A/N: This is, as I more commonly do in fanfics, set during the anime series rather than at the end of it, as a sort of "what if this had happened instead" and then it retells a part of the series accordingly. In this case the story begins immediately after Yusuke defeated Suzaku of the Four Saint Beasts.

So… Lots of things to consider, but here are the key points: Kuwabara still has a crush on Botan (because he hasn't met Yukina yet), Hiei hasn't mastered or even tried to use the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, Shizuru and Yukina aren't in the story yet, Keiko doesn't have a clue about Yusuke's role as spirit detective, and (most importantly of all) the Four Saint Beasts mission was the first time Kurama and (especially) Hiei helped Yusuke with something, and they did it under duress and to avoid going to prison.

Also this fic is based on the song Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis and the chapter titles will be lines from the song: because for some reason, when I heard the song, this story appeared in my brain.

Chapter 1: Closed Off

"Botan!"

Botan groaned, the voice at her side sounding as though she was hearing it from under water. Her head was throbbing, there was a high-pitched whine in her ears and her eyes felt too heavy to open. Being in a human body was still a new experience for her, and it was a lot harder than she had imagined it would be. She could feel her head pulsing in beat with her heart at a point just above her left temple, and the skin around it felt warm.

"Botan, wake up!"

Botan groaned again, her head lolling back and forth. Someone was trying to shake her awake, she realised, but she felt too woozy to even attempt waking up.

"Botan, something very strange is happening! Please, you have to wake up!"

It was Keiko, Yusuke's girlfriend – well, Botan was not entirely sure that the two were boyfriend and girlfriend, because although they seemed very fond of each other, they were not exactly dating in the conventional sense.

"I think it's all over, Botan, please wake up!"

With a great effort, Botan finally managed to open her eyes, blinking a few times to focus them as she looked about her surroundings. She was still in Yusuke's school, and the ground around her was littered with bodies – the same bodies that had been blue-skinned and red-eyed and chasing Keiko the last time she had seen them.

"Oh no!" she said, sitting up and trying to ignore the grey haze that passed over her eyes as she did so. "Keiko, get out of here! Please, save yourself!"

"No Botan," Keiko said behind her. "It's okay now. They've stopped. They've all stopped. I think whatever was making them act that way has gone now."

Botan looked about the fallen teachers again before slowly sighing. She touched her fingertips to the throbbing warmth at one side of her head and then moved her hand around in front of her face to see blood staining her fingers.

"Oh dear," she muttered. "Oh! Yusuke!"

She stuffed one hand down the front of her coat and the other into her pockets, searching for her communicator. If the Makai insects had left their hosts that could only mean that Yusuke had succeeded in destroying the Makai Whistle, and it was vital that he returned to the living world immediately if his work in the city of ghosts and apparitions was done.

"Are you looking for this?" Keiko asked her.

Botan turned to Keiko at her words, gasping as she saw the shattered remains of her communicator resting on Keiko's upturned palms.

"Oh well, we should go to the old warehouse and wait there," she said, planting one foot on the ground and pushing herself up.

"Careful there!" Keiko said, reaching her hands out to her.

"Oh, don't worry about me, Keiko!" Botan said, trying to sound confident. "I'll be just right as rain! Let's go and wait for Yusuke."

"Wh-where is Yusuke?" Keiko asked as they started off down the hall together.

"Well actually, he's doing a little detective work," Botan began.

She could hardly tell Keiko the truth: that Yusuke was the new spirit detective, working for Lord Koenma of spirit world himself.

"Detective work?" Keiko asked. "I-I don't understand! What do you mean?"

"Well…" Botan began, trying her best to think of a good lie to tell Keiko.

She could not tell Keiko the truth, but as she was still recovering from a blow to the head, concentrating on fabricating a suitable lie was proving quite difficult. When Keiko pressed her again, Botan decided just to say the first thing that came to her head, silently hoping for the best.

"Yusuke has decided to become serious about his future," she said, putting on her most authoritative voice in the hope of conveying a sense of truth and dignity in her falsified words. "He applied to become an assistant to a famous private detective, and he was given the job on account of his… Fighting skills and firsthand knowledge of the local police station… Yes… Unfortunately, here he is, only on his second case, and it's a big one already: some terrible, unscrupulous drug traffickers have taken over this school to make their money selling drugs to middle school students! Some of the teachers here were conned into aiding the criminals, and the others were just too scared to fight back. The teachers argued over this, and became so upset about it all that they temporarily turned into murderous zombies. But now that Yusuke has found the crime boss, they are free to return to their normal lives!"

Botan sighed, wondering if she was feeling light-headed because of the length of her speech, the elaborateness of her lie or just from her injuries fighting off the teachers who had been chasing after Keiko.

"Right…" Keiko said slowly. "So where are we going now?"

"To meet up with Yusuke!" Botan cheerfully replied.

Botan was glad that Keiko asked no more questions after that, and together they headed to the old warehouse where the portal to the demon city was.

Kuwabara opened his eyes, looking up at the troubled sky above him. Apparently he was still in that awful demon city. He must have blacked out after donating some of his own life energy to Yusuke to revive him, he decided. He turned his head from side to side to see if Yusuke was awake yet, but saw no sign of him. He frowned and slowly sat up, looking about himself curiously.

He was completely alone.

"H-Hello?" he called out.

Yusuke was gone without a trace, and so were those other two who had helped them defeat the Four Saint Beasts – not that he was not glad about that, since they had both been quite scary and weird. The redheaded one had been almost likeable apart from his love of flowers and his slightly-too-pretty face and hair, but the short, rude, vicious and sarcastic one had been completely detestable. It had been quite impressive watching both of them fight – the little one especially – but they were not the sort of characters Kuwabara wanted to spend any amount of time getting to know any better. Even Yusuke Urameshi was a little too rebellious, rude and ruthless for Kuwabara's liking, but he had nothing on those other two.

But no matter how cautious he was about the others, Kuwabara wished that even one of them would show his face – even that little treacherous one – since he was now completely alone in a demon city, with virtually no spirit energy left and a greatly depleted amount of life energy. He managed to stand up, but even that was an effort, and he was not stable on his feet. He felt quite vulnerable, but he could dismiss that concern if he could just get back to the human world. He was worried that if he did not move soon, he would be overcome by those freaky little hooded creatures that had swarmed him when he had first dropped down through the portal to the demon city. He could not even call for help, since Yusuke was the only one to have been carrying a communication device: a communicator that linked him to Botan, Kuwabara thought with a grin.

Thinking about Yusuke's blue-haired friend gave Kuwabara a slight boost of energy, and he started to walk around in a circle, looking about the rubble around him for any clue of how to get back out of Maze Castle and back to his own realm – and preferably a way that avoided meeting any more bloodthirsty monsters.

"Kuwabara."

Kuwabara yelped, recoiling on instinct at the sound of a voice behind him. He turned, feeling only slightly reassured when he saw a face that he recognised.

"Oh, hey, I wondered where you guys had got to," he said. "So what happened to Urameshi? Is he alive?"

"Yes, thanks to your selfless act, he will survive," Kurama replied. "He is still unconscious however, though that is only to be expected after what he has been through. I'm surprised to see you on your feet again already: though I'm glad that you are, it will make things much easier."

"Okay…" Kuwabara said slowly. "So where is Urameshi?"

"I took him back to the living world," Kurama replied. "I took him first because he is smaller than you and easier to carry, so I knew that I could make the journey quicker with just him on my back. But now that you are up, it looks like I won't need to carry you after all."

"I don't need to be carried, I'm a real man! I am perfectly capable of standing tall and walking away from this!"

"Glad to hear it. Follow me."

Kuwabara started after Kurama, glad to have someone with him for the return journey in case he did bump into any more monsters, but also confused as something appeared to be amiss.

"Hey what happened to that angry dwarf that was with you?" he asked as they walked. "Where did he get to? Or did he have to continue his journey to Mordor to destroy the one ring?"

Kuwabara snorted in amusement at his own joke, but Kurama did not even turn his head or acknowledge that he had spoken. Slowly, Kuwabara stopped laughing and started to become concerned. Although Kurama had not slowed his pace or spoken, something suddenly seemed agitated about him.

"Hey, Kurama?" Kuwabara asked. "Is everything okay?"

"Let's not worry about that now," Kurama replied, keeping his head forwards as he spoke.

"…When you say it like that, I just worry more…" Kuwabara muttered.

"Oh no!" Botan gasped, hurrying down the steps of the old abandoned warehouse.

Yusuke was somehow back from the city of ghosts and apparitions, lying sprawled out on his back close to the breach in the barrier.

"Yusuke!" Keiko wailed.

Botan was first to Yusuke's side, and she quickly pressed one ear to his chest, hovering a hand over his mouth and nose to check that his heart was still beating and that he was still breathing: he was lying so still, she was concerned that one or both might not be happening as they ought to be.

"Oh good, he's alive!" she said, sitting back onto her heels.

As she caught Keiko's ashen face glaring at her from the foot of the steps Botan started to think that maybe she should not have spoken her relief out loud.

"…Not that I was worried that he might not be…" she added, before laughing nervously.

"Oh, Yusuke!" Keiko whimpered, stumbling across the room and falling to her knees at his side. "What happened to you?"

Keiko began touching shaking fingers to the various visible scrapes and bruises Yusuke had suffered, and Botan grew increasingly nervous as she watched.

"He was on a stake-out," she started to say. "I suppose something must have gone wrong, and he had to–"

Botan was cut off abruptly as the loose floor panel behind her flew open and two bodies leapt out of it. After her initial shock at the sudden noise and movement, Botan quickly found her smile again.

"Kuwabara!" she said brightly. "And Kurama!"

"Hey, pretty lady!" Kuwabara answered her, grinning down at her.

"Kuwabara?" Keiko said slowly, eying him over. "What are you doing here?"

"Um…" Kuwabara began. "I don't feel so good… I think I might need to put arm around someone for the walk home."

He grinned at Botan again and she got to her feet at his side.

"I'll help you walk if you're struggling," Kurama said, making Kuwabara's smile vanish. "Though you did manage to leave Maze Castle and to climb a tree and jump up to the portal here."

Kuwabara growled at Kurama, but Kurama ignored his response.

"Or if you're feeling well enough, perhaps you could help your friend take Yusuke home," Kurama suggested to him.

"Yeah, whatever," Kuwabara grumbled.

Kurama watched him move over to Yusuke's side before walking away from them. He looked back over his shoulder at Botan, jerking his head towards the opposite corner of the room as he caught her eye. She hesitated, a curious look dawning on her features, but as he jerked his head again she hurried after him.

"Is everything alright?" she asked as she joined him by the corner.

"I'm afraid not, no," he quietly replied. "I'm sorry Botan, I tried to give chase, but I couldn't leave Yusuke and Kuwabara alone, they were unconscious and prone to attack. I… I lost Hiei."

"You lost Hiei?" Botan repeated. "Oh dear, he died fighting the Four Saint Beasts? That's terrible! Though at least it should atone for the multiple crimes he committed."

"No, you don't understand," Kurama corrected her. "Hiei isn't dead. He just ran off."

"He just ran… Wait, what? What do you mean? How? And where?"

"Kuwabara passed out donating some of his life energy to Yusuke to revive him from death, and I had just finished telling Hiei that we would have to carry them back here with us. He seemed to be cooperating, but then suddenly he leapt up high and called back to me that he was leaving. I tried to convince him not to, that it was a bad idea, I tried reminding him that we are both still on parole from spirit world prison, but he wouldn't listen. He told me to tell Koenma "this city is one of the worst cities in demon world, but I'd rather be confined in the worst city in demon world than in any city in the human world". And then he just disappeared. I tried to follow him, but I saw no sign of him after that and I didn't want to wander too far from the others when they clearly needed to get back here for some rest. I'm sorry Botan, I did my best."

"Oh dear, that's not good. Lord Koenma certainly won't be happy. Hiei was meant to come back here and serve his sentence confined to this city. Running away from that is a breach of the agreement Lord Koenma made with him, and if Hiei doesn't come back soon, Lord Koenma will just send him straight back to prison. Oh Kurama, what was he thinking? Surely he knows that this will just land him in deeper trouble than before? And surely being confined to one human city is better than being confined to a small prison cell in spirit world? At least here he would have had the freedom to move about and to interact with you."

Botan lowered her head, her mind going into overdrive. She had never expected anything like this to happen: she had prepared herself for severe injuries and possibly deaths, but not one of spirit world's prisoners running away like this.

"Oh no, this is all my fault!" she gasped, her head snapping up again.

She groaned lightly as the injury by her temple throbbed again at her actions.

"You shouldn't blame yourself," Kurama assured her. "I feel that I am to blame for letting him go. I should have guessed that he might try something like this and taken precautions to prevent it. I'm willing to go back and look for him, but I need to first have this wound attended to and then of course I need permission from Lord Koenma to return to the city of ghosts and apparitions."

"Oh dear…" Botan muttered. "Why did he have to be such a rebel? He could have redeemed himself and cleared his name!"

"Hiei is not exactly a patient soul," Kurama replied.

Botan moaned in frustration, looking over at Yusuke again. Keiko had helped put him onto Kuwabara's back and Kuwabara was starting to stand up. Kurama moved over to join him, asking him if he would manage to carry Yusuke anywhere as he himself was still low on energy. Smiling at Botan, Kuwabara replied that he could manage anything, and he set off, carrying Yusuke up the steps to the door. Keiko hurried after him. Kurama moved to the base of the staircase before turning to look back at Botan.

"Aren't you coming with us?" he asked her.

"Um, not yet," she replied. "I was just going to call Lord Koenma and inform him of the current situation. He'll want to know that the Makai Whistle has been successfully destroyed so that he can set about fixing things here."

Kurama nodded his understanding before turning from her and continuing up the steps. Botan watched him go until he was through the door and out of sight before pulling the shattered remains of her communication mirror from one pocket. Of course she had no means of contacting Koenma without going back to spirit world directly, and she probably should have taken Yusuke's communicator from him: but she did not actually intend to talk to her boss just yet. She had a feeling that, despite Kurama's insistence otherwise, she would be blamed for what had happened with Hiei. Koenma had entrusted her to coordinate the mission, and that included making sure that both the convicts returned from the city of ghosts and apparitions, and so it was inevitable that Koenma would be mad at her and possibly even put her back onto ferrying souls full-time, and grant the position of assistant to the spirit detective to someone else. Also, she thought to herself, Hiei was a strong and intelligent fighter and when he had agreed to help in the mission to destroy the Makai Whistle, she had thought that he was changing his ways and would soon become a valuable ally to Yusuke just as Kuwabara and Kurama seemed to have.

Botan took a long look at the loose floor panel. Maybe it was just a mistake. Maybe Hiei had been hurt and he was too proud and stubborn to ask for help. Maybe he had gone ahead to get help for Yusuke and become lost. Maybe he had been ambushed, too weak after his fight to defend himself. Maybe it was all just a misunderstanding and poor Hiei would be judged wrongly and too harshly when he was innocent all along. The afterlife was all about forgiveness, after all.

Botan quickly and quietly scurried up the steps to the warehouse door, peeking out of it to check that the others were well on their way away from the place before quickly pushing it shut, plunging herself into darkness. She could barely make out the green glow around the edges of the loose floor panel and she carefully felt her way back down the steps towards it. She lifted up the loose panel and summoned her oar, before taking a deep breath and jumping down.

"Hey, what's that noise?" Kuwabara asked, looking about himself.

"It sounds like a pager or a phone," Kurama replied.

"Oh yeah!" Kuwabara said. "It must be the communication mirror Yusuke got from the lovely Botan!"

Kuwabara crossed the room to Yusuke's bedside, reaching a hand under the bed-sheets to retrieve the device from his pocket.

"What are you doing?" Keiko yelped as she re-entered the room.

"It's not what it looks like!" Kuwabara cried, falling back onto his rear-end. "I was just getting this out of his pocket!" he added, holding up the communicator.

Keiko gave him a suspicious look but he ignored it, opening the communicator.

"Hey Botan, how's it going, baby?" he said, grinning down at the mirror. "Oh, hey, you're not Botan, you're an actual baby…"

Kuwabara screwed up his face as he found himself looking at a toddler in a tall blue hat with the monogram "Jr" on the brim, sat behind what looked like a large executive desk and sucking on an ornate pacifier.

"Ah, Kuwabara, I should thank you for helping Yusuke and the others today," the child said.

"Wh-what?" Kuwabara echoed, his face twisting further. "Hey kid, does your mommy know that you've got this thing? It's not a kid's toy you know, it's a very important communication device for grown-ups only."

"…Where's Botan?" the toddler asked.

"What's it to you?" Kuwabara asked. "Did you steal her communicator from her?"

"Give me that," Kurama said flatly, snatching the communicator out of his hand. "Koenma, this is Kurama."

"Ah, Kurama, I'm glad to see that you're well," Koenma replied.

"What are you guys doing with that thing?" Keiko asked Kuwabara. "Is it some sort of phone? I don't hear anyone talking back to you. Botan had something like that too, but hers got broken."

"I was about to ask why Botan wasn't answering my calls to her communication mirror, but I think I know why now," Koenma continued. "Congratulations on defeating the Four Saint Beasts and destroying the Makai Whistle. I saw that Kuwabara managed to revive Yusuke too, which is excellent. But Botan hasn't reported back to me yet, which I suppose is because she broke her communication mirror. But just for the record, where is she?"

Kurama looked up from the communicator and looked about the room.

"Oh no…" he muttered.

"Kurama?" Koenma prompted him. "Is Botan there with you."

"No, but I think I know where she might be…" Kurama replied. "She was behind us on the way back, I didn't notice that she hadn't made it back here with us. She stayed behind, to close the breach, I assume."

"To what?" Koenma echoed.

"She stayed behind by the breach in the barrier," Kurama replied. "I just assumed she was waiting for us to leave so that she could seal it over again."

"Botan lacks that ability," Koenma said flatly. "The breach was opened by two soldiers from the Spirit World Defence Force, and they set it to close automatically after a limited time."

"The breach was set to close? What if we had all still been in the demon city when that had happened?"

"Well you would have been stuck there until I could free up two of the SDF soldiers to open another breach. It was a chance I had to take. The soldiers of the SDF are very busy, I couldn't have them waiting around for you all to finish there and close up behind you. Why do you think I had Botan pressurising Yusuke to move quickly through the castle?"

"Well, I thought that was because we were trying to destroy the whistle before the Makai insects spread throughout the entire city and beyond, bringing about mass chaos and possibly the end of humanity as we know it."

Koenma thinned his eyes but Kurama kept his face flat.

"Okay, I understand," Koenma conceded. "It probably wasn't the best solution, but when I first found out that the insects were loose in living world, I knew I only had a limited amount of time to act, and this seemed like the best idea at the time. Anyway, it's not a problem, because you all got back through, didn't you?"

"No, we didn't," Kurama replied.

"What?" Koenma echoed. "But the breach is due to close over completely any second now! Who didn't make it through yet and why?"

"I'm going back there to check," Kurama answered. "I'll take this communicator with me, call me back in ten minutes, we'll talk then."

Kurama snapped the communication mirror shut.

"What's going on?" Kuwabara asked him. "Where's Botan?"

"I'm going to find out," Kurama replied. "Stay here and take care of Yusuke."

"Sure, but if Botan's in trouble, you need to let me know!"

Kurama ignored Kuwabara's last request, running from the house as fast as he could. His wounds had been wrapped up, but between the energy he had used up fighting Genbu and the energy he was using up healing himself, he was not as fast as he wanted to be as he made his way back to the old warehouse. He hoped that Botan had not been stupid enough to actually go through the breach and enter the city of ghosts and apparitions in pursuit of Hiei: as much as he did not want to see Hiei spend the rest of his days in a prison cell in spirit world, he certainly did not want spirit world to hold Hiei responsible for losing one of its ferry girls – the sentence for that would be far worse than the one he was already serving.

When he finally reached the old warehouse, Kurama shouldered his way through the door, pausing as his actions threw up clouds of dust, obscuring his view of the darkened room below. He quickly swatted his hands at the air to clear it as best he could, sighting a green glow by the back of the room. He hurried down the steps, keeping his eye on the green light, panic starting to rise within him when he saw that the light seemed to be fading and shrinking. He quickly threw himself towards it, reaching out one hand: but his knuckles crunched against solid ground and he landed hard on his chest, skidding slightly, the collision only aggravating his injuries.

Slowly Kurama pushed himself up onto all fours, pressing one hand around the area of floor where the breach had been, checking all corners and the centre in particular for any trace of a remaining gap through: but apparently the time limit on the breach had completely expired as the ground was solid and unyielding.

Kurama turned around and sat down, with his back rested against the wall, facing the door. He took out Yusuke's communicator and sat it down by his feet. When Koenma called, he would have no other choice but to tell him that one of his ferry girls and one of spirit world's most wanted criminals were both sealed in the city of ghosts and apparitions.

As soon as she reached the ground, Botan quickly leapt off her oar and dematerialised it. She did not want to do anything that might draw unwanted attention in her direction. From the debriefing she had received on the city, it was not a huge place – it was barely a fifth the size of the city Yusuke lived in – but it was densely populated. Apparently it was largely inhabited by weaker demons who had moved there and devoted their lives to serving the Four Saint Beasts, who, in return, offered them protection from more powerful forces. She was hoping that she would not encounter any trouble and that Hiei would be easy to find, as, with the Four Saint Beasts gone, he was likely to be the most powerful demon in the city.

Botan began fumbling through the pockets of her jacket for any of her spirit detective items. Koenma had made so many already that he had given her a case to carry them all in, but she did not have that with her. She had taken a few of the smaller and more common items with her, which she soon recovered from her pockets, looking down at them pensively. She had the Mystic Whistle, the Psychic Spyglass, the Demon Compass, the Concentration Ring and three Mejiru Shiiru labels: none of which were going to be any help finding Hiei, she thought miserably. The Mystic Whistle was virtual suicide in an entire city full of demons, as using it would only mean that she would have every demon in the city after her. The Psychic Spyglass would only be of any use if she knew Hiei was hiding in a specific place, and then she could use it to find out where exactly, but otherwise it was useless to her too. The Demon Compass would probably break the minute she activated it, since she was surrounded by demon energy, from the many demons living in the city and even the air around her that was charged with demonic energy. The Concentration Ring might prove useful if she was attacked, as she could use it to produce a spirit gun that might even rival Yusuke's in strength, though that was a last resort as using it would leave her with no spirit energy and vulnerable: and of course the ring itself would not help her actually find Hiei. The Mejiru Shiiru stickers were also unnecessary. It was not like there was even anyone she could use them on or that could use one on her.

Botan paused, her eyes still on the three stickers in her hand. It was true, they were useless to her and her task, but the sight of them reminded her of something else that was useful. The Mejiru Shiiru labels had been created based on another type of tracking device in spirit world, one that was used on prisoners in case they ever escaped or when they were on parole to allow spirit world to keep track of their movements. Just like the Mejiru Shiiru stickers, the tracking device was bound to the person it was attached to by spirit energy, and no amount of force could remove it. Hiei, as a serving prisoner of spirit world, had such a device attached to one of his ankles. Kurama had never been given one on the basis that he had been pardoned of his crimes because he had not fought Yusuke and agreed to relinquish the Forlorn Hope, not to mention his altruistic intentions for using it had helped redeem him. But Hiei, who had fought against Yusuke and spirit world, killed ogres guarding the vault the treasures had been kept in and enslaved countless humans including Keiko, had been issued a tracking device before he had even regained consciousness from being blasted with Yusuke's spirit gun. Unfortunately, Botan did not have a radar to locate Hiei and his tracking device, but, she thought, she could call Koenma and fabricate a half-truth about having gone to demon world to help recover Hiei from the battle because he had been hurt and was stuck somewhere beneath the remains of the tower of Maze Castle, and have him help her locate Hiei without realising what had really happened.

And then Botan remembered that her communication mirror – or at least, what was left of her communication mirror – was no longer functional, and so calling Koenma was not an option. She stuffed her belongings back into her pockets and thought for a moment, determined as ever to find a solution. She never ran out of ideas in a dire situation, it was just that sometimes she needed to go through a few wild and improbable ones before she found a practical and applicable one. She started to walk as she thought, running through various possibilities in her mind until finally she reached one that seemed logical: Yusuke still had his communication mirror, she could just go back to the living world and take it from him and use it to call Koenma for the help she needed to find Hiei.

With a smile of delight and pride in her own ingenuity, Botan once more materialised her oar and jumped on it, soaring back up towards the breach in the barrier. She felt confident that, within the space of an hour, she would have found Hiei and brought him back to the living world without Koenma becoming suspicious of either of them. Her plan was flawless and nothing could possibly go wrong, she thought with a smile.

Though it did seem odd that she could no longer see the faint, blurred outline of the breach leading back to the living world.

The communicator at Kurama's feet began to bleep urgently and he picked it up, flipping it open to see Koenma once more looking out at him.

"Kurama," the young prince greeted him. "Care to tell me what's going on now?"

"There's been a slight hitch in our plans, I'm afraid," Kurama frankly replied. "After Yusuke defeated Suzaku and the tower of Maze Castle fell, I lost sight of Hiei. I tried to look for him but he had vanished. I had to help Yusuke and Kuwabara back to the living world because of their injuries, and I explained the situation to your ferry girl, Botan. We returned to Kuwabara's house, but when you called I realised that Botan was not with us. She stayed behind here at the warehouse after we left and I thought she was following us soon after, but I've just returned here and there is no sign of her. I think she might have gone through the breach to the city of ghosts and apparitions in search of Hiei."

"What?" Koenma echoed. "That's ridiculous! That would be a completely thoughtless thing to do! Botan is a very reliable ferry girl with good judgement and sound knowledge of spirit world protocol, it would take a scatter-brained, dithering fool to think that going through that breach was good idea for a spirit to… Right, I see your point. Botan went through the breach. I suppose I've got no other choice but to ask you to go after her. The breach will probably close on you, but I can have it reopened after a few days or so."

"Unfortunately it's a little too late for that," Kurama said. "The breach has already closed. It was almost completely closed when I got here, and I tried to reach through it or to look for any lasting traces of it nearby, but it was sealed over as well as if it had never been here to begin with."

"…So you're telling me that one of my ferry girls is sealed into the city of ghosts and apparitions in demon world?"

"I'm afraid so, yes."

"And one of spirit world's prisoners, who should not really have been let out for this and who was only released on the condition that he helped and returned here afterwards, is also sealed into the city?"

"Yes."

"Botan and Hiei are both trapped in the city of ghosts and apparitions?"

"Yes."

"They can't get back and we can't get through."

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

Koenma sighed, shaking his head.

"There's no way I can free up anyone to open a breach any sooner," he said. "Not to mention the trouble this will land me in. My father will be furious when he finds out that I've lost of convicted thief and murderer as well as one of our top ferry girls."

"There's not much else we can do," Kurama replied. "I could search for a random portal to demon world, but the demon city itself is sealed off from everything, including the remainder of demon world, by the barrier your elite forces have erected, so although I would be closer to the city, I would still not be able to get into the city itself, nor would I be able to get anyone out of the city."

"Oh!" Koenma moaned, thumping his fists onto his desk in frustration. "If only we knew a psychic who had the strength and power to break open barriers!"

"Such a talent is extremely rare," Kurama reminded him. "I've never known anyone with that ability myself."

"You're right," Koenma agreed. "Hiei will face a much tougher sentence for breaking the terms of his parole like this and Botan is in big trouble too for being such an idiot… And I suppose you did all that you could, and since you did get Yusuke and Kuwabara back to the living world I can't really do anything to you…"

Kurama laughed nervously, but the scheming look on Koenma's face did not lessen any.

"Though technically speaking, you and Hiei are partners in this mess…"

"I'm going to go back and check on Yusuke and Kuwabara," Kurama said hurriedly. "Maybe we can come up with a plan between the three of us."

Koenma started to tell him how ridiculous that was, but Kurama snapped the communicator shut, cutting him off. Kurama liked Hiei, but not so much that he was willing to sentence himself to an extended stint in spirit world prison for poor judgement and irrational recklessness by the impetuous fire demon.

Botan was starting to cry. They were tears of frustration, of desperation and of isolation. The breach in the barrier was gone. She did not know how it had happened, but it had definitely gone. Her passageway back to the living world had vanished. She had been closed off from everything outside of the city of ghosts and apparitions, including even the rest of demon world itself. Someone must have closed the breach behind her, and now she regretted not telling the others of her plans. Obviously they had closed it thinking that she was through already. Two soldiers of the SDF had opened the breach as an emergency operation and Botan knew that they would not return to open it again if recovering her was their only reason for doing so. Even Botan knew that the SDF would not waste time breaking open something they had worked so hard to create in the first place for the sake of one spirit. The original breach had only been sanctioned because the safety of the entire living world had been at stake, but now they would probably just leave it closed forever more, leaving Botan trapped and – probably conveniently for spirit world – Hiei closed off from demon world and the living world too.

Botan sank slightly, the effort of holding her oar so high in the air suddenly feeling too much to bear. She could hardly believe that she had passed through the breach only minutes earlier and now it was gone. A snap decision, her attempt to rescue Hiei and help him atone, and it had all been in vain: even if she did find Hiei now, what good would it do? Even if she managed to convince him to go back with her and even if he wanted to go back it could not happen, because they were both locked down into the confines of the city of ghosts and apparitions, forever closed off from the lives they had known in their own homes and forced to exist in a place that, truthfully, neither of them wanted to be in.

Next Chapter: Botan tries to acclimatise herself to the demon city as she accepts her fate of being made to live there and in spirit world Koenma tries to convince King Enma to relieve the SDF of their duties to recover Botan while Kurama and Kuwabara try to find a route to demon world. Chapter 2: All in Vain