Hari woke up at the break of dawn, ready for the day that would soon come.

According to the private tutor his Aunt Rose had hired for him, he had already achieved a level where he could sit any of the exams on magic and pass… sure there were some that he would barely pass and others he would excel at but that didn't really matter to him.

All that mattered was that he knew how to make things easier for him and his family and knew enough about protecting himself that he wouldn't have to worry too much about any of these psycho's that might be after him.

Besides, all he really needed was to get in close to them, knowing that these people only cared for magic meant that he had started learning Kendo, Jiu Jitsu and some Karate since he was young.

Sure he wasn't even at a national level in any of those sports but that didn't matter when his enemies were pretty much useless in hand to hand combat and relied on a small stick to do everything for them.

Still, none of that really mattered in the end.

All that mattered was that it was the summer holidays and he was going to go and see Naoya with Yuzu and Atsuro.

He idly wondered if his cousin was planning anything for missing his seventeenth birthday half a month ago.

There had been times over the years when wizards had popped around to try and take him to Hogwarts, however they were all firmly denied by both his aunt and himself.

There had been a time when one of them, a greasy man with black hair and a permanent sneer plastered on his face, had tried to force him to go there but thankfully his tutor had been around at the time and managed to fend the man off before reporting the incident to the magical government.

He hadn't heard anything else after that so he was assuming the annoyances had been dealt with.

It didn't take long for him to lean out of his bed and grab his glasses before pulling on a pair of black trousers and a red shirt before putting on a black jacket and slinging the headphones he had gotten off Naoya around his neck and plugging them into his MP3 player.

After that though he found himself heading towards the kitchen and pulling out his wand, he honestly couldn't remember what it was made of but knew it wasn't the best wand but it worked and that was all that really mattered to him.

With a simple swish of his wand, breakfast started to dance around the kitchen and make itself for him, quickly seating itself before him as he took a seat at the table opposite his aunt and uncle.

"Good morning," his greeting was lazy but still tinged with warmth as he watched the morning meal take its place before him.

"Good morning Hari," the two adults replied with ease, it had taken them a little longer than he expected to get used to watching things dance around on their own but that was a time that had long passed.

He knew they both had work and would be leaving soon but that didn't really matter to him, he wasn't going to be staying long either so it wasn't like he was going to be alone all day.

And even if he was, he could simply catch up on all the series he was watching now.

Time flew by as his aunt and uncle left the house and he kept an eye on the clock as he returned to his room to play a catch up on a few episodes of the anime he was following, before he would prepare himself to leave and meet with Yuzu and Atsuro just as they had planned just the previous night.

Of course, it was only natural that he would lose track of time if he did too much, so he decided to simply leave early and waste some time in the city.

He didn't bother taking his jacket off upon seeing the sun shine down, instead he simply applied a cooling charm and went on his way… he didn't want to be caught out if it decided to rain all of a sudden.

XXX XXX XXX

Hari didn't bother when he noted the stares he was getting along the street, then again he knew that most people would consider his clothing choice strange for the weather before dismissing it as him just being a teenager.

It didn't take him long to find the meeting place and lean against a wall as he closed his eyes and simply listened to the tunes on his MP3 player.

"Hey Hari!" he perked up upon hearing one of his oldest friends call out over his headphones, "real nice of Naoya to make us meet him outside on a hot day like this isn't it?"

Hari found himself simply offering a small smile at the sarcastic remark, knowing that the other boy didn't really mean any of it.

"So how's your summer been? We usually meet at school so it feels like it's been forever," Hari couldn't agree more with the boy that was currently wearing a blue t-shirt and a white hat and was carrying a laptop, sure they had met several times over the holiday but given that they normally met six days a week, even a week of not seeing each other felt much longer than it actually was, "is everything good?"

"Yeah," his response was said calmly but Atsuro took it much more enthusiastically than a normal person would've.

"That's the Hari I know! Young guys like us need to be full of energy!" the other boy said with an energetic smile, "still, I couldn't think of anything to do so I spent all day on my laptop haha!"

"I just got caught up on a couple of series," he admitted with a shrug, he knew that Atsuro was the sort that avoided doing anything if he could but he was a prodigy when it came to dealing with computers… well, not as much of a prodigy as Naoya but his cousin was scarily good at everything, including any magic he read up on.

Sure he couldn't perform any of the spells but he was so well versed on the theory that he would be capable of passing all the written exams without exception.

"Really? Man we really need to get better hobbies," he couldn't stop himself from laughing at that claim… mainly because he knew the other teen was joking, there was no way he'd cut back on his computer time unless he had no other choice.

"There you guys are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Hari simply looked over towards the voice and waved at the incoming girl.

If anyone was to ask him what his relationship with Yuzu was, he would respond with 'childhood friend' as that was the most accurate description of their relationship… however if anyone was to ask him if he thought she was cute, he wouldn't bother hesitating in answering yes.

Especially seeing her dressed like she currently was, with a blue miniskirt, a backless pink shirt that showed off her blue and white striped bra while her auburn hair was kept in check by a pink bandana with a floral pattern… it also didn't hurt that he found her red eyes rather alluring, though Atsuro and some other people were more focused on her chest area, given how she was easily the most well developed girl in their year.

"Hey, here comes Sodeko!" Hari found himself releasing a sigh of exasperation as he knew just how this meeting would turn out now.

"Don't call me Sodeko!" yeah, Yuzu never liked being called that, especially when Atsuro had used it so much that even some teachers thought her name actually was Sodeko, "my name is Yuzu! Will you stop calling me that stupid nickname?! Even boys at school call me that and it's all your fault!"

"Hehe, it's not that bad is it?" Atsuro definitely didn't sound sorry about it, "it's a friendly nickname. And it's not just the class, some of the teacher actually think your name is Sodeko."

"That's because people like you keep calling me that!" she did not sound happy but then again, this was probably the fiftieth time this year he'd heard this conversation.

"Haha, it's working," the other boy definitely sounded amused by the situation but Hari simply decided to cut in there.

"Hey Yuzu, do you know where Naoya is?" the question made her perk up a little.

"Oh, that's right," she seemed to forget all about the previous argument but then again, that was basically a standard procedure by now, "I ran into Naoya a moment ago and he asked me to give these to you guys, he said that something's come up and he won't be able to make it."

"Aww, what's up with that? Naoya stood us up! Wait, what did he want you to give us?" the boy in blue said but Harry was more concerned about the simple fact that something didn't feel right.

Naoya never stood him up.

Sure there were times when his cousin would act distant and sometimes deny spending time together, but he never made plans to spend a day together and then go back on them.

"Here, take them, they were a pain to carry around in my bag too," the auburn haired girl said as she opened her bag and pulled out three portable game consoles.

"Naoya gave you these?" he didn't understand why his cousin would pass on a few consoles to them.

"Yep, aren't these those Communication Player things?" she asked and he simply nodded, "I've seen commercials for them before, they're like 'play with people around the world'."

He simply released a sigh, it wasn't exactly anything special anymore to communicate or play with people around the world.

"Oh, you know about them Sodeko? That's exactly what these are," Atsuro was far more impressed with Yuzu's knowledge but then again, they both knew that Yuzu was nowhere near their level of literacy in technology, "the name 'Communication Player' is a real mouthful, so most people just call them COMPs, they have email and web browsers so they're more like cellphones than game systems."

"Huh… is that so?" honestly Yuzu didn't sound all that impressed, "Naoya said 'You'll all need these, don't let go of them'."

That settled it, Naoya wouldn't say that they 'needed' them unless it was something serious, the real question though was 'what was going on?'

His mind froze as he noted a possibility.

Naoya had given them something for keeping in touch and had made sure they were out of their homes by the evening… was it possible those… what were they called? Four to send? No, that wasn't right… ah that was it, Death Eaters, had actually managed to find him?

"Eh? 'You'll all need…?' well there are three of them," Atsuro sounded confused about the situation as well, "still, why would we need these? I mean I've got a COMP back at my own… huh?"

Harry found himself growing more concerned when the blue dressed teen opened one of them and started to stare in wonder.

"What the? I've never seen this menu, did he homebrew this?" that made him pause. He knew just how ludicrously talented Naoya was, honestly he didn't know if there was anything his cousin couldn't do… so the first thing to pop into his head was pretty simple… had Naoya figured out how to science magic?

"What? You mean he made this himself? Is that even possible?" Hari decided to answer it for her.

"I don't know if there is anything Naoya can't do," he knew that normally that would be taken as overestimating your family but he really couldn't think of anything Naoya couldn't do except use magic himself.

"Yeah, Naoya's famous amongst programmers, he's a genius," the most computer literate among the group stated enthusiastically, "something like this would be no problem for him."

"Uh… okay," apparently both of their claims worked to make her accept it rather quickly.

"Hmm… I can't open this folder, looks like it's protected," Atsuro muttered as he continued to analyse the system.

"Protected?" Yuzu sounded confused but carried on anyway, "you mean it's set so other people can't mess with it? We can't look inside then."

"Please, Naoya taught Atsuro everything he knows, there's no way he can't crack it," Hari stated with a grin at the other boy.

"Heh heh, that's right, good thing I brought my laptop along," the boy with a white hat claimed, then again, they both knew that this was probably just some test from Naoya.

And Hari came to another conclusion… whatever was in that locked folder was important.

It didn't take long for Atsuro to connect the COMPs to his laptop and start readying himself to hack it.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" the only girl in the group asked before looking towards Atsuro.

"Don't worry, Naoya taught Atsuro how to hack, he wouldn't encrypt a folder without expecting him to try and crack it," it was a simple explanation and she seemed to accept it.

"All right, I guess I'll just have to trust you," she accepted before relaxing slightly.

"Heh heh, yeah it's fine, I'll get this open in no time at all," the hacker of the group stated happily, "now let's have a look here… what's his encryption scheme this time? Heh heh, isn't this intense?!"

"No, only someone like you would find this exciting Atsuro," Hari found himself agreeing with Yuzu's claim, then again, he wasn't the one trying to hack into the system so he didn't know enough to say anything about how serious it was.

"Hrrmmm… Ah, there we go!" and with that a beep came from the three devices, "well, you can at least check your mail now, here, these are yours."

And with that the boy with the white cap gave two of the three COMPs to them and the first thing he noticed was the email that was already up on the screen, from someone called 'The Observer' with the topic 'Laplace Mail'.

Good morning/ Here is today's NEWS.

1. At around 16:00, a man will be killed in a Shibuya-ku Aoyama apartment. The wounds on the corpse are consistent with an attack by a large carnivorous beast.

2. A large explosion will occur in Minato-ku Aoyama at 19:00. The cause is unknown.

3. At 21:00, a blackout will affect the entire Tokyo metropolitan area.

Have a nice day.

The first thing that Harry noted was that the email highlighted certain words and then the next thing he noted was the tense.

It was mentioning things that apparently would happen and the times at which they were expected.

Silently he wondered just what Naoya was playing at.

"At around 16:00, in Shibuya-ku Aoyama, a man… will be killed?!" Yuzu definitely didn't sound happy with the email, "he'll be attacked by some carnivorous beast... what kind of news is this? That's so creepy."

"The part I'm worried about is the tense," Hari admitted.

"Yeah, you've got a point, it says it's today's news but none of it has happened yet," Atsuro said in agreement, "why would Naoya put a lock on this…? Ooh! Maybe it's code for something! Aoyama… Aoyama… Naoya's place is near there but is that important?"

"That's enough! This is way too creepy!" Yuzu demanded, "I bet Naoya did this because he knew you would tinker with the COMPs… it's probably just some trick."

"I don't know, Naoya is amazingly smart, so I think he must have meant for this to happen," Atsuro stated with a thoughtful expression, "hmm… I can't figure it out from just this. I'll try the rest of these files too."

"I'm worried, it isn't like Naoya to put something in to scare anyone…" Hari found himself admitting with a frown.

"Yeah, anyway, I'm going to find somewhere to think, this heat is killing me… seriously, how do you always walk around in that jacket?" Hari found himself smirking at Atsuro's question, especially given just how often he was asked it.

"It's a cool jacket," he smirked at Atsuro's sigh of exasperation.

"Come on Hari, that joke got old after the first ten times," Yuzu did not sound impressed by it either but in the end, he was actually being serious, with the cooling charm he put on it, it really was a cool coat.

"Anyway, why don't you two go and kill some time, you can take the COMPs with you, some of their functions work so you might as well try them out, see ya later okay?," and with that Atsuro started to look around for somewhere to work.

"I bet it's all just a prank, Atsuro always acts like such a kid with stuff like this," Yuzu said with clear annoyance in her tone.

Honestly, Hari just hoped she was right.

"Um… what should we do?" he noted the nervousness in her voice as she asked that, "why don't we wander around until Atsuro's done?"

"All right, let's go and kill some time," and with a smile they proceeded to walk the streets.

XXX XXX XXX

The crowd was bustling just as he expected from Shinjuku, especially Kannagi-cho as the two walked along the street.

"Now… what should we do? Wanna go watch a movie or do some Karaoke?" Yuzu asked as they made their way along the street and towards nowhere in particular, "hmm… Atsuro might call us so we should go somewhere with cellphone reception."

Hari nodded at that claim before his eyes were drawn toward a group of people wearing orange robes with hoods that shadowed their faces… however it was the unnatural feeling he got off the shadowy hoods that made him really pay attention.

He could feel that they were unnatural from the pieces of dark magic Naoya had somehow managed to get his hands on, however at the same time he couldn't feel any actual magic involved in the shadows.

His heart quickly started to beat faster than normal at that sensation.

However there was one that wasn't shadowed and he was standing on a podium and making a speech to the general populace.

"And lo, the smiting from God against the tower of Babel returns!" the man didn't wear a hood, which allowed Hari to note his sharp features and greyish blue hair.

"Oh… man… what's with that bunch of weirdos?" Yuzu asked from beside him and Hari found himself wondering the same thing.

"Now, along with our Shomonkai, let us bring the world together," the man stated grandiosely, "with the power of the internet, the world will be as one once more!"

"The 'power of the internet' huh? Gimme a break… are you interested in this Hari?" she asked him with a hint of annoyance in her tone.

"I'm more worried about what sort of nutjobs they managed to indoctrinate," he stated bluntly, earning a small laugh at his claim.

"Yeah, just how nuts do you have to be to wear clothes like that?" she responded easily, "but… it is nice how the internet lets you connect with the world, but all this stuff about gods and bringing the world together… I don't know."

"True, but let's just get out of here before these nutjobs try and brainwash us," he found himself saying before taking her hand and leading her away.

"Y-yeah," she said as they started to leave, only hearing a little more of the speech being given.

"For these next three days, believers in the power of the internet will gather in Tokyo, all members are welcome to take part," the man continued, "believe in His Majesty and prepare for the ordeal. That is when we shall…"

And with that, the duo finally left the area.

XXX XXX XXX

"The stores around here are really fashionable," Yuzu was practically gushing as they walked around Omotesando, "they're all, like, so mature, y'know?"

He wasn't really surprised by her current behaviour, he could tell that the fashion in the shop windows was top of the range, though it certainly wasn't to his taste, he much preferred the casual look.

"I used to go to Harajuku all the time but I always wanted to fit in at Omotesando," she admitted to him before calming down a little, "hey, do you think I stick out like a sore thumb here?"

"Nah, you fit right in," it wasn't quite true, she was dressed in a casual manner that suited her while most of the fashion there struck him as rather pretentious.

"No way, really?! Aww, thanks!" she definitely seemed happy at that response and he just gave her a relaxed smile, "still, don't you think that Harajuku and Omotesando have different images? Omotesando feels more like Aoyama's style than Harajuku's… speaking of Aoyama…"

"It's half four," he stated knowing what she was going to ask, "if that email was right then we should be hearing about it soon."

He could see her shiver at the reminder of the Laplace Mail as it called itself.

"Yeah, let's just hope nothing happens," she stated before the sound of sirens reached their ears as several police cars came racing down the street and towards Aoyama.

"Those police cars…" Yuzu started before Harry grabbed her hand yet again.

"Come on, we need to know if it actually happened," he stated seriously as they made their way after the cars.

"B-but there is no way its true right?" she asked as they continued to move.

"Except Naoya's apartment is there," he stated bluntly, causing a look of realisation to dawn on her face, "he could know something about what happened."

"O-oh, yeah, then let's hurry," and with that she started moving quicker.

He just hoped they could meet Naoya there… there was no way the man wouldn't know what was going on.

And so they continued to rush towards his cousin's apartment, hoping they would catch Hari's brother figure.

XXX XXX XXX

Hari wasn't surprised when he saw the police entering the apartment complex Naoya lived in, he had had a hunch they would be before arriving after all.

Naturally there was a police cordon preventing the crowd that had gathered from getting too close to what was obviously an investigation.

On the other hand, he wasn't even remotely surprised by the person that walked over to them almost immediately after they arrived.

"Naoya?!" Yuzu sounded surprised to see his cousin, though he himself wasn't.

"I'm surprised to see you Hari, what are you doing here?" he asked and Hari found himself narrowing his eyes at the man.

"And I'm surprised you think I'll believe you're surprised to see me," he stated in response, earning a look of surprise off Yuzu in the process, "you knew we'd be here, you're always predicting everyone's moves after all."

"Wait, Hari what are you talking about?" Yuzu sounded shocked by his statement but he knew his cousin, the man may not have studied divination but he'd seen him interact with everyone enough to tell the man was always calculating what they were going to say ten steps before they did.

"I find it hard to believe he didn't expect us to show up here after he sent that mail to us," the look of realisation that crossed his childhood friends face made it clear she was now realising just how obvious their presence was.

"Yeah, what was that creepy email about anyway?!" now that she was being reminded of the mail, she seemed far angrier at Naoya than before, then again, he couldn't blame her, especially given how it seemed like it might have come true.

"Sorry about that," Naoya answered apologetically, "I didn't mean to scare you."

Hari just knew that the man was being honest this time, he really didn't mean to scare them but then, what was the purpose of that email?

"Though I think you should know that the person who was eaten was a student, like yourselves, he lived next door to me," the older man informed them easily and Hari found himself thinking back on all those times he had seen his cousin with books on dark magic, clearly the oldest of the group was far more attuned to things like this than they were.

"He was eaten? No way!" the auburn haired girl repeated in shock at the claim and Hari found himself thinking on the situation, "is what that email said really true?! But, we got the email before the incident happened… what does this mean Hari?!"

"It means Naoya knew it was going to happen but didn't do anything to stop it," he spelled out with a hint of anger in his tone.

"My neighbour may have been a student, but outside of school he was a Hikikomori, he wouldn't have listened to me anyway," the oldest among them informed them easily, "and it's not like the police would come over a mere suspicion about something like that either."

Hari found himself frowning as his instincts told him that the older man wasn't telling them everything, even if they were also telling him that the man wasn't outright lying.

"Still, I understand why you two came here but our meeting here is an accident," the older man continued, "we shouldn't be talking like this… hurry and find Atsuro immediately, it's going to begin soon."

"Begin? What are you talking about?" the girl in pink asked in confusion only for Naoya to turn away.

"There isn't much time left, listen carefully to me, both of you," the grey haired man stated seriously, "do not turn away from what is about to happen now, do not be afraid to stand up against it. That is when the door of truth will open… overcome your fate."

And with that, the oldest of the three started to walk away.

"Oh! Wait a second!" Yuzu called out before the man disappeared into the crowd, "… he's gone. Something didn't seem right with him huh? I wonder what's wrong."

Just after she said that, Hari found himself reaching for his cellphone upon it starting to ring and looking at the caller ID to see Atsuro's name on the screen before he answered the phone.

"Yo, I figured out how to crack the encryption on those COMP's!" his friends voice called out jovially, "I need yours so I can unlock them, meet me in front of the Electric Museum in Shibuya!"

And with that, the excitable hacker hung up.

"Um… why don't we meet up with Atsuro?" Yuzu certainly didn't sound happy, "I'm all confused from everything that's happened so suddenly… maybe Atsuro's figured something out on his end!"

"All right, let's go," and with that he put his arm around her and gave what he hoped was a comforting squeeze before they headed back towards Shibuya to meet up with the last member of their merry little gang.

XXX XXX XXX

"Yo, what took you guys so long? How far away did you go when you were killing time?" Atsuro asked upon seeing them arrive, though Hari was rather glad that they had separated otherwise the other boy would probably come to a wrong conclusion about why they were walking the way they had started.

"We went to Naoya's place," he admitted as easily as he could.

"Huh?! You guys went to see Naoya?" the boy in blue sounded surprised by that claim.

"Oh yeah… well…" Yuzu clearly didn't know how to break it to the other boy so Hari decided to intervene.

"Naoya's neighbour was eaten by some sort of beast, just like the email said" he stated as simply as he could, earning a look of shock off the hacker, "and on top of that, Naoya was acting suspiciously and talking cryptically."

"Wait, what? Are you saying that the email actually came true?" the hacker sounded rather surprised by that but he quickly recovered, "hmm… anyway, if you ran into Naoya then why didn't you call me? I had some stuff to ask him."

"Do you mean on top of the fact the email came true, Naoya was acting weirder than usual and that we didn't really have a chance to call you up before he left?" Hari found himself asking bluntly, earning a sheepish look off the other boy.

"Heh heh, sorry, guess bringing it up now isn't going to change anything anyway," Atsuro admitted before taking on a more serious expression, "so what's going on? Is what was written in that email actually coming true? C'mon, there's no way an email can predict the future. Are you sure you didn't just fall for one of Naoya's pranks?"

"Well, we'll find out in about one and a half hours," Hari stated as he looked back at the Laplace Mail they had received earlier that day.

"Huh? Oh yeah, that's when an explosion is supposed to happen in Aoyama isn't it?" Yuzu said before letting loose a small shiver.

"Yeah, if everything else on the mail comes true then we'll know for sure if it is just a prank or something serious," Hari stated calmly, "anyway, you said something about unlocking the COMP's?"

"Heh, yeah, once I crack these COMP's, we'll know just what it's all about," and with that the other boy let loose a pretty confident smile, "anyway, I was completely fooled, I think Naoya knew I'd try to get inside one myself. It seems these three COMP's are always monitoring each other so I can't crack one alone. You see, a COMP has this always on wireless feature that allows it to exchange data with…"

"Argh, my head… enough with the explanation, just hurry up and do it!" it appeared that Yuzu was nowhere near as interested in the workings of the systems as Atsuro was, though he couldn't really blame her, he himself was more interested in what they could do as opposed to how they did it.

"Man, you never change… anyway, I'm going to unlock the systems okay?" he seemed far more amused by her statement than offended, "turn your COMP's on you guys!"

And so Hari found himself turning on the system before something made itself known out of the corner of his eye.

Looking towards it he was certain he saw Naoya… however what really caught his attention was the fact that the street was empty of pretty much everyone but the three of them and this person he was certain was his cousin.

"Okay, done! I'm restarting the COMP's," Atsuro stated and before he knew it, the person that looked just like Naoya had vanished.

Decryption confirmed.

Booting program.

A massive number of lines of code started printing themselves on the screen before another message popped up.

Condition green.

DEMON SUMMONING PROGRAM ready to boot.

Booting DEMON SUMMONING PROGRAM.

Peaceful days died.

Let's survive.

A bright light emitted from the COMP and Harry found himself taking several steps back instinctively before opening them again to see that both Yuzu and Atsuro had done the same… however what really caught his attention was the clearly non-human creatures standing between them all.

"Wh-whoa! Monsters came out of the COMP's?!" Atsuro shouted in shock, clearly unable to comprehend whatever was going on.

"Aaah! Wh-what is this?!" Yuzu certainly sounded scared by the current turn of events.

All Hari could really think at that moment though was simple…

This was officially the worst day of his life.