Beyond the Grave [ILLUMI X CHROLLO]

[ 11 ] IT'S THE BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, RING!

Though Illumi had spent months with Sukuna, he was convinced that he'd never met a person like Itadori before. This crucified angel wasn't meant to spend eternity in a pit of darkness.

And so, Illumi broke the promise he'd made to Pride. "Did Pride put you here?" he asked.

"I suppose we both did," Itadori replied, a guilty smile on his lips. "Will you help me?"

"To do what? Free you?"

Itadori's head hung and when he glanced up through his lashes, Illumi distinctly felt like he was seeing Alluka as a child again admitting to stealing dessert before dinner. "Is it that obvious?"

"Well, you're chained up for one. I don't know if I can get you out," he admitted.

The angel perked up, wings sharpening. There were three sets, six total, and they fanned around Itadori and skimmed the vaulted ceiling with ease. "You're more than capable!"

He gave a tug on one of his arms. The chain creaked, but the casing around the angel's forearm hardly budged. "All it takes is a touch from an angel, or someone blessed. Unfortunately, not many blessed people end up in Hell—which reminds me..."

Itadori hung forward again. His eyes were iridescent and captivating, lingering just inches from Illumi's. "It looks like you got a shit deal, ending up here. Is that right?"

As Illumi's focus recalibrated, he remembered where he was supposed to be: with Chrollo. The trial had ruined that for him for, he thought, an eternity.

Itadori's eyes crinkled when he smiled. Where Pride's extra eyes would have squinted at him from their brackets over his cheekbones, Itadori's remained closed, nearly indistinguishable as his only set of tattoos.

"Oh, that's easy," the angel said. "But you should know, Hell isn't meant for Saints."

Illumi blinked, confused. He snorted, rolling his eyes away. "But I'm not a saint."

"That isn't for you to decide," he said. "But I see the Balance gave you up during the trial... You'll lose your Sainthood, but I'll grant your wish if you free me."

A wish, he thought. He was reminded of Meruem's gold, and thinking of it colored Itadori's eyes with a flare of gold, like a spiral in a marble.

Of course, he realized, Sin used to be angels, too.

"What use is being a Saint if I'm in Hell anyway?" Illumi asked.

"I could grant a wish to deliver you to your afterlife," Itadori said. "Saints have a pretty good deal, you know, but you'd never get to go to Hell again. Saints have pretty free reign over dimensional travel, though it's nothing compared to celestial travel."

"I'm confused."

Itadori leant back on his chains, arms bending to swing himself like a kid at a jungle gym. "Think of it like a bus schedule. For angels, it's teleportation. For Saints, it's a two hour trip with four transfers and a twenty minute walk anyway. Though, I suppose an arrangement like that makes a Saint pretty well traveled in comparison... Patience is a virtue I don't have."

"I think I got it," Illumi said. He didn't really care about a life like that when he'd never be able to be where Chrollo lived.

As Illumi thought, Itadori pulled his knees up and, wings folded and curled against his back, flipped to perform an expert cast handstand like a gymnast on a bar. It was then that Illumi acknowledged the fact that this angel was totally ripped it was unfair.

"I'd still be dead, though. It's not like I can own a house on Earth?"

"Exactly!"

"Then I'd want to be in Chrollo's domain," Illumi said.