So far so good, Kenshin had managed to stay awake throughout the entire Maths lesson with a lot of help from Shuuichi. His left arm was all black and blue from the pinches Shuuichi bestowed upon him to 'keep him alive' as Shuuichi put it. Another 3 minutes to go... good, nothing about homework yet...
"Write down your name and class and hand in your homework." Dang! Scribbling sounds could be heard throughout the class followed by that of paper being passed around.
"I have no class."
"I know that, Minamino Kenshin. Oh yes, since you're my favourite student, I'd like you to hand in your work personally to me..."
Kenshin gulped. "Hai, sensei..."
"In the first place, have you finished your work?"
Kenshin hiccuped. "No sensei."
"Why? "
"My kyoudai refused to lend me his work," Kenshin replied. Shuuichi grinned and made a victory sign while the rest of the class stared with their mouths agape at Kenshin's frank honesty.
"I like your style, man!" A fellow classmate yelled out.
"Hiei, since you like him so much you can join him for detention after school." Hiei spluttered. His partner, Kuwabara Kazuma sniggled.
"Kuwabara, would you like to join them too?"
Kuwabara hastily snuffed out his sniggles. "Uhm. No."
"Good. I thought so."
"By the way, you do not need to bring your books tomorrow as we'll be going to the national museum. The dress code is anything casual. Nothing too skimpy, mind you." Their teacher said just before she went out of the class. There was a whispered 'YESSS!' from the back of the class which overrode the buzzing from the rest of the class as the excited pupils started discussing what they were to wear and what they were going to bring as they proceeded to their next lesson.
Kenshin buried his face in his hands. "I'm finished."
"It's just detention. That's not so bad!" Shuuichi tried to cheer him up.
"NOT SO BAD!!! Hiei practically shrieked. "Detention
means sitting around wasting time doing MATHS, when we could have been
doing something a little more fun. I'll die before the day is over!"
Kuwabara's subsequent laughter almost broke all
the windows in the class.
"Hey, Kenshin! Why did you tie up your hair today?" Kuwabara managed to stop laughing long enough to pop in a question.
"It's a samurai ponytail, do you like it?" Kenshin asked eagerly.
"We're having Chemistry practical now," Shuuichi ignored Kenshin.
"So? What's that got to do with his hair being tied up?" Kuwabara still didn't quite see the relationship between a Chemistry practical lesson and Kenshin's hair being tied up.
"Do you remember what happened the last time we had Chemistry practical?" Shuuichi asked.
"Kenshin's hair got in the way of the bunsen burner..." Hiei replied.
"Oh yah! Now! I remember! Bwahahahahahaha!!! Good thing Shuuichi was around to save your hair." Kuwabara blurted out in his loud voice.
"Dumping a beaker of chemicals over my head is NOT a good thing. Gave me rashes for the entire weekend! One wonderful weekend of fun burnt!" Kenshin groused.
"It was the only liquid at hand..." Shuuichi stated. "I acted out of pure instinct."
"What if that had been a beaker of highly corrosive acid? And pure instinct told you to dump it over my head?"
"I'd praise the heavens for having gotten rid of a pesky twin." Shuuichi answered without hesitation, then ducked behind Hiei to avoid being swatted to death by Kenshin.
"Shuuichi, you're lucky you have an able partner like Kenshin."
"Very able indeed." Shuuichi agreed.
"Kuwabara almost blew up the lab when he... Fortunately, I had quick reflexes and escaped unscathed." Hiei drawled.
"I didn't know the gas tap was still on! Anyway, it wasn't your quick reflexes that saved you but my hyper-sensitive nose. Your quick reflexes were about to strike the match when I, ai no seishi, otoko Kuwabara Kazuma..."
"Not again!" Hiei groaned.
"...smelt the gas just in the nick of time and stopped Hiei from striking that fatal match...the match that would have doomed us all..." Kuwabara continued.
"Hey! The 4 of you! What are you still doing outside?! Get in here on the double!"
"...Koenma-sama..." Koenma looked up to see a teary-eyed Botan with tear-tracks running down her face. She sniffed.
"What's wrong, Botan?"
"I was too late, Koenma-sama... just as I reached him, Yuusuke vanished." With that, Botan flung herself into the teenage Koenma's arms and renewed her sobbing. She tugged at his red cape, twisting it in her agony and almost strangling the young prince to death in the process.
"Bo...ta...n...I-I...ca...n...not...bre..at..he..." Koenma managed to wheeze out. It took Botan quite some time before she finally realised that she was cutting off Koenma's oxygen supply and hurriedly released him. Not before George, who happened to be around then, witnessed the various shades of purple that manifested in his boss's face for the first time in his life. He found it absolutely astounding to see so many differing shades of purple...all in the blink of an eye... fascinating...
"GEORGE!!!!" Koenma's irate voice finally brought George out of his studious observation.
"Yes, Koenma-sama?"
"What are you still doing here? Didn't I set you a task?"
"Yes Koenma-sama, I'll get your bottle of milk right away!" George promised before scurrying off.
Koenma then turned to Botan. "Follow me. I have something to show you." Her curiosity piqued, Botan dried her tears and followed Koenma into his office.
"That stupid baby! Leaving me with all his dirty work!" STAMP! STAMP! STAMP! "Answer nature's call indeed! A 700 year old Reikai baby! Why doesn't he just wear some diapers?!" STAMP! STAMP! STAMP!
"Ahem." Koenma did not look happy. "Does a human-demon hybrid need to use the lavatory occasionally?" The cursing and swearing stopped at once.
Botan's eyes widened. "Yu-YUUSUKE!!!" She shrieked and threw herself at him. Koenma was glad that he wasn't the current object of Botan's 'strangulation'. "You're not dead!" Botan started crying all over again. "But how?"
"I'm not too sure myself. I was waiting outside the gates of Meiou High for Kurama. Finally, I spotted him...he looked a little shorter than usual though, his ki felt different too. Then again, Hiei's was different too. I attributed it to your so-called timeline changes. I went over and tapped him on the shoulder...and...my hand went right through him! He turned around and stared at me, it wasn't Kurama's eyes, it was the eyes of the youko, golden, blazing with cold fire...and I felt like my entire being was being shredded asunder. I remember seeing Kurama again, this time he had green eyes, he waved at the golden-eyed Kurama-look-a-like... and the golden eyes changed... turned violet... The next thing I knew, Koenma dumped this entire stack of paper on me and told me to help to stamp them while he went to answer some lousy nature's call."
"Be thankful, ungrateful one, I saved your soul. You were being wiped out of existence by the newly created timeline."
"WHAT?!"
"I did say that the device would only work for a few days."
"You mean I'm dead again!"
"You could say that. That would be an appropriate way of stating your current situation. Don't worry, this time no one will mourn your passing, they won't even know you exist."
"WHAT?!"
Koenma started rummaging about the stacks of paper on his desk. "Where is it? Where is it?" He muttered.
"Koenma! What am I-"
"Once we send that Himura Kenshin back to his timeline, all reality as you know it will be restored. And if it doesn't, then it's all your fault in the first place, you failed to locate him in time. Besides, I don't mind having an extra helper around...now where's that stack of paper?"
"Is it the stack with bold print that's marked 'IMPORTANT'?" Yuusuke asked.
"Yes! That's the one! Where is it?"
"George just took it out," Botan informed them.
"I finished stamping those already." Yuusuke announced.
"YOU WHAT?!!! You mean they've been processed???!!!" Koenma screeched.
"You told me to stamp on them..."
"I what?! I'm going to be spanked to death! Do you have any idea what you just did?" Yuusuke shook his head, still extremely puzzled over Koenma's highly emotional outburst.
"You just approved the reincarnation of souls that were not supposed to be reincarnated!"
"Is that good or bad?" Yuusuke asked tentatively. Koenma looked on the point of fainting.
"Bad." Botan decided.
End of Part 6
First thing to note, if there's anything confusing about the story so far, the characters are acting way out of character, the characters are in the wrong school etc., blame it all on the timeline changes. You can email me and ask me more about this.
Second, if you haven't already guessed, Kenshin's trying to be funny when he said, "I have no class." The teacher meant another kind of 'class' when she said, "I know."
Third, if you're wondering why the Maths teacher is the one who brings them out on excursions, it's because she's their form teacher as well.
Fourth, I'm not sure if a 700 year old Reikai baby needs oxygen to breathe [I'm not even sure if he breathes in the first place.], I just assuming he does.
Finally, the bunsen burner and the beaker of chemicals incident was a made-up one, however, the gas-tap incident...let's just say my partner got careless, and it was a good thing I had a hyper-sensitive nose.
As for what repercussions Yuusuke's mistake will have in the Ningenkai, you'll find out soon enough.