Beta-Testing the Demon Summoning Program

by Ysavvryl

Being the first tester of a revolutionary program has its benefits: you get updates sooner than others and have a connection to the mysterious super genius behind it. But it also has its drawbacks: you're often the first to experience glitches, poor controls, and awful design choices. Novelization of SMT I.

1. The Last Taste of Normalcy

A/N: This story contains incidents of sexual harassment, violence, and human sacrifice. I am not following the game's structure strictly, as a number of bosses and events are changed around to make it work better as a written adaptation. Also, this is bound to have inaccuracies with demon fusion and due to my main resource being the fan translation. I still hope it's an interesting story that you readers will enjoy.

This came out of a discussion I was having about my fanfic projects for NaNoWriMo 2017. As I said then, of the mainline SMT games, II, Nocturne, and IV:A have wonderfully interesting character concepts for their protagonists. And the world of IV presents an awesome sandbox to play with. SMT I, well, it may be better explained in a manual or artbook somewhere, but it's about a blank-slate protagonist who gets a free program to summon demons. The plot's something of a mess to follow and, as someone else said about another game, is a sort of 'and then something else blew up' progression. But I've worked with vague and jumbled video game plotlines before, and there is some potential. As a result of thinking over that, this story resulted.

Chapter 1: The Last Taste of Normalcy

'LCP 3 – Bonus lecture (I want to be done with these legal classes so I can focus on forensics studies, sigh)'

This professor had a tendency to drone on his lectures and today was particularly bad. Although it was mid-terms week, he had insisted on providing a little 'preview' of the next class session. About half the students were napping or nearly napping. Kazuya stayed awake by writing down details of the lecture in his outline notes. His neat tiny handwriting managed to cram in most lectures on one page, front and back. Since this was an unwelcome bonus, he added in little snarky bits to keep interested.

"An example of this process can be found in..." the professor droned, pausing in writing on the chalkboard to relate an example.

Phew, that was good. Kazuya set his mechanical pencil down for a moment and rubbed his hand. His arm always felt light when he was required to take off his comp during classes, though that did make the note-taking easier. Although sometimes, he wondered about sneaking the audio recording on if he felt like napping. No one ever got called out on it by this professor, it seemed.

A screechy melody shot through his thoughts, turning his blood cold.

"Hmm?" He glanced around, but it seemed that wasn't a sound in reality. Sometimes this was embarrassing; how could he admit to anyone that he heard music that wasn't there? But this, this had him concerned. Whenever he heard these snatches of songs, there was a good chance that something strange was going on. Not always, although he often wondered if it wasn't because he never found out what some songs related to.

But the quality of this song was painfully familiar. He hadn't heard something like that since the day his father died. What was going on? He tried to turn his attention back to the lecture, but the song seemed to linger this time. Something very bad was going on.

The lecture still droned on. Normally, Kazuya was an excellent student; he could have gotten into far more elite schools than this police academy. In those minutes, he found himself biting his lip and glancing at the clock, watching the hand slowly tick away the hour. He ended up slipping up in the format of his outline, which really irritated him even though it was a bonus lecture. And it wasn't really a relief when the class was finally over because he had to find out what this was about.

"Oh, is the class up already?" the professor asked as other students started to stir to the campus bells. Kazuya was already shuffling his pencil and notebook into their proper places in his bag. "Make sure to review lectures for this class over the break or you'll quickly fall behind."

As this was his last class for today, he could pull out the comp and latch it back onto his arm. Many students here preferred cellphones and saw him as a nerd for using an arm-mounted computer everywhere. But Kazuya never liked the small sizes of cellphones. His mother was always losing track of hers and the comp's battery lasted far longer.

Flipping open the lid, he found that he had several messages. Most of them didn't seem important, but his mother had sent him a text ten minutes ago. That would have been after the alarming sound. 'Could you add coffee to your grocery list? Sorry, but I didn't realize I was nearly out until just now.' There was also notice that she had taken her afternoon medicines. Good, she was close to remission on that.

Well, she should be fine. 'Sure, I should be back soon after that,' he sent back to her. A quick shift of icons, and… yup, he already had coffee on his list. It never hurt to make certain after his Mom sent him messages like this.

Then, what about Yuka? Kazuya hadn't seen her for a few days, which wasn't great but she seemed busy with work. Come to think of it, he hadn't heard from her either. Concerned for her now, he dialed her cell from his address list, then took the headset off the comp to attach to his right ear. Then he picked up his bag and headed out.

By the time it got to the fourth ring, he was starting to sweat. Was she okay? Then there was a click. "Kazuya!" she hissed. Before he could ask her what was up, she added, "Talk cute with me."

He opted to take the stairs down since the elevators had bad reception. "Don't we always, Yuka?" he said, trying to be upbeat.

"Well yeah," she said, lighthearted too although she seemed to be faking it. Then she whispered, "I'll explain later, just keep it normal now."

Normal but cute, huh? Kazuya smiled to himself, then sang out, "Yuka, the keeper of my heart, I miss you so much that everything has grown as cold as the arctic, as dark as the abyss, oh my love my beloved, will you fly back to me soon?" As it echoed off the stairwell's walls, somebody whistled and made others laugh.

Yuka laughed too. "Kazuya! Where about you?"

"I just got out of the most tedious test, so I'm still in the police academy," he said.

"That was lovely, but don't be quitting your day job to pursue singing."

"Oh, why not?" he asked in playful irritation.

"Well..." then there was a soft grumble, apparently about someone else.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked, acting worried (which he was, but not like that). "Sorry, did I call during work again?" He should really get around to adding her work schedule to his daily planner, but she kept avoiding the issue.

"Ah, no, I was talking to somebody earlier and they were a real headache. Sorry if it seemed like I snapped at you at first. Actually, sorry for not calling all week. I meant to, but..."

"Hey, it's okay," he assured her, getting to the bottom of the stairs. There was a crowd as usual, so he slipped out of the throng and headed towards a side exit which should have less traffic. "I'm just glad to hear from you. I was getting worried that something had happened to you." Ah right, she wanted cute. "It's hard enough being away from you, sweetie, I find myself hoping that it's you every time I see a girl with a long hair like yours. But they'll never be the cutie you are."

She giggled at that. "Oh Kaz, you charmer, you always know how to make me feel better. If it wasn't for the milita blockades, I'd come see you. Actually, on something more serious, I've been thinking about what you were saying last time about your house."

"Yeah, I wish I could take over the deed, but this is a bad time for more expenses like that." They'd already discussed this; why bring it up again? It was like she was covering for something.

That was confirmed as she went back over her points. "Kaz, just focus on your schooling and taking care of your mother. I've checked my finances and everything, and it should be fine for me to take over the deed so you and your Mom don't lose the house. Look, the blockade is going to allow travel between districts tomorrow, or at least it should. I'll come over there and confirm everything with the real estate agent and you guys."

Leaning against the wall, he opened up his daily planner. He had a break from school and work coming up. In spite of the military blockade, the academy was expecting those still in this district to continue attending classes. "My afternoon lab clean-up got canceled for tomorrow because the professor was called in for questioning, supposedly. Still have squad drills in the morning, so I could meet up with you in the afternoon."

"Sure, I'll try to get in on the 12:15 train so we can have lunch together too. Do you think you can ask your Mom to make those chicken crepes again? Those were really good."

Kaz smiled at that. "Sure thing." He opened up the grocery list again to add a rotisserie chicken to the list. That would be handy to pick up anyhow if this blockade was going to last much longer. Then he texted his mother. 'Yuka's coming in for lunch tomorrow and wants the chicken and cream cheese crepes. You fine with making those?'

"I really hope the blockade lets her see her doctors," Yuka said. "She seemed to be getting into good shape last I saw her."

He nodded to that. "For some reason, the hospital down the street has locked itself down. It's not shut down completely since there's still lights on at night, but nobody knows what's going on there."

"That can't be good. It's bad enough that the government got taken over, but they really need to lighten up with these blockades and lockdowns. From the way they act, it's like they think that ordinary citizens are the enemy now." There was a short huff from her; she was angry about this.

"It doesn't seem too bad here in Kichijoji," he said. "At least, everyone is going about their normal business, aside from the hospital and train station lockdowns. But if there's an emergency with my Mom, or anybody else here, that could make things tough."

"Yeah. Um… look, I've gotta run, sorry. We'll talk more tomorrow, there's something I really need to tell you."

"Sure, take care of yourself," he said. "I don't want to be hearing that you collapsed from overwork or anything."

She tried to laugh, but there was clearly something wrong going on. "I should be fine, but thanks. Take care of yourself too, I love you Kaz."

"I love you too, Yuka," he said warmly, hoping that might cheer her up. "See you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, tomorrow." Then she hung up.

"What's going on with you?" he mumbled to himself. But then, she should be here tomorrow. That would make things better. Kazuya shifted his comp screens to contact the real estate office, to make sure they'd be fine with a meeting tomorrow.

Then two more messages popped up at once. One was from his mother and the other was from someone called Steven. Strange, he didn't know anyone with a foreign name like that. Kazuya checked on his mother's message first. 'Great, she's welcome over any time! And yes, but then we need some chicken and a block of cream cheese. I should have everything else for crepes.'

'Got it, and I might be later than I thought.' After sending off that reply, he checked on the one from Steven.

A melody drifted through his mind, similar to the last but calmer and not as nerve-wracking.

"How is this important?" He dropped the message to the task bar and the music left. But once he brought it back up, the music returned. That was not normal, even for his odd ability, or whatever this was. The message itself was just as weird.

'From Steven.

To everyone who accesses this network:

Humanity is currently in grave danger! Demons of legend and myth have awoken from their long slumber. If nothing is done soon, humanity will be overcome by their menace. But I have devised the means for people to defend themselves by using the demon's own power against them. Attached to this message is a program that allows for communications, contracts, and summons of demons. This Demon Summoning Program will make the difference in how well humanity can weather this storm. I pray that those with the courage to use it will accept it, to fight the demons that would destroy us and to preserve humanity.'

'Download Demon Summoning Program? Yes/No'

"But demons are just folklore," Kazuya said softly. There was a good chance this was some kind of malware, or a forcefully promoted game that would send silent charges to bank accounts.

While all those reasons made sense, something did not make sense. The music. The music only entered his head when something major was happening, when something changed. On occasion, he did get these long strands when he had to make big decisions, like when he'd decided to join this police academy. He'd been unsure of what school to pick and then the music was there when he was holding the brochure. There was something about this program that would change his life.

It would make sense to say no. But, Kazuya's hand wavered over the touchscreen before he decided on 'yes'. He had the space in his comp for this, even as a large program. By the progress bar, this would take some time. He dropped the task window to contact the real estate agent.

This call didn't take nearly as long as the last; he was heading out the door now that most of his fellow students had left. After the office's secretary confirmed his identity, he said, "I'd like to meet with an agent about the status of my home's deed."

"Oh, I was going to call you about that, actually," the secretary said, shuffling some papers in the background. "We've had an offer come through from Yuka to take over the deed, as you both were planning on getting married this winter?"

Covering over his surprise that she'd already done that, he said, "Yeah, that true. We've got a marriage license set up already, so..."

"Yes she sent us a copy of it and all the other paperwork required. It's all in good order, so all we need now is an acceptance from you in place of your mother. Do you mind an electronic application, since you've called me on a comp?"

"No, that'll work out just fine," Kazuya said.

"Alright, I'm sending it over."

When the signature application popped up on the screen, he pressed the wrist part of the computer mount to let it confirm his identity again. Then he just needed to use the stylus to sign his name in the slot. There had been so many of these forms to fill out lately, between the academy, the doctors, the real estate, and the marriage preparations. "Got it, sending it back."

"Thank you, sir. And congratulations on your engagement! I hope it all goes well."

Even with all that was going on, he still smiled at that. "Thanks. I'm glad we could get this business sorted out now. That should be it, but we might drop by he office tomorrow afternoon if there's still things to discuss."

"No problem, your agent, hmm, she should be open after one thirty. There's been a lot of the governmental forms to adjust to the coup's demands, though, so you might have to wait."

"That's fine. Thanks again." The program was still downloading, so he shut the lid once the call disconnected and set the headpiece back in its slot.

Of course, it wasn't long that he'd been walking down the street that he double checked what he had to do still. Groceries, walk Pascal down to the shrine, studies after dinner. He should have time to investigate this demon summoning business in the evening, since the test for his gun license wouldn't take much study. As he was limited to this district now, he stopped by the underground mall to take care of the shopping.

The mall was buzzing with activity, being the place most people chose to hang out during the lockdown. There was a loud argument from one of the smaller shops; the blue jackets with that white band indicated that it was Ozawa's gang again. While they were trouble, Kazuya walked on. He'd known a lot of kids from his high school who'd gotten in trouble for getting in Ozawa's gang or getting in their way. That was part of why he'd decided on this career. But, this kind of thing didn't need his intervention.

The store was low on a few groceries. Perhaps others had seen a need to stock up too. He picked up what he could there, although he had to think about the coffee. What was left here was a brand that his mother didn't like, but her usual brand was out of stock. Maybe the cafe would have some? He'd try that before bringing home this stuff. While waiting on the cashier, he checked the list again, marking off what he had gotten. That left the coffee, dog food, and cat food to get.

"Hey Kazuya," the cashier said with a smile. "How's your mother doing?"

"She's doing fine, might even be in remission," he said.

"That's great, I hope she is. She's one of those folks that you miss once you realize you haven't seen them around in while, quite a cheerful presence."

He nodded. "Yeah. Hey, you have any Azcan coffee in back?"

The cashier thought for a moment. "No, I don't think so. It's an import, you know, and Gotou and his men are supreme nationalists. I heard they might even try going back to isolationism."

"Can we really do that in this age with computers and all?" Kazuya asked. "That stinks."

"Yeah, sorry man. We might get some more in four days, but I can't say for sure. Hey, but the cafe down the hall might still keep some in stock. Don't know about the specific brand, but the owner keeps a large selection."

"Yeah, I was going to check there. Thanks anyhow." Now the pet food items...

Fortunately, there was a pet store here. They were mostly focused on birds, since they and hermit crabs were the only actual pets in here. Kazuya waggled his fingers at the cockatiels, making them whistle and triggering a chorus of coos, caws, and chirps. Chuckling to himself, he went over to where the food was stocked. If he had his bike, he might consider grabbing a larger bag of dog chow just in case. As it was, he picked up the usual ones and headed out.

The cashier here was a girl he didn't recognize. "Oh, you've got a dog and cat?" she asked as she sorted out his change.

"Not exactly," he said. "The dog is mine, but the cat is the one who keeps mice out of the old shrine down in Inogashira Park. There's been nobody taking care of the shrine for a while, and the blockade stopped the person who was supposed to come in this week. I've been making sure the cat's taken care of, since she has an important duty."

"Aw, well thanks for thinking about a lonely shrine kitty," she said. "Bye now, have a good day."

The cafe wasn't far from there, a place where a lot of students would drop in to study and socialize. He made his way through the couches and chairs to reach the register. They had their bagged ground coffees in a cabinet out here, so… no Azcan, unfortunately. Maybe an import ban had struck the brand? Except some of the other coffees here were also imports.

While they didn't have his mom's preferred brand, they did have some nice ones out here. More expense, though, and he had to watch his finances. It was for his mom, though. Making her happy would be worth an indulgence. He picked out a specialty dark roast they both loved, then took it to the register to purchase.

Kazuya checked on the progress of the Demon Summoning Progam. It was completely downloaded and now had to be installed. Little of it seemed familiar, and that man's name was on the information window. Perhaps this was some individual's pet project? The anti-virus and anti-malware programs on his comp hadn't found any issues with it, so he set it to install. That was going to take more time.

Someone touched him below his waist in an awfully intimate way. "Hello, are you the one I've been looking for?"

As he brushed off the arm, he found himself looking at a very attractive woman. Something about her made him think that she would make for an appealing underwear model, or something less modest than that. She certainly wasn't someone he'd just run into in this mall ordinarily. Before his imagination got the better of him, he reminded himself of what he had. "Probably not, please don't do that."

"But I have a feeling that you are," she said with a beauty queen's smile. "You wouldn't happen to be Kazuya, would you?"

"Yes, but you might have the wrong Kazuya," he replied.

Although he'd asked her not to, she still grabbed hold of his upper arm. "I think not, not with that handsome face. I'm Yuriko, and I've been waiting for you. Wouldn't you like to come somewhere more private to talk with me?" She tightened her grip, not about to let go.

What should he do? His mind blanked briefly and his face got warm with embarrassment. Why was she doing this? After a moment, he recalled some of the self-defense he'd learned early on in the academy and shifted away so he could pry her hand off. "No, please don't bother me again."

"What's with this coy spectacle?" Yuriko said, although she was the one making it a spectacle. Then she whispered, teasing him, "Do you really want to make yourself seem less of a man for turning down a woman's affections?"

"Heh, get a room you two," someone said while passing them by, giving a snicker. Yuriko's eyes seemed to gleam at that.

"I want you to let me go and keep to yourself," Kazuya said, trying to act confidant when he didn't feel in control of this. "I'm engaged to someone else, so stop doing this."

"Does that really matter?" she said, changing her posture to where he caught a glimpse of the cleavage beneath the dark blue jacket she wore.

He looked away. "Yes it does."

"Oh, hey Kaz," the clerk there said, thankfully giving him an opportunity to slip away. "Congrats on the engagement, I hadn't heard about it yet."

He smiled, pushing back his nervousness over this encounter. "Thanks, we haven't told many people yet. Our planned wedding date is still a couple months off, so were were waiting until closer to then."

"Are you just faking it to blow me off?" Yuriko asked, coming closer again.

"No," Kazuya said.

"It must be true, miss," the clerk said, thankfully covering for him. "He's got a great girl and neither of them seem like they'd want anyone else."

"But how pretty can she be compared to me?" Yuriko asked, looking at him. Kazuya tried to focus on paying for the coffee. "Kazuya, you may not realize it yet, but I am meant to be by your side. I will do anything for you, so forget about her and come with me."

Why was she like this? "No, leave me alone," Kazuya said.

Fortunately, the clerk was able to get Yuriko distracted long enough for Kazuya to get out of the cafe before she kept going. He kept tense and watchful even when he was in sight of his home. And this had seemed like it could be such a good day this morning. Now the only thing keeping him out of a bad mood was the fact that Yuka would be visiting tomorrow.

It helped that his husky bounded for the door to greet him, wagging his tail wildly. "Hey, Pascal," Kazuya said, dropping his bags to hug the dog. He got licked in the face for that. "We'll take our walk in a bit, let me just put stuff away."

"Hello," his mother called happily, coming into the room. "Did you get everything?"

"Hi Mom, yes I did," he said, patting Pascal before letting him go to get the bags again. "How's things been here?"

"It's been quiet, but I suppose we should be grateful for that," she said. "Some feeling has made me uneasy the past few hours."

She was one of the very few who knew. "I heard the music in the middle of class," he said. "Something really bad has happened, but that's all I know. I spoke to Yuka after that, but she couldn't speak long for some reason."

"Well she'll be here tomorrow, just have to be patient," she said, taking one of the bags. "We probably shouldn't worry too much, though it wouldn't hurt to be cautious."

Kazuya had to agree with that. Until they knew what was going on, there wasn't much they could do other than be cautious. "Right. Maybe I'll take a small offering down to the shrine, just in case."

"It wouldn't hurt. Oh, and have you heard the latest about the insurrection?" She followed him into the kitchen to help put things away. "Gotuo is claiming that we need to get back to our roots and bring back the old beliefs that made Japan what it is. For that purpose, he says he's going to summon demons and revive the ancestral gods."

"That's..." he nearly said it was crazy, but stopped as he remembered that he was installing a demon summoning program to his comp. "That might actually be it."

Once he had the things that needed to be in the fridge put away, he opened up his comp to show her. "So does it summon demons?" she asked, not doubtful at all. But then she'd always believed in ghosts; believing in demons wasn't much of a step for her.

"I don't know, haven't tried it yet," Kazuya said. "The music came when I got the message for this too, so I went ahead and downloaded it. Something big has changed, something bad… demons appearing in the world could fit that. But if that Steven is correct, this should give me the means to control them."

"That would be helpful," she said. "Just, be careful if you do. It sounds risky."

He nodded. "Yeah. And who knows, maybe it'll give me a boost when on duty."

His mom had some preparations for dinner already going, so he left her to that while he went to take Pascal on a walk. It seemed like an ordinary afternoon out here, something that felt strange today. His neighbor Yuka (a high school girl rather than the early-twenties woman his Yuka was) was outside of her house; a fellow high school boy was out there chatting with her. The other day, the doctor who lived there had mentioned that his daughter was dating someone, but not much on who. Kazuya left them to their talking; they hadn't noticed him anyhow.

Further down the street, some of the younger punks were skateboarding in the road. There was an awful lot of gang activity happening around here, with Ozawa's group being the loudest voice. That had been a concern about deciding where to live with his mother and Yuka. His great-grandfather had bought the house a long time ago; it would be respectful that he take up ownership since his father passed away. But then, he'd been not old enough at that time, and now financial problems forced them to allow Yuka to take ownership. Though, it wouldn't matter once they were married.

He left the high school punks to their business too. Normally he'd warn them off the road because there was still traffic at this time of day, more once people started coming back from work. But if this hunch about demons was real, they might not get much longer to be outside peacefully. At least he had Pascal, a retired police dog. Although, would even a trained dog help much against demons? Using demons against demons made some sense after all.

Closer to the park, things grew quieter. This was an old section of town, with buildings even older than his house. A few had already been lost to progress and real estate speculators. But, the old Shinto shrine was still here. The overgrowth of its vines and bushes was getting a bit much. Kazuya had been thinking about clearing that away, just to keep this place looking decent.

As his eyes skimmed over the familiar place, he spotted something, well, new. It looked like there was a path of hedges that wasn't there before, with another shrine-like building beyond it. "When did that go up?" he murmured to himself. He'd been coming here every day and a project like that couldn't be kept secret.

"Meow?" A calico cat emerged from the small interior of the old shrine, her tail held high.

Kazuya smiled at her, putting the mystery shrine out of mind for the moment. "Hey there, Nan." Looking down also showed a pair of displayed dead mice. She tended to set them in different spots on different days, as if proof that her work was continual. "You're keeping this place well. Ready for some food?"

He let go of Pascal's leash for this. Technically, he wasn't supposed to do that by the neighborhood rules concerning dogs. But, Pascal was a good dog, well trained. He wouldn't go far. Kazuya got the bag of cat kibble from his bag and placed some in her bowl. As this place didn't have running water, he also had to bring some water from home to rinse out her water bowl and refill it. He didn't mind the effort; she was a good cat, much like Pascal.

A tone went off in his head, right before there was a hiss from Nan and a bark from Pascal. Nan and Pascal were used to each other; they even played a bit some days. Then this was…

A beep came from his comp as well, a sound he wasn't used to. Kazuya looked over and saw a strange violet-skinned creature reach a bony long arm out to Nan's food dish. Of course, Nan was having none of that and smacked the hand away from her kibble. The pot-bellied creature whimpered and pulled back, but kept its eyes on the food. Nearby, Pascal was growling, but holding off on attacking while the creature wasn't. There was also an uncertainty to his ears; he didn't know what it was.

"A gaki?" Kazuya said quietly, then opened up his comp. The demon summoning program was active now and while the colors were bad and barely readable, it confirmed that he was in the presence of two demons: a gaki and a nekomata. Wait, that latter one… he glanced back at Nan. Somehow, he'd missed that the end of her tail was now forked; she looked like an ordinary calico cat otherwise.

The program was now running dialog from the demons. 'Away you, scram!' the nekomata… Nan said.

'Hungry, smell nice,' the gaki said.

'Bowwow!' That was from Pascal, who clearly couldn't be a demon.

There was a menu to attempt communicating with the demons. Did it have headset capabilities? The interface was sluggish, but he found headset options and activated that. He got out the headset to attach to his ear. There was a hissing, but a computerized voice came from it. "Please?" According to the screen, this was the gaki. Somehow, he'd activated a mood option, which said that the gaki was nervous and weak.

"Hey, don't bother Nan while she's eating," Kazuya said into the headset. The mood option interpreted him as being lightly scolding.

Both the gaki and Nan looked up to him in surprise. Even Pascal stopped growling and pricked his ears up towards him. So, maybe this did have some effect on animals too. "B-but, food," the gaki said, hungry.

It wasn't near segaki day, but these were tormented souls who could never fulfill their hunger themselves. "Here, I can give you some kibble for yourself," Kazuya said, opening the bag up to grab a small handful. He then crouched down and set the kibble on the broken sidewalk between them. Even if it was just a gaki, he was still wary of getting his fingers too close to it.

"Food!" The gaki crawled over, reached out, paused a moment to look up at him. Kazuya nodded, so it began greedily eating the kibble.

"Good, leave me to my eating," Nan said, then settled back over her dish.

Once the gaki was done, it rubbed its mouth with the back of its hand; something cracked, like a knuckle being put back in place. "Nice person, nice," it said, contented. "You summoner?"

"Apparently, so," Kazuya said, still working through the menus. Ah, there was the e-manual, not exactly in an intuitive place. That didn't help when there were so many menus here. Was there an option to change the color scheme? That was rather hideous in his opinon.

"Must thank you, mm, work for you?" the gaki offered. The program popped up a message asking if he wanted to form a contract with this demon.

A gaki couldn't offer much, but it'd be a start. "Sure, let me figure this out first," Kazuya said, telling it to accept the offer of contract. Some numbers were highlighted, available MAG vs required MAG. But it seemed the gaki required very little MAG, whatever that was. Digital lines appeared around the gaki; it tried to touch one right before it vanished. The program claimed that the contract was successfully made.

He sat down on the sidewalk to work this out. The manual had instructions that made some sense of things. MAG stood for magnetite, something that was required for demons, like a food resource. If a summoner was out of MAG, the demons under their command would lose health until they passed out. The program didn't explain what magnetite actually was, but he seemed to have a good stock already. Maybe it was the battery power of his comp?

After reading the manual, he found out how to actually summon the gaki. It was as simple as pressing a button on the touchscreen… and yet not because there were two menus to get through to that and a confirmation pop-up. The digital lines appeared in the air again and the gaki was back with them. "Huh? Strange summoner."

"It's new technology," Kazuya said. "And I'm still learning it. Were you okay?"

"Yes, gaki had better place than normal," it said, its mood being good. "Um, gaki new to summons too. Try hard."

"We'll figure this out together then," he said.

Meanwhile, Nan had stopped eating to clean her face. "Relying on a gaki then?" she asked, noted as being smug and jealous. "I suppose that's fine for a novice, but that one won't take you far."

"Have to start somewhere," Kazuya said. "Although it surprises me that we can talk like this. I never expected you'd turn out to be a nekomata."

"Actually, neither had I," she said, rubbing her paw against her left eye. "But something changed today, and here I am, a demon. It doesn't seem that bad, really. Those mice are going to wish they'd never been born."

He chuckled. "I'm sure of that." Trying out another menu within a menu within a menu, he found an option to contact Steven for feedback. "All right, I can tell this guy that his interface is an absolute mess," he said to himself. "Let's see what else I might have to say."

It took some time, during which Nan continued to clean, the gaki investigated the overgrown grass, and Pascal decided to sniff around. Kazuya finally had a good first hand look at this program to make a critique out of, and sent that off to Steven. This kind of thing happened, when sometimes a program's first users ended up as beta testers. Given that it was freeware, that was most likely the case. He sent the mail off, then thought again about the strange new shrine.

"You're a kind young man, Kazuya," someone said behind him.

He looked up and saw an old man in monk's garb standing there in the old shrine, some hedge clippers in hand. "Oh, I'm just helping out," he said, getting up so he didn't seem disrespectful. "Are you the new priest for this place? I hadn't expected to see anyone until tomorrow at least, because of the blockades on travel."

"I'm actually working at the one back there," the old monk said, gesturing to the new place. "But since this is here and no one attends to it, I felt I may as well look after it too."

"I see. The previous priest here died a month back and we've had some trouble getting a new one." He then gestured to the calico nekomata. "And this is Nan, she takes care of the mice here. I've been coming by to make sure she's taken care of, but I've got school and a job to keep up with."

"I always felt I protected this place from bad spirits," Nan said. "I suppose that means I really can do that now, and have to if things like this gaki are going to show up and steal food."

"Was hungry, not hungry now," the gaki said.

"Good to know you have that taken care of, Nan," the monk said, giving the nekomata a bow. "And I meant that you were kind as you would offer food to a gaki, without hesitation."

"It seemed right," Kazuya said. "Well then, when did that new place appear? I haven't heard anything about that, and there's usually lots of gossip about what's going on in this neighborhood."

The monk gestured to the hedges. "One could say that it has always been there, only the path has not been opened until today. Great changes have occurred in the world just a few hours ago. The opening of the path is a sign, one could say."

"So then demons are really going to be invading our world?" he asked, concerned about that. Was his mother going to be okay?

"They're already coming in," the monk said. Although now that he thought of it, this monk couldn't be anyone normal either. "I'm sorry, but I must ask that you keep away from the main shrine under my care for today. We were not expecting this opening either and must prepare. But starting tomorrow afternoon, come back and see what we can offer you. Especially as a summoner; what lies there will be of great value to you."

"All right," he said. "I'll just head back home with my dog then, and this gaki."

"But first, I have a feeling about you," the monk said, reaching into a pocket and pulling something out: two small apples that had strangely shimmering skin. Like, polished gold. "You are very close to someone, yes?"

"Yes," he said. At this point, he realized that a melody had been playing softly in his mind this whole time. It only now became something noticeable. It was calm, and something felt right about it.

"Times ahead will be turbulent," the monk warned. "Especially for you; you've already been noticed. This world has been in a good state of balance for many years, enough that the shrine back there was able to remain hidden. But the forces of law and chaos will be quick to take advantage of what has occurred today. The world's balance is already slipping, which could lead to war and tyranny. Would you like to have influence over what the future may bring? Someone kind like you could bring the world back in balance, back to peace for humanity."

This was a day that was radically changing his whole life, that was unquestionable. At the same time, the answer he wanted to give felt unquestionable too. "Yes, if I could keep this demonic invasion from harming others, I'd like to do something about it."

The old monk smiled. "Good, then take these. Should you eat one yourself, you will be marked as a special soul. People will listen to you, and believe you more easily. It will bring you many trials. Thus, should you give the other to your beloved to eat, she will be able to help and support you in these times. It may even save her soul's fate in time."

He didn't want to put Yuka in danger. But then again, she would be able to take care of herself. "All right, thank you."

"I'll see you tomorrow then," the monk said, then turned his attention to trimming the sprawling vines around this shrine.

"Will you still visit me, Kazuya?" Nan asked, stopping her cleaning to look up at him.

"Sure, I'd like that," he said, reaching down to scratch her head before heading back.

"Good," she said, purring.

As he didn't want to startle others, he recalled the gaki so it was just him and Pascal walking back home. He didn't see any more demons along the way. But, it felt like things had already changed. He set one apple in his bag, then ate the other one before he got back. It was crisp and sweet, some delicately fragrant juice coming from the flesh. While it was one of the better apples he'd tasted, he didn't notice anything particularly special beyond the oddly golden skin.

The evening went by as usual, Pascal keeping him company while he worked on school work. But as he was getting ready for bed, his comp on the table gave him an alert that he had a new message. It was about time he normally silenced it so such things didn't bother him while he slept. Since it might be from Yuka, he went ahead and opened it up to see what it was.

Not Yuka, but that Steven. 'Thank you for your thorough critique; I hadn't thought the interface would be a problem. However, that should be easily correctable and I'll have an updated version shortly. You're the first who installed and used this initial version to reply back, so it is very helpful. In the meantime, I am working on two updates: an automapper feature and an electronic item storage. I would appreciate your feedback on those as well, so I will send you what I have prepared now. They should be usable, but I would advise not placing anything valuable in the storage feature until we are certain it functions properly.'

"An automapper would help someone like Mom immensely," Kazuya said to himself. "And electronic item storage… damn, that would be revolutionary. Would help cut down on the weight of my school supplies." He downloaded the two updates, glad to help this guy out now. He could imagine that a full version of the item storage would be expensive on first release, so getting in as a tester now was a lucky break.

He messed around with the item storage before going to bed first. It worked like summoning and recalling the gaki. After activating the program, it would bring up a list of items in view of the computer's camera, which unfortunately was a lot in his room. But he picked out some pens, pencils, and papers since they were items he could quickly replace at the mall or even the academy supply store before drills tomorrow. Kazuya then tried a plastic box of paper clips. The storage listed the box of paper clips and forty-two paper clips.

After calling out three paper clips, he sent the box out again. But something odd happened. It produced the paper clip box on his desk, full of paper clips. But it still listed that he had thirty-nine paper clips in storage. He sent one of them out, thirty-eight paper clips. Then recalled it, thirty-nine paper clips. And nothing had changed about the box on the desk, not even when he called out ten clips from storage.

"That's a weird glitch," Kazuya said. "I wonder..." he called the box back into his storage. The box returned and his paper clip count went from twenty-nine to forty-two. And there were still those thirteen paper clips on the desk. "Whoa. Guess I'll never run out of paper clips now. Some jerks might pull off dumb things with that, though, so I should tell him."

He wrote a message back to Steven. 'I'm glad to help, and thanks for letting me test these. I'll do more tomorrow once I'm out of class, but I did some messing around with the item storage. Your interface is still problematic, but I figured it out having worked with the main program already. But the colors really need to be something where the text is legible; I could manage, but I'm sure it could give some people headaches. Also, ran into a glitch that seems to give me endless paper clips. I stored the box of them first, then called out some paper clips before calling out the box. But it still listed all the paper clips, and restored the number once I called the box back. It's an oddly useful glitch, but it could cause problems. Is there a way of sending you a log of my activity, or can you get that yourself?'

With that sent off, he shut off the sound to the comp and headed for bed. This had been one crazy day, but if what the monk said was right, it was only the start.