Survival Class 101
Disclaimer: Err... There was once when I dreamed that I became the producer of new YYH episodes. Nope, still don't own it!
Chapter 8 - Ready, Set, Here we go again...
The sun had been up in the sky unaware by a sleeping girl who lied in the interior of a traditional Japanese temple. She breathed slowly as her chest rose and fell in a rhythmic pattern, comfortably absorbed in a peaceful slumber. A small smile tucked at the corner of the girl's lips while her mind took her on a free tour beyond every cosmetic section of the department store. She was having another one of her wonderful la-la land adventure where she found herself inherit the biggest shopping mall in all of Japan. It was no surprise. After all, Botan has had the same dream for the past one week ever since she and Keiko went on that frenzy shopping spree (in which the ferry girl thought that she was in heaven.) Sadly, good things don't last forever because her sweet slumber will soon be disturbed...
"Get up, you indolent woman," a deep voice hovered above Botan's head.
"Just five more minutes, Koenma-sama..." Botan grunted slightly in her sleep as she felt a nudge by the shoulder.
It was no later when she felt coldness consuming her as her whole body became exposed in some way. The Grimp Reaper stirred while subconsciously searching for her cover. Finding nothing to keep her warm, Botan sat up on her futon and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Gradually recovering from her blurry vision, she found her blanket being pulled away to the end of her feet. Just as she was about to make a grab for her blanket so that she could go back to her sleep, she caught a pair of blood-like eyes staring straight at her.
The cerulean-haired girl froze in her place.
"YAAAAAAAH! MONSTER!" a screech erupted. Botan squirmed her eyes tight shut and continued screaming, "Get away from me!"
Now, her watcher really began to miss the quietness that draped in the room before the girl was woken up.
"Shut up, you stupid girl, or I'll make you mute for the rest of your life!" the voice commanded.
For a second there the screaming ceased when Botan recognized the harsh voice, but it didn't last long when-
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! HIEI!"
With his ever trusty sword in hand, Hiei stood before Botan along with that scowl he always wore on his face. Apparently he didn't seem to be pleased with the blue-haired girl's reaction. He hissed through his gritted teeth, raising his deadly weapon, "Quiet! Did you not hear me or should I make myself clear?"
Botan ignored Hiei's words, instead, she made a quick dash for her blanket and held it up to her chest, letting the soft fabric drape loosely around her body. She huffed, "Don't you know to knock before you come into somone's room?"
Letting his gaze fall upon the rather insulted girl, Hiei replied nonchalantly, "I came in through the window."
"That doesn't give you any more right! Don't you even have any regard toward people's personal privacy?" argued Botan as she stared angrily back to the fire demon. "Wha-what if I didn't wear anything under, huh?"
"That's your problem, not mine."
"Whatever..." the ferry girl rolled her eyes and chose not to argue with the spike head further more. A person can never get anywhere when he gets invovled in an argument with the unreasonable fire demon. Botan stood up from her place as she released her blanket, revealing her bright pink pajama embroidered with golden stars. The flamboyant cloth "burned" Hiei's eyes. He gagged, "Interesting choice of clothing. Does it glow in the dark?"
"No!" retorted Botan. She placed both hands on her hips and spoke dryly, "So what does the oh-I'm-so-great-that-I-don't-need-to-respect-other-people, almighty Hiei-sama want this time?"
Hiei simply frowned,"For your information, Miss I'm-so-lazy-that-I-can't-even-get-up-on-my-own-without-having-others-to-wake-me-up: the baffon is trying to seduce Yukina again."
Clearly, Botan was not in a good mood. She replied grumpily, mimicking Hiei from before, "That's your problem, not mine."
Feeling mocked, Hiei glowered at the Grim Reaper, "Oh really? Didn't I recall you being assigned by the infant to keep that fool away from Yukina?"
"Hey, I was supposed to keep you away from them," said Botan as a matter of fact, "and besides, it's over now. I'm on my well-deserved vacation."
"All you did was keep getting in my way last time. You have not yet carried out your promise to my ultimate plan to annihilate Kuwabara."
"Hold that thought, I didn't promise you that I'd help you to kill Kuwabara. You misunderstood."
"Oh, did I?"
Botan sighed, "Look, Hiei. Instead of you trying to kill Kuwa-chan. Why don't you try and get along with him? It would be a lot less complicated. Just give the poor guy a chance. I think he and Yukina would look cute together." A dreamy look played on her face at the thought of seeing Kuwabara and Yukina hand in hand.
Hiei felt somewhat digusted, "Never! He is worthless of my time, and Yukina is better off without him."
"Hiei! How can you say that! Have you forgotten that Kuwabara is one of your teammates? You should treat him better."
"Teammate? Hn. He is useless. No one needs him around..." the fire demon's speech went on, much to his listener's dismay.
Oh, and did I mention that Botan woke up grumpy today? Yes, it's the moment (every one of us had probably experienced) where you just feel like beating up somebody for no reason. Now Botan wasn't just going to let some rude demon barge into her room and gave her his unnecessary opinion about some orange-head. She groaned, her hands clutched her head in annoyance.
"...The only thing he is good for is to-"
"JUST STOP IT ALREADY!" shouted Botan, losing control of her temper.
At that unexpected outburst, Hiei gave her a rather stunned look.
Botan infuriated. It's time she lives up to her reputation as the Grim Reaper. It's time she gave the arrogant, egoistic Jaganshi a piece of her mind.
"You know what, Hiei? You're just the most self-seeking demon I've ever seen! Why do you always have to be so mean to everyone!" Botan was really getting worked up in the hot spit battle. "Well, I don't care what your stupid reasons are! I'll just have to knock some sense out of you!" With that being said, the ferry girl stormed up to off-guard Hiei in a surprising quick speed and did something that no woman in history er... let's just say unwise enough to do:
KA POW!
A fist landed in Hiei's face...
O-O
O-O
Tsk, tsk, tsk... A certain ferry girl really should know to think carefully before she acts.
"Aah, that felt a lot better!" as Botan finally let out all the anger she stored all morning long, she released a satisfied sigh, that is until she saw Hiei's dangerous complexion.
The half koorime-blooded demon appears to be unharmed in any way due to Botan's lack of strength... physically. Of course he had gone through things much much more painful before than a fist in the front. However, this ignorant choice of action had him snapped. His piercing red eyes lowered under his bangs, emitting a eerie glow in his darkened expression like the devil. Smirking in a twisted way, Hiei reached for his weapon. "I guess you still haven't learned your lesson yet."
"Uh-oh..." the ferry girl seriously wanted to make a run for it but seemed to be paralyzed in fear like always. She trembled, "W-what a-are you g-going to do to me?"
"Why don't you just check it for yourself?" said Hiei, sheathing his sword.
"Huh?"
Botan felt something fell from her behind. After making sure it wasn't any of her body parts, she looked down to discover a mass of blue on the wooden floor. She gasped and reached for her now shortened hair.The poor girlsuddenly felt dizzyat the thought of having a sword so close to her neck just a second ago. She could have been easily killed if she moved just a centimeter. Soon, she fell on her knees, somewhat traumatized.
Hiei took the sign as a surrender and smirked smugly, "Hn, next time it might just be your head that's rolling on the ground. Now, get yourself dressed. We're going after them." The cocky demon then jumped out through the open window.
"Hiei! Kuwabara and Yukina just grocery shopping! What can possibly happen from that?"
Botan, lagging languidly behind the short demon, complained for the tenth time. Though she wasn't going to expect an anwser. This is by far the worst morning yet: having not able to be sleeping in, getting her silky hair all cut up just because Hiei couldn't take a harmless remark. At the thought of that, her hand went up to touch her uneven strands of hair that fell upon her shoudlers and sniffled wistfully. She wondered how long it will take for her hair to grow back to its original state. At least she handled her outcome well. If it had been Kurama losing his precious hair, he would have fainted...
Due to the nature of our favorite Deity of Death, it absolutely kills her when she has to suffer from an environment of complete silence. With a little more effort, Botan skipped up to Hiei in the hopes of starting a conversation.
"I was talking to you, Hiei." said Botan, now walking by the fire demon's side.
"And I wasn't listening." Hiei did not spare his companion a single glance as he replied.
"Gee, I figured as much when you didn't insult me back," Botan answered back sarcastically. "So tell me, why would you need my help with stalking your sister when you can just ask Kurama, your best friend, to do it since he obviously won't annoy you like I do?"
"Don't give yourself too much credit, I don't need your help. I merely required a third party's assistance so I can accomplish my goal," stated Hiei, "and to your question, the answer is simple: you're easier to be threatened with than it is with the fox."
"Right... Just what are you trying to accomplish with my assistance?"
"I thought I told you before: to kill Kuwabara."
Botan groaned miserably, "There you go again! I don't get why you hate him so much. I think Kuwabara is a decent person. He deserves every bit of respect even if it has to come from you."
"Oh? You fancy him that much? Then why don't you mate with him?"
"Ewww! No way!"
"See, you're even disgusted by him,"
"No, that's not what I meant! I like him as a friend, and you should too," Botan felt somewhat embarrassed to how she had acted. She was trying to make Hiei see Kuwabara's good side for goodness's sake, but her non-trusty mouth had to fail her at the last minute. After regaining her pose, the ferry girl continued on, "besides, I will defend for any of my friends."
"Sure, if you're done defending your precious friend here, I suggest that you do more walking rather than your useless speech."
Well, it wasn't the first time that Hiei's comment has upset the blue-haired girl. She frowned and slowed down until Hiei was ahead of her by a few feet. Glaring at the back of Hiei's spiky hairdo, Botan wished that she could burn a hole right off of his head. It wasn't long before she started making sour faces at the demon behind his back. She admitted that she had some fun in doing so. I mean, why not? Hiei surely won't see with his back turned on her, right? Right?
A/N: And there goes my first update in a long longtime. Hehehe... my apologies to everyone! Well, it's somewhat short. I hope I didn't disappoint any of you. I didn't think this chapter was being done with my best personally, but it turned out okay like I planned.Since my spellcheck didn't work, I had to do it by myself.I wasn't being too careful. Sothere might have been a few mistakes.Anyway, here is my BIG THANKS to everyone who has reviewed last time: I love you all!I'm sorry I can't replyyour reviews'cause it's been such a long time. Okay, I'm off to plan for/writethe next chappie. Wish me luck! Bye!