Pairing: Thrill pair
Warning: …promotes atheism? This piece of literature is (or will be) banned by the Catholic League along with motion pictures Da Vinci Code and Golden Compass due to abuse of Christian themes and inclusion of homosexuality. (I always wanted to say that) XD
I always did love the setting of angels and devils.
Achromatic Colors
I. Antonyms
If any living creatures would somehow descend upon this maze of the underworld – the reason for such occurrences will be mentioned later - and miraculously stay alive after immediate contact with the unearthly environment, their automatic reaction would be to cower in fear in one of the numerous quarters, hoping that they would remain undiscovered by the dungeon's fearsome inhabitants created by either their imagination or unlucky encounters. In these situations, their minds would numb in fear, praying and praying from the bottom of their hearts that they would be miraculously saved by either some hero of their dreams or more conventionally, by waking up from this crazed reality they wanted to call a nightmare. They would beg to their gods that their drumming heartbeats and shallow breathing would remain unnoticed by the unearthly supernatural beings passing by their hideouts and would plead with the utmost passion for mercy as either the creatures or the devils dive in for the kill upon discovery.
Some that do managed to remain hidden in one part of the colossal maze of passageways – again the reason will be explained later - would either die from hunger, thirst, exhaustion, or illness. Others would lose their mind and throw themselves upon the inhabitants just so their nightmare would end. None that did not belong in the maze managed to get out. Not yet anyway.
Those sane enough to plot a vain getaway would soon notice that their hopes were mere fantasies. The first connection they usually made with this hell hole is the impossible labyrinth of Crete, prison of Minotaur in the Greek mythology – except they believed it was darker, with mounting number of creatures then they imagined of the mythology. After some exploration they would soon come to see hopelessness of their situation – if they were daring enough to move. The mere existence of endless passages and ever creeping darkness would be enough to shatter any bits of remaining hope deep inside the subconscious.
The blazing torches flickered and crackled. Darkness enveloped the few providers of luminosity, threatening to engulf it at any second. Even the roaring demon fires were having difficulties holding off the shadows to provide little lights to the passersby in the lengthy stone passageways.
In some part of the deepest and darkest part of the underworld, soft footsteps echoed and grew from a corridor in one of the dungeon. Creatures of all shapes of malice and ugliness scurried away at the familiar sound.
A black clad figure is seen faintly under the almost nonexistent gleam. The steady clicks of his black boots against the stone pavement sent echoes bouncing about the immense but darkly lit hallway. The majestic ebony wings trailed his steps displayed supremacy. Various ornaments of mythical metal clicked against each other on his body. An inverted pentagram, the crest of the royal satanic family, is hanging from a single platinum chain surrounding his turtleneck. The jet black coat and auburn mane wavered from the movement and the slight draft going against his course exhibit further image of authority.
He stopped. The previously closed eyes parted slightly in a glare, which revealed pools of sparkling sapphire that glittered and shone with a light of its own that would put any gemstone – both mythical and factual - to shame.
Fuji Syuusuke sighed.
He stood before the passageway leading to the grand hall of the underworld. His eyes scanned the hustle and bustle of the slave servants and devils in various ranks going busily about their business. He closed his eyes again.
'Oh well, might as well as get it over with.…' He sighed again and plastered his trademark smile on his face.
He walked into gleam of faint light. The murmurs of conversations and the sounds of activity leaked from beyond.
The servants quickly looked up from their jobs as soon as they sensed the heir of the royal family. They gave a slight curtsy and went back to their duties. Such lack of courtesy should have been a major offense to anyone with the rank above them, but that is exactly what Fuji wanted. He did not fancy them to waste time and energy on bowing and kneeling, and he himself did not want to bother seeing and acknowledging them. It is bad enough already that they do it when important guests are present.
"Fujiko!" A cheerful voice yelled.
How unusual in the underworld. The sharp cat like grey orbs would have immediately detected Fuji among the cluster of bodies if his senses had not. The equally cherry figure bounced over a cluster of servants that were hurrying about their business. "How did the conference go nya?" He questioned as he folded his red tinted wings as he landed in front of Fuji with cat like grace, leaving less than comfortable space between the other in a normal person's perspective. How his friend maintained his cheerfulness and ignorance in the underworld is still a mystery for Fuji. Perhaps it's that odd personality of his friend that attracts Fuji to him.
"Oh the usual, boring as always," Fuji responded indifferently, completely use to his friend's display of intimacy.
The red head sighed, "I can't believe they made you go to a meeting on your birthday nya. On the royal prince's birthday of all days."
Fuji's smile widened. His friend is so amicable. A devil is bad enough, but an arch-devil should not be talking about birthdays out of all things. Honestly. Fuji concluded long ago that he could not find another friend like Kikumaru Eiji in an eternity. "We have birthdays, every 365 days," he said, "and my birthday shouldn't be different from anybody else's."
"But Fujiko, your Royal Highness nya, you are the prince!" He whined. "Plus your birthday doesn't come for every four years."
"Eiji, we celebrate in centuries, not years. Only short lived mortals celebrate special occasions annually. If we do it like mortals, then we will have too many birthdays, which won't make it very special anymore. And it's not only my birthday that is interesting and grand. There is always the birthday banquet for all the members of the royal family, the handful of arch-devils including yours, other powerful figures with important roles or connections in hell and some chiefs and commanders at a lower scale." He also pointed out the general celebration of the demon holidays such as Friday the 13th, Rebellion Day(1) . "Plus, having too many birthdays would make my subordinates go bankrupt." He chuckled at the image of his chibified arch-devils sulking at their empty wallets.
Eiji pouted, "I know. I know. It's just that I miss the big feasts, and the crowd, and the party, and the events, and especially salvaging the gifts you don't want Fujiko. Besides, only you would let me have your gifts." His eyes lit up like Christmas lights as his thoughts went back to almost a century ago at the mountain of expensive gifts Fujiko had given 'permission' to keep. Fuji, being the genius he is, instantly knew what his friend was dreaming of. He had the urge to add that all Eiji bothered to look at and took was the cute or pretty collection of goods and completely ignored the gifts of slaves and naughty gifts such as torture items. To the horror of Yuuta, Fuji had kindly sent some of these gifts to his younger brother saying something about intimidating others with the appearance of sadistic nature to cover up his cuteness as self-defense in politically and psychologically threatening situations.
"Just a few more years," Fuji noted, "but there is a small celebration during today's gathering anyway. Still, in order to make it up to you, I'll treat you ice cream before celebration starts ne?"
"REALLY?" Eiji instantly brightened. "YOU'RE THE BEST FUJIKO!!" He glomped the prince lovingly, forgetting the fact that as an arch-devil, he could practically afford anything and he does own a stash of private sweets hidden in many secret chambers of his mansion.
Most of the servants around them didn't give a second glace as it was almost an everyday occurrence.
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"Meow…"
Golden eyes glared.
A pair of sapphire eyes eyed him hungrily and expectantly.
The wind toyed with his emerald tinted locks, his alabaster outer garments, and his snowy feathers. Sunshine bounced off of his glossy wings giving a radiating holy manifestation and his exposed skin showed beautiful pale complexion. The young angel, who looked no older than twelve in mortal life, depicted a typical image of angelic innocence if it were not for the eyes.
The eyes brandished power and defiance; which is not the typical characteristic of low ranked messenger angels most intricate with men's lives. No beings without the all knowing power of a seer would ever have guessed that this fragile looking boy is the youngest archangel of all time.
Echizen Ryoma had just accomplished a mission and was about to return to heaven when the cerulean eyes inside a cluster of bushes had caught his attention.
He glared at the feline, annoyed that someone bothered him again over the course of few hours.
'Why oh why, did Tezuka commanded him to the mortal world to stop what's-his-name stupid mortal guy from killing his son?'(2) He mauled at that thought. The lunatic could tear his son's head off for all he cared. He had better use of his precious,--though everlasting--time like practicing his combat skills or even better, sleep.
If Tezuka Kunimitsu wanted to stop the madman, he could have done it himself or sent someone else. In Ryoma's opinion, he should have sent the monkey king (that man needs to be knocked off of his pedestals once a while), or some lower ranked ones – the utilization of archangels was completely unnecessary in his opinion - like Shuichiro Oishi (the mother hen of angels), and Inui Sadaharu (who actually comes down from high almighty to advise important - Ryoma snorted - humans). But noooo, the leader of the seven archangels had specifically called him in to intervene by using persuasion and reason, which are communication skills. Perhaps Tezuka thought it was good practice – Ryoma reflected that he needed no such thing. If it was up to Ryoma, he would have just knocked the lunatic out cold.
"Meow." The cat yowled again."
He snapped out of his daze.
Back to the situation at hand…
The owner of cerulean eyes crawled out from the bushes to reveal himself as a Himalayan cat. Its long snow white furs were coated with dirt and dust. Its eyes begged the angel for food. It yowled again. (3)
'Go away.' Ryoma told the cat through his glare. The cat was either very stupid or persistent as it seemed not to comprehend the message and only came closer. It placed a soiled paw on the angel's clean spotless pants. Several moments went by with them simply staring at each other.
He sighed, "Oh fine," giving in to the cat's plea. He picked up the cat into his arms not caring if it dirtied his clothes. From that day on Ryoma had taken full responsibility of the cat until her life span ran out over a decade later.
Echizen Ryoma would inwardly curse this day many, many times later on in the future for millennia onwards.
Tezuka Kunimitsu would also regret his decision to send the young Archangel later on – though fortunately not as often.
A/N: as requested, now the author notes will be moved to the bottom
1. I had to think of something, if you have something to add please tell me.
2. Archangel Zadkiel stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son. I have no idea why, I just wanted to use a situation where archangels came down to earth.
3. That cat is NOISY in the anime.
Lol, a lot of foreshadowing, I know most of you don't read this (I forget often to read after notes too) but here I go,
Since I have no religious background, in order to write this fic, I did bit of reading on wikipedia (not a very reliable source I know) on angels and devils of Christianity and came out completely disappointed!
I found out that in the 'official' Christian religion, there are not really concrete information on angels. (It did kind of make sense since Jesus taught people about way of life, not mythology) Apparently no scholars agree on any information about angels - some models even suggest that the highest beings have a thousand eyes and all they do is praise god – I gave up then and there.
Anyway, my fic is influenced by the wonderful mangaka group CLAMP, Angel Sanctuary by Kaori Yuki (I love the setting), all the thrilling thrill fic I've been reading through for the last few weeks, and probably by the (used to be only) angel Thrill pair fic Un conte des êtres celestrial by Fuji S. You'll probably find similar elements. I couldn't cast them otherwise. How can I have Fuji and Ryo-chan on any other side then the ones they are in now? Tezuka too. My brain malfunctions when I try to picture Fuji as an angel and Tezuka as a devil. (Echizen is slightly more flexible in my opinion.)
Please feel free to correct any mistakes.
REVIEW PLEASE, As any fellow authoress would understand the encouragement and constructive values of them…
Published: 15/12/07
Revised: 03/06/08