Epilogue
Welp, this is the VERY LAST and FINAL chapter for this story! I have had so much fun with this fanfic, and I'm glad others got to read my story. Enjoy the epilogue!
Update: Those of you who like the Tron family, check out my story "Special Illusion"! :D
A lone woman named Mariah entered Heartland City Cemetery in solemn silence. The female's quietness showed that she was in a depressed mood. A black hooded robe covered most of her body and her face. Not even the moon's light showed her face. She lowered her head as she walked past the rows of gravestones at both of her sides. She had no care for the other graves, there was only one specific grave that she seeked.
"That lone grave…. on that hill…. It is there," said Mariah quietly. "I must get there now!"
After passing more rows of graves beneath the hill, Mariah climbed up the stairs. She was in awe as she stated at a marble white building in front of her. Placing her hand on the door, she felt an essence from the other side. Taking a deep breath, the cloaked woman slowly opened the door.
The tomb was empty and was newly built. There was nothing inside to decorate the tomb. In the middle of the room laid a brown coffin on top of a stone altar.
"Oh my… I never knew his tomb would be like this…. So lonely and isolated…." whispered Mariah, a hint of sadness in her voice.
Below the coffin rested a plaque. Kneeling down, the woman read each and every word etched into the copper.
KURAI TSUKUMO
1995-2012
"No….." whispered Mariah hoarsely. She shook and shook reading word after word. Her mind raced intensely, she began to slightly hyperventilate. Not willing to hold in her feelings, the woman lost her patience. She slammed her fist against the plaque in hurt and in confusion.
In desperation, the tear-stained Mariah quickly moved the flowers covering the top of the coffin. Slowly, she took a deep breath and lifted the top.
Inside the coffin laid a deceased Kurai. His chest had been stitched to conceal the hole where he was shot by Kotori. Most of his clothes remained intact, and in his hands laid a small white rose. His eyes remained shut for what seemed like eternity.
The woman gasped and breathed heavily in shock and grief by the sight of seeing Kurai's dead body. She placed her hand over Kurai's heart.
"Don't tell me you're dead, don't tell me you're dead," she repeated over and over in sadnesses.
Sadly, she felt no heartbeat at all. Kurai showed no signs of breathing, and she had to accept that he was no longer alive.
Sighing, Mariah decided to lower her hood. Her face could finally be revealed. She was a beautiful woman with long, flowing blue hair, and her hair tips had a dash of red. Her ruby red eyes were filled with tears as she looked at the body even more. Overall, she looked somewhat like Yuma's mother.
The dark-haired woman slung her head on Kurai's chest, releasing every tear she dispersed. Her hands grasped around the silver Lord's Key. "I remember leaving this Key with you when you were a baby. It was one of my most important possessions. I am surprised you would hold onto this…"
As Mariah moved her hands around Kurai's body, they came in contact with the boy's chest scars. They felt rugged and soft, but she could see the marks it left. "Kurai, I am so sorry," Mariah stuttered between tears, "I-I-I never should've left you at that orphanage after you were born. What kind of mother am I to my only child? I abandoned you when you were just born, and the next time I finally see you again, you're…. Dead."
"It is your fault Kurai is dead," sneered a mocking voice.
Mariah quickly shut the coffin's top in fear and scanned the entire tomb. The door was still open, but Kurai's tomb was dimly lit. Anger built up inside of the upset and hurt mother.
"Whoever you are, can't you see that my only child is DEAD? Have you no respect for a grieving mother? How would you feel if you never saw your son again for fifteen freaking years? ANSWER ME!" shouted Mariah angrily.
To Mariah's surprise, a silhouette dropped from the roof. When the silhouette steeped into the moonlight, the woman could tell that the figure was dressed all in black, and a mask resembling Keaton the Ghost Fox covered the mystery person's face. Behind the mask, a smirk spread across the wearer's face.
"Hello….. Mariah Tsukumo…. It's been too long since I finally meet you….. So, I heard that you are at fault for Kurai's death. Is this true?" mocked the figure.
Mariah flinched at the shadow's statement. She held back tears and boldly shouted, "Stop that! It is NOT my fault my only son is dead! I couldn't even take care of him before he was even born! I had no choice but to leave him for another family!"
"You say it like you have no one else to blame. Am I correct? Technically, you're at fault, because you tossed Kurai away like garbage," the figure snapped.
The shadow came closer and closer towards Mariah. In response, the woman backed away in fear.
"W-what do you want from me?" cried Mariah.
The figure loomed over the woman, smiling evilly. "I want you DEAD," she spat venomously.
A blade was drawn from the figure's jacket, looming above Mariah's head. The blade's sharpness slightly intimidated the brunette, and she winced at it.
"Say goodnight, forever, Mariah!" spat the sillhouette.
In a flash, Mariah felt something pierce through her heart. She resized that a blade had been lunged through her chest. Blood started to drip down her body. Mariah started to hyperventilate. She grasped her neck and held it attempting to breath.
"You…. You stabbed me…" wheezed Mariah. "Why?…." she cried, trying to breathe.
"Heh, that's for me to know and for you to never learn! Take it or leave it. Have fun in the afterlife, Mariah!" mocked the silhouette. "3…. 2…. 1…"
Mariah felt her eyes close on their own, and her body began to shut down. Everything started to go dark as her body continued to cease activity. The whole world felt completely white to Mariah.
"Kurai….. Forgive me… I've been such a terrible mother…" whispered Mariah hoarsely, "you will never hear from me ever again…."
BRING! BRING!
At the stroke of midnight, Mariah felt her entire world collapse in front of her. Everything became white, she could no longer function properly, and life was about to end for her. Finally, Mariah took one last breath, then she fell onto the floor.
She never woke up ever again.
The silhouette smiled evilly at her dead target. Blood started to circle around the corpse, leaving her in a pool of blood. The girl scrunched her fists together in success. "Now that the stupid woman is out of the way, it's time to finish my mission!" she said with determination.
The girl walked up to the coffin and careful lifted it open. Once it was open, she stared at Kurai's body in awe. Kurai laid in his coffin like a doll sealed inside its packaging. What made the girl stare at Kurai's corpse even more were the chest scars. I remember when Kurai had received those scars! That was the day that blasted ninja assaulted him! I swear, when I see him, I will make him pay! What am I thinking? I have a mission to fulfill!
The girl reached into her bag searching for an item. She moved her hand around feeling for things. So far, she only found trinkets.
"Where's that stupid parcel that bookworm Caswell handed to me? I know I stuffed it in here somewhere!" she growled.
After more searching, the girl pulled out a red plastic box from her bag. She carefully opened it and looks a the content inside. A syringe laid inside the box. To the side of it was a small portion of a strange liquid. The vial was taken out of the box and so was the syringe. Step by step, the drug was poured inside the needle. She took her time to fill the syringe to the right amount of the drug. A few minutes later, the syringe was filled with the required amount necessary to carry on her mission.
"The time has come for you to rise from your sleep, Kurai," said the girl, readying the syringe.
The girl grasped Kurai's arm in one hand, and the syringe in the other. She wasted no time with jamming the syringe into Kurai's arm. She watched intensely as the drug started to lose amounts as it seeped into the boy's body. "Any minute now, soon, Kurai will be alive again…." thought the girl.
After the last drop of the liquid inside the syringe entered Kurai's body, the girl took a few steps back away from the coffin. She breathed heavily as she anxiously waited for something to happen. She had gone through so much trouble just to get to Heartland City. If this mission failed, so be it.
Suddenly, the unthinkable happened. Realizing that she could be seen, the girl hid back on the roof and concealed herself.
Down below, Kurai's fingers started to slowly move along with his feet. He felt himself being able to breath again, and his eyes started to blink themselves open. His mind started functioning again and everything was no longer black. Color returned to his eyes as he could see again after being dead. Kurai coughed loudly as he slowly sat up from within his grave. Taking a deep breath, he spoke for what seemed like an eternity. "Ugh, what happened? The last thing I remember was Heartland Tower, and then Yuma- Yuma Tsukumo," he hissed, "that maggot will pay for ruining my reign as king! How dare he disobey me! I'm more superior than that shrimphead! Yuma's friend, Kotori Mizuki, she is nothing to me anymore, since she would rather be with Yuma over me!"
"Now, now, Kurai, is that the way you should talk around me? You know how much I hate hearing you talk about that geek Kotori Mizuki," said a female voice.
Kurai jolted from his coffin and looked around his tomb. He noticed it was pretty empty and there weren't many items inside except for an altar and his own grave. His eyes scanned the entire room for any movement and other people.
"Who's there? Show yourself! I'm not afraid of you!" snarled Kurai, positioning his blade in his hand. He looked around once more. "Stop hiding and come out where I can see you, right now!"
In a flash, the same shadow dropped from the roof and landed on her legs and steadied herself with one hand. She looked at Kurai, her attention not leaving him one bit.
"Do I know you? Something about you is kinda familiar," said Kurai, lowering his weapon.
"Come on, Kurai, you know better than to attack me recklessly. Since when would you hurt me? It's about time I showed you who I really am!" said the girl.
The girl quickly threw her cloak off of her body and tossed it to the side. You could see what the mysterious girl looked like now that she was no longer concealed. She mostly resembled Kotori and they had the same green hair. There was no bun or a ribbon in her hair, which made it a little messy. It was shorter than Kotori's hair. The girl wore a yellow felt jacket over a tan-colored top. She had on blue jean shorts and black leggings. Brown boots resembling UGGS complied with her style. Green-framed sports shades rested on her head and it matched her personality: Wild and tomboyish.
Kurai checked out (he literally checked her out) the girl standing in front of him. She was cute for a girl for her age and you could tell that she was a tomboy just by her personality.
"You wouldn't happen to be my best friend, now wouldn't you? It has been a while since I saw you and the others at Darklad City. What brings you here to Heartland? You came to my rescue?" he teased. "Heh, I was dead for who knows how long and you did this for me?"
The girl gave a small laugh. "Kurai, at least you remember me. Since you were dead…. In case you don't remember, my name is Luka Mazaki," she said, placing her hands on her hips.
Suddenly, it all came back to Kurai. He raised his sunglasses over his head and approached Luka. "Why bring me back alive? I failed to conquer Heartland City. You better have a good for this!" he snapped.
"Kurai, relax. I only did this because I am not gonna let you get your ass whopped by Yuma Tsukumo. Besides, Yuma destroyed your chances of being king, and I could have ruled alongside with you! Did you ask me? NO! You chose that maggot Kotori Mizuki!" snapped Luka.
"Babe, I'm done with Mizuki. The only reason I even liked her was because of her really short skirt. Hell, she was freaking hot- OW!" growled Kurai, rubbing his shoulder which Luka punched. "What was that for?"
Luka quickly grabbed Kurai's jacket collar and held him by it."That's what you get for being a pervert! Focus, Kurai! We have other things to focus on, like, getting back at Yuma and that Mizuki girl," she hissed, poking him in the chest.
Kurai sighed, then gently pushed Luka away. "Babe, first things first. If you're going to work with me to get back at Yuma and his pesky friends, I think we'll need ours. You catch my drift?"
"Pssh, yeah! When do we start?" smirked Luka.
Kurai turned around to face the moon. The light shone luminously at him. He sighed deeply before lowering his sunglasses. He snarled angrily, "Yuma Tsukumo, you will rue the day you and Kotori killed me. You better enjoy life while you can! Want to know why? Kurai will hunt you down and kill you!"
Oh my….. Kurai is ALIVE! Looks like Kurai is no longer the same as he was before. His childhood friend, Luka, has joined him to take down Yuma and Kotori! What could these two be plotting? What exactly does Kurai mean by that they'll need their friends?
TO BE CONTINUED?…
Aww…. Now the story is OFFICIALLY over! I am overwhelmed by how this fic went. Personally, "The Shadow of Yuma" came into my head while on spring break vacation. I thought, "Many people have opposites of themselves, so why not Yuma?" After a little planning and endless plot ideas and scrapping, "The Shadow of Yuma" was the result!
Now, onto my characters, Kurai Tsukumo and Luka Makazi. Both of them are from a dimension that contains a world opposite of Yuma's world. They are darker versions of Yuma and Kotori. Are there evil versions of Yuma's friends? We'll have to see about that!
Kurai's name means "dark" in Japanese and it reflects his personality. His real inspiration was from Scourge the Hedgehog from the Archie Sonic comics. As I plotted out the story, I tried avoiding a similar plot to the Sonic comics. After more thinking, I had thought of a new, completely different plot. His backstory was hard to write, because I wanted it to be different from most villan's backstories.
TRIVIA:
• Kurai hates being called a freak because he was constantly called a freak as a child.
• He grew up on the streets like Crow Hogan from 5D's, except he ran away from an orphanage before living on the streets.
• In Chapter 24, the part where Kain went "buggo" when Yuma pissed him off was inspired by the iPod Touch and iPhone game, Cause of Death. Kurai being called a freak was inspired by the Maskmaker story from the game, and so was the scene of Kain having a psychotic episode; except that came from the Ladykiller episode in Cause of Death.
Luka Mazaki is completely different from Kotori: Wild and tomboyish. Since Kotori is a girly girl, I made Luka the exact opposite.
TRIVIA:
She was named after Luka Milfy, aka GokaiYellow, from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
Lastly, I would like to thank each and every reviewer. You gave me great advice for my story, and I'm very happy about that! As a thank you, I will write a Zexal one-shot for you guys! Any one-shot suggestions, leave them in the comments or you can send me a Private Message! I would also like to thank those who made me their favorite author, and who marked my story and their favorite. You guys are amazing!
As for a sequel to "The Shadow of Yuma," I'm not sure if I should do one. If you have any plot suggestions or want me to do a sequel, leave your ideas in the comments or send me a Private Message!
It breaks my heart, but "The Shadow of Yuma" has come to an end. Thank you everyone for being so supportive since I posted the first chapter! And now…. Jikai o ai shimashou! (See you next time!)