Yet another fic. Though this time it's probably in a fandom not that well-known. I don't know how many of you have played Devil Survivor, but I've played the original version (without overclock) at least a few dozen times and yes, I've gotten all the endings. :P (I'm fussy like that) This is as close to an original story as I've ever gotten, because mostly I'm going to be focusing on the OC instead of the canon main characters and friends. She will not be affecting the story a lot.
"Here," the strange man pushed the COMP into her hand with that perfectly balanced expression of indifference and charm, "You'll need this to survive."
Before she could do more than flip the top up for a quick peek, he had walked away and disappeared into thin air despite them having been in a very empty street. She blinked at the device in her hand, peeked around for a deserted alleyway, and started fiddling with the controls.
When she had cracked the code for the purple handheld player and the 'demon summoning program' began to run, she knew that something was about to change in her normal, hum-drum life.
Thankfully, she wasn't so stunned as to freeze when Pixie tried to electrocute her with the spell she now knows as Zio, but it was a near thing. (Thank god for self-defence classes.)
It was only after, when the COMP pings and the SysAdmin sends her a mail full of cryptic non-explanations and not-so cryptic but equally creepy advertisements for the Demon Auction and Cathedral of Shadows that she realized she could very well have died.
xXXx
The funny thing about it was that she was probably one of the first people who had received a COMP, being Naoya's neighbour and all. She knew next to nothing about the man, except that he functioned on an iron-bound schedule, emerging from his apartment every day at exactly 8:00AM to get the papers from the post box and then later to the café across the road at 12:00PM sharp for lunch.
Any efforts to converse with him were met with subtle rebuffs or that cold but handsome smile, and she'd given up quickly. Instead, she simply offered a polite smile or short greeting whenever they met—that seemed to have been deemed acceptable, which meant he would at least nod back.
The other neighbour was a nosy flirt of a guy who kept trying to get an invitation to her apartment once he discovered that she was living alone. Thankfully, she had already started taking self-defence classes (she was in Advanced now) or she would have become seriously paranoid. Thus far, he hadn't tried to corner her or use anything more aggressive than words, but she'd taken to carrying a Taser and a can of pepper spray in her bag.
Ma had told her the City was rife with low-lives and thugs. In the end, she'd still gotten her way, but it didn't mean she didn't take those words to heart.
When the first rumours about the blood-stained murders started circulating the streets, though, she seriously debated skipping town. After talking it over to herself, she determined that she really wasn't cut out for country life anymore and that she really did enjoy her job here. So she pondered getting a stun gun. She could get permission for one through her self-defence teacher, but it seemed a little overzealous. The targets of the blood-stained murders were all linked to the Shibuya Daemons gang, so surely, she was at least a little safe?
In any case, she did not apply for a stun gun, to her great bitterness when Pixie attacked her, and had to use the very unwieldy makeshift weapon of her book-filled sling bag instead.
Who said nerds couldn't fight?
xXXx
The day Naoya gave her he COMP had been somewhat unusual. She'd had difficulty going to sleep the previous night, the shadows seeming darker and more sinister around her bed. The next morning had been a trial in getting up for work, but she had done so and had had a simple breakfast of coffee and toast. Then, she'd gone down to get her paper (a little earlier than Naoya so that they did not cross paths, she did not want to deal with icy looming so early in the day) and mail, checking them and seeing that she had gotten something like an invitation card to an online party.
Strange, she had thought, who sends physical mail to people for online parties? And I don't remember joining any forums.
The theme for the party was 'demons', and her curiosity had been piqued. She felt as if it may be related to the Shibuya Daemons and the blood-stained murders, which was why she had decided to check it out. But being cautious, she decided to enter via a different IP address so that they would not be able to trace her. It was probably moot since they had sent the invite directly to her home address, but she didn't want to take chances.
So she'd left for work and put it out of her mind, taking half the day off so that she could make it for the party at 2:00PM.
That was when she met Naoya.
It was a little strange, seeing him in his casual clothes and haori amongst all the formally dressed workers, but she shook it off. Her neighbour had proven himself an odd duck, but not a creepy one, and so she didn't begrudge him his strange fashion-sense. It wasn't as if it detracted from his attractiveness.
"Shizuna," he said her name for the first time, shocking her with the casual address, "Hello."
Blinking rapidly in surprise, she offered a nod, "Naoya-san."
"I'm glad to see you decided to accept the invitation," he smirk-smiled at her, easing her worries over who had gotten her address. As she sighed in relief and discreetly tucked away her Taser, he retrieved a small item from his pocket and held it out to her.
It was The COMP.
Confused, she accepted the item, but before she could utter another word, he had swept away, leaving her with the little device that would change her life.
xXXx
It was a good thing she had bought that handheld manual charger from Akihabara beforehand, Shizuna thought as she charged her COMP gingerly in the relatively safe darkness of her apartment. When her perverted neighbour met his demise at the hands of what was probably a summoned demon, she could only breathe in relief that it had not been her.
It was very fortunate that her COMP had summoned Pixie instead of Ogre. She would not have survived otherwise.
Or perhaps that was what Naoya had intended…
The strange thing was that the summoned demon had disappeared without a trace, even though she now knew from experience that demons did not disappear unless defeated. In the month that she had received her COMP, she had graduated from using Pixie to Sarasvati and Angel. While she tried not to judge based on looks alone, she had to admit that the more human-looking demons were easier to deal with. There were a few exceptions, but she favoured the divine, goddess, fairy and femme races. She'd heard that there were male deities, but so far, she hadn't been able to discover the formula.
One of the reasons why she had progressed so slowly was because she wanted to be careful with the demons in her repertoire. She knew that she could possibly mix her demons randomly and produce powerful ones through the Cathedral of Shadows, but she didn't dare overreach herself. If she summoned something much more powerful than her spells or current demons, there was no telling whether it would comply with her orders or simply kill her.
While some could be reasoned with or bribed with enough macca, she had nearly been eaten by Garm and her first time with a Waira had resulted in near-strangulation.
That hadn't endeared the more bestial races to her at all.
Still, Hairy Jack remains in her team because he is strong enough to carry her and run, and she supposes that he is rather cute as long as she feeds him (raw chicken or beef, no pork). Unlike Garm, who looks exactly like what she thinks a hellhound should look, Jack simply resembles a very large and furry breed of dog. Except when he bats at something with his claws and you rediscover that he can cave a person's head in with ease.
There are levels to a demon's strength, kind of like in RPG games, but there seems to be no fixed formula. She can't calculate how much experience is needed, because each demon seems to progress on their own terms. She supposes it would be much like growing up, being as even Garm started getting smarter (and more grammatically correct) as he levelled up. She tried to expose her team to as much battle as possible, because even if she's just a skinny office girl with a (slight) programming hobby, she knows that something is up.
Naoya is preparing for something.
She'd been seeing him out of his apartment more, but they spoke as much as they used to. Which is not at all and thus, they didn't mention the COMP. She wanted to run up to him, grab him by his ridiculously flashy haori and ask him what he's doing, but she has common sense enough to know that if he could give her something so dangerous, he must have more up his loose sleeves.
She doesn't really want to know what those are.
She just wants to survive, much like what everybody nowadays wants.
As COMPs become more widespread and demon trainers become the norm, she ducks in and out of buildings in varying states of disrepair. The gangs have picked up on the power COMPs give, and like all power-grubbing humans it goes to their heads. Certain office workers have also picked them up—to her surprise—and lo and behold, the effect was the same. Everyone has abandoned the veneer of justification by now, the truly kind-hearted shining amidst the midden of greed.
She's half and half. Hopefully.
She keeps her greed to herself and does not flaunt the power of her demons. It is an added security that she cherishes, and a little secret to hold above everyone's heads. She's sure that she's one of the first few, and she has knowledge that most do not have. She does not want to share, and she has had time to come to terms with her power within the confines of the law.
xXXx
Strangely enough, she hears whisper of a 'Death Clock' around the city amongst the demon trainers. From what little she can glean, it's a floating number above their heads that counts down the days to their demise. More digging reveals a fixed time for most of them, and six days is the maximum that anyone within the city has.
Everyone except her.
It's a little strange, seeing as the only people without a countdown are normal civilians—a trait that has worked in her favour—and those were assumed to simply not know that they were about to die.
She wonders what the lack of number means. That she will survive this apparent doomsday or if her COMP model is an older version that lacks her clock and relegates her to blissful ignorance. By now, she has amassed quite the collection of demons, and they all average level 50—she had sped up her regime in this time of need.
The angels in her service tell her nothing but praises to the Lord. The goddesses praise themselves or whatever virtue they represent. Her one deity, Mahakala, espouses the speed of his arms and the keenness of his blades.
On the flip side, her more insidious demons share better information. Perhaps in attempts to mislead her or strike better deals for themselves, they would whisper in her ear of plots and God and the Old Testament. Everything was cryptic and suspicious, but it was what she had and it wasn't like she was going to make a target of herself.
A group of teenagers have been getting famous for their selfless saving of civilians. Within the last three days they seemed to have climbed to power at an incredible rate, making her slow ascent almost moot. Everybody else seemed to be getting stronger at a ridiculous pace, and even though they could not have held a COMP for longer than her, their demons are on par with hers in level.
But not in real life experience.
In comparison to the furious buy-up of auction demons, even high levelled ones, her demons had grown and been mixed from demons she'd had with her for nearly 3 months. There seemed to be some carryover of memories, and a greater respect to their summoner. She'd proven her ability to command them in a battle and even the minutest vestiges of her former summons remembered that. Demons she fused were always stronger than the 'standard' type she bought at the Auction, and they listened better.
Surprisingly, she would find previously-owned demons up for auctions. These were better material than regular ones and listened to a human easier, but went for rather outrageous prices. Prices she could afford, yes, she'd accumulated a fortune in macca, but the thought of giving another summoner the ability to buy other, stronger demons was galling.
The biggest problem, though, was information. The demons she fused didn't know any more than she did. Only auction 'standard' demons had fresh knowledge from wherever they had been previously and it was always difficult to get them to share with her.
It was infuriating, given how far she had gotten.
xXXx
She'd been approached by the Shomonkai…or rather, a renegade branch of the Shomonkai that had succumbed to their greed for power and decided to menace other demon summoners to either join them or hand over their COMPs. Nowadays it wasn't that hard to identify a demon summoner—they were usually the only ones walking about with confidence. She hadn't managed to completely avoid battles, but so far she had thought she'd gone under the radar—mostly by using less 'rare' demons.
After fusing her fifth Sarasvati for Suparna, she'd realized that she couldn't re-fuse another Sarasvati. Despite having the required demons, the COMP had declared that an error had occurred in the fusion process. She'd ended up getting Lilim instead, which wasn't too bad, but still not within her calculations. Which was bad, because the demons she wanted required a goddess to fuse. With one unavailable to her, she'd had difficulties finessing out another formula with which to fuse. To her horror, Kikuri-hime and Lakshmi soon became unavailable too.
That left her with Brigid, whom she actually liked quite a bit, but who wasn't powerful enough to draw out what she wanted.
On the other hand, there was Norn. Or rather, 'are'. Norn could be fused more than once. In fact, she could have several Norns in her COMP at the same time. Strange, perhaps, but not really once she realized that 'Norn' referred to more than one goddess in Norse myth.
However, Norn was—are—finicky.
Sometimes they liked her, sometimes they didn't. Sometimes they went quietly to be fused, whilst other times they protested so vehemently she feared she'd be smote to death by the wrath of an angry goddess. Sometimes they interacted with one another amiably…sometimes keeping two Norn apart was more work than a hundred battles.
And the most annoying part was how difficult it was to get ingredients to fuse them.
At level 63 upon fusion, Norns were probably rather high-up on the demon ladder. Being a goddess, she was several times more powerful than other races. Shizuna had cracked several skills in battle, but she had yet to find someone with Prayer. And unfortunately, she had a feeling she'd be needing Prayer very soon.
Like…right now. Goddammit.
And...that's a wrap. I'm not sure when I'll update this story, because I haven't played Devil Survivor in quite awhile...in any case, I hope this infects you guys with it, though this only pertains to Devil Survivor and not any other versions. (Tbh, I played the multiplayer version of Megami Tensei and it was...boring.)
I think I just liked the fact that there were so many mythologies to play with. :D So many different goddesses! So many different Angels! So many different Jacks! (Lololol)
Memory25