No subject

Kurama remembered who the pendant belonged to. He also figured out why
Tetsuma's eyes were so recognizable to him. 'Taka-kun doesn't only lack
words of his own; his eyes are also not his.'

Kurama silently grasped the ruby pendant as realization quickly set in.
"Is this my 'prize' for defeating you, Reikai Hunter Tetsuma Yoshitaka?"
His ghostly knuckles seemed to turn white as his ethereal grip on the
bejeweled necklace tightened. "It seems a bit much."

Kurama sighed. "So, after all this time, I finally got Kuronue's
precious pendant back."


________________________________________________________________________


Shonen
A Yuyu Hakusho fic
By Chester Casta=F1eda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/~abdiel=20
http://abdiel.florestica.com/
http://chester-fanfics.livejournal.com/

Once reborn, who will Kurama become? Shuichi Minamino? His old youko
self? Or the person halfway between the two?

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 18: Rebirth (Part 1)
________________________________________________________________________



No more words were necessary. With swift punches and skillful slashes
amidst mutual pain and agony, Kuwabara and Yusuke struck their
respective blows.

'It doesn't matter if it's Urameshi; I will CUT through anything and
anyone that stands in my way!' Kuwabara thought as he readied his Jigen
Tou.

The two combatants' war against each other was far beyond that of a
conflict of ideals; it was not merely for the sake of vengeance. What it
was in all its succinct simplicity was a contest of wills.=20

Utilizing his innate creativity during combat, Kuwabara combined his
Spirit Sword extending skill with his most powerful ability, the
Dimension Sword. He quickly elongated his diamond-shaped Jigen Tou to
about the length of a lamp post, quadrupling its already nigh-limitless
attack area.

Rousing his centuries-old mazoku genes from their dormant slumber,
Yusuke metamorphosed into his full demonic form. Ink-black markings
surrounded his body as his hair grew to about ankle-length. As
Kuwabara's area of attack continued to increase, so did Toushin
Yusuke's speed, dexterity, and incredible tolerance to pain.

Swinging his deadly weapon with reckless abandon, Kuwabara was able to
make incisions many miles long and many yards deep. His attacks seemed
more like fault lines from an earthquake than markings from a blade.
Though accuracy had to be sacrificed for the sake of range, the taller
teenager believed that it was a good tradeoff.

Again, it seemed that another stalemate between the two ghost fighters
was inevitable. Kuwabara's unstoppable blade was easily evaded by
Yusuke's superior nimbleness and agility. At that point, neither one of
the two could harm the other. However, as luck would have it, the boy
endowed with Extra Sensory Perception chanced upon correctly guessing
his opponent's next move through the use of his aforementioned talent.

Yusuke was cut cleanly in half, like a bloody apple. A shocked look
could be seen on the torn parts of the mazoku's face. Then, strangely
enough, he smirked.

In a move reminiscent of the immortal Toguro Ani, Toushin Yusuke
reunified his splintered body, the damaged cells of his muscles, skin
tissue, and bones instantaneously regenerating. Unfortunately, because
of the effort it took to heal himself, he had to revert to his half-
demon state.

'Good. Urameshi isn't 'demonized' anymore. Now's my chance to...'
Kuwabara's mouth went agape at what he subsequently saw.

And so they came: a thousand points of light.=20

'SHIT! That's one HELLUVA Rei-Kou-Dan!' Kuwabara mentally exclaimed as
he braced himself for impact. Reflexively reacting to the attack, he
rapidly swung his Jigen Tou in a circular fashion, the movement serving
as his shield against the torrent of spiritual and demonic energy.

Sparks flew as tidal wave upon tidal wave of pure power repeatedly
battered the carrot-topped adolescent. 'If this keeps up, I'll be done
for! Damn it, I've got to think of something.'

A golden glow started to spread all over Yusuke's body, immersing him in
deific glory. As soon as his overwhelming Rei-Kou-Dan Assault ended, he
immediately charged at Kuwabara with no hesitation or reluctance.

Kuwabara could only stare as his half-demon adversary ripped apart his
lance-like Dimension Sword in one move. He winced afterwards at the
intensity of the searing light force that surrounded Yusuke.

'This is Sensui's Sei Kou Ki!' Kuwabara realized. The Saint Light Ki was
neither reiki nor youki; it was a special kind of ki that was, in
theory, one of the greatest powers in all of the three worlds. Mere
possession of this angelic ability was enough to warrant an S-level
classification from the Spirit World. Very few people could master it;
Shinobu Sensui himself had to train for nearly ten years before he could
fully utilize the skill.

'You have got to be kidding me! Urameshi can do this technique? He ain't
human! Well... technically, he really ain't... but... AH, DAMN IT!'

The Saint Light Ki was strong enough to repel even the strongest of the
Reikai seals, which was basically what Koenma's pacifier was. It was
even powerful enough to keep the Kokuryuha, Hiei's greatest technique,
at bay; Kuwabara should know, since he himself witnessed the momentous
event with his own eyes.=20

'What the hell am I supposed to do now? I can't face Urameshi like this!
He just tore apart my Jigen Tou like it was made out of tissue paper!
I'm definitely out of my league! Forget it! I'm just wasting my time!'

Just as soon as Kuwabara realized what sort of troubled thoughts floated
in the dark pools of his mind, he felt shame. He looked at the shattered
fragments of his Dimension Sword in sheepish embarrassment, remembering
what Munashii had to go through in order to get him his special match
with Yusuke.

'Sei Kou Ki my ASS! I don't give a damn about how great, how strong, or
how powerful that shit is! Munashii gave me this once in a lifetime
chance to beat Urameshi up, and I ain't gonna waste it by bending down
and taking it like a two-bit whore! So taste my divine retribution,
Urameshi Yusuke!'

"REI-SHURIKEN!"

Sparks flew as piece upon broken piece of Kuwabara's Jigen Tou rained on
Yusuke like bomb shrapnel at point-blank range. The sudden assault would
have ripped the mazoku descendant apart had he not evoked his Saint
Light Ki. As it was, the surprise attack merely neutralized the half-
demon's impassioned offensive.

'Let's make things more interesting, shall we? JIGEN TOU NITOURYU!'
Almost immediately, the fragments of the Rei-Shuriken reformed and
coalesced into not one, but two Dimension Swords. Kuwabara charged at
Yusuke, ignoring the sharp, dagger-like pain of his knee and calf
injuries.

'Let's finish this, you son of a bitch! COME ON!!!'

The two approached each other with the speed of a howling typhoon,
heading for the point where life and death meet.


***


Kurama tightly clasped the bejeweled necklace in his vaporous hand,=20
seemingly afraid to let it go. The forest of bamboo trees, strangely
enough, had vanished the instant the half-youko retrieved his former
partner-in-crime's valuable treasure.

So there he was, "Shuichi Minamino's ghost", floating in the hinterland
of nothingness, a virtual purgatory of lost souls. 'Are you impressed
yet, Youko Kurama? Well, don't be. There's still more to come. It looks
like my 'death scene' will be quite the spectacular event.'

Kurama sighed audibly as he sightlessly stared at the emptiness of his
personal limbo. From there, realization struck him like an audible slap
on the cheek. He remembered Tetsuma mentioning that they were
'everywhere and nowhere at the same time.' He deeply pondered the rest
of the shinigami's words as he reiterated them in his mind. "Welcome to
the realm that lies in  between the Spirit World and the Human World."

Seeing how Yoshitaka Tetsuma had affected his dreams many months back,
after his first attack at Genkai's temple, Kurama easily put two-and-
two together in regards to where he currently was. He'd been there
numerous times before, and this place has answered many of his
questions about himself and who he truly was. Or rather, who Asuka
Matsui truly was.

It was the one place where anything was possible to those who had a
strong enough heart, if not willpower, to achieve their hopes and
dreams. This was the place where Kurama rediscovered his first human
love, had a better understanding of his sexuality and how others viewed
him, and defeated his past self with an epic death match to end all
death matches.=20

More to the point, this was the perfect place for him to reestablish
Asuka's threads of fate and give her back the life that was supposed to
be hers in the first place.

'So I'm in the Dream World, huh?' Kurama thought as he gently slipped
Kuronue's pendant over his neck, hiding it inside his school uniform's
collar. 'It seems... emptier than when I last visited. It's as empty as
Taka-kun's damned soul, even. It feels so lonely in here.'

Kurama swallowed hard as he took a determined step forward the dark
abyss, his only certainty his doubt. Everything that had happened
sixteen years past had finally come full circle. The Reikai Hunter that
forced him to occupy a human child's body was finally dealt with. The
long-lost pendant of his ex-partner was returned at last.=20

Was this mission in any way a leap of faith for Kurama? Most certainly
it was. The whole ordeal of battling Tetsuma and then realizing that he
was the one  responsible for Tetsuma's actions was a leap of faith in
and of itself. Eschewing common sense in this world of subconscious
make-believe, he would finish what he had started. He had promises to
fulfill, after all.=20

But first, as per usual with something as grand and elaborate as
Kurama's death scene, it was now time to tie up all the loose ends.
'It's now time for my long and overdue good-byes, I believe.'

Kurama crossed the proverbial threshold, and from there, something
strange started to happen. From beneath his feet, a beautiful oriental
garden made of marble and porcelain sprouted out of nowhere as a rain of
cherry blossoms pelted him with pink petals.=20

Before him, the symbolic bridge he was about to traverse turned into a
literal one made of alabaster; meanwhile, from the other side of the
mystical patio, he could clearly see a cobblestone road that, he
presumed, led straight to the people he wanted to bid farewell the most.
This world of imagination was the wistful boulevard to his good-byes, he=20
reckoned.

'My final wish before granting Asuka her rebirth has come true. I get to
speak to each and every one of my friends and loved ones through their
dreams,' Kurama thought as he leisurely strolled in Meiou's serene
halls. 'This is it. My first good-bye; just as I wished it to be.'=20

He quickly reached the nondescript cobblestone pathway strewn with
cherry blossoms. The road was not winding, but straight and narrow amidst
a veritable forest of pink. After a few more moments, he was able to
chance upon one of the tree-lined rolling hills he saw earlier. He
trudged on as the earlier rain of cherry blossoms petered out to a mere
squall.

'Where's my first stop, I wonder? More importantly, who am I going to
say good-bye to first?' Kurama pondered as he slowly descended on
another identical veranda that eventually led towards a valley of grass
and trees marred only by the out-of-place road. There were so many of
them. Shigeru. Midori. Chiho. Yumiko. Keiko. Yusuke. Kuwabara. His
mother, Shiori. Was he forgetting somebody?

Kurama started to feel nostalgia as the scenery slowly changed into
something that was far more recognizable.=20

Kurama followed the narrow road until he reached a certain point where
the grass and trees covered a smaller, more compressed area. Bushes and
shrubs now lined his vision, surrounding him with a sense of familiarity
he could not place.=20

He chanced upon a wooden bench beside one of the trees. When he turned,
he saw a fountain not far from him. He realized that the rolling hills
from behind him had somehow vanished. He was now in familiar ground.
'This is the park where Hiei usually sleeps! The park near my home in
the Human World. Incredible.'

Curiously enough, the cobblestone road was still there, again defacing
the scenery. As he left the park, the concrete jungle of suburbia
replaced the tranquility of the hills and valley he traveled through
earlier.

He treaded the road to springtime almost instinctively, such that he
didn't need to check where it led. He already knew where he was supposed
to go. After a rather lengthy stroll, he finally reached his first
destination. A recognizable school chime rung as he entered the gates of
his alma mater.=20

Kurama had now reached Meiou High School.


***


There was infinitesimal obscurity, a veritable abyss of oblivion.

'Gee, it's really dark.'

"...."

Kuwabara opened his eyes. Then there was light.

Kuwabara's vision adjusted to the faint deluge of luminescence. From
there, he realized that he was staring straight into radiant lunacy.

'Huh. It's just the moon.' The lanky teenager struggled to get up from
his prone position as he felt immense, nerve-wracking pain emanate from
his beaten and battered body.

"About time you woke up," Yusuke Urameshi managed to say in between his=20
borderline pneumonic wheezing. "I almost thought you died back there."

His eyes furrowed, Kuwabara noticed Yusuke's stare on him. It was as if
his rival was expecting a response of some sort. "Humph. As if," he
answered back, snorting in disdain.

"How long was I out of it? Thirty minutes? An hour? Or maybe more?"
Kuwabara asked. He then snarled at the onset of a throbbing headache. He
grit his teeth, wishing that he had an aspirin right about now.=20

"I-I just woke up myself," Yusuke responded just as soon as Kuwabara was
able to get over his migraine, panting and gasping at the effort. He
afterwards let out a horrendous cough that forced him to spit out yellow
phlegm on the ground. He balked in disgust.

"Hey, you should have a doctor check that cough out," Kuwabara noted as
he finally managed to sit up despite his weakened condition. 'Shit, even
my ass is aching. Everything in my body is aching. It feels like I just
run a marathon and forgot to stop. What happened?'=20

Dimly, Kuwabara's sleep-fuzzed mind remembered the fight... no, the war
that he and Yusuke waged a short time ago. Or perhaps hours ago? He
couldn't tell how long they were out of it. He eventually recalled
several highlights of their exhausting battle.

"Wow. We were really going at it, weren't we? I mean, damn! I was
practically carving canyons with my Jigen Tou! And you, you even had to
go 'mazoku' just to keep up with my mad skills. Oh man, did you see the
size of my sword? It's so big, I could..." Kuwabara ranted as he made
use of his excited banter to distract himself from his current agony.

"...." Yusuke elucidated.

"What? You don't remember what happened in our fight?"

Yusuke looked at Kuwabara bewilderedly. "What in the blue hell," he
gasped, "are you talking about?"

A far more pressing matter made itself known to Kuwabara once he
regained his bearings. 'Hey, come to think of it--what in the world's
going on here? What happened?' His eyes went as wide as saucers. 'Shit!
My fight with Urameshi! Who the hell won? Did I...? Did Urameshi...?'

Ignoring his intense suffering through sheer willpower, Kuwabara grabbed
Yusuke by his shoulders, shook him hard and demanded, "Who won,
Urameshi? Who WON?!"

Yusuke blinked. He scratched his left cheek and stated, "Well, you're
not going to believe this, but..."


***


No words were needed at this point. In the middle of brutal punches,
savage slashes and excruciating pain, Kuwabara and Yusuke executed their
final attacks.

'This is Kuwabara, for God's sake! He shouldn't be a match against me.
He doesn't have what it takes. He won't be able to stand in my way in
rescuing Hiei and Kurama. I will CRUSH everything that stands in my
way!' Yusuke cogitated as he clenched his fists, digging his fingers=20
into his palm until it bled. He would finish this fight then and there,
his belabored breathing be damned.

It was, all-in-all, a war of wills where power, strength, and endurance
were rendered moot. Vengeance, ideals, and experience were of little to
no consequence. Only the man who wanted to win the most would prevail.

'You don't want me to hold back anymore, do you, Kuwabara? Well, I
won't. You haven't seen _this_ technique of mine, have you?'

Without the slightest hesitation, the Last Son of the Mazoku Clan
unrelentingly charged at Kuwabara just as a gilded light bathed his body
with ungodly might.

All Kuwabara could do now was wait for oblivion.

Yusuke noticed Kuwabara's stare of helpless shock as he shattered the
Dimension Sword with one punch. Even Yusuke had to wince at the
intensity of the subsequent impact. Struggling against failing
respiratory functions, he pressed on his offensive.

Yusuke's searing light force was neither spiritual nor demonic; it was
the culmination and mastery of both types of energy. The Spirit World
rated the Sei Kou Ki as an S-level angelic ability that made use of the
highest form of celestial energy beyond that of both youki and reiki. No
power on God's Green Earth was like it.

Kuwabara was strangely motionless, as if he were in another world; his
mouth was agape as his glazed eyes stared into the emptiness of space.

"You must feel very special, eh Kuwabara? Come on, you ugly-ass bastard!
This is the most exciting fight we've ever had! Put your back into it!"
Yusuke yelled mockingly as he approached the hapless teen with his
unstoppable momentum. Kuwabara didn't seem to hear Yusuke's taunts,=20
remaining mostly dazed and unresponsive to the ensuing chaos.

The Saint Light Ki was strong enough to resist the power of the Black
Dragon, the Reikai Seals, and the Demon Plants; which was why Yusuke
was utterly stunned and flabbergasted at what happened next.=20

"REI-SHURIKEN!"

Embers flew as shard upon shattered shard of Kuwabara's Dimension Sword
showered Yusuke with razor-sharp, diamond-tough energy ninja stars. The
unexpected offensive would have torn the half-demon progeny apart had he
not evoked his Sei Kou Ki. As it was, it merely defused the mazoku
descendant's fervent, relentless aggression.

Kuwabara's eyes were different now. They were clear and cloudless,
staring unflinchingly at Yusuke. The demon half-breed took note of the
growing balloon of energy in his enemy's right hand. 'That bastard's
actually gathering not only the shards of energy from his broken Jigen
Tou, but also all the excess energy we've released so far. Goddammit, is
he really _this_ desperate to win? Does he really want to win more than
_I_ do?'

The determination that Yusuke saw in Kuwabara's eyes said it all.

'Whatever. Let's finish this, you son of a bitch! BANZAI!!!' Yusuke
cried out in his head. Unbeknownst to him, his mental battle cry was in
chorus with Kuwabara's.

"SEI KOU KI!"

"KIYODAI REIKIBOU!"

The two approached each other with the speed of a howling typhoon,
heading for the point where life and death meet.


***


"And then?"

"What do you mean by, 'And then?'"

"Jackass. And then what happened?"

"Y'know. Stuff." Yusuke shrugged.

"Quit your bullshitting!" Kuwabara exclaimed in frustration, still
excitable despite the incredibly fatigued state of his body. 'To think,
the meteor shower of Rei-Kou-Dan, the mazoku transformation, and the
sweet twin Jigen Tou were all just part of a strange, kick-ass dream.
Shit, and it was such a cool dream, too! It felt so real. Okay, I guess
that it _does_ make sense that it's just a dream, since it was kind of=20
unbelievable. But still...'

"Why the hell would I dream such a dream?" Kuwabara muttered out loud.

Yusuke was not one to ponder, but he nonetheless supposed, "Maybe you
were delirious because of blood loss." Chuckling at the cross look in
his companion's face, he relented, "Or maybe it was just Munashii's
little good-bye gift to you after he kicked the bucket. After all,
dreams _are_ his specialty. That was how he got into Kurama's head in
the first place, right?"

Kuwabara blinked at the thought. "Makes sense, I guess." He permitted
himself a moment of respectful silence for the undead shadow man.

In between shallow gasps, Yusuke inquired, "Which reminds me. What
possessed you to let Munashii, y'know, possess you again? I mean, didn't
you hate his guts after he possessed you the first time? Whatever
happened to your plans for revenge?"

In all seriousness, Kuwabara answered, "Aw, shut up."

"So you forgave him and formed a special bond with him? You became the
best of buddies?"

"You better shut up or you'll be spitting out more than just phlegm,
wheezy boy." Clearing his parched throat, Kuwabara explicated, "You're
right. Dreams are Munashii's specialty. Through dreams he made me see
the truth; it's not just about his dead girlfriend or his little
soullessness problem, it's something much, much deeper. I now understand
why he did what he did. I don't condone his actions, but he's not really
the one to blame for them. I'm not sure if Botan already told you this,
but..."

"Are you talking about the 'Book of Fate' and the fact that Munashii's
chick was supposed to be reincarnated in Kurama's borrowed human body?
Yeah, I already know about that. Botan already briefed me on those
things before I started this mission," Yusuke confirmed.

"Heh. About fucking time the Spirit World figured things out." Kuwabara
smirked sardonically. "A mission, eh? So they actually ordered you to
take _him_ out?"

Yusuke's lips tightened as he snorted. "I only do the Spirit World
Detective thing as a favor to Koenma, and nothing else. I certainly
don't have to answer to the Spirit World or to Enma Daio. Koenma already
released me from my contract during the Makai Tournament, remember?"

"So in short, you probably wouldn't have hunted him down and killed
him," Kuwabara concluded smugly. "So tell me, what were you planning to
do once you catch the _real_ mastermind behind Munashii's shenanigans?"

Yusuke casually shrugged. "It's not like I ever plan any of my fights or
missions in the first place."

Kuwabara harrumphed. "Typical. Not that I expected a different answer
from you. You can't really expect too much from a one track mind."

"You're the one to speak."

"Think Mister Mastermind will ever change his mind?"

"He goes his own way. Let's leave the decision to him."

There was a pause, a cough, and random panting.

Kuwabara's eyes boggled. "Hey! Stop changing the subject! Don't think
that I've already forgotten! Trying to pull a fast one on me, huh?" he
accused as he aimed a clenched but shaky fist at Yusuke's face.

"Hey, hey! Take it easy!" Yusuke just barely caught up with his breath
as he asked, "What's the matter, carrot top?"

"I wasn't born yesterday. I may have been daydreaming during most of the
last half of our match, but my hunger for victory was still there. Even
though I was barely conscious, I still wanted the win so very, very bad.
I still fought with my everything while I was out of it, didn't I?"=20

Yusuke's eyes darted away from his lifelong nemesis's eyes. "Yeah. So?"

Dreading the answer but still morbidly curious, Kuwabara asked, "So what
really happened during the last few seconds of the fight, Urameshi?
Which one of us won? Was it you? Was it me? Stop beating around the
bush and tell me!"

Yusuke twiddled his thumbs as he held his pseudo-asthmatic breath in
anticipation of God-knew-what. "About that, I was really shocked by what
happened, but even though I'd hate to admit it and it was probably just
a fluke, I'm sorry to say that..."

Kuwabara's eyes brightened like two overexcited light bulbs. "Yeah?
You're sorry to say what?"

"...You've lost yet again. Sorry, man." Yusuke condescendingly patted
Kuwabara's shoulder.

Kuwabara's expression instantaneously shifted from barely contained
enthusiasm to ego-crushing disappointment. "WHOOP--What?! Hey!"

"Yeah, I know. Psych! I had you going there for a while." Yusuke
maliciously grinned. "Well, what else did you expect?"

Kuwabara grumbled audibly, and sighed. After a few moments of piteous=20
disgruntlement, the taller teen finally conceded. "Fine. Whatever. I
should have figured as much seeing that I was knocked out and you
weren't. But at least the fight kicked ass, right?"

"I've had better."=20

"Fuck you! Dammit, I want a rematch! I can definitely take you on now,
you out-of-breath, half-demon bastard!"

"You're a class act. Kick 'em while they're down, huh? Not that you can
actually kick me after what I did to your limbs. You're now as lame as
you're lame."

"Now that was just retarded. Crack one more joke like that, and I'll
pinch your nose until you suffocate. As far as I'm concerned, the fight
ain't over until one of us is dead! Do you hear me? DEAD! Why I
never...!"

Yusuke pointedly ignored Kuwabara's angry outburst as he reminisced the
final moments of his fight with his most tenacious and persistent
adversary ever.


***


Kurama walked through the hallways of what could have been a bustling
community of students; as of now, it was just empty. He took note that
the sun had already begun to set, giving everything around him a
surreal, golden glow. 'It's bizarre for the sun to be setting when it
was just morning a few minutes ago, but I guess it'd make perfect sense
in the Dream World.' He waved off his little digression as he enjoyed
the unhurried sunset. He had always liked the quiet of the school
grounds in the afternoon. It gave him a lot of time to think.

His excited steps, as well as his train of thought, was stopped short
after seeing who was standing near the glass-encased bulletin board.

"Minamino. It's been a while."=20

"Kaito."

Just beside the bulletin board stood Yu Kaito, Minamino Shuichi's
academic 'equal', 'rival', and classmate. He was a bespectacled youth of
seventeen years of age--just a year older than Kurama--with half-lidded
yet intelligent eyes, thick black curly hair, a wide frame jarred by
lanky limbs, and a face suffering from prepubescent acne; he was a
conventional bookish student; or, for lack of a better word, a
stereotypical, prototypical nerd.=20

Not that Kaito particularly cared for the derisive title; neither did he
care for the fact that the unscrupulous thoughts that filled his present
dream actually complemented his physical typecast.

"Um... Hello? Kaito?"

Noticing that Kaito was particularly riveted by the contents of the
bulletin board, Kurama decided to break the ice by saying, "What're you
looking at?" Upon hearing Kaito's lack of a response, Kurama decided to
check things out for himself.

"Wow. It's the Top Ten List of our class. You're the top one, Kaito!=20
Congratulations."

Kaito derisively snorted. "Top one? What of it?" He knew he easily
surpassed a large percentage of the student body when it came to
academics. Even though Meiou High was such a prestigious school to begin
with, he was a cut above the rest. "Getting this rank was a joke. It
wasn't even a challenge for me. How insulting."

"Er, what do you mean?" Kurama asked, feigning ignorance over Kaito's
overabundance of self-esteem.

"Whatever happened to you, Minamino?" Kaito asked in dissatisfaction.
"You're not in the Top Ten. Why is that? Is it because of your absences
again? What a waste."

'Even in his dreams, he still wants to beat me 'fair and square', but
can't,' Kurama thought, scratching the back of his ghostly head in
awkward embarrassment and befuddlement. 'I admit, though this is kind of
flattering, it's a bit weird. Why not just dream that he _did_ beat me
fair and square? Why not just let me take the top two spot or lower, if
that'd make him happy? That's what dreams are for, right?'

"Because I wouldn't believe it for a second," Kaito responded as he
adjusted his square-rimmed glasses. He afterwards blinked. "What just
happened? Did I just read your mind? Even with my territorial powers of
'Taboo', I shouldn't be able to do that! That kind of power is reserved
for the likes of Murota... may his soul rest in peace."

The bespectacled teenager pointed an accusatory finger at Kurama. "Are
you the one who's making me dream this dream? Is this the work of one of
your Demon Plants? Explain to me what's happening immediately."

Kurama nodded his head in trepidation as he braced himself for a very
long discussion with his classmate.

"You've always considered me a rival, while I certainly haven't. If I
were really the Minamino Shuichi you know instead of the youko that I
am, then I might have taken you more seriously. I admit that you are
indeed my closest mental equal from all the people I know in the Human
World. In so saying, I've recently..."

"Spare me the speech, Minamino. Tell me, what are you doing in my dream?
What particular reason compelled you to invade the sanctity of my inner=20
thoughts?" Kaito forthrightly demanded, getting straight to the point.

Kurama nodded. "I kind of like that about you. You were always so...
candid. Well, long story short, I came here to say good-bye."

"What? Why?"

And so Kurama told Kaito everything. He told him about Yoshitaka
Tetsuma and Asuka Matsui. He told him about his fateful confrontation
with Tetsuma in Genkai's dojo. He told him about the subsequent dreams
he had shared with his classmates; the good, the bad, and the ugly. He
told him about Shigeru Amano's death and rebirth. He told him about his
realization of the ultimate truth behind his human guise. He told him
about his plans to give back to Asuka the life he stole from her. He
told him that this was his last good-bye to everyone that mattered to
him.=20

Nevertheless, Kaito didn't want to hear any of it. "Enough, Minamino. I
have had enough of your drivel."

"I don't understand. Why don't you want to hear it? What I'm telling you
is the truth, not drivel."

"Then lie to me. Human Nature dictates that all humans have a basic=20
intolerance over beliefs that contradict theirs. It's sad, but true.
Your story contradicts with everything I believe about you, and I'm
therefore intolerant of it. It's irrelevant whether or not what you're
saying to me is true. My human mind is incapable of comprehending your
actions and motivations, so I won't even try to do so.=20

"Don't tell me that you're planning to kill yourself for the sake of
some girl who was supposed to be reincarnated in your human body. That's=20
ludicrous. Tell me instead that Minamino Shuichi has been accepted in
Tokyo University because of his incredible IQ. Tell me that you're
saying good-bye to me because you consider me as a great rival and
you're expecting me to follow in your footsteps, since you're such an=20
insufferable 'nice guy'. Tell me something that actually makes sense.
And for God's sake, let me remember you the way I want to remember you."

Kurama didn't know what to say to that. "Well said. Fair enough. I'll
tell you what you want to hear on the condition that you keep your
promise to me."

Even though he knew the answer, Kaito felt obliged to ask, "What promise
is that?"

"Your promise to study with your life until you reach my level of
intelligence."

"That's impossible for me to do, unless I still have a millennium to
live. But I will still study with my life until I die, not because I
feel indebted to you in any way, but because it's also Human Nature for
a human to long to fly even though he does not have wings."

And so Kurama told Kaito what he wanted to hear, and left his supposed
rival to his academic flights of fancy in the dream version of Meiou
High. The recently deceased specter still had places to go, the road of
cobblestone waiting patiently for him.


***


A few minutes earlier, at the stunning conclusion of Yusuke and
Kuwabara's momentous, blood-and-guts fight...

Yusuke Urameshi thought he had seen everything. He had seen an honorable
and respectable fighter turn into an emotionless and cruel behemoth both
inside and out. He had seen a rogue Spirit Detective's degeneration
towards insanity because of his hatred of the human race. He had seen a
demon who actually went against his species' natural instinct to consume
humans for the sake of a tragic and undying love. Nevertheless, he had
never seen anything quite like what he was seeing now.

After surviving the first crushing wave of the biggest Kiyodai Reikibou
Yusuke had ever seen, his face paled at what happened next. True, his
angelic barrier left him invulnerable to the overly large energy club
that previously annihilated Toguro Ani in the Black Martial Arts
Tournament, but even that was not enough to withstand the magnitude of
power Kuwabara released from his second attack.

"Still not enough? Then let's do it again! KIYODAI REIKIBOU!"

The name 'Kiyodai Reikibou' was actually a misnomer for Kuwabara's next
attack, because it was now composed of Sei Kou Ki instead of reiki...
Sei Kou Ki absorbed from Yusuke's own celestial shield.=20

The 'Kiyodai Seikoukibou' overwhelmed the Sei Kou Ki by using the latter=20
technique's own power against itself, forming into a never-ending, self-
propagating wave of destruction. Like food cooked with its own juices,
Sensui's most powerful skill ultimately defeated itself.

A gigantic geyser of pure, white-hot energy hundreds of feet high
exploded from where Yusuke was standing earlier, blasting the
aforementioned adolescent right into the night sky. A few seconds later,
gravity enforced its will on the hapless and airborne Spirit Detective.=20

By the time Yusuke fell back into the rubble-strewn cemetery grounds,
Kuwabara was already unconscious. But Kuwabara was still quite the sight
to behold, with the tendrils of immaculate Sei Kou Ki dancing around
his, strangely enough, heroic posture. He was like the emblematic Spirit
World Poltergeist Warrior after defeating one of the Strongest of the
Demon World.

Yusuke Urameshi had now officially seen everything. A few seconds later,
he also succumbed to a long overdue sleep.


***


'A hundred and fifty-six petty losses to one major win? That's not bad
at all. It's about time. After years of trying, I'd say the big lug
deserves the win. He's already paid his dues. He really hit the jackpot
this time,' Yusuke reflected, smiling wanly.

"...Do you want to mess with me? I'm game. Do you want both your lungs
punctured? Do you still have the balls to fight? I'll let you know that
I..."

'But I won't give him the satisfaction of knowing that he won,' Yusuke
thought, his eyes furrowed. 'Right now, he thinks he didn't win and
he _still_ won't let me hear the end of it. What more if he did know?
Serves him right. Who knows? Maybe what I saw was just a fluke. Or was
it just another dream? Hell, it was probably a nightmare!'

"...You don't have your mazoku blood or unlimited supply of spirit
energy to fall back on now, do you? No wonder you're so afraid to fight!
Now that we're on equal footing, it really shows--"

"HEY! Will. You. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. God, I'm running out of breath
just _listening_ to you whine."

"Want me to shut up? Make me. Come on. I'll take your breath away."

"No. I don't think so. Why should I do that? You're the one that should
come to _me_. I wish you luck on that. Break a leg... or two."

After a few more hours of witless banter, slumber again claimed the two
eternal rivals.


***


Keiko Yukimura walked silently in the darkness of the park, not noticing
the inapt cobblestone road superimposed on the concrete ground. Crossing
her arms for warmth as the chilly remnants of the winter solstice
tousled her hair, she shyly spied the bench she sat on yesterday. She
pouted.

'So he didn't come here after all,' she thought dolefully before she
caught herself. 'Ah. Why am I thinking such weird things? I just came
over here to thank him, that's all.' She looked at her watch. It was
seven o'clock. She briefly wondered if her parents had noticed her slip
out of the house before quelling that thought as well.

'He wasn't at the station either, but considering that we have different=20
schedules--Ah, that's just silly of me,' she thought at the back of her
mind as she sat down for a bit on the wooden bench. 'I didn't even
really want to see him after last night.'

She slowly got up after hearing the crickets begin to chirp. 'I have to
remind myself that it was only a one time thing. Shimizu is too far away
from Isesaki. I have to be realistic.' Her eyes became determined.
'Well, he's obviously not here, so that's one bridge that I don't have
to cross.'

"Keiko-san," a voice softly beckoned.

After her initial shock, Keiko couldn't even bring herself to turn
around.

"So you're still replaying this memory in your dreams. I hope it's not
because of anything I said or did," Kurama earnestly stated. He already
knew that it was pointless to hide any of his innermost thoughts in the
Dream World; he therefore decided to let things be, since this was the
best way to make all of his good-byes sincere and honest. "The last
thing I want to do is hurt you."

'So this is just a dream?' Keiko stirred, unable to meet the gaze of
what she thought was the object of her imagination. "You never did
anything of the sort to me, Kurama-san."

"That's nice to hear," Kurama admitted, pensively adding, "I know it
sounds corny, but it seems that I'm not the only one who wanted to etch
this moment in my memory for all eternity," which embarrassed Keiko.

There was a lengthy pause. "Y-You misunderstand. I have to do this. I
have to make this dream my own. I won't rest until I do so," she
clarified.

"That's very daring of you," Kurama praised. After that, he took a long,
deep breath, even though his ethereal body didn't have any need for air.
"Keiko-san, I have something important to tell you." And so he did.
Everything he told Kaito earlier, he told Keiko. In the entire course of
the story, the young girl's facial expressions shifted from happy to
sad, surprise to shock, and fear to outright denial.

Before Kurama could finish his narrative, Keiko interrupted him, saying,
"No! NO! You have to stop this right now. Why do you have to do this,
Kurama-san? If Yusuke knew about this, then he'd be sure to stop you!"

"I know. And so would Hiei. That's why I sent Taka-kun to stop them
both. It's all for the best, I assure you. It's very important for me to
finish this quest of mine. Although you might actually hate me for it, I
_must_ do this. It's all for Asuka-san's--"

"I don't care about Asuka-san!" Keiko cried out. She hastily apologized,
amending, "I don't hate you or Asuka-san for it, but I hate the fact
that you have to do this," Keiko confessed, teary eyed. "Why? Why do you
have to keep every last promise you make? Why do you have to feel
responsible for everyone around you? Why do you have to be so sincere
about your feelings? WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO NICE?!"=20

"...."

Silence again passed the pair in an unhurried pace.

Strangely enough, tittering laughter soon followed.

Keiko giggled in between her sobs, reiterating, "Why do you have to be
so nice, Kurama-san?"

Kurama moved towards Keiko in concern, but his unease was lifted by the
slightly relieved glint in her eyes. She quickly wiped away her tears.
"So aren't you going to answer my question? I do think I deserve to know
before you... leave."=20

Kurama coughed once before answering, "I'm not all that sure about me
being nice, but like you said before, I couldn't stand being dishonest
about my feelings. I have come to love Minamino Shuichi's honesty so
much, I've decided to emulate it. I've realized that I owe so much from
Shuichi... no, from Asuka-san... that I'll do anything for her. That's
the truth."

There was half a minute of stillness that Kurama felt everlastingly.
"Keiko-san?"

After a moment of hesitation, Keiko smiled curiously at Kurama's reply.
"Wow. You're so different from before. You've changed. You're not
second-guessing yourself anymore. So you did find your answer!" she
nearly squealed in excitement before catching herself.

The young girl's eyes were filled with obvious worry, despite her smile.
"Though I still don't understand why you have to sacrifice yourself for
Asuka-san's sake, I'm glad you've found your moment of clarity."

"I owe a lot of that clarity from you."

Keiko's face flushed. "It was my pleasure. I'll always cherish that
special moment of ours." She proceeded to give Kurama a quick peck on
the cheek. She bit her lip, her features containing a strange mixture of
determination and anxiety. "Don't get me wrong, Kurama-san. I trust your
judgment completely, but I sincerely hope that this is what you truly
want."

"I hope so too," Kurama confessed and left it at that.

And so Kurama left Keiko to make her dream her own. Unbeknownst to him,
a doppelganger of his soon appeared before the young girl. She went on
to tell him, the double, all the things she was too afraid to tell the
real Kurama; all her frustrations, all her thoughts, and all her
feelings. She openly cried, asking the fantasy half-youko to not leave
her like the real one did.

But Kurama never had a chance to go back to the park and see just how
much his good-bye affected Keiko. He was too concentrated on continuing
his travels on the cobblestone road--a journey that would ultimately
lead to Shuichi Minamino's rebirth.


***


A bleary, fractured memory from a lifetime ago, inside Yaminade no
Itsuki's pocket dimension...

Kurama reminisced, yet he could not get a proper handle on his thoughts
for some reason. His head churned like a hurricane, making his musings
disorganized and chaotic, whilst his mind filled all of his memory gaps
with haphazard guesswork and leaps of logic that were sure to contain a
number of factual inaccuracies. Nevertheless, he more or less remembered
everything.

Four people--"Seaman" Kiyoshi Mitarai, Jaganshi Hiei, Kurama, and Kazuma=20
Kuwabara--floated alongside Itsuki inside his sinister prison of
lifeless nothingness as they all bore witness to Shinobu Sensui and
Yusuke Urameshi's epic battle, their vision blurring against a deluge of=20
perplexing luminescence.=20

The four all winced in unison at the intensity of the searing light
force which suffused Sensui's tall, gangly frame. From there, they
realized that they were staring straight into pure radiance as the
golden glow spread all over the former Spirit Detective's body.

The koorime half-breed was a tense bundle of nerves, shivering as he
felt the tingling sensation of foreboding crawl down his back like a
thousand centipedes. He sensed it; the dreadful, nauseating mass of
blessed energy that filled the entirety of the cave and affected even
this 'limbo' that he and the others currently occupied. Bemused, he
reluctantly focused on the peculiar but overwhelming feeling.

Behind Hiei, the noisy and deranged Kuwabara was letting out unnerving
prattle; the orange-haired human appeared to be looking for some sort of
last-minute divine intervention, or miraculous reprieve... at the very
least, a bit of reassurance from his compatriots... in regards to
Yusuke's safety.

"Yusuke is going to die," Kurama matter-of-factly declared, the sadness
in his voice knowing no depths, no bounds. "An A-level like him is
simply no match against an S-Level like Sensui; the difference in power
is far too great. He might as well have wished for the sun to stop in
the sky."

"No. That can't be," Kuwabara murmured, his mind unprepared to handle
the truth even now, his thoughts churning like a hurricane. He truly was
the most sensitive of the four of them; he wore his heart on his sleeve,
something that Kurama both admired and envied.=20

"Do you see the look in his eyes, Kuwabara? Those are the eyes of a dead
man walking. He knows he can't win. This situation isn't any different
from when you sacrificed yourself to Toguro so that he could unleash his
true power. We all need to sacrifice some things, even ourselves, for
the good of the people we love, and we're not in the position to judge
Yusuke and his decision."=20

A black silence fell once Kurama finished, like the stillness of a tomb.
Everyone stared at him as if he'd been talking gibberish. Or as if he'd
grown a second head. All then froze in ominous, incomprehensible shock
as the world held its breath. They all felt it; the end was coming.

"Stop it, Kurama! You're not helping! C'mon, Jigen Tou! Goddammit, JIGEN
TOU!!!"

Unceremoniously, Sensui unleashed the roar of the hallowed heavens, his
radiating hand making an eerie droning sound as it was launched,
followed by an deafening crack after he accelerated in the air. It moved
so fast that it was ignited by friction, turning into a streak of white
flame, a vengeful shooting star from the heavens sent by the angels
themselves.

Ignoring the screaming mass of pain that used to be the right side of=20
his body, Yusuke charged proudly, foolishly, and magnificently, his face
a murderous mask of rage that promised dire vengeance on anyone who got
in his way. Because, goddammit, if he was going to die, then he'd do it
like a real man.

After a few seconds, Kuwabara found the desperate strength to summon the
Jigen Tou and help the four of them escape Itsuki's shadowy clutches.
But he was exactly a few seconds too late.

The next shot of Yusuke was of him flying through the air, with searing-
hot blood gushing from his chest. He landed hard on the ground, and
Sensui proclaimed him dead.=20

It was during that moment of unremitting rage that Kurama uttered words
that, in contrast to the rest of his splintered recollection, came about
in crystal certainty, revealing heartfelt feelings that flowed out of
his mouth accidentally, unthinkingly, and unbidden: "No matter whom, I=20
ate missing any one of the four of us."

Kurama had lived for hundreds of years; his mental development was very
deep and far, so he couldn't easily tell his true feelings. But at that
one time, he revealed the true feelings of his heart.


***


To be Continued...

Next: Kurama's Death Scene continues.

Again the "Cut" and "Crush" comments from Kuwabara and Yusuke cames from
the "Scryed" anime. I was watching the tail-end of the series when I
wrote this chapter, in fact. "Scryed" was very helpful to my muse.

Note that I put in the title _Shonen_ not _Shonen-Ai_. Shonen-Ai=20
(male-male relationship) and yaoi are just not my cup of tea. This=20
is dedicated to Chimamire Kitsune for giving me the inspiration to=20
write this fic. Wherever you are, this is for you.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others)=20
are the rightful property of Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV
and St. Pierrot. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

Ja ne!
Abdiel

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