked darker than the shadows that surrounded it, and released a demonic aura that Botan was instantly familiar with – Hiei!

Hope welled through Botan's throat. A sudden burst of energy ran though her veins.

It was Hiei! Hiei came to save her!

Botan waited, all the while her body was shredding more and more. Botan waited for what seemed like hours, but still, Hiei did not burst heroicly out of the shadows in attempt to save her pleading soul. He just stood there, his harsh, blood-red eyes focused on her desperate state.

More whipping. More cutting. More whacking... and finally, Botan could not take it anymore. Warm tears ran down her ckeeks, blending with the trail of hot blood the demons had made for her. Botan's entire body crashed to the ground this time. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head. The last feeling Botan could remember before her eyes snapped shut, was a feeling of destructive rage... Rage and hate towards a certain fire demon with ruby-red eyes...

'Hiei...' Botan growled before her world turned black.

As all this unravelled before him, Hiei Jaganshi was trying to control the deep urge that came from within. Hiei's urge to pounce out of the darkness like a wild animal, and kill all those who were involved in her attack was almost undeniable.

But Hiei knew, deep in his heart, that he shouldn't. Pride and honor meant everything to him. Killing those demons for the sake of a baka ferry onna was disgusting. She was, after all, just a pathetic ningen spirit who was far too cheerful for words. Hiei cringed, his mouth forming a very animal-like snarl. In his world, people like her should have been dead long ago.

Finally, once Hiei saw Botan crash to the ground, body limp, he decided he had had enough. He leaped out of the shadows, hand gripped tightly on the smooth hilt of his beloved katana.

Hiei unsheathed the katana.

All the demons involved with Botan's torture were killed in a bloody massacre. They didn't even have the chance to fight back before they were decapitated. Blood sprouted out of the place their heads should have been. They were killed unmercifully.

After all that had been done, Hiei re-sheathed his blade and moved towards the limp form in the middle of all the death. Hiei's heart ran a mile a second, as he stood frozen over the baka onna's retired form.

'Onna!' Hiei said venomously, kicking her gently with the edge of his shoe. He was never good at things like this. 'Onna! Get up, you baka, the demons are gone!'

Hiei turned pale when he realized that Botan did not get up. He crouched down to inspect her. Even beneath all the blood and grime, Botan still looked like a work of art in his eyes. Her cerulean blue hair poured down her back in what Hiei considered a cascade, like a waterfall. Her delicate lips were petruded in a frown and her closed eyes looked almost as if she were angry.

Hiei paused, taken aback by the anger-filled expression on her face. He wondered what had caused her so much pain...

After minutes of just sitting there, admiring her entire form, Hiei started to panic. The panic was well hidden, except for his eyes which looked like he would break down any second.

'Onna...!' he hissed, desperately. 'Get up!'

Hiei bent down even lower, doing something he never imagined he would do. He put his ear to her chest, praying madly for a sign of life.

... Nothing.

Hiei sat like that for what seemed like hours before his brain mastered the courage to conclude that she was dead.

'Could she do that?' thought Hiei, as he clutched desperately onto the sleeves of her blood-drenched kimono. 'Could the dead die again?'

Hiei didn't want to know. He got up and scooped her up in both his arms, surprised at how light she was to handle. He kept moving. Praying. He felt something wet and hot form in his eyes. Hiei moved faster.

Suddenly, Hiei was moving so fast that the world seemed to be nothing but a blur of colour. Wind swept his sweat-drenched hair. The burden of her death did not lift his shoulders. So he moved even faster. Hiei moved so fast, he seemed to be breaking even his limits. The laws of physics were dropped entirely as Hiei prayed and prayed, hugging Botan's limp form for warmth.

'Please onna...,' thought Hiei desperately, wishing he hadn't been so stubborn. Wishing he had dropped his need for pride and honor, to have saved her earlier. 'Please... Botan... don't go... don't...'

Hiei stopped when he realized where his feet had taken him to. It was in a small, shadowed, and discrete area, one that Hiei doubted the rest of the world had ever found. Here, Hiei pushed away all the thorns and leaves, laying Botan's dead body on the dew-stained grass.

She was dead, and it was all his fault. Here, where nobody could see him, he cried. Tear gems formed from his eyes, dropping onto the grassy earth.

In this sactuary, Botan was laid to rest. Hiei promised to come visit her every day. It was, after all, the least he could do for letting her die.

I know what you're thinking: How COULD he?! Well, like I said earlier, this is not a oneshot. Its not even a twoshot, infact. Don't worry. I won't leave Botan dead before the story even begins! It is a Hiei/Botan fic after al! ;)

Anyways, how was it? Was it good? Bad? Too short?? Too long???

Please post your comments along with your reviews! Give me at least 8 reviews and I'll give you the next chapter (you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours).

You must, must, MUST review. But please bear in mind that this is my first attempt.

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go on. You know you want to.