Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho's Botan or any other characters mentioned in this fanfic – basically everything in the show – doesn't belong to me.

Chapter 1

"No! Don't touch him! Leave him alone!"

"Don't waste your breath begging for his life. He'll be dead soon enough... Just like you will be next!"

"I swear... I swear I'll kill you."

Amethyst eyes shot open almost instantly. A sweat trickled down pearl white skin. A heavy, exhausted sigh sounded through the air.

She raised a hand through her hair, her blue brows creasing in frustration. How many times was it that she kept having those visions? It kept coming back, no matter how hard she tried to forget. Forget. A weak smile crossed her lips. That's a hard thing to do.

The gentle yet chilling breeze blew against her sky blue hair, sending locks of her tresses entering her eyes accidentally. She rubbed her fist against them and decided that it was time to go back to spirit world. She was about to summon her oar, when a loud shout suddenly filled her ears...

"Hey! You come back here! I'm not finished with you yet!"

"Please! Please...! I didn't do anything!"

She proceeded to squint her eyes sharply down below her. One of her pale, petite hands reached for the metal bars of the Mushiyori High School's roof, fingers gripping slightly as she glowered at the sight before her.

A bluenette with slightly spiky hair at the tips gripped at the shirt of the other male, his callous hands tempted to choke on his neck, but he resisted the urge to do so. "I saw you… I saw you drooling over my girl!" he continued to roar angrily.

"N-no! I-I wasn't…!" the poor, short brown-haired bespectacled teenager went on trying to convince him that he was speaking the truth.

Unfortunately, he had no intention of believing him. "Don't lie to me, you punk! I have eyes! And I saw you! Don't even try to give me that bullshit!"

"P-please… Believe me…" Before he could even finish his sentence, the other landed a kick at his stomach. He coughed hard, but no blood came out of his mouth. "P-please don't… Don't do this to me."

"Hmph," the bluenette smirked, "There's no use begging."

"Don't waste your breath begging."

Botan gave a crooked grin to herself. She remembered those kinds of words very clearly. They repeated over and over again in her head. For years, they had never stopped haunting her.

"I'll come back! I'll kill you and everyone you love! Heed my words…"

Hmph. He didn't need to come back. He's already giving me nightmares anyway. Why bother? She thought sarcastically to herself. Her grin only widening in addition to her musings. She continued to watch what was happening below her. Her hands itched to help the poor thing, to encourage him to fight back… But there was no use. They couldn't see her anyway. She was in her spirit form.

Like that time… she reminisced silently. Her bright amethyst eyes darkened all of sudden, before turning into a pair of emotionless orbs. Her mouth hung open slightly. If only she could have saved him that day…

"Botan-san."

Blinking for a couple of times, her eyes returned to their usual color. She turned to look at the owner of the voice, despite already recognizing who it was without needing to do so. "Kurama-kun," she greeted back, her voice lacking the usual cheeriness in it. She knew he noticed, but she didn't expect much of a reaction from him anyway.

"Hello there. I didn't think here would be the place I'd ever see you at," he said curtly and nodded his head once. The wind blew again, whipping against his red locks but none of them bothered those charming, beautiful emerald eyes of his. A small smile was plastered on his full lips. He was aware of her tone earlier, although he decided not to pay it any mind, thinking that she must have dozed off.

She noticed this, but decided not to make any comment about it. He had always amazed her sometimes, how he could remain so calm and look so graceful at the same time… Then again he is Kurama-kun, right? She mused humorously to herself, trying to lighten the sudden heavy feeling in her heart.

She looked down once again, and that was when she realized that the two teenagers earlier were no longer there. Her eyes blinked in confused and an unfinished question left her lips, "Wha-? Where…?"

"Ah, you mean those guys?" he replied knowingly, temporarily forgetting his initial thoughts of asking her what exactly she was doing there. "I called a teacher earlier, and he seemed to handle them well. I would have taken the matter into my own hands, but I'm not sure if getting involved into a human fight would be good for me."

"Why?" She grinned at him like a cat. She wondered to herself how long she had dozed off. "Aren't you the famous Kurama? The notorious thief? Don't tell me you're scared to fight one human?" she taunted, in spite already knowing his reason. She knew him for years already after all. Admittedly, he wasn't as close to her as Yusuke and Kuwabara were, but he was still easy to get along with.

"Well no, if I must answer," he feigned an exasperated sigh. He then fixed his gaze at her, his eyes glinting in slight mirth, "Let's just put it this way, alright? Imagine what would happen if I got into a fight with him… Someone would have probably seen it, and this might ruin my good record here at Mushiyori if that were to happen. My mother would not be pleased if she would have found out about this."

She nodded. "Perhaps, yes. But, you could have avoided an innocent human from getting beaten up."

"Well, Botan-san. Don't you think it would have been easier to let the adults handle this?"

"Despite knowing for yourself that in fact, you are stronger than he is, and you could have defeated him easily also?" she seemed to test.

"Yes."

A soft giggle erupted from her throat. "I like the way you see things."

"Yes, and it's also an energy savior. It would have been easy to rescue that boy myself, but it would have been easier to call a teacher. Some scenarios would have been prevented that way."

She arched an eyebrow. "And one of the scenarios is?"

"That guy would have provoked me, and I would have accidentally killed him."

"Hmm. And you would have been thrown into spirit world jail."

"Exactly, Botan-san."

"But, Kurama-kun…" She smiled. "I don't think he could provoke you that much. I mean, you have the most self control in our team. Yusuke would have no doubt lost his temper, and kicked his ass, and Hiei would probably try to kill him on the spot. And Kuwabara? Well, hmm, he is the honor type so I think he would have ended up beating him into a pulp, too. You're the only person I know out of the four of you that would walk out from the scene."

He let out a chuckle at her words, not entirely sure if he should be flattered or simply amused. "Anyway, for what purpose have you come to my school?" he changed the subject.

"Eh? Erm… No purpose. I was just done ferrying a soul, and thought of resting here for a bit. It just happened to be a coincidence that I passed by."

"Hmm… I see. I was surprised actually. You never did come to see me in person, unless it's something important."

She laughed. "Well, to be honest, I wasn't expecting to see you either."

"Ah… well, I sensed your energy and that's why I came."

"Huh? Really? I thought even if you did, you wouldn't bother coming all the way up here because you're normally too busy reading a book or learning lessons in class."

"Botan-san… you really didn't pay any attention, eh? It was recess when I caught on your energy."

"Eh?" She blurted out in surprise, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment after she did so. A sheepish smile spread on her face.

He chuckled again. "You must have been thinking too much. What was it about?"

Her face crestfallen. "I…" The past, she thought to herself, but said something else, "Uh… I was thinking about how I have a lot of work to do and I should probably go back to spirit world."

He raised one red eyebrow at her. Although he could tell that she was lying – the way her voice sounded panicked, and also her way of getting out of there as soon as he asked that kind of gave it away – but he shrugged it off, thinking that it was perhaps something personal and he shouldn't butt in. So he just gave her a smile and said, "Alright then, I guess I'll see you some other time."

"U-uh, right. Some… other time," she mumbled and before materializing her oar, she smiled back at him, tried to make it look like she wasn't uncomfortable even though she was. "Bye. See you!" she said cheerfully as she hopped on, and flew her way out of there.

Emerald eyes watched her. Staring at her retreating back as her figure started to disappear from his sight. There was a breeze, flowing with his hair as it blew against his body. There was something about her. He had never paid much attention to her, unless he needed to, and almost had never been left alone with her but he knew enough to know that she was always smiling and lifting everyone's spirits' up.

Yet, there was just something.

Something about the look in her eyes.

That night, Botan tossed and turned in her bed. Her face contorted in anger as she panted. "No… no…" As soon as those worlds passed her lift, her eyes flicked open and she jerked up. She blinked for a few times before realizing that nothing was there. That she was alone in her room.

Nothing was there… She heaved a sigh of relief, and laid herself on the bed again, albeit hesitantly and reluctantly. She stared up the ceiling as if there was something there, and slowly, her eyes closed. Then…

"Always the hot headed one, aren't we?"

They appeared in her mind, echoing and she jerked up again, getting out of the bed and staggering back as far as she could as if she was just burned. Her back collided against the wall, and she let her feet trembled, they felled and she was instantly aware of her bottom against the cold, hard surface of the floor.

It was cold, just like he was.

Hugging her knees against her chest, she cried, "Why can't you just leave me alone?"