Does ParticleSystem.Emit() absolutely have to be a void?

I'm wondering this because I'm trying to get a particle-based shmup to work and nothing I can come up with comes close to a workaround. So I got to thinking, and one thought led to another, and now all I can think about is just how nice it would be if Emit(particle) returned the emitted particle. So I'm asking this in earnest: is there some sort of limitation that prevents it from doing so?

Alternately, here's the code I'm trying to use if something obvious is flying over my head again.

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2.   public Bullet Fire (Vector3 pos, Vector3 vel, bool localised = false) {
3.     Bullet bullet = new Bullet();
4.     bullet.bullet = new ParticleSystem.Particle();
5.     bullet.bullet.color = particleSystem.startColor;
6.     bullet.bullet.position = pos;
7.     bullet.bullet.velocity = vel.normalized * speed;
8.     bullet.bullet.size = particleSystem.startSize;
9.     bullet.bullet.lifetime = (range / speed) / 60;
10.     bullet.localised = localised;
11.    
12.     particleSystem.Emit (bullet.bullet);
13.     bullets.Add (bullet);
14.     return bullet;
15.     }

 

Well for a start the number of particles isn't guaranteed to be 1. It could be thousands.

 

For reference, I'm specifically referring to Emit (particle), which I believe emits one single particle, as opposed to Emit (int) which emits the specified number.

edit: Okay, I just tried the second variant of Emit with fixed parameters -- the particle just isn't displayed at all. This might not be supposed to happen. Do particle systems have a maximum range past which particles aren't displayed anymore?