Kiyoshi: Congratulations.

FCL64: For what?

Kiyoshi: For working on this story. That happens rarely enough.

FCL64: Uh-huh. Because I definitely have time, with everything else you're making me do.

Kiyoshi: Sure. Blame the guy no one else can see. We only own…well, perhaps only isn't the right words since there are so many OCs in this story. Oh well. You guys know what I'm trying to say.

FCL64: Even if you don't, Kiyoshi.

Kiyoshi: Not going to dignify that with a response.

"You okay, Kurama?" Yusuke asked. "You look kind of out of it."

"No," Kurama muttered, almost to himself. "I'm not okay. I haven't been okay for nearly half a millennium."

"Oh, Kurama," Ayaka said, jumping up and hugging him. "That's why we're here, remember? We're finishing this."

He bit his lip and nodded. "Yes. Finishing this is for the best. Ayaka, just do me one favor."

She smiled wryly. "Hiei is the one you'll have to talk to. I understand completely."

Hiei glared. "You don't want me to fight."

Kurama shrugged. "I don't particularly care who fights so long as I get to strike the death blow."

Hiei sighed and slouched up against the wall. "Whatever. I'll just come as backup. There may be two of them, but their quarrel is with you, Kaien and Ayaka. I can understand that you want to fight him on your own, Kurama. He was your best friend. I have no business with this if you do not need my help."

"Thanks, Hiei," Kurama said quietly.

Ayaka nodded and said, "Kurama, Kaien and I will take Xanthippus. Just…don't get yourself killed."

"If you recall," he said suddenly, "I do not care if I die. If I die, I die. But if I die, I'm taking him to hell with me."

She pursed her lips, and Kaien said, "Don't get yourself killed, Kurama. I've already had to put up with her after Kuronue's death. I don't want to see her suffer through yours as well."

Kurama stood up. "Don't say his name like you knew him," Kurama said, eyes full of an angry fire. "Don't talk about his death like you know what I went through."

"I wasn't," Kaien answered, not flinching back. "I was speaking of how I know his death affected my sister, the same way your death will affect her. All I know is that you are not even trying to move on, Kurama. I haven't heard you say his name the entire time I've been here. That seems to—" He broke off when Ayaka's claws dug a warning into his forearm.

Kurama was looking down at the floor, his aura resonating through the room. Ayaka and the others could see him seething with rage at Kaien's words. Suddenly he took two steps across the room and struck Kaien across the face. Kaien jumped back, glaring, and Ayaka flexed her fingers in anger. She stood tall next to her brother. "Don't pretend it's not true, Kurama," she said. "I've heard you say his name once in the last five centuries."

Golden eyes flashed in anger. "You are just so ready to move on, Ayaka. You can't get over it soon enough. It's like you're running from the truth," he accused.

"I get it, Kurama, okay? I get that his death hit you harder than it hit me," she snapped back. "But I'm not the one running from the truth. You're the one hiding here in the human world. I'm the one who had to seek you out in order to find closure. It's like you think by avoiding anything to do with your old life you can pretend it never happened."

Kurama got ready to retort, but Kuwabara interrupted, "We shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves, you guys."

"Stay out of this," Kaien warned. "This is not just an argument between friends."

"What?" Yusuke asked. "What do you mean, Kaien?"

"Fox thing," he muttered. "You wouldn't understand it. It's an argument fueled further by five centuries of pain as well as being a manifestation of the way foxes work better alone. And the fact that when they can work with others, foxes almost never partner with each other."

Kurama and Ayaka ignored all of this. "I'm not trying to pretend it didn't happen, Ayaka. I'm faced with the fact that I just left him there every single day of my life, understand? I abandoned him to save myself."

Then, picking up on something Kurama himself hadn't really registered, Ayaka said harshly, "He's not coming back, Kurama. No matter how much either of us wishes it was me instead, that bastard got Kuronue, not me, and there is nothing we can do about it."

Silence settled over the group. Then Kurama turned away from them to stare out the window. Ayaka was breathing heavily. Finally Kurama whispered, "I'm sorry, Ayaka. I didn't mean…I wish it hadn't been Kuronue, but that doesn't mean I ever wanted it to be you instead. I can't pretend that he wasn't a closer friend than you, but I would never have wanted you to die either."

"Kurama," Ayaka said far more gently than before, "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. All three of us always knew the truth. If forced to choose, you would have saved Kuronue's life before you'd have saved mine. And he would have saved your life first. We all knew that. But it worked because I understood how lucky I was to have ever gotten to be a part of that group in the first place."

There was silence. Then Kurama said, "And we all also knew that you would have rescued Kuronue before you would have saved me. But I never resented you for that. And you never resented us. So why are we fighting over this?"

Ayaka didn't respond, aware only of the fact that he had finally said the name. "Like Kaien said," she finally whispered, "Five hundred years of emotions."

Kaien looked at her. "You would have saved Kuronue before Kurama? You never told me that. You just said that either of them would have helped the other before helping you. Why do you have a preference?" Ayaka looked away from her brother. "Oh," he said. "Oh. Ayaka, why didn't you tell me before?"

"It was just easier to pretend…it made it all hurt less, somehow."

"What's going on here?" Yusuke asked loudly. "Why would she have chosen Kuronue over you, Kurama?"

"Just…" Kurama began. Then he sighed. "I intentionally forgot that Ayaka had reasons to be hurt by his death that I did not have. I made a point of forgetting it because it made her look so much stronger than I was, since she was truly hurting as much but was letting it show so much less."

"Huh?" Yusuke asked.

"She was in love with him, moron," Hiei muttered.

"Really?" Yusuke said in surprise. He looked at Ayaka, who was still avoiding everyone's eyes. Only Kaien knew that she was crying, although Kurama suspected it. "But then why are you okay with Kurama killing the bounty hunter, if you have just as much reason to hate him?"

"Kuronue did not reciprocate my feelings," she whispered. "I never told him directly, but they obviously knew. And Kurama was friends with him for far longer than I, and I do not believe I could take him anyway. And Xanthippus was as responsible for Kuronue's death as Kyo was."

Kurama sighed. "He did feel something for you, Ayaka. He just repressed it as best as he could. He never told you because he didn't want to complicate things. He didn't want to have to risk choosing between his girl and his best friend."

"As touching as this little trip down memory lane is," a gravelly voice said, suddenly appearing in Kurama's door. Everyone spun to stare at the pink-haired, purple-eyed, black-clad bounty hunter as he continued, "I'm going to have to break it up. I need to kill three of you—and anyone else who gets in my way—before you learn anything else that could help you kill me."

Kurama's fox ears twitched in hatred, and he repressed a growl of fury. "Not here. The demon plane. I can't kill you here. Not in my mother's house, not in a human city."

"You've grown soft, Kurama," Kyo chuckled. "To think that you could kill me when you're worried about a human woman, of all things."

Ayaka glared and said, "Where is he, Kyo? Where is your apprentice? He's too involved in this to be left alive, as far as I'm concerned."

Kyo chuckled. "He did mention that you knew of him. The demon plane, you say. Might as well, if you're intent on fighting both of us."

"No," Kurama said darkly. "I fight you alone. Completely alone. Neither of us is allowed any aid. This is between you and me. Kaien and Ayaka will deal with Xanthippus."

Kyo grinned. "Very well."

They went down the stairs, and Kyo ripped a hole, forming a bridge between the two realms, sealing it off once everyone had passed through. Almost immediately, a man with bright blue eyes and hair to match appeared. "I told you this was coming, Kyo," he noted, ignoring the others. "I knew that once they learned of my existence they would settle for nothing less than the death of us both."

"I suppose it can't be helped," the bounty hunter replied. He turned. "Kurama, where would you like to do this?"

"First tell me—why do you want the lockets and the pendant so badly that you are willing to kill for them?"

animegrlsteph: It's kind of vital to the story though...