1
It was a dark and rainy night as Ryouta stepped out of his front door, seemingly scared by something. He slammed the door shut behind him and ran down the front lawn leading to the street, before he turned left and followed the road down into the direction of his school. Now and then, he turned his head, apparently fearing to be watched by someone or something. As he passed by the old buildings that were standing to the left and right of the street, he looked into the windows that gave him the opportunity to see what was going on inside. The air around him seemed to grow colder with each second he breathed and he moved his legs faster, hoping to reach his destination as soon as possible. He took yet another turned into a side alley which served him as a short cut towards the school building he was trying to reach so badly. He hopped over a fence that was in his way and sprinted over the street, as halfway on the other side, a car hit him and he flew into the air, spinning violently, before hitting the ground behind the car. As the impact hit him, his body started to shake on the inside and an unimaginable pain spread out in him. Blood started to flow out of his mouth and he blinked twice before he realized what had just happened.
As he heard that the car door was opened and a woman started to yell in panic, he pulled together his last strength and softly whispered: "Shin..."
As if that was a command, a bright yellow light struck through the clouds high above the heads off the people in Tokyo and surrounded Ryouta, who then got sucked in by it and disappeared.
After witnessing this spectacle, which lasted for about three seconds, the woman who hit Ryouta started to scream and got checked into a mental clinic on the next day.
"Have you heard of what happened yesterday?" was one of the first things Katsuo heard as he entered his classroom. The room was full of chattering from his classmates who seemed to discuss something new and interesting. He slowly walked up to one of the groups that had formed around Noriko's Table and silently listened to what they were talking about .
"Yeah, yesterday. Ryouta out of the parallel class died. Seemed like a car hit him." Noriko said.
Katsuo raised an eyebrow, not being sure if that was something to make such a fuss about.
Sure, it was sad, he even talked to Ryouta from time to time, but it wasn't anything the entire class should be so interested in.
"But what was strange…" she suddenly broke the silence. "Is that the police didn't find any body. The driver admitted that she hit the boy and then she said…"
All the students around Noriko were now leaning in closer, so they wouldn't miss a single thing she was about to say. Even Katsuo was interested in what might have happened to the body of the boy so he went a little bit closer, but still tried to stay away from the rest of the people.
"The woman said a strike of lighting had hit the boy and he vanished into thin air." she finished the last line.
The people around her looked at each other silently, not sure if they were supposed to laugh or be afraid of such a thing.
Katsuo on the other hand had already reached his desk and sat down on the chair behind it.
Lighting from the guy swallowing a person. Not really.
Sure, the possibilities of getting hit by lighting and cause of that maybe being dust are there, but it's pretty unlikely. He didn't feel like believing something like this, without a clear evidence. And since the body was missing, there was no chance to know what really happened.
The teacher entered the class a few minutes later and the rest of the people were fleeing to their desks so they wouldn't have to sit through detention. As the lesson began, Katsuo closed his eyes and slowly drifted off into his dreamland.
Purple mist was rising from the ground up to Katsuo's head as he slowly regained consciousness.
He was still sitting behind his desk, his head lying on top of his history book, but it seemed that something has happened to his classroom. It was empty and seemed to shimmer in a dark greenish color. He rubbed his eyes for a second before checking again, but the classroom stayed the same. He stood up and walked forward to the chalkboard where he realized that something was written onto it.
THE ONE HAS AWAKENED
He looked at it as if it was an absurd joke before turning around. As he was about to leave the room, he noticed a girl standing by the door. He stepped back for a second, being scared by her sudden appearance, wondering how long she might have been standing there already and if she had watched him all this time.
She was rather short and looked about the age of 11, with long black hair which were covering her eyes and most of her face. Katsuo smiled nervously.
"You know, the Kayako style is outdated." he said, trying to keep cool, but being obviously freaked out by the presence of the girl.
By talking to her, he seemed to have done the opposite of what he wanted: Awake her interest.
She slowly got away from the door and walked towards him.
"Hey.. Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude." he tried to apologize. "I like your hair, really."
But she didn't stop and continued to step closer to him.
He backed off to the chalkboard again and searched for a way out, as his eyes landed on the large ruler that was hanging on the left side of the board. He grabbed it and got in an awkward looking fighting stance.
"Don't get any closer!" he yelled, his voice cracking cause of the fear in him.
It was just a little girl, but the atmosphere in the room and the way she looked made him nervous.
She also wasn't wearing more than a plain white dress which seemed to have been torn off at some parts.
As she came closer Katsuo started to shake, until she opened her arms, seemingly wanting to touch him, to which he responded by swinging at her with the ruler.
"Get away from me!" he screamed and hit her in the face.
As the wooden tool connected with her face, the girl was forcefully pushed against the wall next to her and she slowly slid down on it.
"Freak!" Katsuo screamed as he ran passed her, while tears began to form in her eyes and blood started to ooze out of her cheek, and out the door.
He didn't stop to look back once and ran towards the flight of stairs at the end of the hallway, which he jumped down off, so he could make the gap between him and the girl as wide as possible.
He just wanted to escape from this dream.
That's what it had to be: A bad dream.
As he reached the feet of the stairs, he looked back up, just to be shocked again.
The girl was now standing a floor above him, looking at him with teary eyes and huge scar on her left cheek. She seemed to hold something in her hand that looked a card, which she suddenly threw at Katsuo.
He tried to catch the card, but the girl, surprisingly threw it with such force, that it cut through his and got stuck in his palm. With a loud scream, he fell on his knees trying to rip the sharp card out of his hand, which only seemed to cut deeper and deeper into him.
"No!! Make it stop! Please!" he screamed, wriggling around on the floor.
As he had to time to look back up, the girl had vanished and he was on his own again.
With a last scream, he looked back at his hand, only to realize that the card was gone as well, and his hand was fully healed.
He threw his head in all possible directions trying to make out where the girl disappeared to, but he couldn't see her anyway, so that he got up as fast as he could and went into the entrance hall.
As he threw himself against the double doors that blocked his way to freedom, he heard something breaking and an unbearable pain in his arm. He fell on his knees and bit on his lower lips, trying to fight back the pain that was about to overcome his mind. He would pass out if he couldn't do anything against it. He tried to fight the commandos his mind was yelling at him and tried to get up, but all of a sudden, he felt something holding onto his waist. He whirled around and stared right into the eyes of a big, white furred dog like creature that had sharp fangs hanging out of its mouth, which had blood all over them. For the second time in not even twenty minutes such a fear was coming up inside of him, that he felt like screaming. But he knew that this would just give that thing a reason to attack. What was it? Where did it come from? Why didn't he see it before? Katsuo slowly walked backwards, trying to reach the door behind him and just open it somehow so he could escape. There had to be a way out of this.
"Mortal human."
Katsuo stopped dead. He slowly lifted his head, looking back into the eyes of that absurdly scary looking beast.
Did it just talk to me? Did that seriously just happen?
And really, as it opened its mouth once again, it started to form words in a language understandable to Katsuo.
"Human! You, who have been chosen to witness the spectacle, will now be tested by me." it spoke, leaving Katsuo in a shock like state. It didn't just seem like a normal nightmare anymore.
He could understand this thing. He could communicate with it. And he started to realize, why this creature scared him so much. Cause it was real.
"Do not fear mortal." the beast spoke again, this time in a softer voice.
At this point Katsuo was sure about the fact that nothing he would do would get him away from here, cause of which he just decided to get straight up and step in front of the Cerberus.
"The old legend of Zyou it is then?" Katsuo asked, looking at the demon in front of him, now fully aware of what this was going to be like.
"Yes Katsuo. You have been chosen. The world outside is waiting for its savior. And you are one of the humans with the power." the Cerberus explained. "Don't you feel the power inside?"
Katsuo looked down on himself. He seemed the same as always, but still totally different.
Inside, he knew that he changed. But how was the question he couldn't answer. Not yet.
"Am I a summoner?" he decided to ask after a while.
"Yes, you are indeed." the demon replied. "You are one of Gods fighters for the freedom of humanity."
Katsuo looked on the ground, before he started to laugh silently.
"Funny. I don't even believe in any god." he stated, not caring if the demon would attack him or not.
It was amusing to him, since he knew how all of this would play out now. He read it. The book of Megami.
"It doesn't matter if you believe in god or not. He believes in you." the Cerberus, seeming to be not surprised by Katsuo's statement at all.
Katsuo nodded and put his hand on the demons head.
"I command you." he said with a dirty grin on his face.
The Cerberus jerked back and looked at him furiously.
"How dare you human!" he yelled. "I am a messenger of the holy one! I am not going to be the tool of a human being!"
Katsuo laughed again, louder than before this time and looked back at the forehead of the Cerberus on which a red seal has now been manifested.
"Seems like you already belong to me. God doesn't need you anymore." he pointed out, mocking the demon whose eyes were now glowing red.
"Mortal!!"
After the short flash right in front of him, Katsuo opened his eyes again and looked down onto his arm, which now had some kind of clock like thing attached to it. It was shaped like one and had some numbers on it, but the most outstanding looking part were the different buttons on it. A blue one on the left side, a red one on the red and a big black one in the middle which had the word "Start" written on it. Satisfied Katsuo looked back to the stairs to see the girl standing there once more. But this time he was not afraid of her.
"Now, I have the power." he said, before turning his back to her and walking out the front door, into humanities nightmare.