Paved with Good Intentions

by surefall and aishuu
Disclaimer: Based on Prince of Tennis, by Konomi.
Part 12 Summary: In which the plot actually advances.

Part Twelve: Devil with a Blue Dress On

Math class had a way of making Yuuta's head spin. He had never been particularly good with numbers, and memorizing formulas was a weakness of his. He'd always been more of an intuitive learner.

This week he was faring even worse than usual. His attention was fractured, and though part of him dreaded the class, another part was gloatingly supplying all the answers. It was just too hard to focus on what those answers were.

It was with great relief that he fled the room after the day's lesson, leaving Mizuki behind as the purple-clothed boy began to discuss something or other with Shinji, who had made one of his rare appearances in class.

The sense that something is off in the world was a talent Sengoku happened to have. He had watched Yuuta throughout math class with a vaguely curious look, watching the boy fidget and squirm as if plagued by ants. When Yuuta sped from the class like the devil was at his heels, Sengoku discreetly followed. The moment Yuuta slowed down, Sengoku pounced, throwing an arm around Yuuta's shoulders. "Oi, Yuuta-kun!"

Yuuta swung a hand around, ready to smack the person who was invading his personal space. It was an automatic reaction he hadn't been prone to a week ago.

Sengoku neatly caught his wrist. "Something wrong?"

The perpetual headache Yuuta has been subjected to since meeting Jiroh inched up several notches. A part of him recognized Sengoku as a fellow classmate - but that little voice was insisting Sengoku was much, much more, though it wasn't too forthcoming on what that meant.

The arm on Yuuta's shoulder lifted and cool fingers slid across his forehead instead. "Head hurting?"

"Just a bit. Can you please - not do that?" Yuuta asked politely. "I'm going to go lie down..." He shifted back, trying to keep from smacking Sengoku's fingers as his instincts were demanding.

Sengoku let go, bouncing forward to smile at him. "Neh, don't be afraid of what you remember."

"What... are you talking about?"

"The things you've forgotten," Sengoku put a finger to his lips, as if indicating that silence is best.

Yuuta wondered exactly who had determined that turning his world upside down was a fun thing to do. "I haven't..." he started to protest, but took a deep breathe instead. "What did I forget?" he asked.

Sengoku rubbed the back of his head. "You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me." Yuuta was about ready to grab Sengoku by the throat and shake him till his eyes rolled out of their sockets.

Doing this twice in one week was going to get him smart alecky comments from God, Sengoku could tell right now. Grabbing Yuuta's hand, he dragged him into an empty classroom and ripped them both through the ephemeral into the abandoned part of the library he had used with Kirihara before.

Yuuta blinked as his surroundings whirled in a brilliant wave of color, and gasped as he realized that Sengoku had just performed miraculous teleportation. The fragile hopes he held that everything could be explained logically evaporated. "Oh... my... God...." he whispered.

Laughter, "That's a pretty close guess, Yuuta-kun!"

The information overload which threatened nearly made Yuuta scream. A mortal's brain wasn't designed to store millennia of information, and the download Yuuta's poor mind was about to make had the potential to kill him.

Sengoku slapped his hands to the sides of Yuuta's head, creating a loop through which he promptly sent power. A crackle of energy that gave the mortal body the possibility of expanding the metaphysical part of itself enough to store the download that was forthcoming.

It would only be much later that Yuuta realized Sengoku had saved his life.

"Sorry, Yuuta-kun," Sengoku murmured as the crackle in the air made their hair stand on end.

Yuuta blinked slowly as his mind began to rearranged itself. The information started to fall into place, but it would take a while to sort through. One thing, though, stuck out in his mind - he wasn't human.

Sengoku let go and snapped his fingers to remove the charge from the air. "I couldn't let you stay forgotten considering how much is happening around you."

Yuuta stared at Sengoku, finally placing him. "How's heaven treating you, Sen-san?"

Sengoku waggled a hand. "It's damn boring but Atobe's fun to harass."

"Wasn't he always?" Yuuta said. He leaned back against the table as more things slid into place. He had been... a demon. He had been one of the most powerful Lords of Hell, until he had plotted to kill Satan... along with the angel across from him. Suddenly he realized exactly who was in his math class. "Shit," he swore. "We failed, didn't we?"

"No, you succeeded, but some things get reborn with both power and soul intact."

"And reborn... and reborn...." Yuuta tried to remember dying the first time, but drew a blank. He remembered a chain of other lives as a human, most of which ended brutally. "Is he human? Does he know what he is?"

"He's demon and he has no clue. Not exactly the smartest lump on the log, that one."

Yuuta was tempted to throw something. It wasn't fair that Satan had been reborn as a demon. "Is he still crazy?" Yuuta asked after forcing himself to calm down.

"Not yet. He's more like he was before he Fell."

"That... was a while ago," Yuuta said. He remembered the earnest, determined angel with something resembling sadness. If only Satan had stayed that way... Then what Sengoku said registered. "Yet?"

"He's like you, neh? Part of the past always remains in rebirth."

Yuuta hated being compared to the devil who had killed him. "How come I wasn't reborn as a devil? I've never heard of one of us coming back as a human."

"Betrayal doesn't come cheap, Yuuta-kun. Satan ripped out your power when he killed you. Without the power, you're just a immortal soul. The only way you can return is in a human shell."

"And I can't get to heaven or hell as an immortal soul..." Yuuta said. He had to admire the sheer genius Satan had displayed with this vengeance.

Sengoku nodded, leaning back to stare up at the ceiling in thought.

"Did you revive me to help you kill him again?" Yuuta asked. Sengoku never acted without a purpose.

"Kill him? How could you help me kill him in a mortal body?"

"I've seen aniki around," Yuuta said dryly. "He'll help, if I ask him."

Kirihara wasn't in math class. He also wasn't in the cafeteria making people slip on milk. He wasn't outside making women's skirts blow upwards (okay, so that was more Sengoku's random pastime ... but Kirihara could have been doing it!). He wasn't stealing candy from children in the park. He wasn't in Las Vegas gambling underage (though Sengoku played a few slots for The Big Guy in The Sky). He wasn't even poisoning small dogs on chocolate.

Which meant he was hiding in his room. At about the time Sengoku actually bothered to turn on the angelic Find-It Function and search out the devil the easy way, he had definitely been doing enough shadow surfing to qualify for frequent teleportation miles and a upgrade to Gold Business Class. God was definitely going to have commentary for him when he showed himself in heaven.

But that was a minor consideration now that Sengoku had finally cornered his prey in the prey's lair of choice. Sneaking around in the shadow's like flattened paper doll allowed him to line himself up with Kirihara's back and then pounce, flying out of nowhere to latch onto the demon (not to mention grope him but good).

Feeling the unexpected hands wander over his groin, Kirihara leveled an upper-cut worthy of a black belt, only to be parried with a block containing the skill of a master. Sengoku's hands clung loosely around his waist and Kirihara, about two inches shorter, could feel the warm breath on his ear.

"What are you doing?" he asked. He had been in the middle of moving to his computer to upload a virus, courtesy of Muromachi, onto the intranet to make life interesting for his dormmates. Now this idiot was here... the last being he wanted to see. Not that he was avoiding him - he was taking time to plot how to kill Fuji, and such things had to be done carefully. Really. That was why he hadn't left since talking to Dan a couple of days ago.

"Molesting you?" Sengoku figured that was obvious.

"Not very angelic of you," Kirihara said. Damn, Sengoku sure knew where to put his hands. "Are you sure you're one of the good guys?"

"Yes, quite sure." Sengoku grinned and purred into Kirihara's ear, "Want to see the badges of heavenly office?"

"I think I've seen everything you have to offer," Kirihara said in a tired voice. "Is there something specific you want aside from wallowing in sin? Which, I feel compelled to remind you for some reason I can't fathom, you shouldn't be able to do without singeing the wings off your back, even though you do?"

"Well, if you thought about it instead of just talking about it, I'm sure the answer to your question would come to you. Supposedly, you're intelligent."

Kirihara thought on it, and drew a complete and utter blank. "Um...." he said, stalling.

Sengoku whistled cheerfully while awaiting Kirihara's amazing revelation, and entertained himself in the meantime by undoing the fastenings to the demon's clothes. Kirihara slapped Sengoku's hands idly, more to sting than out of any denial of access. That was hardly a deterrent, for once past the fastenings, Sengoku was more than happy to explore the skin beneath them.

Kirihara tried not to groan as Sengoku leaned forward and applied his tongue. His fingers went up Sengoku's collar, gripping it tightly... before red eyes flashed and the sound of ripping fabric filled the room.

Needless to say, it was some time before Sengoku bothered to repeat his statement, "Well?" while licking whatever skin was in reach of his now incredibly lazy self.

It took a moment for the question to penetrate Kirihara's pleasure-laden mind the way Sengoku had been penetrate his body a few moments before. "Well what?"

"Thought about it enough?" was the pleased hum that buzzed near Kirihara's ear before it got nibbled on.

"I haven't thought about anything," Kirihara said, biting the finger which strayed too close to his mouth. "What do you want?"

Well, there was always the obvious answer, "More sex?" and then something more complex so Kirihara wouldn't think Sengoku was slacking off around him, "and your lesson for today, grasshopper."

"Lesson?" Kirihara hadn't quite forgotten about Sengoku's promise to serve as his teacher, but it had seemed to fall by the wayside. Probably sometime when Kirihara had been demonstrating how he liked to use his teeth on... well, then. "I doubt there's much you can teach me about sex." Very true. Kirihara had slept with Kikumaru a few times.

"I wasn't talking about sex. Tsk, tsk, such a dirty mind," though Sengoku felt somewhat compelled to prove that there were some sexual tricks that he could definitely impart to the demon.

Kirihara felt his interest perk up. "Oh? Guide me, then, sensei," he purred, rubbing a hand over Sengoku's stomach the way he would a cat.

"Mmmmmmm, no requests then? You'll leave yourself solely in my capable hands?" Sengoku stretched, eyes half closing in pleasure.

"Tell me how to kill Fuji," Kirihara demanded, knowing he probably wasn't going to get an answer.

"How do you kill anyone? Fundamentally damage them with the sword of the spirit." Sengoku idly wondered what they taught demons these days if they didn't know that.

"Sengoku...." Kirihara growled. "That's the theoretical. What I want to know is how the hell am I supposed to kill Fuji before he kills me?"

"Now, see, that's asking for trouble. People have tried that 'kill the devil' shtick before and it never turns out well."

"It worked for Tezuka and Yukimura. Is it some kind of angel thing?"

"Tezuka had something of unusual circumstances that involved divine intervention and previous archangelic intervention. Probably a situation you wouldn't be able to duplicate. Satan's destruction was a bit more complicated than just hack and slash."

"Oh?"

"There was a bit of the conspiracy involved there."

"I never heard anything about that," Kirihara said slowly. He would have expected to, since good gossip never kept secret in hell.

"Not to mention the fact that Satan never looked before he leaped and was kinda blinded by rage, which made the entire thing easy to pull off."

"He must have been an idiot."

"Yes, you remind me of him, actually. Very not quick on the uptake."

Kirihara's hand was around Sengoku's throat in an instant, the suddenly sprouted claws drawing blood. "Remember that I am quite willing to put you in a world of hurt?" he hissed.

"Well, then you wouldn't learn very much, would you?"

Kirihara forced himself to take a deep breath. Killing the idiot would serve no purpose. The hand retracted, but not before he trailed the claws down Sengoku's chest, leaving track marks that healed almost as quickly as they were made. "Fine. Okay, so there was a conspiracy. I assume Yukimura was in on it... who else? Tezuka? Sanada?" He had a hard time picturing the two stick-up-the-ass angels getting involved in conspiracies, but they were the closest to Yukimura.

"Fuji, Yuuta, and myself."

Somehow it wasn't shocking that Sengoku had collaborated with Fuji. Kirihara felt himself tense up as a million possibilities, none of them pleasant, raced through his mind. "You're not working with him now, are you?" He was so dead if that was the case. "And who's Yuuta?" He didn't remember a demon named Yuuta. It was possible it could be a demon who died a while ago... demons tended to forget those dead and gone awfully quickly.

"I would hardly work with the Lord of Hell unless extenuating circumstances were present, neh? That would be very ... unangelic," Sengoku looked amused, considering he was in bed doing very unangelic things and speaking of those unangelic things, Kirihara's collar needed a new hickey, which Sengoku decided to provide immediately. "Yuuta was Fuji's brother. He's dead now, though."
Kirihara pushed Sengoku away, inflicting a bit of damage. "Oh? What happened?" He had a hard time picturing Fuji with a brother.

Sengoku produced a set of reasonable looking claws and took a swipe at Kirihara, hoping to engage him in a minor duel. "Satan killed him before he was finished off by Yukimura."

Kirihara was more than willing to invoke pain. "Sheesh, sounds messy."

"Wars usually are."

Kirihara had never been particularly interested in history, but one thing nagged him. "I have just one question."

"Go for it."

"Why was Satan so bad? If everyone hated him, wasn't he doing a good job?"

"It wasn't that he wasn't doing a good job ... it was that he was doing too good of a job. He nearly succeeded in destroying the world, yanno." Sengoku paused in the battle, rolling back to sharpen his claws against each other. "For God saw that the hearts of men were bent on evil all the time and he was grieved in his heart and regretted that he had made them. Then God desired to destroy the world that he had created." It was not a direct biblical quotation, though it sounded close enough.

"Then why do people call him nuts, if he was doing his job?"

"Hell doesn't win if God destroys the world."

"Who cares who destroys the world as long as it happens?"

"It's ... complicated. It has to do with balance and the timing of the end of time." Sengoku shook his head, as if these complex things he spoke of were too complex for Kirihara to get. "Basically? You can hardly expect heaven to stand idly by while Satan was winning, and you can hardly expect certain ambitious demons from not seeking to profit from heaven's plans "

"It's hypocritical."

"Winners write history, remember? Besides, it's not like Satan had pure motives of destroying man and then destroying God. He was in it for petty vengeance."

"Huh?"

"You don't know?! Geez, this gossip must be so old that it's growing mold. Heaven stole something from Satan."

"Oh? What?"

"Oh? I thought he was the one who stole those books..."

"The raid on the library? That was just Satan's excuse for a war."

"What was the real reason?" Kirihara lost interest in Sengoku's claws for the moment.

"I already said it: Vengeance."

"For what?" Kirihara howled, annoyed at the circular path the conversation was taking.

Sengoku thumped him, "Think about it, moron! If you're a demon, living in hell, what is the only thing that heaven can steal from you?!"

"...if you're a demon, living in hell, the only thing you have of value is your existence," Kirihara replied, thumping Sengoku back.

Sengoku folded his hands in solemn prayer. "Forgive him, divine father, for he is an idiot."

"There's nothing to forgive!" Kirihara retorted, finally losing the fragile thread of patience and pushing Sengoku onto the floor.

Saeki Kojiroh had decided that he was In Love. Not love as in romance and flowers and sweeping off of the feet, because that just ended up in marriage, which was the kiss of death, but love as in 'oh my god, this woman knows what to do with her tongue and oh yes and she's willing to go at it with another chick while I watch so please god let me keep this one'. Saeki was not above asking the almighty for the things he was interested in keeping around. Who knew, the lord might be benevolent.

But this wanders away from the subject at hand. Saeki, who was In Love, also had a buxom Yumiko on his lap, with two hands where no hands should be, and a tongue down her very willing throat. Life, it was good.

It wasn't unusual for Yuuta to be missing at this time of day, since he did have some kind of literature class scheduled about now. So when the door opened, Yumiko removed her lips from Saeki's neck, turning her head to offer a welcoming smile.

"Yuuta-kun!" she exclaimed in delight. She was always overly delighted to see him, even in a half-clothed state.

Something was different about Yuuta today, a slough in his carriage that showed no hesitation at seeing his sister in a pre-coital state. Instead, a smirk quirked his lips. "Hello, aniki."

Saeki's brain was somewhere about the area of his pants, but even that didn't stop the 'aniki' from penetrating with all the due force that others things penetrate. "Aniki?"

Yumiko froze, the smile freezing on her lips. Then she shifted slightly, turning so she more fully faced her little brother. "Yuuta?" she said in a questioning voice.

Yuuta merely raised a casual hand, waiving. "I'm back."

It was impossible to describe the emotions that raced crossed Yumiko's face in that instant, but it ended in the most complete joy that Saeki had ever witnessed. Then a mischievous smile quirk her lips. "I guess the jig is up, then." She leaned back in one of those flexible moves that Saeki was so fond of and frenched Saeki... who suddenly found himself holding a very male body.

This took a long moment to work through Saeki's mind. The pure impossibility of the situation had a tendency to do that to mortal thought. There was a very long pause ... which was followed by the once-Yumiko getting shoved off of Saeki's lap as Saeki sputtered and rubbed his lips. "WHAT THE SHIT?!"

The half-dressed man, who somehow managed to look very fetching in the short blue dress Yumiko had been wearing, landed on his feet. He was very attractive, and there was something about him that definitely called Yumiko to mind as he placed his hands on his hips, tilting his head slightly to the right. "Really, Kojiroh-kun, that's no way to treat your significant other."

Saeki wasn't homophobic. Really... okay, maybe he was a little, which is why Yuuta found his reaction so fascinating. Yuuta had always thought of Saeki as the most ragingly hetero guy he'd ever known, and for him to find out he'd been sleeping with another man... well, the newly awoken devil in him couldn't help but delight.

Saeki's arms waved in the air, his fingers pointed, he turned in circles, he flailed in the manner of people who flail ... but not a word passed through his lips. He was past being able to speak with coherency, though he eventually managed to summon a voice, "How ... you ... what ... THE HELL. You can't change like that!"

"I think I just did," not-Yumiko said.

"You shouldn't be able to!"

"I do a lot of things I shouldn't. Specialize it, in fact."

"Ah, wait ... I know. This is a dream. A very strange, somewhat horrifying dream," Saeki nodded sagely to this, "And I'll wake up pretty soon ... yeah."

The man and Yuuta snickered. "Want me to slap you?" the man offered helpfully.

"No thank you, I'll do that myself," and Saeki did just that, smacking himself a good one on the cheek. Nothing happened. He slapped himself a couple more times. Nothing. "Okay, what the shit is going on?" Saeki could be reasonable ... really!

"Have you ever heard the saying... the devil wears many guises?" Yuuta asked, earning himself a smirk from the-man-who-had-been-Yumiko.

Saeki gave the once-Yumiko a stare. "That's craziness, man. There's no such thing."

The man sighed. "You know, everyone believes in me until they meet me. Maybe I need to wear horns." Horns and a tail sprouted quickly, and a hand-mirror appeared in his hand. He considered the look for a moment. "Too blatant." Just as suddenly as they had come, they were gone. The cat-like smile of amusement the man wore focused on Saeki.

Saeki's only mode of mental self-defense was to blow it off as some sort of hallucination that he would go along with, "Awww, man ... I am so doomed. I've been fucking the devil. Great. Just great." Talk about a one-way ticket to hell, no question. "And next you'll tell me that Mizuki is god and Sengoku is the archangel of light."

"Mizuki is an achiest, so he considers himself his own god," the man replied. "Though you did hit the Sengoku thing on the nose..." He glanced over at Yuuta. "How on earth did you end up with a psychic roommate?"

"It just happens that way. I tend to be a nexus of the strange and unusual."

"You are the strange and unusual."

"Aniki!"

The man laughed, before sliding back on the bed beside Saeki. "Maybe I should introduce myself again. I'm Fuji Syuusuke, Lord of Hell, Damner of Nations, Tempter of Virgins, the Great Nemesis... and a ton of other titles." He patted Saeki on the shoulder. "Don't worry about the hell thing, you were already on the way there. I'm actually on vacation right now."

Saeki's brain had a moment of fritzing at the thought of Sengoku as archangel. Well, hell, if he managed to be an archangel, there was still hope for heaven! He could make it! "This is too weird for me."

Yuuta's grin could only be described as evil. "Just think of the possibilities."

"Stop that, are you trying to make me have a brain explosion?" Yuuta looked very creepy smiling like that ...

"I don't want to kill you," Yuuta said crossly. "You're my friend." He slid on the bed next to Fuji... causing Saeki to goggle as Fuji began stroking his leg in a fashion which couldn't be described as fraternal.

"If I was gay, I'd be jealous of the attention you keep getting from other guys, Yuuta," he sighed, since he couldn't throw nature's waste hazard the sock at the lord of hell. "Why do I have to know? Can't I remain in ignorance?"

"Do you want us to wipe your memory?" Fuji asked curiously. "I can do that... though even I have problems sometime. You might develop an unhealthy fixation for something like... oh, say, watermelons."

"Remember the guy who started collecting used toothpicks?"

"How could I forget?"

"You two are just disgusting."

"I'm going to be offering you the chance of a lifetime, Saeki," Fuji said pleasantly. "Feel like having some fun?"

Saeki gives him a wary look. Who hasn't heard stories about the booby traps layered around anything the devil offers? "What kind of chance and what kind of fun?"

"I'm going to give you a jump-start on the hellish ladder. You can completely skip the damned soul phase and go directly to being a demon," Fuji said. "As for fun... well, how do you feel about helping an angel and demon fall in love?"

Actually, if you have to go to the other place, being a demon would be a positive thing. Saeki was definitely thinking it was a plus, but he was curious. "Angel and demon?"

"Sengoku and Kirihara - who, by the way, framed you for that whole fire starting thing," Fuji said.

Saeki's eyebrows did a little dance as he tried to mentally come to grips with the fact that he had been surrounded by no less than three divine beings ... and had been clueless. "Uh ... sure."

Fuji offered him a brilliant smile, before leaning over and kissing him. He kissed exactly the way he had while disguised as Yumiko. "You're so sweet!" he cooed.

"Ugh ... don't do that when you're a boy ... demon ... thing ... "

It was one of those unseasonably cold days, reminding students that winter wasn't that far off. Most had dragged out their winter jackets and were sweating from being overdressed, but those who hadn't shivered in their too-light fall gear. It was a lose-lose situation, exactly what Kirihara liked.

He had left his room not long after his whole discussion with Sengoku. Most of what had been said went in one ear and out the other, but the warning had been clear - Sengoku was quite willing to kill him if he put a foot out of line. It only made it more urgent to figure out how to kill Sengoku first... or Fuji. He wasn't sure which one he needed to knock off first.

Subtly warming the air around him with his powers, Kirihara sat outside the chemistry building, sipping a cup of hot chocolate. He was planning on inciting a chemistry student into throwing hydrochloric acid at a rival tomorrow, and he always believed in scouting things out first when possible. As soon as he finished his drink, he'd get to work.

The sign of demonic mischief was Sanada's cue to appear. He was a no sparkles (not even upon pain of possible torment or death or hellish damnation would he ever put a sparkle, a twinkle, or a spot of choir-itic music upon his appearance) kind of teleporter and he appeared before Kirihara with the barest displacement of air, which only mildly stirred the grass around his feet. Sanada was the angel of justice, and as such, his sword of the spirit was strapped obviously to his side, disguised as a katana ... which would one day get him ticketed by over industrious cops.

He reached up to adjust his cap to block the bright rays of the sun and asked in his most business-like tone, "Kirihara." It was a statement, not a question. Really, Sanada got along very well with Tezuka ... considering they both had the personalities of blocks of wood, and not very lively blocks of wood either.

Kirihara and Sanada had a history, one which had resulted in mutual respect (or the closest angels and demons had to respect for each other) and exasperation. Kirihara had occasionally managed to twist Sanada's justice to his own ends (the witch hunts were his pride and joy), but Sanada usually managed to bring things back under control eventually though Kirihara usually made a mess of things before that happened.

There could only be one reason Sanada was here, Kirihara thought. "If it's about that innocent man who I had executed on trumped up charges last month, you can just deal with it. It was your legal system that did it."

"He's with us," Sanada reflected briefly on the matter of the trial in question and decided that if he was going to thump Kirihara for it, it would have to be later. "That's not why I'm here." That was another thing Sanada shared with Tezuka, the inability to make small talk.

"Oh?" Kirihara checked his internal time sense and decided he had time to "play" with Sanada. "Then why?" He really couldn't think what Sanada wanted with him, since Sanada had no life outside of his job. Kirihara doubted the rumors that Sanada was in love with Yukimura, since Kirihara rather thought Sanada was the prototype of an angelic robot. A defective one, at that.

"Heaven wants to offer you a job in my department," Sanada looked both determined and mildly put-upon. Which was only to be expected since he thought Kirihara was an out of control upstart of a demon with only the barest connection to the word stable.

"Huh?" Kirihara couldn't have heard that right.

Sanada could be patient. "I said: Heaven wants to offer you a job in my department."

Kirihara started to laugh. He hadn't known Sanada had a sense of humor.

"... just what is so funny?" Sanada didn't have a sense of humor ... not really.

"You... offering me... a job!" The cup of cocoa fell from Kirihara's hands to the ground, splash both of their shoes. If anything, that made Kirihara laugh harder.

Sanada felt the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose ... or to just swat the irritating little demon upside the head. "Iam offering you a job."

Kirihara covered his mouth as he managed to tone his gaiety down to snickering. "Did your superiors get a little too much of the divine presence or something? Really..."

"Is this the face of an angel who is joking?"

"You don't know how to joke."

"Exactly."

Kirihara smoothed his face as he considered exactly what was going on. He'd never heard of heaven making such a direct offer to a demon. Usually they sent an angel to work on redeeming a demon... "You want me to Rise," he whispered. Suddenly it wasn't so funny.

"Yes."

Pieces fell into place, with Kirihara's intuitive mind grasping the larger picture quickly. "You're worried I'm going to drag Sengoku down," he said gleefully.

Sanada paused, considering the matter. Even though that was the official reason he had been given for inviting Kirihara, he had to admit that he personally never really thought it likely that Sengoku would Fall. Not that the archangel didn't irritate him at every opportunity or that he didn't think they might be better off without him ... no ... it was just ... in Sanada's experience, the older the angel was the less likely they were to change. Not to mention Sengoku was an archangel. Had any of them ever Fallen? Perhaps that was why Yukimura was worried ...

Sanada finally settled on a shrug. "Perhaps. Or they're hoping this will encourage you to make him Fall faster." He wouldn't put that kind of sneakiness past Yukimura either.

Kirihara thought on that. It was a possibility... and the job offer would get him out of Fuji's range, who by all accounts, wanted him dead... but it was a job Kirihara would rather die than take. "It would mean I'd have to accept God," he said. His eyes flashed dangerously.

Sanada raised an eyebrow. "So? It's hardly an difficult condition."

"I don't need Him," Kirihara said. "I don't need anyone but myself."

"No one said you had to need Him."

Kirihara snorted. "I embrace chaos. I don't see you being real eager for letting me randomly destroy things," he said.

"Considering you would be under my jurisdiction, you would still be allowed to destroy things, just not randomly." Sanada thought that the offer was actually pretty generous, all things considered.

Kirihara rolled his eyes. "That takes the fun out of it.... and can you actually see me obeying orders?"

"Things would be different once you Rise," was Sanada's implacable reply. "You would view things differently then."

"Then I wouldn't be me." Kirihara had never met a demon who had Risen - at least not one he'd known before - but the very idea gave him shudders. It sounded like a personality rewrite.

Sanada had to think a moment before considering another tactic. "Do Fallen change all that much?"

"I didn't know Yagyuu before he Fell," Kirihara said.

"Perhaps you could consult him."

"That would imply I'm interested. Take this message back to your superiors," Kirihara said, before proceeding to treat Sanada's ears to some of the most choice profanity that he'd strung together in a century. "Got it, or do I need to repeat myself so you can take notes?" he asked after finishing.

Sanada sighed. Somehow he had expected that kind of answer. Really, it was only angelic duty and Yukimura that had compelled Sanada to even waste his time on asking. He shrugged, "Very well," and vanished.

Interesting, Kirihara thought. Apparently he was doing a better job than he thought on Sengoku, if Heaven was concerned enough to throw him a job offer. It was just too bad for Heaven that he always finished what he started. Whistling to himself, he hustled himself into the chemistry building, preparing to scar an obnoxious would-be Nobel prize winner for life.