Title: Inability to Breathe
Fandom: Yu Yu Hakusho
Characters/Pairings: Kurama, others.
Rating: K+ (Implication of death.)
Genre: Dark, angst.
Word Count: 670
Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho does not belong to me.
Notes: This is the first part of the Apocalypse Trilogy. The other two are Never Thought and Our Dying Day, in that order.

I toss and turn in my bed.

It's so early out. The sky is painting a beautiful picture of reds and pinks and that deep blue outside of my window.

I have been up for the entire night.

There is something wrong—dreadfully wrong, and I know this. I can sense it. I can smell it, for it is in the very air that I breathe. The air that comes through the window of my bedroom... it is there, almost covering up the wonderful, giddying scent that is summer.

It is there, the scent that is doom, the deepest, darkest doom.

Tiredly, I stand up and shut my window.

I don't want to have to face this.

Later on, I meet up with Yuusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei, all of whom comment about my sorry state in their own particular way.

Suddenly, I sink down. I can't help it, the scent is choking me, killing me slowly, making me dizzy, cutting off my air.

Kuwabara can sense it, too, because he looks very green all of a sudden, and Hiei looks rather pale and shaken. Yuusuke can sense some of it, as well.

"What is that?" he asks, looking slightly frightened.

"Yuusuke," I gasp, clutching at my throat. I can't breathe. It has overpowered my senses and I black out, falling into the void.

I wake up soon after to find myself on the pavement on my back, and see that they're above me, gazing with truly worried eyes.

What is wrong with him? What is happening? Why? That is what they are wondering right now, and I cannot blame them for their curiosity.

I inhale slowly.

The scent is still there.

"I'm all right," I mutter, and struggle to pick myself off of the ground, only to have Yuusuke and Hiei push me back down.

"Talk. Now, Kurama."

I pause. "You can feel it, can't you? That thing, like a shadow ready and willing to kill? You feel it. But can you smell it in the air? No, you can't, I see. It's the scent of death, blood, corpses, doom." I struggle to breathe. "We can't escape it."

Their faces pale.

"We have to call Botan," Yuusuke says, catching my clue and interpreting it correctly. He flips out the compact that Botan gave him. Dozens of times he tries to reach her or Koenma, and yet all that appears is a sort of fuzzy blur of nothing.

"What...?"

"Yama. He's blocked all communication between Ningenkai and Reikai. And tell me, when was the last time someone was allowed to die? Yesterday or the day before, perhaps?" I know I'm right, but these answers, they scare me.

"What the hell?" Yuusuke asks wonderingly. Then his face hardens.

"I'm not going down without a fight, dammit!"

"Fool. A fight? There is nothing that you can do," Hiei points out, snarling at his friend viciously. I know that he is worried about Yukina.

"Hey, Kurama?" Kuwabara peers at me. "This isn't... the end, is it?"

I nod silently.

"Oh... And there's nothing that we can do to stop it?"

"It's not Koenma this time, Kuwabara. Yama's orders supercede his son's. There is nothing... nothing for us... to do."

I'm too tired. I can't keep breathing in this air. I can't.

"Keiko!" I hear Yuusuke shout, but my eyes are closed.

I can almost hear the swish as Hiei disappears to find his sister.

Mother. I love you. And I am sorry. I'm so sorry for lying to you.

Yuusuke, Hiei, Kuwabara, you are all my friends and I am infinitely grateful to you.

Time seems to stand still as I open my eyes. Kuwabara's just looking up at the sky. Yuusuke is running, presumably to Keiko. Hiei is nowhere in sight, though.

My eyes focus blearily on the sky and I realize now that tears are falling from my eyes. They will not stop, even as I force a smile onto my face.

And I just let the light consume me.

The apocalypse.

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(Revamped 6/30/05) (Reformatted 12/10/11)