Sakura Urameshi: Spirit Detective (Book 1)

Chapter 2: Grief

A.N. I know these first few chapters are slow, but they'll get more exciting soon as the story progresses. 

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Chapter 2

The Urameshi house had never been so full. More people than anyone could have predicted showed up to Yusuke's wake. Even with his body before them, this still didn't seem real. Sakura felt as though she were in some terrible nightmare, but this was one she had no hope of waking up from.

With her mother practically catatonic, Sakura sat by her brother's casket, tears silently streaming down her face. The endless line of people offering their condolences all seemed as stunned as she was, having heard the circumstances leading to Yusuke's death. Apparently, he'd been struck by a car while saving a little boy.

Yusuke, smartass rebellious Yusuke, had died saving another. Nobody, not even Sakura could have predicted this. Since identifying his body at the hospital, she'd spent the rest of the afternoon in a state of numb disbelief, wordlessly agreeing to whatever the funeral home suggested.

Until now, she'd been lying on her bed silently weeping. It had taken all her strength to face coming downstairs at all. There was nothing left inside of her now. Her twin was gone. Since birth they'd never spent so much as a day apart and now she had the rest of her life without him.

Why did you have to leave me, Yusuke? Why is it that your death was the thing that showed a glimpse of how kind you truly were? How do you expect me to live without you?

There were no clear answers to those questions. And she never expected to find them no matter what anyone said. This was her fault. If only she hadn't forced him to come to school, or if only she hadn't yelled at him and called him useless. She'd sent him off in anger. If it hadn't been for her stupid sharp tongue, he wouldn't have been in the accident at all.

It was all her fault, and she'd never be able to forgive herself for that.

"Kura?"

At the sound of her name, Sakura looked up and saw Keiko being supported by Natsuko and Asami. Their eyes met. Keiko threw her arms around Sakura, and together they wept. Eventually, Keiko was taken outside by her companions.

"Keiko, please..."

"Yusuke..." Keiko's voice was heavy with grief. "Yusuke...no...! Yusuke!"

Keiko's sobs were drowned out when another mourner with no concept of an indoor voice came barreling in.

"Shut up! Let go of me, would ya?!"

Sakura didn't have to look up to know who had arrived. She'd recognise that voice anywhere.

"Damn you! You think you can just back out 'cause you're scared?!" Kuwabara roared, clawing his way through the door while being unsuccessfully restrained by his sidekicks. Everyone looked over in disbelief.

Sakura mentally groaned. Of course this dimwit thinks Yusuke's playing dead.

"Kuwabara, this place is for mourning!" one of his friends said.

"I'm not gonna leave. Not until he comes out here and lets me fight him!"

"He can't do that!"

Kuwabara reached the casket, almost hysterical. "I'm gonna beat you down, you punk! YOU HEAR ME?!" he began swiping at the photograph of Yusuke. "Who do you think you are, huh? Dirty... punk! Who am I gonna fight now, who am I gonna fight?!"

"He's gone," Kuwabara's friends were clearly struggling to contain him.

In fury, he swung a fist at the shrine, stopping millimetres from Yusuke's picture. "You're supposed to be here, for me..." And with that, Kuwabara broke down crying. Sakura stood up and he turned to look at her.