onemuseleft

Title: Things That Fall
Summary: It was raining again. Yuusuke had lost track of how many days that made. Not so much a story as a moment.
Warnings: Character Death
Notes:

kahn beta-read a very rough draft of this for me. Any mistakes are all my fault. C&C always appreciated.

This is the sequel to Partings.

A Thousand Years of Solitudes
Chapter One: Things That Fall

It started with the ferry girl.

Yuusuke was on his way to check on Shizuru because telling her she was too damn old to be living all alone in that old unheated temple was the high point of his week. Not yet sixty, still smoking a pack a day and Yuusuke was prepared to lay even odds that she had another half a century in her, but she glared like she was trying to set him on fire with her mind whenever he solicitously offered to have her committed to a home somewhere.

Possibly she was. Psychics. Who could tell what freaky shit they got up to in their heads where no one else was listening.

It was raining again. Yuusuke had lost count of how many days in a row that made. It seemed like all it had done for the last thirty years was rain. The flooding that had started as an occasional inconvenience had become a near constant threat as the ground became oversaturated and the sewers couldn't keep up with the overflow.

There weren't many cars on the streets, these days. A handful that could drive through the flood waters without stalling, another handful that thought they could make it. No bikes these days, but the gondola drivers were out in force and doing good business as people tried to get home from work or run errands. The neighborhood taxis were out too, fewer of them than the gondolas but better equipped. They were reserved for people who couldn't handle the waters, though Yuusuke was used to seeing someone in nice clothes slip some bills to the taxi drivers when no gondolas were free.

He considered flagging down a gondola but he couldn't be bothered to pay for it. He was already as wet as he was going to get and demon-strength wouldn't be drained by trudging through the water for a few more blocks.

On the walkways above him, a group of school girls were exclaiming in high pitched voices as the cold rain worked its way under their ponchos and into their boots. High schoolers, draped in ponchos with their school colors, stood at assigned positions along the walkways, making sure that the younger children were safe and that no one was roughhousing. The walkways were reserved for children, pregnant women and the elderly and handicapped at this time of day, leaving Yuusuke slogging his way through knee-deep water with thousands of salarymen. Yuusuke still remembered when they canceled classes for flooding like this, but that had been when his oldest was still in school. These days that would mean closing the schools more often than not. And in the last couple of months the flooding had barely receded at all, causing landslides, ruining buildings, killing livestock and destroying crops. There was talk of evacuating until something could be done, but Yuusuke had an uncomfortable feeling that the something that would be done was that everyone who left wouldn't come back.

The temple steps rose up out of the water, gray stone slick with rainwater and moss and mold slowly growing over the stones. The whole city was covered with growing things these days, wood and brick and concrete slowly crumbling from mold and damp and the nearly constant pressure of floodwaters. Yuusuke wasn't an expert, but he knew the city hadn't been made for this sort of weather.

This weather couldn't be natural. Yuusuke'd heard all the talk about global warming and ice caps and whatever, but if this wasn't supernatural he was the Queen of England. He'd tried to find out, but Koenma hadn't shown his face since Kuwabara died and the current Reikai Tantei was keeping her mouth shut despite Yuusuke's repeated threats to ground her. That only served to convince him he was right, of course.

He took the steps two and three at a time, missing the trees that used to grow around the stairs. They'd rotted or been washed away over the years, huge chunks of the hillside crumbling from erosion. The rain only got heavier as he reached the top of the stairs and he crossed the temple grounds at a jog, thinking wistfully of a fireplace and a cup of coffee. Shizuru was usually willing to feed him, too, as long as he didn't expect her to cook.

He saw her as he jogged toward the temple. Just out of the corner of his eye. A flicker of reiki and a flash of red hair and some fool part of Yuusuke was still looking for that big oaf even after all this time.

He recognized Hinageshi's tiny form standing on the porch. She was looking out over the yard toward the forest, her hands folded on top of the porch railing. She was wet through which meant she was in physical form. Probably not on duty then.

Yuusuke leaned against the railing beside her, long practice making it easy for him to ignore the slick feel of wet wood and creeping mildew. "Hey."

"It's all different now," Hinageshi said, her eyes hooded as she gazed out over the yard of mud. "Botan told me, but I haven't been in the human world much in years and years. But even up here it's different now."

"Shit changes," Yuusuke said philosophically. "Why did you come now?"

"All hands on deck," Hinageshi said softly. "It's getting bad, Yuusuke."

He rolled his eyes but managed to bite back the comment that leapt to his lips as he pushed off the railing and walked toward the temple door. "Yeah. We noticed."

"Yuusuke," Hinageshi called after him. "Just remember that Koenma has a plan. I know he does."

"Koenma can go fuck his plan," Yuusuke said but he could sense her leave even before he finished speaking. Just as well. It wasn't really her fault anyway.

Yuusuke found Shizuru in the kitchen, sitting at the table, her head resting on her folded arms. A cup of coffee was sitting by her elbow, still full, still steaming hot, just the way she liked it. She didn't look like she was sleeping. They never did.

****

It felt wrong, lowering Shizuru into a grave that was already filling with rainwater, but Yuusuke brushed his hair out of his eyes and made himself do it anyway. There was no one else to do it; her family was dead and none of her friends were any more equipped to handle it than he was. He toyed with calling the authorities, but there was nothing they could do that he couldn't and with the mudslides earlier in the week, most everyone was still digging out the bodies that hadn't been rescued in time. He could leave her sitting at that damn table for a few days while someone got around to collecting her and even then, the crematoriums couldn't always work when the rain got this bad, the smokestacks clogged with damp and rain. Which meant she'd just end up in a community grave a few days from now unless he took care of her now. His cell phone rang while he was trying to decide. He hesitated when he saw Keiko was calling, but he knew if he told her she'd insist on coming to help and he didn't want her out in the storm. He let the call go to voicemail and went in search of the shovel.

There were other graves out behind the temple, most of them didn't contain anything human. But Genkai's was the only one marked and Yuusuke didn't think she'd mind sharing. So he dug while the rain fell and then he wrapped Shizuru up in a thick, fluffy comforter and put her in the ground.

He kept his eyes on Genkai's shrine while he worked because he didn't want to see the mud hitting Shizuru.

****

He scrubbed his hands clean in the temple kitchen and drank the last of Shizuru's coffee while he tried to figure out what to do about Shizuru's things. Her daughter had been killed in a landslide a few years ago. Her parents and brother were gone. And Yuusuke didn't know what to do with a lifetime of clothing and books and photographs.

He wasn't too worried about theft; a temple was usually the home of a poor monk or priestess, the type of person who didn't have valuable electronics or jewelry hanging around. The storm shutters Shizuru had installed on the windows were equally effective at deterring burglars as they were at protecting the glass from wind and flying branches.

Finally he locked up and walked back out into the rain. Keiko needed to know what had happened, and she'd probably have a better idea what Shizuru would want done with her things. Yuusuke suspected Shizuru wouldn't mind much whatever they did.

The phone rang before he stepped off the temple porch and he paused there for a moment, looking down over the city, watching the boats, listening to thunder rumble slowly in the distance. The rain was falling in fat, heavy drops that fell into the floodwaters with a sound like stones sinking under a lake. In the distance police boats were working their way down a dozen or more streets, patrolman draped in bright orange and yellow ponchos shouting into bullhorns, warning people to get off the streets fast. A storm surge was coming.

He answered the phone right before it went to voicemail. "Kurama."

"Yuusuke." Kurama's voice was warm and fond and a strange counterpoint against the people rushing for safety below. Even stranger against the dark, empty temple Yuusuke had left behind him. "Yuusuke, I'm leaving."

"Shuichi finally talked you into it, huh?" Kurama's little brother had sent his wife and kids to California years ago and had been threatening to follow them ever since. But Kurama wasn't ready to leave, and Shuichi hadn't wanted to leave his brother in a slowly drowning city.

"He won't go without me, no matter what I tell him." He could hear Kurama sigh into the receiver. "Tell a man you're an immortal demon with the ability to evacuate to another plane of reality and does he stop worrying?"

"No. He just makes fun of your fighting style." Yuusuke glanced upwards as thunder crashed overhead. The ground felt like it was shaking with the force of the noise and the winds were starting to pick up. "Bad storm tonight. You're not taking off in this?"

"Tomorrow. I think we won't be alone."

No. The country couldn't go on like this much longer. Shuichi wasn't the only one to send his family away. "Shizuru's dead."

Silence over the line while the air cracked around him and the stone steps shook slightly beneath his feet. He could see the storm surge building in the distance and tried to remember what the sun looked like.

"I think," Kurama said finally, tired and sad, "she won't be alone."

****

The storm surges weren't new. The first one had surprised the city, crashing against the waterfront like a small tsunami. It had killed a handful of people, flooded most of the waterfront and parts of downtown and knocked down a few smaller buildings close to the water before dragging hunks of broken pier and docks out to sea.

They had happened rarely over the years, and Yuusuke and Kurama, along with a handful of others in the city with the ability, had offered what protection they could against the damage. The surges were just water, but the force behind them was the real problem and as they increased in size and severity, it became harder and harder for them to be completely deflected. Mitarai had been their best defense as the waves rose higher until he'd died along with hundreds of others when a mudslide buried a commuter train. Now it was mostly Kurama and Yuusuke, using shields make of reiki or youki to absorb the worst of the water's impact.

The storm surge coming now was bad. Maybe not bad enough to finally wipe out the city, but bad enough to do a lot of damage and kill more people that didn't need to die.

He centered himself at the top of the temple steps and focused his reiki into a shield, curved to meet the water. It wouldn't stop the surge, but it would absorb the worst of its impact and spare the city being hit by the equivalent of a tsunami.

That was when he saw her again, her bright red hair standing out against the gray and black of the storm. Hinageshi hovered in the air above the temple steps. She was watching him with an expression he couldn't identify but he could tell the tracks on her face weren't just from the rain.

He was going to say something. Maybe he was going to ask what was wrong, which seemed like a stupid question even at the time. Maybe he was going to apologize for what he'd said before. He didn't remember anymore. But he'd pay good money to go back and ask her what Koenma's fucking plan was.

He could hear the police in the city below, their voices amplified by the bullhorns. He could hear the shouts and calls of the people running to get inside. Humans always did that, always yelled out to each other when things got bad. Asking for help, warning others, sometimes just screaming into the wind like they were letting the world know they weren't dead yet. Yuusuke liked that about them.

And then the cries took on an edge.

It was like the very air itself snapped in half. Something huge breaking, falling, something was just gone and Yuusuke couldn't understand for a moment as the part of him that was still human reached out to something that didn't exist anymore.

The surge hit his kekkai, worse than Yuusuke was expecting, as if something heavier than water was driving the force of it. He pulled his focus back to center and stretched, pouring more reiki into the shield.

He could feel his spiritual energy draining out of him. And he could feel the exact moment when his body lost the ability to make more. The heart he didn't need anymore was heavy in the back of his throat as he strained against the weight of the surge. He could hear the cries turn to screams as the water started to fall and panic made his blood cold. No, no, no. People were dying and the Spirit World was gone-

The surge broke over the shield, most of its force deflected and Yuusuke stared at his hands as he tried to focus on his reiki. Mostly gone, depleted and not replenishing. He lifted his hands to stare out at the city, the rain still falling in droplets that broke open against his skin. Entire buildings were gone and as he watched more began to collapse slowly into the water. The cries were full blown screams now. Humans, calling out for help. Warning others. Screaming into the sky because something in all of them knew what they had just lost.

Yuusuke raised his eyes but Hinageshi and her bright red hair were gone.

****

His house was still standing, even if it listed slightly to one side where it hadn't that morning. It was a newer house, the kind built on concrete pylons so the house proper was reasonably safe from flooding. The windows were dark, as were the houses around it, but the surge would have knocked out the power. The walkway on the high side of the building had pulled loose from the neighbor's house and was drooping over the water.

Yuusuke, even with demon speed and agility, kept stubbing his foot on broken pieces of concrete, metal and wood. The streets were death traps as the current pushed cars and chunks of collapsed buildings further into the city. Yuusuke could feel the current tug against his legs and he leaned forward to balance himself with his hands as he heaved himself up onto the front steps, feeling mildew and seaweed coating the concrete beneath his fingers. He felt oddly shocky and he kept reaching for his reiki to steady himself. Youki was always his second weapon of choice and it didn't sit as well in his blood as reiki did, leaving him further unbalanced.

The front door was locked and he didn't bother trying to find his keys. He kicked the door open and staggered inside. It was dim inside, it always was these days. It had been weeks since they left the storm shutters open for more than an hour or two at a time. A couple of candles flickered in the kitchen, sending up shadows that looked like movement. An oil lamp was lit in the living room; Yuusuke could smell the vanilla scent of the oil and the hot, sharp scent of the burning wick.

Keiko was in her garden, a room full of plants; vegetables, flowers. Spider plants hung from the ceiling, rows and rows of vegetables hand planted and tended to keep them growing in the poor light. At their old house, before the flooding got this bad, Keiko had kept a garden, and when they'd come here she had tried again, filling the porch with dwarf citrus trees and hanging flowering plants. But the rains had drowned the flowers and the storms had knocked over ceramic pots, smashing branches and crushing flowers. So they'd moved her garden inside and she'd converted to vegetables when things started getting bad. She spent most of her time there now, coaxing things to grow in the dark.

She was on the floor by her last dwarf orange tree, her hair spread out on the wood around her. She was wearing jeans and a sweater against the ever-present chill of the damp, and her slippers were smudged with dirt and mud from the potting soil. Her cell phone was shattered on the floor. He remembered the call he'd ignored and wondered if Keiko had been calling him for help.

He sat in the hall for a long time, holding her hand and stroking her hair while the lightning flashed outside the window and the thunder shook the house around him. When he finally looked up, he saw the open door across the floor and the body on the floor.

Looking was the last thing he wanted to do, because he already knew what he'd find. But he looked anyway, staggering on legs that hadn't felt so weak in decades, in his entire life and went to check on his son.

****

He didn't call Kurama, but sometimes the youko had a sixth sense to rival any of the psychics they'd known. Yuusuke was sitting in the doorway to Kazuma's room, holding his son, when Kurama stepped into the hallway and found Keiko.

"Yuusuke." Kurama sounded like his heart was breaking when he saw the boy and this was one of the few times in both their lives when it was obvious Kurama wasn't sure what to do. "Mariko-chan?"

"I don't know. Not here." His daughter was nearly thirty, she'd been living on her own for a long time. Kazuma was still in school. "She said a while ago that she had some kind of job to do and wouldn't be around for a while. She said…" his voice dried in his throat as the conversation came back to him and he swallowed and rested his head against his son's. "She said Koenma had a plan. And that she hoped I wouldn't worry."

"A plan?" Kurama sounded shaken. "Yuusuke, did you-"

"I felt it," Yuusuke said. He combed his fingers through Kazuma's hair and shook. "When the Spirit World fell. I felt it. What's going to happen to them?"

Kurama didn't answer him.

It was a long time before Yuusuke let Kurama take his son's weight from him.

****

He dug, because it was the only thing he had left to do.

Kurama dug with him, soaked to the core and pale with his own grief.

Yuusuke couldn't bring himself to fill the graves, just stood there with a shovel full of dirt until Kurama took it from him and did it all himself.

"What's going to happen to them?" he asked again. No spirit world, no heavenly judges, no afterlife, just souls left to wander in the void. "What did he do?" Shizuru wasn't old enough to just drop dead and Keiko had been even younger. Kazu... Yuusuke shook like he thought he would break but Kurama grabbed him and held him together while he cried. "What did he do?"

"I don't know." Kurama held the back of Yuusuke's head and Yuusuke dug his fingers into the youko's shoulders to have something to hold onto. "He's gone, Yuusuke. Maybe he took them with him to protect them." He pressed his cheek against Yuusuke's and tightened his grip. "I don't know. I don't know."

It took a while, but he eventually let Kurama bully him inside the temple. Kurama made him bathe and drink hot tea and go to bed and Yuusuke did whatever Kurama said on a kind of autopilot. Keiko and Kazu were dead and Mariko wasn't answering her cell phone and the Spirit World was gone.

Koenma, who had been his friend once, decades ago, was gone. Everyone was gone.

Kurama stayed with him.

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