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Ten Thousand Promises
Song by : Backstreet Boys
Songfic by : Jericah Helios
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You lied…. You lied. You promised me you’d come back. You promised me that I would be your wife. You promised to be by my side forever. You promised Yuusuke….you promised me…
Even now, weeks after your burial, I can’t help but sink to the floor and sob my eyes out once everyone is away. Kurama-kun and Shizuru are a great help, really but they can’t help this feeling of loneliness and emptiness that settled into my heart ever since you died.
You know what hurts more? The fact that you died three days before you were supposed to come back. You were supposed to come back. You were supposed to come back to *me*. Yuusuke, you *promised*
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Once we were lovers, just lovers we were
What a lie,
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“Yuusuke…” Keiko quietly whispered to the departing young man. As if hearing it, he turned around and gave her a cocky grin.
“Remember this Keiko.” He said with a seriousness that belied his smile. “I’ll be coming back to you. I promise you this.”
“Hai…” said Keiko, unsure if he heard it. “Hai!” she said a little louder.
He turned his back and waved at her saying, “Once I come back, we’ll get married okay? That’s Urameshi Yuusuke’s promise!”
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Once we were dreamers, just dreamers we were
Oh you and I
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Yukimura Keiko looked around her. The big schoolroom looked so nice and neat, especially her first day in school. Even the desks…
A scratching sound caught her attention and she saw her seatmate, a boy as big as her with black hair and intense brown eyes, doodling on something. As she came closer, she realized that he was drawing all right, but on the desk.
“Why are you doing that?” she queried. The boy looked at her and shrugged. “You’re not supposed to do that you know. That’s the school’s property” she said when he gave no vocal response.
“So?” he finally said in a cheeky voice, “I’m bored.”
She mulled over this for a little while and then shrugged. She stayed silent for a while, watching the odd boy go back to defacing the desk. After a while he turned and glared at her. “Nanda?” he asked irritably.
“I’m Keiko. Yukimura Keiko” she said with a smile.
“Hn.” He said. He ignored her for a while before going back and saying, “Urameshi Yuusuke da.”
She smiled back at him and said, “I’m glad to meet you”
He couldn’t help but smile back.
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But now I see you're just somebody
Who wastes all my time and money
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“Yuusuke!”
The boy turned around and looked at Keiko who stood fuming at the doorway. “Now what?” he said, growling at her.
Keiko’s friends cowered a little behind her and one tugged at her blouse saying, “Keiko-chan… let’s not get Yuusuke mad ne?”
She brushed her away and advanced on the reclining youth. “Yuusuke, you skipped your morning classes again didn’t you?”
He peeked open one eye to look at her and said in a nonchalant voice, “Yeah, so what if I did?”
“Don’t you know anything else except for skipping classes and picking fights?” she said exasperatedly.
He quirked his mouth and said, “Sure I do, I know how to eat don’t I?” he turned to her and smiled widely, “Speaking of which, mind taking me out to lunch today?”
“Yuusuke no baka!” and with that she slapped him and left the rooftop.
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What a lie, you and I
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Memories can’t stop haunting me. Everywhere I look, I see your eyes, intense and deep, in turns angry, fearful, surprised, and when turned towards me, tender. But I’ll never see them ever again.
I know you didn’t want to die. We were only three days away from each other. But those three days meant the entire world to me. If perhaps your old impatience had gotten hold of you back then, to have skipped those three days and came home early…perhaps…perhaps….
No, Koenma would still have you prevent the Rouge group of Youkai from invading Ningenkai. And you still would have been killed. But I would have at least seen you one last time.
Kurama-kun told me that you had changed a lot from the impatient boy that I used to scold. He told me you had matured a lot. I wish I could have seen that. I wish…that you could have held me one last time…
I wish…
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What about your
Ten thousand promises
That you gave to me
Your ten thousand promises
That you promised me
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“Kurama-kun!” Keiko exclaimed as she opened the door. She still was wearing her apron from cooking and her hair was tucked away a little haphazardly from her face. Her hair was so hard to keep in place since it was long now, but she remembered that Yuusuke liked her hair when it was like this. She wouldn’t have cut it if only the fire that had consumed Yuusuke’s former house didn’t singe it. Even so, she felt that she looked like a tramp beside Kurama.
Kurama however looked back at her with fathomless emerald eyes that took Keiko aback. The red headed youth visited her often, as with Kuwabara ever since the Makai tournament ended. He brought her constant news about Yuusuke and his work in the Makai. What could have troubled the youko this much?
“Kurama?” she tenderly asked as he sat down beside her on her old red couch. “Daijoubu?”
“Ha…hai” he said haltingly. Taking a deep breath he looked at his hand and started to say, in a bit of a rush, “Look Keiko, something happened in the Makai.”
“Hai…” she said, inviting him to speak further. “What happened?” Deep inside her a fear that she had been trying to quench ever since Yuusuke left blossomed into a worry that she had a hard time keeping from her face.
“Aaa..” he started.
“Kurama!” she said impatiently, “C’mon!”
“Keiko-chan” she gave a jolt when he held her arms tightly and looked deep into her worried eyes, “Yuusuke is dead. He died preventing the Rouge Youkai revolt just a few hours ago. Sumimasen, Keiko, but he’s dead.”
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Once I could handle the truth
When the truth was you and I
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My first impulse was to disbelieve him, to believe that he was pulling a fast one on me again, a practical joke to bring me out of my misery, concocted by his scheming little Youko brain and Kuwabara’s kind intentions.
But as I looked deep into his eyes, deep green pools of sorrowful conviction. I knew, I *knew* he was telling the truth. But a part of me refused to believe him, and that part of me laughed and pushed him out of the doorway.
And it was that part of me that waited all day long three days afterwards, for the return of the love that I had treasured for so long. The love that never came to my door.
After that day, it had dawned on me fully. This wasn’t like those times that I knew that he would come awake, that he would come awake with my kiss, or come awake to the stirring of the Youkai blood. No. Yuusuke was dead and nothing could bring him back to me, nothing.
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But time after time
All your promises turned out to be all lies
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Why? Why did he have to die, just three days away from coming home to me, to stay? Why him? Why not anybody else that was there? Why not Kuwabara, Botan, Kurama or Hiei or…
If I could slap myself in the face with a sizeable amount of force I would. How could I think that? They are my friends, the ones who helped me though the struggle. The ones who helped me get over…
Iie. I’m not over Yuusuke’s death. I doubt I ever will. Maybe I’ll just stay here, on my bedroom floor, crying until the day I die. Yet, I know that my friends would not allow me to be like that. But somehow I wish, that if Yuusuke really had to die, then I wished that I was right beside him, to die with him.
When we were young, we were together almost anywhere. Where Yuusuke would turn up, I was right beside him, or behind him if he didn’t want me to join him.
Like this thing with the Makai Lords, he didn’t want me to be in the Makai. He feared that if the Makai lords had found out that he…loved me, they would target me just to get at him. Because he said that Hiei had once told him, that I was his greatest strength…and his greatest weakness
But that was where he was wrong. I wanted to be always beside him, to face the danger with him, to know that we were together in a united front, defeating the enemy.
A bitter laugh escapes my lips. Yeah right, imagine that, Yukimura Keiko, the great Reikai Tantei! Fighting beside Yuusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara and Hiei to battle the evil youkai that threaten Ningenkai. Watch out! Here she comes with her great ability…to knock Yuusuke senseless.
But seriously, we talked once, and he told me that maybe he could teach the martial arts that he was knew to me. Or have Genkai-baasan teach it to me. He told me that after the training he was having with her, she’d teach me.
He promised me that, as with so many things. And like those other things, he never got to fulfill them.
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And now I can see that you were just somebody
Who wasted all my time and money
What a lie
You and I
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Standing up, I struggle to revive my legs that had fallen asleep as I sat on the floor. Stumbling, not only because of the sleeping leg, I reach out to grab the nearby desk for balance.
Breathing deeply, sweat runs down my brow as I wait for the numbness to leave my legs. As feeling crept up my thighs, I look up and give a jolt that almost sends me back to the floor.
In front of me is the picture that someone took, I have forgotten who, when we went out to the park. Yuusuke and I, sitting in a park bench. He had his arm around me and had one of his great big smiles. It wasn’t his confident smirk that he gave to his enemies, nor the lax and stupid grin he gives me when I catch him skipping class. It was one of those smiles that is just…Yuusuke.
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What about your ten thousand promises
That you gave to me (gave to me, baby)
Your ten thousand promises
That you promised me
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Half-heartedly, I go on with my life and mission, which is, for now, to finish the course I am taking; but not because of any of my former ambitions. All my ambitions drained away from me the day that you never came. I keep on trudging on with my studies more out of impulse than any wish to better myself.
What is the use of making the best out of my life if you are not by my side? My life will never be perfect even if I get the highest honors or get a good job. It’ll never be perfect because you aren’t by my side anymore.
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You say to take you back
But I close the door
'Coz I don't want ten thousand more
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Keiko straightens up and walks to the door. It opens with a soft click. Half way through the door, she turns to look at Yuusuke’s picture.
Her eyes cannot be seen as she closes the door firmly behind her.
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(Ten thousand promises yeah
Ten thousand promises you gave to me)
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She ran out of the house, ignoring her mother’s call.
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What about your ten thousand promises
That you gave to me
Your ten thousand promises
That you promised me
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Running down the streets, strands of her hair start to come loose from her hair tie. Her eyes are bright with unshed tears but she doesn’t run because of desperation or pain. In her mind’s eye she knows her destination.
Coming to the beach, she takes off her shoes and runs off to the shore.
“Yuusuke!’ she cries. “Yuusuke! I know you can hear me! Remember your promise Yuusuke!” Tears start to mist up her eyes but she made no move to wipe them away. “I’ll be waiting for you to fulfill your promise! Even if I have to wait for forever!”
The waves crashed nearby as if to answer her call. And as the sun set, there was a patient smile on Keiko’s face.
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What about your ten thousand promises
That you gave to me
Your ten thousand promises
That you promised me
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Beside her, unseen, shimmered the spirit of Yuusuke, smiling beatifically.
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Once we were lovers, just lovers we were
Oh you and I, what a lie
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**Years Later**
A young girl, no more than six years old, sat on her desk. She sighed rather happily as she looked around her new classroom.
“Oi.” Came the call from behind her.
She turned to see a young boy smiling back at her with bright brown eyes. “Nani?” she replied.
“Shinji da” he said pointing to himself. “Ore wa Shinji desu!”
She smiled and said, “I’m Kaori.”
He smiled again, “We’re going to be friends.”
She looked quizzical, “Ne, how can you be so sure?”
“Because I promised!”
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Once we were dreamers, just dreamers we were
Oh you and I
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“Who did you promise?”
“nothing, “ he shrugged.
“Tell me!”
He stuck his tongue out at her.
“You’re mean!”
Later on as class started, Shinji looked at Kaori from afar. An odd light shimmered in his dark brown eyes and for a second, he looked far older than his six years.
“I’ve kept my promise, we’re going to be together…forever Keiko.”
**** Owari ****