Dead Dreams
"I feel I was able to get to know him the most, having met him as an adolescent," Kurama said, his voice competing with the sound of tears. "Glaring and growling aside, he was really a very shy and even gentle soul."
Kuwabara rested his head in his hands as he wept; his older sister had her arm across his shoulders in a comforting gesture. Kurama gripped the podium edge tightly, trying to keep himself together. The room was dim, and dark; lined with rows of benches facing a raised platform that gave way to the outside; a calm and still nature. The cool of the night hosted a reddened moon over an endless garden-like place; silent stones stood vigilant through the mist like solemn little watchmen over their charges of bones.
"I had never entertained the notion of him dieing, let alone in an open act of compassion. Normally he would squash any such thought purely for fear of rejection."
Yusuke, his green jumpsuit replaced with black, was sitting bolt upright, his tough-guy look interrupted by the tears steaming down his face. Keiko, who sat next to him on the pew, took his hand and laced her fingers with his. For his sake as well as hers, she gave her boyfriend no words that might break the fragility of his heart.
"Many thought of him as a great fighter, and a master of many elements, but he only ever considered himself a shadow; just a thief, a criminal… forbidden."
Yukina buried her fair face into the blackened sleeves of her yukata, resting her arms on Botan's lap as the ferry girl stroked the girl's hair.
"He never seemed to listen to our words, or anything any one would tell him, but I'm convinced he knew how much he really was cherished by his friends and allies. I wish he hadn't left us so abruptly, but I can tell from the way he would sneer a little less around us and from the passion in him as he died, that he cared about us." Folding his arms to rest on the podium, Kurama finally let his own tears flow.
Koenma himself had attended, as well as Mukuro and several other persons who were connected to the deceased. Clothed all in black, they came one by one to his body to pay their last respects. Tucked safely under a gossamer layer, the young warrior's face was finally calm and restful. Kurama came first and placed a special rose by his head, its form also doomed to wither, but its value not forgotten. Yusuke stood very silent before the casket, Keiko at his arm for support. Nodding curtly in respect, he ambled away, back to the pew in silent tears. Kuwabara came next, supporting Yukina's frail form on his arm. The little Koorime was heartbroken; she felt like she had lost a limb. She held two precious gems at her throat, each strung on its own cord. Each person passed; either giving last words or a trinket to the empty vessel, or stumbling away in grief. Until the last was Botan, she was hidden behind a veil just like the deceased.
Fingering the bandage on her chest, just beneath her kimono, Botan was nearly silent. On top of her grief, she felt irrational guilt. "I'm sorry I did this to you. I'm so sorry I killed you, Hiei!"
TBC
