"Father, I have failed you," Genkai mouthed, her wrinkled cheeks moistening from the tears trickling from her still closed eyes. In her vision of her barely opened eyes, she gazed at a black-haired man in his mid-50s standing in place of Yusuke. She saw herself has his young daughter, at the age of 20. Her downy pink hair danced across her soft rosy cheeks. In that moment her skin and face were soft a subtle due to her youthful appearance. She peered up at him, studying his wiry beard and curly handlebar mustache, her eyes blinded by the pool of tear. His long black hair fell to the back of his shoulders, looking as wiry has his beard, and was pulled to the back into a loose tail on the back of his thick neck.
"Father, I remember when you gave me this temple to guard. I still can recall the days spent in the temple with you. How mama died when I was 6, how you raised me on this mountain, teaching me everything you knew about being able to harness a person's own spirit energy and use it in combat. You were the finest martial artist, teaching me everyday to become as great as you. I loved every moment with you on the mountain, even though on those days of a rigorous trial, which I dreaded. Even that one time when I was violently sick with food poisoning when I was 14, you carried me from my bed to train. Though every few minutes I was throwing up, you helped me get past the day by using that as a mode to fight."
"I can never forget that day, Father," Genkai continued, grasping onto her father's body, like a small child, standing on her knees before him. "I can never forget the day you entrusted the temple and the land to me. When I was 20, I had just returned home from the Dark Tournament with Otouto Toguro, to find you lying sick on the soft bed on the floor of the main building. You were all that I had in my life. You held out your hand to me upon your final hours, seeing me kneeling to the floor beside you. Holding my hands, as the chill from your last breaths blew across my ears, you said, 'Genkai, my sweet, please protect the temple for me after I am gone. Keep it pure from evil and safe from harm.' With that your hand dropped, and your soul disappeared into the night air."
"Genkai, thank you for doing that for me," he replied in a deep bellowing voice, "It means so much that my only child has honored her late father's wishes."
The pink-haired woman shook her head and collapsed to ground before her father's feet. "I failed you. I tried to protect it for you. I tried to do as you said, but today I failed. I couldn't protect it and it's now destroyed. I tried to save it, but I couldn't do anything." Genkai curled into a ball at his feet, the wooden floor dampening from the rush of tears pouring from her breaking heart.
The old man knelt beside her, caressing her shaking body with his enveloping arms. He gathered her body into his insulating arms and held her head gently against his broad barrel chest. "Baby, what you mean you have failed me?"
"Don't you see, the temple destroyed. The very place where we spent our days, it's gone. The very place I promised you I would look after for you after you left me. This place that has survived 700 years under our ancestors' care, it has now been destroyed under my care. I have let you down, let grandpa down, great grandpa, great great…everyone. All our families' generations, I have let you down. A temple you had entrusted to me and I end up letting it get destroyed. For that I don't deserve to be called your daughter. You have to hate me because of this. " Her voice trembled and her words labored between sobs on her father's chest.
"I can never hate my little girl. You mean more to me than anything. I love remembering holding you like this for the first time. From the moment you came out of your mother, I cradled you against my heart like this. The first cry ringing through your tiny lungs was like listening to an angel's song. You were the prettiest baby I had ever set eyes on. That was the first moment I fell in love with you. I could hold you forever if I wanted, almost had a hard time giving you back to your mother. Your grandfather was the one who insisted I should give the temple to you when you were grown. I felt that the temple he meant was this child in my arms. You to me are more sacred than any temple made of earth, wood, or stone." He embraced her as tight as he could, wrapping the hanging sleeves of his deep navy kimono trying to settle her tears.
"But Father, I promised to keep it safe, and I broke that promise. Are you not angry with me that our sacred house of worship has been destroyed? Are you still able to trust me anymore?"
"Genkai, did you think I was referring to this old relic? This is just a building, nothing more than that. This building can be repaired and replaced. You think that after 700 years this building hasn't succumbed to fire, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, earthquake, tsunami floods, or to criminal misgivings?"
"But you said protect the temple. And I have tried to, but I couldn't."
"But ten years ago, didn't you give a young man something more precious than an old building. Didn't you give him your spirit energy and half of your soul with it?"
"You mean Yusuke Urameshi? Yes I did, I gave it to him shortly before my own death. But Father, what does that have to do with the temple?"
"Baby girl, after all these years of you being a psychic, could you not figure out that the temple I was referring to was the building at all?"
"You mean I was the temple? But how can that be, I am not worthy to be one?"
The old man smiled to her and gazed into her eyes, brushing her tears back with his thumbs. "I just can't get past the gaze of a beautiful woman you have become. You look just like your mother, like an angel with her wings clipped. You have protected the temple inside your heart. You have guarded it against evil, against temptation, through all the trials life itself can interfere and taint the heart and the soul and spirit energy it houses. You have done me proud, Genkai. I wished for you to pass it along to the next generation and you did. And you passed it to a man whose soul isn't black with malice or who has evil in his heart. The man whom is holding you in his arms will carry it until he gives it to his children. Open your eyes and see for yourself his face."
She lingered to open her eyes, as her father commanded. Slowly she regained her focus to find the familiar face of the young man standing before her. Once again she felt her skin wrinkled and dry, like the old woman she was.
"Hey, Grandma, welcome back to us," he smiled in a hushed voice. His tears clung to his eyes as he combed through her grayed pink hair with his fingers.
The old woman stared into his eyes but never said a word. Instead she bit her lip, trying to stifle her emotions. She leaned herself against Yusuke's knelt legs. Her former student extended his hand to her, allowing her to stand on her knees.
"I am so sorry your sacred temple got destroyed. I know how much you loved this place, and how much you tried to guard it against the great evil and fury the demons from Makai possess."
"No, you dimwit, the temple my father gave me isn't destroyed. It is very much still intact," she replied in a quiet voice.
"How do you mean? Look around and see…" Yusuke replied in a discouraging voice.
"Dimwit, do you remember what I gave to you ten years ago? On Hangneck Island, I gave you that spirit orb and half of my soul."
"That was before you died that time. I was hoping today I wasn't going to lose you again. I don't know how I would be if you died again."
"I know you would be a mess, Yusuke," replied Kurama, "Just as before you wouldn't stop crying for weeks."
The old woman glanced her eyes once again at the black-haired man, the tears like before pooled in her eyes, and trickled down her ripples of worn skin on her cheeks, dripping off her quivering chin. "That day I passed you the Spirit Orb, I passed you more than just my energy and soul. I gave you such a precious gift; one my father gave to me. That was the true temple. I entrusted it to you to keep it safe for me, and you have done so well. I am so proud of you for keeping it safe within your heart." Her voice faded, as she traced an s on her former student's chest with her bony index finger. "You're right, Father, he is the right one to protect the temple for you…" She quickly drew her hands from Yusuke's chest and shielded her eyes from his.
Quickly feeling his teacher's pain, he enclosed his arms around her body and held her against his chest, the way her father did, close to his inviting heart. Just then her heart burst into a shower of tears, staining the front of his shirt.