The Prince’s Bride
Chapter 1
News
The
royal palace was teeming with activity, and half-hung drapes lay on the floor or
were draped haphazardly on pillars, signaling louder than words that something
grand was up. The onis, as well as other servants were scurrying to and fro, but
instead carrying tons of paperwork, they were arranging decorations, beddings or
flowers. And, instead of escorting the dead from Ningenkai, many of the
ferrygirls were escorting richly, even weirdly, dressed (or looking) nobles to
their rooms in the vast palace. It was a very busy time for them all, but it
passed merrily enough, since even if all their limbs were occupied, they could
indulge in their favorite pastime—gossiping.
“Oh,
I guess this is about done,” a woman in a kimono said as she finished
arranging roses near the entrance hall. She had a matronly figure, though she
was still pretty with her mahogany locks and dimpled smiles.
“Ooh,
that’s beautiful, Hina-san! Absolutely gorgeous! How do you do it?” a young
girl with brown hair and eyes gushed, while trying to arrange some tulips
without much success. “I can’t even get mine to bend right!”
“That’s
because you don’t pay much attention to what you want it to look like, Ume,”
another woman with green eyes and hair commented wryly. She was also arranging
flowers, but with more skill than the young girl.
“Oh..Well,
okay. I’ll try to make it better.” Ume replied.Then her eyes brightened as
she remembered something. “Hey, have you seen Lord Koenma lately? He looks so
handsome!” she swoons. The others smiled.
“Yes, he does, especially now that he’s lost that awful pacifier and the baby look He’s really ready to grow up—hand me the scissors, please, Sango-san,” Hina said. She reached for the scissors. “He and Botan run the system well. It’s amazing how well he turned out, by the way, considering how bratty he was before Botan came.“
Ume laughed. “It’s miraculous, really. I remember his nurse then, old Yuri, telling me he needed a good spanking, but that she was too afraid give it to him.”
The
green-haired woman nodded. “Hai. I guess he just needed a playmate. Botan did
very well at that. They grew up together, you know.” She cut a few stems and
frowned thoughtfully. “It seems a bit strange, even… I remember her coming
from Ningenkai, but now she’s still alive and young, while imports rarely stay
even five hundred years before they leave --and they’re pretty old by then.”
“Must
be something in her blood,“ Hina replied carelessly. “Anyway, we all love
her—even Lord Enma does—and I don’t mind if she’s head ferrygirl; she
worked the hardest of us all, I admit—there, I’ll just tie the ribbon
here—cause if anything, I pity her for all the work Koenms gives.”
Ume
finished with one vase, then grabbed some flowers to start on another.
“Actually, there’s an old tale Yuri used to tell before she left. She said
she saw Botan flying one day—though you know she didn’t learn how to fly
without an oar—with wings like the ones Ningens imagine on angels.
“Poor
Yuri. She had been allowed to grow too old. “
“Hey, d’ya think there’s any truth to the gossip about Koenma and Botan? ” Ume piped up suddenly. At this point, Botan appeared, waiking in their direction..
She
was a bit tired but still smiling, having escorted too many nobles to their
rooms. Her eyes softened as she remembered that it was all for Koenma,
remembering how happy they were when they were little children on his birthdays.
She was the only kid in Reikai then who was not too old nor too young to be the
prince’s playmate And she didn’t think Enma really minded their unruliness,
though the rest of Reikai was horrified, especially when they appeared coated
with pie in the drawing-room. So much had changed since then, but she still
treasured Koenma’s friendship very highly. She hoped Koenma would be happy
with the party today, though. It would be his last before he was officially
crowned the ruler of Reikai.
She
paused for a moment, feeling faint. ‘There it is again,’ she thought. Of
late, ever since she came back from her fortnight-long vacation, she had been
experiencing strange moments of weakness which left her feeling more powerful.
It seemed strange to her, though she welcomed the extra strength for the hectic
times. But she decided to ignore it and go on with her duties.
“Hi,
guys!” she exclaimed, seeing Hime, Ume and Sango arranging flowers.
“You’re all looking well today. Almost done?”
“Oh,
not quite, Botan-chan. We have dozens of flowers to fix still. Thanks for
asking, though,” Ume said, smiling in her relief. Apparently, Botan hadn’t
heard what she had said earlier.
“Thanks.
Hey, good luck. I also have to escort some more
‘honored guests’ to their rooms.”
“Have
you seen many good-looking lords?” Hina asked with a dreamy smile.
Botan
grinned. “Yup, but you wouldn’t be interested, Hina. Their attitudes don’t
match their looks in the slightest.”
“Then
we don’t envy you,” Sango said resignedly while skillfully doing her job.
“Poor
Botan-chan! Haven’t you had enough of that from our dear prince? Ume asked
then, feigning sympathy.
Botan
frowned. “Oh, Prince Koenma isn’t all that bad,” she answered “Actually,
he’s kind in a way, and very overworked—you really ought to see the stacks
of documents the onis carry everyday.”
“Yup.
Poor Koenma… But he’s certainly very, very handsome, don’t you think?”
she asked slyly, her eyes shining with a wicked glint. She had always wanted to
know what was between the two “friends.”
“ Really?” Botan answered, feigning disbelief. “ I didn’t notice. Well—you won’t get me to add anything to palace gossip, Ume-chan,” she continued, with a laugh and the faintest hint of a blush, seeing through her friend’s questions. She was so very used to this in the five hundred or so years that the whole palace speculated what was going on between the prince and his beautiful ferrygirl and (only personal female) assistant.
“What?” Ume just said innocently. ‘ Darn’.
“Never
mind,” Sango grinned..
Suddenly, Botan felt a jolt of some sort of power. “Servant, we have need of you service,” a male voice suddenly said haughtily behind Botan. She turned to behold two elaborately dressed men, one older than the other, and their servant oni who was carrying something. Both would’ve been handsome if not for their identical cold green eyes and hooked noses.
She groaned inwardly. ‘Not again!’ She thought. Aloud, she said, “Yes, my Lords? Welcome to the Royal Palace, what can I do for you?” with a bow and a smile while the others bowed as well, and continued their work.
“Take
us to see Enma Daioh. You must escort us to him immediately,” the younger one
said, leering at her. Their clothes, she saw, had the crest of the house of Ito
at Linae, one of the most powerful families inside Reikai.
“At once, great lords. Please follow me, “ she said, bowing again and leading them away, She waved and mouthing soundlessly, “see what I mean?” to her friends, who were left hiding grins.
+++++++++
(An hour later…)
“Koenma-sama! Koenma-sama, wait!” Botan gasped out as she ran after her boss. It had been quite a while since she had escorted the envoys of Linae to the emperor and was made to wait outside the throne room as they conversed. Now here she was, running to catch up with the prince, with a massage from his formidable sire. Nowadays, he was pretty hard to find. He had temporarily turned in (with obvious relief) his paperwork to the secretaries, so he was not often in his office, in which he had almost taken root before.
He sighed and turned around. ’This had better be good,’ he thought, a bit tired and irritable from perusing a whole library of the realms’ histories foisted on him by his sire. ‘Someday, ‘ he thought rebelliously, ‘I’m gonna order someone to bloody write all that in one book or two.’ She was still some feet away from him, and they were alone in the vast corridor leading to his rooms. “ What is it, Botan?” he asked.
“Gomen, but it’s a message from your father.”
Koenma took the time to examine her as she approached. “She’s looking very well,” he thought, looking appreciatively at her slender figure. He would have scorned to admit it, but he agreed with the other inhabitants of the palace that Botan had become more beautiful since her vacation in Ningenkai. It was not that she wasn’t beautiful before, but her hair had grown and become glossier, her eyes had darkened to a beautiful red-violet and her features had become more mature. He also noticed that her ki had gotten more powerful. ‘She must’ve been training with Yusuke and the others,’ he thought, with a momentary pang of envy and something else as he remembered the two-week vacation she had just gotten from only a few days before. That he missed her was also something the proud prince would also scorn to admit.
“Here, “ she handed him a piece of paper. “Koenma-sama, You’ve finally gotten the hang of being older; at least you walk fast now, “ she commented cheerfully. Before announcing that his son would celebrate his eight hundredth birthday, Enma had forbidden him to return to his child-form, since nobody really expects to take a ruler with a toddler’s form seriously. Of course, he had also gotten rid of his fuumakan, and instead wore golden cuffs on his wrists to store ki. It would have worked very well, except for the sizable number of infatuated ferrygirls and various female deities that were suddenly interested in following him around (he is a handsome bishounen, after all!), to Botan’s shock. She thought it fortunate that she was above that, even if some of her charges were not, though she felt unusually irritated when he flirted with his newfound followers At first, he gloried in the attention, but he soon grew tired and resumed his grumpy attitude to throw them off.
“Yeah, right,” he scoffed. He was unable to keep a slight grin from his face, though, and she found herself thinking the girls were right—he was really very handsome. “ Have to, with all the reading, y’know. Helps me get books faster.” He groaned “I’ll never be able to look another book in the face again!”
“Nah, you’ll still have to later,” she said unsympathetically. “Best get used to it now.”
The brown-haired prince scowled. “Nice little ray of sunshine, aren’t you?”
“Thank you,” she smirked, and saluted him sarcastically. Her expression turned into a frown as she looked at him closely. “You haven’t been eating—or sleeping right. Look at your eyebags!” she exclaimed, prodding his face with a finger.
“ Ow! Cut it out, Botan!” he exclaimed, backing away from her. “ I had plenty of work to do, and besides,” his voice took on a playful note, “I missed stamping papers pretty badly so I volunteered doing extra work.”
She groaned and playfully punched his arm.” Koenma-sama! Be serious, already!” she admonished him, then her voice became more serious. “ I *told* you to take a break! I know it’s your free time so you don’t have to do too much work now. Jeez, just take a break, and read or something!””
“Yeah, I know, but still…” He stopped Botan’s fist which came rushing in again. “Whoa! Actually, father asked me to run little errands for him.” He smiled wryly. “ I was too kind to refuse. Anyway, I’m giving a message to Aoshi—his counselor, you know, jolly man with white hair. And besides, I don’t wanna read my eyes out in my free time!” There was a whiny edge to his voice that she couldn’t miss.
“Spit it out, your majesty, “ she sighed,rolling her eyes and feigning annoyance. Actually, she was pleased at what she knew he’d say.
“Well, since you ask so nicely…” He paused, then asked, Would you come to Ningenkai with me and do something—anything? It’s pretty boring to read history all day, you know.”
“Hey, it’s educational for you, and very useful, like your father said,” she chided. She rather liked the gruff, overlarge king of the dead, though he *had* spanked Koenma a couple of times, and felt the need to justify the unreasonably heavy work he *sometimes* gave his son. “Okay,” she agreed, “ but on my break before sunset. I still have a lot of work to do now.” Brightening, she continued, “Hey, we could watch the flower festival in Yuusuke’s school.”
He frowned. “Yuusuke’s school? How did you know?” And how come she seemed so close to him that she would know such trivial matters?
“Oh,” she shrugged. “Keiko mentioned it to me after she bopped Yuusuke on the head last week. She also said to bring a friend, so I guess you count.”
“Oh, really?” he said with obvious sarcasm, but feeling a small twinge of relief. “We can go there if you want…so meet me at the gate when you get off?”
She nodded. “Sure. Well, gotta go!” She started to walk back to the main halls.
“Thanks,” he said. “Ja ne! Don’t let me wait too long!”
“Hai. Of course I won’t!” she said, sounding both indignant and defensive. It was obvious he remembered how late she was the last meeting with the former Tantei. “ Ja ne, Koenma-sama!” she called as she disappeared.
Remembering his father’s note, he quickly opened it and scanned the contents. The smile in his hazel-gild eyes when Botan left wavered, to be replaced with a hint of unease.
My
son:
Go
to my quarters immediately. Some visitors came and they want to meet you. Dress
up and pay attention to the hair. MIND WHAT I SAY, BOY.
Enma
Always neat, he put the paper in his pocket and proceeded to do as his father ordered. He scowled, a little suspicious about these “visitors.”.