The Only Colour Better Than Black Is Transparent Chap 3
A.N. It's been a rocky start for JunDa (mainly because Ueda hates Taguchi's guts) but that's okay - the way I put it, the more madness and crazy characters I add, the better things turn out.
Here are a few of them.
879,456,204 yen down the track, he still wasn’t feeling any better. The only people feeling better were the salespeople at Daimaru, whose monthly sales had just been boosted in the luxury men’s clothing section.
In fact, Ueda felt worse about himself. Every time he spied a piece of clothing he wanted, Junno’s slender frame would pop into his head and he would judge it depending on whether Junno would look good in it.
Thus, underwear shopping was a nightmare.
Dejected, Ueda returned into his home at around 6pm, dragging his feet in exhaustion.
He failed to notice that the lights in his living room were already on.
Plodding out of the garage into the dining room, Ueda pulled out a mahogany chair, propped his elbows on the table and his hands on top of his head.
“Why can’t I get him out of my head?” he mumbled to himself, “Why am I so confused?”
“It’s bad manners to have your elbows on the table dear,” came a voice right beside his left ear.
Ueda gave a yelp in shock and turned around with lightning speed, smacking his nose on the mysterious person’s. “OOOWWW!!!” the unlawful occupant of his house cried out in pain, “TATSUYA ARE YOU CRAZY?!”
Ueda, rubbing his sore nose, whisked his head around. “RYO?!” he shrieked, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON EARTH?!”
“Can you get me some ice for my nose first?” ‘Ryo’ complained, “You’re a flippin’ rhino!!”
“Not until you tell me why you’re in my Earth house, wearing the clothes I bought today and being a total creep!” Ueda retorted, “How could this day get any worse?”
Ryo grinned. “Hey, just because you’ve got a hyperactive friend bothering you doesn’t mean you can take it out on me! Despite what I look, I AM hell’s heir ya know?”
“Have you been stalking me all day?” Ueda stood up off his seat incredulously, “Why did you not knock his block off for me?”
“Dude, physical stalking is SUCH a fourth century thing!” Ryo shook his head. He flicked his fingers and a cell phone flew from the living room coffee table. “Hell and heaven have a combined educational app, where we can log in and track all other applicants’ progress using live streaming. I love these new smartphones! But seriously, you running him over in the rain was hilarious!”
“How long have you been watching my life?” the copper-haired angel moaned, “Since the beginning?”
“Nope,” his friend smiled, “the latest update included an ‘on demand’ feature. I watched a bit, skipped the 4 hours you were stuck in the traffic jam, the sleeping, the car trip to school and logged in live during Taguchi Junnosuke’s dance performance. Man he knows how to move his hips! I swear if I weren’t straight, I’d go for him-
“Which means you watched me in the shower,” Ueda cracked his knuckles.
“The video has a 7-second lag,” Ryo explained, “and the guys in Tech censor the necessary bits. And anyways, nothing I haven’t seen before.”
“If you didn’t have magic, I’d flatten you.”
“I think I’ll live at your place from now on,” Ryo declared grandly, “My Earth name is Nishikido Ryo and I am currently a paid computer hacker. I’ll need to use your basement to set up my equipment from my Earth home, a new car-
“Why are YOU allowed to use magic and I’m not?!” Ueda almost cried, “And how the hell is everyone I’ve seen so far on Earth a prick?!”
“I know you’re very tired Tat-chan,” his childhood friend patted him in the back, “but look at this from a positive perspective. You can’t do housework but I can use magic to help you. If you get into any problems, I can rescue you because my smartphone can alert me to any dangers you face. AND I can listen to you when you’ve had a bad day-
“You’re not answering my question,” he questioned sourly.
“I’m allowed to use magic because our visas are different. I’m here on a working holiday but you’re here on study.”
“They differ because?”
“I’m black-wing! I’m supposed to be here creating havoc so how can I do that without magic?” Ryo smirked, “YOU’RE a white-wing on a peaceful research mission so of course we’re different!”
“In other words, you haven't got an unlimited allowance have you?” it was Ueda’s turn to smirk, “And you’re too lazy to do much work.”
“CORRECT.”
He sighed. In truth, Ueda was relieved to see a familiar face again. Ryo had a sharp tongue sometimes but he was always true to his word when it came to big matters. Even though Ueda was on the verge of insanity, seeing the cheeky angel had managed to calm him down enough to be rational. The Taguchi Junnosuke episode was over, and all he had to do now was live his life and hope the sand in his hourglass emptied itself FAST.
“You’ve probably been through this house. You can pick a guest room to stay in and I’ll pay for you to move all your stuff over by tomorrow while I’m at school,” Ueda strode over to the fridge, “help yourself to whatever in this house- hey do you want a closet full of clothes? My Earth body had TERRIBLE fashion sense!”
“You mean that wardrobe full of steel spikes?” Ryo grabbed a can of beer, “Your body’s gonna want them back after you go back so you should throw them in the attic coz I don’t want anything to do with them!”
“Fine. I’ll leave you my credit card tomorrow and you can sort your life out,” Ueda took out a piece of cake, “From now on, you can do all the chores and whatnot-
“And my payment is the PIN to your credit card, am I right?” Ryo grinned.
Ueda threw him the card from out of his wallet, “Fine, I’ll just use cash. Just go easy on the cars… I only have a triple garage and I want to buy a ping pong table to put in there too.”
“One car. Gotcha!” his friend laughed and materialized a checklist from thin air, “Thanks Tat-chan, you’re a saint!”
“If you keep calling me those two names, I’ll rip out your toenails and make you eat them through your eyes,” Ueda replied through mouthfuls of cake.
“Yessir! Let’s go shopping!”
[The next day, Tokyo University Hongo Campus]
*A.N. Hongo Campus deals primarily with Medicine and Agriculture, and also contains the General Library and Sanshiro Pond etc (for those who are interested to know) I’ve set the fictional Faculty of Performing Arts there as well. Freshmen and sophomores spend two years at Komada Campus in general education before they can move to Hongo Campus to specialize, so Ueda and Taguchi are both third year university students and are 21 years old.
Maybe I should buy another car… Ueda thought to himself as he locked the door and stepped out into the car-park in his new Armani outfit. The silver Aston Martin was a great little ride, but he felt that it attracted too much attention.
As he made his way to his first lecture of the morning, however, it quickly became apparent that his car was NOT the attraction. HE was.
People whispered, stared and pointed fingers at him. A group of girls even had the nerve to giggle at him, wave and run away. Not to mention groups splitting like the Red Sea letting Moses through… It was just weird. His body’s memory bank didn’t seem to have a valid reason for people treating him like the Grim Reaper, and technically nobody in this realm should know he is training to be one, their actions made no sense.
Only one person in the crowd dared come close. Okay, more like jump on top of him.
“UEDAAAAA!!!!” another hyper ball of loud yelling ran up to him and tackled him onto the concrete, “WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN ALL SPRING BREAK?!?!?!”
“Living, up till now,” Ueda seethed, “Who the fuck are you?”
The THING got up off him and upon seeing his face, Ueda’s memory bank clicked into gear. The man’s name was Akanishi Jin, and according to the data stored about him, Ueda’s body has known him since kindergarten. He was bright, a bit over-enthusiastic at times but generally a nice guy. Liked to drink, go clubbing and pick up girls, a bit like Ryo. But this one is smart enough to also get into Tokyo University’s third year Medicine course.
“Jin,” Ueda sat up rubbing his aching head, “do you WANT me to die young? Next time you do this, I will knock your brains out, got it?”
“What’s up with you?” Jin cocked his head to one side, “The entire campus is talking about you! You didn’t come to give the dux speech yesterday so I had to do my valedictorian one super long, I heard you skipped class after pushing some poor guy from performing arts into the pond, you bought an Aston, dyed your hair, changed your cell phone number AND got a scary personality! I was tempted to go to the guys studying extra-terrestrial life and ask them about recent UFO sightings in Tokyo!!”
“Fuck that was one long, pointless monologue,” Ueda was still angry from being knocked over, “So what? What if this is the real me? What if I’m different? If you’re so freaked out like everyone else is, why don’t you just leave me alone like they do huh?”
“You act like you hardly know me!!” Jin looked offended, “you’ve always been different, and I acknowledge that. When you looked like a serial killer, you were actually a sweet guy underneath. Now that you look like a JE idol, you act like you don’t give a damn about anyone else. Fine, whatever! But can you not treat me like everyone else-
“What makes you different?” Ueda snapped, “What gives you the authority to boss me around? On what grounds can you decide who I’m allowed to treat like crap? I don’t have the patience to debate with you, so if you still want to be my ‘best friend’, accept who I am or forget the old me existed. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll get a pleasant surprise?”
Yeah, when I get out of here, you’ll have your best friend back. Before that happens, no way am I going to pretend to be a different person just to satisfy you…
“…Who are you?” Jin could hardly believe his ears, “…I…thought I was different-
“In what way? God you’re slow!” Ueda threw his hands in the air, “I can say right now I hate everyone treating me like I’m different!”
“…Nothing,” Jin swallowed the sentence forming at his lips, “Forget this conversation. I’m just not used to you changing character, that’s all. Let’s go to class U- Ueda.” This isn’t right… I feel scared to called him Ukkun… This guy is different. He has something burning in his eyes that’s different to my Ukkun. He can kill. I have to get to the bottom of this.
By the second lecture, Ueda had already decided that Medicine was a dead boring subject. They taught things that all the angels learn in elementary school, if not day care. And not once had Ueda even imagined that humans were so behind, they didn’t even know the full set of commands for totipotent stem cell differentiation yet… The lectures were ridiculously simple, he learnt nothing new, and to top it all off, the class was full of nerds who thought they were intelligent.
He decided it was a good time to sleep through all the science blabbing.
The only remotely interesting (if not downright puerile) class of the day was Ethics. He and Jin had both taken the course as an elective, to ‘hone up a doctor’s moral instincts’ or something equally trivial. Since the Faculty of Letters ran the course, Ueda could be free of science geeks for an hour, while listening to some amusing ideas humans had regarding ethics. It was just like hell’s Morals course. Of course, Ethics itself was one big joke, and Ueda had to stifle some laughs when the professor started talking about war crimes.
Speaking of the professor, he was equally fascinating as the topic he was teaching. The man himself could not have been over 25 years old, and was the most perfectly groomed human Ueda had met since his arrival. Tie neatly done, even his nails were perfectly manicured, skin perfectly buffed, hair perfectly swept out of his face. The only thing that stopped him from perfectly blending into a sea of good-looking people was the fact that his nose was slightly on the large side.
Nakamaru Yuichi (or was that Nakamura?), D.Litt (Doctor of Letters) Oxford graduate, noted for his award-winning theses on a number of global ethical issues, and also somewhat of a child genius. Popular with female students for his calm demeanour and flawless skincare routine.
“Let’s see… who should I pick to answer the next question?” the professor’s large eyes circled the lecture theatre, “hmm… The one with the orange hair third row from the back!”
“My hair is copper sir,” Ueda shrugged.
“Excellent answer,” Nakamaru rested both his hands on his speech podium, “So tell me, what do you major in, err…”
“Ueda Tatsuya.”
“Aah Ueda-kun, tell me what you major in,” the man’s perfectly balanced tone of voice made it impossible for Ueda to read into his intentions. It pissed him off slightly.
“Medicine sir,” the angel replied simply, “human medicine.”
“An intelligent one I see,” professor Nakamaru kept his poker face, “Do you enjoy the thought of one day being able to dispense of human life as you please?”
The question threw Ueda off balance completely. Murmurs began to spread around the entire lecture hall as he stood and pondered over the nature of the question. Human lives didn’t matter much to angels down under. How could they, when it was their job to dispose of them? Yet here, Ueda had to tread carefully. One wrong answer in this guy’s class could mean his social standing tipping upside down. Humans were like the white-wings, they are hypocrites… Asking for the honest answer but if it was not politically correct, one will be condemned.
“I won’t be allowed to sir,” Ueda gave his answer, “As a doctor, you are paid to save the patients registered to you and therefore are bound by your wages. I won’t have a choice to do what I want.”
“Then what about euthanasia Ueda-kun?” the man pressed on, “Can you give me your views on that?”
“It’s the same answer as before. A doctor is paid to save people to the best of his ability, and if he should fail, that is his limited skill. Why would I give up on a ‘patient survival point’ on my record by killing them myself?”
“What if they were dying anyway and in great pain?” Nakamaru jumped down from his podium and started walking towards the angel, “Tell me, what would you do? What if they were brain-dead?”
“If they were brain-dead sir, with all due respect, they wouldn’t feel pain,” Ueda replied simply, “If your next question is about organ harvesting, it really depends on what the patient has previously agreed to, and whether anyone needs their organs at the time.”
“Ueda-kun, one last question,” Nakamaru seemed impressed with his reply, “Have you ever directly caused the death of anyone close to you?”
“Can’t say that I have sir,” Ueda shrugged with a smile, “Not anyone close to me at least.”
“What do you mean by that last statement?”
“You’ve used up your question quota Professor,” Ueda sat down and refused to answer. What can I tell him? That I assist in the reaping of human souls almost on a daily basis? Pppffftttt….
“Wow,” Jin remarked after class, “I thought you were a goner! The old you would have just stuttered, mumbled and failed to say anything constructive… your answer was kind of nice too, if not slightly lacking in emption but -
“I don’t need you comment on every little thing Jin,” Ueda sighed, “I think what I think. Right now I think I’m liking this Ethics professor. Who’s the guy talking to him now? He looks like a member of the Yakuza!”
“Shhh… Are you out of your mind?” Jin gasped, “That’s Tanaka Koki from Veterinary Sciences! He looks like a mafia but he’s actually such a sweet dude! I’m in his dance circle…”
“If he’s so nice, why are you whispering?”
“….”
“Never mind. He’s sticking to Nakamura like glue…” Ueda checked his Rolex, “Let’s go to eat lunch. I’ll treat you if you promise to stop talking so much.”
“The professor’s name is NakaMARU…” Jin laughed.
Ueda’s left eyebrow twitched. “You’re buying your own lunch then.”
Nakamaru Yuichi looked up at the top entrance of the lecture hall, where the copper-haired boy was leading a complaining guy out by his sleeve.
Ueda Tatsuya… Why do you have wings?
“Sensei,” Tanaka Koki waved his hands to get the older man’s attention, “What’s up prof? Whatcha starin’ at?”
“Nothing Tanaka-kun,” the professor smiled calmly, “I just thought I saw something, that’s all.”
Normal humans shouldn’t have black wings, should they?
A.N. No Maru, normal humans don't have wings. But since you can see them... well, prepare for a funny life story XD Comments make my world go round~