Halloween fic

[onemuseleft]

lady_flamewing asked for a fic that was about the Yu Yu Hakusho girls during apocalypse. She didn't specify what kind of apocalypse, and there's only one YYH girl in it, but hopefully this will do.

Title: Night Watch
Fandom: Yu Yu Hakusho
Characters:Keiko
Warnings: It's an apocalypse fic written as a Halloween prompt, so there's a horror element and (mostly off-screen) main character death. No gratuitous violence, no sex, no language.
Summary: Keiko has the night watch, guarding the village against the things that prowl the forest.



Keiko did not hesitate when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye; she had an arrow drawn and aimed before her mind fully processed what she had seen.

Kuwabara stood at the edge of the forest, hand on his hip, watching her. He was smiling up at her like he was pleased by her fast response.

She almost let her guard drop. Aside from the blood on his clothes, he didn’t look much different than he had the last time she'd seen him.

It was past midnight and the crescent moon didn't cast enough light to make up for the dark and the rain. From the watch platform atop the Wall, Keiko could only just make out the white of his teeth and the way the moon reflected off his eyes. He looked pale and the blood splattered on his clothing could have been mud if only the moon wasn't bright enough for her to recognize the pattern in the way the dark stain was heaviest around his throat.

She wanted to feel something more than she did, which was mostly resigned.

Several long moments passed while they stood there watching each other, Kuwabara with a smile still fixed on his lips, Keiko wishing he'd make any little move to make it easier for her to shoot.

She knew he was dead because Shizuru had said so, but her fingers hesitated anyway.

The guys had beaten the odds so many times in the past. Despite knowing better, some part of her was whispering for her to wait. He was so strong - maybe he was only hurt. Maybe the infection didn’t take hold fully. Maybe- she didn’t know. But he'd handled worse over the years, hadn’t he? She knew better, but part of her still wanted proof before she fired.

Somewhere in the forest, a shadow moved.

She didn’t take her eyes off Kuwabara; she didn’t need to move to see the eyes creeping through the woods behind him, luminous even without the moonlight. First two, then three, then a dozen, stalking out of the woods, fanning out behind Kuwabara like a gang of troublemakers or a small army.

She fired, the wooden arrow cutting him through the heart. Even as he crumpled into dust, the others crept forward. Too many for her to handle alone, one would surely get through and reach the Wall, but the night watch could handle it. She reached for the bell to warn the town and alert the other guards on their platforms spread out around the wall, and her hand struck someone in the chest. The body under her hand was cold and hard and she felt dread pour through her entire body.

Yuusuke smiled at her, his eyes bright in the darkness, his teeth bared in what could have been the same damn smile before he reached up and snapped her wrist.

She couldn’t reach the bell, but she had time to scream in warning.