Darkness.

All he saw when he opened his eyes was darkness. Shadow, immersing itself in his senses. It was silent, lonely...

...Terrifying.

He needed to get out of there. Wherever this was, he hated it. The land around him was barren- had he been sent to purgatory? Yet t here were lights ahead, so perhaps he was in a tunnel. That would definitely explain his situation a bit better. When he reached the light, he walked through it. As his eyes adjusted to the scenery, he realized that he hadn't been in a cave at all. Or even purgatory.

He was in Hell.

Or, what seemed to be Hell. After all, last time he had been here, there were shrieking, writhing, suffering souls assailing him at every turn. They had grabbed at him, filled his ears with their agonized screams and his nostrils with the scent of death. All had been damned to exist in this pit for eternity, and they seemed to be more than willing to make others share in their pain. This time, however, was different. There was nothing but fire, darkness, stalagmites and stalactites. Piles of bones and skulls laid about, but no spirits. It actually relieved him slightly, to know that his psyche would not have to suffer, that he was allowed his sanity.

As he looked ahead of him, he saw what appeared to be a black wall. He approached it, curious. What could this be? This endless cave-like, volcanic, ravaged landscape had no walls. Cautiously, he continued his advance, avoiding cracks and pitfalls. When he was in front of it, he stopped and placed his hand against the surface. The barrier was smooth, like glass, yet there was nothing on the other side. Maybe Hell had some sort of waiting room, and on the other side were all the evils he so dreaded to lay his sights upon once more. Yet that sounded rather silly once he had thought it. He spotted a speck of light on the other side of the wall, and watched, intrigued, as it grew, soon becoming the silhouette of a person. The person approached the wall, and suddenly the entire area behind it, behind him, was filled with light and beauty. There were flowers on the other side, blue skies and clouds, so many clouds. The man, as he could see him now, was taking careful steps forward on the fluffy surface, and he realized something then: on the other side of this wall was Heaven.

The angel came to the wall, pressed against it lightly with his fingers, and spoke, "Muhyo...?"

Muhyo knew. He knew his companion wasn't fated as he was. No... this one would live in paradise. It was what he deserved. "Heh. I see you've made it safely to the other side," he remarked.

The man seemed to realize where Muhyo was, and he heard him gasp. "Muhyo, you're-"

"In Hell? Yeah. I figured I'd be sent here. After all, I've been working alongside demons for almost my entire life, forming bonds and contracts with them. There's no way someone like you would've been here... you trash. Hee hee."

A pout. "You're so mean, Muhyo..."

"Listen, Roji," he began. "We probably won't be able to talk for long. Demons and angels don't mix."

"Wait, what're you saying?" Roji questioned, tears forming at his eyes. The executor could tell that his partner already knew the answer, but he just couldn't accept it.

"Well... we had to part sometime," Muhyo answered him, though he felt a sudden lurch in his chest. His heart was twisting, his throat was tightening, and there was a burning sensation at his eyes. Ignorant to the real reason for the latter, he wondered if it was caused by the ash. Although, it felt different somehow, different than what soot typically felt like upon blurring vision.

His assistant, on the other hand, allowed himself to release rivulets of tears, a common action, and he fell to his knees so he was eye-level with him. "But... I don't want to part with you!" he cried out, his voice sounding choked.

Muhyo couldn't respond. His mouth was in rigor mortis, his tongue, an inflated balloon. Tremors coursed through his body, and a snake coiled itself around his heart, closing in on him, tighter, tighter. What was happening to him? Was he finally being captured by Hades, taken away to the depths of the underworld? Yet, that couldn't be the case- he wasn't moving an inch. Instead, he raised his hand to touch the wall, twin streams flowing down his cheeks, finally understanding what was going on with him: he was crying; heartbroken. He pressed his hand against the barrier, and lowered his head. There was no longer reason to keep his feelings trapped within the recesses of his mind. Strength and pride were benefactors of life. In death, they meant nothing; therefore, he let himself break down, release the emotions he had kept imprisoned, finally able to empathize with his partner.

He heard a thud, and glanced up to see the side of a closed fist above him, resting on the wall. "D-dammit..." Roji muttered, his voice unsteady. "Why won't this break?" His companion slammed the barrier again, and again it held fast. Muhyo gritted his teeth and turned away. The sight was agonizing.

"You idiot," he choked out. "It won't break. It was put in place for a reason."

"Muhyo, I can't do this!" Roji wailed. "I can't be without you! There has to be another way!"

"You'll have to be without me! You should be grateful. Not many people make it into Heaven," Muhyo shouted, although every word was a strain on his vocal chords.

"I won't be happy without you," he whispered. The flowers around him, Muhyo noticed, were wilting. He weakly banged his fist against the barrier again, letting it slide down a little after he hit it, then covered his face with his palms and wept.

As though the pain were bearable before. Muhyo wanted to be done with this madness, but perhaps it was what he deserved. Perhaps, everyone had their own Hell, and this was his. Maybe the Roji he saw here was just an illusion, an image to make him lose his mind. He would have to accept that this was all fake, and move on. However, as he made eye contact with his assistant, he couldn't help but to lose consciousness of the situation being a possible fabrication. Roji really was in front of him, sobbing, the thought of departure weighing down on him as well.

Muhyo faced the ground again, and closed his eyes, bringing his fist up and pressing the side of it against this barrier. Damned wall, he thought. If only we could...

"We'll find a way to each other," he heard Roji utter, almost as if their minds were connected. His voice was filled with determination and sorrow otherwise interpreted as desperate denial. Muhyo still didn't know whether or not to remain, yet he was anchored to his position. "I promise!" Roji yelled, and he smashed his fist against the wall again. Only this time, there was a peculiar occurrence- a small crack appeared where his fist landed. Muhyo, startled, looked up to where Roji had punched the wall. He saw the cracks, and suddenly, all doubts that his mind was being tampered with, all questions of the reality of the situation, had vanished. In any other case, the wall would only be able to break from his side.

Roji appeared to have figured out something, and he punched the wall again, in the same place. The crack spread. Muhyo heard him gasp, then hit the wall consistently, until his image was warped, transformed by crevices within the glassy surface. He struck it once more, but his success was short-lived. No further designs graced the barrier with their beauty. His distorted voice sounded from the other side of the wall. "Muhyo."

"What?"

"Do this with me."

Muhyo was confused, not grasping the reason why Roji couldn't break the wall by himself. He already did so much damage to it. "Why do you need my help?"

"I have a feeling that if we do this together, we'll break it!"

Roji sounded excited, but Muhyo was wary. What if, when he broke this wall, demons would find their way into Heaven? What if he accidentally connected the two worlds? What would become of the afterlife then? He couldn't take a risk like that- there was too much at stake. If leaving Roji meant protecting peace, he would do it, no matter how much it hurt. "Roji, I won't do it."

He could almost see Roji freeze. "W-what?"

"I said, I won't do it. There's too much of a risk. We could unintentionally create a link between Heaven and Hell."

"Muhyo..." Roji trailed off.

"Roji. I know. Pain's not easy to endure. But-"

"No, that's not it," Roji interrupted. "There's already a link between Heaven and Hell."

"Ah?" In his surprise, Muhyo had forgotten to reprimand his assistant for interrupting him.

"Don't you see, Muhyo? Our connection is Earth. Here... I think we're just making our own way there."

Muhyo paused, realizing the merit of Roji's message. How was it that he hadn't noticed this before his partner? Usually, it was he who made sense of things, then said it in a way that Roji would understand. He taught him well... The executor took a deep breath, feeling some sort of hope, and began to smile. "Fine. Let's do this, you idiot. Hee hee."

He drew back his fist, and Roji said, "Okay, on the count of three. One..."

Muhyo had the feeling that Roji just drew back his own fist.

"Two..."

He prayed this would work.

"Three!"

Both of them slammed their hands against the wall as hard as they could. There was a microburst as the sound of shattered glass resonated throughout the area. Muhyo and Roji shielded their eyes with their arms. After a few moments, the wind and sound died down, and they lowered them.

"Muhyo?"

Muhyo could see Roji's face clearly, his voice no longer contorted. He felt a weight being lifted off of his chest as he gazed at the green-haired man, who was grinning from ear to ear. Roji hadn't stopped crying, but his tears now did not contain grief; rather, they held joy. As his partner reached out to hug him- at least, that's what it looked like he was doing- his arms, instead of wrapping around him, seemed to disappear where the barrier once was. "E-eh?" Roji cried out in surprise. "My arms...!?"

An idea was conceived in Muhyo's mind after a few moments of bewilderment. He, too, put his hands out in front of him, but instead of having a part of himself in Heaven, they vanished. Silently, he made a decision, and walked into the light.

All of a sudden, he was falling. However, he was falling upwards. It was a strange sensation, to feel the rise in such a way, as though he were going up on a roller coaster, but the wind was not blowing against him. He noticed, as he watched his destination, someone falling the opposite way. Must be Roji, Muhyo thought. Of course he'd follow me...

"Muhyo!" Roji called to him. "What's going to happen when we land?"

"I don't know!" he called back. The farther he rose, the colder he became. A light began to appear, and within it, there was a room, with two bodies laying on hospital beds. Their bodies. "But I think we're about to find out, hee hee!"

"Hey, isn't that us?" Roji inquired loudly. "And why is it getting so cold?"

Before Muhyo could answer either question, there was a lurch, and the feeling of being plunged into an icy pool as the room he had seen encompassed him, and he was forced back into his body.

His vision was blurry when he awoke, and his breath came out in heavy gasps. He heard other noises around him, the beeping of a machine and the surprised voices of others, but he was having difficulty making sense of any of it. One voice spoke louder than the rest, and Muhyo only caught a few words that it uttered: "...miracle!...back from...believe it?...glad...okay!" When his vision cleared, he saw Yoichi standing in front of him, crying. He scanned his environment. Indeed, he had ended up in the hospital room from his vision. Then, surely...

Muhyo glanced to his side to see Roji looking back at him, equally dazed. They exchanged smiles, though the effort was apparent on both ends. He wondered what happened to them to bring them here, yet his head hurt when he tried to remember.

The voices around him had become much more coherent. Nurses were fussing over he and Roji. Muhyo focused once more on Yoichi, and strained to speak, "Yoichi?"

"Muhyo!" Yoichi exclaimed. "You're awake! We thought you were dead for sure! You did die, actually! How did you come back?"

"I... died?" Muhyo asked. "We..." he trailed off, noticing the people behind Yoichi. Nana, Kenji, Imai, Busujima, Umekichi and Biko were all there, along with Executor Page. Executor Page was trying to get to Muhyo, to embrace his surrogate son, but Imai was holding him back. Umekichi rushed to Roji.

"What was it like, being dead? What did you see?" Umekichi questioned.

"Ume!" Busujima exclaimed.

Before Roji could answer him, the nurses chased out the group, saying they were causing too much excitement. They protested, but eventually conceded and grumbled as they retreated back to the waiting room. Muhyo sighed. Those idiots are always causing excitement, he thought. But, how did we get here? What happened...?

"What happened?" Roji feebly asked a nurse. Muhyo narrowed his eyes, giving him a sidelong glance.

"Well, a girl called earlier saying you two had very high fevers," one of the nurses told them. "We brought you in, and tried cooling your bodies down, but neither of you reacted very well to the medicine and soon..."

"I would like to know," another nurse started, "how you two brought yourselves back to life. You were dead for about five minutes."

That nurse was knocked on her head by another. "Don't ask questions like that!" she chastised. Then she turned to Muhyo and Roji. "Listen, you two need rest. Your fevers seem to have gone down considerably. Drink this-" she placed cups of water on the tables beside their beds, "-and then try to sleep, okay?"

"Okay," they agreed in unison.

"We'll be in to check on you every so often. Sleep well, you two."

With that, the nurses left the room. Muhyo and Roji were alone. They turned to each other, and Roji started to speak. "I kept my promise, Muhyo."

Muhyo gave him an odd look before remembering what Roji had declared. He had indeed kept his word, not that any doubt of it existed. "Well, it wasn't as though I doubted you, hee hee."

Roji chuckled, then sighed and became more serious. "Muhyo, about what you said, um..."

Muhyo perked up his ears, listening attentively. He watched as Roji fidgeted with his blanket, trying to figure out what to say. After a few moments, he became annoyed. Can he not speak for himself? "Out with it, Roji," he snapped.

"What you said about... about the angels and demons not-"

Muhyo then realized what Roji was implying, and averted his gaze. "Shut up." He couldn't see it, but he knew his companion was giving him a confused look as he picked up his cup of water and took a few sips from it.

Roji continued anyway, "I figured out something then, Muhyo. And I know something now too."

The executor raised an eyebrow and decided to just finish his drink. He chugged it down, placed it on the table and turned to give his full attention to his assistant.

"Well, maybe we were-"

Roji was stopped by a sudden coughing fit. Muhyo looked at him, concerned, then responded impassively, "Drink your water, you idiot."

His assistant did as he was told, and the coughing stopped after a minute or so. He took a deep breath before continuing, "Well, maybe we were separate beings. Just for that time. Muhyo..." Roji looked at him in such a way that he felt his heart pick up its pace, causing a sensation similar to melting ice. Warmth spread from within his chest to the rest of his body. It was a simple look, yet it held so much power over him, rendering him speechless. He remembered Page telling him a name for this feeling, but for the life of him he couldn't think now of what it was. This wasn't the first time something Roji did made him feel this way, either. For the past month, he had been suppressing feelings like this that had developed for his companion. He saw it as a bother, as something that would distract him from his work. But now, after what they had been through, he was unsure that his mindset could remain stagnant. "...where we are now, we're humans. Aren't we?" Muhyo snapped back to reality. He didn't answer, hearing in Roji's tone that it was a rhetorical question, so his partner kept going, "And humans, we mix very well, don't you think?" Roji held out his hand to Muhyo. Their beds weren't very far away, so he could've placed his hand in Roji's if he wanted to.

What he said brought the word back to his mind- love. So he... loved Roji? As he thought it, the statement sounded like it made perfect sense. And, shocking even himself, he began to smile. A demon had fallen for an angel. It was the ultimate paradox.

Muhyo placed his hand in his assistant's. The two laid back down, and soon fell asleep. Within the following days, he discovered that he was not the only participant in this incongruity- the sun, too, had fallen for the moon.