One More's A Crowd
by Riisha
Author's Notes:
Warning! Warning! This is a line challenge! Meaning, this is how I made some parts of the fic: I ask people to give me some lines/statements/quotes, and my challenge is to incorporate them all into the fic. They go anywhere from serious to wacky to insane.
Another warning! This fic occurs a bit after the series … so those who don’t know the end or have yet to see it, no matter how few you may be, I’m warning you now. Spoiler alert!
I owe this fic to my sister who offered the challenges. I also apologize to her, because more often than not, I cheat at the challenge. If you recognize any lines from movies or shows or books, imagine the lines being said that way.
I also owe it to Misty-chan, who was always nagging at me to make a fic for her site. ^.^;;
I don’t own Yu Yu Hakusho … Yoshihiro Togashi, my idol in drawing and manga art, and all his friends, do … Too bad for me, I’d love to own Hiei-sama … But don’t sue me anyway, I don’t have much to give...
The challenges are marked with () at the end of the line.
Chapter 1
A new Reikai Tantei
“And then the Rabbi says … ‘NOOH NOOH, yowng mahn!!!! Moust nout poot daown Boodha!’” ()
And Yusuke burst out laughing, wheezing and gasping as he tried to catch his breath.
The other occupants of the table stared at him.
Yukina whispered to Keiko, “Was that … meant to be funny, Keiko-san?”
Keiko shrugged, her eyes narrowing, “I don’t know either, Yukina-chan.”
Yusuke continued to guffaw and roar with laughter. He finally stopped when he noticed noone was laughing with him, “Hey! That was the punch line!”
“We noticed,” Kurama said, idly.
“Then, don’t you get it? I mean …” he started gesturing to make his point, “The Rabbi … and then the Buddha and then …”
Botan facefaulted, trying to change the subject, “Ah! I just remembered! Koenma-sama mentioned something earlier …”
They were interrupted as the waiter arrived with a box. He looked at them with no emotion.
“Here is your order,” he said in monotone, “Look in this box … (gasp!!)” he gasped, quite phonily and continued in monotone, “it’s a pizza…” ()
He set the box down in front of them and turned back.
The group stared after this man as well.
“Must be drunk,” Botan concluded.
Kuwabara took a slice from the box, “Would you like some, Yukina-san?!”
“Why, thank you, Kazuma-san,” Yukina said, politely.
Kuwabara beamed.
“So, anyway, like I was saying,” Botan continued, “Koenma-sama mentioned that he might be hiring a new Reikai Tantei.”
Kurama dropped his fork.
Yusuke’s juice spurted out of his mouth, spraying Kuwabara.
Kuwabara didn’t react to the free shower, also gaping at Botan.
Yukina and Keiko just looked curiously around them. Botan looked at the three guys, blinking, “What’s wrong?”
“B-but … we’re the Reikai Tantei!!” Yusuke sputtered, juice still dribbling from his lip.
“And you guys still are. Though, not as on a regular basis as you all used to be. Because of the incidents that had happened in Makai,” Botan nodded.
“C-can he do that?”
“Do what?”
“Hire another spirit detective?!”
“Are we being let off?”
“Actually,” Botan started twirling her straw as she thought, “I asked Koenma-sama the same thing. He said that he may need the extra help now that you three …” no, that’s wrong … “Four, may have other responsibilities …”
[Flashback]
“Hiei, for instance,” Koenma looked up from under his hat as he checked one of the papers he was supposed to be signing. “We cannot expect him to work for us as often as we’d like, now that he has the duty of returning humans in Makai to Ningenkai.
“I was hoping that this one I had my eye on would work as Urameshi Yusuke did.”
He was in Reikai form. They were after all, in Reikai, particularly in Koenma’s office. Botan stood before his desk in her pink kimono, holding her oar to herself.
“But … you mean you have a candidate?” she asked as politely as she could.
“Just like Yusuke,” Koenma said, “This one was a delinquent who saved the life of another, and in the process sacrificed …”
“I see …” Botan nodded. It was indeed very much like Yusuke. “And where is this candidate …?”
Koenma looked up at her again. Finally he climbed down his chair and went to the window. He looked outside with his back to her. “Currently undergoing what is to be a life-saving operation. Tonight you are to take this one’s soul and bring it to Reikai.”
Botan gasped, “B-but Koenma-sama! You mean to say! Wh-what if they can save …”
“There's no chance of surviving. Fell over the side of a building … twenty stories … Couldn’t possibly make it. And I won’t risk it. This one has potential,” he turned, his brown eye scrutinizing her, “and will have the same test as Yusuke. Understood?”
“Hai, Koenma-sama,” Botan bowed.
[end Flashback]
“So, this guy is going to become the next Reikai Tantei?” Kurama asked.
Botan nodded, chewing on another slice of pizza, “Uhuh … he’ll be working more full-time. Of course, if it comes to something more difficult, you will be called.”
“Of course!” Kuwabara said, “Because no one can be better than I! The great …Kuwabara Kazuma!!”
Yusuke pelted him, “Dream on, Kuwabara …”
Yukina giggled to herself.
“Oh yeah! One more thing,” Botan added. “Koenma-sama said that despite the fact that you guys aren’t going to be working as often as you should, you’ll need to be with the new Tantei on the first few cases.”
Yusuke sprayed everyone with his juice again, “What?!”
“Stop doing that!!” Keiko yelled as she hit him.
Kurama took a table napkin, calmly wiping his face, “That doesn’t sound very bad. I think we could actually enjoy it.”
Botan was also drying herself off. “I heard that we also contacted Mukuro in Makai to allow Hiei a little time off so he can help out too.”
“WHAT?!” Kuwabara cried, “We even have to work w-with … that shrimp again?!”
“I doubt he’ll agree to the job,” Kurama shook his head.
“Oh, don’t worry … Mukuro already allowed …”
“No … I didn’t mean Mukuro. I really didn’t think that Mukuro would object to letting Hiei have this so called ‘time off’. I meant Hiei himself. Will he actually accept the invitation?”
“Of course!” Botan said, “Especially after we added to him the angle that he can stay here in Ningenkai to look after his sist- … sis … s …”
She gulped as she looked at everyone.
Kurama and Yusuke had facefaulted.
Kuwabara, Keiko and Yukina looked at her curiously, “What do you mean?”
“N-nothing!” Botan grinned, holding up a v-sign, innocently. She quickly tried to change the subject back. “So, anyway … the four of you will have to work together again, but this time to help him work. In fact, you guys should teach him the techniques you guys know.”
“W-wait a minute!” Yusuke said, “Does this mean what I think it means?!”
Botan nodded, “You’re going to have to train him to be a Reikai Tantei.”
-----*-----
Botan combed her hair behind her ear with her hand, attempting to brush her bangs off her face. It was difficult, considering she was soaring through the air on her oar.
She was wearing the traditional pink kimono, the one she always wore when she was on duty. She hadn’t worn it in a while, except for that morning. Not since Yusuke and the others concluded the events in Makai.
She ached inside as she thought of them and those times again. She didn’t have the heart to tell them the truth.
That they really were let off.
It was true. They will be called when a case is too difficult for this new recruit to handle. But even those were becoming less.
Peace had pretty much returned to Ningenkai, especially with what Yusuke had done. With Enki now the ruler of Makai, serious incidents in Ningenkai have grown less in number and danger.
Which is why Reikai can afford to have a new, less powerful Tantei be trained, as Koenma had explained to her. Yusuke was now way too powerful for their liking, not that it was a problem. The problem was that Yusuke was also hardheaded and had usually caused more trouble than help.
This was the present Reikai Tantei’s last assignment …
Botan wiped a tear from her eye. Koenma almost forbid her from hanging out with them on days that she wasn’t needed. He said it distracted her from her true job. She had needed to beg and plead to allow her to stay with them.
He melted not too long after. And she could swear that she had seen the slight smile on his lips, as if he understood how she felt. And he probably did.
She landed on the rooftop of the hospital where their new recruit was being treated. She let the oar disappear and started down the stairs to the floor he was to be on.
-----*-----
Botan stopped to catch her breath. She had finally reached the hall where he was rooming. She searched, left and right, trying to remember the number of the room she was supposed to look in.
“Aha!” She exclaimed to herself, slowly opening the door.
She stepped into the room, tiptoeing until she remembered that they shouldn’t be able to see her. She stopped tiptoeing, walking closer for a better look.
Her heart ached when she saw the scene in the small hospital room.
A man and a woman were standing around the bed. Tears were in their eyes. And they were murmuring words that sounded like words of encouragement, and prayers for protection.
His parents.
What’s more was the teenaged girl that was leaning against the wall. Her black hair covered her face, but by the way her shoulders shook, Botan could see that she was also crying.
The girl finally looked up, staring at the bed, as she whispered, “I don’t believe it … I still don’t believe it … I don’t want to believe it …”
Botan stepped closer, her first instinct was to comfort the girl. Thoughts crossed her mind. Maybe she was his sister. Or his girlfriend. She instantly remembered Keiko at Yusuke’s funeral. Her heart ached even more.
But she stepped back, remembering that she wouldn’t be able to see her.
But somehow, the girl suddenly looked up, and her eyes widened when she saw Botan in the room.
Botan was surprised. She thought to herself, wondering how the girl could see her when she was in this form. At least now she could comfort the girl.
“It’s okay … It’s okay …”
The girl’s eyes widened even more, but then they narrowed and she cried out, angrily, “How do you know it’s going to be okay?! Do you even understand how I feel right now?!”
Botan was confused. She looked nervously at the parents, thinking that they should be shocked that their daughter was yelling at what was supposed to look like nothing to them.
That’s when she gasped.
She now understood what the girl meant.
Because she now had a clear view of the figure lying in the bed.
It wasn’t the girl’s brother lying there.
It was the girl herself …