Keiryi's POV

I saw Hiro standing in the doorway and froze, coming back to reality just soon enough to hear Fehreil speaking to me. "We'll settle this outside," he said. "I feel...constricted in this room." He flickered away and I turned toward Hiro. Our eyes met, and he knew that I was headed toward my death. I could tell that he knew as he took me in his arms, felt me as if I wouldn't be coming back.

"Don't worry if I don't come back," I told him softly, whispering in his ear. "I'll always be here with you." I wrapped both arms around his neck and we kissed lightly before I felt his tongue slide into my mouth. That was when it all went crazy. My hands went everywhere they could reach, and he took out my ponytail, burying his head in my hair.

"Are you afraid?" he asked, breathing in.

"No," I replied firmly, and slipped off his jacket.

"Then trust me," he urged, and I did. My demon side was laughing within.

I felt his hand cup one of my breasts, and then he kissed my neck, moving all the way down to the place where my shirt began. With my nod, he took it off and saw me with only a thin, black, skintight bikini top covering my upper half. Soon, I felt his tongue work along the outline of my breast where it was bare, and then we made love, simple as that.

As I got up and put my top back on, he rose with me, and we kissed one last time. "You know you can beat him," Hiro said. "You don't know half of what you can do." With a coy smile, I turned and walked away, walking toward the fight of my life, and what could end up being my death.

The long, winding corridors gave me time enough to think about my strategy. If I was going to beat my own grandfather, I would have to outsmart him and overpower him. Inside, my energy flowed freely, and my entire body was itching for the thrill of a fight. Years ago, I would have been scared to face this, but all that had happened over the years had hardened me for this moment. I was going to beat Fehreil, and I was going to tear him to pieces for everything that he'd done to my family.

Outside, he was waiting for me, still handsome in his pitch black features. Now that I stopped to look at him, I saw a hint of gold in those dark eyes, as if it was the last flicker of sanity in him. "So you're finally going to fight your own battle," he smirked, approaching me slowly. "I thought I would allow you the pleasure of your lover before you die."

"I'm not going to run," I stated flatly, completely convinced. "Today, right here, this conflict ends. "Just promise me one thing."

"Whatever you wish, my queen," he replied, cocking an eyebrow in interest.

"If I lose, only punish me. Don't go after my family and friends any more."

With that, we flew at each other. By instinct, I soon found many of my powers, but it wasn't enough. Thorns encased him, but he managed to send a glowing ball of black matter at me. Every blow I sruck, he dodged. For a moment, I just stood there, watching him as he waited for me to resume. I could tell he wasn't taking it seriously. After all, I was nothing but a mere pup. Why was it worth the effort to actually fight me?

Fists clenched tightly, I charged him once more, but this time, I found myself tied up in bands I couldn't see. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't break them. "Before I kill you, let me show you what I can do," he taunted, and touched a hand to my forehead. My brain raced, and I could see it all. Mother was running through the streets, panting out her entire life. However, she was rampaging the streets, slaughtering the people who got in her way. Morphed into her demon form, I saw a villainous taint to those golden eyes that I'd never seen before, and never wanted to see again.

Hiro was running up the steps, trying to find me so that he could save me. Father slammed his fists into the doors of a room covered in crimson velvet in vain. Jakiri flew through the streets, trying to overcome my rampaging mother. It was all too much. Why did all this suffering have to occur in my lifetime? Why did I have to fight while other children only had to worry about remembering their homework? Was I supposed to be happy that I was so special? "You only delight in their pain because you're so empty," I hissed, baring my fangs.

Fehreil laughed dryly and drew one long, sharp fingernail across my forehead. It formed a single line that curved and swirled about my forehead until it comprised a large, intricate pattern. "Just try and defeat me now," he boasted, his dark eyes laughing at me in their cruelty. Blood burned off of my skin where he had drawn the pattern.

"I know I can defeat you," I spat, "because I have so much more behind me."

Rhia's words rang in my mind: "There is nothing more unselfish than laying down your life for the people who have loved you during its entire course. They are the ones who deserve your sacrifice the most." If I defeated Fehreil, even if it cost me my life, my family and friends would be able to live as before...happily ever after.

"It's time for you to die!" I screamed, and Fehreil backed away a couple steps, laughing. "I was hoping you'd say that my queen. For once you are dead, I can raise you as mine. Your body will belong to me." He smiled, and I closed my eyes, calling up a mass of blood-red streaks that flashed across my body. They cast an eerie red glow over my skin, and I felt them clothing me anew. I wore a tight, black dress that dipped down to show a considerable amount of cleavage. Black velvet gloves covered my hands, and I tied my hair up in a high ponytail, glad to have it out of my face.

Within, the animal instincts I had raged furiously. They told me that I could rip him to shreds if I wanted to. I could show him the same pain I had felt for so long because he had my father killed. "Fehreil, the Midnight Wolf," I hissed. Honestly, I didn't know where the name came from, but it was there. "You held court in Makai for too long. Now I'll put an end to this."

"Let's see those powers of yours, then," he taunted. "I want to see what my little girl can do."

Red light slashed at him as I came running forward, conjuring up a fistful of black shuriken. They flew true, but Fehreil dodged and raised his hand, darkness coming over the entire place. I stood there, lost and alone for the most part. His laugh resounded in my head as I tried to remember the calm I had felt when with Rhia, instead of the panic I felt then. "Show your face, coward!" I taunted, hoping to bring him out into the open.

"If you can't see in the darkness, then you haven't mastered yourself at all," Fehreil said softly. "You were going to be such a beautiful creature, but it's worthless if you're powerless." I sent small bolts of energy flying in all directions, and even though I didn't hit anything, I saw one illuminate a dark eye. My feet barely touched the ground as I charged and plunged a sword into his throat, crafted of pure spirit energy and then hardening into a real steel.

As my blade slid into his chest, I felt something blossom in my forehead, tearing my mind apart. It was Fehreil's seal. Even if he was dead, my fate had been sealed, and I'd accomplished what I came to do. For the last time, I felt myself drift into that plane where I'd found my grandmother, the one who had gotten me through that fight...

"Now Keiryi can play with us, Mommy," the little girl said with a playful smile. "She's finally going to stay with us."

"That's right, Kaiina," Rhia replied, giving her daughter that warm, sincere smile. The two of them were sitting in Hell's Grove, but it was no longer dark. Flowers sprouted, and mosses climbed up the dark, looming trees.

"You've freed us," Rhia said, "thank you so much. Now we can wander as we please, and take back this world. If you wish, you may come with us."

"Please come, Keiryi," Kaiina urged, and clung to my hand with her smaller one, her golden eyes staring up at me.

Before I could answer the little child, I felt my spirit being ripped away from my body, and I found myself in a large office, with a toddler in front of me. He appeared to be having a rather bad day from the squint to his eyes. "So, you're Keiryi," he said in a business-like tone. "I've been wanting to speak with you."

"Who are you?" I asked him, quirking an eyebrow in curiosity.

"I am Prince Koenma," he replied, and we shook hands.

I was still lost as to why he wanted me in this office rather than the regular spirit world. "Why did you bring me here?" I asked politely. "Rhia was going to let me stay with her."

"I want you to become a guardian," he answered, as if that was the answer to any other questions I might have.

"What does that entail?"

"I saw your spirit out there, Keiryi," Koenma said. "You have a gift of putting others before yourself, so I want you to become a guardian. You follow someone around and tell them what to do so that bad stuff doesn't happen to them."

Even though there were still a lot of questions to be asked, I nodded, accepting the job. However, there was one last, obvious question that I just couldn't resist.

"Who am I going to guard?" I asked.

"I have someone in mind," Koenma replied with a smile. "Someone by the name of Hiro Kuwabara."

A/N: Well, so ends Keiryi. Took a long while to get here, but there's just one more chapter before I have to watch The Midnight Rose sail off into the West. If anyone's still reading this, you'll be sad about it. I had some very ecstatic reviews when this story began as nothing more than another Kurama love story. Then it grew,and I had my own universe, where the OC's outnumber the canon characters. Hopefully, you have all loved this series as much as I have while writing it. I've made people curse at me for things that have happened(coughKurama dyingcough) and I've also made peopel cry buckets. My best friend cried when Kura-chan died in MR1. Because it was just too sad for me, I had to bring him back for MR2. So, brace yourselves for my farewell chapter.

Peace, Love, and Peace OUT,

Miari