It was a sunny day.

Sunny and happy.

Shizuru could see students walking to school.

She saw some from Kuwabara's school.

She was trying not to cry.

Shizuru sat inside a dark car.

Dark with tinted windows.

So she could see out, but no one could see in.

Sakyou sat in the driver's seat on her right.

She had not expected him to give her a lift himself.

But perhaps he felt guilty? Did he want to apologise?

No.

She knew he didn't.

She made to open the door, but his voice stayed her hand.

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if Lord Daioh made you the next spirit detective. You certainly have the skill and intuition."

She tried to laugh, but ended up only sobbing.

An awkward silence followed, and Shizuru stared at the red Mitsubishi in front if them.

"You must hate me."

It was a line which should have been said in hurt or hurtful tones.

Yet Sakyou managed to say it with distance and disdain.

"I don't think there's enough left of my soul to hate anyone at the moment."

Another silence passed between them.

Shizuru looked up to her house next to the road, and saw Eikichi in one of the windows.

A neighbour had been feeding her. Shizuru would have to ring and tell them she was back.

Her. But not her brother.

Eikichi would miss Kuwabara.

"You should go now."

His tone was final and commanding, and Shizuru dared not linger.

She undid her seatbelt, and her hand was on the door when Sakyou spoke again.

"Shizuru?"

She turned, and found herself facing an unrecognisable man.

His face seemed soft now, and even emotional.

"What?"

He leant forward, and she felt his lips barely brush hers before he sharply pulled away.

To her horror, she found herself blushing.

"I hope you find yourself a good job and husband. You deserve both."

That said, her gave her a final, but gentle push out of the car.

She barely got to see his face before he shut the door.

The engine started up straight away.

Shizuru watched him drive away, her fingers resting on her lips, her cheeks still burning.

She looked behind her at the house.

Eikichi had noticed her return, and was mewing excitedly at the window.

Her future looked uncertain from here, in a terrifyingly refreshing way.

She never saw Sakyou again.

She heard some months later from Botan about his death at the hands of the Spirit Defence force, only weeks after that day.

That had been the same time Koenma had offered her the position of Spirit detective.

And also when she had started dating Rei, an effeminate but dead straight student at the fashion college she had enrolled at.

But, as she stood outside her house, lonely and distraught, she could not have known any of this.

Just like she had not known that Kurama loved her.

Just like she did not know that Koenma had raised Genkai from the dead.

Just like she did not know that as he drove away, in his expensive black car, Sakyou was crying.

Tears both of confusion and grief.

The end