First of all, I'd like to offer a huge apology to all of you who were waiting for the conclusion of this story. No matter how many times I wrote and rewrote this chapter, I was never completely satisfied. Even now, there are some things that I'm not too satisfied with, but I figure that I've kept you guys waiting long enough. So, without further or do, here is the last part of 'Lives Beyond Revenge and Jealousy'

I feebly tried to pull Rei away from Kaze, but only ended up getting dragged over by her in the end. "What do you mean that you like Sherry?" Rei snapped at Kaze, the anger practically oozing off of her as she spoke.

"Well, while we're on the confession boat, I used to love you," Kaze said, taking Rei by surprise. In fact, I think it took us all by surprise. She quickly got over this, as it only evoked another spike of anger for her.

"Why didn't you tell me, you idiot?" Rei snapped once more.

"I'm sorry that you were too busy flirting with every other guy in the school to notice a school crush," Kaze said frankly.

"I didn't flirt with every guy in school!" Rei protested.

"Let's see... Ryo, Judai, Jun, that Martin kid-"

"Okay, okay, I get it, but I was a maiden trying to find love back then! Isn't the fact that I've been waiting for you for years sign enough that I'm serious about you?" Rei asked.

"I'm actually over it... Since we didn't exchange contact information, I figured it was a lost cause to contact you... By the time you came back, I already liked Sherry," Kaze said.

"So before the tournament... I was kind of a bother then, wasn't I?" I asked, causing Kaze to jump.

"See!? This is why I wanted to do this privately!" Kaze said to his purple haired teammate. "But Ruka, it's not like that at all. It's not like I knew what was happening at the time, but I figure that's the time when the feelings started coming," Kaze continued as he redirected his attention to me.

"Way to friend zone her," Rei sighed.

"'Partners forever. You better not replace me, you hear'," Kaze quoted, causing Rei to jump.

"D-don't blame this on me! It's not my fault!" Rei snapped before spinning around to face me. "I'm sorry! It's all my fault! If I hadn't been so selfish, you wouldn't be friend zoned right now!"

"You are probably one of the worst sports there are, do you know that?" Sherry asked, speaking for the first time in a while. Now that I think about it, it may have been better if she had stayed quiet.

"Don't act so high and mighty just because he said he likes you! All he said is that he likes you! Like and love are two different things," Rei said.

"Based on the context, I'm positive that he was referring to love, but simply couldn't get the nerve to say it as such" Sherry said. "Just stop being a poor sport already. What happened to you'd be fine no matter what?" Sherry asked to the purple haired duelist. Rei opened her mouth to protest, but her words fell short and she had to grab her chin in thought.

"Oh no... She's got the face," Kaze muttered.

"The face?" I asked, oblivious to whatever code name that was for.

"Another Rei idea is coming, simply put," Sherry explained. Rei's eyes suddenly widened and she broke into a wide grin, causing Kaze to cautiously back up.

"But none of this means anything at all!" Rei declared, taking the rest of us by surprise.

"W-what do you mean!? I worked up my nerves to say that who I liked and it doesn't mean anything?" Kaze shouted.

"That's right! It doesn't mean anything because... This is just a preliminary judgement! Of course! Sherry may have won Round One, but Ruka and I will win Round Two!" Rei cheered, only to startle us even more.

"Pray tell: How many rounds are there?" Sherry asked, even though she clearly wasn't amused by the 'Rei Idea'.

"As many rounds as it takes! It may take hundreds of rounds for Kaze to like us instead, but that's just how it'll have to be!" Rei declared boldly.

"D-did we just take a thousand steps backwards in this?" Kaze asked shakily.

"Rei, come on...! You shouldn't force this on Kaze," I tried to reason with my friend, but she wouldn't have it.

"Come on, Ruka! You can't be happy with the way that this turned out," Rei said. She seemed to want to say more to support her case, but some sort of instinct within her caused her to pause and turn towards the blond duelist. Said duelist fearlessly reached her hand out and grasped Kaze's. Whether she was aiming to make some point or make Rei even more jealous, I'm not sure, but the later happened anyway. "Get your hands off my man!" Rei snapped as she pointed an accusing finger at the blond. Kaze opened his mouth to say something, but the words wouldn't process, I take it.

"Yourman...? If I'm not mistaken, he said that he liked me, not you," Sherry said. The two quickly got so caught up in their developing argument that they didn't even notice when Kaze started backed away, clearly not wanting to be here when the two hit the climax of their argument. Although, now that I consider it, I'm not sure if I want to be here either...

"Kaze...? Do you want to go?" I asked in a whisper, taking Kaze by surprise. "I... I mean, it'd be rude, but nothing good will come out of us staying here and dealing with their wrath afterwards... We might as well just leave and deal with it later," I continued. Kaze, whether he simply didn't want to deal with them at the moment or saw the point in my reasoning, simply nodded in agreement. We slowly began to back away in retreat, being what we thought was silent and unheard over the bickering of the duo.

"Ruka! You traitor!" Rei's voice accused. Clearly, we weren't as silent as we thought... "You too, Kaze! I hate to admit it, bu you did say you like Sherry! Now you're turning around and running off with Ruka!" Rei continued to accuse us. I quickly blushed upon realizing how Rei and Sherry were taking our retreat. They... they thought Kaze and I were actually sneaking off to be together?!

"I-it's not like that! Y-you guys were just arguing... so," Kaze trailed off dejectedly, already knowing that Rei wouldn't take no for an answer.

"I can't believe you two! I turn away for one second! I just have to stop turning away from you, Kaze!" Rei said, causing Kaze to sigh.

"This is going to be my life from now on?" Kaze asked himself under his breath.

"Don't act so depressed! You know you love our attention," Rei stated. With the conviction that she had in saying this, you'd swear she was saying that the sky was blue, or some other definite fact.

"Although some less than others, I'm sure," Sherry muttered, causing Rei and her to go at each others throats once more. I shot a glance over to Kaze, who was reluctantly acknowledging the fact that he'd be forced to deal with their constant bickering for quite some time longer.

So, this was the 'Life Beyond Jealousy' that I promised myself however many years ago...? Stuck knowing that Kaze already likes someone else... Doesn't that still make me jealous? Although, now that I think about it... As long as Rei continues to distract the two with whatever 'Rei ideas' she comes up with, then I'll still have a chance, right? Technically, both Rei and I have a chance still... As long as Kaze doesn't mind us around for so long, that is... Maybe this life beyond jealousy won't be so bad after all, even if I happen to get jealous from time to time.

Notes:

- Before you all get mad that this was an open ending story, I will say that in the end, Sherry is the one that Kaze ends up with. In truth, I couldn't get a definite ending out without making it a cliche thing, and I had no idea how to end it like that given that the story is from Ruka's PoV. So, for the SherryXKaze/HatGuy fans out there, yes, this is the 'official' pairing in this story. It's definitely my favorite hat guy pairing, or if not, one of my top three.

- Since the main story of this is now complete, I will be focusing the Hat Guy pairings in the short one shots like 'Mistletoe' and 'A Heart to Win'. If you have a specific pairing or a specific idea you'd like to see implemented in one of these one shots, feel free to shoot me a message./

- I was originally just going to update 'And the Truth is.. (Pt.1)' with this addition and then just get rid of the parts, but seeing as you all reviewed and such already to that specific part, I decided to just leave it like this and add the second part. If you find that a combined chapter would be more efficient, I can add them together and just update the story

Reviews:

- Most of you said the same thing, so I'd just like to thank you all for waiting patiently. In fact, thanks to everyone for waiting patiently and following the story through and through.