In Which a Demon Runs Away and an Adventure Begins

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone.

Contrary to what humans believed, Heaven and Hell weren't above and below Earth. Of course humans would think their dimension was at the center of everything, arrogant creatures that they were. No, Heaven and Hell were side by side, as all planes of existence were, like plates stacked together. Trying to say specifically which was on top and which on bottom was all a matter of perspective. Although, unfortunately for the demons that tried to dimension hop, as Heaven was the origin of all angels, fallen or otherwise, it was in the middle of the planes of Hell and Earth, separating them. Not that many demons were all that eager to go to Earth, but there were the few that were curious enough to want a peek of the fabled humans, most having not seen a glimpse in all their long lives. Humans after all, were the stuff of textbooks. They were agreed upon and scientifically proven to exist, but as far as demons were concerned, they were not their problem.

Ryoma had always wanted to visit Earth, but because of conditions he had never gotten the chance. So when the day came that Ryoma decided he needed a place to escape, his previous wish to visit Earth resurfaced. Ryoma thought about it for a good five minutes, (brooded actually), before he decided it was as good a time as any, and began packing a bag.

Getting through the portal was also much easier than he expected. He chatted up the demon on guard, who was someone he knew and actually liked, and casually gave him some drug-laced tea. He felt guilty about it, but by that time the guard was already asleep and Ryoma couldn't go back.

It was as he was passing through the portal, as he felt the tingling of his body disintegrating molecule by molecule, that Ryoma started to feel a little panic creep on him. Perhaps five minutes wasn't enough time to decide on going to another dimension? Oh, well. Mom had always told him he was too impatient.

Then, Ryoma's world dissolved in white, and he didn't think anymore.

Atobe sighed what seemed like his hundredth sigh that day. The other angels lounging around him asked him if he was feeling alright, would he like something to drink, and so on, but he waved away their concerns, and stood up with a snap of his fingers. "Kabaji, come. I need some air," Atobe ordered. To the lackeys, he told them to continue to relax while he took a walk. Lower-ranked and mindless as they were, an Atobe was nothing without manners. As his father as taught him.

Outside, without interruption and Kabaji being the blissfully silent companion he always was, Atobe lost himself in his thoughts. His father, as one of the Council members, had left today for the annual Assembly, perhaps the most famous. It was not the most important assembly by any means; no, the truly significant assemblies happened at secret times unknown to most angels, although Atobe knew, since Atobe was no mere common angel. This assembly however, was definitely the most famous, and the most televised. At this moment in the capital city, angels were probably flocking the Grey Tower, which held the Council's impressively large assembly room, and the Council members were smiling pretty for the cameras, their families in tow and looking so damn proud and happy, the bright-eyed children to the glowing mothers. Usually Atobe would have accompanied his mother and father to the Assembly, because it was one of the few that were filmed, but he had gotten into an argument with his father the day before they were to leave and had decided not to go. It was the first time since he had gotten sick with the bird flu as a child that he hadn't gone to the Assembly. Atobe didn't regret his absence from the Assembly, but he did regret the quarrel with his father.

"I am going to have to apologize to him, aren't I?" Atobe murmured. Beside him, Kabaji's eyes flashed with understanding, but he didn't say anything.

Atobe's face suddenly steeled, and he stopped walking to proclaim, "But Father will have to apologize to me first, because what I said was not wrong. It was not wrong. Ore-sama is never wrong, right, Kabaji?"

"Usu."

"That's right, ore-sama is never wrong. Never…." Atobe trailed off and then sighed. He amended quietly, "No, that's a lie. I can be wrong, not that often, thank goodness, but it can happen. Just not this time." He frowned, troubled, as he continued walking.

"Usu," Kabaji agreed gently.

"I'm going to have to be firm on this. Like Father, I have my own principles to abide by, and I'm not a child anymore, to follow his every command," he decided.

"Usu."

"I just wish he wouldn't push me—on such a subject as marriage! Ore-sama should have the right to decide when and where he shall marry, and to who!" Atobe stopped in his tracks with a haggard look.

"Usu?" Kabaji blinked.

The young archangel ran his hand through his hair, and the pale strands fell right back into place, looking untouched. "Enough of this," Atobe said tiredly, "Kabaji, let us go back inside. Ore-sama needs a drink." Atobe then whirled around and spread his wings, over six feet of white on either side of him. "There's enough to do without brooding about family." Without waiting, he promptly took off, wings stroking powerfully behind him. It was a windless day, but Atobe still seemed to glide up to the tower. Kabaji got over his surprise and swiftly leaped up after his friend, his humongous wings spreading out in mid-leap. Like Atobe, he could leap into flight without taking a running start like lesser angels, but Kabaji relied mainly on his strength, while Atobe relied on the grace that seemed to come naturally to archangels.

Something unexpected hit them on the way in though. Atobe quickly swerved to avoid collision with another angel, who had practically torpedoed out the tower.

"Out of my way! Out of my way—oh, Lord Atobe!" The hapless messenger angel actually flipped over in the air in his rush to stop. Atobe raised an eyebrow, and opened his mouth, probably to say something disdainful, but was interrupted by the angel's rambling. "Lord Atobe, it's urgent, absolutely terrible. Lord Oshitari—he calls, he's said to come. Said it's an emergency. Said it's urgent. You must go to the 204th floor immediately—there's a de…."

Atobe, already exasperated with being interrupted, didn't have any patience for rambling. As soon as the messenger mentioned the 204th floor though, Atobe's eyes widened, and for a good reason. The 204th floor was lowest floor of the Atobe Tower, below ground as deep as angels dared to go. Angels being creatures of air disliked being underground, which for an angel was akin to being trapped in an earthy grave. Therefore, the last four floors of the Atobe Tower, which held the most discreet business, were actually below ground, ground floor being the 200th floor. The 204th floor was the most covert floor, and had only one purpose that Atobe knew of.

Atobe wasted no time, and flew into the tower, leaving the messenger still squawking behind him. Atobe decided to take a shortcut and flapping his wings hard for a good burst of speed, dived straight into one of the windows at the side of the tower. Window entry these days was disapproved of, seen as uncouth and ungraceful more than anything, but this was an emergency. Atobe knew that his father had secretly made the windows of the Atobe Tower just large enough to accommodate a flying angel in case of emergencies. One only needed the balance and boldness to actually fly through one, and Atobe had both. In the last few moments, he hugged his wings tight to his back so they wouldn't get snagged in the window frame.

Atobe swooped into a busy work room, filled with desk angels. Ignoring their stunned squabbling, he launched for the corridor and the skywell, which connected all the floors. Behind him, Atobe heard the crash and tinkling of glass, and smiled briefly. Kabaji must not have pulled in his wings enough.

The skywell was a long hollow cylinder that reached from the top of the tower to the bottom, and was an easy way to move from one floor to another. Atobe dodged the other angels, flying at a reckless speed when the skywell had more than a handful of busy angels. At the ground floor, the guards saw him coming and opened the locked entrance for Atobe to drop through and continue his flight to the very last floor. As usual in the last four floors of the skywell, it wasn't as busy. Today though, there were no angels at all in the skywell, and Atobe tried not to think about what that meant.

Atobe burst onto the floor, and forgetting conduct, flew down the corridor like he was a child again. His mother always scolded him for flying in the halls as a child.

The first thing he saw at the scene was the crowd of angels. Beyond, he could hear sounds of struggle, fighting, yelling. Where was security? Atobe was ready to send heads rolling. The wind caused by the flaps of his wings caused the onlookers to turn their heads towards him. Some of them recognized the Councilor's son and were calling, "Lord Atobe!" Then a figure crashed through the thickest lot of them, sending some angels into the floor. The figure flapped furiously, and although looking staggered, pushed to his feet. He must have been using all the strength in his wings because his legs looked like they were about to buckle beneath him. Security angels were quickly trickling out after him, looking the worse for wear. The figure managed to get to the air, but by then Atobe was in front of him, and everyone stopped.

It was a boy, just a boy, with the darkest wings Atobe had ever seen. Though even as they shone an interesting emerald green in the light (so they weren't black?) Atobe had a hard time focusing on anything other than the boy's wide eyed gaze, which was golden brown, glinting like amber when the light hit it right, and as wary as that of a cornered animal. Atobe realized vaguely that this was a demon he had in front of him. He was pale, dark-haired, short and thin like he'd been starved from birth; and he was just a boy.

Atobe landed silently and neatly, a few mere feet from the demon, who, for all his struggling, courageously held his ground for the moment. With all the straightforwardness of an Atobe, he said, "Who are you, child?"

There was a brief flash of irritation in the demon's eyes, and he retorted, "Who's asking?"

He sounded like just a boy too, Atobe thought briefly, and replied stiffly, "I am Atobe Keigo," he said his family name first in the style of angels, "son of the sixth Council member Lord Atobe. Again, who are you?"

This time, the demon's eyes widened. Whoever he was, he knew about Atobe's father, or maybe he just knew about the Council. Then, unexpectedly, the his lips spread in a small, but obvious smirk.

"Hehh," he drew the sound out in a simile of surprise, "So does that mean you're a prince, angel?" Immediately, a few hisses broke out from the other angels around them at the informal way Atobe was addressed, and the demon seemed to remember he was surrounded. Stiffening, the smirk dropped, but he kept his eyes on Atobe, challenging.

Atobe was confused for a split second at the demon's strange wording before he remembered that royalty still existed in Hell. "No, I am just a Council angel's son. You may call me young lord Atobe," Atobe said with a slight quirk of the lips. The demon made an expression that said plainly he would never call Atobe that if he could help it.

"So, your name?" Atobe prodded. The demon boy hesitated momentarily, and then guardedly dropped a name, watching Atobe's face all the while. Although he was uncertain if the name was fake, Atobe rolled the name in his mouth once, just to hear the foreign sound.

"Ryoma. Just Ryoma? Ore-sama's never heard that name before. It's a demon name then?" Atobe asked.

The demon's face scrunched up though. "You call yourself ore-sama? Feh, how pompous."

It seemed a few of the angels had had enough of the demon's cheekiness by that point, because multiple cries of "How dare you!" and "Such insolence to Lord Atobe!" rang out. One of the security angels took the initiative to grab the demon, who immediately started struggling and the rest of the security angels surged in.

"Stop!" Atobe ordered before it could go too far, and the security angels stopped moving, although the one hadn't let go of the demon's arms yet. Atobe leveled a look at him, "Let go of him." The angel dropped his hands, although he protested, "Young lord Atobe, he's a demon and a danger to us! He attacked us as soon as he came out of the portal!"

"No, I didn't!" the demon, Ryoma, said with a glare, "You attacked me as soon as I fell out the portal!"

"Don't lie, demon! I know what I saw!" the security angel retorted.

Ryoma opened his mouth again, but Atobe interrupted as Ryoma's words registered in his head. "Wait, boy, you said that you 'fell' out of the portal," Atobe asked.

"The name's Ryoma!" the demon hissed. Atobe flapped a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes, Ore-sama knows. Back to the subject, you specifically said you fell out, did you not?"

"Yeah. So?" Ryoma said, unimpressed. He must have been a real brat in Hell, Atobe thought to himself, before he continued.

"So, Ore-sama was present last year when Demonking Echizen arrived in Heaven for the Peace Assembly, and again a few years before that. He walked through as calm as…well, a demonking. Yet, you 'fell'," Atobe emphasized, and suddenly, Ryoma twisted his mouth and looked away, a hint of pink on his pale cheeks. With a tingle of pleasant surprise, Atobe realized that Ryoma was embarrassed.

"Are you trying to make some jabs about the Fall? So what, I fell. The portal tripped me and I fell on some angel, and then this one—" Ryoma pointed at the angel that had grabbed him before, "pointed his sword in my face! Jumped on me almost as soon as I got out of the portal!" Then, Ryoma paused, eyes widening as he realized that this was what the angel lord was trying to point out.

Atobe looked smug. "You see, Ore-sama thought there was something strange about the boy attacking our guards as soon as he passed through the portal. The demons would never be stupid enough to send someone that would attack an angel in Heaven, surrounded by other angels," the angels around him murmured, and the security angels started to flutter their wings in anxiety, "Ore-sama is now sure that when our demonguest fell through the portal as he did and knocked down one of our angels by accident, hotheadedness got the better of some of the security, and our demonguest was left with no choice but to fight back. Is that not correct?" Atobe dared any angel to argue, which no one looked ready to do at that point. The security angel looked reasonably shame-faced and seemed to be trying to sink into the floor at Atobe's mocking tone and the other angels' resulting titters.

There was a slow clapping coming from behind the security angels. Atobe looked up, and out stepped Oshitari, clapping still and looking insufferably amused. Atobe crossed his arms and demanded, "Where were you all this time?"

Oshitari's glasses glinted. "Watching the show. Nicely deduced, Atobe," he praised with a slightly-condescending-but-definitely-Oshitari bow of the head. Oshitari wasn't as highly ranked as Atobe, but he was still an archangel himself, so he could get away with calling Atobe what he wished without pesky titles and such. Even if he wasn't an archangel, Atobe would have let him get away with it; he and Yuushi had known each other since they were both teenaged brats. Oshitari continued, "I was making my rounds on the floor when our unexpected visitor dropped in, and I have to say, he looked more than a little disoriented." He stepped out more, with a mutter to one of the guards to keep an eye on the portal behind him. "If I remember correctly, traveling between dimensions takes much out of the one doing the traveling. The only reason the demonking looked so composed as Atobe says he did, was because he had enough power to withstand the draining effects of being decomposed and recomposed through the portal magic, not to mention the discomfort, or even pain."

Atobe thought he heard a small mutter from Ryoma that sounded like, "Definitely pain." He looked at the demon and noted with distaste the sallowness to his face, and the way his wings drooped in exhaustion behind him, even if his body was kept in tense stillness. Then, there were the bruises and scrapes that littered his bare arms, probably from his scuffle with the security angels.

Atobe called the attention of the angels with a snap, and all heads swiveled towards him. He ordered, "Alright, if all this excitement is done, everyone will go back to work. Oshitari, clean up and make sure any more surprise guests today don't receive the same treatment that our first did today. Oh, and have a room set up with a hot bath ready by the time Demonguest Ryoma arrives at the guest floor."

Oshitari nodded, "Of course."

Ryoma eyed him warily, but Atobe told him not unkindly, "Come along, don't dawdle," and turned, walking away. He didn't know for sure if Ryoma would follow, because even though other angels listened to Atobe, this boy was a demon. Before he took a few steps though, he heard the hesitant, but then quicker, more firm steps of the demon rushing after him. Behind them, Oshitari was barking at the angels still hanging around. "What are you looking at? Get back to work, the lot of you!"

Ryoma seemed to dislike following directly behind, because he trotted faster to step beside Atobe. The young lord looked at the demon to find him eyeing suspiciously behind him, and looking back, Atobe realized Ryoma was eyeing Kabaji, who was following as diligently as always. He must have caught up and joined Atobe when he had been busy talking to the demon. Atobe smirked and said, "Don't worry about Kabaji; he is just my friend and angelservant. He goes where I go."

"Hmm," Ryoma grunted, ever the chatty demon.

"So," Atobe started conversationally, "Your name is only Ryoma? There is no second name?"

Ryoma hesitated, and said a bit too easily, "It's Horio. Ryoma Horio."

This time it was Atobe eyeing Ryoma, and the demon realized that the angel's dark-eyed gaze was intensely clear, as if it could see everything before it, including his lie. Ryoma looked away before the angel picked out the lie from his head, if he hadn't already.

Atobe narrowed his eyes, but continued easily, "Really? It doesn't exactly match you. If it is acceptable with you, Ore-sama would like to continue calling you Ryoma."

The boy shrugged. It didn't matter to him either way.

"Good," Atobe said, sounding pleased, "Now, will you reveal the purpose of this lovely visit to Heaven before Ore-sama throws you into the cages under suspicion of subterfuge?" Ryoma didn't see the slight motion of Atobe's hand, and like it was planned, Kabaji locked his massive arms around Ryoma, wings and all.

Ryoma looked shocked, and then furious. "What the—in the name of the Morning Star, you'll let me go! Let me go! Let me—" He strained with all the energy he had left in his little body, (and it looked very little in Kabaji's huge hold), and his wings twitched endlessly, but Kabaji was the strongest angel Atobe knew, so his wings folded like paper and batted as futilely against Kabaji's chest as Ryoma did.

Atobe waited until Ryoma tired himself out to a panting mess before stepping forward. He grasped the boy's chin and forced his golden gaze to meet Atobe's black. "Do you take me for a fool?" Atobe said slowly, and watched as Ryoma's dazed, tired gaze cleared. "You are a demon, an unknown one at that, who shows up with a fake name and no explanation of a sudden vacation to Heaven. No unknown demons ever appear in Heaven, and if they're unknown, they come with someone who is known. You are not dressed like royalty," Atobe motioned at Ryoma's plain tunic and pants, "but you wear clothes of the royal palace," he let go of Ryoma's chin to tap the small emblem embroidered into the collar of Ryoma's tunic. It was tiny and blended in well enough with the clothes that anyone that didn't know where it was wouldn't have noticed it. Atobe however, wasn't just anyone, and he had noticed it right away on his initial perusal of the demon.

"Your hair as well…," Atobe touched a hand to the dark strands, just then realizing that they were the same onyx of Ryoma's wings, with an identical emerald sheen. His fingers brushed almost affectionately through Ryoma's hair before settling on the right side of his head, and then Ryoma realized, ice slipping into his stomach, how frightening the Lord Atobe Keigo was. "You had a very recent haircut," Atobe said, touching at the place where Ryoma had shorn off his primseed in a hurry, the royal beads that would have outted him and his identity to anyone who knew what they meant. "Done with…what looks like a common penknife, something not normally used to cut hair, and not sharp enough. Done only on the right side, in this one spot. Now why would that be? And don't think I was the only one to notice. Anyone who knows hair probably noticed that the rest of your hair was fine, if a bit messy, while one section tufted out unattractively with split ends. It is painfully obvious," Atobe said with a sniff. Ryoma was pretty sure no one else but this angel would notice something that small and insignificant, and even realize that it actually was significant. Ryoma inwardly lamented his bad luck to fall into the custody of one of the most anally observant angels this side of Heaven. As he was cursing his luck, a finger smoothly pushed up his chin since his head had dropped, and Ryoma was reintroduced to the same observant dark gaze that had screwed him over.

"So, why don't you start talking, little demon. Tell me now. Who are you, and why are you here?" Atobe said, stone-faced and unrelenting. If his father had seen him then, he might have been proud. Atobe had taken influence from his example after all.

Ryoma gritted his teeth, but said swiftly, "I'm a servant working in the royal palace. You were right, that's why I'm wearing the palace clothes; because I live there. "

"Good, go on," Atobe allowed.

"Coming through the portal was a mistake," Ryoma licked his lips, thinking quick, "I was...exploring where I shouldn't have, found the portal, and fell through. Like I said before, I tripped," Ryoma said with an awkward shrug like he didn't like to think about the incident, and hoped he looked convincingly embarrassed, "It wasn't smart, or graceful, but that's what happened."

"And there were no guards watching the portal?" Atobe said with a skeptical tilt to his eyebrow.

"Uh, there was one," Ryoma said carefully, thinking as fast as he could. He couldn't say anything about knocking out the guard, because that revealed premeditation and killed his current cover story. He also couldn't say anything about the guard being awake and around while Ryoma took a trip across time and space because the king would have been informed immediately, and demons would've been sent across the portal no more than five minutes after Ryoma. "But he had to go on a bathroom break, and I offered to watch the portal while he was gone. Erm, he caught me hanging around, but he figured I came at the right time and if I watched the portal for him and didn't say anything, then he wouldn't say anything about me trespassing. So I agreed and watched the portal for him because I didn't want to get in trouble since they would have fired me if they found me snooping around. I mean, I was just exploring, but they wouldn't really take that…," Ryoma trailed off, feeling more than a little frustrated with himself. There was no expression in Atobe's face, but his gaze was still piercing, and Ryoma couldn't help but blabber while Atobe watched him, especially this close. Didn't the angel know about personal space?

"Wouldn't the guard have been suspicious if he came back and found you gone though?"

"I thought so too, but no pick-up team has arrived so I guess he figured I just decided to leave," Ryoma said.

Atobe eyed Ryoma silently for a few painstaking seconds that made Ryoma sweat, before he huffed. He said derisively, "Demons, leaving only one guard at the portal to all dimensions, how irresponsible." At that, Ryoma had to bite his tongue. He really didn't need to retort that there had been two guards, and Ryoma had just been clever and gone in when one of them had gone to the bathroom.

Atobe straightened and swept imaginary dust off the front of his clothes. "Well, now that that's settled, it's clear what must be done. Kabaji, release the boy."

"Usu." The cage of muscle around Ryoma released him and he looked warily at Atobe.

"Let's go, Demonguest Ryoma," Atobe continued, leading the way again, except this time in the direction they had come from, "We'll just drop you back in your dimension and clear up this whole 'mistake' in no time."

Damn him. Ryoma froze, eyes wide in frustration and panic. "Wait," he said, "Wait. Please."

Atobe paused a few feet away, back still turned to the demon. "Will you talk?" Atobe said, "Ryoma Horio." To his credit, Atobe didn't sound smug at catching Ryoma in his lies, but it was more unnerving that the angel sounded so serious. "You better talk, or there will be consequences, and I suggest you don't lie this time because you are so painfully amateur at it." Ryoma wasn't sure if those consequences would cost him his life, and honestly, he didn't want to find out.

Ryoma was about ready to spill his true identity and get carted back to Hell when a small thought, a bubble of a thought really, erupted from the memory reserves deep in his brain, the same way the idea for running away to Earth had erupted. It was a crazy idea…but...Trust your instincts, Ryoma remembered his father telling him. Closing his eyes briefly in a silent prayer to the Light One, the demon dropped to his knees.

Atobe tilted his head to the side as if he recognized the sound of knees slapping the ground. Then again, he probably did since he was as close as Heaven had to a prince in rank. Ryoma could almost laugh at the irony of the situation if he wasn't so desperate; a prince of Hell on his knees before a prince of Heaven. The Star's mercy, if his old man ever found out, he would never let him live it down.

"I plead for sanctuary," Ryoma said, his voice hushed almost to a whisper. He bowed his head, but the boy couldn't help looking up at Atobe, eyes desperate, as he spoke. "Please, please help me. I have nowhere else to go," Ryoma balled up his hands against the ground, "I'm not a criminal, and not a spy, but I am running from…something…and I need a place to hide. I can't tell you why…I'm sorry," Ryoma finished lamely. With nothing else to say, he watched Atobe's back, which had tensed when he had invoked sanctuary. It was one of the Old Laws. In the past, an exile from another plane pleading sanctuary would be given it if he agreed to be locked up in a safe cell. He would be kept safe, well fed and warm, but he wouldn't be free ever again. Some of the Old Laws were still practiced in Hell, but Ryoma wasn't sure about sanctuary, and he wasn't sure if it was still practiced in Heaven. It was probably more of a custom than anything else now, so Ryoma could only hope that Atobe would grant it to him.

Atobe didn't turn around, and Ryoma didn't know if that was a bad sign or not. "Do you know what you are asking for?" the angel asked, his voice surprisingly harsh.

"Sanctuary," Ryoma repeated stubbornly, and then looked down, biting his lip. "Help me. I'm b-begging you. I have nowhere else to go," Ryoma repeated.

"Please."

Atobe bowed his head for a moment, seemingly in thought. "Your name?" Atobe said in a deceptively soft voice, and he turned around.

"Ryoma," the demon bit out.

"Not Horio?"

"No." Atobe had never heard of the Ryoma family before, but a name was a name, and Atobe's instincts were telling him that this name was real.

"What are you running from?" Atobe said, "Who is following you?" Ryoma felt a brief flash of relief that Atobe let the name issue go for the moment, but Atobe seemed determined to ask difficult questions.

What was he running from? Imprisonment, chains, loss of life and freedom…but saying that would just spark more questions. So, Ryoma gave the only honest answer he could. "My father," he admitted, closing his eyes briefly. It was true; his father would be the first one on his tail after they discovered Ryoma had disappeared, and he would be raising hellfire.

Atobe studied Ryoma's form, and thinking briefly of his own father, asked, "This father, is he chasing you because of a wrong you have committed?"

Finally, a question he could answer! Ryoma shook his head vigorously, "No, I've done nothing," he said truthfully. Atobe's eyes flashed.

"Then, it's something that you must do; something that has been imposed on you?"

"Yes, he's forcing me to—do something…unpleasant. Something wrong," Ryoma said, anger suddenly steeling his face, but it wasn't anger meant for Atobe. Atobe recognized that anger in himself when arguing with his own father, and he realized that Ryoma wasn't all that different from Atobe. Sweeping his eyes across his form, Atobe realized again how small Ryoma was. He was just a boy; a demon, but also a child, and obviously younger than Atobe by more than a few years. There was no hint of the hardened criminal in him; it suddenly seemed ridiculous that such a child could be any kind of danger to Heaven.

"It must be something very unpleasant if you've taken such measures to escape from him," Atobe said.

"Yes," Ryoma admitted, and gloom touched his face, making his countenance look even younger and more pitiful.

Appearances were deceiving though. Could Atobe forgive himself if he allowed a demon to harm Heaven and its inhabitants?

Atobe sighed, and raised a finger to his temple to soothe it. "Demon business is always so tiring." He stepped closer and bent over slightly to face Ryoma's knelt form. Without a trace of his previous gentleness, Atobe asked coldly, "You swear you are no criminal and no spy?"

Ryoma was too startled to feel any relief; at the corner of his eye, he realized Atobe had his hand on the long, elegant sword at his side.

"I swear," Ryoma said.

"You swear you will bring no danger to Heaven? And do not lie, demon, because if you hurt my friends and family, if you harm our realm, I will kill you myself," Atobe promised, and he might as well have had his fingers around Ryoma's throat because Ryoma suddenly couldn't breathe.

Ryoma hoped to the Morning Star that he was telling the truth when he said again, "I swear."

Atobe was still as he searched Ryoma's face for any hint of deception, and then he solemnly said two words that made Ryoma go limp with relief.

"Sanctuary granted."