Epilogue

I would once again like to thank my reviewers- especiallyKyoHana and kit-kit the ones who stuck with me, and reviewed each and every chapter of this story, and for that I am ever grateful.

Also I would like to thank snakedude100 for his review.

Well I guess this is farewell- at least until later tonight because I shall be posting the first chapter of the prequel then

Thank you all for reading!

Catie-brie

Botan's shriek was shrill, horrified and distorted by anguish as she watched Yuusuke pull the imaginary trigger, she watched him fall to the floor with a sickening thud, and she watched as his crimson life force poured into thick puddles around his punctured head and torn hand. His large chocolate eyes remained open, and his soft pink lips were still curled in a sad smile of lost hope and meaning.

She fell to her knees as hot tears ran down her face in thick crystalline riverettes and her body shook violently with her sobs of premature mourning. Hiei stood beside her, his face a mask of apathy, but the dark reddish-black tear gems that fell at his feet and bounced in multiple directions betrayed his unmoved demeanor. Kurama's golden eyes began to tear up, but the tears did not spill until he was kneeling next to the raven-haired hanyou and had his blood soaked head cradled in his hands tenderly. It was only then that the crystal-clear drops of liquid leaked from the corners of his eyes, down his cheeks and onto Yuusuke's face.

A thick silence enveloped the room that was only shattered every time a tear gem hit the floor, or a strangled sob escaped Botan's throat. But finally Hiei broke the asphyxiating lack of sound with his low tones.

"I saw this coming, " Hiei began quietly wiping away the remaining liquid at the corners of his eyes. "But I didn't think it would happen this late on in life- or this abruptly."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Botan asked weakly.

"He means that Yuusuke has been suicidal for a long time now, but what caused him to crack so suddenly?" Kurama murmured to himself looking down sadly at his lost friend.

"I don't think we will ever know the full story."

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Ningenkai October 29th 2031

Urameshi Yuusuke

1978- 2030

Loyal friend and ally cut down before his time and greatly missed among all who knew him.

Rest in Peace;

Old friend.

Kurama knelt beside the gravestone only a year after the accident occurred; no tears threaten to spill this time- he was on a personal mission and he could not allow himself the luxury of grieving.

"I remember, Yuusuke, that last night in the inn," he began slowly as Hiei and Botan walked through the graveyard gateway, "you commented that the next time we met you wanted to get a strait answer as to why I left. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you then, but I can and will now.

"Everyone deals with death differently, and now that I sit here above your grave I realize we dealt with it almost virtually the same way- but you did what I don't have the courage for. " Kurama looked up for a moment and noticed that Hiei had knelt before his past sister Yukina's grave with his head pressed against the cold marbled stone, and Botan did the same against Koenma's ultimate death marker. The three of them stood alone in the graveyard reserved for those who have helped the Reikai in some way, or were linked to the realm. All Reikai Tantei and their assistances were buried here: even Sensui had a grave marker with his name etched in the cold black stone, but his body lay somewhere else entirely.

"You kept going, you moved forward, and although you were hurting badly inside you smiled all the same. You grit your teeth and bore the pain far longer than I did; I ran away like a coward to seek refuge from my old home. I left you all behind- all because of my negative thought patterns and Ayumi's kiss.

"But the one reason I left, the one push over the edge of logical thinking and rational actions was that I couldn't have you, that you loved someone else and only thought of me as a friend. I realize my folly in not telling you before it was too late, but I guess Lady Fate was just not on my side.

"I may not have been able to tell you when it would have really mattered, but I tell you now- you were, and still are the only reason I continue getting up every morning.

"I wish you farewell, and perhaps I will see you again."

Kurama stood up a crimson red curtain obscured his vision, and he felt the burning sensation of tears at the corners of his eyes. He did not let them fall, he would not grieve anymore, Yuusuke wouldn't want that, but he would move on and maybe face the rest of his time with a little more courage than before.

He dropped a single black rose onto the space that lay before his old friend's tombstone, and walked away silently with his head tilted towards the sky in search of any remaining memory of the complicated life of Urameshi Yuusuke. What seemed to be a soft breeze of wind tugged at the redhead's hair, but he saw it for the message it was meant to be.

Good-bye old friend