Word Count: 605.
Rating: G.
Summary: Touda meets a ... serpent?
Author's Notes: Borrowing Crowley from Good Omens here, though it should be readable even if you don't know him. (I hope crossovers are allowed, because I just couldn't resist having those two meet.)
Touda stared at the huge black snake.
The huge black snake stared at Touda.
They were about the same length, though the other might have been maybe a foot shorter than Touda. Still, if someone were to put a visor on this guy even SohRyu might have trouble telling them apart.
For just a second Touda considered proposing a switch.
Then rational thought set back in. If anyone were willing to switch lives with Touda, their situation would have to be desperate indeed and he had given Tsuzuki his word. Tsuzuki who was right there watching them.
Not to mention that the other guy didn't normally wear a visor and Touda couldn't take his off. It would probably be impossible to pass himself off as the other even if he could, though, because the one obvious difference between them were the other's striking yellow eyes.
"So you're an Akuma?" Touda asked in ancient Chinese.
The other's head jerked up in surprise and Touda remembered too late that they were in modern Japan.
He started to repeat himself in modern Japanese, but at that moment the other began to speak. In ancient Chinese as he had been addressed!
"Now that'sss a language I've not heard in quite sssome time."
Except for the hiss which was probably due to his serpentine nature his pronunciation was flawless, though there was a vague hint of an accent that Touda couldn't place.
"I'm a demon," the stranger continued using the Hebrew word, which earned him a puzzled stare from Touda who spoke various versions of Chinese and Japanese well enough and could make himself understood in English when he had to.
He actually considered himself quite well educated where languages were concerned.
"Judeo-Christian, you know," the stranger explained. "Sort of like your Akuma, but different philosophy."
"Um ... I'm Touda," said Touda. "I'm a shikigami. I ... uh ... get conjured and things."
He was mesmerised by those yellow eyes. So beautiful and reptilian.
"Yes, I'm familiar with the concept," the other stated casually. "I'm Crowley, by the way, the serpent of Eden."
"I don't know much about Judeo-Christianity," Touda admitted. In fact he'd never bothered with it before at all.
"Doesn't matter," said Crowley easily. "I know all about your mythology. It's part of my job to monitor human culture and occasionally report back on it. I'm hell's agent on Earth, you see. Have been for millennia, so I've run into just about every concept out there."
"I'm a divine commander." Touda felt a little shabby. "Well, the least influential out of twelve, I suppose, but it's at least something. Er ... can you turn human?"
Crowley did and Touda followed suit to avoid looking threatening.
In their human shapes they didn't look very similar at all.
"My, you're a pretty delicate thing," Crowley commented. "Or pretty and delicate, I might say."
"I'm tougher than I look," hissed Touda brushing his light purple hair out of his face.
Crowley was tall and European-looking, but what Touda envied him most was his black hair.
They obviously shared a preference for black clothing and in this shape Crowley wore black sunglasses to hide his eyes. They might have different colouring, in human shape, but a very similar style.
Touda missed seeing those beautiful yellow eyes, though.
"Isn't he cute?" Tsuzuki spoke up suddenly. "When I saw him change into a serpent I just had to call and show you. Sorry if I interrupted anything important."
Sometimes Touda spent hours lecturing Tsuzuki about when and for what reasons one ought to summon shiki, but this time he decided to let it slide.