203…Yeah, I'm ready to finish editing Against the Grain. Thus, two chapters in one day. Enjoy! :D
"What you leave behind is not graven in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."
—Pericles
Out With a Bang
No! Not Kuwabara…!
My mental screams were precisely in tune with what Yusuke was shouting, voice desperate, frantic, breathless.
Like the air had been knocked from him.
Like the sky had caved in.
My legs were weak, and they gave in before I could force myself to stay up, to be strong for once.
Yukina's eyes were wide. Her hands were covering her mouth, fingers closing around words that I knew would never come.
Speechless.
And she was trembling like a leaf in the wind, a fragile, dried up thing, hanging onto its life-giving branch for just a few more seconds…
Right before the wind blew it away.
Yusuke bellowed a wordless oath and launched himself at Toguro, throwing punches into the demon's body, trying to incapacitate him as he strode across the ring.
Closer.
Toguro's arm flicked out carelessly, and Yusuke was brushed aside like an annoying fly, an irritant, something not worth the effort.
Despite Toguro's indifference, the casual blows, Yusuke was driven back as if he had just been hit by a battering ram, sailing back across the ring and connecting sharply with the dirt, scraping deep marks into the soil with the force of his impact.
And he kept getting up.
Again.
Again.
And Kuwabara did not run.
Yusuke ran forwards with a yell, trying to come at Toguro again, to stop him, but Toguro simply grabbed the back of Yusuke's head, and shoved the boy into the dirt, where he lay still.
And Toguro kept walking forward, straight towards Kuwabara, slow, deadly, with sadistic purpose.
Finally, I saw Kurama and Hiei flash forward, crouching defensively in front of Kuwabara, prepared to fight Toguro. To protect their friend.
Somehow, I think Hiei had finally started to care.
But it didn't matter.
Kuwabara took a step forward, edging in front of them, and he turned to face them, saying words that I could not hear.
Yukina was frozen, eyes shimmering.
Then, Kuwabara turned to Toguro, and held out his hand. His Spirit Sword materialized there, a glowing mass in his palm, a testament to what he was about to do.
And, with a cry, he ran straight at Toguro.
"NO! KUWABARA...!"
The shout of helplessness, of fear, emitted from several mouths at once. I think I might've been one. My throat was raw with the force of it.
Toguro flashed out of existence.
And Kuwabara came to a halt.
I couldn't look away.
Toguro's hand was shoved deep into Kuwabara's chest, inside his heart, crushing it.
Obliterating him completely.
With a too-casual, indifferent jerk, Toguro pulled his hand out of Kuwabara's heart, and took a step back to admire his handiwork.
It was so quiet.
Kuwabara stumbled forward, falling to his knees. One hand stretched towards Yusuke, the other clutching the gaping wound in his chest, attempting to staunch the flow of blood.
Then, slowly, with terrible finality, he fell to the ground, and did not move.
So silent.
Behind me, I heard Yukina's tears clatter to the floor.
Shizuru lunged forward, tears streaming, mouth open in a scream that I didn't hear. It was like the world was muted, sluggish, not real.
Not real.
It can't be.
I didn't fall to my knees. I didn't cry. I didn't move.
Couldn't, really.
Why do these things keep happening? We can't go back now. Not with another one of us dead.
Gone.
I watched, numb, as Kurama, Hiei, and Koenma rushed forward, Kurama lifting Kuwabara up from the ground, shaking him. Toguro flashing out of the way, disappearing.
Yusuke paralyzed on the ground.
I felt someone clutching my arm, crying into my shoulder. I was not capable of consoling Yukina.
Nothing would go back to the way it was before. Another one of us, gone. Like Genkai, and Ryo.
Three lives ended because of this tournament. Three people gone because the occult couldn't just leave us alone.
And many other lives affected, many other realities shattered, with their passing.
Finally, Yusuke stood.
A subtle glow, surrounding him. Picking up dust in flurries. Ebbing. Growing.
It swelled into a whirlwind, blue streaks of light, his spiritual energy.
Genkai had wanted Yusuke to win this. With the proper motivation.
Well, she was going to get a good fight, at least.
Yusuke's aura flared up into a raging whirlwind, and, as it did, the world took on substance.
There was no room left in me for grief, for remorse. Only awe as I watched Yusuke's spiritual energy flow around the stadium, separating itself into thousands of ice-blue, teardrop-shaped projectiles, surrounding us and giving us a glimpse into the reality that his emotions ebbed and flowed in.
Guilt was there. Fury at himself. More guilt, because he knew...
That was what it took. One of his friends dying, to break down the barrier between his emotions, to help him become his most powerful.
Toguro's image flickered.
A crushing blow sent Yusuke sailing across the arena, gouging a wound into the ground with the force of it, making him skid across the dirt and slam into the stadium wall. He was sitting in a crater.
And he simply got back up again.
There was a long moment that the two just stared at each other.
Then I saw Toguro's leer, and he turned back to the others—Kurama, Hiei, and Koenma.
His intentions were obvious.
No, you can't take them. Not another. My fingers were aching from the praying fist that I had clasped them in. My eyes strained for Kurama; my muscles tensed to run out into the arena if I had to. Not him.
Not him.
Please...
But, before he even took a step, Yusuke appeared at his side, faster than any demon I had ever seen, and took Toguro's arm in a bone-crushing grip, staying the monster.
His aura flashed again.
Guilt. Fury. Remorse. Vengeance.
His emotions were floating through the air, raw, alive, real. And it was impossible to ignore the conflict.
It was tearing him apart, ripping his surroundings to shreds.
Literally.
Toguro and Yusuke now stood on a tiny sliver of sod, because Yusuke's spiritual energy had gouged a crater into the ground around them, cutting into the earth, a physical testament to the rage and hurt that was touching us all, making us all feel the same way.
"Win this," I whispered.
Yusuke disappeared.
His fist flashed out of nowhere, and connected with Toguro's face.
Toguro flew backwards, and, for the first time, I heard him howl in agony.
Then he was up, lunging at Yusuke, blows connecting but not doing any damage—Yusuke still threw punch after punch into his opponent's face, driving him back, not caring about the blows he was receiving, not recognizing the pain, because that did not matter to him anymore.
"We... we can hope again." I heard Botan say quietly.
I nodded in agreement, watching the fight with rapt attention.
Then, in a flash, Yusuke attacked with even more force than before.
He was midair, arms out, fingers in his standard "spirit gun" stance, and his spiritual energy converged on the tip of his finger, swirling around him, condensing...
And he fired.
The blast hit Toguro, pushing him backwards through the stadium wall, and it went on into the new walls, our entrapments, punching a hole into one of them. It fell with a crash, shaking the earth beneath our feet.
After that, it still flew on, and on, until it was out of sight.
"Um..." Koto said intelligently into her microphone, voice unsure. I looked over at her, and she (along with Jorge, who was bizarrely seated next to her) was standing up, hand shading her eyes, searching the arena.
Toguro's fist punched through the rubble covering him, sending the shattered fragments flying in all directions.
"Oh—oh Gawd...!" Koto yelped.
Toguro's head was resting sideways on his thickly muscled shoulder, his neck bent in half.
He was smiling.
And, with a swift, casual motion, he lifted his hands, and popped his head back into place.
I could hear his bones cracking. From here.
I covered my mouth, fighting the urge to retch.
More silence.
Then, a red, sinister aura. Surrounding Toguro.
And his skin boiled, surging, stretching to accommodate even more spiritual energy-induced armor.
Impossible.
Toguro grew, arms thick with flat, hard muscles, face even more grotesque than before. Presence more intimidating.
But... not to Yusuke, I don't think.
He was still standing strong, standing straight, with his shoulders squared and his jaw set into a hard line. He was not going to back down.
Two conflicting emotions threw my thoughts into a state of chaos, riling against each other.
There was this vindictive satisfaction. Looking at Yusuke, I was suddenly sure that he was going to win this. That he was going to make Toguro pay for our friends...
Genkai.
I swallowed, chewing down hard on my lip, not allowing the tears to come.
Kuwabara.
After all, Yukina was crying into her hands, broken and petrified, and even Shizuru was frozen, paralyzed with rivers streaming down her face.
Shizuru had always been strong for us.
It was my turn to do that now.
And then... there was the fear.
Yusuke simply couldn't get any stronger. Another death would break him. Though impossibly strong now, he was incredibly fragile. If Toguro killed another one of us, then Yusuke would not recover. He would lose. And we would die.
My fingers clenched, and I slowly released my lip as I tasted blood.
Strong. Be strong.
Everything existed in this moment. As I looked down into the arena, feelings convoluted, fighting the urge to run, and keep running, I could look back on everything. In an instant.
The Green Jumpsuit, the boy who I vaguely recognized to be Yusuke, blurted, pointing at me, "Hey, you're that chick who helped out Keiko awhile back, right?"
I smiled. "Yep."
That was the first time I spoke to him.
"'Cause I'm Kuwabara, and in case you all forgot, I've got a sword!"
Kuwabara's infamous bravado.
Yusuke brushed past me with a sullen look, hands in pockets, but Kuwabara paused and gestured me forward.
"Ladies first, Sparky."
Oh holy, that ridiculous nickname.
I felt a small, painful smile appear on my features, and I felt like laughing almost—it was bubbling up in my throat, making my eyes water.
Kuwabara, what are we going to do without you?
Everything was depending on Yusuke, now. Did he have the will to end this?
He lowered into a fighting stance, and lifted his hands.
His aura, which had been circling the stadium, changed course and flowed back to him, condensing at his fingertip. A miniature sun, glowing at the end of his hand, growing and condensing and sending off waves of energy, spiritual energy that kicked up dust and whipped it back into our faces.
He was at his most powerful. I was sure of that.
But the question was... would it be enough?
Toguro was compensating for Yusuke's final attack already, his aura glowing like a flame as it surrounded him, whipping around and scorching the dirt around him. He had himself in a fixed, defensive position, arms outstretched, teeth bared into a terrible snarl.
And, for several seconds, time froze.
Botan and Shizuru and Yukina lifted their faces from their hands, grief-stricken features hardening into something more potent than hope—a desperation, the look of people that have seen too much in too short a time, and were finally glimpsing something more than they had ever imagined. Feeling something that they couldn't quite describe—something more than ferocity, something more than pride.
I could feel it, too.
And then, Yusuke attacked.
With an earsplitting blast, Yusuke's spirit gun fired off, sending the enormous globe of spiritual energy across the arena and over into Toguro's face—a strand of spiritual energy was attached to Yusuke, as he still fed his last attempt with everything that he had.
And it connected with Toguro.
And stopped.
Stopped.
Toguro's grotesque arms circled the blast, clutching it to him as it ripped away at his armor.
Hell, I could hear him screaming.
And there was no doubt about it—his shrieks of agony were the best things I had heard in a long time.
The strand connecting Yusuke's spiritual energy to him dissipated, and Yusuke fell to his knees, totally spent.
Toguro battled on.
His arms flexed, like he was trying to crush the spirit gun's attack, but I could tell that his arms would not—could not—move any more. Could not find the strength to fight back—couldn't even gain an inch.
He had met his limit.
And Yusuke had exceeded it.
I watched as the blast tore at him, destroying him. As it began to win.
As Yusuke's spiritual energy finally ran out, and was no more.
There was a long, long silence.
Toguro was still standing, smoke rolling off of his destroyed flesh. It curled lazily into the air, making changing patterns, creating a haze around him.
Crack.
A thin line split his forehead.
Crack.
Down his face.
Cracckkkk.
It splintered off into spiderweb-thin lines, faceting his face like a sheet of glass. It spread across his chest, his arms.
It was all very quiet.
And then he shattered.
All of the armor was gone; it flew in the air, flying outward, upward. The shards plummeted to the ground, leaving him vulnerable.
All of his power was gone.
Gone.
And the younger Toguro fell forward, slowly, and lay facedown on the ground.
And did not move.
"It's... it's over."
Botan's quiet words were awed, almost disbelieving.
The rest of us simply stared down at the two opponents, silent. Wordless.
They were both down.
Yusuke and Toguro.
"Um... that's hard to call," I heard Koto observe.
For the first time in my life, I agreed with her.
"Juri! Start the count!" Koto cried.
I heard a surprised yelp, and Juri, who had been hiding the entire duration of the match, edged out into the center of the arena, looking about her nervously as the silent stadium watched her with hundreds of eyes.
Not even the demons breathed.
"Oh, ew..."
Juri had obviously spotted what was left of Toguro.
"U-um..." Juri stammered, peering down at Toguro with the revolted fascination of someone who was completely disgusted but couldn't manage to look away.
"Juri! Behind you!"
The announcer whirled around, hand flying convulsively to her throat... as Yusuke slowly rose to his feet. Standing.
Alive.
Botan started laughing hysterically.
"Oh, we can go home now...!" she cried, pumping a fist into the air. Both Shizuru and Yukina were smiling oddly, and they were probably wondering the same thing I was.
How can we still be happy... how can we be smiling when the tears we cried for Kuwabara haven't even dried yet? How?
Koto leaped from the stands, and darted to the center of the ring. Both she and Juri lifted their hands into the air, and lifted their microphones to their lips.
"The winner of the tournament... Team Urameshi!"
Every demon in the stadium started cheering.
"Well done," I murmured, letting my face fall into my hands, covering my eyes as they finally began to leak. "All of you."
"Oh!" I heard Yukina gasp, and I looked up just in time to see Yusuke fall to his knees.
Hiei, Kurama, and Koenma rushed forward, and Kurama pulled Yusuke up into a kneeling position. Koenma leaned in concernedly, and Hiei stood off to one side, arms crossed, impassive but watchful.
"He's probably just tired," I assured Yukina, flicking the tears from my eyes. "He was standing just a minute ago... he'll be fine..."
I was wrong.
Yusuke jerked violently away from Kurama, fingers clawing the ground, back bent, trembling.
"DAMNIT...!"
We all fell silent.
I could hear him saying things, but I couldn't make out the words. They were all too far away. Kurama leaned forward, and I saw his lips move. Trying to console him.
Yusuke slumped further to the ground, forehead pressing into the dirt.
"SHUT UP! What good does that do, huh? He's dead now, I can't tell him anything! Is that so hard to get…?"
Botan's hands were covering her mouth. Shizuru stared down at them, expression fixed. Yukina's tears were clinking against the stone again. And I clasped my hands together, fingernails digging into skin, head bowing, gritting my teeth to keep myself as composed as Shizuru seemed to be. Strong. Invincible in disregard.
I couldn't focus on it. If I did... I would go insane.
"I'm just like everyone else! I can't do anything to... to... DAMNIT...!"
I heard Yusuke punch the ground with his fist.
"I'm sorry, Kuwabara...!"
More silence.
Then, Botan grabbed my arm, shaking me. I looked up.
And saw Kuwabara rise to his feet.
It took several seconds for it to sink in.
And then I began to laugh.
Hysterically.
"Kuwabara..." I giggled, "you... you idiot boy... I am so going to kill you...!"
"That's my job," Shizuru put in, looking a bit too happy about the idea of murdering of her recently revived brother, flipping open her Zippo and lighting a cigarette. She took one long drag, and then threw it to the ground, stomping on it with a little more force than was necessary.
"I'm so relieved Kazuma's okay..." Yukina said softly, hiding a small smile behind her hands.
It was a complete one-eighty from the sorrow and guilt that we had all been subjected to—we were all grinning now, happily, because we could see now...
That it had all been a ruse.
It must've.
I turned to talk to Keiko, then saw her and remembered.
Oh right.
Brain-dead.
I stepped over to where she was still kneeling, and knelt beside her, shaking her shoulder and talking quietly.
"Hey, Keiko... it's all right now."
She stared into space. Dazed and unaware.
I shook her a little less gently.
"Keiko... wake up. Yusuke's fine, and so is Kuwabara and..." I bit off the last name that I was going to say.
No giving in, I chided myself, letting my hand slip from Keiko's shoulder and rocking back on my heels, staring at her as she stared at nothing.
"Hey, I understand," I murmured. "It hurts when you think... when you think he's gone. Trust me, I know. But he's fine now. We all are."
Sounds of fighting instantly distracted me from my persuasion, and I looked up curiously, wondering who was fighting who and why.
I stood.
Of course.
Yusuke was obviously quite pissed, and I at least could understand why he was pounding Kuwabara's face in...
But he really was defeating the point, wasn't he?
Instead of shouting down at him to break it up, I simply chuckled into my hand, along with the rest of the girls. Yukina was guiltily trying to hide her amusement with her hand, but to no avail.
Finally, Yusuke released Kuwabara's shirt collar, and, after falling to the ground and struggling to get up for a few moments, Kuwabara sprang to his feet. And started walking to Yusuke, fist raised, revenge probably on his mind.
Then he hesitated, and his hand fell to his side. He stared at something across the arena, and I followed his gaze.
I frowned nervously, recognizing Sakyo.
I wished I could hear. Judging from the defensive ways that Team Urameshi were eyeing Sakyo, whatever the man was saying could not be good.
Once bitten, twice shy. Anything remotely life-threatening had my attention.
Sakyo's arm moved, and he reached into his pocket, pulling out something.
Recognition flooded through me. But it was not the object that Sakyo was holding, which was bulky and electronic...
But the way that he was holding it.
I instantly remembered one of Kurama's fights... his first one, I think, against Roto.
Roto hadn't been a very powerful demon, but he had posed a daunting complication... the trigger that he had been holding was directly tied to Ms. Minamino, Kurama's mother. Roto had his lackeys stalking her... and, with a simple push of the trigger, they would have attacked her. Roto had used that to beat Kurama into submission, then Kurama's anger had finally finished the fight. Roto had died instantly.
Kurama never was lenient to those who threatened the ones he loved.
And Sakyo... Sakyo was holding the thing with the same air. The same finality. The same power.
Like he was holding our lives in his hands.
I took a step forward, heart lurching into my throat, as Sakyo lifted his other hand to depress the trigger.
I was right.
A shudder ripped through the stadium, like an earthquake. I stumbled forward, almost slipping to my knees as the ground snapped underneath my feet like a towel. My palms were scraped raw as I balanced myself against the tremors, and my heart sank like a stone.
Then, a female, electronic voice. Too uncaring for the words that it uttered.
Stadium detonation now commencing. Fifteen minutes.
Botan and I gaped at each other. I had to look away from her quickly.
It couldn't be because of the promise I'd made. Because of Kurama's loss. Karasu was dead. That made the contract null and void... right? The blood slithered from my face as I realized that could be precisely why this was happening.
"Hell no," I snarled. Botan flinched away from me at the sound of my voice, as I pushed myself into a standing position. Dust rained down upon our heads. "We're getting out of here."
Stadium detonation, fourteen minutes. Stadium detonation, fourteen minutes.
As one, the demons began to riot, screaming and running desperately. Shards of rubble rained down on us.
I lurched from the quaking of the stadium, and whirled around to where Keiko was swaying, grabbing her shoulders and peering directly into her face.
"Keiko? Keiko? Do you hear that? We have to go, right now...!"
Nothing. No expression.
"W-what's wrong with her...?" Yukina asked uneasily, bending over the girl and shooting me a perplexed look.
I shook my head. "Shock, probably. I mean... all of this was probably too much to take." I stared at her, knowing that, just a short time ago, I hadn't been looking so hot either. When Kurama's fight took a turn for the worse, I'd been catatonic, too. Nothing registered.
"What do we do…?" Botan cried, stepping backwards towards us, watching the ceiling warily. I glanced at it too—with all of this shaking, the stadium might collapse before it blew.
Shizuru silently slipped away, setting off at a brisk pace. I watched her retreating back for a moment, then turned back to Keiko. After all, she was a Kuwabara. And apparently they were invincible. She could take care of herself.
"Keiko..." Yukina was saying.
"All right," I growled, and then bent forward, grabbing her arm and slinging it over my shoulders. I straightened up easily, and then…
Fire raked sharp nails of pain across my back, and with a strangled hiss, I dropped Keiko as carefully as I could, and fell to my knees beside her. Yukina fussed over me fretfully, and I hung my head, breathing deeply.
"We can't carry her out," I muttered after I had caught my breath, thinking of alternatives. "We don't have enough time to find an exit and haul her through it... maybe Jin could fly her out..." With that thought, I stood and turned, stepping down into the stone bleachers and peering through the cloud of dust that was being shaken from the walls, looking for a familiar shock of red hair.
No, only Kurama's, which was headed our way.
Kurama.
Relief again.
I shook it off angrily. Okay, not the time then, and certainly not the time now. Get a hold on yourself, Reina.
No Jin. But the boys were coming. I turned back to Keiko, Botan, and Yukina. If Yusuke just talked to Keiko, then maybe...
I walked back over to them.
"The boys are coming, I think."
"HOLD ON! YOUR LOVING AND LOYAL KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR IS COMING, MY SWEET YUKINA…!"
I looked back down, and, unsurprisingly, found Kuwabara carving a path through the fleeing demons, making a beeline towards us. Well, namely, Yukina.
"What do you know?" I said sarcastically, sniggering as Kuwabara galloped up the stairs. "I was right."
"She isn't responding to anything..." Yukina told me as I turned, kneeling down at Keiko's side.
"She's gone completely catatonic..." Botan said in defeat, sitting back on her heels. I reached out and shoved one of Keiko's shoulders. She wobbled slightly, but still didn't seem to be aware of anything at the moment.
"Hey Yukina, I'm here to rescue you...!"
Kuwabara was grinning idiotically, a few yards to my left, waving cheerily at us despite the rubble raining down around him.
"Kazuma," Yukina said breathlessly, rising to her feet and taking a few steps towards Kuwabara. "There's something wrong with Keiko... we can't get her to move or do anyth—"
She bit off her sentence, head whipping to one side as we all gasped aloud, as one.
A large section of the wall cracked away from the whole, and began to fall towards her, casting a dark an ominous shadow over her tiny form.
"YUKINA...!" I yelped, lunging forward, but it was too late. The section of wall slammed into the ground, and dust flew into my face. I stared dumbly at the airborne grit.
But when it cleared, I sighed in relief.
Hiei's arm was wrapped securely around his sister's waist; he had used his blinding speed to save her from harm.
"Whew," I said weakly, feeling a nervous smile quirk the edges of my lips up. "Nice save, Hiei..."
"Hn," he replied as per usual, and helped Yukina to her feet. He glared back at Kuwabara, who was still frozen.
"You are useless," he snapped.
Kuwabara seemed too shocked to say anything. My eyes slipped past him and landed on Yusuke, who was being held up by Kurama, and I took a few rushed steps forward.
"Yusuke..." I eyed the wall warily, and edged away from it. My eyes flicked back to Yusuke's. "Keiko... she's not well."
"What?" Lifting his arm from Kurama's shoulders, Yusuke limped forward. I reached out and grabbed his arm. He looked like he was about to topple over.
"How?" Yusuke asked curtly, eyeing Keiko as she stared into nothing. Another shudder shook the foundations.
"While you were fighting," I answered somberly, releasing his arm but shadowing him as he walked forward, afraid that he might fall.
"Post-traumatic stress," Botan added, wringing her hands. "And, like with everything else, Keiko excels at it!"
Yusuke sank to his knees beside her, and stared at her expressionless eyes.
"Hey, Keiko," he said softly.
Nothing.
He went from gentle to furious in the lesser part of a second. It was truly remarkable.
Yusuke grabbed Keiko's collar in both hands and shook her. "Hey! Did you hear me? I said hey, it's Yusuke! We can go home now...!"
Still, nothing. Keiko stared at Yusuke, but didn't seem to register his existence.
"Well, so much for that," Yusuke seethed between his teeth. His fingers clenched.
"Listen—I'm sorry but... we don't have any more time to talk!"
And, with that, he drew one hand back, keeping a firm hold on her collar with the other, and proceeded to slap her senseless.
Keiko's head jerked back and forth, red welts appearing on her cheeks, while we all cringed in horrified fascination from the blatant show of domestic abuse. I glanced next to me to give Kurama a: "Well, what are you going to do about this?" look, but he shook his head and winced as Yusuke continued to beat his girlfriend, screaming wordless garble at the top of his lungs.
Then, Keiko finally woke up.
"HOW DARE YOU—YOU JERK...!"
Keiko twisted out of Yusuke's grasp, and, barely batting an eye, she whipped her hand back and struck him. The force sent him flying backwards to land at my feet, and I recoiled, lifting my foot away from his dazed face, gaping down at the spectacle.
There was a long silence.
Then, Keiko snapped back into reality.
"Wha—where... what's going on?" she stammered, catching my gaze, eyes wide. She frowned a bit when she saw the look of apprehension on my features, then looked at my feet, and promptly gasped. "Yusuke!"
"I think he's dead," Kuwabara put in tactfully, poking the side of Yusuke's head.
I rolled my eyes, and bent down to Yusuke's level, grimacing at the saliva pooling around his mouth.
"He may have taken out and insanely powerful demon but... that's nothing compared to the fury of a woman scorned," I noted, lifting one of Yusuke's arms and pulling it around my shoulder. "Especially Keiko's fury…" Kurama sidestepped me, taking Yusuke's other arm and helping me heft the boy to his feet. My back twinged a little, but didn't sear in agony.
"Agreed," Kurama added, and our company started off for the exit.
Stadium detonation, three minutes. Stadium detonation, three minutes.
"What's the hold up?" Kuwabara cried loudly as we rounded another corner, and were greeted by a crowd of panicked demons.
We began to push through, and several demons hissed at us. I jerked off the Barrier Stone, and flexed my fingers at them, which sparked with energy.
"Back off if your life means anything to you," I snarled, shooting a jolt of electricity at one demon, who yelped and scampered off.
"Aw, damn..."
The exit was blocked by a pile of rubble, and we all stared up at it, aghast.
"Now what do we do?" Kuwabara asked, throwing up his hands.
"Get out of the way," Yusuke answered, pulling away from Kurama and staggering towards the obstacle. He stumbled, and Kurama and I automatically caught him.
"Don't be ridiculous, Yusuke," I chided wearily, shaking my head. "You'll kill yourself."
"You don't have any strength left," Kurama added.
Yusuke glowered at him. "Well, neither do you, so what's our choice?"
Stadium detonation, two minutes. Stadium detonation, two minutes.
"What do we do?" Botan cried. "We don't have time to find a new exit!"
I bit my lip and began thinking of ways to escape this alive.
I was thinking along the lines of having one of the demons in our group cast some of their spiritual energy into the rubble, so I could shoot mine at it and make the rocks explode, but cast that thought aside, realizing that the tunnel would probably collapse and I probably would black out. No way was I going to endanger one of my friends by forcing them to drag me out of here.
CRACK.
I stared at the rubble. A large fissure had split one of the larger boulders, and was growing.
CRACKKKK...
Then, with an earth-shaking BOOM, the rubble exploded.
Painful pieces of rock showered down on me, stinging my arms as I threw them up to protect my face. Several of our companions cried out, jerking back. Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the way.
"How goes it, mate?" A familiar voice boomed.
The smoke began to clear, and I instantly realized that the wall blocking our escape had been blasted through, obviously courtesy of the combined efforts of Jin, Touya, and Chu, who were standing proudly in the opening.
"...A lot better now, I guess," Yusuke said after a few moments of stunned silence, grinning.
Demons were pouring out of the opening, shrieking in fear but giving our demon rescuers a wide berth. Chu was pretty intimidating when he wanted to be.
I was beaming now, despite the shrapnel-sized rubble bouncing off of my head and shoulders.
"Right... I would love to hear what you lot have been doing all this time, but we really should be getting the hell out of here," I advised mildly, smirking.
"Good idea!" Botan cried in agreement, and darted through the opening, latching onto my arm and scampering for freedom.
I managed a few glances back as Botan jerked me after her like I was a ragdoll, and could see that Hiei was keeping pace with his sister, strides clipped and military, frowning—irritated because he was traveling at semi-human speed. Yusuke and Kurama seemed to be doing all right, and Keiko was bringing up the rear, clutching a frantically chirping Puu and trying to keep up with Yusuke.
Kuwabara was running like a madman after Hiei and Yukina, waving his arms wildly and bellowing wordless oaths. In that way, he managed to keep the fleeing apparitions from crowding us; they shied automatically from his insanity and streaked across the field as we broke free of the stadium, darting jerkily through the grass.
It was almost like a nightmare, but not quite. I could hear the stadium crumbling, could hear the disembodied robotic voice counting down to its demise... but in that second before the blast, a small grin slipped onto my features, and I felt free.
Karasu was dead.
Kurama was alive.
My friends and I were back together again.
And in that very second, the stadium exploded.
The force of the fiery blast sent most of us sprawling to the ground. Ironically, the wounded fighters of our group kept their footing and skidded to a halt to whip around and look back at the destruction.
I shoved Botan's arm off of my face, checking to see if she was all right (she seemed dazed but unharmed) and craned my head for a better look, raising a hand in front of my face to shield my eyes.
Where the stadium had been, there was now a towering pillar of smoke, flame, and ash. It was ten times bigger than the structure, and I felt my mouth pop open in awe as I watched the mushroom cloud billow into the atmosphere.
Holy hell.
Botan gave me a strange look that told me I had uttered my oxymoronic sentiments aloud, but I ignored her and shoved myself to my feet, not bothering to brush the grass off of my jeans.
I eventually wandered to the front of the group, because Kuwabara (who was excitedly shouting something about action movie escapes) was blocking my view of the sinister, yet oddly fascinating devastation.
Nothing in there could've survived.
Nothing...
My hand leaped to my mouth as I realized who was missing.
Shizuru and Koenma! Damnit damnit damnit...!
I looked about me for a wild second of panic, then I saw them. Shizuru was actually standing next to me, not looking at me. Koenma was a little ways off to my left.
How they had gotten out without my noticing, I don't know. But I was most definitely relieved to see that they had escaped with the rest of us.
"Pretty damn incredible," Shizuru muttered dispassionately, hand clutched around a rectangular black thing, eyes—startlingly—shining with unshed tears. I hurriedly averted my gaze, partly out of respect for Shizuru's emotions, but mostly because if she knew that I had seen her crying, she would never allow me to leave the island alive. Not with that sort of sensitive information...
Someone prodded my shoulder gently, and I looked up to see Kurama smiling in an odd way down at me.
"You are not hurt?" he questioned, the concern genuine, eyes scanning my features for any injury or falsehood.
I was momentarily speechless from the absurdity of his inquiry.
Kurama looked like hell. And not even holy hell.
His face was clear, barely bruised. But every bandage Botan, Yukina, and I had put on him had been bled through. My eyes darted down and up, and I took in the long, blood-spotted bandage he was sporting on one of his legs, and the gauze wrapping his arm.
"Um, Kurama..." I said slowly, for the first time in my life speaking to him as if he were retarded, "You're asking me if I'm hurt? Have you seen yourself...? You look like—like..." I tried to come up with a comparison, but failed and spluttered into stunned silence.
"You look like hell," I managed finally, frowning worriedly.
I leaned forward, peering concernedly up into his face.
"You okay?" I murmured.
Something flashed in his eyes, then he smiled. It looked off, forced.
"You cannot imagine," he replied, and looked away, up at the flames streaking high, slurring the horizon into a sinister mix of sparks and blue skies.
That silence again.
No, Kurama. I followed his gaze, somehow, even after all of this, feeling content.
I think I can, actually.
The Dark Tournament had ended with most of us alive and (somewhat) intact. Everyone was sporting some kind of wound, limping along. However, Yusuke had said something.
He had looked up at the sky, and called out to Genkai.
Telling her that we had finished it.
Then it really hit me... Genkai was dead.
I knew that maybe I had been a little preoccupied back there, and there wasn't really time to mourn with the last fight going on and the stadium, (not to mention the entire structure falling down around us.) It was a little distracting, I knew...
But I also knew that I should be sad about Genkai's death… after all, I owed the psychic my life. She restarted my heart, quite literally bringing me back to life, after Karasu's attack.
But I never knew her.
I don't think I even spoke to her… not once.
Besides the time that I had said one word to her when she had possessed Puu... but...
But she was dead, and, guiltily, I realized that it didn't bother me as much as it should've. She was… essentially, a stranger to me. I wasn't privy to what made Yusuke uncharacteristically silent as we made our way back to the hotel, because I knew, from the look in his eyes, his furrowed brow, that he was deep in thought over her death. I couldn't relate to him, or anyone else in the group.
…Well, except for Keiko. She had the same look in her eyes, the "I'm-confused-but-I'm-not-going-to-say-anything" expression. Like me, she realized that Genkai was a sore subject, and she didn't comment on it out of respect for the departed.
Of course, my awkwardness didn't go unnoticed. As per usual, Kurama was observing everyone around him with a keen eye, and the fact that I was keeping pace with him didn't help much.
"It's over," Kurama observed quietly, carefully, glancing down at me as we trudged, with the other survivors, down the path.
I nodded and "mhm'd" for his benefit, not really paying attention, absorbing myself in thought.
I would think about it tomorrow. Sort out what was guilt, and what was genuine sorrow. I wouldn't disrespect Genkai's memory with uncertainty.
But, as I decided on that, another musing reared up and captured my thoughts. I allowed myself to think of it.
Things were different.
But, somehow… they were exactly the same.
Kurama and I had both changed from this. I could feel it in the very fiber of my being; I could see it in his eyes.
I hesitated in the middle of the path, staring hard at the ground. Kurama paused too, and turned to give me a questioning look.
"Reina…?"
I didn't look up. Instead, I turned and looked back.
The smoke of the ruined stadium rose black against the sky, a stain against the clouds.
Yes, I had changed. We both had. Equally.
"Things will never be the same again," I heard myself say slowly, watching the smoke as it made its ugly way into the atmosphere.
Kurama didn't answer.
I pivoted slightly, and studied him.
His face and expression stood out, dimming the world around him into nothing. His face was a beacon, drawing looks from the demons passing us, and fixing my eyes on his irrevocably.
He would always look that way.
And it wouldn't be just me who noticed that, either. The world would see him and recognize him as someone who had seen things, too many things for a lifetime.
He had aged.
"You've changed," I said quietly. "We all have."
And I saw that he understood exactly what I meant.
His head inclined slightly, and he looked me straight in the eye. The message was clear before he even opened his mouth to speak.
"We will not forget," Kurama told me, words clear, every syllable weighted and precise. "We cannot."
There was a silence.
"We shouldn't," I added in a strangely light tone. I nodded to myself. "We owe them that. Ryo and Genkai…"
His name didn't hurt anymore.
I considered that.
Maybe it was because that—Ryo's death—had not been rock bottom. And when I had hit it, when I'd thought Kurama had died… well… I had survived the absolute worst, and everything else was something that I knew that I could recover from, somehow.
And I think that Kurama understood that. Because, as we stood in silence, he lifted a hand and stretched it out to me. A wordless, but no less appreciated, reassurance.
I stepped towards him, and our fingers met. His hand was strong and warm.
We continued on, and didn't speak.
It wasn't necessary.
Wait a sec... there's something off here...
Eh? No cliffhanger! ;)
The next chapter is the epilogue. Somehow I lost two chapters in this revision; I don't know how I did it—nothing was left out. We're ending with 28 chapters where there used to be 30. Eh, oh well. It's still an even number.
But yes, the next chapter of ATG is also the last. Stay tuned for the sequel, With the Tide!