Yuusuke's no hero, and he'll let no one say otherwise. Heroes don't get up, because they don't fall.
Keiko once tries to call him her hero, and he gets this look. Then he pushes her away and walks out the door without a backward glance. He returns just as she's beginning to doubt he ever will, two days later. He's in the same clothes as when he left and looks like crap, like he hasn't slept in all that time. His clothes are torn from injuries that have already healed over.
She rushes to fuss over him. He pushes her away again, more gently this time, and says in a low, rough mutter, I'm nobody's hero.
Keiko suspects he's thinking of a man with orange hair and a loud voice.
They are having one of their fights that are only half-harmless. There is the usual banter and verbal exchange. it's meant to distract, to sting. Yuusuke's already mentioned Yukina; it puts a thorn in Hiei's side that he's determined to make the Mazoku feel as well.
You're the hero who can't save anyone when it matters.
He knows he's gone too far when Yuusuke's face shuts down in a way it was never meant to. Hiei is nervous then. When Yuusuke goes fully demon and pulls out a reigun that would make his father proud, Hiei is scared.
When Yuusuke launches it and it's too fast for him to dodge, he thinks he's going to die.
Hiei's no weakling, but Yuusuke feeds off of his emotions even more than Mokuro does. The half-demon is powerful when he's happyily playing around; at his most rancorous-when he is feeling so much that it almost literally kills every other emotion and makes his face go blank as a watiing blackboard-he can probably take on Kurama and Hiei at the same time, and hold them off, if not defeat them.
Hiei doesn't know if the ex-spirit detective came back to himself a little bit, or if he is just strong enough to survive the blast, or if it is pure chance, but he lives. He is so injured that the wounds might kill him even if the reigun itself didn't. Still, he survives the first five minutes. In general, what doesn't kill a demon in the first five minutes won't do the job at all.
Yuusuke is gone, and Hiei honestly cannot blame him. When he next sees the Mazoku, it is in full view of Kurama, Keiko, Koenma, and all their other friends.
Hiei apologizes, and he means it.
They are mourning the death of a man who went far before his time.
No one knows what exactly Kurama said to Yuusuke when he finally managed to corner him, but the half-human vanishes for a very long time.
The next time anyone sees him, Yuusuke is laughing like he hasn't in years. He's smiling and it isn't fake.
Keiko accepts without understanding.
Hiei understands all too well, and the difference between them is highlighted by the fact that he can't accept it.
Kurama accepts and understands.
Heroes don't get up, because they don't fall.
Yuusuke is always falling down. Some landings are just harder than others, and make it harder to get back up. But Yuusuke's still standing, even if with the help of his friends.
That's what they're here for, anyway.
