What with all the stuff flying around on the list these
days, I figured y'all might like to read an actual fic. Now
remember, since the amount of stuff being sent to the list
these days is fractional compared to what it was before, I
expect feedback, people!!!

This fic can be seen as a sequel to my previous songfic,
"Who Wants to Live Forever" (the result of reading Death
Arc something like three times in a row), but it can also
stand by itself. If you want to read "Who Wants to Live
Forever," it can be found at The Phonograph at
http://www.angelfire.com/anime3/phonograph/.


[song lyrics]

No Need to Argue
By M.E. (Magnificent Entity)
(manda_hunter@yahoo.com)


Even though I knew it was coming, I wasn't ready. Wasn't
ready for it to happen, for it to step out of my nightmares
and into reality. Maybe no one is ever ready.

For some reason, that thought isn't very comforting right
now. But then, I don't think I'll ever be comforted again.
Not now. Not after this.

I feel that I've lost all faith.

[There's no need to argue anymore
I gave you all I could
But it left me so sore
And the thing that makes me mad
Is the one thing that I had]

Our life worked out better than I thought it would. At
first, we spent the majority of our time the same way that
we did before we were ever got married, when we were still
kids in high school. That is to say, we did a lot of
fighting. She would nag and I would reply with a snide
remark, and before long we were flying at each other with
fists, frying pans, anything we could reach.

I once read a short manga in which a young couple gets
along really well because they fight all the time and let
out steam. I think it was like that between me and Keiko.

The fighting was a part of my life- she realized that,
understood that I couldn't give it up. That I needed to
have it. And she gave it to me.

Keiko was like that.

[I knew, I knew, I'd lose you
You'll always be special to me
To me]

I'm still mad at her for leaving me. I know, it makes no
sense, since it's not her fault. In fact, if it's anyone's
fault, it's mine.

But right now I'm not in the mood to admit that, so I'm mad
at her.

I just wish that she could be standing in front of my right
now, so that I could apologize to her for my unnecessary
anger.

That can't happen now.

[And I remember all the
Things we once shared
Watchin TV movies on
The living room armchair]

Somehow, since the moment that I first saw her, standing
alone on the yard in third grade, I knew that my fate was
intertwined with hers. That she would someday be my life,
and I hers.

She was just so darn cute that first day. Her family had
just moved into the neighborhood, taking over the ramen
shop that had been left to them by a favorite aunt. She
hadn't even been around long enough to hear all the stories
about me, to be warned away.

I'd never had a friend before that. I didn't know how to
make friends, but, since I wanted nothing more than to be
her friend for some strange reason, I did what I knew best.

I flipped up her skirt.

Keiko fell to the asphalt, bawling her eyes out, but not
before catching me in the eye with her fist. I'd never
known a girl like that before, one that could nearly
incapacitate me with one blow, and at the same time burst
into tears and fully assume the role of the victim.

My little eight-year-old heart beat fast in my chest. I was
in love.

[But they say that it will work out fine
Was it all a waste of time
Cause I knew, I knew, I'd lose you]

When she left, I wanted to call up someone, get some
friendly advice, have someone tell me that it would all be
okay and I'd eventually recover.

Unfortunately, that was impossible. Kurama cut off all ties
with us a while ago, after explaining that Shuuichi, a
victim of AIDS, was dying and he wanted to be alone with
his step brother during the time he had had left. I think
he might have wanted to go back to pretending to be a
normal human again, even if it was only for three or four
months.

Hiei disappeared to the Makai ages ago, and we haven't
heard from him since. He was somehow the outsider all of
the time. Maybe it was because he didn't have the benefit
of a human upbringing. We'll never know now.

The big lunk, Kuwabara, probably wouldn't even recognize me
anymore. He's over seventy and now spends his days in his
eldest daughter's home, dandling grandchildren on his knee
and capturing their attention with fascinating tales of his
glory days as a tantei. His children and other adults laugh
at them behind their hands, entertained by how "Dad can't
tell fiction from fact anymore." I don't have the heart to
visit him- if I did, then I'd have to tell those kids the
way that all those battles really happened- not the
versions where he's always the hero. Just the facts, ma'am.

As for Botan and the rest of the Reikai... well, they
haven't been a part of my life for more than fifty years
now. At least. I loose track of time easily these days,
they all seem to flow together in my memory.

In short, there was no one to talk to, no one to go out and
get drunk with. Alcohol isn't nearly as much fun when there
isn't anyone to share it with. If anyone asks you, you can
tell them that that's a universal truth. Tantei's honor.

[You'll always be special to me
Special to me, to me]

I'm not angry at her anymore. All my anger has been spent,
used up in a fury of hateful accusations. Now I just feel
lonely, empty inside. I'm missing something that somehow
became very much a part of me, and now I feel hollow.

My cries for help echo in the cavern of my heart and soul.

I loved her. I never really said it before, but now I can,
for some strange reason. I still love her, and I know that
I will continue to love her for the rest of my life,
however long it may be.

Right now, I'm hoping it will end any minute, and
mercifully put me out of my misery.

Something tells me it won't, if for no other reason than to
spite me. When it comes to me, the Fates like to play silly
mind games. I continue to be unamused by their antics.

[Will I forget in time
You said I was on you mind
There's no need to argue
No need to argue anymore
There's no need to argue anymore
Special]

Damn. You'd think that, as the years have passed, drivers
would get better, be more cautious. That a little old lady,
crossing the street to go to the supermarket, would be
completely safe, and not have to worry about being
splattered across some kid's bumper.

Keiko...

It was strange, as she grew older, I did too, until I got
to be around twenty five, and then, time just sort of...
stopped for me. It didn't, of course, for her.

We were never able to have kids, not my fault, though at
first we thought it was, because of the Toushin genes
Raizen had so kindly left me with. Keiko proved to be the
infertile one, which was unfortunate, since she would have
made a great mother. If we'd had any offspring, I'd have
someone to talk to now.

It ended up being that we had to move every few years,
since people started to notice that I wasn't aging any,
that when Keiko was sixty, I still looked twenty five. Our
life would have been hell if I'd had to work, but the
Reikai actually has this amazing retirement plan, and we
were able to live off of what I got from that.

Sometimes I was passed off as her son, other times as a
nephew, son of a friend, son-in-law, sometimes even a
grandson. We were able to stay together, even though it
sometimes got hard to fend off all the young women who came
by to try and "civilize that poor boy." Not that it was
their fault. How could they know that my life was dedicated
to the elderly lady they cooed over?

And now she's gone. Gone forever? Maybe. I don't know
anymore, what with resurrection being something very real,
to say nothing of reincarnation.

The funeral is on Friday, tomorrow. There will be some of
her friends and family, none of mine. According to the
majority of the human world, I don't exist anymore, maybe
they just figure I got killed in a gang shootout when I was
eighteen. Or twenty five. It doesn't really matter.

The one person who did matter isn't here anymore.

And I still miss her.

~owari

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Disclaimers for all! ^o^

Author's Notes: The song, "No Need to Argue," is by the
Cranberries, and from the CD of the same name. The manga
that Yusuke casually referred to in this fic actually
exists, being one of Rumiko Takahashi's Rumic World
stories- I think it's called "Wedded Bliss."

Hey folks, this fic was originally a bit different and I
end up having to change some stuff because I screwed around
with the timeline I gave myself. Originally, Kurama was with
Shiori, not Shuuichi, and Kuwabara...well, I'll let you just
read Kuwa's original story:

"The big lunk, Kuwabara, is off studying for his master's
degree on some remote island in the Pacific. No phone, no
place for a plane to land, boats only pass by there every
six months or so. I know all the details, I got to hear
them from Shizuru when I called her up, hoping to find out
if she knew where her brother was. Apparently, he owes her
some huge amount of money. She might be considering hiring
a boat to take her out to that island so she can pound it
out of him. I keep him in my prayers at night."

Hee. That was just so funny I couldn't go and let it go
completely to waste ^o^
Originally written: 02.22.01
Severely rewritten: 03.22.01