"Beautiful colors aren't they."

No.

It's the ocean voice again. But now it is calm, no anger in it. I refuse to look, trying to tell myself its not real. You're going crazy. It's not real.

I look anyway.

He sits, lying back on the roof, leaning on his elbows. He has no sheath, no belt. Just a god and white kimono and bandana. His blue eyes shine as he watches the fireworks, but the lights don't reflect in them, showing he is a ghost. That or I'm losing my mind. I make a point to say that as well.

"You're not real," I say defiantly," You're just a hallucination."

He chuckles, "No need to get mental. I'm the damaged one remember."

He looks at me. My heart hits my rib cage like a club. He has that look. The one we always shared. The one I miss so much. If this is a hallucination, it's a dang good one.

"Are you…are you real?" I question, not only to him, but to myself.

He looks back to sky," Does the microwave hate you?"

Yes. Would a mind be able to do that? Trick itself into believing something with a question like that? I don't know. I don't know…I want it to be real. So…if I am crazy…what do I have to lose?

"Leonardo…" I choke, saying his name for the first time in days. I choke again and the tears visit again," Leo-chan."

I reach for him, but he raises a hand, stopping me. His eyes turn serious rather than reflective. He says," I came here not only to prove you wrong," then gives me a sly smile, pointing our he's a ghost and not mere atoms, "but to say thank you."
I exhale slowly, "For what?"

His eyes turn sad. "For everything." I frown. He begins again, very gentle and I take notice that he doesn't have to inhale and exhale to speak. "I've had so many opposites in my life, Usagi." He says my name so nonchalantly that it surprises me. It's as if we're having a normal conversation in the lair. He is still going, "you, Raph, Karai, you all meant so much to me and were so different from me. You taught me so much."

He looks to me again. I exhale another deep breath and say, "How are you here?"

He shrugs. "Despite being eternally busy -that's a thing in the afterlife- I, like my father, can visit others. I would talk to Raph since he's practically killing himself but his mind is too clouded. They all are. Yours was the only one open enough despite pushing me out all the time."

I snort. "Tends to happen when you're in grief." He simply smiles. After a moment of silence, I say, almost wishfully and I know its stupid and pointless to hope, but I ask anyway," Can you stay?"

"…No…"

"…I wish you could…"

"You always did."

"So did you."

That silences him.

We sit, side by side, quiet. The old days were just like this. Riding, walking, sitting. I take it in. The mere presence, the lights, the sound. It's-

"Itushi teru, Usagi-chan."

"What?" I turn to Leonardo and start. He's gone. A bird flies by my head and up, up, up into the black night flashing with gun powder.

Itushi teru, Usagi-chan.

I slowly stand, steading myself on the slant of the roof and whisper to that bird, "Itushi teru, Leo-chan."

Jotaro yells behind me, then Lord Noriyuki. A blue fire work goes off. I feel the stab at my heart with it, but ignore it.

Leonardo maybe gone, but he's still here spiritually. No doubt I will forget that sometimes but I also know Leonardo and I were brought together from two different worlds for a reason.

Samurai and ninja.

Mammal and reptile.

Taiyo and Tsuki.

Two birds flying two ways who would never have met if not for a demon.

I chuckle and turn to my friends. It's about time I join them.

Birds truly fly in different directions.