Sayanora wa Mirai no Hajimari
(Goodbye Is The Beginning Of The Future)
By Youko Alexandra


A/N: My Yu Yu Hakusho song-fic. The lyrics are in Japanese, but I'll post the English translation at the end. Thank you for listening!! Please R&R! I love getting reviews! ^_^


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Yozora ga hiraku koro
Matataku ake no hoshi
Yami ni ikiteta ore no kokoro ni
Tomotta yume no yo sa
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Hiei turned away from the others, his blood-red eyes searching the landscape before him.
"Hiei." He heard a solemn voice say. He turned to find the black-haired human, Yusuke, looking at him.
"What?" The Youkai asked, "What do you want?"
"You know, you don't have to leave.." Yusuke wanted him to stay. They wouldn't be the Reikai Tantei without Hiei...
"Can't stay." Hiei said simply, "This is the only way. I have to go."
"But Hiei, please. Don't go. It won't be the same without you." Yusuke pleaded, but Hiei showed no signs of even hearing him.
"I can't. I told you." Hiei was patient, if barely, with Yusuke's pleas.
"We won't be the Reikai Tantei without you, y'know.." Yusuke tried to keep on track, "Where will you go? Do you even have anywhere to stay?"
He had a point, Hiei had to admit.
"I'll figure that problem out when I get to it." Hiei replied.
"I've got to go, Yusuke." Hiei said, then added, as if as an afterthought, "Please, understand. I don't belong here."
"Hiei, you can't go now." Yusuke said, "How are we gonna beat those A- and S-classes without your help?"
"Goodbye, Yusuke." Hiei said while walking away.
Yusuke turned. "Goodbye, Hiei."
Behind him, he heard Hiei say to him, "Remember me. Goodbye is only the beginning of the future.. Don't forget me, I'll be back."

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Wasurenai
Tozasareta kono mune o
Aketa kimi o
Kyou no sayanora wa mirai no hajimari
Iku michi ga ima wa betsu to shite mo
Tsuko basho wa hitotsu
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As he watched Hiei and Yusuke talk, Kurama was silent.
Let them speak, he thought, maybe Yusuke can convince him to stay..
Kuwabara almost said something, but caught a glare from Kurama that clearly meant to let Yusuke handle it, he would only make things worse.
He heard Yusuke say that they wouldn't be the Reikai Tantei without Hiei. True. Very, painfully, true.
Kurama felt as though he was losing a brother. But no, not a brother. A friend. His first, and best, true friend.
He felt for Hiei, how it must feel to be so alienated in all worlds, either by Kuwabara in the Ningenkai, Koenma in the Reikai, or his own family in the Makai. He knew Hiei didn't think he could, or would, ever fit in with the others.
He knew because he felt that way sometimes.
"Goodbye, Yusuke." Hiei's voice snapped him back to reality, as he watched Hiei speak.
"Sayanora, Hiei-san." Kurama muttered.
As Hiei turned away, Kurama could swear that he saw the glitter of silver tears on the fire demon's cheeks.

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Deaeta koto sae mo
Kiseki to yonde ii
Tomo ni hashitta tsukihi o subete
Hokori ni dekiru kara
Arukidasu
Kono mune no kienu hoshi
Tsurete iku yo
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Hiei walked on, ashamed for crying, yet not making any move to wipe the tears away.
I can't stay away forever, he thought, it would kill me. They're my.... my friends..
Friends? But, Hiei surely didn't have friends. He never had.
But he did.
He walked for a long time, ignoring anyone who passed him by.
"Goodbye is not forever." He muttered, "This is just the beginning for me. For all of us."
He smiled slightly, watching the silvery tears fall to the ground.
They were a slight silver-gold color, reflecting the setting sun.
Almost under his breath he hummed a song he had heard in the Ningenkai, reflecting on his far-past, and, more recently, his time with the Reikai Tantei, to whom he had been assigned when Yusuke had caught him for stealing the Sword, one of the three artifacts from the Reikai.
He remembered it clearly, one of his few defeats.
Briefly he wondered why he kept coming back, but he soon banished the thought from his mind.
He had friends there.
Of course he came back.

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Kitto sayanora wa piriodo ja nai sa
Eien no saka o nobotte yukeba
Kimi to mata aeru
Kyou no sayanora wa mirai no hajimari
Kokoro nara ore wa soba ni iru sa
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Kurama watched until even the dark shape of Hiei's shadow had dissappeared from sight.
His best friend was gone. Perhaps forever.
No, Kurama repremanded himself, never say forever. It never happens that way. I'll see him again.
"Why'd he go like that?" Yusuke wanted to know, but Kurama never had an answer for him.
"I don't know." He replied, "I just don't know."
In actuality, he did know, but he knew also that Yusuke wouldn't take the real answer well.
Hiei had left because he felt he didn't belong. Yusuke would simply insist that, of course Hiei knew he belonged, he always had. It wouldn't be the truth, though. Even Yusuke knew that Hiei had never really fit into their group, and perhaps that was what had made him so special to them. He was the one who never really came in with the group, although it was clear that they were comrades and friends. He just had a hard time showing it, and felt he didn't belong with them because he couldn't find it in him to come together with the rest of the group.
Kuwabara was a little sad, too. After all, he had always been so cruel to Hiei, and now he had left, and Kuwabara felt a little guilty, despite Kurama and Yusuke both telling him that it wasn't his fault, it was, in Yusuke's words, "Hiei's own damn fault."
But Kurama didn't think so. Maybe it was no one's fault.
Silently Kurama prayed that Hiei would come back, and soon.

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Kitto sayanora wa piriodo ja nai sa
Iku michi ga betsu to shite mo
Tsuku basho wa hitotsu
Sou sa sayanora wa subete no hajimari
Dare mo mina tabi no tochu da kara
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One month. He had been away from the Reikai Tantei for one whole month.
Gods, it seemed like years. So long, and so many miles seperated them.
Hiei had pretty much gone in the same direction, not caring much about the demons he encountered along the way, many of whom ran away, recognizing the short, black-haired fire demon.
Better that way, Hiei thought calmly, if I had to kill any demons, Koenma would have my head.
Suddenly Hiei felt a pang of something in his chest. It seemed like... loneliness? And sadness. He missed his friends in the Reikai Tantei badly, even after just one month.
Dammit, am I ever going to be free again, he thought angrily. Never mind, he added silently, I won't. Dammit.
Finally he looked back, just once. It was enough.
Turning back the way he had come, Hiei started the long trek home.

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Sou sa sayanora wa piriodo ja nai sa
Eien no saka o nobotte yukeba
Itsu ka mata aeru...
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There was a knock on the door. Seeing that no one else was in the immediate vicinity of the door, Kurama reluctantly moved to open the plain wooden door.
For the past month, Kurama had jumped up every time someone was at the door, praying that it was Hiei. It never was.
Opening the door, Kurama just stared. Looking up at him was Hiei, looking a little bit more-so worse for the wear.
"K'rama?" Hiei asked, looking at his red-headed Youko friend.
"I'm glad you're back, Hiei." Kurama said.
"I told you." Hiei said, "Goodbye is only the beginning of the future. I couldn't leave forever."
"Hiei," Kurama laughed, "You are so strange."
"Well, I was right, wasn't I?"

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A/N: Okay thank you so much for reading my story, and please review! I love getting reviews, especially positive ones (*hint, hint*). Here's your reward, the translated lyrics:

Sayanora wa Mirai no Hajimari
(Goodbye Is The Beginning Of The Future)

The shiny stars blink
This is how the night's sky opens
It's like if a dream lit up
In the darkness in which my soul lived

I won't forget
I won't forget you, who opened
My closed heart

Today's goodbye is the beginning of the future
Even if our ways are different
Our destination is one and the same

You can call a miracle
The things that I faced
Because we'll reach proudly
This tomorrow that together we pursued

Walking
I take in my heart
A star that doesn't go out

Surely goodbye isn't forever
If I climb the mountain of eternity
I'll reunite with you

Today's goodbye is the beginning of the future
If it comes from the heart, I'll be at your side

Surely goodbye isn't forever
Even if our ways are different
Our destination is one and the same

This goodbye is the beginning of everything
Because we're only at the middle of the way

This goodbye isn't forever
If I climb the mountain of eternity
I'll reunite with you...