Well, here it goes, folks- the last chapter. I'm not sure what all there is to say, but read the chapter, read the ending notes, and I hope nothing is left unsaid (Wow, brief opening, eh?)
Yu Yu Hakusho Inversed
Chapter 21
November 6, 2005
Lyrics borrowed from the song "You Were Loved" by Whitney Houston:
You were loved by someone
Touched by someone
Held by someone
Meant something to someone
Loved somebody
Touched somebody's heart
Along the way
You can look back and say (mm)
You did okay
You were loved
"Urameshi's coming!" somebody shouted. Everyone within the vicinity immediately snapped to attention; they looked about this way and that, trying to spot the aforementioned person.
And then he appeared- the boy with the neatly-combed hair, wearing clean, neat clothes of a fresh spring-green hue, who carried tucked underneath one arm all his text books bound together by a single leather strap. And everybody in the courtyard hurried out of his way, the most anxious of looks upon their faces.
He heard the tattoo of another's footsteps fall in rhythm with his own. "Looks like you have everybody afraid of you now, Yusuke," said Keiko, walking beside him. "Don't go taking my job now," she teased. "It's basically all I have."
At this remark Yusuke laughed. "What am I to you, some sort of punk?" They both laughed hysterically. "They probably heard about me punching Karasu is all," he said once his sides had ceased hurting.
"Actually, I was wondering if maybe it was because of what you did to the Principal," said Keiko.
"Steel toes are wonderful," Yusuke remarked, glancing down at his shoes lovingly. "But he was asking for it for some time- and he should be thankful that he hasn't been arrested... yet. You think his voice will stay that high?"
Students and faculty members eyed the two as they strolled down the hall, and to them this once perplexing pair now made complete sense. And it was uncertain as to just what they now feared- and yet somewhat revered- Yusuke Urameshi for doing: for being the nerdy goody-two shoes who slugged a high-ranking member of the now-disbanded Youkai gang, or for kicking the principal in the testicles so hard that he had to be ushered to the emergency room...
"Ow!" Yusuke exclaimed. He rubbed the back of his head, and turned around to see what had hit him. A textbook lay on the ground by his heels. "Huh?" He picked it up.
"Give me my book back, Urameshi!" Kuwabara yanked the textbook from Yusuke's hold. "You can't keep my aspiring mind from learning, you jerk!"
"Uh, right," Yusuke managed, entertaining the thought of socking the carrot-top. "Where've you been today?"
"He cut school to go look for her again," Keiko muttered.
"'Her'?"
"His 'green-haired angel with eyes of blood', or whatever the hell his dork-ass poem said."
Yusuke snorted. "He wrote a poem?"
"Hey!" Kuwabara exclaimed angrily. "What are you doing stealing my, uh, stuff?"
"I have to learn to steal, you know, so I can support those dozen bastard children you claim I'll have," Keiko retorted.
"'Green-haired angel with eyes of blood'- wait, you mean that girl gangster...?" Yusuke asked.
"She happens to have a name," Kuwabara said hotly. "Which is Yukina." He said the name with much adoration.
Keiko made a coughing noise that suspiciously resembled "Dreamer."
"Hey! It can happen! I've got love on my side!" His companions both gave him weird looks. "Behold!" Kuwabara held up his index finger, which had some sort of red cord wound about it. "The red string of love! Just like in that old legend."
Keiko examined the 'red string of love', and then raised her eyebrow. "Dumbass, that's a hair scrunchie."
"Shut up! Fine, it's the red hair scrunchie of love, whatever! And it can happen, because so long as she is Yukina and I am Kazuma Kuwabara, anything is possible!"
"Right... I think you scared me less when you were routinely beating the shit out of me," laughed Yusuke.
"Ooh, Yusuke swear?" Keiko donned an expression of mock-horror. "Surely the apocalypse is nigh!"
Yusuke frowned while the other two burst into laughter, but shrugged it off. "Yeah, well, you'd better not say a word about it, or else my mother and grandmother may decide you're all a bad influence and not want you around anymore, you know?"
Kuwabara ceased laughing immediately. "No..." he said in a near-whisper, his eyes wide. "I... can't..." He clutched the sides of his head. "I... won't go back to life without Genkai's chocolate-chip cookies! The only thing that could be sweeter in this world would be the sound of Yukina's voice... yelling at some loser..."
"Somebody grab a bucket to catch that drool coming out of his mouth," grumbled Keiko, rolling her eyes. "Is your mom going to be there?"
Atsuko Urameshi, though she hadn't flat-out said it, had been emitting very intense vibes that screamed her dislike for Yusuke's companions, "the tramp" in particular. Yusuke figured that his mother feared what people may say should they be seen with people like Keiko Yukimura. Stupid people, Yusuke thought. Too stupid; forget them.
"Well," he began, "if she is, and she says something, I'll tell her off for you, how's that sound?" He grinned at Keiko, who after a moment, grinned back.
Koenma dropped his pen, flexing his hand and wincing. "Ouch! I think it's permanently cramped. Botan," he whined, "finish my report for me."
"Finish it yourself," Botan grumbled. "I have my own work to finish."
He groaned. "Fine. Maybe Ayame-"
"Hasn't even begun her own yet," interrupted Botan.
This earned another groan. "I hate paperwork..."
"I wouldn't carry on like that," warned Ayame, approaching the two. "You wouldn't want him to hear..."
The three of them glanced apprehensively down the hall, at the door whose translucent glass window bore black letters spelling "Lieutenant George Ogre."
"Yeah..." Koenma muttered. "Am I imagining it, or has he been even more of a hardass lately?" He said this in a low voice, and even then glanced over his shoulder, relived when the Lieutenant's office displayed no signs of further aggravation.
"Well, I think he hates to admit that Mr. Yomi was right about a lot of things- What're those?" Botan pointed to some memos Ayame was looking through.
"Well... we've managed to recapture Ichigaki- you know, the 'doctor' that gangster Karasu broke out?"
"Yeah?" remarked Koenma. At least something was going right...
"But," continued Ayame, "the precinct is being sued."
"What!" exclaimed Botan. "Why?"
"For the death of Suichi Minamino-"
"Who?" asked Koenma.
"The transvestite who was killed during the raid on Daddy-O's Garage," Botan told him.
"... Which brings us to the other lawsuit," continued Ayame. "The owner of that garage is suing for unnecessary damage done to his building and endangerment of his guests."
"Guests that were all hostages and gangsters," protested Botan.
"Whatever happened to those gangsters?" wondered Koenma.
"Well, Minamino's dead," Ayame reminded him. "And the others are currently missing."
"I thought that old mechanic was insane!" Koenma continued. "How'd he manage to file a lawsuit?"
"I don't know, but he's also co-filing that first lawsuit regarding Suichi Minamino's death."
"Who's the other co-filer?" inquired Botan.
Ayame examined the memo and paled slightly. "The Lieutenant will have a field day when he learns this," she said. "It's Mr. Yomi."
They all groaned.
Hiei stood and brushed the dirt off his pants. A thorn had cut one of his fingers; he noted how the blood tasted bitter and near-metallic when he licked at the wound.
He stared down at the marble slab. It lay flat, this stone, staring up at the sunny sky. The marker was decorated with detailed engravings of various flowers, a carved garden.
It really wasn't fair, he thought. What crimes had led Kurama here? Honesty toward his mother resulted in betrayal and loss of his family and home. Poverty resulted in thievery, which in turn resulted in Kuronue's death, which in turn resulted in the metaphorical death of Suichi.
... And then helping Hiei resulted in him being shot and killed. How twisted it was that Kurama seemed to be punished more for his deeds than his wrongs. Did he have to tell Shiori, when it would have been much easier to lie? Did he have to help Hiei and those kids, when leaving them for dead and covering his own hide might have been more beneficial to himself? It wasn't fair.
'I'd like to think that you'd be proud, if you were here right now,' he thought. 'I took your advice.'
After the initial shock of Kurama's death had left him, and he had stopped crying, he'd reread the note Yomi had given him from Kurama- this time actually absorbing the words as he read them:
"Remember what I told you about the Koorime. I was unable to make peace with those who wronged me, but that doesn't mean you can't. I won't have my second chance; please don't throw away yours."
'You were right. She doesn't hate me. I think things will be okay now; I think the Koorime are beginning to trust me.'
Fearing that Yukina might be prosecuted if she remained so near, Hiei had her brought her home to the Koorime on a mission. With his sister overseeing everything, Hiei would finance the construction of adequate schools and housing with heat for the Koorime. Proper mining technology, too. And after the necessities were all covered would come, Hiei hoped, large exquisite greenhouses- entire indoor parks equipped with head and humidity, a luxury completely foreign to the mountainous region of the Koorime, so that the vegetation could thrive. All of this, and, after discussion with Yomi, a legal agreement giving the Koorime women and hermaphrodites a grand share of the profit from the sale of Hiruseki stones.
"Did you hire a new gardener?" Yomi asked.
"No," Hiei replied.
To somebody foreign to everything that had elapsed till then, such a question asked at such a place at such a time would seem most inappropriate. Hiei, however, knew that Yomi was probably mourning in his own way and harbored no disrespectful intentions toward this occasion. In fact, the blind man's reaction toward recent events amused Hiei, in a way, and left him with a feeling of satisfaction.
Yomi had learned of the old mechanic whose building Hiei, Kurama, and company had been discovered in. After paying this man a visit one day Yomi had come to Hiei to inform him that he knew this mechanic from when he could still see and visited Kurama in the loft, and that after all these years Daddy-O's senile mind managed to recognize Yomi's face. His mind more composed now with the aid of certain medications (currently paid for by Yomi), Daddy-O had allied with the blind man, filing lawsuits against the police department- an affair of both revenge and pride for both men. At first Hiei feared that after this ordeal was over and Yomi was satisfied he would abandon Daddy-O and allow the latter's mind to return to its former dilapidated state, but his partner assured him that had had no intention of tossing aside the old man.
"Why do you ask?" inquired Hiei.
"No particular reason," Yomi replied. "Something seems... different, is all; perhaps I'm imagining it. It smells nice, though." He appeared thoughtful. "It reminds me of when we were children, and I would come over to his house. The entire neighborhood was dry and dusty, except for his yard, which he cultivated to make his mother happy. It seemed an oasis to me; I've never forgotten it."
Hiei took this into consideration. He looked up from the bouquet of roses he'd lain down on the stone, and noted that his garden, which he'd never before paid much attention to, did seem somewhat different- everything appeared more fresh and vibrant and beautiful and alive than he recalled ever seeing before.
"So," continued Yomi, "will you leave yet again to pursue your little quest?"
The man in question smiled and, though he knew that Yomi could not see, shook his head. "No. I think it best not to renew that project. I'm... content, now." He picked up Yomi's can and handed it to him, silently announcing that they two were finished here.
And then he picked up his own cane with the silver dragon handle, which, due to the recent wound inflicted and the surgery performed on his leg, was currently being used for practical versus aesthetic purpose. The two walked away, Yomi (on a path so familiar to him that he needn't even ponder his footing) in the direction of his house about a quarter of a mile away, where Shura was undoubtedly blasting his stereo; and Hiei, desiring solitude so he might meditate on heavy thoughts, toward the back door of his own house. He paused on his deck, and then went inside, after looking back at the grave of Suichi "Kurama" Minamino.
'Damn traffic,' thought Toguro as he listened involuntarily to the blaring of horns and the shouting of irritable middle-class workers eager to get home to their precious houses in the suburbs. Obnoxious. But at least there wasn't so much dust in the air as usual today.
He winced as he set his foot down on the cracked sidewalk. The doctors had removed the bullet put there by Karasu, but soon after he regained consciousness Yukina had come to him, delivering to him a set of giant-sized clothes and the news that Kurama was dead; he'd bolted from the hospital as soon as he was dressed.
The Koorime girl as gone now, returned to her homeland on some arrangement made with Hiei Jaganshi. She seemed quite optimistic, and Toguro wished her the best of luck.
Quiet Bui too was gone- to where, Toguro was not quite sure. Probably someplace where he would not arouse too much unwanted attention. Toguro couldn't blame him; he was also trying to maintain a low profile.
He looked up as he walked by the lot containing the Minamino house. His eyes took in the remains of the architecture; he saw but at the same time did not see the ivy and other vegetation sprouting from seemingly nowhere to choke the charred skeleton of the structure; he did not see the little green leaves budding on the branches of trees once believed to be dead.…
Toguro entertained the thought of going for a drink at the bar (and, after having to witness Kurama's unhealthy affair with liquor, a drink was all he ever had in one sitting), when he felt something soft crush beneath his boots. He looked down, and this time he did see.
This lot- and the one beside it, and the one beside that, and the one beside that one- that normally played host to a few half-dead weeds at most- was now covered with thick green grass, populated with hundreds of thousands of tiny blue forget-me-nots.
The giant smiled, and walked on.
Many thoughts were running through my mind when I began to write this. My initial idea was for Hiei and Kurama to bond and, after overcoming the obstacle of an obsessive, malicious Karasu (originally, he and Kurama weren't going to be in a relationship, as warped and abusive as theirs was in my final Inversed; yes, I do realize that my original- well, maybe even my actual- plan for Kurama and Karasu really wasn't as inversed as the rest of the story, but that's just how it turned out), billionaire and gangster would, as Hiei wanted to do in the actual story, retire to Makai Estates and "live happily ever after." An innocent, feel-good type of story.
Well, then I snapped back to reality, and my innocent, feel-good AU went the way of my mpreg ideas that would evolve into "The Wrong Turns & Detours of Love"- becoming an angst-ridden drama.
Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, I suppose. Originally there wasn't going to be a history for Kurama, no innocent Suichi assaulted and betrayed and metaphorically murdered by society's closed mind, stupidity- homophobia, to be exact. Melodramatic, I know, but a point I felt needed to be included. You may have noticed that society's stupidity and inability to accept the "different" was a constant trait throughout the story, and not just where Kurama was concerned. Hiei, Yomi, Mukuro, Keiko- perhaps everybody, in one way or another.
I'm not really sure when, while contemplating this storyline, I decided that Kurama would die (again, perhaps some of you are thinking- but I promise, I won't kill Kurama in "Was It Out of Pity?"). I guess I was just thinking about a lot of things (well, I guess I still am; always the philosopher, be that good or bad, you know?), and needed somewhere to express some of those thoughts. And so the story grew darker- perhaps more so than I intended- and Kurama died. It really wasn't fair, I know, given what Suichi/Kurama/the Yoko went through, and that, as Hiei concluded, Kurama paid more for being a good person than for being a criminal. But then again, real life isn't fair, either, and sometimes it is they who have committed no true wrong who are punished the most- while the true wrong-doers too often get away with what they do, or are even hero-worshipped in a way... One has only to examine Kurama's history, his thoughts, his fate, to understand that. (Of course I know that Kurama was not the only one stigmatized in this story, but I think it clear that his was the rawest deal.)
And, as some of you have said, if really wasn't fair to up and off Kurama so abruptly just when he and Hiei had confessed their feelings for each other and things looked so optimistic. But then again, sometimes love does not guarantee earthly happiness. There is unrequited love; there is tragedy; there is death... to name a few examples. Consider such works as The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and you'll see what I mean about unfairness. I wanted to illustrate that in this story.
... But perhaps it'd be a little too unfair to you guys, after everything I do, to not conclude on some sort of positive note, huh? So here it is:
You may recall, when Kurama was sharing the story of Suichi's naivety, betrayal, and "death", he mentioned how the boy managed to tend a garden in the middle of a vegetative wasteland, raising all sorts of flowers and such, using his talents because it made his mother, whom he loved so much, happy, which made him happy. You may also recall, towards the very beginning, a reference to Yomi's neighborhood from when he was younger: a place full of dust that could sustain little if no plant life, save for one house- and that house too eventually became a little desert. From here I trust you may put two and two together, right?
Well, consider that, and then consider the last part of this chapter, and even the excerpt from that song (which I only recall ever hearing only once, and for a reason, I'm sure came back to me while I was writing this story) that I've borrowed to open this chapter with. Kurama died happy because he felt loved again, and this had an affect on various things that had touched him at one point or another in his life.
Maybe that's a little sappy; I don't know, but interpret it as you will.
... I'm not sure what else there is to say, or that I can say. If anybody still has questions regarding this story after reading this chapter and the concluding notes, you're quite welcome to contact me, okay? Later.
- thoth moon