If you noticed the abilities the immortals got, Gift and Sight, the idea belongs to the wonderful writer Tamora Pierce!

Achromatic Colors

V. "Leave me alone!"

(PS This is a flashback)

Fuji walked through the crowded gates, mingling among the flow of the crowds. His sharp eyes scanned the surroundings. He didn't see anyone he'd recognize nor sense anyone he needs to watch out for.

He hid his presence sloppily on purpose so he doesn't stand out in a crowd. It's amazing how people ignore you when they know where you are: nobody looks twice at a poorly covered devil. They think you're not worthy of their attention if you can't even cover your presence properly. Those devils never thought that some might do it deliberately just so they would be ignored.

But that's okay since that way he doesn't even have to mangle his appearance. All he did was covered himself in a travel cape over his plain but elegant and certainly not commoner quality clothing. He could have made the disguise better if he wanted to but Fuji saw no need to put up with uncomfortable costumes. He didn't even bother put an illusion over himself. Devils were naturally lazy and selfish creatures after all. All he has to watch out for is those higher ranked ones who actually pay attention.

His Sight helped immensely. Sight is a special ability that affects the eyes and they are commonly treasured as lie detectors. Like the Gifts, Sights have different intensities and properties. Fuji's line of sight is the most intense of all. Not only could he instantly tell when someone is lying, he could see their backgrounds and their motives. His Sight also gave him a sharp vision that could make Gods jealous. One of the side effects is that he could see magical workings and tell them apart. The effect is very useful on Earth where magic is rare, but here in the immortal realm, it nearly blinds him – that is part of the reason why he likes Earth so much and closes his eyes most of the time. One major disadvantage of the ability is that those with strong Gifts are protected from the Sight. Not only that, a strong Gift could potentially notice the Sight scanning them – even the Sight at Fuji's level.

His sister, Yumiko's Sight is even more special. She can sometimes see the future. Yuuta on the other hand does not have such ability; he was blessed with the Gift. Syuusuke thought it was better that Yuuta possessed the Gift instead. He would be spared from the ugliness of the underworld.

He was just about to pass one of the gates but a guard stopped him.

"Hold it." He commanded.

Fuji froze. His Sight quickly scanned him. No, the guard didn't notice who he was. Good.

The guard walked over to him slowly. "May I see your identification?" He said in a bored voice.

"Of course," He said quietly and gave the man the papers. It's good thing that he knows how to forge them.

"Hmph," He scoffed at his ID, "you may pass." The guard went back to his post to talk to his partner. He didn't even bother to look at his face! No doubt he stopped Fuji just so he could say to his superiors that he did his job. Nor did he even bother to test it if it was real. Lazy bums. Not that they could realize that it is a fake, Fuji himself had made it in secret.

He managed to walk pass the last gate without any other incident. Fuji almost laughed. God, they are sloppy. He didn't mind though. He could sneak around easier this way.

He had to admit, this slackness are detrimental to security. Oh well, if an assassination event happened again, he could protect himself. He wasn't worried much. What's the point of living on the edge of your nerves everyday anyway?

He quietly separated from the crowds and walked down a narrow road into The Impossible Maze – impossible for anyone to escape unless one had noble's blood running through their veins or a permit with a noble's fingerprint in blood. There are no guards standing there. The court decided not to waste guards there since the only ones who will enter the maze are mentally insane or those who know what they are doing.

He quickly ducked into the small entrance nearly hidden in the mass of foliage unnoticed by anyone else. The portals are hidden in there.

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Golden eyes stared into his sapphire eyes.

Oh dear. To Fuji's surprise, the angel he had found sleeping last time was staring at him. He wasn't expecting anyone on the other side. And not only could the angel probably feel his sloppily covered up presence, he is staring at Fuji appearing from the portal. He mentally sighed. He should have scanned the other side first before diving into the portal head first. When did he ever become this careless? Probably since he was never caught in the other gazillion times he tried to slip into this world. But the damage is done. He could never get away with the identity of a human now.

However, the angel does look dense - he is staring at him blankly with a cat in his arms. Fuji had a slight urge to pinch his cheeks. Sheesh, an unidentified person just came out through a portal, at least get a weapon in hand or something. Yet the boy was staring at him with a cat to occupy both of his arms. He didn't even cover up that presence Fuji had previously sensed when he found him asleep. He's standing in front of a devil, letting the demon know he's an angel, yet doing nothing. Fuji couldn't believe how dimwitted Earth immortals are.

Maybe Fuji can make him believe that he is a mortal after all – albeit one with supernatural powers. That would be fun. Perhaps he can even convince the angel that Fuji is an angel too. He DOES look incredibly thick.

He even contemplated on erasing the angel's memories. Memory charms are simply enough, but he didn't want the risk of some higher rank angel to find that memory charm had been performed on the boy. They'll get suspicious. He doesn't want the angelic side on alert because of this. He'll never be able to visit this spot peacefully again. Worst case scenario, his identity might even be discovered.

Either way, since he just randomly appeared right in front of him out of nowhere he felt obliged to at least say something - since the boy doesn't look like he is going to – and leave him alone. Fuji doesn't like to deal with idiots anymore than he has to. He'll excuse himself as an unthreatening person – perhaps an outer space creature? - And be on his way.

He gave the angel a disarming smile. "Hello, nice day isn't it?"

Being the genius he is, and with the skill of an experienced diplomat, his mind had already formulated several possible responses and scenarios that could occur in an instant. Would the angel still not know what he is? Perhaps he would say some pious comment or act really cute. Or would he wake up from his daze and warn him to keep his hands off God's creations and go back to hell?

Instead of doing anything Fuji had predicted, the angel just turned his back on him and glared over his shoulder. Then he immediately started to walk away.

Fuji was shocked. It took a few moments for him to recover and by then Ryoma had covered a few feet of distance. 'Saa… that was unexpected.' Fuji stared after him.

He was quite experienced with glares although they were generally directed at the back of his head. He had also often been on the receiving end of a glare of his younger brother. No, it was not the glare that shocked him. He fully expected a glare from an angel who just recognized a devil. It's the combination of a glare and walking away that surprised him. Which angel in the right mind would find a devil, glare at them, and then walk away?

He was curious. He decided that he could kill some time. Plus, he had never heard of antisocial Earth angels before. This could be quite interesting.

He caught up to the angel. "It's quite rude to ignore someone who is trying to be sociable." He injected.

The angel actually gave him a revolted look, apparently annoyed that Fuji had still decided to pester him. He tried to further ignore him and continued to walk away.

Syuusuke almost grinned. Usually he was the one doing the ignoring. He typically had to ignore quite hard until other people, especially those that wanted something from him, to get the message. Now he is playing reverse roles. This is the first time that someone looked at him as if he was a pile of sickening goo. For some odd reason he was quite happy seeing this new kind of expression from people.

"Have you been here often?" He attempted to start a conversation.

Fuji got no response. He wasn't expecting any.

"It's nice here isn't it? I must say, the views of the mortal realm are spectacular."

Still no response.

"…Do you have trees in heaven?"

Fuji internally frowned though he kept his trademark smile on the surface. This is starting to get annoying. The angel was acting as if he hadn't heard a word.

"Saa… It would be kind for you to respond – even non-verbally would be nice. I feel kind of silly talking to myself here. At least give me an indication of some kind that you have heard me? At this point even a glare would be nice. Or are you hearing impaired? I've never heard of a deaf angel before but I suppose anything is possible though I think that simply walking away is not a very good signal that you're deaf. But assuming you are deaf, I reason that you didn't hear anything I was saying up till this point. Should I try to shout into your ear?"

By now, Fuji was nearly laughing. Oh God, he was talking like Shinji! Fuji never had a person who didn't respond to him – even Yuuta doesn't try to ignore him to this degree. He found it amusing to discover that he talks this way when no one responds to him - except the boy still isn't reacting to him. Engaging conversation didn't work. Rambling didn't work. He had to change tactics.

He decided to try to annoy the angel by simply following him around instead.

After a few minutes of straight walking the angel finally stopped, sighed, and turned around in that order. Fuji was amused at the sequence of events.

He glared. "What?" It's amazing how the young angel can collect all that venom into one word. Too bad it didn't work on the prince. In fact, it had the reverse effect.

Fuji was delighted. He made him talk!

Ryoma was furious! What the devil did he want with him? He was doing the devil a favor by ignoring him!

"Oh just trying to strike a friendly conversation."

"Do you realize that I am the enemy?"

"So?"

"I'll report you." He threatened emptily. He won't actually go and report him. That would be the same as telling the other angels were he sneaked off to nowadays. Plus, he saw no need to waste his energy on reporting some insignificant devil.

Fuji's eyes widened slightly. His Sight detected the angel lying. Why would he not report a sighting of a devil? Did he not want to report Fuji? Or was he too lazy to seek out an official to report to? He found that as a plausible answer. He DID catch the angel sleeping on the job. "I dare you." He teased.

Ryoma glared. "Go. Away." He finally raised his voice slightly.

Instead of intimidating the devil, he amused him. "Why should I?"

"Because I may get violent." He growled.

The older teen burst out laughing.

He narrowed his eyes. By the reaction, the devil was definitely confidant of his own combat abilities. But he didn't know Ryoma is an archangel. The archangel had an itch to fulfill his threat, but decided against it. That would immediately reveal that he is not a mere Earth angel. Even worse, if he ended the stalemate from that Holy battle because of a little thing like this Tezuka would try to kill him. Yukimura might actually kill him for that offense. He shuddered, he did not want that.

Instead, he tried to reason. "Do you not understand that some people do not want to be pestered?" If he wasn't so irritated Ryoma would have laughed. Tezuka should be proud. He was trying to reason.

"Certainly, and I also know that some people like myself enjoy pestering those kinds of people."

Ryoma gave him an exasperated look. That sharp tongued, shameless bastard… Oh how he wish he can just blast him back to hell. Only for the sake of his identity and Yukimura's anger stopped him from doing just that.

"Can't you leave me alone?" The angel groaned.

Fuji nearly glowed. Oh my! His voice even had a hair's breath of pleading tone to it. "Nope." He replied shortly.

The angel rolled his eyes in annoyance.

'This is fun,' Fuji thought.

Published: 04/02/08

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