Lonely: All I own is my characters. Again.

Cassie awoke in a familiar place. Kurama's home. She vaguely remembered it…Splash. Splash. Water continued to splash on her. "Stoppit." She hissed hoarsely.

"Gomennaisai, Cassie-chan…" A soft voice came. All Cassie could see was red. She moaned quietly, thinking it was her blood. But she stopped, and felt no pain except her achy bones. "K…Kurama?" She whispered. His face suddenly came into view.

"Shh…" Kurama said gently, and brushed a chocolate brown lock out of her face.

She cleared her throat and jumped up. "Where's Mel?" She asked, worriedly.

Kurama frowned, and his eyes downcasted.

"Well?!" She asked louder. Jin sadly walked towards her. His eyes were starting to get red.

In his clutched hand he held something. When he got close to the kitsune, he revealed the silver bone with 'MEL' engraved on it. She never went anywhere without it. "No…" Cassie whispered, her eyes starting to cloud with tears. "You're wrong!"

Jin sniffled. "You've been fainted fer about 2 days…Mel had woken up in a couple o' hours afta…She was sick…They dunno what happened to 'er…But, when she was…." He choked on his next word. "Dyin'……Her remainin' energy resulted in a 9.6 earthquake on the Rictor scale.

"No…" Cassie whispered.

Jin sniffed back some tears. "We…were fightin', too….I neva even got tah apologize…"

Cassie's grey eyes flashed with the lust of revenge. "Koenma…"

"What 'bout 'im, lass?" Jin asked sadly.

Cassie shook her head, then gripped her chocolate-brown hair-covered head, and sighed. "I...Don't remember…Not that well…"

Kurama sighed. "Cassie, rest."

Cassie shook her head, ignoring nearly one of her first tears roll down her face. "No…How can I when my partner—My best friend is now resting forever?"

"Now Cass…I'm sad, too, but you are injured." Jin said softly.

"No!" Cassie yelled. As soon as she did, she wish she wouldn't have. Her head throbbed. Her sensitive ears had been through pure torture lately.

Cassie froze. Her body became cold. It was like….a mixture of angst, depression, and lost dreams and hopes were hugging her. It reminded the girl of Mel. Little did she know, it was none other than Mel's ghost.

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Over the next few weeks, Cassie's leg began to heal. But not the constant pain of missing her best friend. One day when Kurama had to help Yusuke with a mission, and Jin had gone off to Ireland to try and feel better about his mate's death, Cassie knew what she had to do.

As soon as she had told the fox-boy and wind master she'd be fine alone and they left, she got on her crutches and looked about her. She saw a semi-small blanket. She hobbled over to it and collected things like crackers and a pack of Ramen. She threw in a small orange as well. She stole one of Kurama's cups and put the things in the blanket. It was light enough to put some more things in it. Cassie had no idea what month it was, so she got a sweater, just in case. She also found a Reikai map, along with a few other things. She packed some of the things of hers and Mel's that had survived the earthquake. The kitsune tied the blanket shut, and tied it onto one of her crutches.

"Goodbye, Kurama." Cassie whispered, and limped out the door on her crutches.