The Only Colour Better Than Black Is Transparent Chap 19.2
[Earth]
“NO!!!” Kame tore down the hospital corridor. He had been forced to go to that damned Myojo photo-shoot by his manager, where the camera consequently lost its lens and everything that could go wrong in an idol photo-shoot went wrong. Murphy at his finest. A small factor was that he had been subject to intense photoshop and make-up (since he was bloody and bashed up from being beaten by an angel previously) - not that he was going to explain why.
By the time he came back, Jin greeted him in tears that Though Junno was not dead; Nakamaru’s sudden burst of unexplained magic had not saved him entirely. Never mind that Jin could not extort information out of the Ethics professor as to whether he had any shady deals with Heaven or Hell, and never mind that Matsumoto Jun disappeared in a sparkling of curses afterwards - Junno was on the brink of existence and the doctors had given up.
He was brain-dead, to be exact, and euthanasia suddenly became a viable option. ‘Death with Dignity’, they called it. Was it even legal?
“What is the meaning of this?!” Kame marched into the doctor’s office like he owned the place, “What are you going to do to Taguchi Junnosuke?!”
“Oh my! Kamenashi-san….Err… well he’s technically already-
“I don’t care!” the idol yelled, “If you so much as lift a finger on that man, I will tell Japan on national television that this hospital murdered my best friend and my choreographer! Doctors should be trying to save as many lives as they can!”
Beads of sweat started forming on the elderly doctors head. No amount of medical training could have prepared him for this situation - namely a national idol threatening him with ridicule. “But Sir… many indivicuals are waiting on organ-
“You’re not taking his organs!” Jin burst into the room, panting, “Someone will save him!”
“Who?” the doctor asked, “his brain has shut down from some sort of trauma and the only thing keeping him alive is this hospital’s electrical currents! Who will save him?”
“I…” Kame didn’t know what to say. He wanted to claim that since Junno had been saved (by some freak incident) from a murderous angel, he should live. Was it not meant to be?”
“You’re wrong,” it was Jin who took his hand; “I can feel it. Kame, we CANNOT be indecisive. Do you believe in everything we’ve experienced? There is a reason for everything! Junno will not die at the hands of Matsumoto OR this hospital!”
“On what grounds can you deny the people waiting on his organs?” the doctor was baffled.
“Faith.”
Outside, the chilly October breeze was heading towards November in a hurried fashion.
“You said what I wanted to, but never had the courage to say,” Kame wrapped his scarf tighter around his face, “Thanks.”
“That’s what bonds are for,” Jin nudged him playfully, “But seriously, I got a hunch. Tatsuya - whatever he is - is coming back. We need to stall this whole thing and make sure nobody unplugs Junno’s life support before then.”
“How can you be so sure?” the idol looked up at the university student before smiling. “Oh right… Faith?”
“Yep.”
“I have a crazy idea, a crazy gamble that will need all our power,” he stopped on the track of maples that had lost their leaves. “Wanna hear?”
“Surprise me,” Jin shrugged.
“I want to make a Youtube video.”
If only Heavenly time had passed faster, Kamenashi Kazuya may not have been forced to make his Youtube video. Hardly worth mentioning, but Johnny’s Entertainment was furious. Their number 1 idol had unmistakably directed an iPhone-shot documentary about euthanasia and had posted it on the internet for all to see - coupled with touching statements from Tokyo University’s deputy Head of Letters and a good-looking med student. Bio-Ethics at its best.
Within hours, the video went viral, the Johnny’s office was inundated with phone calls and the hospital in which Junno lay was completely surrounded by a hoard of activists and fans. No more actions for the hospital apart from barricading doors for the near future.
[Heaven]
“Your plans are backfiring so much I want to laugh,” the Dominion jeered at Ryo, “But I can’t - because this is a spectacular failure. Is this what you meant by drawing a crowd using Kamenashi Kazuya?”
“Shut up…”
[Earth]
“This should keep them busy for a while,” Maru fanned himself with a stray paper towel, “I can’t believe you roped me into this! My career is as good as over! Raising this debate in this country is hardly a way of harmony!”
“Calm down old man,” Jin sighed, “if Japan fires you, the USA will snap you up! All we need is profile for a few days and I’m sure Ukkun will come back!”
“Faith again?”
“Hell yeah!”
A tremendous smashing came from the general direction from Junno’s life support room and it sounded curiously like the sound of something ploughing its way through all 14 double fire doors in the corridor.
THEN the wind hit them.
It was a cross between a nuclear explosion and a solar wind, enough to knock equipment from the other end of the hospital right past the three men. Needless to say, they were scared out of their wits apart from Jin, who had the keenest sense of spiritual energy.
“He’s here!!!” He cried with glee, “Ukkun’s in the house!”
“What’s he here to do?!” Kame braced himself against the nearest doorframe, “At this rate he’ll kill us all!!”
“Let’s believe in him!” Maru gritted his teeth as he tried to stop himself from being tossed out a window, “Because unless he can do something, Taguchi-kun is as good as dead!”
“How can I trust him with Junno when that bastard left him to die to begin with?!” Kame cried from his near-parallel position from the floor, “LOOK at this bloody power! He’ll kill him! I don’t care WHAT he is but Junno deserves better!!”
No sooner than the words left his mouth, the wind stopped.
“You’re right,” Tatsuya’s voice came directly behind Kame. The idol gasped as he turned and saw the creature behind him. Crimson eyes accentuated his delicate features, copper hair turning silver at the ends framed a face Kame had known briefly, but never really understood the beauty of. Then he knew - Ueda Tatsuya was definitely no man of earth. It was essentially the same face - much like how he was wearing the same clothes Kame had seen him in in Disneyland four human weeks ago - but an unexplainable air of magic permeated from his very bones. Wild, uncontrolled magic. Blood stained his plain white shirt, still wet and red and his wings were no longer all fuzzy and undefined to the human eye. They looked real - so real Kame had to rub his eyes. “You’re right,” he repeated, “he deserves better.”
“I see you got your magic back?” Maru smoothed out his shirt out of habit, “But what happened to your eyes?”
“None of your business,” Tatsuya was quick to defend himself, “I got my magic back alright, but just one spell. After that I have to go again.”
“You came back just so you could abandon him!?” the idol sounded abhorrent, “You selfish git! Do you know how much you’ve changed him?! All he ever talks about is you, he LIVES for you and all you’ve done is run him over with your fucking car, steal what was left of his sanity, cripple him and get him on life support!”
Tatsuya gave the professor a withering look. “You told him about me and the car?”
“We all have a right to know,” Maru nodded grimly, “since we’ve all risked our lives for this cause. But before you leave again, can you PLEASE explain what happened with that angle trying to kill Taguchi-kun! And how I stopped him…”
“YOU stopped him?” Tatsuya raised an eyebrow.
“You should have seen it,” Jin whistled, “he kind of just exploded in light and knocked the bad guy’s magic off-course so that Junno’s still alive! I didn’t know Nakamaru-sensei could use magic!”
“…Remember I told you once you probably had an angelic ancestor way back?” the angel explained, “that magic must have been dormant until too much exposure to me and other magic must have set it off. Nothing serious. And that’s also why Jin and Kamenashi can see wings too. I don’t normally say this… but thanks. All of you.”
The angel bowed. Never once could he have imagined bowing to, and feeling sheer gratitude towards humans.
Not to mention love. A burning desire to see Junno, to touch his skin crept up with a tingly sensation, and Tatsuya shivered in both anticipation and fear. This time would be the true last. And who knows? Maybe 200 years’ worth of suffering later, they could meet again? Yeah right.
“Should I… take you see him?” Kame asked plainly, and was the victim of several curious stares courteous of Jin. “Stop looking at me like that!” he snapped, “just because I don’t hate his guts anymore doesn’t mean I accept their relationship. Just go, he’s in the room-
“Second on the left,” Ueda lifted into the air and floated to the only room his power left untouched, “is it obvious enough that I left it untouched?” His voice was no longer sharp and caustic. Only a hint of teasing remained.
“Jerk,” Kame smiled. Angels were great to come to understandings with because they were incredibly good at reading atmosphere - something his human friends lacked. He thought of Junno and then Jin and smiled again.
“Should we follow him?” Nakamaru asked as Kame started to turn around and walk away.
“Can’t you feel it?” the idol took Jin’s hand, much to the latter’s surprise, and continued walking with the blushing man in tow, “the despair? We have no more to offer so why not just let them be? Jin, your hands are sweating.”
“I know!”
Nakamaru watched the pair bicker down a completely destroyed hospital foyer like the bomb site around them didn’t exist.
Are you kidding? Of course I can feel that much. I just wanted an excuse to stay and hope for the best… because I don’t know who to pray to.
Taguchi Junnosuke opened his eyes half-expecting to be in his own room at home. Someone was whispering into his ear. A male voice.
Dad? Wait, what am I thinking? Who is this… such a loving voice…marshmallows…
Bringing his head around, he met a pair of bright red irises. Junno could have sworn he saw raw emotions swimming in them like an endless current and before he knew it, he was swimming in a sea of blood. Drowning in a different liquid every second - one moment choking, one moment being caressed, being stained in love.
Gasping for breath, he found the impossible energy to sit up panting, only to realise he had an oxygen mask on.
“Wha-?” he looked around. Strange tubes were coming from every angle, most of them looked like they had just been ripped from a body. HIS body. “oh God please don’t let this be a morgue…” he muttered half to himself. “WOAH WHO ARE YOU?!”
Ueda sighed. That was Junno alright.
“I ran you over in town about 4 hours ago and threw you in the back of my car,” he replied with full seriousness, “and now I’m going to rape you, kill you and dispose of your body in mailed packages to your family.” He watched as the eyes of his love grew wide. “Do you know who I am now?”
Ryo’s spell broke like a series of chain reactions in the human’s head. One could almost hear the snapping of restraints in his heart as he finally recognised the angel in front of him.
So he did the only thing that seemed logical - pounce.
“UEPI!!!” he cried, already in tears as they both fell to the cold hospital tiles entwined together, “WHERE WERE YOU ALL THIS TIME?!?!”
“If my wings didn’t break our fall, you would have broken my back, fatty,” the angel hugged Junno closer and cocooned them in his white feathers, “Sorry for not being there when you needed me….”
“It’s okay… as long as we’re together everything’s fine,” Junno ran his hands through the copper locks he loved so dearly, “You’re not going anywhere this time are you? You won’t lie and go away again will you?”
“Of course not, silly,” Tatsuya replied instinctively, “Who am I? A bastard who hurts you all the time?” Oops.
“I love you Taguchi Junnosuke…” he murmured before bringing their lips together. He wanted to mark the slender man on top of him, to claim the creature as his. To sear a memory of himself so deeply into Junno that no amount of magic could ever dilute it, let alone erase.
“…you’re going anyway, aren’t you?”
“How can you tell?”
“… when you’re coddling me, something is always wrong.”
“Ah.”
“Do you still have the ring?”
He brought up his hand in a simple gesture. “I do.”
“Okay.”
[Heaven]
“Well THAT was an anti-climax,” the Dominion was back to being bored, “I can’t believe you left right after that. Did it never cross your mind that if you looked pitiful enough, I would reconsider your punishment?”
“I did,” Tatsuya replied coldly, “but I decided not to give you a drama to watch.”
Sariel and Ryo chuckled.
“Fine, wise-guy,” he waved dismissively, “you may report to the torture chamber as of now and have fun rotting for 200 years before dying a painful death. Case closed! Look, I’ll even bang a hammer!” Clearly pissed off, the Dominion picked up the nearest bottle of nail polish and turned it into a bright pink judge’s hammer, poised to strike his table.
“Objection Your Honour,” Gabriel addressed the court for the first time, just loud enough for the judge to hear.
“You’re pushing your boundaries Gabriel,” Michael warned, “this case is closed.”
“About time too,” the Dominion smiled suddenly, hammer returned to being nail polish, “I was wondering when you’d do something useful. Sit down everyone, let’s carry on!” His continuous changes of mood was borderline terrifying.
“WHAT?!” Raphael complained, “I told you! I have a Finance Department to run! None of us have time on our hands so can you please quickly come to a ruling?”
“I agree,” Michael scowled, “this has taken too long.”
“Only because you’re not getting what you want Michael,” Ryo reminded the Archangel, “don’t forget you’re playing the selfish tyrant military fascist.”
The Dominion ignored them. “Gabriel, what is your objection?” he sing-songed good-naturedly.
“Tatsuya is neither a white-wing nor a black-wing,” Gabriel produced a silk screen printed with two tables on either side, showing the features of a white-wing on one side and black-wings on the other, “but Law clearly states that one realm’s justice system will not influence the other for the sake of fairness. So the overdraft punishment should not apply to Tatsuya at all.”
“He was born in Heaven to an Omnipoten and a white-wing, and was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education,” Sariel pointed out. “You should know that better than anybody,” he muttered under his breath.
“But he was raised in Hell.”
“He’s half white-wing for goodness sake!”
“So was Lucifer.”
“That’s what I said ages ago!” Ryo butt in.
“ORDER IN THE COURT!!!” the Dominion gave a pleading look to Tatsuya. “You! This is your life they’re fighting over so don’t you have anything to say? Or pretend you care? These Archangels have the combined attention span of a fruit fly…”
Tatsuya looked blankly at the judge. “Be my guest. My job is done and I’m up for grabs I guess.”
“Damn you!” the Dominion stood up and gulped down a glass of water, “we’re back to square one! You know what? FINE. Let’s take a 30 minute break and everyone can think about which side they’re going to take… Dismissed!” He vanished in a cloud of rainbow-coloured glitter.
“Tsk,” Ryo muttered, “flamboyant prick.”
Without a word, Gabriel flew straight at Tatsuya and pushed him through the tile floor and the pair disappeared before the red-eyed angel could even complain.
“What now?” Archangel Jerahmeel awoke from his nap, “it looks like we won’t be going anywhere until this is solved…” he yawned lazily and rubbed his eyes. “Mike and Gabby you two should come to a compromise or we’ll all be here forever! My agar plates back at the lab need to be cared for…”
“Can’t we look at the bigger picture?” Michael went to the centre podium and raised a fist to the air grandly. “This isn’t about selfishness anymore; this is about peace in the dimensions! The Omnipoten cannot be allowed to roam freely! I suggest for the good of everyone that we as Archangels push for the punishment he deserves!”
“Err excuse me?” Ryo put up his hand like a schoolchild. “Two things - I’m not exactly for peace, and I’m not for punishing Tatsuya. Can I leave this meeting before I’m tempted to kill you all?”
“You don’t have much of a choice Devil,” Michael laughed, “Look at the state of this mess you’ve helped generate! If you help us, you will at least get his soul in 200 years’ time! Who knows what will happen if you try otherwise?”
“No.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“No,” Ryo smiled. “I’m not going to help you. Are you stupid or something? Why would I help you cause Tatsuya pain for 200 years?”
“To keep him forever after that. We have a long time to live Ryo…”
The Devil laughed and the hall trembled with his power. “And that is why you white-wings veer towards being blocks of ice the longer you live! Learn to live for the moment and stop plotting for the future because there’s no telling what tomorrow will be like! I plotted, planned and almost destroyed the love of my life… I’m not doing that again.”
“He’s right you know,” Jerahmeel quipped, “The humans feel it too. Michael, I’ve never mentioned it up till now but Heaven is being run like a military camp. We’ve got jobs, we don’t interfere with each other and we’re out of touch!”
“What are you insinuating?” Michael narrowed his eyes, “That I’m in the wrong? That we should let a mutant run free?”
“I for one think their love is quite cute,” the normally stoic Uriel sighed, “that Tatsuya has guts too. Why can’t we be nice and just let him go?”
“BECAUSE he’ll cause mayhem! Can nobody see without emotions clouding them?!” Michael’s furious voice hushed the lesser angels, “Or will all of you go against Heaven’s laws?”
“Laws guide us to be loving guardians!” Raphael also interjected, “Yet I’m stuck crunching numbers all day! This case has gone far enough Michael. You’re being blinded by your position. I will not assist you in causing needless pain to someone who isn’t even evil! If neutral won’t get the message to you, we’ll just have to spell it out: leave the kid alone!”
The remaining five Archangel nodded silently in unison.
“You’re up against me, five or six Archangels and one damn powerful Omnipoten,” Ryo stepped forward in a challenge, “What will you do?”
Tatsuya gazed at the unfamiliar setting before him. A simple wooden desk furnished what looked like an enormous office paved in solid silver. What struck him was that all four walls and the ceiling were covered in thumbnail-sized photos of children’s faces. Some were black and white, some were singed at the edges but every one carried a portrait of a smiling child. In the middle of the ceiling was one photo bigger than the rest. It was a normal 4x6 inch colour photo, and Tatsuya bent down on the silver floor to see its reflection but before he could see properly, his captor stood on it.
“I’ve been saying a lot lately,” Tatsuya fumed, “but what do you want with me?”
“You poor thing…” Archangel Gabriel looked at him from above, “you’ve already grown used to ulterior motives…”
“I don’t need your sympathy, nor will you receive thanks for delaying the inevitable back there,” Tatsuya said coolly, “Now I have some time to relish the feeling of not being in agony.” He gazed around at the photos plastered around the huge room. “Is this the Ministry of Education? I like your décor but it’s creepy…”
“Have you given up hope?” the Archangel asked.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Have you given up hope now that your lover is fully healed?” Gabriel paced over to the nearest wall and tapped at a random photo. The girl on the picture was an oil painting and had odd coloured eyes and red hair. “She was a nun in later life you know? But the Europeans thought she was a witch because of her eyes and hair and had her burnt at the stake.”
“Who are all these people?” Tatsuya asked, desperate to change the subject that had been previously raised.
“All the children who hosts a soul that will be replaced by an angel’s,” the Archangel replied simply, “when the Ministry sends the likes of you to Earth for study, in order not to insert you randomly without history, Heaven removes the soul of your Earthly equivalent and has you literally replace them.”
“Does that not interfere with their society if they don’t have matching personalities?” Tatsuya thought back grimly to his closet of metal spikes his body left behind.
“It’s better than creating a magical mist and insert a non-existent person… we keep their souls in these photos when their bodies are taken for use.”
“Can’t you put a temporary soul in them instead of using real ones?” he couldn’t help but feel slightly sorry for the souls trapped in a miniscule thumbnail, “Or send them somewhere else?”
“They are to return after the angel completes his or her course,” Gabriel replied, “the ones awaiting return are on the ceiling… and the ones on the wall shall never return.” He tapped at the small oil painting. “Such a painful way to die… the angel aborted and had Maria return to her body and burn alive into cinders… We cannot create temporary souls - they do not ever have humanity so we resort to keeping the innocent souls of children here on a wall for eternity. Pathetic, isn’t it?”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Tatsuya narrowed his eyes.
“To ask you if you’re prepared to let the boy in the photo go back into Ueda Tatsuya’s body?” the Archangel lifted his foot from the reflection. A younger version of Tatsuya grinned up at his older, winged counterpart. “Have you given up hope of ever returning to Taguchi Junnosuke?”
“…… Why do you ask me?”
“If you mean it, I’ll let things be but if you love him, I can help you. Or would you like to ask Ueda’s soul?”
“Why are you helping me? And why is my photo so big?”
The Archangel reached forward and stroked Tatsuya’s copper locks nonchalantly. “Let’s just say that we have some things in common hmn?” It was difficult to tell if he was smiling or not.
“Sorry there,” Tatsuya looked up at the ceiling and pointed at his photograph, “I know you got there first but I’m not quite ready to let go of your body just yet.” The picture seemed to nod at him before it burst into flames.
“So?” The Dominion appeared through the doorway the minute Tatsuya and Gabriel melted through the floor once more, “have we reached a consensus?”
“My verdict has not changed,” Gabriel sighed, “laws made for white-wings cannot be enforced on Omnipotens.”
“I didn’t ask for a fact, I asked for a SOLUTION,” he dragged a manicured hand down his face dramatically, “why must Third Sphere angels be so idiotic?! You have twice the ego of lesser angels but half the wit!”
“I thought it was your job to come up with solutions,” Jerahmeel huffed, “If it was up to me, I’d just turn him into a human and send the damn thing down to Erath! Problem solved!”
“YOU’RE NOT HELPING- wait wait wait wait, rewind,” the judge’s eyes lit up like phosphorus, “say what you said again?”
“Make him human?” Jerahmeel adjusted his lab coat and produced yet another clipboard, “With a bit of engineering, I can make it happen-
“That’s perfect!” Gabriel cut in, unlike his normal calm demeanour, “It stops the power imbalance, and everyone’s happy! Tatsuya, are you willing to give up your wings?” He shot a desperate look at the younger angel, who looked back with utter disbelief.
“I….”
“Hold it right there!” Archangel Uriel spoke for only the second time throughout the entire trial, shaking his head vigorously, “It can happen, but not with him!”
“Fuck- I mean, oh dear,” the Dominion, who had started to pack his things away already, sank back into his seat. “What’s wrong now?”
“I’m all for happy endings and jazz, but who can say that when Tatsuya returns to earth that Taguchi Junnosuke will still love him?”
“That’s ridiculous!” the angel in question was outraged, “I’m the same person! How could he NOT love me?!”
“I’m sorry to say,” Jerahmeel’s clipboard got larger and larger until it became a whiteboard with a poster attached, “That Uriel has a valid point.” He pointed at his diagram. “This is a list of powers available to supernatural beings, and every single one can be innately used by you, an Omnipoten. We’ve covered the basic, most obvious ones such as Destruction, Healing, Molecular Density Shifting and such but don’t forget you have all the powers of an Incubus too. Of course, Incubuses are male demons of seduction, towards humans. The pheromones you release are a direct influence to human infatuation therefore can produce an alarmingly strong sense of ‘love’, and the victim may become so deliriously ‘in love’ with you that they become completely unable to make rational decisions.”
“But that’s completely irrelevant!” Gabriel jumped to Tatsuya’s defence, “There is no evidence to prove that the love between them isn’t real!”
“I know that!” Jerahmeel sighed, “But there’s no way to prove it IS real either! When a human is away from an Incubus, the effect dies off very quickly but as soon as they meet, it works back up again. But we’ve wiped Earth clean of Ueda Tatsuya and the human has been forced to forget his entire existence! SO the question is: If this angel is stripped of his power, will he still be loved by the same human when he returns? It’s a giant gamble…”
“What are his chances?” Michael scoffed.
“Depends. If we can prove that the human fell in love first, I’m happy to see this through,” Uriel shrugged, “but if Tatsuya’s power has simply drugged the human, as Head of Human Relations, I will not stand for it. Tatsuya, when did you start feeling positively towards this individual?”
“I…” Tatsuya felt useless. The angels were discussing him as if he was a freak specimen on an agar plate, and he was helpless to rebuke them because it was all true. He wanted to believe Junno’s love for him was true, but what if? WHAT IF he went back and Junno wanted nothing more to do with him? WHAT IF he was simply high on Tatsuya’s magic? “I… stroked his hair the first night we met, while he was sleeping.”
“How much interaction did you have before then?” Uriel pressed with his sharp questions.
“He ran the human over with a silver Aston Martin and transferred him to house in the boot Sariel,” Michael mocked, “Then threatened to rape and murder the man and mail his dismembered body back to his parents in pieces.”
“Yeah… RIGHT,” Uriel rolled his eyes, “What really happened?”
“Archangel Michael… is right,” Tatsuya sighed. No point in denying the truth.
“YOU WHAT?!” Uriel couldn’t believe his ears. “That’s it! No way had he fallen in love with you first! That’s terrible! How COULD you do this to- Oh My god I can’t- YOU SEDUCTIVE LITTLE THING! How dare you run over humans with expensive cars? The poor guy must have been scared witless!”
“That’s just a small hint,” Gabriel replied hopefully, “It doesn’t count as evidence.”
The Dominion raised an eyebrow. “Archangel Gabriel,” he asked, “if you had an IQ of 180, would YOU fall in love at first sight with a man who runs you over with a flashy car in a dark alley, stuffs you in his trunk then threatens to rape and murder you 4 hours later?”
“Err…IQ doesn’t tell how much common sense a human has?” Gabriel shrugged.
“Nice try Gabby,” Uriel grimaced. “Mr Dominion, if this angel can prove to me somehow that Taguchi Junnosuke still loves him right now, I am prepared to help Jerahmeel in making him a human. If not, my department will not aid such tragedy.”
“You’re being cruel,” Ryo spat, “how can you expect Tatsuya to do ANYTHING in this mayhem?! I know you’re supposed to be as pitiless as my Father but you’re worse! You won’t even give someone the benefit of the doubt!”
“I don’t want to hear complaints of cruelty and mayhem coming from your mouth Satan,” Uriel turned his nose up at Ryo, who made a dissatisfied ‘tsk’ and sat down in a chair of bones.
The atmosphere in the court room plummeted to another low. Everyone was clearly annoyed at each other and the Dominion had started to play a game of tiddlywinks with himself using his acrylic nails.
“Three days,” he didn’t even look up from his game, ‘if you can’t prove that Taguchi Junnosuke loves you in three days without going near him, you will take yourself to the cells of suffering. Either way, this case is closed. Am I even getting paid overtime for this Raphael?”
“No,” the Archangel stood up and stretched his limbs, “YOU were the one who volunteered for this case because it was interesting. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do balancing bank statements. SOMEBODY splurged on expensive European cars on earth.” He shot Ryo a dirty look. “Good luck Tatsuya, you’re on your own now. Let’s go everyone…”
Case closed.
Three days left.
Here's the mega-chapter... over 10,000 words. WHEW. Lots of characters changed, and now comes the fnal challenge,
“NO!!!” Kame tore down the hospital corridor. He had been forced to go to that damned Myojo photo-shoot by his manager, where the camera consequently lost its lens and everything that could go wrong in an idol photo-shoot went wrong. Murphy at his finest. A small factor was that he had been subject to intense photoshop and make-up (since he was bloody and bashed up from being beaten by an angel previously) - not that he was going to explain why.
By the time he came back, Jin greeted him in tears that Though Junno was not dead; Nakamaru’s sudden burst of unexplained magic had not saved him entirely. Never mind that Jin could not extort information out of the Ethics professor as to whether he had any shady deals with Heaven or Hell, and never mind that Matsumoto Jun disappeared in a sparkling of curses afterwards - Junno was on the brink of existence and the doctors had given up.
He was brain-dead, to be exact, and euthanasia suddenly became a viable option. ‘Death with Dignity’, they called it. Was it even legal?
“What is the meaning of this?!” Kame marched into the doctor’s office like he owned the place, “What are you going to do to Taguchi Junnosuke?!”
“Oh my! Kamenashi-san….Err… well he’s technically already-
“I don’t care!” the idol yelled, “If you so much as lift a finger on that man, I will tell Japan on national television that this hospital murdered my best friend and my choreographer! Doctors should be trying to save as many lives as they can!”
Beads of sweat started forming on the elderly doctors head. No amount of medical training could have prepared him for this situation - namely a national idol threatening him with ridicule. “But Sir… many indivicuals are waiting on organ-
“You’re not taking his organs!” Jin burst into the room, panting, “Someone will save him!”
“Who?” the doctor asked, “his brain has shut down from some sort of trauma and the only thing keeping him alive is this hospital’s electrical currents! Who will save him?”
“I…” Kame didn’t know what to say. He wanted to claim that since Junno had been saved (by some freak incident) from a murderous angel, he should live. Was it not meant to be?”
“You’re wrong,” it was Jin who took his hand; “I can feel it. Kame, we CANNOT be indecisive. Do you believe in everything we’ve experienced? There is a reason for everything! Junno will not die at the hands of Matsumoto OR this hospital!”
“On what grounds can you deny the people waiting on his organs?” the doctor was baffled.
“Faith.”
Outside, the chilly October breeze was heading towards November in a hurried fashion.
“You said what I wanted to, but never had the courage to say,” Kame wrapped his scarf tighter around his face, “Thanks.”
“That’s what bonds are for,” Jin nudged him playfully, “But seriously, I got a hunch. Tatsuya - whatever he is - is coming back. We need to stall this whole thing and make sure nobody unplugs Junno’s life support before then.”
“How can you be so sure?” the idol looked up at the university student before smiling. “Oh right… Faith?”
“Yep.”
“I have a crazy idea, a crazy gamble that will need all our power,” he stopped on the track of maples that had lost their leaves. “Wanna hear?”
“Surprise me,” Jin shrugged.
“I want to make a Youtube video.”
If only Heavenly time had passed faster, Kamenashi Kazuya may not have been forced to make his Youtube video. Hardly worth mentioning, but Johnny’s Entertainment was furious. Their number 1 idol had unmistakably directed an iPhone-shot documentary about euthanasia and had posted it on the internet for all to see - coupled with touching statements from Tokyo University’s deputy Head of Letters and a good-looking med student. Bio-Ethics at its best.
Within hours, the video went viral, the Johnny’s office was inundated with phone calls and the hospital in which Junno lay was completely surrounded by a hoard of activists and fans. No more actions for the hospital apart from barricading doors for the near future.
[Heaven]
“Your plans are backfiring so much I want to laugh,” the Dominion jeered at Ryo, “But I can’t - because this is a spectacular failure. Is this what you meant by drawing a crowd using Kamenashi Kazuya?”
“Shut up…”
[Earth]
“This should keep them busy for a while,” Maru fanned himself with a stray paper towel, “I can’t believe you roped me into this! My career is as good as over! Raising this debate in this country is hardly a way of harmony!”
“Calm down old man,” Jin sighed, “if Japan fires you, the USA will snap you up! All we need is profile for a few days and I’m sure Ukkun will come back!”
“Faith again?”
“Hell yeah!”
A tremendous smashing came from the general direction from Junno’s life support room and it sounded curiously like the sound of something ploughing its way through all 14 double fire doors in the corridor.
THEN the wind hit them.
It was a cross between a nuclear explosion and a solar wind, enough to knock equipment from the other end of the hospital right past the three men. Needless to say, they were scared out of their wits apart from Jin, who had the keenest sense of spiritual energy.
“He’s here!!!” He cried with glee, “Ukkun’s in the house!”
“What’s he here to do?!” Kame braced himself against the nearest doorframe, “At this rate he’ll kill us all!!”
“Let’s believe in him!” Maru gritted his teeth as he tried to stop himself from being tossed out a window, “Because unless he can do something, Taguchi-kun is as good as dead!”
“How can I trust him with Junno when that bastard left him to die to begin with?!” Kame cried from his near-parallel position from the floor, “LOOK at this bloody power! He’ll kill him! I don’t care WHAT he is but Junno deserves better!!”
No sooner than the words left his mouth, the wind stopped.
“You’re right,” Tatsuya’s voice came directly behind Kame. The idol gasped as he turned and saw the creature behind him. Crimson eyes accentuated his delicate features, copper hair turning silver at the ends framed a face Kame had known briefly, but never really understood the beauty of. Then he knew - Ueda Tatsuya was definitely no man of earth. It was essentially the same face - much like how he was wearing the same clothes Kame had seen him in in Disneyland four human weeks ago - but an unexplainable air of magic permeated from his very bones. Wild, uncontrolled magic. Blood stained his plain white shirt, still wet and red and his wings were no longer all fuzzy and undefined to the human eye. They looked real - so real Kame had to rub his eyes. “You’re right,” he repeated, “he deserves better.”
“I see you got your magic back?” Maru smoothed out his shirt out of habit, “But what happened to your eyes?”
“None of your business,” Tatsuya was quick to defend himself, “I got my magic back alright, but just one spell. After that I have to go again.”
“You came back just so you could abandon him!?” the idol sounded abhorrent, “You selfish git! Do you know how much you’ve changed him?! All he ever talks about is you, he LIVES for you and all you’ve done is run him over with your fucking car, steal what was left of his sanity, cripple him and get him on life support!”
Tatsuya gave the professor a withering look. “You told him about me and the car?”
“We all have a right to know,” Maru nodded grimly, “since we’ve all risked our lives for this cause. But before you leave again, can you PLEASE explain what happened with that angle trying to kill Taguchi-kun! And how I stopped him…”
“YOU stopped him?” Tatsuya raised an eyebrow.
“You should have seen it,” Jin whistled, “he kind of just exploded in light and knocked the bad guy’s magic off-course so that Junno’s still alive! I didn’t know Nakamaru-sensei could use magic!”
“…Remember I told you once you probably had an angelic ancestor way back?” the angel explained, “that magic must have been dormant until too much exposure to me and other magic must have set it off. Nothing serious. And that’s also why Jin and Kamenashi can see wings too. I don’t normally say this… but thanks. All of you.”
The angel bowed. Never once could he have imagined bowing to, and feeling sheer gratitude towards humans.
Not to mention love. A burning desire to see Junno, to touch his skin crept up with a tingly sensation, and Tatsuya shivered in both anticipation and fear. This time would be the true last. And who knows? Maybe 200 years’ worth of suffering later, they could meet again? Yeah right.
“Should I… take you see him?” Kame asked plainly, and was the victim of several curious stares courteous of Jin. “Stop looking at me like that!” he snapped, “just because I don’t hate his guts anymore doesn’t mean I accept their relationship. Just go, he’s in the room-
“Second on the left,” Ueda lifted into the air and floated to the only room his power left untouched, “is it obvious enough that I left it untouched?” His voice was no longer sharp and caustic. Only a hint of teasing remained.
“Jerk,” Kame smiled. Angels were great to come to understandings with because they were incredibly good at reading atmosphere - something his human friends lacked. He thought of Junno and then Jin and smiled again.
“Should we follow him?” Nakamaru asked as Kame started to turn around and walk away.
“Can’t you feel it?” the idol took Jin’s hand, much to the latter’s surprise, and continued walking with the blushing man in tow, “the despair? We have no more to offer so why not just let them be? Jin, your hands are sweating.”
“I know!”
Nakamaru watched the pair bicker down a completely destroyed hospital foyer like the bomb site around them didn’t exist.
Are you kidding? Of course I can feel that much. I just wanted an excuse to stay and hope for the best… because I don’t know who to pray to.
Taguchi Junnosuke opened his eyes half-expecting to be in his own room at home. Someone was whispering into his ear. A male voice.
Dad? Wait, what am I thinking? Who is this… such a loving voice…marshmallows…
Bringing his head around, he met a pair of bright red irises. Junno could have sworn he saw raw emotions swimming in them like an endless current and before he knew it, he was swimming in a sea of blood. Drowning in a different liquid every second - one moment choking, one moment being caressed, being stained in love.
Gasping for breath, he found the impossible energy to sit up panting, only to realise he had an oxygen mask on.
“Wha-?” he looked around. Strange tubes were coming from every angle, most of them looked like they had just been ripped from a body. HIS body. “oh God please don’t let this be a morgue…” he muttered half to himself. “WOAH WHO ARE YOU?!”
Ueda sighed. That was Junno alright.
“I ran you over in town about 4 hours ago and threw you in the back of my car,” he replied with full seriousness, “and now I’m going to rape you, kill you and dispose of your body in mailed packages to your family.” He watched as the eyes of his love grew wide. “Do you know who I am now?”
Ryo’s spell broke like a series of chain reactions in the human’s head. One could almost hear the snapping of restraints in his heart as he finally recognised the angel in front of him.
So he did the only thing that seemed logical - pounce.
“UEPI!!!” he cried, already in tears as they both fell to the cold hospital tiles entwined together, “WHERE WERE YOU ALL THIS TIME?!?!”
“If my wings didn’t break our fall, you would have broken my back, fatty,” the angel hugged Junno closer and cocooned them in his white feathers, “Sorry for not being there when you needed me….”
“It’s okay… as long as we’re together everything’s fine,” Junno ran his hands through the copper locks he loved so dearly, “You’re not going anywhere this time are you? You won’t lie and go away again will you?”
“Of course not, silly,” Tatsuya replied instinctively, “Who am I? A bastard who hurts you all the time?” Oops.
“I love you Taguchi Junnosuke…” he murmured before bringing their lips together. He wanted to mark the slender man on top of him, to claim the creature as his. To sear a memory of himself so deeply into Junno that no amount of magic could ever dilute it, let alone erase.
“…you’re going anyway, aren’t you?”
“How can you tell?”
“… when you’re coddling me, something is always wrong.”
“Ah.”
“Do you still have the ring?”
He brought up his hand in a simple gesture. “I do.”
“Okay.”
[Heaven]
“Well THAT was an anti-climax,” the Dominion was back to being bored, “I can’t believe you left right after that. Did it never cross your mind that if you looked pitiful enough, I would reconsider your punishment?”
“I did,” Tatsuya replied coldly, “but I decided not to give you a drama to watch.”
Sariel and Ryo chuckled.
“Fine, wise-guy,” he waved dismissively, “you may report to the torture chamber as of now and have fun rotting for 200 years before dying a painful death. Case closed! Look, I’ll even bang a hammer!” Clearly pissed off, the Dominion picked up the nearest bottle of nail polish and turned it into a bright pink judge’s hammer, poised to strike his table.
“Objection Your Honour,” Gabriel addressed the court for the first time, just loud enough for the judge to hear.
“You’re pushing your boundaries Gabriel,” Michael warned, “this case is closed.”
“About time too,” the Dominion smiled suddenly, hammer returned to being nail polish, “I was wondering when you’d do something useful. Sit down everyone, let’s carry on!” His continuous changes of mood was borderline terrifying.
“WHAT?!” Raphael complained, “I told you! I have a Finance Department to run! None of us have time on our hands so can you please quickly come to a ruling?”
“I agree,” Michael scowled, “this has taken too long.”
“Only because you’re not getting what you want Michael,” Ryo reminded the Archangel, “don’t forget you’re playing the selfish tyrant military fascist.”
The Dominion ignored them. “Gabriel, what is your objection?” he sing-songed good-naturedly.
“Tatsuya is neither a white-wing nor a black-wing,” Gabriel produced a silk screen printed with two tables on either side, showing the features of a white-wing on one side and black-wings on the other, “but Law clearly states that one realm’s justice system will not influence the other for the sake of fairness. So the overdraft punishment should not apply to Tatsuya at all.”
“He was born in Heaven to an Omnipoten and a white-wing, and was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education,” Sariel pointed out. “You should know that better than anybody,” he muttered under his breath.
“But he was raised in Hell.”
“He’s half white-wing for goodness sake!”
“So was Lucifer.”
“That’s what I said ages ago!” Ryo butt in.
“ORDER IN THE COURT!!!” the Dominion gave a pleading look to Tatsuya. “You! This is your life they’re fighting over so don’t you have anything to say? Or pretend you care? These Archangels have the combined attention span of a fruit fly…”
Tatsuya looked blankly at the judge. “Be my guest. My job is done and I’m up for grabs I guess.”
“Damn you!” the Dominion stood up and gulped down a glass of water, “we’re back to square one! You know what? FINE. Let’s take a 30 minute break and everyone can think about which side they’re going to take… Dismissed!” He vanished in a cloud of rainbow-coloured glitter.
“Tsk,” Ryo muttered, “flamboyant prick.”
Without a word, Gabriel flew straight at Tatsuya and pushed him through the tile floor and the pair disappeared before the red-eyed angel could even complain.
“What now?” Archangel Jerahmeel awoke from his nap, “it looks like we won’t be going anywhere until this is solved…” he yawned lazily and rubbed his eyes. “Mike and Gabby you two should come to a compromise or we’ll all be here forever! My agar plates back at the lab need to be cared for…”
“Can’t we look at the bigger picture?” Michael went to the centre podium and raised a fist to the air grandly. “This isn’t about selfishness anymore; this is about peace in the dimensions! The Omnipoten cannot be allowed to roam freely! I suggest for the good of everyone that we as Archangels push for the punishment he deserves!”
“Err excuse me?” Ryo put up his hand like a schoolchild. “Two things - I’m not exactly for peace, and I’m not for punishing Tatsuya. Can I leave this meeting before I’m tempted to kill you all?”
“You don’t have much of a choice Devil,” Michael laughed, “Look at the state of this mess you’ve helped generate! If you help us, you will at least get his soul in 200 years’ time! Who knows what will happen if you try otherwise?”
“No.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“No,” Ryo smiled. “I’m not going to help you. Are you stupid or something? Why would I help you cause Tatsuya pain for 200 years?”
“To keep him forever after that. We have a long time to live Ryo…”
The Devil laughed and the hall trembled with his power. “And that is why you white-wings veer towards being blocks of ice the longer you live! Learn to live for the moment and stop plotting for the future because there’s no telling what tomorrow will be like! I plotted, planned and almost destroyed the love of my life… I’m not doing that again.”
“He’s right you know,” Jerahmeel quipped, “The humans feel it too. Michael, I’ve never mentioned it up till now but Heaven is being run like a military camp. We’ve got jobs, we don’t interfere with each other and we’re out of touch!”
“What are you insinuating?” Michael narrowed his eyes, “That I’m in the wrong? That we should let a mutant run free?”
“I for one think their love is quite cute,” the normally stoic Uriel sighed, “that Tatsuya has guts too. Why can’t we be nice and just let him go?”
“BECAUSE he’ll cause mayhem! Can nobody see without emotions clouding them?!” Michael’s furious voice hushed the lesser angels, “Or will all of you go against Heaven’s laws?”
“Laws guide us to be loving guardians!” Raphael also interjected, “Yet I’m stuck crunching numbers all day! This case has gone far enough Michael. You’re being blinded by your position. I will not assist you in causing needless pain to someone who isn’t even evil! If neutral won’t get the message to you, we’ll just have to spell it out: leave the kid alone!”
The remaining five Archangel nodded silently in unison.
“You’re up against me, five or six Archangels and one damn powerful Omnipoten,” Ryo stepped forward in a challenge, “What will you do?”
Tatsuya gazed at the unfamiliar setting before him. A simple wooden desk furnished what looked like an enormous office paved in solid silver. What struck him was that all four walls and the ceiling were covered in thumbnail-sized photos of children’s faces. Some were black and white, some were singed at the edges but every one carried a portrait of a smiling child. In the middle of the ceiling was one photo bigger than the rest. It was a normal 4x6 inch colour photo, and Tatsuya bent down on the silver floor to see its reflection but before he could see properly, his captor stood on it.
“I’ve been saying a lot lately,” Tatsuya fumed, “but what do you want with me?”
“You poor thing…” Archangel Gabriel looked at him from above, “you’ve already grown used to ulterior motives…”
“I don’t need your sympathy, nor will you receive thanks for delaying the inevitable back there,” Tatsuya said coolly, “Now I have some time to relish the feeling of not being in agony.” He gazed around at the photos plastered around the huge room. “Is this the Ministry of Education? I like your décor but it’s creepy…”
“Have you given up hope?” the Archangel asked.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Have you given up hope now that your lover is fully healed?” Gabriel paced over to the nearest wall and tapped at a random photo. The girl on the picture was an oil painting and had odd coloured eyes and red hair. “She was a nun in later life you know? But the Europeans thought she was a witch because of her eyes and hair and had her burnt at the stake.”
“Who are all these people?” Tatsuya asked, desperate to change the subject that had been previously raised.
“All the children who hosts a soul that will be replaced by an angel’s,” the Archangel replied simply, “when the Ministry sends the likes of you to Earth for study, in order not to insert you randomly without history, Heaven removes the soul of your Earthly equivalent and has you literally replace them.”
“Does that not interfere with their society if they don’t have matching personalities?” Tatsuya thought back grimly to his closet of metal spikes his body left behind.
“It’s better than creating a magical mist and insert a non-existent person… we keep their souls in these photos when their bodies are taken for use.”
“Can’t you put a temporary soul in them instead of using real ones?” he couldn’t help but feel slightly sorry for the souls trapped in a miniscule thumbnail, “Or send them somewhere else?”
“They are to return after the angel completes his or her course,” Gabriel replied, “the ones awaiting return are on the ceiling… and the ones on the wall shall never return.” He tapped at the small oil painting. “Such a painful way to die… the angel aborted and had Maria return to her body and burn alive into cinders… We cannot create temporary souls - they do not ever have humanity so we resort to keeping the innocent souls of children here on a wall for eternity. Pathetic, isn’t it?”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Tatsuya narrowed his eyes.
“To ask you if you’re prepared to let the boy in the photo go back into Ueda Tatsuya’s body?” the Archangel lifted his foot from the reflection. A younger version of Tatsuya grinned up at his older, winged counterpart. “Have you given up hope of ever returning to Taguchi Junnosuke?”
“…… Why do you ask me?”
“If you mean it, I’ll let things be but if you love him, I can help you. Or would you like to ask Ueda’s soul?”
“Why are you helping me? And why is my photo so big?”
The Archangel reached forward and stroked Tatsuya’s copper locks nonchalantly. “Let’s just say that we have some things in common hmn?” It was difficult to tell if he was smiling or not.
“Sorry there,” Tatsuya looked up at the ceiling and pointed at his photograph, “I know you got there first but I’m not quite ready to let go of your body just yet.” The picture seemed to nod at him before it burst into flames.
“So?” The Dominion appeared through the doorway the minute Tatsuya and Gabriel melted through the floor once more, “have we reached a consensus?”
“My verdict has not changed,” Gabriel sighed, “laws made for white-wings cannot be enforced on Omnipotens.”
“I didn’t ask for a fact, I asked for a SOLUTION,” he dragged a manicured hand down his face dramatically, “why must Third Sphere angels be so idiotic?! You have twice the ego of lesser angels but half the wit!”
“I thought it was your job to come up with solutions,” Jerahmeel huffed, “If it was up to me, I’d just turn him into a human and send the damn thing down to Erath! Problem solved!”
“YOU’RE NOT HELPING- wait wait wait wait, rewind,” the judge’s eyes lit up like phosphorus, “say what you said again?”
“Make him human?” Jerahmeel adjusted his lab coat and produced yet another clipboard, “With a bit of engineering, I can make it happen-
“That’s perfect!” Gabriel cut in, unlike his normal calm demeanour, “It stops the power imbalance, and everyone’s happy! Tatsuya, are you willing to give up your wings?” He shot a desperate look at the younger angel, who looked back with utter disbelief.
“I….”
“Hold it right there!” Archangel Uriel spoke for only the second time throughout the entire trial, shaking his head vigorously, “It can happen, but not with him!”
“Fuck- I mean, oh dear,” the Dominion, who had started to pack his things away already, sank back into his seat. “What’s wrong now?”
“I’m all for happy endings and jazz, but who can say that when Tatsuya returns to earth that Taguchi Junnosuke will still love him?”
“That’s ridiculous!” the angel in question was outraged, “I’m the same person! How could he NOT love me?!”
“I’m sorry to say,” Jerahmeel’s clipboard got larger and larger until it became a whiteboard with a poster attached, “That Uriel has a valid point.” He pointed at his diagram. “This is a list of powers available to supernatural beings, and every single one can be innately used by you, an Omnipoten. We’ve covered the basic, most obvious ones such as Destruction, Healing, Molecular Density Shifting and such but don’t forget you have all the powers of an Incubus too. Of course, Incubuses are male demons of seduction, towards humans. The pheromones you release are a direct influence to human infatuation therefore can produce an alarmingly strong sense of ‘love’, and the victim may become so deliriously ‘in love’ with you that they become completely unable to make rational decisions.”
“But that’s completely irrelevant!” Gabriel jumped to Tatsuya’s defence, “There is no evidence to prove that the love between them isn’t real!”
“I know that!” Jerahmeel sighed, “But there’s no way to prove it IS real either! When a human is away from an Incubus, the effect dies off very quickly but as soon as they meet, it works back up again. But we’ve wiped Earth clean of Ueda Tatsuya and the human has been forced to forget his entire existence! SO the question is: If this angel is stripped of his power, will he still be loved by the same human when he returns? It’s a giant gamble…”
“What are his chances?” Michael scoffed.
“Depends. If we can prove that the human fell in love first, I’m happy to see this through,” Uriel shrugged, “but if Tatsuya’s power has simply drugged the human, as Head of Human Relations, I will not stand for it. Tatsuya, when did you start feeling positively towards this individual?”
“I…” Tatsuya felt useless. The angels were discussing him as if he was a freak specimen on an agar plate, and he was helpless to rebuke them because it was all true. He wanted to believe Junno’s love for him was true, but what if? WHAT IF he went back and Junno wanted nothing more to do with him? WHAT IF he was simply high on Tatsuya’s magic? “I… stroked his hair the first night we met, while he was sleeping.”
“How much interaction did you have before then?” Uriel pressed with his sharp questions.
“He ran the human over with a silver Aston Martin and transferred him to house in the boot Sariel,” Michael mocked, “Then threatened to rape and murder the man and mail his dismembered body back to his parents in pieces.”
“Yeah… RIGHT,” Uriel rolled his eyes, “What really happened?”
“Archangel Michael… is right,” Tatsuya sighed. No point in denying the truth.
“YOU WHAT?!” Uriel couldn’t believe his ears. “That’s it! No way had he fallen in love with you first! That’s terrible! How COULD you do this to- Oh My god I can’t- YOU SEDUCTIVE LITTLE THING! How dare you run over humans with expensive cars? The poor guy must have been scared witless!”
“That’s just a small hint,” Gabriel replied hopefully, “It doesn’t count as evidence.”
The Dominion raised an eyebrow. “Archangel Gabriel,” he asked, “if you had an IQ of 180, would YOU fall in love at first sight with a man who runs you over with a flashy car in a dark alley, stuffs you in his trunk then threatens to rape and murder you 4 hours later?”
“Err…IQ doesn’t tell how much common sense a human has?” Gabriel shrugged.
“Nice try Gabby,” Uriel grimaced. “Mr Dominion, if this angel can prove to me somehow that Taguchi Junnosuke still loves him right now, I am prepared to help Jerahmeel in making him a human. If not, my department will not aid such tragedy.”
“You’re being cruel,” Ryo spat, “how can you expect Tatsuya to do ANYTHING in this mayhem?! I know you’re supposed to be as pitiless as my Father but you’re worse! You won’t even give someone the benefit of the doubt!”
“I don’t want to hear complaints of cruelty and mayhem coming from your mouth Satan,” Uriel turned his nose up at Ryo, who made a dissatisfied ‘tsk’ and sat down in a chair of bones.
The atmosphere in the court room plummeted to another low. Everyone was clearly annoyed at each other and the Dominion had started to play a game of tiddlywinks with himself using his acrylic nails.
“Three days,” he didn’t even look up from his game, ‘if you can’t prove that Taguchi Junnosuke loves you in three days without going near him, you will take yourself to the cells of suffering. Either way, this case is closed. Am I even getting paid overtime for this Raphael?”
“No,” the Archangel stood up and stretched his limbs, “YOU were the one who volunteered for this case because it was interesting. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do balancing bank statements. SOMEBODY splurged on expensive European cars on earth.” He shot Ryo a dirty look. “Good luck Tatsuya, you’re on your own now. Let’s go everyone…”
Case closed.
Three days left.
Here's the mega-chapter... over 10,000 words. WHEW. Lots of characters changed, and now comes the fnal challenge,