When Death Calls
"Hai, Koenma-sama. I'll get Yuusuke and the rest and-" Botan looked up for a moment, her expression one of intense concentration. Then, she smiled at the diminutive administrator of the Reikai, and said, "Koenma-sama, I'm sorry. You'll have to send someone else to do this errand- I think that I've been neglecting my work for too long."
It had been a long time since she'd been called for a job, as she had managed to shunt off most of her duties as she helped out the Detectives and Koenma. However, for this... Koenma gave her a stern look from behind the large desk, and nodded. "Botan, I understand. After all, your job comes first before all else. I'll just send George to get them." He started to page his harried aide, and motioned for her to go.
Botan turned and left the office, her feet guiding her automatically toward her duty. Calling up her oar, she flew up into the sky, leaving the bureaucratic office behind her. She concentrated for a moment, and the homed in on where the call was coming from. Almost unnoticed, a book appeared in her hand.
The slim book almost looked too thin, too light to be the Book of the Dead. However, it truly held within it all the transgressions and good deeds that a person had done within their lifetime- it was a record of every fact, every decision that had had any impact on a person at all... it was the only thing that Botan could use to try to know the person she came for, before she had to ferry them across to the other side.
"Izumi Takuto... 18 years old. He was run over by a car, and is now paralyzed..." As she read, Botan realized why the call had felt so strange. Izumi was not dead yet, but in all probability would be soon enough, for one reason or another. But the book couldn't decide how it would happen. The probabilities were too disparate for a firm idea, and she was there to witness before being called for her real duty.
"I suppose I should get to the hospital now-" Somehow, it was saddening to have to take this one. Botan knew that she would escort everyone across sooner or later, but this young man seemed to have been through so much... She shook her head a little, smiling an old, sad smile. "I don't decide- I only guide. But it really is too bad..."
As she floated above the hospital, Botan remembered how obnoxious Yuusuke had been when she had been here last. As he had made sure the little boy he had pushed out of the way was all right, his uncaring attitude had faded away for a moment, showing a side that even the Buddha had not thought he had had... Botan smiled as she remembered how shocked he had been...
"No, it's not time to remember that- not when I should be doing something no one is going to be smiling about." Moving closer to the hospital, Botan closed her eyes and then let herself be drawn toward the suffering young man in the hospital room. She drifted into the room, and shook her head sadly as she saw the broken body, surrounded by tubes and the desperate attempts of modern society to try to preserve its almost dead...
"Do people really think that it will work?" She said it wistfully, as if wishing that it would... but. Botan stiffened, and her face turned mask like, remote. Buts, howevers, maybes- there were never any of those for her. Yuusuke was the only exception she had ever made. No more, no less. She was Death incarnate, no matter how she may seem to others.
Botan sighed, feeling the depression that she usually could ignore. After the number of years that she'd put into this job, sometimes it just wasn't easy. The silly bubble headed personality was fun, but she knew that if she had to... Botan shook her head, and let herself drift into the hospital room.
The feeling of dark heaviness- it was her constant companion in all the places she was pulled to. Her guidance was sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse to most that she visited, but she, and they always knew that it was time. It was written in the book, in the tension that she could feel between her powers and the soul that needed to leave its housing...
But. This nagging feeling again- of something wrong, strange. He was dying- there was no doubt of that. The odd thing was that she couldn't feel the usual tension of a soul's imminent release... as if there was something even stronger overriding death itself... She peered into the darkened room, wondering at the strength of that thing holding him here.
She saw another young man at the bed, apparently in shock. "Nanjou Kouji..." Just the name brought back all that the book had said of him, and of their rather turbulent relationship... Botan couldn't help but shake her head, feeling very old. She'd seen it before- well, perhaps not quite this extreme, but the same obsession-need...
"It's sad, really. Most of those kinds..." Botan looked at the devastated man at Izumi's side, and her eyes got infinitely sadder. "They wish to own too much... he especially, from what I read. It won't work- it never does. There is no balance..." Botan started as she felt the pull. Was it now, that her duty was to begin?
She saw Kouji stand, and sobbing, go over to the side of the bed. As she watched, she could almost feel the life pouring out of Izumi. Just fading away... It seemed almost a mockery of all that she had read from the book, but she could not deny it. "So..." She moved closer to Izumi, knowing that no interference meant none at all, and feeling almost like a buzzard, waited for him to die.
Except. Kouji collapsed at where Izumi's stricken body lay, and did not move from the spot. Only a whisper came up from where his head lay, but that whisper could rend a stone-cold heart in its pain and longing... and Izumi, who had been giving up, suddenly raged. The stiff, unmoving body disguised a surge of spirit that overrode all the power that had pulled Botan here. For a moment, he seemed vital, so alive- wanting to be with, to comfort, to love...
"Not so similar..." Botan felt it now, the dynamic balance between the two that made them so inter-dependent on each other. It was an exchange of power as well as the nebulous feelings, and she shook her head in amazement as she felt an intense transfer of force, a giving up of life that Kouji had just facilitated for Izumi...
"I see." Botan knew why the book was in such a flux. The duo was too heavily connected. Even Kouji, who had seemed to be the typical obsessor/conqueror had shown the conquered part of his own soul for the sake of his love. And now, for now, there was no need for her to be here.
Botan moved away, the pull having disappeared. "No death here, today..." A small smile was on her face- she hadn't felt this guilty about taking a life since Genkai... With a shake of her head, the oar started to float as she went back to her duties at the Reikai, leaving the two silent, pained lovers behind.
But as she left, Botan knew that she would be back- it was only a matter of time. But now, she could only wonder when the other would follow- because it was when, not if. No way for the two to be separate in this last state... perhaps when she came for Izumi, she should wait for Kouji. In her domain, at least, they would not be apart...
---Finis---