Disclaimer:
I do not own the animanga Prince of Tennis/Tennis no Oujisama. It belongs to Konomi-sensei. This story contains shounen-ai; feel free to hit the back button if it is not your thing. This is also in an Alternate Universe, which has no connection to the original. This means that some facts about the characters' lives will be changed and there may be slight OOC-ness. Do not sue if it's different from canon. I only own this plot, which has no reference to any religion. Thank you.
Full Summary:
One Shot AU There was once an angel – the Angel of Death. He was full of love, especially the love for life. As such he hated his work, which was to end lives and lead the souls to heaven. The angel did not understand why he had to be the personification of death. Neither did he understand the importance of his role. Until the angel met him…
There was once an angel. He was known as the Angel of Death. However, this angel was different from the previous angels of similar role for he possessed a seemingly immeasurable amount of love – most especially the love for life.
He was once a normal, relatively low-ranking angel that ran errands in the Courts of Heaven. Back then he felt his existence was almost meaningless. He wanted to be able to do something that could help the Courts of Heaven or the mortal realm.
However, the young angel soon caught the eye of the high-ranking seraphs. They saw his one unique asset, which was his undemanding love for everyone and everything around him along with his eagerness to be useful. The seraphs set their sights on him. They chose him to take on a post that had, until now, lacked the right angel to take – the post to be Death.
If one had glimpsed this angel before, they would never have suspected in their wildest dreams that he would be Death. He was a man fit to be called beautiful with his chin-length honey-brown locks, breathtakingly stunning blue eyes that were almost always hidden behind his eyelids, an eternal kindly smile and lastly, a slim and lithe body that seemed far too delicate to withstand hardship but contained a considerable amount of hidden strength. With his snowy white wings, this elegant beauty was a far cry from how one would perceive a Death Angel.
But the seraphs had decided this angel's fate in Heaven, and he was to hold onto that role.
It was to be a role he disliked with as much passion as he loved.
The angel often contemplated his responsibility – especially why it was an angel that was chosen to be the symbol of Death. He had always personally felt that death was something to fear, something bad. And his feelings were strengthened by the thoughts of mortals. It seemed that many of them feared death and dying, thus associating bad omens to death. Angels, more often than not, were symbols of hope, love, peace and happiness. As far as he knew, any form of death did not bring about the above-mentioned feelings.
So why was it that it was an angel that was sent to guide the souls to heaven, instead of a demon to drag them forcibly away from the human realm? Was it to make the ordeal of dying and leaving their loved ones easier on the mortals?
He wouldn't know for as far as he could remember, he had always been an angel in the Courts of Heaven. Perhaps he had died when he was a baby and couldn't remember anything, but he doubted that. Not many mortal souls ascended to the status of angelhood when they arrived in heaven. Of course, he had never dared to ask the souls he had guided about it. He felt that it would be much too insensitive.
From his trips to the mortal realm, the angel had learnt much about the perception of humans. To most of them, death was connected to devils and demons, never was it connected directly to angels. They felt that angels would take care of their loved ones in heaven, and whilst they weren't wrong in that view, they never knew that it was an angel who drew out the souls of their beloveds from their bodies.
Yes, such was his job. He would receive a list of names that had been 'approved' by the being that governed life, ironically labeled as 'the Demon of Life', and the angel would then proceed in that order to bring away the souls. To basically kill them, he would always think in his mind although he had been told otherwise. Humans felt that to receive an angel's touch was a blessing. Well, if that angel in question were he, it would be a wretched and immediate curse instead. Any living being that he physically touched with his fingers would – simply put – die. The smaller the body mass, the faster the death.
Touch of Death? He certainly had it.
Therefore, he was infinitely careful with his task. He had never wanted to be the cause of death, however, as that was now unavoidable in his life, the angel could only settle for not causing unwarranted deaths. Which meant not touching any living being as he went about his rounds in the mortal world. It was a difficult choice to make, for when he was still one of a dozen role-less angels, he could make trips down to the mortal realm to frolic amongst the fields and glide around freely amongst crowds of people, just to see how different it was compared to his home up in Heaven.
He missed those times he spent in the mortal world.
One day, the angel was called to the Court of Heaven. Apparently, his constant musings of his role and his immense dislike of it had finally caught the attention of the seraphs. But instead of punishing or reprimanding him, they simply told him to look through the Heavenly Spyglass and view the life of a particular mortal teenage boy. They said that he would begin to understand why he had his role of the Angel of Death if he observed the boy long enough. Despite his confusion over the matter, the angel agreed and from then onwards, he viewed through the Spyglass whenever he had no duties to attend to.
The angel learnt that the young man he was watching was called Tezuka Kunimitsu. He was a handsome young man with his tousled dark brown locks and hazel eyes that were framed by rimless spectacles. Appearance-wise, the young man looked to be like any other ordinary active teenager of the modern day. Yet the angel soon found out that Kunimitsu was nowhere near ordinary.
Kunimitsu had been born with a heart disease.
When the angel found out about it, he had been stunned and almost thought he had dozed off while looking through the Spyglass and had consequently dreamed it up. Kunimitsu was a Grade A student and the president of the student council in his high school. Furthermore, his hobbies were playing tennis, camping and fishing. They were all outdoor activities and tennis could be rather strenuous too. They were not something one with a chronic heart disease would usually attempt or actually like.
Therefore, this young man intrigued the angel very much. He defied the typical mold of people suffering from heart problems or any chronic illness. In fact, had it not been for the angel glimpsing him on a trip to the hospital for his monthly checkups, the angel would never have suspected that this young man had a chronic illness. If the seraphs had told him at the beginning that Kunimitsu had a heart problem, the angel knew he would be hard pressed not to laugh out loud there and then. It would've seemed much too illogical.
With this newfound interest, the angel began to look forward to his time where he would spend in front of the Spyglass. Every look through the Spyglass brought him new knowledge of the object of his interest – Tezuka Kunimitsu. After a few weeks, his interest became much more like an obsession instead. The angel eventually requested for a portable, miniature version of the Heavenly Spyglass. The request was granted and almost every waking moment of the angel's day was spent peering through the device.
After countless observations of Kunimitsu, the angel came to notice that the teenager had close to no friends. It could be because of his quiet, introverted nature that made it so, but the angel knew that Kunimitsu was anything but shy. Being the president of the student council required him to take command of the whole board during meetings as well as speak in front of the school's population. For all occasions, Kunimitsu was a firm, no-nonsense leader that had the respect of every member in the council as well as the student population. So much that, sometimes, the angel did wonder if he truly was watching a teenager or a CEO in a prestigious company speaking to his subordinates.
As far as the angel could see, Kunimitsu's only close friend was a boy by the name of Oishi Syuichirou, who coincidentally was the vice president of the student council. Syuichirou's uncle was a specialist in heart-related diseases and happened to be Kunimitsu's doctor. This could be a reason why the duo were pretty good friends, other than the fact that Syuichirou was likeable in his loyalty to friends and his general kindness to everyone. The angel then came to notice that there was one more noticeable difference between Syuichirou and Kunimitsu's other acquaintances.
He had never shown pity towards Kunimitsu.
Due to his heart problem, many people were especially careful when treating Kunimitsu, sometimes seeming to be handling him with kiddy gloves. This, the angel noticed, ticked Kunimitsu off very much although he never showed it openly. But there would always be a slight stiffening of his body and a sudden hardness to his jaw line whenever such instances occurred. Hence, the angel knew that Kunimitsu tended to keep his illness unknown from others unless it was absolutely necessary.
Syuichirou, however, was different. He understood that Kunimitsu did not liked to be babied or to be treated as if he would collapse at any moment. He understood that Kunimitsu was fiercely independent and knew his own physical limits. Therefore, Syuichirou would let Kunimitsu handle his own problems, only standing at the sidelines to offer a silent form of support that Kunimitsu appreciated very much. This, the angel now knew, was the key to their friendship.
One Saturday morning, the angel saw Kunimitsu being interviewed by his school's reporters for the bi-monthly newsletter of Seishun Gakuen. Apparently the news of Kunimitsu having a chronic illness had somehow leaked out and the school's editorial board was eager to know how he coped with such an illness, how he became so successful as the president of the student council and manage to perform so well in academics. The board also thought it would be a good way to motivate students who were healthy but did not value and cherish the time they had.
The first few questions were mainly about how Kunimitsu could cope with his illness and still be able to excel in different areas. Then the questions proceeded on to focus around his chronic heart disease. The angel was quite surprised to see that Kunimitsu was very frank with his answers. Through his observations, Kunimitsu had always been a very private person who kept to himself. But the angel believed that Kunimitsu's frankness during the interview stemmed from his genuine concern about the less motivated students in his school, and hence being honest with his replies would achieve the effect of motivating the others more effectively. Despite this, Kunimitsu's answer to the last question was a shock to the angel…
"Have you ever thought about death, Tezuka-kun?"
There was silence for a moment before Kunimitsu replied in the same even tone he had been using throughout the interview. "Yes… However, I view dying as part of the cycle of Life. If there's a beginning, there's always an end. It's only a matter of time before you'll get there."
"Pardon me for prying, Tezuka-kun… but do you fear death?"
"For a time, I was. But that was in the past. With my condition, death is always hovering on the horizon; I've come to view it as something that will always be there, something that I will face sooner or later. Worrying about it will do no good, so I concentrate on the present to make full use of the time that I have to accomplish what I can. Should something unforeseen happen, I can at least leave without any regrets."
That was the first time that the angel heard someone speak of death in such neutrality. It was also the first time he had seen acceptance – but not resignation – of a possible early encounter with Death by a mortal. Kunimitsu accepted the fact that he could die anytime if he had a heart attack. However, he was not weighed down by it but sought to fulfill all he could in the amount of time he was granted. The angel could tell that each day was a new ray of hope to Kunimitsu; his eyes would light up – albeit subtly – whenever he awoke and looked out of his window.
It was then when the angel started his fall into Love's arms.
In the beginning, the angel did not realize it. As he was so full of love for life, he had thought his affection for Kunimitsu was just like what he had for life in general. But the angel gradually found out that loving someone and being in love with someone were two different matters. The angel soon found himself devoting more and more time gazing through the spyglass and wishing wistfully to be able to meet Kunimitsu in person to befriend him. However, he knew that there was no known way could make a mortal being see or even sense a spiritual being such as he.
Despite this obstacle, the angel did not give up. Besides his love for life, the angel had another trait, which was having the determination to obtain his goal. Currently, that goal was to be able to meet Kunimitsu. Hence, to achieve that goal, the angel started to frequent the Celestial Library. He searched through hundreds of bookshelves and thousands of ancient books in hope of finding one that would allow him some form of communication with Kunimitsu. His perseverance paid off when he found a book about dreams. In it was a section about visiting the dreams of mortals and the angel saw that as an opportunity to be able to communicate with Kunimitsu even if the boy would think of it as nothing more than a dream his brain had conjured up.
Thus the angel began to frequent Kunimitsu's dreams. Initially, he stayed in the shadows, merely observing the boy and the dreamscape. He came to realize that Kunimitsu rarely dreamt about anything for his dreamscape was mostly blank. Deciding that it would not do, the angel took it upon himself to weave a couple of dreams that would also enable him to have a chance to communicate with Kunimitsu. When he finally conversed with Kunimitsu, despite it being in a dream, the angel fell in love with him all over again. This was to become an endlessly repeating cycle. Yet, to the angel, these visits into Kunimitsu's dreamscape were soon to be cut short – permanently.
Kunimitsu's disease had taken a turn for the worse after he suddenly suffered a heart attack in the middle of a student council meeting. He had then landed up in a coma. To top it all off, the situation was continually nose-diving.
The angel was very worried. Of all the tasks he had to undertake, the claiming of Kunimitsu's soul was something he did not want to deal with. Kunimitsu was still in his youth and he had the potential to become better. But perhaps a huge factor affecting the angel was his love for Kunimitsu. He knew that the boy was very dear to his parents and grandfather and vice versa. Separating them by just a fine, but permanent line of Death was just too cruel. He could not bear to do it; he would hate himself forever if it happened.
The days that passed were filled with worry and anxiousness for both the angel and Kunimitsu's family. However, the reports from the doctors showed that there were no signs of improvement in his condition. They were also unable to confirm whether Kunimitsu would awake from his coma. It was chilling news to both the angel and Kunimitsu's family.
However the angel soon received far worse news two days later. On the weekly list of names, one name stood out the most to him:
TEZUKA KUNIMITSU
He stared at the parchment he was holding, hoping that the name he had seen was merely an illusion. But no matter how many times he blinked the name did not change. Even when he finally decided to open his eyes fully, it was still there. The angel decided there and then that he would not kill Kunimitsu even if he would be punished severely by the seraphs. He went about his duties as usual, but deliberately skipped Kunimitsu's name. When he had finished his tasks, he returned to observing Kunimitsu, hoping that with this extended time period, the human doctors would be able to do something and save Kunimitsu from the brink of death.
Yet as he watched, there seemed to be nothing the doctors could do. Kunimitsu was still in a coma, but his condition was in 'Danger' zone and seemingly getting further and further away from leaving critical condition behind. On many occasions, his heart had almost stopped beating, but had then resumed beating erratically. It puzzled not only the doctors, but also everyone else – including the angel. But he did not think further into it. This peculiar phenomenon continually occurred for three days, during which Kunimitsu had occasionally opened his eyes. But those hazel eyes of his were unseeing, but they seemed to be silently pleading for something.
It was then when the angel realized what had been happening all this while.
Kunimitsu had been flitting through the borders of Life and Death all the while. However, without the aid of an angel, his soul was unable to cross the border and had no choice but to be pulled back to the living, while his soul continued to try to fight to cross over. Now, the angel realized, that the pleading look in Kunimitsu's eyes was to be allowed to cross over to the other side and to end the torture of being unable to stay in either realm.
"Please Kami-sama, I beg you to send an angel to guide Kunimitsu. Don't let him suffer anymore."
The angel was startled as the voice of Tezuka Ayana, Kunimitsu's mother, somehow entered his ears. He suddenly felt a wave of emotion coming from Kunimitsu's family. He felt their collective pain and the wish for this seemingly endless and futile struggle to cease. Kunimitsu's family did not wish to see him suffer as he struggled to survive. The angel could feel their reluctance in that decision, but their love for their only son and grandson had prompted them to make the decision to let him go from their lives so that Kunimitsu would not suffer any longer.
The angel continued to watch the hospital room, still unable to decide whether he should carry out his duty. He did not wish to end Kunimitsu's life; that was an affirmative. But was he that heartless that he would stay at the sidelines and watch the one he loved dearly undergo the torture of being unable to stay peacefully in one realm when he had the means to do something about it?
…
You understand now, don't you, young one? came the chorus of ethereal voices that were the seraphs.
Y-Yes… I understand.
Then go, child. He is waiting for you.
There was no need for further prompting as the angel extended his wings and flew rapidly down towards the mortal realm. He bypassed all the other buildings; his focus was only on the hospital where Kunimitsu lay. The angel had finally understood why he was chosen for his role as Death:
He loved too much to see one suffer endlessly.
"You're the angel in my dreams."
"I'm an Angel of Death, Kunimitsu."
"Does it matter… Syuusuke?"
I finished it. I really did. Whoohoo! Though it's a day late. Sorry Fujiko-chan. But here's your birthday present! Hope you enjoy it!
carzla