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“Youko, please don't leave me,” Shuichi sobbed, frantic sound being pulled up from his chest as he nearly suffocated on it, “Please…”
He could see the image of the silver fox through the veil of a pearlescent force field. The one thing that kept them apart on the cusp of transcending to the after-life. He clawed at it desperately, trying to get to the kitsune on the other side but was stopped by the deceptive appearance of the clear barrier as it looked flimsy but was apparently able to withstand a great deal amount of blunt force.
“Please,” he begged again, tears rolling down his round cheeks as his fringed bangs hung around his crying face, “I'm so scared…”
Youko stuck to the barrier like glue, claws scraping against its translucent surface as if he were trying to rip it open. He stared intently at his human counterpart as he looked to embolden him; raspy baritone staying even and reassuring even though the situation was anything but…
“Shuichi, listen to me. Be strong,” he said, voice muffled by the barrier as he pressed his forehead against it, “You need to be strong for me. I can't have you giving up yet…”
His gold eyes peered directly into his green ones as he gave him this directive. Shuichi’s head slowly shook in response as if he was trying to refute.
“Youko…” he sobbed again, “Youko, I don't want to lose you! Please…!”
Youko quickly got up onto his knees as he hushed him; trying to keep him calm.
“You’re not going to lose me. I promise,” he said reassuringly, trying to keep his tone peaceful, “but Shuichi, I need you to calm down. I need you to pull yourself together, alright? Just for a few minutes. I need you to look for a way out…”
Shuichi shook his head again as he looked up at the barrier around them. Indicating there was no way to do this. His trembling hands slid along the force field as his crying face was red with his anxiety, trying to find a weak point… But there was none. He banged his fists against clear wall in desperation; causing the mystic structure to tremble in the aftermath as it glittered a gold light where his hands had struck. It made a type of ‘awing’ sound in complaint.
Despite this, the barrier remained. As infuriatingly erect and impenetrable as ever as the two doubles transpired with one another on either side.
Youko growled as he was growing frustrated—not with the poor boy crying against the structure but with the entire situation itself. He was trying to find a way out of it… He'd gotten out of everything else that was previously baleful to him, hadn't he? He could certainly find a way to weasel out of this…
His life depended on it.
“Shuichi—listen, listen, listen,” he called furtively when the younger sank down in defeat, “Look up. Look around you. Tell me what you see…”
Shuichi sniffed as he lifted his weary head in response; trying to do as he was told.
“I… see…” he started, slowly looking around as he tried to breathe, “Nothing. Youko, I don't see anything. It’s just the barrier and the light…”
Shuichi was turned around as he searched for an escape. But all there was, was the dome-like structure that surrounded him, the white and hazy atmosphere beneath them both that looked like a carpet of wispy clouds… And the bright, nearly blinding illumination behind him that eclipsed the horizon of this mono-colored world in its brilliancy.
And it seemed to only be getting brighter…
Shuichi quickly whipped back around when he saw it pulse to life, pressing his hands against the barrier again…
“Youko! Youko!” he cried, banging on the shield, “Youko, please get me out! I don't want to die here! Please!”
“Shhh, shhh,” Youko murmured to him to quiet him down, trying to qualm the human's erratic heartbeat, “You’re not going to die, Shuichi. I'm not going to let that happen. Trust in me.”
His whole height from his knees up was pressed against the barrier now as he felt his familiar frantically banging against it to try and escape. His despondent cries were becoming alarming as it seemed he was giving up hope…
Youko had to think, and he had to think quickly—lest this paradisiacal land claim his other and everything he ever learned to hold above himself…
In another part of the realm, a safe distance away, a small audience was gathered in front of a large monitor that was displaying the entire heartbreaking scene. Watching as the two spiritually connected beings were trying to hold on to one another.
“There’s no way from him to get back across that barrier, is there?” Botan muttered in a shaky response, pink eyes wide and fearful as she watched her redheaded friend who was trapped, “I don't think there's a way to get him out…”
Koenma grimly shook his head. He was in his teenaged form, and he was also closely monitoring the entire situation with an anxious pinch between his brunette brows and his head stiffly resting on his rigid fingers; tense.
“The force behind it is beyond even what the Spirit World is capable of controlling,” he replied solemnly, honey eyes weighted by obtuse grief, “It’s unbreakable. Once you’re behind that wall—that's it. You're surrendered to the Aeon… It’s built that way to intentionally maintain the balance between Life and Death. I'm afraid to say it, but… Shuichi will be gone soon.”
The grim reaper grievously tensed up when she heard that; blue hair standing up on end as she turned to regard the junior deity.
“Koenma! That can't happen! It's not even his time yet!” Botan cried urgently, trying to call her boss to action, “You have to go help them! You have to do something! We have to get Shuichi out!”
Koenma sat up with a sigh, ignoring Jorge on his right who fully agreed with Botan’s sentiment, as he shook his head yet again. Demonstrating that he was totally ineffectual.
“I'm sorry, Botan… But there's nothing I can do,” he said in fatigue, undertone even sad, “Even I can't get back across the border. Unfortunately, this is it… I curse the day I even decided to put them on this mission. If I had known it would lead to all this…”
His eyes stared back at the screen heavily; feeling an enormous weight of guilt. Botan and Jorge looked at each other, ashamed, before they to looked back at the dire scene unfolding.
Youko was swiftly surveying every inch of the entire border that he could see, even going so far as to try to dig through the mass of clouds below him as if he could burrow through it and have Shuichi escape under the barrier from the other side. But that didn't work, as the hole would lead to nowhere and just filled back up with the billowy substance.
As he was working on his many efforts, Shuichi was growing quieter… Sobs now just hushed breathing as his red head hung forward while he sat hunched over; curling in on himself.
In his haste to get Shuichi free, it took a moment for Youko to notice—but when he did, he immediately knelt back up against the barrier to attempt to get his attention.
“Shuichi,” he called swiftly, motioning towards his other half, “Shuichi, look at me. Please, I need you to stay alert. Don't give into its effects! Shuichi…!”
The human was bending forward, using the barrier to keep his weight up as he leaned heavily against it. He couldn't even seem to muster up the strength to lift his head anymore as his blank eyes stared at the clouds.
“Youko, I'm cold,” he answered back faintly, tenor weak, “Nnn…”
He sank down even further and shivered as he wrapped his arms around his body; skin becoming pallid.
Youko’s eyes widened in alarm.
It was now his turn to start banging on the wall as he tried to get Shuichi’s attention. Get him to look up and focus on him so he can make sure he wasn’t falling into the atmosphere’s spell. His expansive hands struck against the barrier repeatedly, causing the same glittering gold reaction as before as the loud thumping sounds reverberated throughout the entire space. The atmosphere ‘awed’ back at him in response, a chorus of indistinct voices that answered to his desperation, but it did not cause a stir from the boy which was what he was actually looking for.
“Shuichi,” the youkai practically whined, sinking back onto his heels and curled over at the spine, “Shuichi, look at me please… I need to know you're okay…”
Shuichi’s red hair was shrouding his entire face as his thinner frame could be seen quaking from the vibration of his back. He didn't regard the youko as he leaned down further still, nearly lying down now…
“Youko… I'm so tired,” he breathed; barely even speaking now, “I'm just… going to take a rest here…”
“No!” Youko screamed, walloping against the barrier now, “No! No! Shuichi, don't! Please, don't go to sleep! Stay with me!”
When the young man didn't answer, the fox demon began to throw his whole body up against the wall; trying to break it by the sheer force of his substantial weight. His stony shoulder connected with the barrier time and time again as it caused a thundering clatter throughout its frame. His entire souring build being barreled towards it until the atmosphere answered back to him…
“Ahhhhhhh……..”
It said. As if singing to him in a thousand airy voices.
“Shuichi!” Youko cried when the younger finally laid himself down fully in the clouds, “Shuichi! Look up at me! Open your eyes! Please, don't fade away!”
The human's heavy, now blue-tinted lids remained closed; strands of red hair fluttering in his face as his breath was shortening. The wispy floor was beginning to curl over him like a blanket. Surrounding him under his final surrender.
“FUCK!” Youko screamed, voice becoming demonic, “Shuichi!!! Open your eyes!!!”
He continued to bang his body up against the barrier, but the force field didn’t even crack. He finally resorted to blast it with his pure ki, a technique he rarely ever used; white, thundering energy exploding up against the wall that caused it to shuddered under its enormous power.
Still… the barrier didn’t come down, didn't even seem like it was close to breaking, and now Shuichi was being pulled back into the light. Away from him.
“No, no, no,” Youko murmured as he sank back down to his knees, practically pleading now, “No! Wait! Listen to me! Take me! Take me instead! I've lived my life! I belong on that side! Take me to my rightful place and just let him go! I promise I’ll go in his stead! I beg of you! I surrender!”
The air hummed back at him again. A sort of mystic wind brushed against his face that slid his silver hair aside; as if it were consoling him in its caress.
Shuichi's still form continued to move back into the light.
Youko let out a shuddering sob as he ineffectually clawed at the barrier again. Damning this entire place and the predicament that even got them here in the first place. The ambience of the whole realm was ethereal… Even calmingly peaceful. The perfect depiction of what you'd want to see when passing over.
It was a stark contrast to the fact that Youko knew it was slowly killing him. Taking his familiar from him and absorbing his body into the afterlife without even a second thought.
In a frenzy, he started to blast at the barrier again. Entire frame glowing up in his demonic ki as his fangs bared themselves and his gold eyes became white with rage. He spent his entire verve trying to tear down the wall that separated them; willing to do anything to get Shuichi back by his side.
While the atmosphere shuddered and sparkled in response to his incessant attacks—a tall, lean form was beginning to emerge from the dawn of the light. Walking into the manic scene with a calm countenance.
“Sir!” Botan exclaimed as she pointed to the vague figure on the screen, “Who is that?!”
Koenma immediately sat forward in shock as Jorge startled next to him; both of their mouths agape.
“No way!” he exclaimed, voice incredulous, “Could it possibly be…?”
Youko slowly stopped his onslaught on the shield as he noticed this new form emerging, too. His eyes squinted against the brightness of the background that shrouded the newcomer, trying to get a better look.
When he did, he dropped his jaw in disbelief.
“Kuronue…?”
The word was said with a shudder. Youko felt his entire frame freeze up at the sight of his long-dead companion; wide eyes shaking.
The cryptic question was answered as the bat demon did indeed emerge from the light. Still clothed in his entire leather ensemble he’d worn when the fox last saw him with his gigantic wings dragging from behind. Seeming even larger than they had been in real life.
Youko couldn't fathom what he was seeing… He'd thought he'd never truly get to lay his eyes upon his friend again. He half-expected to see this mirage covered in holes in the size of the bamboo shoots that had pierced through him. Or at least, his clothes should be tattered or his face still frozen in the searing agony that overwhelmed him like how he'd been when Youko was forced to abandon him in the midst of a chase.
But he was whole… And ever-so cocky as he'd always had been, if his current image had anything to show for it.
Because he grinned back at the kitsune with the sly, devious grin that he'd always known and loved him for as he tipped his two fingers in a salute.
Youko was frozen in shock. Not able to say anything back to his deceased partner as his body still shivered in the exertion he'd spent in trying to break down the border that kept him from his other half.
Speaking of which, who was no longer moving back towards the light… Just laid in the shroud of the clouds as Youko noticed his heartrate was alarmingly still.
He noticed Kuronue noticing him, as he silently tipped his head at the frail-looking human that laid in the clouds with his wild red hair splayed over his face.
Youko quickly put two-and-two together as he looked back and forth between them while Kuronue casually strode up to his other half.
“Kuronue, no!” he called frantically, trying to catch the bat’s attention, “No, wait! Listen to me! He's not supposed to be on that side! Help me get him out!”
Kuronue didn't seem to hear him as he knelt down next to Shuichi’s torpid figure and looked him over curiously.
There was a sudden increase to the brightness in the light when Kuronue touched him on the shoulder experimentally; nudging him. It was like it was trying to eclipse them both back into itself.
“No! Don't do that!” Youko cried desperately, collapsing against the wall; trying to shout through it, “Kuronue! Help me!”
His desperate petition to his friend was like it was falling on deaf ears, bqecause the bat touched him on his shoulder again as he looked back towards the light; as if he was trying to see what would happen. In fact, he did this repeatedly; apparently taking amusement in it.
“Kuronue!” the fox snarled in a warning, the sound hellishly harsh, “You uncouth, primitive asshole! Knock it off!”
Kuronue must've heard the censure to Youko's voice this time, because he turned back around as he looked at him with an unamused face.
Youko breathed a sigh of relief, perhaps he could convince him to help him trade places with Shuichi so that way he could get him back safely on this side of the border. He pressed his forehead back up against the barrier as he pleaded with his friend.
“Kuronue, listen to me,” he started off anxiously, shoulders slumping in distress, “Take me with you instead. If one of us must go, then please let it be me. He hasn't lived to his full years yet. His presence is more significant than mine. Please, Kuronue. Please… I need this one favor from you… I’ll gladly come back to spend eternity in your presence, no matter what that might mean, but I need him on this side of the barrier. Please… Bring him to me.”
Kuronue rubbed at his chin in contemplation, and then tipped his head at him as if he wasn't completely comprehending what he was asking…
Youko growled in frustration. He motioned to Shuichi and then himself, asking the bat to take Shuichi back to him.
Kuronue’s brow lifted curiously. He looked down to the man laying on the ethereal floor, gazing over his figure. He then pointed to him as he looked back at Youko, questioning.
Youko quickly nodded his head, making the same type of hand motion to bring the human nearer.
Kuronue scratched his cheek as he held a look of befuddlement, pointing back behind him towards the light.
“No!” Youko cried, shaking his head fervently, “No! Don't take him there! Kuronue!”
There was a sudden increase to the atmosphere as the luster brightened again and the sighing voices came back in tune. Kuronue looked back down upon the boy and touched upon his arm this time, considering him as the brightness heightened.
“No! Kuronue! Don’t do this to me!” Youko all but sobbed as he banged against the clear wall, “I can't handle it! Bring him back to me, please! Kuronue!”
Youko shook his head in vain as the light grew and Kuronue continued to look down at his other half; obviously ignoring him. This wouldn't fly with the ex-bandit as he renewed his vicious attacks on the sphere, now severely pissed off all over again.
“You son of a bitch!” Youko gnarled, cursing at his dead companion, “I swear, don't you dare let me get my hands on you! I’ll kill you all over again, bat!!!”
He hurled these vitriolic curses at the voices and even to his old-time friend as they both seemed adamant on transporting Shuichi over the edge. When his non-stop attacks still did nothing, and his cutting words did little else, Youko finally gave up…
He dropped to his hands and knees and resorted to begging… Pleading with the heavens as the sting of tears began to prick his eyes.
“Kuronue, please,” he called to him again, voice weeping, “Kuronue, I'm so sorry… I never wanted to leave you that way, believe me… I need you to understand that I mourned you. For hundreds of years. I came back for your body that very same day, and I buried it with your pendant underneath the old willow tree where we first met… Did you know that? Did you know that removing those shoots from your carcass put a tear into my heart that I will never recover from? Kuronue, I loved you... More then you could ever know… I wished I was on that side with you every day since the day that I lost you… I would do anything to have you back…”
The kitsune’s tears were hot as they ran down his face as that old, unequivocal sting began to resurface… All the pain and the sorrow he’d never been able to express bled from him as he wished he could reach out and touch his deceased lover, if only for a final time.
That sting worsened as he realized that Shuichi was fading with him. Taking with him the only other thing he'd ever cared for that profoundly, and threatening to leave him alone in the desolation of his own misery all over again. Making that two people who would now have sacrificed for him their very own lives while his heretic lungs kept breathing.
Knowing he didn't deserve it.
“But I beg of you,” he lamented as he went on, gasping for breath, “Don’t take him away from me— Don't let me watch another person that I love die right before my eyes… I won't recover, Kuro… I can't… I can't do this for another time…”
No matter that he was wringing out his corrupted heart all over this empirical floor, the light continued to engulf them. Blotting out two of the only few people that he'd ever actually cherished more than himself. So much so, that they now were only vague shadows being absorbed back into the nether….
And in his true glory, Youko showcased his total disregard for Death’s sentence as he rocketed up off the ground and pulled a blade out from his white toga…
“Fine!!!” he screamed at the ether, holding the blade up to his own throat, “If this is what you want, then have it! But I'm not letting you take him without me! I’ll slit my neck and spread my toxic blood all over this disgraceful place! Just try me!”
“What?!” the three on the other side of Spirit World chorused together in astonishment, sweating bullets as they stared at the screen in awe.
“He can't do that!” Koenma screeched as he banged his hands against the desk, “If he does, he's risking the entire balance of the Spirit World!”
“If he spills his own blood on the Great Nimbus, that will corrupt the sanctity of the entire bridge to the afterlife—won't it, sir?” Jorge pointed out as he motioned his big claw towards the screen.
Botan screeched in surprise when Koenma slammed his hands down again.
“Of course it will!” the deity cried as he glared up at the monitor, “What the hell do you think you're doing, Youko Kurama?! You're ruining everybody else’s chances to get into the afterlife, you selfish prick!!”
Whether or not Youko could actually hear them, it didn't matter. Because he started to press the sharp point of the blade into the skin of his throat.
The pearlescent atmosphere shuddered around him in response, awing at him again when he didn't stop.
“Ahhhhh…” it sighed, empirical voices attempting to soothe.
“Fuck you,” Youko spat, gold eyes glaring hatefully at the light, “Nothing will stop me from going with him. We were born together, and we will die together. If you choose to take his life, then so let mine be splattered across this throne…”
The ether sighed back, but Youko pressed the blade further in… Rigid form resolute as a drop of blood pearled up at the tip of the blade.
Suddenly, the light died down…
Everyone, including the suicidal kitsune, held their breath as they watched the brightness rescind and the voices quiet down into a whisper…
The bright light peeled back until it revealed the two forms of his lovers in the midst of the clouds. Kuronue was still touching upon Shuichi’s arm as he looked up and around at the atmosphere, confusion written all over his face.
Thinking that the heavens might be playing a trick on him, Youko kept the knife to his throat, breathing heavily and sharp stare extremely intent, until finally… finally…
The border lifted up.
Koenma gave a shocked sigh as Botan and Jorge held each other by the arms; huddled close together as they waited with bated breath.
Youko slowly lowered the knife… and when the border didn't come back down he breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he tucked it away into his white uniform and took a slow step forward.
And another, and then another… Until he was running to the other side of the cloud; wading through the heavy fog to get to them.
Kuronue looked up to him as he approached; smiling. He stood up when the fox got close, stepping away from Shuichi's body. Youko bounded over to the still form of his other half until he fell down to his knees next to the boy and quickly gathered him up into his arms.
As if it was just two seconds ago that he'd thought he'd never get the chance to again, he frantically stroked his fingers through the human's soft red hair and touched upon his cold cheek, realizing it was as chilled as ice.
“Shuichi,” he whispered to him, holding him in his arms, “Shuichi…”
“Y’know,” a smooth voice started as a black figure came to stand over him, prompting Youko to look up, “You don't deal with death very well… Do you, fox?”
Kuronue grinned down at him as he held one hand to his cocked hip and laughed; finding amusement in Youko's flabbergasted face.
“Kuronue…” he murmured, not having heard his voice in such a long time.
“Yeah, go figure,” the bat sighed as he rolled his eyes and flagrantly waived his hand up in the air, “It figures that the only thing you can't handle is the one thing that's completely out of your control… Then again, maybe this just proved that theory wrong.”
Kuronue held his chin as he looked up at the clouded atmosphere and pondered on this revelation while Youko's astonished eyes blinked up at him…
“Kuronue, I… I have so many things I want to say,” he heaved out, pain edging back into his voice, “I thought I'd never see you again…”
This caught the bat’s attention as his expression blanked out and he peered back down at him.
He only smiled again when he noticed Youko's look of despondency and scratched the back of his neck as he leaned back to one side.
“Ehhhhh, there's plenty of time for that, fox. Trust me,” he amusedly said, “Right now, I think there's a more pressing matter to attend to…”
He motioned down to the man in his arms, and Youko looked down to Shuichi’s face as the flush seemed to be coming back to his skin…
“Shuichi,” he breathed again, running his claws over his torpid face in mixture of consolation and despondency.
“Kiss him, fox,” Kuronue ordered him from above, smiling still as his form began to fade back into the light; continuing on with a snort, “Jesus. You made all that ruckus just to get over here. You'd think you'd be on top of it…”
Youko quickly looked back up when he noticed that his friend’s form was fading again, desperate.
“Kuronue! Wait!” he called after him, “Will I ever see you again?!”
The bat tipped his head at him as his face was eclipsed by the light, violet eyes jovial and soft with high regards for him.
“When you eventually make it to the other side, fox,” he proclaimed, “We’ll be reunited once more…”
Youko exhaled heavily as he was heartened by this. His sharp face, once full of anxiety, was now gentler as he felt a long-term ache lessen some in his heart.
“I look forward to it,” he murmured after him.
Kuronue answered back, but Youko's attention was now returned to the young man in his arms.
He tenderly held his face still as his thumb swiped across his lower lip, beholding him as he breathed a sigh of relief.
Without further ado, the fox leaned down a brushed their lips together—sparking up the atmosphere around them into a glittering gold force as he gifted Shuichi with his own life energy.
After a moment, Youko pulled away… Gold eyes looking down upon him as Shuichi’s eyes slowly… slowly fluttered open. Blurry and bewildered, but still open and present…
There was a cheer of elated screams in Koenma’s office as now an even bigger crowd had gathered around the screen to watch the heartfelt scene. Koenma, Botan, and Jorge hugged and kissed each other as they became overjoyed with both the fact that their friends were still alive and well, and that the bridge to the afterlife was, in fact, not going to be utterly defaced. Jorge was immediately bonked on the head when he made a mention that the whole situation could've really easily been avoided in the first place… but he decided to keep his mouth shut as Koenma straightened himself out and lowered himself back into your desk. Ordering all of the ogres to get back to work.
Shuichi let out his first breath in hesitation… Gazing up at him with immense confusion.
“Youko…?” he asked, voice faint.
Youko tipped his head down, relieved tears in his eyes as he smiled at him.
“Yes, love,” he answered back, timbre comforting, “I'm here…”
“I… don't understand,” the human muttered, shaking his head in dismay, “I thought we were trapped apart…”
Youko came down to kiss him fully on the mouth again, holding his face in his hand and pushing their lips back together to hush his discomfort like he never wanted to be anywhere else in the world but there in that current moment.
“Never,” he replied, holding the young man to him as he cradled his head in the crook of his arm.
Shuichi sighed out in relief as he wrapped his arms around the kitsune’s neck and hugged him tightly, burying his face into his shoulder as he took comfort in his hold. Finally letting himself release his grief. Youko petted his hair as a he tenderly kissed him on the ear, consoling him.
“Nothing will ever keep you separated from me.”