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Standard disclaimers apply

Chapter Twenty-Four

(Reiko)

Sitting on the couch I watched Hiei pace around the room full of nervous energy as he thought of every bad thing that could have happened to Yukina. I was unsure of how he thought of her, but it was obvious that he had deep feelings no matter in what way. Reaching out I picked my mug of hot chocolate off the table in front of me as I tucked my feet up underneath me. If Hiei wanted to say something to me he would, I wasn't going to push him or invade his mind for answers. Sighing softly as he whipped around for another pass across the room I tried to think of something to say to take his mind off of it.

"How did you meet Yukina?" I asked the first thing that came to mind, if she was my competition then I wanted to know what I was up against. Hiei looked at me sharply and I raised an eyebrow. "You're wearing a hole in the floor so why not talk about something until we hear from someone." Nodding Hiei came and sat next to me, but his mind was thousands of miles away. Digging deep into my own memory I tried to pull something out that would take his mind off worrying. Reaching out I grabbed his hand and connected our minds.

What are you thinking about? Closing my eyes I let myself absorb in all the other things in life. The sound of Hiei breathing, his scent, texture of his skin.

Yukina. That was the bad thing about communicating mentally; it is damn near impossible to lie. Stomping down on any feelings before they could become strong enough for Hiei to sense.

What about her? Images flashed through his mind and mine. Yukina standing in a snow covered forest talking to birds. Her cheering them on at the Dark Tournament. Giving him her tear gem to go look for her brother. Her begging him not to kill the man who had hurt her. Her crying for Kuwabara. It was almost overwhelming, but I held up and contributed my own images. Yukina playing with the children at the orphanage. Paddling a canoe for the first time. Laughing with me over some dumb joke. Playing games.

She's so innocent. I had to agree with that; she had this air of perfection and beauty. Nothing could smother her goodness.

Like the first snow of winter, pure and untainted. In the back of my mind a treacherous voice whispered that she was the exact opposite of me. Quickly I shut it out and concentrated on Hiei, this wasn't about me. How did you meet her?

I met her when I saved her with Yusuke and the rest, but I had been watching over her for much longer. He paused as he collected his thoughts and I beat any wayward ones down, but we were cut short as the phone rang. Springing up Hiei raced over to it and snatched it up. Drawing deep breaths I pushed aside my own selfish desires, Hiei deserved better, if he loved Yukina that would explain why he hated Kuwabara so much. Biting down on my lip I listened as he spoke to the person on the other end of the phone, I would help him find her and then leave. I wouldn't get in their way.

X-X-X-X-X

Waiting outside of Kuwabara's house I waited for the rest of them to come out. Hiro, Junko's ghost buddy had refused to take us anywhere unless Junko was with us so it was taking a little bit to get going. Once word had gotten out about what the guy who had kidnapped Yukina looked like it turned out that he was the mole from inside Spirit World. I felt like crap, I had barely slept at all last night due to the nightmares that had plagued me. Every moment had been sheer torture, scene after scene of Hiei leaving me and other things. I don't think anyone else slept well either due to my wonderful knack of passing on the same vibe of my dreams.

They all came out and we were on our way to the guy's hideout. It was surprisingly easy to find, I would have thought he'd of gone all out on protection, but no, there was nothing. Cautiously approaching the old house where the ghost said that Yukina was being holed up with the psycho mole. Glancing at Hiei I observed the signs of stress on his face and in his posture. Last night must have been the worst night of his life and having to have his dreams directed by my mood must not have been fun. Drinking in his profile I waited for the signal to head into the house with the others.

Quickly we entered the house and headed back to the room where Junko said the man would be. Outside the door we listened for any hint that someone might be in there but nothing gave anyone away. Yusuke grabbed the doorknob and flung open the door. Lying propped up against the wall was the kidnapper.

He was almost dead.

A huge gaping wound was in his chest and he grinned up at us as we rushed into the room. Yukina was in the corner unconscious, but besides that nothing was wrong. Crooking a finger at Hiei he called him forward and whispered something into his ear then gurgled and died. Blood drained from Hiei's face and he rushed over to Yukina and pulled her into his arms. Gently he stood and without another word left.

Back at Genkai's house we all sat around Yukina's bed waiting for her to wake up. Hiei had told us what the man had said; he had killed himself in order to curse Yukina with a death bond. The only way to break a death bond was to fulfill the requirement that was put on with it and it seemed that he hadn't had time to tell Hiei, or he didn't want to. According to the information given, Yukina only had forty-eight hours to live. Sitting there it seemed as if fate had heard me and decided to punish me for my selfish wants. Hiei sat there holding her hand his eyes never leaving her face and my heart hurt all the more even though I knew he would be mine. Time passed slowly, but eventually Yukina stirred and everyone was scrambling to do anything for her. She knew she was dying, but still she tried to comfort everyone else.

"Hiei," she sounded almost normal. "Why didn't you tell me?" Reaching up she touched his cheek and my heart shattered. Not waiting for what she was going to say next I slipped out of the room and hurried off to where I could be alone. There was nowhere to go. Whenever there was no one in the room I was haunted by memories, finally I found an old unused room where no one was and collapsed to the floor. Tears spilled over and clattered on the floor. Stupid dreams. Stupid me.

'Mommy, I had a wonderful dream last night!' I ran into the kitchen where my mother was making breakfast.

'Oh really honey, what was it about?' She smiled down at me as I sat down at her feet and began to describe it.

'I was in a whole other world, there were lots of pretty women, but one of them was crying,' I explained softly so as to not wake up my father in the next room. 'And her tears Momma, they turned into pretty gems!' Tugging on her clothes to make her look at me I showed her how big they would have been. 'I want to cry gems too Mamma, then we won't have to worry about money!'

It wasn't until later that I learned that there were really apparitions that cried gems and I had seen one of their rituals in my dream. What a brilliant idea, cry tears, but I wanted to keep a part of my childhood so the tear gems had stayed. Scrubbing the rest of my tears off my face I sighed and tried to figure out what to do. How was I to salvage the hell that had become my life? How was I to save the one I loved pain?

"Reiko?" Scrambling to my feet I opened the door to find Hiei standing there looking drained. "You want to go for a walk?"

"Sure." Stepping out I shut the door behind me, leaving the evidence of my pain in the dark.

After two hours of walking in silence I gathered up my courage and decided to ask a few questions before I exiled myself to a life of loneliness.

"Do you love Yukina?" I chose the most painful one first, if I could survive this answer than I could handle the others. He stayed quiet and I guessed he didn't want to talk about her, but he spoke after a few paces.

"Yes." If I thought what I had felt before was pain, I had been truly wrong, there was nothing worse than this agony. Tears built up in my throat and I stomped them down, I would not ruin this with my emotions, it was his time for mourning. I needed to concentrate on Yukina and our friendship, she knew him first and he loved her first and she was dying.

"Does she have any family? She mentioned a brother, I wonder how he'll take it." I don't know why I kept talking; I just couldn't stand the thought of silence. It would give me too much time to think. Again there was this long pause before he spoke and it ripped me apart knowing he was probably dying inside, like me.

"I'm her brother." Shock raced through me, but Yukina said she hadn't known her brother. She had said he lived very far away, practically in another world. Stopping suddenly it all sank in and I nearly sobbed with relief. He loved her as a brother loves a sister, not as a man loves a woman.

"What did he tell you?" I refrained from touching him, he wouldn't appreciate it, and he most likely wanted to be strong. Abruptly he whipped around drawing his katana, while kicking my legs out from underneath me and I ended up with the tip of the blade pressing against my throat. I stared up into his ruby red eyes, they were as cold as his blade and a finger of fear traced its way down my back.

"He said either you die by my blade or Yukina dies a slow, and painful death by a curse that only your spirit departing can fix," he said emotionlessly but something flickered in his eyes, I felt the fear slowly ebb away. If he killed me it would be for a just cause. "I could easily kill you right now." His threat didn't scare me, I could handle dying, I had died once already. "But I can't." Hiei threw his katana onto the ground next to me bowing his head trying to deal with this awful inner pain.

I watched him from my position on the ground; this was the person who had held me back from the darkness that had threatened to overwhelm me. He was the one who eased the pain caused so long ago, the person that had helped me heal. His face was the one I wanted to see each morning, the man I had shared my deepest secrets with. He deserved so much better than me, the only thing I could do to help him was the one thing he couldn't do. Slowly getting to my feet I picked up the sword on the way up holding it tightly in my left hand. I knew what I had to do.

"Hiei, his exact words were that I had to die by your blade, correct?" I questioned. He gave a slight nod and I shifted my grip on the hilt before reaching up with my right hand to lightly caress his cheek, "I just want you to know and remember something, I love you more than life itself and nothing can change that. Don't forget that and please don't blame yourself."

His eyes narrowed as I silently and incrementally lifted the blade mentally whispering a prayer for us. I searched his face drinking in every detail of it as I brought the blade to a halt so it hovered between us and removed my hand from his cheek. Drawing in a deep breath I gathered my courage as my heart began pound and without any shadow of doubt ripped the deadly blade across my abdomen and up. It sliced through the pale skin of my belly into my organs. As the pain crashed though me like a tsunami causing my knees to give I landed on the ground wrapping my right arm around my wound. I didn't want my intestines to spill like my rich deep scarlet blood.

"Reiko!" Hiei dropped next to me drawing me into the shelter of his arms, "Oh God." Breathing shallowly I fought to keep from passing out from the pain, it hurt so much.

"Hush," I whispered for if I spoke I would scream. "T-take c-care of Yukina." I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes squeezing the hilt of the sword and burying my face into his shoulder. "P-please t-tell T-taro and Mi-midori. Let th-them c-come to m-my f-funeral." Tears that had been building up spilled over and gems went everywhere.

"Reiko…no…you can't," Hiei's voice broke and he held me tighter.

"W-wait f-for me." I ensnared his eyes with mine. "D-don't aban-don hope." I drew a sharp breath. "I sh-shall c-come back." I could feel my lifeblood gushing out of my body and over my arm; I clutched him close to keep from crying out.

"I can't…no…Reiko…" he couldn't speak for the fear and panic in him.

"Love you," I breathed reaching up to touch his face, it was becoming hard to focus. "T-take c-care…of yourself…" Tears clouded my vision as my hand slid off Hiei's cheek and he caught it with his own holding it in a death grip.

"Don't go!" I let out my last breath as I felt my spirit slip out of my body.

(Hiei)

I knew the exact instant she died, the moment her spirit separated form her tiny form.

Slowly I lowered our joined hands and cradled her close hiding my face in her silky hair. She was so delicate, so beautiful she shouldn't have died, but she had. There was a foreign burning sensation in my eyes before scalding hot tears cascaded down my cheeks turning into black gems as soon as they lost contact with my skin. I was crying for the first time in what seemed like forever as an unbearable agony wrapped around my heart. I sat there like that for a time that could not be accounted for in minutes or hours but in pain and despair all the while thinking of her.

The way she had looked the first time I saw her at the Palace of the Doomed. How her eyes had been wide with fear and pain shaking like a leaf. She had been so afraid yet she had trusted me to help her and not take advantage of the situation. Her face and how peaceful it looked when she was sleeping, Reiko waking up in tears franticly trying to scrape bugs off herself crying out for me. Beautiful multicolored eyes taking in everything and avoiding me as she trusted me with the knowledge of everything that had happened at that awful place. The song she had sung one day when I had taken her out to the garden floated into my mind.

As the third sun sets and the first moon rises,

Understanding comes with it.

The trees and wind whisper:

To know our secrets is to know you,

Until you accept every part of your being,

You cannot truly comprehend.

Open your heart and soul,

Believe in love and have hope.

Once you can do this,

You hold the key of happiness.

At that point she began humming and shrugged lightly a small smile gracing her lips as thanks for everything. There was the night when everyone had gone out and I had had to stay with her and I watched her watch a stupid human movie. We had drifted off to sleep in each other's arms her short white hair in her face. I had been the only one she had told everything to when she could not bear to tell the others. She had trusted me, true unwavering trust, not caring, what my past was only concerned with what I wanted my future to become.

Long after the blood had stopped flowing I got to my feet my precious bundle in my arms, I felt as if I was carrying the world, for I was, my world, my life. As I made my way through the forest I listened to the wind whispering through the trees and recited in my mind a Makai burial chant. Some time later I walked into Genkai's house my mind a frozen wasteland my heart weeping as silent as the grave.

(Yusuke)

At about two a.m. Hiei arrived soaked with blood Reiko dead in his arms a vacant lost sort of look in his eyes. Botan had left about eleven p.m. so I had assumed the worst, but it was still a major shock.

"Oh dear," Kurama stepped toward him but was stopped as Hiei instantly withdrew a few paces his grip on Reiko increasing.

"Back up," I ordered and Kurama nodded and complied as Hiei started forward again, heading for the stairs to the second floor where the bedrooms were.

I had been listening to Kuwabara lament when Hiei had appeared at maybe nine-o-clock motioning to me that he needed to talk. He told me what had happened and how he was supposed to kill Reiko. He at the time seemed hesitant to do it and I never thought he actually would but here he was with a deceased Reiko. I had let Kurama in on my knowledge after Botan left and the possibility of her being dead increased. I hadn't wanted to believe he had done it, but now the evidence was indisputable. Kuwabara I told to stay with Junko and Yukina, both who were sound asleep in case something happened

Hiei reached Reiko's room; Kurama and I not far behind watching as he carefully laid her down on the bed. A light scrapping sound was heard as he pulled a chair up next to the bed and sat down in it picking up her left hand in both of his. If you only looked at her face you couldn't tell there was anything wrong with her, the expression on it was serene and peaceful without a hint of the pain she must have gone through. I could not bring myself to examine the gaping wound that I knew was there, exposing her entrails.

"What happened?" Genkai demanded entering the room.

"I don't know," Kurama, answered her as Hiei bent down and laid his head on Reiko's hand.

"Can you do anything?" I queried, even though I knew there was nothing she could do, Reiko was dead.

"No, she's dead, I can't bring dead people to life," Genkai snapped remorse in her voice. Pressing his lips to the back of her hand he didn't cry, but it was easy to see that he would never be the same.


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