"The finals are two days away. What if he gets his sleep schedule all screwy?" Kazuma rubbed the back of his head, observing Yusuke who lay unconscious on one of the beds. "He should take a shower or have a walk or something..."

"Don't bother him." Genkai ordered softly from her place on against the wall. We both turned around to look at her, me fiddling with getting the final piece fitted back onto my bracelet and him holding little Puu in his arm. "He'll wake up in time even if he doesn't want to. There's something new inside him now and it won't let him miss that fight."

I frowned, putting down the pliers and watching her face. She seemed far-away somehow, like she wasn't really in this room with either of us.

"I guess I'd better be off." She pushed herself up and walked to the door.

"Wait a second, where are you going now?" Kazuma turned with her.

She stood silently, staring at the knob in front of her, her eyes still misted with that dreamy look. I pushed myself up from the ground as well, moving to stand next to my cousin and looking her up and down. Nothing in her posture betrayed anything of what was going on in her head, but I felt worry running through me. She wasn't acting like herself.

"Tell Yusuke not to follow me." She said finally.

"Are you in trouble?"

She hesitated with her hand around the doorknob, furrowing her brown. She turned around after a moment and stared at him.

"Kuwabara?"

"Ma'am?"

"You have a gentle heart. Use it." She smiled. She looked at me, nodding once. "You've come a long way, Ella. I'm proud of you."

"Thank you." I said quietly, looking her up and down.

She walked out of the room without looking back at us, and chewed on my lip.

"What the heck? Hope this isn't a sign people are gonna start acting weird on me."

I shoved my bracelet into my pocket and pushed my pliers into his hand.

"I'm gonna try and catch up with her. Watch Yusuke." I told him, petting Puu's head and ducking out of the room. She wasn't in the main part of the room, so I grabbed my sweatshirt and pulled it over my tanktop, walking out in the hallway. She wasn't there either. If I were Genkai, I would probably take the stairs...

I skipped steps until I found her on the second landing, descending at a leisurely pace that didn't betray what her face did.

"Genkai." She turned to look at me, that stern look on her face that told me I should have stayed where I was and not followed her. "What's wrong? You aren't acting like yourself."

She turned around, starting her descent again, and I followed her.

"You have always been stubborn." She finally stated. "I knew that when I took you on. Stubborn but polite, determined but passive. Happy yet suffering. You rise and fall much like the tide. Despite what anyone will tell you, Ella, your emotions are not a weakness. I want you always to remember that."

"Why does it feel like you're saying goodbye?"

"You ask so many questions." She smiled, shaking her head. "Can an old woman not take a walk without playing twenty questions with her student?"

"You're avoiding my question."

"And you're going to need another piece of metal if you want to wear your bracelet anytime soon. It was a gift from your father, was it not?"

"He gave it to me when I went to live with my mother when I was eight. Genkai..." I hesitated, not wanting to keep pushing if she wasn't going to budge. "You know that you can tell me anything, right? That if you need help, I'll be there?"

"I know." She touched my face, smiling softly at me. Pale blues and off whites danced within my vision, but I wasn't submerging into her. It must be easier when I've already felt a person. "Go outside and practice. It's a beautiful day out."

I nodded, flickering my eyes between hers to try and get something else. I couldn't stop her from doing what she wanted, and she wanted it dropped. But something was wrong. This wasn't right, whatever it was.

She exited the stairwell into the main lobby of the hotel room, and I separated from her reluctantly to head out the back. Something told me that I wasn't going to be able to follow her.

The sound of screaming shocked me out of my thoughts, and I broke out toward the sound. Flames of orange and black circled above the water past the trees, tendrils whipping through the air. I pushed myself as fast as I could go, feeling like I was flying. I panicked at the tendrils pulling down, turning into a cyclone that seemed to be visibly shrinking.

"What are you doing here?" Hiei snapped at me, barely turning his head to acknowledge me from over his shoulder.

I panted, catching my breath, and staring at the fire on the ground. "I heard someone screaming..."

"And you thought you could accomplish what by running to their aid? Sharing the same fate?"

"How about helping?" I glared, feeling that irritation acting up again. He'd been so distant and, to be quite frank, pissy the last day or so. Like his power wasn't good enough at this current point.

He scoffed, standing up and turning around. "How interesting."

"At least I'm willing to try!" I snapped at him, resting my hands on my hips and feeling my blood start to boil again. "And what the hell did you do to your arm?"

"It wasn't doing as it was commanded, so it had to be punished." He said simply, shrugging and turning to go back to what he was doing. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Why are you being so moody lately?"

"Not everyone has the positive outlook that your new shinobi friend shares." He dismissed me, drawing out a flame in his hand and breathing to focus.

"Jin? What about him?" Hiei didn't respond, seeming to ignore me, which only served to make me more angry. "Hiei, what about Jin? Are you jealous that he's helping me or something?"

"I don't get 'jealous'." He scoffed again, stopping his ministrations to turn back around and glare at me. "Jealousy is for the weak, the attached. I am neither."

"So you don't care at all if I'm here or not then?"

"You can do as you please. I'm busy." He turned around, effectively shutting me out again.

I tried not to let that affect me, but I felt that agonizingly familiar pang of jealousy that I had accused him of. I wanted to say something, and I wanted to make him just face me and talk to me like normal people. But Hiei wasn't normal. And I wasn't going to get what I wanted.

I watched him for a minute, concentrating and focusing his energy into whatever it was he was working on, and I turned and walked away. I wasn't going to just stand around and get abused by some emotionally-unstable midget with a sword.

Walking along the beach was soothing to the worries plaguing me about the cloud of impending doom that seemed to hang over us. I avoided the tide coming in, watching my footprints disappearing into the sand. It felt inevitable, like all I was doing was going to be washed away. One day Kazuma, Shizuru, Genkai, Keiko, Yusuke, and I would all be dead. Shuichi and Hiei would still be alive, probably for hundreds if not thousands of years, and we would fade away from their memories like my footprints.

Damnit, why am I feeling so damn sorry for myself?

I shook my head hard, rapidly running my fingers through my hair and trying to pull myself out of this. I lifted my hand up and brought a whip of water up into the air. I brought my other hand up and twirled, bringing the whip with me and throwing it into the air, imagining Hiei's stupid face, throwing another part of water at the vision again and again. I fell to the ground, unable to stop the stupid smile that was forcing it's way past my lips.

"Yukina. I wasn't expecting to see you here." I commented, glancing to see her where I felt her. She brushed some hair out of her face, kneeling down next to me.

"You're distressed."

"I'm fine now. I'm just worried."

"About the finals or about something else?"

"All of the above?" I chuckled, shaking my head and sighing. "Yukina, can I ask you a... well, a kind of a weird question?"

"Of course." She nodded with a small smile.

"Well... you're a demon, and you like a human. So... how do you show Kazuma how you like him?" She cocked her head, frowning. I sighed, chewing on my lip. "A, uhm, friend of mine was wondering because she likes a demon and she wants to know how to tell if she should tell him or just leave it alone."

"I'm not sure, exactly. I think that humans and demons are very similar in that aspect that it would depend on the person how they would show their affection for another." She admitted. "I don't have much experience with humans, or for romance in general, but that seems to be what I've observed thus far."

"I see." I sighed.

"What friend is it? Do I know them?" She wondered, her naivety shining through that adorable smile and those shining crimson eyes. I blushed, clearing my throat and staring up at the sky.

"You have such a cute smile." I diverted the question. She giggled, covering her face and shaking her head. I grinned, giving her a light push with my shoulder. "So you think that she should treat it like any other relationship with a human?"

"I think that would be the wisest decision. I can't wait to meet her. What's she like?" She pushed.

I smirked. "Impulsive and a magnet for trouble more or less."

"She sounds like an excellent fit with everyone here."

"Yukina, are you going to stick around when all of this is over? I know before that you said you had permission to come here to try and find your brother, but what happens after the tournament is over? What if he isn't here?"

"I will have to return regardless of if I find him or not."

"That seems so unfair. You should be able to look until either you find him or you decide to return."

"It is highly unusual for an ice apparition to be allowed to leave the ice world." She insisted, playing with her fingers. "I was granted permission because of my insistence, but really I should still be there now. It was a blessing to be able to come here."

"Do you want to go back?"

"The ice world is where I belong. It's my home." She looked down at her hands. "But... I like it here. It's so much more vibrant than the ice world. There, everything is cold and colorless. Here, the world is beautiful, warm, vibrant."

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, trying to offer what comfort I could to her. She leaned her head on my shoulder, sighing, and glanced up at me.

"I am sorry, Ella. I came to help, and you are the one helping me."

"That's the best way to help, Yukina." I smiled, giving her a more proper hug. "I want you to be happy, and while I would love for that to mean that you will stay in the human world, if going back is what you want, I will never judge you for it. None of us will. We love you."

She smiled back at me, and opened her mouth to say something when a wave of cold seemed to pass through me. My heart jolted inside me, shocks coursing through my veins and numbing me out. Tears sprang to my eyes, and I felt a longing, terrible loss I had hoped I would never have to feel again.

Yukina wrapped her arms around me tightly, a look of startled realization on her face. Whatever this was, she could feel it too. I tried to calm down, hugging her tighter to try and stop the spasms coursing through me.

"Someone with great power has passed on." Yukina said quietly, looking to the sky.

I looked up with her, watching the colors swirling above me. I couldn't tell if it was real.

She was really gone.