The Trials of Reikai
by ARaZhi

Chapter 2

Koenma lay on his bed, several hours later. He stare idly at the ceiling and stretched. <Good thing Botan talked me out of getting a smaller bed.>

He took out his Fuumakan from his pocket. It was mainly the reason why he remains in his baby form. A teenager with a pacifier would look strange. A 700 year old baby won't. <Maybe I ought to change the Fuumakan to something else.> He bit his lip, deep in thought.

He sighed. <I really should get some sleep now.>

He closed his eyes and forced himself to sleep.

~~~

Two weeks later...

It was already late. The halls outside Koenma's office are dead silent. Inside the office, Koenma is engrossed with twice the workload he once had. With his father gone, he ended up doing his work *and* his father's. Not that his father did much work to begin with.

"Hi, Koenma-sama!" Botan smiled at him.

"Botan!" he nearly jumped when he heard her voice. "What are you doing here? And how many times do I have to tell you to drop the '-sama'?"

"Oh, err, gomen!" ^_^

"What's that you're holding?"

"A video. Kuwabara-kun let me borrow it. I want to watch it."

"So, go and watch it."

"You're the only one with a video player. I'm gonna watch it here."

"What?! I'm working here!"

"You're *always working* here. You *need* a break and *you're* going to watching this movie with me!"

"No, I d---"

He cut himself off as Botan pushed his chair to one side. She grabbed a chair of her own and inserted the video to the player.

He sighed, "You win. What's that film?"

"The Titanic."

"The what?! You want me to watch a documentary about some old ship!?"

"Kuwabara-kun said it's good."

He sighed, again, "Kuwabara. Right."

Some two hours later...

Sometime ago, weariness caught up with him and he nearly fell asleep. But the actors on the screen began screaming and Botan clutched his arm so tightly it hurt that his trip to dreamland ended before it even started.

Now, she's crying. Botan sniffled. She never cried when she ferried all those souls but a movie of a sinking ship made her cry. He smiled, a bit amused. <Just when I thought I had her figured out, here she is doing the unexpected again.>

"Botan, it's only a movie," he said, calmly and comfortingly.

Botan blinked and tore her gaze away from the frozen form of Jack. "Do you think anyone will ever love me that much?" she asked him softly.

He looked at her, surprised with her question. "That's a dumb question," he blurted out.

Her eyes began to tear again and she tore her gaze away from his, "Because it'll never happen," she whispered tightly.

"No. Because," he tilted her face up to his, "a guy would be crazy not to love you that much."

Silence.

Only the sounds from the video could be heard.

"You really think so?"

"Yeah. Now, stop crying, onegai?"

Botan smiled and turned back to the movie.

Koenma smiled, <This whole disaster did have a good part after all.>

 

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