Black and White Wings

Ryoma stared out at the garden from his window. The pale yellow grass lined the ground up until it met the wall. No flowers or plants, except for small, bent-over, malnutrition trees grew, their leaves brown and not the luscious green of Heaven. He watched some gardeners tend to these trees; vaguely humanlike figures with long fingers that could be define as claws, in a drab uniform, a plastic sheet with holes for its head and wings. The wings of these creatures were small and bat like, thin, black skin stretched taunt over a skeleton. A gardener turned around, letting Ryoma see its face. It was hideously crude, with a break for a mouth and nose, elephant ears and dull red, beady eyes. Though Ryoma shrank back from the creature, he admired the flower held in its hand. A yellow daffodil that seemed to glow of it's own accord was cupped in the creature's hand.

"Like the view?"

Ryoma didn't have to turn around to know that it was Fuji. "A view of pale and boring grass. Yes of course."

"No need to be sarcastic," Fuji chuckled and sat on top of his desk. "But you like the flower."

"The daffodil looks like it was grown in Heaven."

"If I told what it was used for, you wouldn't like it."

"Why would that be?"

Fuji just silently looked out the window. "Those creatures are called Moe."

"Don't change the subject."

"Moe's do most of the fighting. Their claws and beaks do quite a lot of damage, but their hides are very hard to pierce through, that's why the population here favours them. The only way you vanquish them is by slicing through their heads, because that is where their skin is most thin—"

"I said, 'don't change the subject'!"

Fuji looked down at Ryoma glaring fiercely at him. "Maybe I should lock you back up in the dungeon. You're too demanding."

"What do the daffodils do?"

Fuji sighed and returned to looking at the garden. "Their essence is used in potions to mentally torture their victims."

"Wait, did you use that on me before?"

"Yes." Fuji glanced down at Ryoma before staring out the window. "It is so powerful, it can pull victims into a coma. The flower can also be burnt and then the smoke inhaled, just as long as it gets to the brain. Most of the time, demons smear the essence on their swords or weapons, then cut through the skin to distract their enemies by their thoughts."

Ryoma was silent. He turned his thoughts over in his head, and then said, with a smirk on, "Fuji, you know a lot." Ryoma turned to stick his face onto the glass window, then twisted to look at Fuji with slightly pleading eyes. "Teach me some things."

Fuji rarely was caught off guard, but seeing his opportunity, he closed his eyes and moved a hand to ruffle the Angel's hair. "Sure!"

.x.X.x.

"Saa, you see the Asuwarite Moon, when on a certain angle, fuels the werewolves 'Crystal' which they keep at their base," Fuji pointed at the white moon overhead. "Apparently, the moon's beams are focused by the Crystal, and because of the high exposure of light and chemicals from the moon's rays, the Werewolves are transformed to their strongest state."

They were in the garden. After many days just talking in Fuji's room, Ryoma grew bored with the few shabby volumes Fuji kept, so Fuji sought permission for them to enter the library. Within a month, Ryoma had stripped bare a whole section, feeding his hunger for knowledge, and asking so many questions. Currently, Ryoma was holding a thick tome about Werewolves.

"If there are chemicals from the moon's beam, then why aren't we affected by it?" Ryoma cocked his head to the side.

"These chemicals only become potential harm when in huge amounts. Remember, the Crystal focuses the moon's rays." Fuji said. "These chemicals do have effects. Your wings are the most vulnerable."

Ryoma glanced quizzically at Fuji before bringing his wings in front of his face. Under the little light the Asuwarite Moon shed, he could see a minute change to his feathers. They weren't a dazzling white anymore. They had lost their shine and were now a dreary white with a hint of grey, like the colour of the mist or the air you breathe on a frosty morning. How long had he stayed here? A few months? Then how long had Fuji being here for his wings to become completely black?

"Of course, the graying is also due to the lack of presence of the sun," Fuji continued to explain in a casual manner. "Not enough light from the moons here, and not to mention the vitamins and minerals that the moons of Heaven give off."

"How long have you been here, Fuji?" Ryoma glanced at the black wings in awe.

Fuji had a faraway and pained look. "Since the end of the last Great War."

"That was half a millennium ago! I was born a year after the last Great War finished!"

"Ah."

Ryoma looked up from the black wings to see Fuji's face. He had a clammed in look, like he didn't want to talk, though his ever-present, plastic smile was still there. Immediately, Ryoma wanted to fuel his curiosity. How did Fuji get captured? What does the High Lord look like? How come he's still alive even after so many years in Hell, where he would be tortured? Did he ever know some friends that Ryoma knows? After all, didn't Tezuka say something like he had lived through the last Great War? Ryoma decided to voice his thoughts.

"Then do you know a Tezuka Kunimitsu?" Ryoma said, blunt and straight to the point, the only way Ryoma knew way.

Fuji whipped around and stood still like a statue. He stared at Ryoma, but wasn't looking at him. His eyes were pools of water, swirling around, Ryoma noted. But his expression was what caught his attention. It was a distanced look, and one filled with longing, pain and sadness. But all these emotions fluttered across his face in less than a split second and the plastic smile returned.

"Saa, yes I happen to do so," Fuji said serenely, though after spending a few months with him, Ryoma could tell where cracks in his mask were, though Ryoma could never detect what caused the fissures. Today was no different.

"Then, would you know Kikumaru-san?" Ryoma pursued, interested. "Or, Atobe-san? Yukimura? How about Yuuta? He has same surname as you. And—"

"I know them," Fuji's curt answer shocked Ryoma a bit, not to mention how he cut across his sentence too. Fuji would never do that. "If you'll excuse me."

Ryoma watched the back of Fuji enter the castle, the black wings brushing against the door as it closed, the booming sound echoing slightly in the enclosed area made by the garden walls. Still staring at the large oak doors and ignoring the many stares the Moe gardener's gave him, Ryoma had an urge to go after Fuji and comfort him, but he was rooted to his spot. Kirihara's words came back to him loudly, as if Kirihara was just beside him but talking in a whisper.

"It was a few minutes from the sealing of the Gate… We all shot up through it but one was too late. The Creatures were grabbing onto to him. We tried pulling him in, but it was no use... Then we lost him…WE LOST HIM!

"WE LOST FUJI SYUUSUKE!"

What was he feeling? Now that Ryoma remembered exactly who was Fuji, what did he feel? What was this thing welling up inside him? Pity? Sympathy? They were so alike. Their friends where too late to rescue them, they were dragged to Hell against their will and held captive. Did he now respect Fuji? After all, he was here longer, a veteran at surviving in this unwelcome place. Ryoma shook his head. Expressing himself had never been his forte, and if he ever did meet a strong feeling, he would hide behind his façade of loftiness until he had wrestled with the emotion and came out victorious, if not… well, there had never been a 'if not'.

So what now? All Ryoma could think of doing was return to Fuji's room.

.x.X.x.

"My Lord," Fuji tried to flatter the High Lord as he entered the dim room with a bow. As was his duty, he had to report of any progress with this special prisoner. Of course, the High Lord knew at once that the brat, Echizen, was going to be a key factor in the war, so all credit goes to him, but it was Fuji who saw the very usefulness of Echizen. "I have found a connection between the Angel Echizen Ryoma and the head of the Angels' High Council, Tezuka Kunimitsu."

The only response Fuji got was a low hum of agreement. He tensed.

"There are many ways we can use this information, like threaten the Angels with Echizen's life…" Fuji sensed the foul mood the High Lord was in and quickly fell quiet.

"How long has this being Fuji?" A low, husky voice murmured in a dangerous tone. "How long will this go for? You know I don't like those who delay, those who fail my expectations."

Fuji gulped silently. "I need more time, the Angel does not open up easily."

"I suggest you open him up quickly," the High Lord stepped into view. His black cloak swished around his body and his hair cascaded in a white waterfall. The picture would be perfect of a wise man, if not for the torn batwings the Lord sported and the red eyes that spoke of insanity, hunger and vengeance. He came up in front of Fuji, who had backed into the closed door almost immediately when he felt the Lord move, and, with those papery claws, he gripped Fuji's shoulder in an inhumane death hold until the shoulder was numb from the pain coursing through it.

"The Angels, they hold love"— the High Lord spat the word out in disgust— "in the highest regard. They treasure it. They would do anything for this love."

The High Lord paused and Fuji expected the worst.

"I want you to get him to love you."

Fuji quickly composed himself. He wiped out all thoughts, all feelings, until he was just a shell, incasing nothing. This was how he had got himself past the last five hundred years, and the empty mask could serve him for another millennium yet.

"If he loves you, he will open up. It is a definite."

But as Fuji left the Lord's chambers, he couldn't think. Was love really the most powerful emotion? Or was it something else?


A/N: Sorry for not updating. Arghh. I'm gonna be using Leite Destiny's idea very soon. There's gonna be huge leaps of time, so bare with me. I never planned this out in the first place, just worked from one idea, so that's why it's very… jumpy?

Special Mentions:
little angel of the sea, Leite Destiny, OPFAN, MysteriousEyez, truckerhat52, shebajay, thfourteenth, Kat_sakura, tsub4ki.

x. TANgled