I think You're gonna love this chapter. (revised version)

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EPISODE THREE: YUSUKE'S VOW

Yusuke Urameshi was having some sort of nightmare. That's exactly what this was. Some kind of nightmare, this had to be! This couldn't be real.

"My best friend dead? No. Kuwabara? He's nor dead…he can never die," Yusuke croaked looking around the room, "He always gets close to death, but it never really happens. He's too stupid to die.." Yusuke laughed, as Koenma and Boeton lead Shizuru to another room, her loud sobs breaking through Yusuke's hysterical half-crazed laughter. "I mean...he fought Rando, and his whole body got crushed but he didn't die! Rando squeezed him and snapped his leg-but he lived! Dying is too easy for that idiot!" Yusuke was almost shouting. He took a breath knowing how crazy he must have sounded, but he was just trying to prove to the others there was no way Kuwabara could be dead.

Kuwabara just couldn't die.

"And then there was Byakko! Kuwabara's fucking bandages for crying out loud saved him from falling in that damned pit of lava! Remember that? He almost bought it in the lava but those things snagged on the rock…and Kuwabara lived. He's got dumb luck that way!" Yusuke fell backwards sliding against the wall…he was suddenly very dizzy. He couldn't get the dread that was creeping up on him to leave him alone.

So pressed against the wall Yusuke continued ranting unaware of how utterly pathetic and delusional he sounded, "And then, and then there was at the very end of fighting those beasts…he donated so much of his energy for me he almost died! But-heh-remember what I did to him when he pretended Keiko had died? I beat the hell out of his sorry ass for that prank. Then in the dark tournament he almost died because he couldn't fight those three possessed guys, and then he was forced to fight with almost every bone in his body broken! God he has guts!"

Yusuke was now reaching through his memories; he had to make his point and get the other to believe him. Kuwabara was unbeatable when it came to death, Kuwabara could not die!! "Remember Toguro?" Yusuke asked darkly, "Remember what that man did? Do you remember what Kuwabara did? What he said to me? I'll never forget those words…or how angry I was when I found out he was okay! Not a month later he was attacked by Mitari, almost got beat up to death, and then almost drowned! Then to top it all off, he was kidnapped, and they were gonna eat him! Sensui made it worse when I died and beat the crap out of all of you!" Yusuke finally began to laugh, his desperation causing him to break. Yusuke rose to his feet, pushing away from the wall shouting out what just had to be true. It had to be the truth Kuwabara was not gone.

"HE CAN'T BE DEAD! KUWABARA WOULDN'T LEAVE! YOU HEARD HIM, HE NEEDED ME TO STAY ALIVE, HE WAS ALWAYS GONNA HELP ME! NO MATTER HOW HARD IT WAS, HE SAID HE'D NEVER LEAVE ME!"

"Yusuke, that's enough!" Genkai snapped turning away, as Koenma and Boeton re-entered the room. "He...I felt it...he...he's gone!" She took in a deep breath staring up at her pupil, "Yusuke his spirit is no longer here. I can't feel him anymore. And neither can Shizuru. He's gone Yusuke."Kurama growled and his hair beginning to turn white, shoving his clawed hands to cover his face. "Yusuke shut up...he's gone...Gone."

Yusuke stared at his friend, his face twisting up. Then Yusuke did something most unexpected, he fainted. He dropped like a stone collapsing on his side. When Yusuke crumbled it was as if everything broke. Yukina fell to her knees sobbing loudly picking up a limp Eckiji. Genkai covered her face shaking, and Kurama fully turned into Youko.

Everything had fallen apart.

They'd waited too long to go rescue Kuwabara, and it killed him. After all they'd been through, all the shit they survived…because they had waited Kuwabara died.

Keiko rushed to Yusuke's side, crying out his name. Boeton was crying, looking ready to throw up. Koenma carefully picked Yusuke up, "I'll put him in another room." Not looking back at the others Koenma moved Yusuke to another room. He set Yusuke on the bed and stared down at the dark haired teen. Even in his sleep there was agony decorating every line of his face. "Yusuke I'm sorry…I was too young…to foolish to understand what happened to the people around you when you ignored something this important…I won't do that again!" Koenma promised his voice cracking near the end. He turned away from the former spirit detective and went to join the others.

Meanwhile, Hiei was traveling the way Mukuro had told Boeton to go not just a day ago. He knew she would understand why he had left, she had told him where to go after all. Well, she told Boeton, but it seemed like the same thing. Hiei felt something weigh heavily on his mind. He was not sure what it was, but it seemed strange. Every time he closed his eyes, he felt as if he could feel Kuwabara saying good-bye to him, like at that time Kuwabara fought Resho. He wondered why he envisioned Kuwabara's death in such detail, as him killing himself. Kuwabara would do the same thing over and over again in his mind…thrust his sword into his gut. It had crossed Hiei's mind that Kuwabara might kill himself if whatever torture he was enduring was bad enough, but Hiei (whether he liked to admit it) knew how Kuwabara's mind worked. He was an honorable sap he'd never do himself in, never.

'But then again,' Hiei's mind whispered, 'Samurai's would stab them selves in the gut if they failed there lord, or if they would do it for a greater cause.'

Hiei stopped in his tracks and growled, "Oh shut up."

He pulled the only piece of the letter he hadn't destroyed back out, he'd kept it, despite his wishes to throw it away. The words that bothered him the most were, 'And don't deny it you shrimp, Ten bucks says you love her.' Kuwabara had been talking about Mukuro. Hiei sighed folding the piece of the letter up, "I owe him ten backs? Kuwabara I'll only pay you if you go through Hell and back again…" Hiei snorted, planning on smacking the hell out of Kuwabara when he saw him.

Even further away, somewhere in the darkness…

Kuwabara opened his eyes.

He sat up, staring at his surrounding. He was in a red room that was unlike any he'd ever seen. "What the hell?" He whispered, "Did...did I die?" Kuwabara looked at his stomach, seeing the wound he'd inflicted on himself gone. When he rose, he saw that he could see through the walls. They were glass!

Yes, the red walls were made of glass…but why in the world…?

"I don't understand," Kuwabara, groaned grabbing his head messaging it, "What's going on?" Trying to calm down he approached the walls peering through. Squinting he could almost see every detail of the other surroundings around this red room. 'I'm getting out of here!' Kuwabara finally told himself and began pounding on the glass and soon discovered he had no strength inside this place.

Or maybe he just had no powers at all…

Suddenly the room began moving and he fell hard on his butt, closing his eyes in pain. "Hello Kazuma." He looked up and through the glass seeing what appeared to be a giant Sage peering through him. Kuwabara glared at him shouting, "SAGE! WHAT DID YOU DO?" Sage chuckled, "Are you surprised about your surroundings? Do you know where you are? You're trapped in a red jewel that is only as big as my palm. I'm very grateful you killed yourself, now I don't have to worry about ripping out your soul myself...it's such messy work." Kuwabara growled, and Sage laughed smiling slyly, "Look at your hands."

Kuwabara did, and cried out seeing all his fingers had black strings on them. That meant only one thing.

He was dead.

"You are nothing more than a soul that I trapped inside this jewel. But no one will figure it out, only I can hear you." Sage informed Kuwabara with a smug smile, "Would you like to meet my son?" Sage carried the jewel into a room, and Kuwabara screamed loudly at what he saw. He saw himself, with those creepy crosses in his eyes, standing before him, with a demonic grin stretched across his face. Sage smiled, "My son died three years ago, but I saved his soul, and gave him this body, your body." Kuwabara noticed black rings on the skin around his fingers. "Why the hell does my body have tattoos?" Sage laughed at Kuwabara's question, "So that your friends, and parents, and everyone can see the black string and know that you are dead! That Kazuma Kuwabara has perished from this world!"

Kuwabara shook his head, "No! No! I'm alive! I'M ALIVE! And what is this about my friends?! Are they coming here?! Answer me! ANSWER ME!!"

Sage smiled, "As long as I will allow it you're alive. When we get to gates of hell my son will raise your sword, and just as he is about to slice through the gates, I will release your soul back into your body, and it will be too late to stop it! Then all of Hell can finally break loose! And…yes Kuwabara. Your friends are here, Hiei is the closest…I can feel him. I hope your friends get to see your body this way…" Sage laughed hard, and the false Kuwabara marched forward, the silver staff in hand. "Can he hear me father?" Sage nodded, and the fake Kuwabara leaned forward saying into the jewel, "My correct name is Batto, but I will answer to your name. Do you want to know why I'm going to be borrowing your name? Your friends are going to be coming soon, and they will see me as this. Don't you think it will be funny for them to see their best friend changed?"

Kuwabara sunk to the floor in the red room, and stayed still, "No it isn't me...it isn't me!"

Sage smiled and fastened the jewel in the necklace Kuwabara had seen before. Kuwabara said nothing else, he did not hear them talking, talking about what it will be like for hell to be on earth. Without his knowledge tears began to stream down his face. "It's not right," he whispered, "I killed myself to prevent this…only to find out this was all in the bastard's plans…what gives? Dammit!" Kuwabara closed his eyes, and he began to think.

He remembered one night, right before the Sensui incident, he'd gotten real sick. Shizuru could not stay with him all the time she had to work. But when that happened Yusuke was there. Sure Kurama visited, Kuwabara had even woken up in the middle of the night to see Hiei. Hiei denied ever being there of course. Caring for someone was not Hiei's style, ever. But Yusuke, Yusuke was there, whenever Shizuru just couldn't be…Yusuke was there.

He had been so sick. Puking, coughing, and diarrhea like know tomorrow. These were one of those moments he really wished Yusuke hadn't seen, but Yusuke didn't make fun of him, or chide him. He had smiled and softly helped him rubbing water on the back of his neck when he puked, and even cleaned up a mess he had made. Yusuke had been so uncannily kind to him during this time.

Kuwabara remembered, when he was well enough Yusuke would play video games with him. One time Kuwabara suddenly started choking and couldn't stop. Yusuke had grabbed him, and pat his back. When Kuwabara was done, Yusuke had helped him walk to his room, and made him hot tea with lemon in it, and wouldn't leave until Kuwabara had swallowed every last drop of it. Kuwabara smiled at him then. "Thank you," Kuwabara remembered whispering as he began to fall asleep. Yusuke smiled, that famous cocky smile and told him, "You'd do the same for me, wouldn't you?" Kuwabara nodded, and fell asleep then. Of course when Kuwabara was well Yusuke kept bringing up how utterly disgusting Kuwabara had looked while sick, which spurned a few fights…but Yusuke had still helped Kuwabara.

Yusuke made Kuwabara's days the best days of his life. Yusuke was his best friend, his brother. When Yusuke was gone for those years Kuwabara had never felt so lonely, he missed him as every second went bye. Without warning Kuwabara had suddenly burst into tears.

He'd only gotten one day, no not even a full day, to spend with his best friend. He hadn't gotten to fight, to try to reach his goal to beat him one day. That was what he wanted, more than anything. There was nothing like fighting Yusuke, it was a thrill, and adrenalin rush. Yusuke was the first guy he couldn't win against, and that was the most thrilling part about it. It was hard fighting Yusuke, and that made it fun…

"I'm sorry! Urameshi, I'm so sorry!" Kuwabara sobbed curling up within his smile confinement.

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Yusuke lay still in his room. He could hear the clock ticking by every minute. He couldn't stop thinking of Kuwabara. His best friend was dead...for real? There had to be some mistake, Kuwabara couldn't die, but only five minutes ago Boeton had come in and confirmed it. Kuwabara's soul was no longer among the living. Yusuke didn't know what to do. When Yusuke was gone in Makai, it was fine, Yusuke had known he'd see Kuwabara again as soon as he returned home, but now what? He couldn't rescue Kuwabara this time and mock him for being kidnapped once again. He couldn't make fun of Kuwabara at all anymore! He was gone...

Truly gone.

He rolled over on his back, putting his arm above his head, while the other rest on his stomach. Yusuke raised his hand, and touched his face. It was wet.

"Have I been crying...I didn't notice," Yusuke mused.

He stayed silent and still for a moment, and then reached into his pocket pulling out Kuwabara's wallet. He opened it to stare at the picture Kuwabara had inside there. He looked at Kuwabara's happy face, and his own happy face. "Am I ever going to be that happy again?" He asked himself.

Yusuke Urameshi, for the first time in his life, really felt like he'd lost, and that there was no way to win. How could there be? If he won, if there was a way to win, Kuwabara would be here, and alive, and unscathed or at least mostly so. Maybe Kuwabara would be a little injured, and surely Kuwabara would whine and complain about his body aching, and how he always got the worst of it. Kuwabara would yell at Yusuke who would make fun of him for once again getting himself in trouble…and the two would fight…and that would start the whole cycle over again. But Yusuke knew Kuwabara had his back, just like Yusuke had Kuwabara's.

Yusuke shook his head of these thoughts.

"Stop it Yusuke," The young teen whispered, "Stop torturing yourself!" His face scrunched up, and fresh tears speedily raced down his cheeks…but Yusuke couldn't stop the memories that rushed across his eyelids.

Kuwabara was yelling at him, while Yusuke was sleeping as Koenma went over their next mission. His face was red with frustration, and soon anger when the "sleeping" Yusuke flipped him off.

"Go away."

Kuwabara was listening to his cd player on the bullet train, sighing grumpily because he was coming with Yusuke to go see the dentist. Yusuke was still pleading with his best friend to play hooky, promising to pay him. Kuwabara rolled his eyes in annoyance, and then Gave Yusuke a tiny yet comforting smile.

"Just leave me alone!"

Kuwabara standing in a hunched way, eyes searching for his best friend as he tried to stop his own blood from leaving his body. He was reaching for Yusuke telling him to be stronger, that he had to make this worth it. Had to make his death account for something, and then Kuwabara was falling towards the ground…

"I...just stop!"

Yusuke caught Kuwabara who had decided to help them on their mission, despite the fact he was terribly ill. Kuwabara was coughing into his hand and opening his eyes to look up at Yusuke apologetically. He gave a childish pout but couldn't resist leaning into the cool hand that was placed on his brow a moment later.

"I don't want to remember any more!"

Kuwabara smiling at him and asking, "What now Urameshi? What are we going to do today? Skip class, kick ass, all of the above?" He was standing in his white shirt with the vertical black stripes, and his wrinkled gray jeans. Kuwabara was smiling and turned staring back at Yusuke, eyes filled with loyalty and adoration for his friend.

Yusuke grabbed his pillow and crushed it to his face, muffling his scream. The scream broke the spell at least for a little while, and the memories stopped.

He remembered when Kuwabara had sobbed out to him when Itsuki imprisoned Kuwabara he had told him that there was nothing wrong with guys needing each other. He had sobbed, 'if you're gone then who am I?'

Yusuke removed the pillow from his face, "Kuwabara...your...can you tell me who I am now? Now that you're gone can you tell me who I am!? You fuckin' ugly asshole…it works both ways! If I wasn't allowed to leave then you weren't allowed to leave either God dammed prick!!"

Yusuke closed his eyes, and saw Kuwabara standing before him. He was smiling, and then he wasn't. The smiled had slid right off his face and was now open in shock. Blood had appeared, and a staff had been shoved through Kuwabara's back, and come out his chest. Kuwabara glanced down at the injury and dropped like a stone whispering, "Ura...meshi...it hurts." Sage yanked the staff out, and began laughing at the dying man who looked at Yusuke for help…

Yusuke sat up, his fists clenched shaking the horrid vision from thought. "I know...there is one thing I can do," His eyes narrowed, "I'm gonna get my revenge...No…I'm going to get Kuwabara's revenge! I vow to avenge the both of us buddy!" Yusuke rose, wiped his wet face and ripped open the door, pulling it off its hinges. All but Youko Kurama was sitting down. They looked at Yusuke, looking at him, afraid at what might happen.

"Grab that map Kurama, we're going now. There is one thing we can still do. We can get our revenge." Youko Kurama nodded viciously, and snatched the map off the floor. "Wait Yusuke-" Yusuke grabbed Koenma roughly by his shirt, "Shut up, you're not talking me out of this." Koenma glared at him, "You dumbass. I was merely going to tell you I can get you a ride to get there, it'll be faster."

Yusuke released him, "Good. We're going to kill Sage. If I die, then it'll be a blessing, but I hope I live. No one is going to bear this burden, as heavy as I will. No one."

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Hiei had stopped for a rest, and watched the fire roast his kill for his lunch. Something was sitting uncomfortably in the pit of his stomach, something cold and heavy. He tried not to think of it but…Hiei had this unsettling feeling Kuwabara was dead. And the mere thought…well it was surprisingly horrible. Hiei had often enjoyed imagining running a blade through the chattering human but…Hiei sighed staring off in the direction he was headed.

"Kuwabara...I've threatened to kill your pathetic hide for a long time, since I met you, but now that there's a possibility you're really gone…I just can't seem to feel happy about it."

End of chapter three.

well aren't you glad kuwa is still alive? And aren't you pissed that the others aren't going to find out any time soon?

well next episode is the journey there. yusuke & kurama show up and free kuwabara's parents, and catch a glimpse at the false Kuwabara.