Sacrifices

By Melpomene

Disclaimer: Yuu Yuu Hakusho belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi, Shounen Jump and Studio Pierrot.

Before reading this…

This thing took 114 days to write. Please be kind to animals. Easy on my, OK? I'm just a beginner. To Master Seiyo, ho-hum. I told you not to expect too much from this crappy junk. Remember when I left this thing at the Physics room? I'm kinda regretting I got my retreat notebook back. Oh well, here goes nothing.

Warning: May contain violent scenes and/or unacceptable language. Parental guidance is recommended. If you don't want your parents involved here, though, use your discretion accordingly. ^_^ And don't worry, there's no yaoi, yuri, or lemon scenes here.

You should also ask your local psychiatrist if this thing is safe for you to read. It's pretty whacked out. Then again, anime fans usually are insane. GOOD LUCK!

Prologue

"BUSINESS IS DOING awful, isn't it?"

The waiter shook himself out of his reverie.

"Pardon?" he said to his lone companion, the cashier.

"I said, the business is lagging lately," answered the somber looking girl. "I bet we'll need to get a new job soon. And fast, too. My brother won't be able to send me money for the tuition fee this month and I have to pay for the next term before I get to take the exam." A shadow of worry crossed her face.

The young man's face grew grim as well. "Yeah," he answered. "I, too, need to earn some bucks for my mother's medicine. But look at this! The whole place is empty."

"No." The girl pointed to a table in the dark end of the cubbyhole that was a coffee shop. "The blue-haired lady has been there for nearly an hour. Maybe you should ask her if she wants anything else. That's her third cup of cappuccino. Offer her some pastries."

"Nah. She said no. I wouldn't want to be too nosy now, would I?"

"She seemed bothered, though." The working student sighed. "I guess we're not the only ones with problems, ne?"

TWO PINK EYES, wider than usual, peered worriedly at her watch for the umpteenth time. For heaven's sake, where are you, Koenma?   she thought to herself.

Koenma? Ought not she say Koenma-sama? He's still the Prince of Reikai even if she is his best friend. All right, she's more like his mentor on recreation. Yes, she did have a hard time trying to convince the workaholic prince to take a break from his slave-driving job once in a while. All her work paid off since he now consents to a movie or something once or twice a month. Sometimes, he's the one who arranges the appointment. Lately, however, there's seems to be a major problem that's making him more busy than usual.

"But it's still isn't an excuse to be late," she said aloud.

Presently, the chimes at the entrance tinkled, signaling its opening and, perhaps, the arrival of her master. She peeked behind the smoked glass that served as a divider between the smoking and non-smoking area. She saw a tall, distinguished looking fellow give his long coat to the doorkeeper, thus revealing the casual slacks and the loose fitting sweater he is wearing.

The girl sighed in relief as the newcomer approached towards her table, walking in an infuriatingly too slow a pace. She just discovered she was short a couple of bucks. Trust Koenma to pick a classy expensive place for a rendezvous. He should know he's not paying me enough to be able to afford this kind of restaurant, she thought.

"Well, good afternoon, Koenma-sama," she said in a biting voice. "You have a lot of explaining to do. First of all, you're late. Second, you could have at least picked a more…um, economical place and-"

He smiled at her lightly. "I'm sorry, Botan-chan," he answered. "Don't worry. I'll foot the bill. I just thought we'd appear less conspicuous here since nobody comes around much."

"Well, you're still late. I was beginning to think you decided to stick to your paperwork instead of meeting me."

Koenma smirked. "You owe me two hours overtime. I'll leave you all the stuff that piled up during my absence."

"What was it you want to talk about? You sounded urgent. And yet you're late!" Botan really couldn't help rubbing it in. She was worried after all.

"I came as quickly as I can, Botan."

"So I noticed." She rubbed the prince's forehead to even out the thick foundation cream that hid the Jr. birthmark.

"Well, there's some trouble in Crete. Some archeologists accidentally opened a doorway to Makai and, well, hell broke out. Our people just finished patching things up, but I couldn't leave before then, you know."

"Oh, I'm sorry I wasn’t able to help."

"It's out of your jurisdiction, silly." Koenma laughed. "Crete is in the Mediterranean Sea, in Europe."

"I knew that."

"Yeah, right."   He motioned to the waiter for the bill.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

  "What, you just want to sit around here all day?"

"Well, no."

"Then come on. We can still catch the next movie. What's on?"

"How about X-Men?"

"What's that?"

"A movie about mutants. You know, based on that popular comic book series."

"Mutants?" Koenma groaned. "Can we please lay off the supernatural for a while? That's why we're here in Ningenkai, remember?"

"It's a science fiction. It's not like that other movie we saw, you know the horror one."

"That movie proves how narrow-minded humans are. Everything was inaccurate, to put it mildly. All the same, I had trouble paying attention since you keep screaming and strangling me to death."

"Inaccurate, huh? I thought it was realistic and I bet you did, too. You were shaking as if it was the middle of winter."

"Well, it was freezing then."

"Yeah, right. All the same, one of the imps resembles Hiei very much. And with the same foul temper, too."

"Oh, he's here right now investigating on something."

Botan paled. "Uh… H-h-he is?"

"Just kidding."

"Baka!"

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