Yusuke opened his eyes, not seeing what was before him. His hands
dropped helplessly to his lap. Kurama was gone...
"Kurama..." Kuwabara said softly, as he and Hiei guided Kurama's
body
back down to the ground. He passed a hand over the empty eyes, closing
them.
Kuwabara closed his own eyes before he began crying, and started
mumbling a
prayer under his breath.
Hiei ignored the both of them, his eyes fixed on Kurama's
figure. He
hadn't really believed, before, that it would come down to this. Even
when he'd
tried to kill Kurama himself, it had been in the heat of battle, and he
hadn't
believed it at the time. But, now - this...
"Hey," Kurama said, kneeling down next to Hiei. "Are you going
to go
psycho, or are you leaving that to Yusuke?"
"Hn. Yusuke'll be fine eventu--" Hiei broke off and turned
sharply to
look at Kurama as he realized who he was talking to. His eyes went wide
as they
confirmed what his ears had heard.
Kurama laughed. "Yes, I'm really me, and yes, I'm dead, and no,
you're
not going crazy," he said, answering Hiei's unspoken questions.
"But...how--?"
"What do you think you have this for?" Kurama asked, passing a
ghostly
hand before Hiei's Jagan. Hiei shivered as a sudden touch of ice cold
made
itself known.
"Don't _do_ that!" He glared at Kurama.
"Sorry." Kurama shrugged. "Not used to being a ghost - at least
not
this way." He looked at his body. "When did I switch back to being
human?"
"Sometime while Yusuke was throwing all that power into you,"
Hiei
answered.
"Oh, really?" Kurama asked, resting his chin on his hand and
looking
at his body. "Interesting..."
"So why aren't you gone yet? Or are you here to haunt me?" Hiei
demanded.
"Not my time to go yet," Kurama replied, shrugging again. "I'm
just
hanging around until one of you gets the bright idea to try starting my
heart
again."
Hiei let that sink in for a second. "You have _got_ to be
kidding!" he
said finally.
"Hey, do you think I really want any of you giving me
mouth-to-mouth,
either?" Kurama retorted. "I can think of several other people I'd much
rather have do
it. But none of them are here right now."
Hiei muttered something under his breath, and turned to Yusuke.
Kurama
smiled, certain he'd caught at least the phrase "lady foxes."
"Yusuke," Hiei said, shaking his shoulder. He frowned when
Yusuke
didn't respond, and tried again, more vigorously. Finally Yusuke seemed
shaken
out of his stupor, and looked up at him. "Come on, we have to get his
heart
started," he said, jerking his thumb over at his shoulder at Kurama's
spectre,
who was watching them with apparent interest.
"Whaddaya mean?" Yusuke asked, looking past Hiei to where he was
pointing - empty space.
"Did I mention that Yusuke and Kuwabara can't see me?" Kurama
asked
Hiei.
Hiei looked at Kurama and growled. He turned back to Yusuke. "He
says
that the two of you can't see him. Wonderful."
"Huh?" Yusuke slowly put two and two together. "Wait a minute -
you
mean that Kurama's still here?!" he asked.
"Huh?" Kuwabara asked, looking up. He glanced around. "Where?"
"Isn't that what I said?" Hiei demanded. He looked at Kurama.
"Either
give them some proof, or vanish permanently," he growled.
"And here I was assuming that you might actually be glad that I
wasn't dead," Kurama replied, kneeling down before Yusuke. He passed a
hand
through Yusuke's face.
"Cold!" Yusuke gasped. Kurama smiled and repeated the move with
Kuwabara.
"So, are you glad I'm not dead?" Kurama asked Hiei, as they
stood back
and watched Kuwabara and Yusuke start emergency CPR.
"What do you think?" Hiei retorted.
"I think that you are," Kurama answered slowly. "I also think
that you
won't admit to it."
"...So don't ask, then," Hiei replied, quietly enough that
Yusuke and
Kuwabara wouldn't hear.
Kurama smiled. Then he walked over to his body and stepped back
in.
Kuwabara and Yusuke moved back as Kurama suddenly took a deep
breath
and started coughing. Eventually, all the stale air was out of his
lungs, and
Kurama relaxed somewhat, slowly sitting up. "I _never_ want to go
through that
again," he said, looking at Yusuke and Kuwabara.
"You think it was a picnic for the rest of us?" Yusuke asked,
grinning
in spite of himself.
"No, I know it wasn't," Kurama answered. "But it worked - the
shadow's
gone. For good."
"Impossible," a choked voice said from behind them. Kurama and
the
others turned their attention back to Kuroi, still trapped behind the
wall of
poison. "You can't still be alive!"
"Can and am," Kurama replied, getting to his feet. "Like I said
- even
if I died, it's no guarantee that you'd win. Things just turned out to
where I
didn't have to, permanently." He walked over, closer to Kuroi. "Now, the
last
thing I want to know: where's the door out of here?"
"Over there," Kuroi said, indicating a door set in a corner of
the
room. "It will take you to Tokyo."
"Thank you," Kurama said, walking over to it. He opened the
door, and
gestured the others through.
"Hey, Kurama - didn't you say you were going to kill him?"
Kuwabara
asked, before they went through.
"Yeah, I did," Kurama answered, his eyes coolly raking down
Kuroi's
imprisoned figure. He shrugged. "I lied."
"_WHAT_?!" Kuroi shrieked, watching the four step through the
door.
Kurama was last. He waved at Kuroi, then let the door close behind him.
Kuroi looked at the plants still surrounding him, nervously.
They
started to inch closer. Then the door clicked shut, and the plants
vanished. He
fell to his hands and knees, trembling.
"Kurama...why?" he whispered.