A/N: This is the last chapter! Obligatory authors notes at the bottom.

"I feel that he's become suspicious of me, but I have yet to witness him doing anything about it," Kurama said, rubbing his temples with a slightly pinched expression. "If I didn't know better, I would have thought he remembered something from that night."

"I thought you gave him something for that," Yusuke leaned back, legs crossed. They sat together at Genkai's temple. The weather was beautiful, and Yukina swept the stone walkway. The trees had started turning colors and shedding their leaves, and even though Yusuke had reassured her several times that she didn't need to, she seemed to take solace in the job.

"Something small, for assurance," Kurama admitted. "Still, I know I haven't been imagining it."

"Is it bad?"

"He is distinctly unafraid of me, if so," He let himself show a wry smile. "He doesn't give himself very much credit, but Shuichi is quite bright. I never expected him to become so suspicious of me, but with all the talk and rumors of demons – with those three on TV, in particular – it makes things a little more difficult for me."

"I can't imagine that. Your mom, suspecting you of being anything but a model son? And she's got her new husband wrapped around her finger. Even if he says anything, I don't think it will matter."

"I don't even want the thought in my mothers head, Yusuke," He said sternly. "I will just have to keep an eye on him. I just hope no action is needed; I would hate to create such a rift between us."

"You've really taken to this whole family thing," Yusuke mused,leaning forward again and putting his chin in his hand. "Good for you."

"He is the son of the man my mother loves. You know I want her to be happy," Kurama smiled softly as the wind blew. "What of you? How have you and Keiko been?"

"You know, I think she's starting to get antsy," Yusuke laughed. "She's always been the one insisting she should finish school first, but I'm starting to think she's getting too impatient! Did you know, I heard her talking about it with Yukina the other day?"

"I can't imagine she'd be happy to know that."

"That's one good part of the whole demon thing, I guess."

And Yusuke trailed off into silence, expression turning thoughtful. It wasn't the first time that had happened in the past couple of months, and Kurama allowed him this moment.

"Have you heard from him?" He then asked nonchalantly.

"Who?"

"Don't play coy with the fox, Yusuke," He warned. The other boy chuckled.

"Nah. His mom got back home awhile ago. He's gone back to school – no incidents. He seems to be doing well now."

"Does he? It's difficult to tell a persons mindset from afar," Kurama said softly.

"So what?" Yusuke shrugged. "It's not my business anymore. He'll be fine one way or another."

"It's a pity. He reminded me a little of you."

He snorted and made no reply except to stand and stretch. "I think it's time I started back. I'll have the stand open tomorrow. You should stop by."

"I'll give it a thought," Kurama said, nodding.

Yusuke twitched and looked toward the stairs when he heard a familiar, loud voice drifting up. He frowned; That couldn't be right.

But a moment later, Kuwabara crested the stairs alongside the little kind that had been a thorn in his side for weeks. They were both laughing at something he hadn't been paying attention to, and Yusuke was stuck by a surprising rash of annoyance.

"Yo!" Kuwabara called and waved obnoxiously. "Urameshi!"

He didn't wave back, stalking to meet them half way with his hands in his pockets. When they met, the kid at the gall to look up at him challengingly, as if daring him to say something. Well damn, that wasn't a challenge he was afraid to meet.

"What're you doin' here, kid?" He asked. "Don't you have homework to do or something?"

"Hey, Urameshi," Kuwabara frowned. "Chill out. You're reminding me of a bad break up, and it's kinda freaking me out."

"If it weren't for Keiko, he'd never have a girlfriend to break up with," Masaru said with a small tilt to one side of his mouth.

"When'd you learn some cheek?" Yusuke frowned.

"From you, duh," The kid's twitch turned into a bull blown smirk. He couldn't decide if that amused him or annoyed him further.

"Well, you gonna answer the question or not?"

"Because you're just so busy, right?" Masaru looked around pointedly.

"Hey, you think you're the only one to ever have demon problems?" Yusuke said pointedly. He didn't have a case at the moment, but he could.

"No," The kid looked acceptably shamed, scuffing his foot on the floor in just the right way to make him feel slightly guilty. He felt like such a big man, picking at a kid who'd had his life turned around a few times.

"I'm heading out," He said, and started to walk by. Kuwabara still frowned at him, and the kid was clearly hesitating. He paused. "You coming?"

"I just cleared those steps," He heard the kid mutter as they headed toward them together.

But half way down, a small hand stopped him.

"I wanted to talk to you," Masaru said determinedly.

"Isn't that what you're doing now?"

"Will you stop that?" He exclaimed. "I'm not sorry; You lied to me!"

"So then what do you want from me?" Yusuke wouldn't bother to point out that he hadn't actually told a falsity.

"I want you to teach me," Masaru said, and he almost laughed.

"What, you're serious?"

"Would I have come all the way here to joke about it?"

The kids face was so serious that it was almost comical. He looked like he was trying to be way too mature for his round face – but was it him or had the kid grown a couple inches in the past couple of months?

"I'm not really teacher material, kid," He said once the novelty had worn off. "Especially not to little kids. I can't imagine teaching you the way old Genkai taught me. That'd be a nightmare, and you'd run crying after the first five minutes."

"I want to learn," Masaru insisted. He seemed to hesitate again before he made the familiar pose of the spirit gun. He pointed it off to the side, up towards the sky, and Yusuke didn't stop him. It was with great curiosity and a small amount of pleasure that he watched the kid fire it off. Still small, still weak, but noticeably much stronger than it use to be.

"I've been practicing every day," Masaru looked at his hands. "I can do two a day now. I asked Kuwabara, but he doesn't know spirit gun-"

"You've been hanging out with Kuwabara?"

"Well, I was avoiding you," He looked at the ground, embarrassed.

"And it has nothing to do with him being the only human?" Yusuke demanded. "Nothing to do with it at all?"

He was surprised the kid actually looked thoughtful, as if he was weighing his answer before saying it.

"I went to Kuwabara because he knew you," Masaru eventually said, putting his hands in his pockets. "I asked him a lot of things. He told me about how you died, and how I would have lived even if you hadn't done anything. He told me what you were like in school, and about how you met Kurama and Hiei. I asked him about Keiko too, and about who you used to be. It sounds almost as if becoming a demon made you better."

"I wouldn't really say I've changed," Yusuke shrugged, tapping his chest where his heart used to beat. "Except some of my body, I guess. And the demonic energy was new, but I still had my spirit energy, so it wasn't a big deal. Kurama is a good guy, and Hiei isn't too bad either, most days. Then there's the other guys – Jin, Touya, Shishi, Cho, Rinku. They're all good guys too. It wasn't a big deal to me, becoming a demon."

"The only other demons I knew were trying to kill me," Masaru replied. "Maybe if I'd known about you from the start, I wouldn't have hated them so bad."

"Or you would've hated me too, and tried to run off."

"Or that," He laughed nervously. "If Kuwabara and Keiko, the two people who have known you the longest, don't care... I guess I shouldn't either. I still think some demons are evil. Maybe even most of them, I don't know, but some aren't so bad..."

"Then what do you wanna learn from me for?"

"For the evil ones," He looked at the older boy with a strangely faraway look. "And because there's all this stuff I don't know. All these demons, and an entire 'nother world I've only barely seen. I want to see it more. I want to know more. I want to be able to protect my mom, if anything ever happens, and maybe that won't even be from a demon."

He seemed to be on the edge of saying something more, but the words never came. Yusuke looked at him, seeing a determined kid.

"I don't think I'm ready for a student," Yusuke said. "I don't know the first thing about it. But I could probably teach you a thing or two, at least."

Masaru's eyes lit up with his grin.

Yusuke would be interested to see what kind of person this kid grew up to be. He'd never really thought about taking someone on the way Genkai had taken him; But he was hardly old and out of his prime. He had all the time in the world.

"By the way," He paused. "You haven't been talking to Shuichi lately, have you?"

"We go to the same school," Masaru said. "So yeah, I see him sometimes."

"And that's it? Just in school?"

"It's good to have an upper class man to help with homework."

Yusuke felt the kid was hiding something again, and resolved to watch him. It looked like Kurama wasn't the only one with a little brother who needed an eye on them anymore.

And maybe that wasn't a bad thing. He couldn't say kids had ever been his specialty, or that he'd ever thought he'd feel relieved that one still wanted to be around him. He wished Genkai were still around, just so the old bat could give some advice, but it might be better for the kids health that it was this way.

He'd watch the kid. He'd make sure Masaru grew up, and who knows? Maybe someday he would have someone to pass on the spirit wave technique to.

A/N: There you go! That's the end!

I have to admit that I feel great relief. This definitely became a chore that I was determined to complete. I think I could have done better if I had gone into it with the intention of redoing it, but instead it was more of a practice in just making myself write even when I didn't want to. The old outline wasn't exactly the most emotionally investing, I don't think, but live and learn!

My personal head canon on how this story ends up – Masaru learns quite a few things from Yusuke before going on to become part of the Special Defense Force. He learns the Spirit Wave, but the orb is never passed to him. He does do some solo Spirit Detective things.

I like to imagine that Hibiki ends up becoming part of his team, and also I enjoy the thought of Shuichi being part of it too, learning the truth about Kurama. The three of them would work well together, enforcing the good behavior of the demons in Human world. Maybe Rinku would join them too.

Even though this was just a little thing, and the scope of it wasn't very big, I hope that you enjoyed passing the time with it! I still welcome reviews even long after a thing is completed, so please leave your thoughts on it!