Disclaimer: I claim no rights to Yu Yu Hakusho, nor any related characters or merchandise, and make no profit from the writing or distribution of this work of fiction.
Yusuke always expected that the end of the world would be interesting. You know: fire and brimstone, massive earthquakes, the ground opening up and swallowing people. He's pretty sure he heard somewhere that it's supposed to be like that.
Instead, he goes to sleep one night and wakes up the next day to find out the world has gone and ended without him even knowing about it. Although, to be honest, it took him a lot longer than a day to figure out just what the hell was going on. At first, he just thought the world had gone and gotten rid of everyone but him.
That's the other thing he expected: that having the world all to himself would be a lot more fun than it turned out to be. Oh, sure - it was pretty cool for a while, being able to run around and do whatever he wanted, no one telling him that he needed to be anywhere or doing anything.
Well, almost. Because along with the people, the apocalypse seems to have taken most of the rest of the world, leaving Yusuke with only a small slice of Japan - some of which he's familiar with, and some of which he's not. He figures that's all right, he'll explore the bits he doesn't know and frequent his usual haunts in the bits he does - besides, he's not really sure how he was supposed to get across the ocean if there are no people to man an aircraft, anyway.
He stays away from the edges, though. They give him the creeps. Instead of the gentle sloping shores into the sea, or even a cliff overhanging that mass of water, his new world simply...ends. Cuts abruptly off into nothing. He set out to trace the edges once, near the very beginning, but had to call it quits after a few days - looking out into that nothing, feeling like he'd gone blind: he couldn't stand it for much longer than those few days. He doesn't venture near them again.
It's when the loneliness of having no human contact for however long it's been since he got here (there are days and nights, but even before the end of the world, Yusuke's never paid them much mind) starts to sink in that Yusuke starts noticing that things in his little world are not entirely as they seem. He thinks, sometimes, that he can see things out of the corners of his eyes - flickers that disappear as soon as he turns his head to get a better look. Flickers that look a little like people.
Slowly, the flickers start to solidify, to stick around even when Yusuke looks directly at them, until Yusuke can walk among them (and through them, sometimes - they're still not entirely solid) and pretend he's not the only one living in this little slice of Japan. Until one day, he's walking through the city and spots a familiar head of red hair.
For a moment, Yusuke can't believe what he's seeing - he just stops and stares, hoping against hope that this is real. And then, with a laugh, he starts running towards the redhead walking slowly down the street, his head down.
"Kurama!"
The fox-demon's head jerks up at the sound of his name, his hair flying as he whips his head around to look - and just as Yusuke realizes that Kurama's eyes aren't focusing on him, he runs straight through Kurama and barks his shins on the bench beyond.
Cursing, he turns, but Kurama's still looking in the other direction, and now Yusuke notices that he can see through Kurama, straight into the direction he's just come running from. And that maybe Kurama heard that one word, but he's not hearing or seeing any more of Yusuke.
Still, it's Kurama, and as the fox-demon sets off down the street again, Yusuke tags along, ignoring the fact that Kurama apparently has no idea he's there. Kurama's a familiar face, an old friend - and it's not like he's never ignored Yusuke's presence before, anyway. So as they walk, in step, Yusuke regales the fox-demon with everything he's been up to over the past...however long it's been. And when he finally runs out of things to say, he just walks in silence, following his friend.
When Kurama stops, he stops. Wherever Kurama goes, he follows. He's been alone for so long, he doesn't want to risk losing the fox-demon, so he tails him like a lost puppy hoping for a home. And he doesn't want to fool himself, but he could swear that every day, when he wakes up, Kurama looks just a little more solid.
And finally, finally, one day Yusuke wakes up to someone shaking his shoulder gently, and when he rolls over onto his back and opens his eyes blearily, Kurama is looking down at him with a smile.
'Hello, Yusuke.' he says, and Yusuke blinks a few times. There's no sound issuing from Kurama's mouth.
"Hello," he replies, tentatively, and is relieved at the sound of his own voice. Kurama's smile broadens.
'How long have you been following me?' he asks, and Yusuke can tell Kurama's talking slowly and deliberately, so that Yusuke can read his lips. Yusuke tries to do the same - maybe if he can't hear Kurama, Kurama can't hear him, either.
"Dunno. A while. I didn't want to lose you again."
Kurama nods, and his eyes get that faraway look that says he's thinking. Yusuke takes the opportunity to study him. Kurama's still sort of fuzzy around the edges, and Yusuke can still see through him in places - his hands, for instance. But he's solid enough to put up resistance when Yusuke takes a finger and presses it into the fox-demon's cheek.
'What are you doing?' Kurama asks, that long-suffering expression on his face - distorted a little by Yusuke's finer pressing into the flesh of his cheek - and Yusuke has to laugh.
"Nothing," he answers innocently, and then - after a moment - adds, "It's good to see you again, Kurama."
Kurama smiles again, and something inside of Yusuke aches at the familiarity of it all. 'It's good to see you, too, Yusuke.'
-----------
It's not until later, when they're walking down the street again, that Yusuke thinks to ask, "So, do you know what's going on?"
Conversation is a little awkward, as they have to be looking at each other for it to work, so Kurama shrugs and motions towards another bench and waits until they're both seated before he responds.
'I don't know,' he answers. 'Maybe.'
Yusuke just looks at him, and Kurama's shoulders go up and down, his chest expanding in what Yusuke is pretty sure is a sigh.
'You were taken at the beginning,' Kurama elaborates. 'The first wave of people who disappeared. We thought that might be the end, but then...the fog came.'
'It...took things. People, buildings, places. Anything and everything. And it just kept coming. If it ever receded, all it left behind was...nothing.'
Yusuke jerks in surprise, and Kurama looks curiously at him. But he just shakes his head and motions for Kurama to go on - there will be time to show the fox-demon later.
'I...watched my family be taken by the fog. People...wanted to be taken, after a while, just to put a stop to all the running. But hearing them scream, hearing my mother...' He stops, a pained expression on his face, and Yusuke reaches out to put a hand on his shoulder. It's all he can think to do. But Kurama looks up at the touch, and there's something in his dark green eyes that makes Yusuke pull back.
'I couldn't stand it, Yusuke,' he says, reaching out to catch Yusuke's hand in the air. 'I stopped wanting to live. Not without them. Not having failed them like that. And I...'
Instead of continuing, he takes Yusuke's hand in his and brings it to the high collar of his tunic. And even though Yusuke knows he doesn't want to know what's underneath that fabric, he can't tear his eyes away. Slowly, Kurama unbuttons the top few clasps holding the collar together, and Yusuke finds his hand moving of its own accord - with no encouragement from Kurama.
As he peels the fabric away, he's left staring at a livid red ring around Kurama's slender neck - the kind of mark that gets left behind after someone, say, loops a thick rope around their neck and takes a long walk off a very short dock. Except - and it's morbidly fascinating how Yusuke manages to notice this, even as he's pulling his hand back in disgust - most ropes don't normally leave multitudes of deep puncture marks, marks that are still seeping blood.
And when he looks up again, Kurama's skin is deathly pale, his green eyes are shadowed by the deep hollows they have sunken into, and his tunic - pristine before - is shredded and torn and covered in his blood.
'It's too late for me,' Kurama says, and his lips are stained a deep red that starts to seep from the corners of his mouth. 'But there's still time. You can still save the others.'
Except that Yusuke can't take any more. He staggers to his feet, spins on his heel, and does what he never thought he would have to do again - he runs.
-----------
Yusuke wakes with a start, face-down in the dirt, and levers himself carefully into a sitting position, wondering why his head hurts so much. A careful exploration of his forehead, and his fingers come away sticky with drying blood. Must have brained himself on something - he wasn't exactly paying much attention to where he was going.
"I apologize for that," comes Kurama's voice, and Yusuke swears, leaping to his feet and casting his gaze around wildly. The fox-demon is sitting not ten feet from where he was just lying. Happily, he seems to be back to normal - or, at least, not all dead-looking - so Yusuke sits cautiously back down.
"You killed yourself," he says slowly, trying to process this information. "With your own Rose Whip." Part of him wants Kurama to laugh, wants the fox-demon to lie to him, to tell him he was only dreaming. But he knows Kurama's not capable of something like that, so it's not a surprise when the fox-demon nods. Disappointing, but not a surprise.
"I'm not proud of what I've done," Kurama says softly. "I should have stayed behind to help Hiei and Kuwabara, I realize that now. I stopped thinking clearly after my family died."
Yusuke gives his head a vigorous shake, hoping that will do something to clear it up. Instead, all he gets for his trouble is a more viciously pounding headache. With a groan, he lifts his hands to cradle his throbbing head and tries to think.
"Okay - if you're dead, though, why are you here?" he asks, but he doesn't exactly give Kurama time to answer, because another thought comes hard on the heels of this one.
"Am I dead, too?" he asks bitterly. "I wouldn't be surprised, or anything, but you'd think the universe could cut a guy some slack after a while."
That does prompt a laugh from Kurama, and at that bright sound, Yusuke looks up. If he just ignores the fact that he knows Kurama is dead, that he knows the fox-demon is concealing a hideous mess of open wounds behind that tightly fastened collar, it's almost like old times.
"I don't know, Yusuke," Kurama answers. "But, no, I don't think you're dead. As for why I'm here...I don't quite know, either."
Yusuke sighs, and then something drifts to him through the haze of pain. Something he doesn't entirely want to think about, because it means he also has to think about the way Kurama looked, bloody and broken. But it seems like it's probably pretty important, so he swallows past the metallic taste in the back of his throat and asks another question.
"You...when you went all...you know, you told me that there was still time. Time to save the others. What does that mean?"
Unfortunately, there's no immediate response from the fox-demon. Instead, Kurama just looks surprised.
"Did I?" he muses softly. "Why would I say a thing like that? Unless..."
He falls silent for a long moment, and Yusuke's only got so much patience. And just think - a few days ago, he was concerned that this little world was getting too boring. What he'd give to go back to that.
"Unless what?" Yusuke asks.
Kurama hums thoughtfully. "Unless...there's a way for you to get back to our world." He frowns a moment later. "But that seems impossible - you've mentioned that this world seems to have no connections to any other."
Yusuke clears his throat. "Uh...maybe."
Kurama raises an eyebrow. "'Maybe'?"
With a shrug, Yusuke explains. "Well, it used to be like that. And then people started showing up. People like you - well, not exactly like you, because none of them have done that creepy dead thing yet. And I don't go near the edges, so I don't know if anything's changed there."
"But even if I can get back, what good will that do me?" he asks. "It's not like I've got any ideas about how to stop this weird fog."
He stops, though, because it doesn't seem like Kurama's listening anymore. Instead, the fox-demon is staring rather intently at him, and Yusuke can practically see the gears turning. "What? What did I say?"
"People like me," Kurama says urgently. "What does that mean?"
Yusuke shrugs again. "Dunno. They started off all...flickery, and then they got more solid as time went on. Like you did. Except...not dead. I think. None of them seemed dead, at least."
"Did you recognize any of them?"
Yusuke does his best to remember. "Uh...actually, yeah. A couple. Some people from that whole Sensui thing. Mitarai and...Kaito, I think his name was?"
"And could you interact with any of them? Talk to them, touch them?"
Kurama's getting awfully intense now, and Yusuke finds himself fighting the urge to edge away. It's like being grilled at school, or something. "Um...kind of. Sometimes I could touch the more solid ones. I never really tried talking to any of them, though. Not before you."
For a long moment, Kurama doesn't move, only stares at a point somewhere beyond Yusuke, his eyes unfocused. Then, he abruptly gets to his feet and looks back down at Yusuke.
"We need to go to the edge," he announces.
Yusuke just sighs and gets up. Kurama will explain it all, he knows. Eventually.
-----------
Well. Tack one more item onto the list of things Yusuke didn't expect. Instead of the nothing he's so used to seeing, there's...well, to be completely honest, the nothing is still there. But there's something else - something overlaid over the nothing. A fuzzy image that Yusuke can't quite figure out...
"What is it, Kurama?"
He glances over, and his breath catches in his throat. There are dark spots of blood forming on the high collar of Kurama's tunic, a thin line of blood sliding down his chin from the corner of his mouth.
"Look closer, Yusuke," Kurama answers softly, his lips dark with blood. "You'll see."
Somehow, Yusuke tears his eyes away and stares out into the nothingness again. It takes him a moment, because even when he looks away, all he can see is Kurama. But he focuses after a long while, and realizes that he does recognize what he's looking at.
"It's Japan," he murmurs. "The rest of it, I mean. The stuff I couldn't reach."
"Yes," says Kurama, and he turns to Yusuke. His face is pale, and there's blood on his lips - but if Yusuke tries, he can pretend that what he's seeing isn't Kurama's ghost. That Kurama's just sick, that's why he's so pale. That he's been chewing at his lips in worry, and that's why they're so red.
And he knows. He knows why Kurama's here.
"I have to go back, don't I?" he asks, and Kurama nods.
"There's still time," the fox-demon murmurs, and Yusuke shakes his head in frustration.
"But I don't know what that means," he groans. "There's still time, but what the hell am I supposed to do? All this dimensional stuff - I don't get any of it, so how am I supposed to fix…it...?"
He trails off, and from the corner of his eyes, he sees Kurama's bloody mouth pull into a smile.
"Kuwabara." The name comes simultaneously from both their mouths as Yusuke remembers Kuwabara's new power - the ability to rip through dimensions. If he applied his Spirit Sword to the strange fog Kurama has told him about, the source of the split and barred dimensions...
But it's not that easy, is it? Yusuke forces himself to turn back to Kurama, to look at his friend, now long-dead.
"What about you?"
Kurama smiles gently and shakes his head. "I think that I was brought here to show you how to get back. To make sure the people still left have a chance."
And before Yusuke can say anything - nearly before he even has time to think about what Kurama's just said - the fox-demon leans forward and pressed their lips together briefly.
When Kurama pulls away, Yusuke can feel the moisture left behind on his lips, but he can't bring himself to reach up and wipe it away.
"Go, Yusuke," Kurama whispers, and before he can convince himself to stay, Yusuke turns and walks away.
The first few steps are nerve-wracking. He hardly expects the faint outlines of road to hold his weight, but the farther he walks, the more solid the ground becomes - and the fuzzier the air around him seems to get. As if...
As if he's walking into a fog.
But he doesn't get far enough. Not far enough that he can't hear the muffled 'thump' behind him - the sound of a body hitting the ground.
He whirls, but the air has gotten too thick to see much farther than a few feet. His mind fills in what his eyes can't see, though - Kurama's body, slumped on the ground, blood pooling beneath him, his green eyes wide and unseeing. The metallic taste of blood is strong in Yusuke's mouth as he turns back and keeps walking.
Because, really - what choice does he have?
----------
He emerges into a round clearing, pushing his way through the fog.
"Kuwabara?" he calls, turning in circles in the empty center. "Oi, Kuwabara!"
There's a sinking feeling developing in his gut, and it only gets worse when - somewhere off to his left, deep in the fog - there's an achingly familiar flare of energy, but only for a brief moment. It flares, full and bright, grows...and then just melts away. Like something has smothered it, snuffed it out.
Yusuke walks the perimeter, calling for his friends - he even throws Kurama's name in there for the hell of it, hoping against hope that someone will answer. That someone will call his name back, or come tearing out of the fog, or just...let him know he's not alone.
His voice goes hoarse before he gives up hope, and he keeps going, shooting off bolts of energy now that he can't speak, knowing that he's being stupid, but unable to stop himself - somewhere, in the back of his mind, he still thinks someone on the team will show up and scold him. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he's still hoping this might all be nothing more than a bad dream.
Because it's easier to think that than to face the bare truth - he's too late. He was too late for Kurama, and he's too late for Kuwabara and Hiei, too. And that means he's too late for the entire world - because Kuwabara was their last hope.
He staggers and falls, his energy levels dangerously low. And as he lies there, facedown in the dirt, he realizes that he has to admit it to himself.
He's failed. For what is probably the last time.