Genkai

Sapphire Roses

Botan couldn't help but give him a pout when he mentioned how amusing it was to imagine her having an issue with being set up in a seedy location. "Hey, I'm not worried about myself." She insisted. "I just can't intervene where I would feel morally obligated to...it's complicated and gross and not a place for a young lady such as myself." She whined softly though she knew he was just pulling her leg a little. "Lord Koenma is being so stingy, after all the years I put in working for him." Part of her was a little insulted that her boss could be so flippant about her accommodations but she knew arguing with him was an impossible battle. So Botan was sure her fox in shining armor would be willing to rescue her.

When he lowered his small fist and smiled at her, she brightened up.

"Of course, of course!" Botan nodded. She had met Kurama's mother once when working with Yusuke on his first case but it hadn't been a formal meeting, by any means. Kurama's mother had been in the hospital and Botan had only watched the sick woman from afar while events on the rooftop played out through the means of the Forlorn Hope as both Yusuke and Kurama tried to offer their lives in exchange for something far more important in their minds. Yusuke had been foolish and impulsive, despite his good intentions. But so had Kurama. In the end, his mother got better and both boys walked away from the clash surprisingly unharmed. Looking back, Botan knew if they had fought, Yusuke would not have been so fortunate. She knew luck had often been on his side, from his fight with Rando, to his fight with Chu in the Dark Tournament.

Evidently, though Kurama didn't need luck to win. He had both skill and intellect to earn his victories and she had to commend him for that. She almost wished he would show Yusuke the merits of studying and applying one's self. When she was finished, the pair got up and continued towards Kurama's home. While they walked, they discussed a history for her to stick to which was easier said than done. She would do her best to remember the basics. The last thing her case needed was to be compromised by people getting suspicious and compromising her research. She decided she would be from Nagano and that her parents were getting a divorce and she was being sent to live with a her father but due to the stress, she wanted to live with a friend until things cooled down, which was where Kurama would come in.

They soon arrived at his home and entered. Botan surveyed the entry and slipped off her shoes as Kurama's mother came to greet him, unaware he had someone with him. Botan kept her wide smile, it was quite sincere but then again, Botan was often happier than most humans in Tokyo it seemed, despite her grim profession. She gave a bow to Shiori as Kurama quickly tried to give a brief introduction as to who Botan was. When the woman complimented Botan, she gave a wave of her hand. "Oh, you're too kind!" She blushed a little, not minding the compliment at all. At Kurama's embarrassment, Botan felt almost privileged to see him in such a state. Not long ago, he had been in a heated battle with Karasu and now he was trying to contend with his mother. If only the others could see him now! "It's really a pleasure to meet the woman who raised such a fine, upstanding gentleman." She rested a hand on Kurama's shoulder briefly.

"Please come in and sit down, make yourself at home, Botan." Shiori gestured for them to move into the sitting room across from the kitchen. The three of them sat around the kotatsu with Botan sitting across from Kurama. "Now...what is it you'd like to ask me?"

Botan glanced to Kurama and then to the woman on her right. "I know this is an imposition...but...I was hoping I could stay here for a while." She chewed on her lip, deciding to go with a more uncertain demeanor for her next move. "My parents are...going through a divorce and it's becoming too much for me...I was transferred to Meioh last week and when Shuichi saw me crying after my first day, he offered a shoulder to cry on and then suggested I talk to my father over the weekend about finding a friend's house to stay. The only person who I could think of is your son...and I'd really appreciate being able to come home to a quiet house, one that isn't filled with shouting over the phone." She said quietly and gave a shaky sigh before collecting herself. "I would help out of course, I'd clean and cook and you'd never have to lift a finger!"

By this point, Shiori was already planning what breakfast she would make for the poor girl in the morning.

Leaning over, she placed an arm around Botan and brought her close. "I am so sorry, my dear. You are welcome to stay as long as you need." The woman was close to tears herself and trusted Shuichi's judgement and could already tell the young girl was sweet and honest, much like her own son. Even though she wanted to ask a few more questions, she knew they had time for that later in the evening. "Shuichi, you should go with her to get her things from her father's, by then dinner should be ready." Shiori smiled to them and got to her feet. Botan rose as well and gave a look to Kurama as Shiori excused herself to return to the kitchen to make a meal fit for an emperor. Botan headed for the door and when Kurama joined her, they put their shoes back on and headed outside. Botan hoped she hadn't gone overboard with the story but thankfully, Shiori had taken the bait.

Like Kurama, she wasn't fond of lying but it had to be done.

And she hadn't meant to put him into a compromising position.

It was too late now though.

"We can pick up my stuff and then head to the school, I think it would be best to go there now, while it's still vacant. It'll allow me to take some readings and run some other tests before school starts up tomorrow." Botan told Kurama as they headed down the sidewalk. They retrieved her things from the storage locker and continued back toward the school. "I've been given several devices to detect various things, I'll need to see where both Anabe and Meiko killed themselves and if you can tell me if they broke any habits in the days leading up to their passing, that would be a big help." The woman was now back to being focused on the work ahead of her and the many reports she'd send to Lord Koenma. "I never thanked you." It dawned on her that she just inserted herself into Kurama's life and he was being so nice about it. She was used to bossing Yusuke around because it was her job but she hoped she didn't step on Kurama's toes.

As they reached the iron gate and let themselves in, she glanced to the red haired boy and smiled. "You don't have to help me but I do understand you wanting to get to the bottom of this and wanting to protect your school. Thank you, either way." She then continued to cross the large courtyard to the entrance of the large private school. "Yusuke was never the most competent when it came to investigating, it'll be great to have someone like you helping for a change!" Her tone changed briefly as they let themselves in and glanced around the school. It was often left open for students to come and go as needed but with the Monday being canceled, it seemed pretty uninhabited, which was just the way the grim reaper preferred it. In her large duffle bag, she had a few devices she needed to use but for now, she was following Kurama's lead to where Anabe had been tragically found.

Sapphire Roses

After training with Kurama, it's hard to shift and change your reaction. Blame Kurama! XP

The thing is, the people wouldn't believe her. Not one bit. So be thankful for that, Kurama.

Yeah wedding talk SHOULD come before kid talk. XD Shit, on Botan's wedding day, everyone is gonna be a wreck. I think her bachelorette party would be wild. I think Juri and Koto would come and finally admit Botan is a lucky gal. I'm also sure her reaper pals would come as well and it would be insane and no one would ever speak of its events. I wonder where they would honeymoon? Spirit World probably but Botan does love the human world so maybe they'd go to Hawaii...and fuck on the beach of course.

Oh wait this isn't PMs? XD I mean sightsee...lots of sightseeing.

EDIT - I'm sorry about the size, it's probably too much. I know we wanted to scale back but...it's hard. >___>

Sapphire Roses

I don't see her earning anything over B Rank, at least not for a while. Maybe when she's older she can go train with Genkai in the Spirit World. Imagine if a demon or some kid at school messed with them? She'd probably break their wrist but then remember that's not polite and then later, Yoko would haunt them. XD Though Botan would feel pretty privileged to know he puts her on the same level as his mother. Suck it haters.

I see her as the cuddly drunk who likes to dance but if someone does press her for info, you bet she's gonna blab so if Kurama doesn't want everyone knowing he's a scary demon, he better find a way to shut her up or hide her away~

That would be super sad. But Koenma can't keep giving Botan special treatment if he's already letting her live in human world while still being a grim reaper. She's gonna have to make some excuses while she ferries people away, at least before she and Kurama come clean about themselves. But imagining heartbreaking ideas of Shiori dying and not being able to help Botan through the delivery is too sad to think about. We're on page one, man. XD We need happy happy~

Sapphire Roses

Poor Kuwabara. I know what surprised me was that Hiei was considered a rank lower than what he thought? I might need to go back and check but I think out of the four, Kurama and Yusuke were the strongest, with Hiei and I think Kuwabara. Blue roses are pretty. Or a blue, a silver and a red rose tied into her pony tail. She'd look pretty. Oh Botan is classy but any fuckers give her trouble, she'll make them sorry. Either personally or with some help from her boyfriend. <3

Btw, I'm almost done with my post.

Botan getting drunk at a teenage party, let's hope she leaves that out of her reports she sends back to Koenma. Unless he's watching? He does have that monitor in his office...O__O' But yeah, I consider Botan to be pretty old and being able to let loose with Kurama is like a new lease on life. I think it works both ways though, for both their benefit.

Oh don't break my heart. :/ Botan does know when Shiori is gonna die and maybe she'll tell Kurama and Shiori a month out? I think disclosing would probably be risky considering her job (I'm pretty sure that could get her fired) but I think she'd want to let them have as much time together as possible. I think when they have kids, they might be able to go to the Spirit World and show them to Shiori if she is dead but to my knowledge, his mother has always been in shaky health. Can't say that leaves a lot of room for making grandkids. ^^;

Sapphire Roses

A B Rank would be pushing it but that's probably her limit. I could see her struggling against an A and an S would be pretty unlikely, to say the least. But I'd say that puts her on par with Kuwabara? I think Genkai mentions the general rank of everyone in the group in a later episode during the Chapter Black Saga...I can see Botan bringing up training, or if Kurama does, she would agree and consider what she could do. I see her being more into healing than fighting but the tricks she learns would be pretty awesome, without a doubt. Botan might have to forever wear roses in her hair (Kurama's way of staking his claim in a classy way XD). But yeah, she's fucking hot, a grim reaper, can heal and is dating Yoko Kurama? Damn girl!

Kurama and Botan can go as a doctor/nurse combo. There's so much to play with. But hey, then you got the school parties with their games and drinking and all that jazz. I have a feeling they'll be flooded with questions throughout the first month they're together, and I think they have 'year round' schooling so they can have summer swim classes and everything else~

As long as Botan doesn't say "See you soon!" to Shiori when they're talking about her reaper duties. I'm sure Botan would quickly correct that she didn't mean she was dying anytime soon, so many misunderstandings. But I think it would make the bond between Shiori and Botan even greater that they both share the secret of knowing who Kurama really is. Plus it's good his mother and her get along since Botan seems pretty genuine and to let Kurama relax a little and enjoy life more. But yeah, we can have plenty of demon scum be stupid and sign their own death warrants.

Sapphire Roses

If she's left alone in Demon World even for five minutes and some punk comes up to her, she will probably try to hold her own until she does have to resort to name dropping. I think by that point, Botan would want to show her own prowess but would also be happy to say she's with Yoko Kurama. It might have more impact if she mentions it than if the scent is detected, but it could be a secondary thing that happens after the demon knows.

I'm certain some girls would want to suddenly cozy up to Botan if they think they can get closer to Shuichi and find out more about him. I swear if one of the girls shows up with her hair dyed, Botan is gonna be unable to hold back to laughter. Even if it happened on say, Halloween, she'd be too amused not to outright laugh in the poor poser's face. Kids these days. But guy talk won't be something Kurama indulges in, or at least I don't see him being able to do so with too much detail. He's a nice boy, high above any pervy gossip. Plus he knows how fast gossip spreads around school. Personal details would be foolish to leak.

A bounty hunter would be an interesting thing. I suppose with him appearing at the DT, people could be more interested in taking him on again. But it would be interesting if Shiori was involved in an attempt to get to Kurama, so he'd then have to tell her about himself? And then soon Botan would be picked as another target? Cue all the bloodshed. And then Botan gets to have 'you saved me' sex with Kurama. <3

Sapphire Roses

Yoko def still has some pull, he's legendary, even if he's kinda MIA, his reputation still precedes him, as evidence by the crowd's reaction at the Tournament.

I give them a week before Botan and Kurama come to the conclusion that they should just give into the gossip and try to make things better for themselves. If Kurama affirms they're in a relationship and to have everyone stop pestering Botan and him, it might help?

I think once people get bored and leave the club, it'll give Kurama room to help Botan hone some healing powers when it comes to channeling it through plants or something, as we talked about. Unless there's another greenhouse? I am sure it'll be easy to come up with some minor side cases to have them flirt and get close to one another. Of course we'll soon have to consider what the big case will be once the demon is dealt with. We need Botan to still stick around school after all. :3

Sapphire Roses

Botan will have her fiery side, that's for sure, I'm sure there will be merits Yoko can see in Botan, just like Botan will accept the human and demon aspect of Kurama. But that won't be too hard since she's not human and has been well exposed to demons and spirits in her long spanning lifetime. And as long as she can trust Yoko with her life (he was a notorious bandit after all) then I think they'll be good. <3

Botan secretly lives in Canada. Shhh. I just know the female population ain't gonna be happy some new girl (and who isn't as smart as the rest, let's face it) just suddenly getting so close to Kurama. There's gonna be lots of gossip spreading like wildfire. And of course all the guys are gonna see a sexy curvy beauty with an interesting hair color and remember they in fact have a functioning dick in their pants. XD

Yeah we can shave off a class. It'll be super romantic to have them around school when the sun sets and people are going home and Botan wants to get a little handsy...ahem. Romantic, yes. Quite. But I think we did mention that they could do something with a garden and it being at school works for me. I just hope everyone doesn't try to join if the hot couple is running it. I think minor cases works fine, like really low level demons just doing random shit like stealing items people own or something like that. And so as you said, she can get used to fighting. And I do like the idea of her sharing her reaper job with him. I'm sure it gets pretty emotionally draining even for someone as bubbly as her. And I think it would be sweet of Kurama to help comfort someone cause it shows Botan another side to him~

Sapphire Roses

Plus I think if you wanna be a professional author, the best place to practice would be with other people who can provide feedback, sometimes you gotta pay for feedback in the real world.

Ansgt may have been a poor word choice but Yoko is another person, strictly speaking. And I think we'd both agree Shuichi and Botan are the ones falling in love, whereas with Yoko, there still needs to be a connection too. I know we mentioned primal lust, but I am hoping once she does leave some badass skills, it will be easier balanced, in terms of Kurama's feelings for Botan. Does that make sense?

I hate when good people make bad teachers. It happens sadly. Some people are cool but can't really manage a classroom or an agenda of things to get done. Then again I feel bad people who are bad teachers, are even worse. Hopefully you having to drop a class didn't set you back too much, I'm 6 classes away from graduating, if I could drop this British Masterclass, I would. >___>

Shiroi is gonna be interested in Botan, that's for sure. Let's hope Botan can improv and keep her facts straight because I'm sure Koenma didn't really bother giving her a fleshed out identity or anything. I think I can have a post with Shiori doting on Kurama and Botan over tea and then I can hand it over to you if you want to ask anything (or you could save it for when they return for dinner?). Or should I nudge us toward school at the end of my post instead? Kurama was really popular at school mostly because he was at the top of all the rankings but he's also fucking gorgeous. I wish I could see the look on his face when he walks in with Botan tomorrow.

Oh btw, I'm kind of assuming the school day goes something like this so if you have another thought, let me know but considering a big portion will be in school, we probably need to be on the same page just for clarity's sake.

School day starts around 8 AM, you got to your homeroom class and have the announcements and then the teacher covers their subject for 90 minutes. Then the teacher changes to another for another 90 mins. Then there's a 15 min break, followed by another 90 min class, then an hour break for lunch where kids can go off campus if they like, most don't cause hey, we're nerds and we gotta study. Then another 2 90 min classes and school ends around 4=5? Maybe we could shave off one class? I assume then clubs/sports would run for another hour after school? I just recall their school days being lengthy but them getting more weeks off to make up for it? But again we'll probably only focus on certain subjects or stretches of time with skips everywhere else.

Thoughts?

Sapphire Roses

I just hope people who pigeonhole themselves are happy. I know the more doors you open for you writing, the easier it is the improve. I used to be an awful roleplayer but with practice, people get better. I wish there wasn't such a stigma about you playing your own gender. For some people, it sounds crazy or dishonest to play your opposing gender.

I only have 2-3 off-site stuff now which is probably for the best anyway, I'd rather ensure I have solid writers than some questionable ones. My time can't be wasted on dinky posts IMO.

Kurama and Botan could be the most 'normal' non angsty couple we've attempted so far. XD Every other pair had some sort of challenge or something to overcome, be it a taboo or a past event. I think where the angst could come from though, might be Yoko but at the same time, I'd like to consider him a sneaky asset.

Well I wanna make a reply now. But I don't even have one full sentence for my essay which is about a book I didn't read. Thankfully the topic doesn't force you to have read but...still I hate it either way and the teacher is one of those flakes who is vague about what they want from you. Oh and thanks for using a better color btw. And hey, the IC is already off to a good start. :3 I think it'll be a weight off our shoulders to narrow our focus to this and the occasional GoT lovefest. Hell, I probably will get you a post soon because I'm awful student. XP

And nice foreshadowing, with my reply, should I take control of Shiori and move us to Botan being shown her room? It might be a bit early for dinner...but Kurama and Botan could go back over to the school to look around when it's empty? Or did you want to wait on that? Though I assume they'll be doing a few recon/snooping missions around the school either way.