Carly-chan: Um…wow…I'm just…amazed that this is going to be the last chapter…just wow…(hey nobody complained about my not too great fight scene or my talking too much last chapter…that's really great). Um…so as promised I shall now explain where I got the inspiration for this fic and at the end of this chapter I will tell you about my next fic. Um…so I got the inspiration for this fic from a background I had on my computer one time that was a Ren one and I was bored so I was staring at it and I noticed how he had his usual unhappy look on his face and I thought about how he should smile more and then all of a sudden that first paragraph of the story came into my mind…and that is how 'all to make you smile' came to be… pretty simple isn't it. However I do not know how 'all to make you smile' became the sad story it is today, I'm pretty sure that when I wrote the first few paragraphs I didn't have in mind that it would be such a depressing story… I don't think so anyways.
Replies to reviews yay! Um…by the way if there is anything for me to reply to in your reviews for this chapter I will either do it in an email or in my next story.. Ok then onto the reviews!
SGCred: Yay you really like it yay! …Wow I'm still so amazed that I'm already at the last chapter…uh…anyway… I won't let them be parted I will force them together if I have to ha ha ha ha! Um…ok…yay the word fabulous…I think I will like…make that my word now and like…say it a lot lol. Lol I like avoided writing that scene like forever…stupid fight scene! (Stop saying like! I'm really saying that way too much…) Yeah…oh! Oh! Don't cry! Wow…I'm still trying to grasp the fact that there will be no 'next updates' for this story after this…. "You deserve the compliments, and you have achieved your dream in my eyes, congratulations" …Ok that was just…so.. very touching it made me want to cry or something… I was truly touched. Oh and Um… I'll probably email you sometime after I release this last chapter because I just enjoy talking to you…uh…is that okay with you?
sweet-evil-girl: yay you think it was interesting! Oh I see that's cool …um…yeah!
Disclaimer: Er…maybe I will come up with something witty and fun to put here later…but for now…well you guys know how it goes you've seen it 6 times already …if you want to know it again refer back to chapters 1-6.
I lay in the sweet darkness unable to feel or hear anything, I knew of nothing but that it was all over and the darkness had taken me. The darkness felt so nice though, not like I thought, it felt as if all pain was gone and I finally had that sweet release that everyone seems to want at some point, I felt as though I could lay in the sweet darkness forever and be content with that.
Those pleasant feelings were shattered suddenly as I could distantly hear Heala shouting out to me. I wondered how that could have been, how did I hear her when I was dead and why was she shouting out to me when she knew I was gone. Was I not gone? I tried my hardest to open my eyes, I used a lot of my remaining strength but I managed to do it. I raised my head just slightly so that I could see what was going on, to me it seemed like I had stayed in the darkness for hours or even days but it seemed to have been only just a few minutes, five or ten perhaps.
I glanced over to where Heala and Ren were, Ren had his weapon out, he looked so angry, so angry that it made me feel like a total failure, I had wanted to make him smile not cause him to be angry. Heala was holding him back from killing Sayo, I wondered why she didn't want him dead, I trusted it was a good reason though. I then glanced quickly over to Sayo; he had a taunting look on his face, had he wanted Ren to attack him why would that be?
When I looked back over to Heala and Ren I saw that Ren was about to free himself of her grasp. I couldn't let him kill Sayo, I wasn't sure why at the time but Heala wanted him alive so I had to follow her better judgment but what could I do? I clenched my fists, I had to act quickly. In clenching my fists I became aware that I still held my string of prayer beads in my hand. An idea came to me then, I wasn't sure if it would work but it was worth a try. I gathered up all of the strength I had left and as Ren dashed by me screaming about how Sayo was a bastard for killing me and how he'd soon be dead too I thrust out my string of beads as if it was again a whip and wrapped it around his ankle, I used every ounce of strength I could conjure to pull on the beads to pull him to the ground.
My plan had succeeded; Ren had fallen to the ground but the strain put on the string of beads seemed to be too much for them as they were in their normal state. The string that bound them together had snapped and many of the beads fell to the ground and some of them shattered, I didn't care though; I was exhausted and just happy that Ren had stopped trying to kill Sayo. Ren quickly got up but then froze and stared down at me. "Uhn…. Ren…" I forced out, I was so tired. But then I saw a sight that could have revived my soul at it's lowest, could that have been true, was I hallucinating? Had I really just seen a small smile come across Tao Ren's face?
Heala rushed over too me, I tried to prop myself up for her but fell to the ground miserably, Ren kneeled down and helped me up a bit, my head was in his lap. Even Sayo came forward a bit; I started to regain a little bit of my strength as happiness filled my once hateful soul. I motioned for Sayo to come closer to us and then turned my head up slightly to look up at Ren.
"Ren.." I whispered as I reached my hand up to touch his cheek. "Do my eyes deceive me Ren, or did I see a smile on that face of yours?" He gave no reply so I continued. "You know Ren now I can die happily, I've accomplished what I set out to do Ren, I've made you smile and I've seen that smile with these eyes. These eyes of mine shall never see a more beautiful and rare sight than your smile… I can die happy and complete now." I shut my eyes softly as my body fell limp.
"No! No! Don't die dear! Don't die!" Heala's words were so flustered they surprised me; I had never seen Heala so worried about anything in all of my time with her.
"She isn't going to die." I heard Sayo say as he stood over us, I opened my eye on the side he was on and stared up at him, I let out a giggle and decided to change the subject away from my fake death just then.
"Sayo… you didn't kill me? I don't understand…how…why?" I questioned him my voice still breathy.
"I avoided your vital organs dear but hit you in a place to knock you out. And I didn't kill you because it was just a test, I didn't really want you dead, you passed by the way." He said, a test? That took us all off guard.
"A test!" Ren blurted out apparently angry, very angry.
"Shhh …Ren please" I said putting my finger over his mouth to shush him. "Why were you testing us Sayo? Who sent you here?" I asked.
"Arata Meru sent me." He confessed.
"Arata? Madame Arata sent you?" Heala asked surprised.
"Who is this Arata Meru person anyway?" Ren asked me.
" Arata-san …is… my mother, my full name is Mei Meru. I-I don't understand Sayo…why did she send you?"
" I told you it was a test." Sayo said, as he saw three sets of questioning eyes staring strongly at him he decided to continue. " It was to test you and the Tao boy's…you and Ren's love for each other. She wanted to make sure that your love was strong enough for you two to get through this kind of situation." He paused seeing the suspicious look on my face. "Yes Mei I do think that your family had someone watching over you to make sure but I do not know who, it wasn't me." he said, I didn't know why but that seemed to have calmed my mind down a bit.
By then I had regained most of my strength, I stood up and stretched a little bit. The bleeding of my wound seemed to have stopped a while ago, I lifted my shirt up a little bit to check my wound, as I looked at it I saw that is really was quite the minor wound, there was a lot of dried blood around a small slice in my skin. "Mm… my family sure does work in weird ways!" I spoke happily; my full voice had finally come back to me. I glanced down at my shattered string of beads. I had just realized it but Sayo was very different from the way he was before the match, he was pretending to be mean like he thought I was unworthy when in reality he was very kind and caring and was actually one of the few people who serve my family. "What now Sayo? …Will you continue to fight in the tournament?"
He smiled at me, it was a kind of sweet smile, very caring "No…I'm going to just stay here and support you. What about you Mei? Will you continue on in the tournament?"
"I…. Well…my medium is broken…and…Ren would it be all right if I didn't go on….I mean…I don't think I would survive if I almost died here…. I'm sorry." I tilted my head towards the ground sadly, that feeling of failure had returned again.
"Oneesan!" I heard from somewhere behind me, could that really have been who I thought it was? Of course no one else calls me oneesan but Rina. I whirled around, it had seemed I had done a lot of whirling that day. "Rina!" I shouted happily towards the figure standing at the far side of the graveyard, she had really grown up a lot since I left her, she reminded me of me when I was her age, that was only just a few years ago, except that she had a less hateful being about her, I intended to keep things that way for as long as I could. I started to run towards her and she ran towards me as well and then we embraced in a hug, I hadn't seen her in a few years.
We walked back over to the rest of the group together, as we got there Rina simply just smiled at Heala and nodded at Sayo in a sort of approval like way. Her gaze fell upon Ren, who had been staring at her and for a moment she stared back at him and then at the same moment they both said "And who is this?" Heala, Sayo and I laughed at their responses being so alike as Rina blushed a lot and Ren scowled at us all. I decide to make introductions before Ren really got angry.
"Ren this is Rina, my little sister and Rina this is Ren my… my boyfriend." I said motioning towards them as I said their names.
"You got a boyfriend while you were gone oneesan? When did this happen?" Rina questioned.
"Um…uh…uh" I blushed slightly. "We'll talk about it later okay little sister?" I paused realizing what I had failed to ask my dear sister. "Hey wait a minute sis! Why are you here?" I blurted out suddenly.
"Um…well… I…uh… at first I was supposed to just come here and make sure that you really were okay but now I've decided that I want to stay here in the city with you!" She chirped out happily, that certainly caught me off guard.
"What! You want to… stay with me!" I was freaking out. "Where am I going to put you! I do not think there is room in the apartment for us!"
"Please calm down dear, we will find a way." Heala spoke, why does that always work on me? Whenever Heala speaks I'm almost instantly soothed.
"Yeah, I have some money from mom and dad to help pay for a bigger apartment." Rina smiled, I could almost hear it in her voice, I wondered why she was so excited to come live with me in the city but quickly brushed it off, there I went again thinking of little things and ignoring the matter at hand.
"I've also got some money for a bigger apartment for us, three people and one ghost in an apartment, it can't cost that much right? Plus Madame Arata will probably give us some funds for a while." Sayo said, that was quite the reassuring thing to know.
"Humph, well I'm going onto the next round of the tournament whether you guys are or not." Ren seemed to be back to his normal self again, I suppose I won't be getting many more of those smiles any time soon, that smile was like a priceless rare jewel that should be cherished forever, and cherish it forever I shall.
So Heala and I moved out of our old little apartment with its wonderful view of that shopping district that I hated so much and into a three-bedroom apartment with Rina and Sayo. I still await Ren's return from the shaman tournament in America but everyday I remember that smile he gave me that I cherish so and it keeps me going on without him there by my side, but I know that someday soon he will be there by my side once again.
The End
Carly-chan: Wow…. 'all to make you smile' just ended. (I really have to stop saying that like I'm not the one who wrote the end and it just happened because that isn't the case.) Um…so I'm going to edit 'all to make you smile' a little bit, ya know just to revise it a little or whatever, and then I'm going to start my next fic. My next fic will also be centered around Ren and an OC (but not in a romance way) and as we get closer towards the end of that fic (or maybe the middle or something) Hao will also become a really main character in it. Um.. it doesn't have a name yet (I'm totally open for name suggestions by the way…just don't be hurt if I don't use your suggestion) but I can give you the description here:
When Ren finds out that he too has an 'other half' and goes to meet up with this mysterious person how will the two of them react when they find that their 'other halves' are exactly the same as the yet completely opposite, including being the opposite gender
Um…yeah so that's the description thingy for it…. It probably won't change too much before I actually write the fic… I've decided to start writing the fic and do the first few chapters before I finish watching the 3rd season cause I pretty much only needed that for Hao's personality and since he won't come into the fic until later I should be fine
I'd like to thank you all for reading 'all to make you smile' and I hope that you come back for my next fic. (I really, really need a name for that…) My next fic will be more upbeat and less depressing I promise! Thanks again for reading!