Everyone who were lucky enough to live cheered for Yusuke's victory of the Dark Tournament while his friends sighed in relief.
"He has defeated Toguro at last." Kurama stated.
"He took quite a bit of time to do it, huh?" Hiei said with a smirk.
"To think…to think that Yusuke has grown this much…" Koenma commented with an awestruck expression. "Well done!"
Yusuke wasn't even listening to anything as he stared at Toguro's dead body from a good distance while gasping for air. Suddenly, Yusuke fell forward and landed on the ground before his friends ran towards him.
"Hang on!' Kurama dropped down and helped Yusuke up on his knees. "Are you okay?" Yusuke didn't give any response and stayed silent. "You won, Yusuke! You've won!"
"Am I…alive?" Yusuke asked.
"Of course you're alive! You've won!" Tsuki exclaimed.
"That was a magnificent fight!" Koenma added.
Yusuke looked up to see Kuwabara's dead body on the ground. He removed himself from Kurama and slammed his hands on the ground before shutting his eyes in anger, mostly at himself. It was because of his cowardice that one of his friends is dead.
"Damn it all…" Yusuke dug his fingers in the dirt and grinded his teeth in anger. "Damn it all!" His friends watched him as he continued, "It's because I…it's because I was so spineless that Kuwabara was…" Yusuke couldn't even finish his sentence as memories of Toguro killing Kuwabara filled his head. "Kuwabara…What do I ay to Kuwabara? I just stood by and watched him die!" Yusuke's head fell down with tears coming out of his eyes.
"Yusuke…" Tsuki muttered.
"He died right before my eyes! I…I wasn't able to do anything!" Yusuke clutched his fists until his knuckles turned white. "What am I supposed to say to him?!" Yusuke slammed his fist on the ground and shouted, "Kuwabara!"
"Hye, numbskull!" Yusuke's eyes widen before shooting his head up to see Kuwabara standing before him on his feet with a goofy grin on his face. "Urameshi!" Kuwabara did a little dance before saying, "Hey, how ya doing?! It's Kuwabara!"
Yusuke completely froze up as he didn't know what to do: either to be happy that his friend is alive or drop in shock…he went with the second choice. He pointed his index finger at Kuwabara tried to utter out a single word but couldn't. He turned his head towards Kurama, who sweated a bit.
"Y-Yusuke…I'm sorry, but he was never dead to begin with." Kurama stated.
"W-W-W-What?!" Yusuke shouted as he got up close to his face.
Kurama backed away a bit and said, "Calm down and listen!" Yusuke kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish as Kurama explained, "Right, at the time…"
Kurama kneeled down at Kuwabara and lifted him up slowly and gently. "Kuwabara! Stay with us! Kuwabara! Are you all right?" Kurama asked.
"Yeah…I-I'm okay…he didn't reach any vital points…" Kuwabara grunted out before looking at Kurama with a serious expression. "But don't tell Urameshi…Some shock therapy might be good for him…" He said before dropping his head to played dead.
"…and that's how it happened." Kurama finished with a sweat drop on the side of his head.
Kuwabara walked towards the others and asked, "Well? It was the right thing to do, wasn't it?"
"Did you all know?!" Yusuke asked/demanded the others.
"I didn't think it was the nicest thing to do, but still…" Koenma trailed off with a hand resting on the back of his head.
"It was pretty obvious to someone who's used to seeing the undead throughout their whole life." Tsuki simply said with a shrug of her shoulders and her arms crossed on her stomach.
Their responses left Yusuke in disbelief. "You all let me get taken in!" Yusuke exclaimed.
"Hmph, it's your own fault to begin with for being so gutless, right?" Hiei said, causing Tsuki to cover her mouth in order to hide a chuckle.
"Mm-hmm, that argument stand to reason." Koenma agreed.
Hiei closed his eyes and said, "Like you said yourself, if only you could have released that power to begin with, this whole farce could have been…" Hiei stopped himself when he opened his eyes to see Kurama standing before him.
Kurama chuckled before pointing to the side and said, "Over there…" Hiei turned to the right to see Yusuke beating Kuwabara for putting him through the ordeal, causing a sweat drop to appear at the back of Hiei's head.
"I've gotta say, Kuwabara is quite the performer." Tsuki stated with a smile as she watched the fight before her.
Koenma crossed his arms on his chest and stated, "Yusuke, if you don't cut that out already, Kuwabara really will die!" After hearing those words, Yusuke finally stopped and released a beaten-up Kuwabara who fell on his back.
"Speaking of which…" Everyone turned their attention to Toguro's body as Tsuki said, "I'm curious as to why Toguro didn't kill Kuwabara. His words say one thing, but his actions says something completely different."
Kuwabara, completely feeling better, got up on his feet and said, "Now that you mention it, you're right…All Toguro had to do is keep digging into my critical points, and I would have been a goner."
Hie crossed his arms and responded, "I'm sure, Kuwabara, that your defense powers were heightened more than he expected and he wasn't able to pierce clear through to your heart. You are, after all, our top player when it comes to being a poor loser."
Kuwabara snapped his head towards Hiei and shouted, "You can't bring yourself to praise anyone, can you?!"
"I don't know for sure, but maybe Toguro wasn't planning on killing Kuwabara in the first place. I can't help but get the feeling that he was waiting all along for things to turn out like this." Kurama stated.
"Turn out like this?" Kuwabara repeated.
"For someone who was really strong to defeat him." Kurama added.
"How come?" Kuwabara asked.
"Perhaps he felt empty over abandoning his friend in order to get stronger. So maybe he wanted to be defeated by someone his friend believed in. Even if he had to keep playing the bad guy. At this point, though, we'll never know." Koenma theorized.
"What Kurama said is probably right." Everyone turned to see Sakyou and Raye walking towards them.
"Sakyou!"
Whether anyone noticed or not, Raye's and Kurama's eyes met and haven't looked away from each other as Sakyou explained, "I was only with him for a few years, but now that I think about it, he certainly did have those points about him. When Toguro first met up with Yusuke Urameshi, he seemed happier than I'd seen him in recent years. Perhaps Toguro had been waiting for this…for a man like Urameshi to appear…To fight in the greatest of rings, against the greatest opponent he could hope for, meeting with the end that he desired."
Sakyou turned his attention to Raye for a brief moment before turning towards Koenma and said, "Koenma, I have lost the wager. I openly admit it. Let's say that the cause of my defeat was not being able to see through to Toguro's true nature."
"It's okay. I don't want your life. Just give Raye her freedom." Koenma said.
"That alone won't do. As a gambler, the lowest thing I could do is not own up to my loss. I am going to settle this for good." Raye blinked her eyes, breaking her trance with Kurama, before turning towards Sakyou to see him pull out a remote-like device from his pocket. Without saying anything, Sakyou pushed the red button that was on the device before the entire arena started to shake; taking everyone completely off-guard.
"What?!"
Large cracks started to form around the entire stadium as bits of its remains started to fall from the shaking.
"Fifteen minutes to explosion! Fifteen minutes!" A robotic voice was heard throughout the stadium. "Self-destruct switch engaged! Fifteen minutes to explosion! Fifteen minutes to explosion!"
"Get out of here!" All of the demons that were left in the audience started to run out to safety. "No way I'm getting caught in that!"
"The dome will soon explode, together with me and my ambitions." Sakyou stated with a calm expression.
"Sakyou…" Raye muttered with widen eyes out of shock. "Why would you…"
"This is how I will settle our wager." Sakyou added before turning around and walked away.
"Where are you going?!" Koenma cried out, but didn't get a response.
"Thirteen minutes to explosion! Thirteen minutes to explosion!"
"Oh, no you don't…" Raye clutched her hands in a fist before running after Sakyou. "You're not getting off that easily!"
"Raye!" Kurama was about to run after her, but Tsuki grabbed him by his wrist and said, "Wait!"
"But, Raye!"
"She'll be fine. She wouldn't have gone after him unless it's something important to her. Right now, we've got to worry about your friends." She pointed up to the audience to see a terrified Botan and Yukina and Shizuru were shaking a dazed Keiko out of her trance.
"Keiko!" Yusuke called out.
"She's right! You guys take care of them!" Koenma ordered.
"Koenma, what are you going to do?" Yusuke asked.
"I still have a few things to discuss with Sakyou." Noticing how serious he sounded, Yusuke nodded his head. "I'm counting on you!" Koenma said before running towards the same direction Raye and Sakyou ran.
"We're going too!" Yusuke ordered before he suddenly started to lose balance and would've fallen if Tsuki didn't catch him.
"Are you all right, Yusuke?" Tsuki asked.
"Yeah…" Yusuke trailed his eyes towards Toguro's body one last time before smiling and said, "Catch you later, Toguro!" He and his friends took off to the others while the demons around them were trying to find their own exit.
"Let's hurry and get out of here, Koto! It's dangerous here!" Juri pleaded as she shook Koto's arm.
Koto shoot out of her seat and exclaimed in the microphone, "What are you talking about?! The commendation ceremony isn't over yet! As the play-by-play announcer, I…" Before Koto could even finish her declaration, she was interrupted by Juri who pushed her and herself away before a boulder of the ceiling fell where they once were.
Both of the girls were shocked before Juri cried out, "I don't wanna die before I get married!"
"We will be canceling the commendation ceremony, as well as the awards ceremony for the champions! Thank you for listening to my commentary for so long!" Koto quickly announced before grabbing Juri's arm and running off to find their own exit.
Down to what appears to be an underground stairway, Raye was slowly walking down the stairs as she follows Sakyou's energy. Once she got down to the last step of the stairs, she heard a couple of voices.
"Look, you…" One of the voices she recognized as Koenma's.
"Please do not worry." The other voice was Sakyou's. She heard the voice coming from a room that had no door. She stood by the side of the entrance as she listened, "My dream, and everything else, will perish here with me. That is my style."
"But, still…"
Sakyou puffed on his cigarette before blowing out smoke and said, "Besides, Toguro must have wanted to have his body blown away without a trace neither of form or shadow. That is my final task." He dropped his cigarette on the ground and stomped on it.
"Why are you rushing your death?" Koenma demanded an answer for Sakyou's actions.
"You probably couldn't understand. I wanted to open a hole…a big one…a border tunnel, connecting the Demon Realm with the Human Realm. If I could maintain a tunnel, so that any demon, no matter how evil, could freely pass between the Demon Realm and the Human Realm, this world would have been a much more chaotic, yet fascinating place. But my greatest dream will be blown away, along with myself…" Sakyou stopped himself when both of the men heard footsteps coming from the entrance, they turned to see Raye staring at Sakyou who simply smiled at her.
"Raye…" Koenma called out as Raye walked forward until she stood beside him.
"Before you go, answer this: how did you know where to find me and Cain on that day?" Raye asked him the question that was bugging her every day since she was forced to join Toguro and his team.
"A journal." Sakyou responded.
"What journal?" Raye asked further.
"Some time ago, I came across a journal that had details about you; the times you were still human, the time when you met your husband and was turned and so on. In the journal, it mentioned your resting place and gave the exact date of when you two would be awaken. It was because of every entry I read is what made my love for you grew." Sakyou explained, causing Raye's eyes to widen.
"What?"
"The more I read about you, the more fascinated I was of you, to the point where I would do everything in my power to keep you by my side, even if it meant killing Cain." Sakyou reached inside his coat and dug around a bit before pulling out his clutched fist and walked forward until he was in front of her and added, "But I guess my time with you must come to end." For once, he gently grabbed her chin and pulled her face up before placing his lips over hers, causing her eyes to widen even more.
As he was kissing her, he slipped something in her left hand and closed her hand. After a few more seconds, he pulled away and smiled as he released her chin. "Despite my actions towards you, I truly do love you, Raye. You're the only woman who has ever made me feel this way towards another being."
Raye didn't know what to say at this point as she was shocked by his declaration and actions towards her. Finally noticing her clutched left hand, she opened it to reveal a small silver key and something personal of Sakyou's, it was his special black lighter with yellow edges and his initials written in the same yellow color.
As Raye looked back at Sakyou, he walked backwards until he was about a good distance away from her and added, "You'll find the journal in the room." He held up his hand as his way of saying 'farewell'. Suddenly, the ceiling exploded as large boulders started to fall around him.
"Sakyou!" Raye called out, but Koenma held her back just as a couple of boulders crushed Sakyou, killing him instantly before their eyes.
"Raye, we've got to go!" Koenma shouted before he pulled her and himself out of the room.
"Are there still this many of you left?!" Kuwabara shouted as he pushed away the terrified demons away from him. "At this rate, I won't be able to get to Yukina!" He looked up in front of him to see Yukina and the other girls surrounding Keiko. "It's Yukina! Look out!" He charged towards the girls, literally leaving dust behind him. "Get out of my way! Anyone who stands in my way gets no mercy!"
"Oh, my…" Tsuki said with a sweat drop on her head.
"What's with him?" Hiei wondered, surprised by Kuwabara's actions.
"In any case, let's follow after him!" Kurama suggested before he and the others followed.
"Keiko! Please snap out of it!" Yukina pleaded to the dazed Keiko, but with no effect.
"Keiko! Keiko, I say! Hey!" Botan attempted to wake her by shaking her shoulder, but that didn't work either. "Come back to your senses!"
"It's no use! She's out of it! I think that fight was too much for her to handle!" Shizuru exclaimed.
"Keiko! Keiko!" Botan tried her attempt again, but still nothing.
"This is a problem." Yukina stated.
"Yukina!" The girls looked to see Kuwabara standing off to the side and was waving at Yukina. "Yukina, this way! Hurry, hurry!"
Yukina got up on her feet and shouting, "Kazuma! Never mind me, it's Keiko! She's half-unconscious!" Suddenly, she heard noises from her left side. She turned to see the wall started to crack before slowly falling over her. She let out a scream and closed her eyes for impact.
"Yukina!" Kuwabara cried out as he ran to save her. Once he got there, he was surprised to see that Yukina was already rescued by Hiei who held her in his arms. Yukina opened her eyes and was surprised, but relieved to see that Hiei saved her from being crushed.
Hiei turned his head away and said to Yukina, "Don't dawdle around!"
"R-Right. Thank you very much." Yukina said, leaving Kuwabara grunting his teeth in jealously.
"Five minutes to explosion! Five minutes to explosion!"
"What's the matter? Are you all right?" Yusuke asked as Kurama and Tsuki were helping him walk towards everyone.
"Yusuke, it's Keiko!" Botan exclaimed.
"What?!" Kurama and Tsuki released Yusuke to let him walk towards Keiko and kneeled down.
"Keiko is in some kind of trance and hasn't moved since!" Shizuru stated.
"Keiko!" Yusuke called out, but she didn't respond like everyone hoped she would if she heard his voice. Yusuke grabbed her shirt and started shaking her before shouting, "Hey, Keiko! Snap the hell out of it! I won! Hey! Keiko! Sheesh, what a pain!" Decided to do the one thing he knows he might regret, he held up his hand and shouted, "Hey!"
Everyone watched with widen eyes as Yusuke started slapping Keiko's face back and forth, hoping to get her out of her trance. "Hurry up, would you! Wake up! Come on!"
After a few seconds of slapping her, Keiko finally responded, "Yow, already!" She held up her hand and slapped him across his face, causing him to cease his slapping and fall on the ground with his right cheek swelled. "That hurts, you idiot!" Keiko blinked a couple of times before saying, "Huh? What's happened to me? Where am I? Huh?" She looked down and noticed Yusuke on the ground and gasped.
"We don't have time for this foolish!" Tsuki turned Yusuke on his back before punching him on his stomach, causing him to launch up and holding his stomach in pain while groaning.
He snapped his head towards her and shouted, "What the hell was that for?!"
"Stop your whining! I didn't even use my whole strength on that punch!" Tsuki turned towards Kurama, completely ignoring Yusuke's shocked expression, and ordered, "Kurama, get Yusuke on his feet! We need to get out of here!"
"Right!"
Everyone quickly got up on their feet and started running down a hallway that led towards the entrance/exit of the stadium.
"Three minutes to explosion! Three minutes to explosion!"
"Where are Raye and Koenma?! They should be with us right now!" Shizuru asked.
"Don't worry! Lady Raye will get herself and Koenma out safely!" Tsuki reassured them.
At the end of the hallway, they noticed demons were gathered around. "W-What's this, what's this? Move it, move it! Move out of the way!" Kuwabara shouted before the demons cleared a path for them. However, standing before them were boulders blocking their exit. "The way is blocked!" Kuwabara stated. He turned towards Yusuke and asked, "What do we do?"
Yusuke removed his arm from Kurama's shoulder and said, "There's no choice but to knock it away!"
Tsuki held her arm out and shouted, "Not from you!"
"Then why don't you do something about it?!" Yusuke shouted back.
"If I do something, it's only going to make it worse or possibly kill us!" Tsuki stared at the boulders and explained, "This kind of thing can only be destroyed from the other side!"
"Two minutes to explosion! Two minutes!"
"It's hopeless! There's no time to take a different route!" Botan stated.
"Damn…" Yusuke grinded his teeth in anger when suddenly the boulders cracked before getting destroyed. The dust cleared to reveal Chu, Rinku, Jin and Touya standing before them.
"Urameshi!" Chu called out.
"You guys!" Yusuke smiled in relief.
"Come on, quick!" Chu pointed behind him and said, "We can't let the hero of the tournament get hurt in a place like this!"
"That's right! You guys are our objectives now!" Jin added. "We're goin' to be sure to put you away at the next tournament!"
Yusuke gave a thumbs up and said, "Yeah, let's go at it again!"
Everyone started to run towards the entrance created until Keiko heard a sound from behind. She turned around to see Puu flying towards her. "Puu!" Keiko held out her hands as he landed in her arms. "Now, where did you run off to?"
"Puu~"
"Keiko, now's really not a good time to stop!" Shizuru shouted.
"Right!" Keiko followed the others.
Raye and Koenma were running through a different hallway when suddenly Koenma tripped and fell on his face.
"What the?" Raye wondered what caused him to trip when she noticed a blue hand got a hold of his leg.
Koenma lifted his head and looked to see George buried in the rubble with his head and left hand completely free.
"Koenma..." George called out as tears were pouring out of his eyes. "Please don't go without me!"
Koenma got out of his grip and stood up before saying, "O-Oh, it's you? Are you still here?" Koenma grabbed his left arm and pulled him out of the rubble.
"Am I still here?! You're so cold!" George cried out before wrapping his arms around Koenma, who tried to get out of his tight grip, leaving Raye to watching the scene with a sweat drop on her head.
"Come on, don't hug me!" Koenma ordered.
"Thirty seconds to explosion! Thirty seconds to explosion!"
"Hurry!" Koenma cried out as he, Raye and George began running again.
"5…"
"4…"
"3…"
"2…"
"1…"
At the final countdown, the stadium exploded; luckily everyone was out and away from the stadium down to the last second. Everyone watched at the stadium started to crumble and dust was covering the area. Coming out of through the dust was Koenma, Raye and George.
"Koenma!" Yusuke called out in relief.
"Lady Raye!" Tsuki called out as well.
Once they met up with the others, they turned around to see a bright dome-shaped light covered the crumbling stadium completely before the light dimmed down and left nothing but dust and smoke.
"It's over, huh?" Kuwabara asked.
"Yeah. It's over." Yusuke confirmed.
"Yusuke." He turned to see Raye standing before him and held out the silver key. Yusuke was confused at the key and stared at Raye. "This key will unlock the bracelet I have on. Once you unlock it, I'll finally be free." She explained before handing the key to him and present the bracelet to him.
Yusuke was silent for a moment while staring at the key and bracelet before closing his hand. He turned his head towards Kurama and tossed the key at him, "Here."
Kurama caught the key with one hand and stared at it for a second before turning his attention towards Yusuke who said, "You should have the honor of doing it, Kurama. I mean, it's only fair, right?"
Kurama smiled and nodded his head before walking towards Raye and stood before her. She stayed silent as she watched Kurama gently holding her hand in place before inserting the key in the skull on the bracelet and turned it. The skull's eye sockets glowed red for a moment before unlocking itself and fell off of her wrist and landed on the ground.
Raye let out a breath of relief she didn't even know she held in and stared at her now bare wrist. She also didn't realize that blood red tears were streaming out of the corner of her eyes until Kurama released her hand and gently wiped the tears away with his thumb.
"Please tell me I'm not dreaming…" Raye asked.
"This isn't a dream. You're finally free." Kurama replied before Raye closed her eyes and fell into his arms, resting her face on his chest and her arms wrapped around his waist.
"Thank you…Thank you…" Raye's shoulders started to shake as she began to sob in relief. He immediately wrapped his arms around her with his hands interlocking with her long hair and let her do as she pleases.
Yusuke and his friends watched them with smiles on their faces, even Hiei was smiling a bit. They knew that after today, Raye's nightmare with the Toguro team has come to an end; she has no longer any need to run anymore. She's free to do whatever makes her happy…as long as she doesn't cause any more trouble like when they first met her. Yusuke even looked down at the bracelet near his feet and stomped it and dug his foot against it, shattering it completely into pieces.
Suddenly, the moment ended when Botan suddenly screamed. "W-What's wrong?!" Kuwabara asked why she ruined a precious moment.
"Once you win, you each get the one thing that you want, right? Now you won't be able to get anything, will you?" Botan stated.
"Now that you mention it…" Kuwabara trailed off before dropping his head in despair.
Botan crossed her arms and exclaimed, "We're worse off for having been invited!"
"It's probably all for the best." Everyone turned towards Raye, who was wiped her tears away from her eyes and unwrapped herself from Kurama's arms. She turned towards the others and said, "After all, they wouldn't be able to grant the one wish you wanted most of all…Even they have limits on what they can do."
"The thing we wanted most?" Botan was confused before she gasped in realization what she was talking about: bringing Genkai back to life.
"Yusuke, please forgive me. It's because of me that Genkai was…" Raye couldn't even finish her sentence, knowing that Yusuke was hurt most of all by Genkai's death.
"I don't blame you for that. I betcha she wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over it, either. She would be proud knowing that we've got your freedom back." Yusuke took a couple of steps forward before looking up towards the sky and shouted, "Hey, Granny! We won! We won!"