Disclaimer: Don't own. Whatever.

AN: For those of you who haven't read this part in the mange, it's considerably different than the anime. Ren is stabbed through the chest area by Peyote's Grand Phantasma, and ultimately dies. Okay, I'll end the spoilers there; I only needed to state that for the sake of the story.
Some of it really happened, some of it didn't. I think you'll be able to figure it out.

Told in Horohoro's POV.

If you don't like blood and gore, please don't read.

I didn't have time to think.

What a fool I must be.

I just stood.

And watched.

And let them kill him.

The blade went right through him, practically splitting him in half. He looked so small, so fragile, so helpless. My eyes must have looked like giant dinner plates as his lifeless body slowly fell to the floor.

Everything seemed to be in slow-motion: Hao's little cronies grinning in triumph, Ren's blood spraying everywhere, the horrified expressions creeping upon the faces of Chocolove and me. He fell, so slowly, so painfully, an eternity must have flown by. I was surprised all my hair was still blue and I didn't have a beard.

At last, he hit the ground with a sickening thud, his blood flowing onto the dry earth. So much blood, the most I had ever seen in my life. It was everywhere. On the ground, on our faces, on our clothes, on the blade that had cruelly stolen his life. So red, so deep, so tragic.

I begged him to stop joking around. I tried to convince myself at first he was playing some stupid game. It was a joke even Chocolove wouldn't have been able to pull off. But I knew, deep in my heart, that Ren wasn't that kind of guy. I approached him, carefully placing my hand on his face. It was stone cold.

I knew that he had died before he had even landed on the ground. Almost all his internal organs had to be severely damaged, including his still, lifeless heart. I felt like screaming, I felt like crying, I felt like throwing up.

The look on his face made me sick. His eyes were gently closed, and his mouth was half open, like he didn't have any time to take one last breath before it happened. My tears soon began to mingle with the blood all over his body.

My eyes slowly inched down his body, dreading what I forced them to behold. A huge gash ran down the majority of his limp body, still leaking scarlet rivers. As I scooped up his cold body, I found his intestines spilling onto my hands, slick with blood.

I bit my lip, carrying him to a large rock nearby. I placed his corpse down, and I glanced at Chocolove, who seemed too shocked for words. My hands, now stained crimson with Ren's blood, clenched as I turned my gaze to Hao's minions. They killed him. They had mercilessly slaughtered one of my best friends. They had commited an unforgivable act of murder, and I couldn't contain myself anymore. My heart swallowed my sorrow with a flame of pure hatred. I despised them all, I wanted to rip them limb from limb. I wanted them to die a death a million times more painful than the one they had delivered Ren, I wanted to avenge his death.

Fury took over all my senses as I blindly charged, yelling like a maniac. Chocolove must have lost it, too, because he had already engaged his oversoul. Without missing a beat, I whipped out my ikupasuy and fought. I felt something cut me, I didn't know what it was, but I didn't care. I ignored the searing pain and went on, plowing through my enemies like a blizzard. I struck left and right, and I didn't even know if I was stopping to aim or not. I was too mad to care, anyways.

I felt myself being knocked back, hitting the ground. I think a bone in one of my arms might have snapped, but I didn't care. The only thing I did care about at the moment was avenging Ren's death, and wiping them out. I stumbled back to my feet and went again.

Not too far away, I saw Chocolove go down out of the corner of my eye. He was back in within a few seconds, though, so I didn't pause at all.

I was struck down again.

I rose again.

I fought again.

This went on for so long that I lost count of the times I had been knocked back. Keeping tally was the least of my worries though. I kept fighting, but I wasn't strong enough.

I fell again. I felt weak. I felt worthless. I couldn't even avenge Ren.

I didn't feel like getting up again. My anger dissipated back into sadness.

I didn't care anymore if they just killed me. So much the better; I'd be with Ren again.

But, no. Things didn't exactly go like that.

Yoh appeared, with his gigantic oversoul. He knocked all of them out with practically one blow.

Amazing.

It was revenge certainly worthy for Ren. Unlike me, who couldn't do anything except maybe land a few scratches.

Faust and Eliza were with him. Faust, a doctor. Chocolove pleaded with him to take a look at Ren and try to save him, and I resisted the urge to join him. I knew, deep in my heart, it was too late. There was nothing any of us could do about it. Countering Death is a near impossible job.

I took one last look at him. He looked so peaceful, maybe like he was just asleep. I would have thought that myself if it wasn't for that horrible wound. Tears flowed freely down my cheeks as I reached out to touch him one last time. Just one last time.

I couldn't bring myself to do it, I was too insane with grief. I must have been blubbering like a baby. If Ren was still alive, he would have smacked me. I almost expected it, but I reminded myself that Ren was dead. He would never smack me, let alone scold me, argue with me, force me to eat Chinese food, or fight by my side ever again.

I was going to really miss those days.

Goodbye, Ren.