It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. Everything had happened so fast, and now it was all over. It was all over…

"Hey…Hiei. Your pants are…falling down," he choked out, a weak smile playing over his lips and a flicker of amusement appeared in his chocolate-brown eyes, before it slowly faded out, a grin across his face even now. That was the last warmth that would ever fill them, I was sure. It just wasn't fair! But life wasn't fair. That was what had been grilled into my mind ever since birth. And here it was, showing yet another of its numerous marks against all that was supposedly fair. Even as battle-hardened as I was, though, even with all the deaths I had seen and caused, all the partners and potential allies I had seen fall, this hit me with a weight that was crushing. I had always boasted of my strength, incredible for someone of my stature, but now even that fled me. I collapsed to my knees, cradling his body in my arms.

"Yusuke…Yusuke… Why? Why did you do this? I didn't say you could die, damn it! I didn't give you permission to die!" I cried, wiping up the trickle of blood that was flowing from the corner of his mouth.

"Though…you never did follow the rules, did you?" I asked aloud. "You always were the rebel, the one who lived by his own code and everything else be damned. But why won't you listen now? Now, when it's most important! Wake up, Yusuke. Wake up!"

I hoped beyond all belief that this would be like the Sensui case, that he'd stand up any minute now and yell at me for not having enough faith in him. I hoped that he'd stand up, pound his fist into his palm, and yell that it was time to kick ass again. Inwardly, though, I knew that it would not be such. This was different. He wasn't going to be saved by a fluke in the Spirit World. He wasn't going to be saved by demon ancestry or dumb luck. Yusuke had been living on borrowed time, as we all had. And his time just ran out.

He had truly been the best of us. He wasn't the smartest, nor the most honorable, or even the strongest fighter. Kurama had him beat for brains and elegance. Kuwabara was more chivalrous and even more determined. I was the better fighter, after all this time of playing second fiddle to him, and I could better handle a difficult situation. But Yusuke was special. He could turn a group of four misfits into the best of friends. He could make an intelligent fox youkai that cared only for his family and himself throw his own life on the line to save him. He could make a brash, stubborn psychic sit and think something out for him. And he could make me, as detached and stoic as I was, feel so moved that I would risk anything for a chance to avenge him.

Yusuke had been a strong fighter, one of the best there ever was, but he wasn't perfect. As such, it was inevitable that he would eventually fall in combat. Because those who aren't perfect make mistakes. And all it takes to kill someone is one little slip up, one tiny little mistake. Kurama, Kuwabara, and I would also find our time sometime. I had long since thought that I had accepted that, and that the death of any of us would not affect me much because we all knew that it would happen. Therefore, the sobs shaking my body were a surprise, but yet somewhere I knew that I would do the same for any of them, despite what I may have said.

He wasn't perfect; we all knew that. But now, as he lay unmoving in my arms, a smile on his face, he seemed pretty close to it.