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Part 1
At Last
by NaFiZa
mianker@tm.net.my


Years passed. And he was still the same. The same old Koenma-sama.

"George! Get all those papers here! Don't be such a slow oni!"

"Hey! This form is unfilled by one space! How did I damn forget about it.."

"Another stack of souls forms???!!! I thought Botan had finished them all!! George! Call Botan right now!!"

Botan stared at Koenma and shook her head, a smile on her lips.

::Poor Koenma-sama! Since Enma-sama had been fired from his job, he has been so busy lately with all that paperwork!::

"Botan-san!!"

The loud shout shook Botan out from her thoughts. She looked around frantically, apparently looking for the person who called her just now. George waved to her and Botan stopped. It seemed that Goerge had been standing right in front of Botan the whole time. A trickle of sweatdrop could be seen at the back of both George and Botan's head....

"Hai!! Hai!! How are you? What is it?? George-chan??"

George sweatdropped some more regarding the suffix "chan".

"Ara...Botan-san... I've been calling for the last 5 minutes... but that's okay.... Koenma-sama summoned for you... you better prepare yourself for something because he's kinda moody today..." George warned.

"He's *always* moody, George." Botan said as she nervously looked at the door of Koenma's office. Apparently she had been standing there for a long time. Taking a deep breath, with the most professional style, she knocked on the door, fast, and with her softest, gentlest, and tiniest voice, she called out loudly for the noise outside the room was unbearable. "Koenma-sama!! It's me, Botan, here!!! May I come in???!!"

Koenma looked up from his work and scowled. "There's no use in you shouting, Botan! Come in!!" he said and continued stamping on the papers while waiting for Botan's presence, for she was well-known for her slowiness. "And hurry." he added up.

Quickly, Botan stepped into the room and zoomed to the front of Koenma's desk. "What is the matter, Koenma-sama??" she asked him. Koenma handed her a pile of papers and scolded her. Botan waited anxiously for the scolding to stop and when it finally had, she quickly apologized and marched back to the door.

"Hmm... Botan!!"

Botan turned her head to take look at the baby. "Hai, Koenma-sama??"

The junior pointed his finger at a pile of papers on the table. "Help me with this paper. I'll raise your income fund 3 times more in exchange. Deal?"

The ferrygirl turned her body fully facing her boss. She pretended to think very carefully. At last, she made her decision. "All right... but only if you say... 'Botan, onegai shimasu... help me with this paper... kudasai...' " she said with full intonation.

Koenma sweatdropped. He faltered, pondering on whether to do it or not. Even a baby has an ego, you know, especially this young prince.

At last he gave up when his tired brain won over his egotistic heart. With a sigh, he said, "Okay... okay... Botan... onegai shimasu... help me with this paper... kudasai..."

Botan shook her head, unsatisfied. "Koenma-sama, you didn't say it with much into..." she stopped in the middle, realizing Koenma was staring at her with much fury. "...but that's okay... hehe... shall we do our work now, Koenma-sama?" she continued nervously.

The young prince (not exactly young now, is he?) let out a breath of relief and instructed Botan on what she should do. Botan nodded understandingly with a laugh. "Ahh! Such an easy job! Even a baby can do this!"

Koenma glared at his bubblebrained officer. "With as much dedication, perhaps?" he said furiously.

Botan realized she had annoyed somebody and quickly nodded. "Hai! Hai! Hee.."

So the work began. Botan took the papers one by one and stamped it after examining it for one second, while Koenma sat in front of her, looking at the papers she'd been doing. Noticing, Botan looked up from her work and frowned disapprovingly at Koenma. "Koenma-sama, please don't watch me like that. I don't like it. Besides, what's the use for me to do this if you can't rest even when you're not working! Now, go and take a rest over there. You'll need it for your work later."

Still suprised by Botan's scolding, Koenma walked to the sofa, climbed up and sat there. He shook his head and smiled a bit, touched by his officer's concern. Botan smiled and nodded her head, satisfied. "That's a good boy." she said, laughing.

What suprised Koenma most he was not the least bit irritated by Botan's words.

A knock came to the door. Botan steadily asked the person to come in, faking Koenma's voice. An oni came in, bringing something on a trolley which he put it on the desk, in front of Koenma. The oni laughed at Botan and said, "I almost thought you were Koenma-sama with a feminine voice! Hehhe... you really look like the queen of Reikai sitting there."

The remark made both Koenma and Botan blush. Botan made the first move to chase the oni away. "What???!! You..." she shouted, furiously throwing a bottle of ink at the oni. The oni's laughter stopped as he ducked to avoid the bottle. The bottle hit the door and broke into thousands of pieces, while ink poured out from it like blood, staining the floor.

The oni looked at the remains of the bottle and turned back at Botan. "Botan!!! Are you crazy?? You could have killed me once again!! You know that??" the oni screamed at the top of his lungs that sounded so familiar that Koenma turned his attention from the scattered pieces of the bottleand the stain on the floor. He had been looking at it with a despairing look on his face mumbling, "Oh, my favorite inkbottle.." ...yadda, yadda...

"I...I...I thought... the inkbottle was made of plastic... it's supposed to be... perhaps Koenma-sama changed it..." Botan said defensively.

"Hey, why does that voice sound so familiar..." Koenma mumbled to himself (not to himself exactly, for it was loud enough for the oni and Botan to hear).

The oni and Botan sweatdropped nervously.

Then a figure came to Koenma's mind. "Yuusuke???!!!" he almost shrieked.

"Ahhh... perhaps I should go... ja matta!" the oni said, preparing to run on his feet.(if not on his feet, than what else?) But Botan pulled his collar just in time."This time we have to explain everything, Yuusuke."

Koenma was dumbfounded. Really dumbfounded. ::What is going on?? Why is Yuusuke disguising himself as an oni here? Does he and Botan have some deep relationship so they could never bear to apart from each other? Is that why Yuusuke decided to work here? He broke up with Keiko? Then Botan...::

Despite his blind and crazy thoughts, his appearance was the exact opposite. He just stood there, still looking like a debt collector, demanding for the debt to be paid.

Botan thrummed her fingers nervously and said, "Well, it's like this... Keiko's birthday is coming up and Yuusuke is just trying to be romantic..."

Yuusuke pulled off his mask quickly and shot Botan a sharp look."What are.."

"So he really wanted to buy this beautiful ring he found in a jewelry shop. I have taken a look at it already, and wow... it's really beautiful with those sapphires decorated on it..." Botan cut in.

Yuusuke frowned. "Yeah right, romantic."

A knock came to the door. Koenma asked the person outside to come in.

An oni came in. "Koenma, this is your paperwork... eh, Yuusuke????!!" the oni blurted out. Koenma and Yuusuke looked at Botan. "You let Kuwabara work here too???" they said simultaneosly.

In Botan's mind:

Current situation: Three guys staring at me with a puzzled look. Looks very bad. Thank you.

Back to reality.

Botan let out a *very* heavy sigh. "Okay, okay, let me explain. First about Keiko's birthday surprise. Yuusuke wants to buy a very beautiful ring for his gift to Keiko. Meanwhile, Kuwabara and Shizuru-san want to give a birthday gift to Yukina too, for her D.O.B is unknown to anyone, except for Hi... I mean, her brother, so Shizuru-san decided that it should be held the same date as Keiko's birthday. Then Kuwabara wants to buy a beautiful crystal from an expensive crystal archive for Yukina. Okay, we all know Yukina can produce her own teargem, but who would want to make her cry, right? Anyway, Yuusuke and Kuwabara, of course, can't afford the gifts they want to give Keiko and Yukina."

Kuwabara and Yuusuke glared at Botan.

"So one morning, both Yuusuke and Kuwabara came to meet me and asked for my suggestion. Well, I knew their only reason for coming was only to borrow my money but my salary was not enough, due to Koenma-sama's stinginess when I begged and pleaded to him to raise my salary but he still refused to raise it."

Koenma gritted his teeth.

"So I suggested that they should find an extra work, for Yuusuke, his ramen and youkai investigator business has been decreasing a lot recently, and for Kuwabara, his fortune telling booth at the end of the road doesn't earn much either, for he had a competitor, that is, me."

Kuwabara raised his eyebrows.

"But, as everyone knows, they can do nothing except fight with youkai, and cook delicous ramen (for Yuusuke) and meditate (for Kuwabara). So they went back home with despair. Then an idea came to my mind. Perhaps they can disguise as oni here and work in Reikai. They would've never gotten through Koenma-sama's interview, so I thought I should let them work here secretly. When I told them about this seperately, they asked me to keep this secret from everybody, including each other. And that went on until now when suddenly Yuusuke made me so angry and furious that I threw him a bottle of ink that could've almost killed him for the third time and Koenma-sama recognized his loud and ear-biting voice and Kuwabara suddenly came in looking stupid and made the situation more complicated. *gasping for breath*. Hm, did I make it clear, my employer, Koenma-s..,"

"Yes!" the three guys replied in unison. They all looked at each other and then looked away again.

Botan was out of words.

"Em... how did you all recognize me?" Kuwabara asked during the sudden silence. The others gave him the look of you-know-why, expecting Kuwabara to understand for himself, but surely, he didn't. Kuwabara looked annoyed. "Why are you all looking at me like that? I asked how did you recognize.."

"Because of your loud and ear-biting vo..ice.." Yuusuke suddenly slowed down after a loud shout. Koenma and Botan started to laugh but Koenma was able to get himself under control first. He rolled his eyes.

"Whatever it is, someone has to clean the mess *someone* made over there because my room cleaner has gone for holiday..."

Everybody except the grinning Koenma groaned.

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