Beaten

Starlite: I don't own anything but the plot! Remember to review.

Yusuke was stressed out, Kuwabara was tired and Kurama and Hiei had had enough of fighting for a while. They had just defeated a huge enemy and needed a good way to relax. The girls knew all the good ways to do that, as always. Yukina's idea was the best. The mall, a perfect place to relax after a few long weeks of battle. What could go wrong? Unfortunately, they didn't know how wrong things could go.

They had just had lunch. The girls had gone shoe shopping leaving the guys behind to relax at the arcade. Hiei had went to a store that sold weapons and Kurama went to a book store. Kuwabara and Yusuke were racing each other in their video game world.

"Heh! Looks like I'm gonna beat you today, Urameshi!" Kuwabara chuckled.

"Yeah! That's about the only thing you can beat me in!" Yusuke yelled from the other side of the machine.

"Yes! Victory! In your face!"

"Don't get used to it. I'll win next time."

AHHHHH!!!! SOMEONE HELP ME!! ANYBODY!!

Kazuma knew that scream anywhere. It was Yukina and she was in trouble. He couldn't believe that nobody was running in the direction of the screams to find out what was wrong. Nobody even looked up.

His senses took him to a very odd shop. It was large and had very little lighting, a perfect place for strange men to gather.

When he found Yukina he saw a large man on top of her. He was clearly trying to rape her. He did what any man would do to defend his girl. He ran up to the strange man and kicked him in the head. The man turned around and started curing and grabbed Yukina up by the hair and held a knife to her neck.

"You make one wrong move and the girl dies."

Kuwabara glared at the man, but as soon as the man had slightly let his guard down Kazuma ran up to the man who was harassing Yukina. He barely had enough time to blink before the man had wheeled around and drove the dagger through his stomach. Yusuke was just getting there and when he saw what had happened, he fired a huge spirit gun killing the strange man in an instant.

"Kuwabara! Are you alright?!" Yusuke looked worried.

"Yeah. Never better." Kuwa grunted, blood splashing out of his mouth as he spoke. "Where's Yukina?"

"Right here. She's fine. No damage was done."

Yukina walked over to Kazuma, gently putting her hand on his face. Tear gems were freely hitting the floor now. She tried to fake a smile and look him in the eyes.

"Kazuma, does it hurt?"

"Nah. Doesn't matter. I've still got to live. I can't die without beating Urameshi first."

"Stubborn oaf. You really have your priorities screwed up. You are sitting here with a beautiful girl crying over you and all you want to live for is a victory over me. Will your dying wish be to defeat me?"

"Not if...not if I beat you."

Kurama, Hiei, Shizuru, Keiko, and Botan had found their way to the strange store. They were shocked at what they saw.

"Kazuma! Kazuma, what happened?!" Shizuru cried.

"I was saving Yukina."

"Figures. Can you walk?"

"Umm, Shizuru? May I have a word with you?" Kurama said, pulling Shizuru over to him to explain the situation. All that could be heard in the room was Shizuru's wailing.

Hiei glared at him. The two had never gotten along, but then might have been a good time to settle petty differences.

"Baka. Baka, baka, baka. I ought to kill you myself. You swore to me that you would NEVER hurt Yukina!" He yelled barely choking bake a very rare thing for him, tear gems.

"Yeah. I guess that is what I could say hurts the worst." he coughed.

"Kuwabara, can you hold on while I go get help?" Botan asked.

"Don't bother. I want to with all of my friends right now." Thoughts of death were now sinking in.

"Don't be like that, brother. You'll make it. Your will to live is too high."

"Yeah, but you can't beat death. It's something that happens to everyone. Some more than others." he looked at Yusuke and smiled. "It would happen sooner or later."

"Yeah. But you could have delayed it. Put it off 'til later like you do with your homework." Yusuke was now crying freely.

"But that wasn't the right thing to do..." Kuwabara was drifting slowly into oblivion.

"Stupid!" Yusuke ran up to Kuwabara and hugged him around the neck. "You did it. You beat me. In more ways that one too. You may not be able to hear me right now, but I hope you can. I was never a good person like you were. You were the first to really know what love was, love isn't flipping skirts and playing pranks. You never gave up. You always looked on the bright side of things. Why give up now! Life was just getting good!" Yusuke was crying so hard he was about to collapse on his fallen friend. Kurama, who was also crying, pulled him away.

"He's gone now. For real this time."

"Yeah, and he never knew it. He never knew that he beat me. He beat me! Do you hear me, asshole! You won! You always told me that you were going to make me cry! Well you did it! Are you happy?! You beat me."

Kuwabara was hovering directly above them looking at them and himself.

"Yeah, I always knew that was how things would be."

Starlite: AHHHH! TEARJERKER!!! -cries- Poor Kuwa! I love him so much and now look at me! I killed him! Please REVIEW!