Chapter II: Daybreak

A/N I do not own any of the characters or concepts regarding Shin Megami Tensei, this is a fan work and is non-profit.

Megami Akanaka greeted her son only to see him staring at her like a man possessed by a demon. His eyes were bloodshot and his breathing was extremely heavy. Quickly growing concerned for her only son she ran over to him and did the first thing that came to her. And that thing just so happened to be shaking him violently while shouting his name.

Kazuya's vision of his home in shambles started to dissipate as he felt his body roughly being shaken back and forth. In his mind he could hear only screaming and the sound of flesh being torn. At first the sight of his home, a symbol of his peace, his sanctuary, and the murder he had recently witnessed, were one, in a scene that perverted the only thing he held as sacred. The trauma of which had left him catatonic for the moment. As the scene of his mother at home and the man being murdered separated he felt his mind darken and his senses leave him.

By the time they returned he was lying on his living room couch with Pascal sitting right next to him whimpering in concern.

"Pascal? Mom…? What the…?" Kazuya mumbled, his eyes slowly opening to the sight of his mom smiling genuinely for the first time in months. A tear fell down her cheek and his lips began to tremble until they opened.

"Welcome home, Kazuya where have you been?" She asked her son again with an embrace that nearly smothered the boy. Kazuya, not understanding what was going on, simply accepted the hug and decided to play along with the script of their usual interaction.

"Just at the mall, staying out of trouble as always." He reminded her soaking in this new and far more pleasant reality. He turned his head to see Pascal whose face lit up the moment they looked at each other. Kazuya started to pet Pascal gently while his mother gave her son some room.

"Alright, but remember. Try not to get home so late, it makes me worry." Megami reminded her son as she watched Pascal jump onto the couch next to him.

"Ah, but you do know I'm a night owl right mom? I can't help my nature." He added with a slight chuckle. His mother faked a sigh and shook her head in mock defeat.

"Well I suppose it's good for a boy your age to be active. Hey Kazuya have you heard?" His mother asked getting slightly excited at the prospect of spreading some news.

"Heard?" Kazuya responded with a drone realizing what this was probably going to be about. His mother always sounded cheerful when delivering bad news, he had no idea for sure why. But his father had once joked that it was a defense mechanism she created to deal with her parents when she brought home bad grades.

"A girl from your school was killed in Inogashira Park." She explained running over to the kitchen to retrieve the article that was in the newspaper. Kazuya's smile fell flat when he was reminded of the grim scenario he encountered at the mall and the various horrifying revelations that fell prior. Feeling too contemplative to respond Kazuya fell silent to the immediate concern of Pascal who brushed up against the boy in support.

"It sure has become a lot less safe recently. I don't feel safe walking the streets at night anymore…" Megami informed Kazuya who now was unable to look her in the eye. She remained blissfully oblivious to her son's sudden moodiness and decided to just try and brush this aside. While thinking of a way to provoke a reaction from him she noticed his hand affectionately petting Pascal who seemed to share his mood almost perfectly.

"Oh, that's right! Be sure to take Pascal on a walk occasionally!" She added with an authoritative shout. She then leaned over her son for a few moments hoping desperately that he would feed off her positive energy and at least move a muscle. She blinked in anticipation for what seemed like an hour before surrendering and storming off to her room to read.

"Okay." Kazuya responded long after his mother had departed.

Memories of the man's murder along with the murder of one of his classmates had held over Kazuya's head like a storm cloud leaving him in a perpetually grim mood. No matter what he did to try and distract himself he couldn't bring himself to do anything about his worries. He just wasn't equipped to deal with this sort of thing. For all his programming genius he was still a teenage boy who lived in a country relatively free of such violence. Or at least he thought he had. And the delusion he had of coming home to his mother as a demon did little to alleviate his already growing concerns for his sanity. Deciding to try and turn his mind to something he did understand Kazuya went to his computer and checked his messages, only finding one new message. Kazuya sighed guessing at the contents before reading.

DDS-NET

Accessing…

Date: 1994 – 10 – 16

Name: Steven

To: |47_(_)¥

I haven't finished my next program. Please wait a little longer. I'm sending the manual to the Demon Summoning Program, please look it over.

Kazuya knew the drill by this point and hooked up his armcomp to his computer. The download quickly finished and Kazuya decided to give it a look over in the morning. At the moment he just wanted to sleep. Stripping down and slipping his to pajamas Kazuya dropped onto his bed and curled up into the covers. Realizing that this world held no peace for him any longer, Kazuya fell asleep hoping the world of his dreams would grant him comfort.

"Good night, Kazuya" His mother told him moments later after peering in to see how he was doing. She realized that he was already asleep and shut the door.

The dream world met him with a sense of comfortability and ease that was far from deserved. While cryptic and ominous Kazuya was confident that here he could not get hurt, and that alone made in vastly superior to the real world in his eyes.

He took note of the blue colour that the world had now adopted and began walking down a narrow path. He didn't get very far before being greeted by a featureless outline of a person.

"Hiya, Kazuya we meet again." Yuji announced waving his hand in a friendly manner. Kazuya sighed and folded his arms. He paused for a moment internally discussing on how to proceed. Eventually he decided to try a personable approach to smooth things along.

"Yeah, good to see you too Yuji." Kazuya said back to him identifying who it was by the voice. In fact that was the only way he could tell him and Takeshi apart.

"Yo, Kazuya." Kazuya heard a voice come from behind who he quickly identified. Turning around he met his gaze with the other featureless body.

"Looks like I'm having yet another funky dream." Takeshi commented taking his place on Kazuya's left. The other two nodded in agreement.

"It seems are connection was more than a coincidence." Yuji postulated to the others.

"Guess so, well, let's get this effed up dream going!" Takeshi exclaimed with a raising of his fist. The two other boys complied and they walked down the blue corridor turning a corner after corner until they met up with another familiar face.

"I'm happy to see you again, Kazuya!" Yuriko squealed out enveloping Kazuya in a hug as she did.

"Woah, hey!" Predictably Kazuya blurted out in a flustered state all the while trying to hold her at a distance. Yuji and Takeshi looked on at the scene with different reactions. Yuji turned his head away politely and closed his eyes thinking it rude to peep on such an intimate display. Takeshi on the other hand couldn't help but be jealous of Kazuya who was being embraced by a voluptuous woman wearing a very sexy fetishlike proportioned business suit.

"Don't forget that I will always be by your side…" Yuriko repeated her mantra just as she pulled herself away from the object of her affections. She turned and winked at Kazuya before skipping past the three boys and down the twisting blue corridors. Kazuya watched her leave a hint of red still remaining on his cheeks. Takeshi noticed this and growled.

"Man! Even in my dreams other guys get all the chicks! What gives here!" He shouted to no one in particular causing Yuji and Kazuya to simply sigh and pat his back in response.

"Just let it go buddy, hey, maybe there'll be a cute girl waiting for you down this hall?" Yuji suggested with a hopeful smile. Takeshi fixed his posture and meekly turned his head.

"Really?" He asked without a hint of sarcasm. Yuji simply nodded while simply Kazuya groaned.

"Sure whatever, let's just go." He ordered taking hold of his position as the pseudo-leader of the three. Yuji and Takeshi looked at each other hoping at the other one might know what had gotten into Kazuya but found that neither had any clue. Realizing they had nothing else to do the three wordlessly followed the hallway to two other turns and then into another pitch black room.

What they saw when they entered was a strange ceremony taking place. There were four torches lit with burning flames that seemed to be placed with a specific intent there was a circle with many complex symbols and patterns on it as well. But the most important part was the three men and the featureless outline of a young woman. Two of the men stood horizontally across from each other and were clothed only in large blue hoods with eye slits and a white image on the head. Both stood on guard with swords held in both hands pointed at the ground. In the center there was a man wearing a large blue robe with his arms raised and his mouth chanting. The woman was floating above them all her body lying helpless to do anything.

The whole scene brought to mind an ancient pagan ritual or a demonic sacrifice or something along those lines. The three stared wordless to such a bizarre demonstration until Takeshi broke the silence.

"What's this weird ceremony?" He asked not quite understanding what was going on. Yuji shrugged his shoulders.

"Do you think they're trying to summon some sort of demon?" Yuji asked while the three hid in the dark corners of the room.

"Whatever the case, I'm not willing to bet that those swords are purely ceremonial." Kazuya added taking note of the threat that intervening posed for the three boys. They looked at each other, wordlessly confirming their mutual desire to not get involved quite yet.

"…Take this young soul, our sleeping dark master!" The priest yelled out in an overtly melodramatic fashion. The armed men slowly began to raise their swords in perfect unison preparing to strike. It became clear now that their intention was to sacrifice the girl.

"We've got to do something!" Yuji whispered to the others. Takeshi however shook his head in disagreement.

""Take a good look, the guys in the back have these big ass swords, and we're unarmed! We don't stand a chance!" Takeshi reasoned to himself prompting Yuji to get mad and grab his shoulders.

"So you're just going to let them sacrifice her!" Yuji quietly lectured Takeshi shaking him like a man personally insulted. All the while Kazuya just stared at the girl his eyes entranced by this image of a maiden in distress. Images of the man in the mall cycled through his mind along with the delusion he had of his Pascal severely wounded.

"Look, we don't know what's going on yet so we can't just risk our lives on a whim like this. We have no idea if she even wants to be rescued right. So the logical thing to do would be to wait. Right, Kazuya?...Kazuya?" Takeshi turned his head to where Kazuya last was only to find that he had run off to stop the ceremony. Takeshi watched in awe as he stood pushed over one of the torches causing the flames to startle one of the executioners.

"Seriously? He gets to play hero….again?" Takeshi whispered only now regretting his decision to not get involved.

"Who dares interfere with our ceremony!" The priest loudly announced while Kazuya stood directly across from him.

"My name is Kazuya, Kazuya Akanaka. Sorry to disappoint." He repeated his introduction while sending his fist into the stomach of the priest with a speed that left no time for the executioners to intervene. The priest groaned loudly as he held his stomach and just then the girl spoke up.

"Kazuya! You've come to rescue me! Quickly call my name!" The girl commanded with a bright enthusiasm that confused and surprised everyone involved. Kazuya stood back for a moment and probed his mind for her name like he had for the others. He clenched his fists and closed his eyes trying to tap into the part of his brain that had the answer. The executioners prepared their blades to attack Kazuya while he searched for the answer. Their swords almost struck when he opened his eyes and shouted out his answer.

"Yuka! Yuka Takahara!" Kazuya belted out causing the swords to retreat instantly and the priest to stare wide eyed at Kazuya.

"What!" This girl's name is Yuka!" He asked for confirmation in absolute shock and horror. Kazuya nodded in response causing the priest to hold his head in bewilderment and fear.

"Oh my god! If that's true, then ...Aaaargh!" The priest screamed out in pain as his body began to dissipate along with the other two men. His echoing cry filled their ears as Yuka slowly dropped to the ground and got up. She held herself and walked over to Kazuya getting quite close in the process.

"Thanks, Kazuya. I almost got sacrificed!" She thanked him earnestly holding his hand while doing so. Kazuya turned away and closed his eyes.

"It's fine really." He muttered still not used to being so close to girls. Even if they were just outlines of one. Yuka saw this act of modesty and shook her head before placing a hand on his head kindly.

"No, if I had been sacrificed, a terrible Demon Lord would have been summoned." She added with a sincerity that almost got to Kazuya's core. However the wall around his heart wouldn't allow such a gesture to reach him so instead he turned away and averted his gaze.

"Whatever… I just didn't want to see those cultist freaks triumph. Although I suppose you being okay is a nice bonus." He retorted with his typical level of snarky wit and defensive attitude that was endearing to some, and annoying to others. Yuka however was far too happy to let such an attitude bother her so instead she stretched out her body as she felt her livelihood return.

"Ah, I can feel the power that had been drained from me returning!" Yuka remarked while Kazuya stood back slightly embarrassed by her antics. She saw how bashful he was acting and decided to try and just be honest with him.

"We will not meet until later in the future." She prophesized to Kazuya who took notice of this and found some measure of comfort in it.

"Oh…" He said feeling more comfortable knowing that he wouldn't have to deal with her and Yuriko at the same time. It wasn't that he didn't like her, he just had enough trouble with one overly affectionate woman in his life. She saw this change in attitude and continued

"And then it is our destiny to be separated again." Her tone became a little sadder after relaying this information. Kazuya's mind jumpstarted at the mention of the word destiny which to him seemed rather loaded language.

"Destiny?" He said to himself wondering if he could really accept that such a thing exists. He lowered his head in thought which Yuka took as an opportune moment to depart from him.

"Come see me some time." She offered him before walking off into the blue labyrinth that lay outside. Yuji and Takeshi who hadn't said a word during this whole exchanged ran out from the shadows to meet with Kazuya but before they could reach him the dream world began to dissipate around them.

The place that had once been the comforting force in his life had now become one of the most perplexing and populated places in Kazuya's life. Not just a few days ago this maze had been his own personal hiding spot, a place where he was alone to wander forever with only his thoughts to keep him company. But with that heaven burned he was without a place to call his own. The ramifications of such he could only guess at in the days that would follow. As always his mind would return to reality guided by the voice that always had.

"Kazuya, how long are you planning to sleep?" Megami asked her dazed son while following the same routine that she had performed the day prior.

"I'm up mom, you can stop now." Kazuya grunted out as he rose from his head and began to scratch his head and yawn.

"You have school today so you better get going young man. Breakfast is already prepared and I've got your uniform ironed and ready." His mother commanded while opening his windows.

"Okay, I'll have a shower and be down in a minute." Kazuya shooed his mother out and walked over to his computer. He decided now would be a good time to check the manual to this Demon Summoning Program he had received, but when he accessed his computer. He found that he had received a new message from Steven.

DDS-NET

Date: 1994 – 10 – 17

Name: Steven

I have completed my auto-mapping program, and have attached it to this message.

Luckily Kazuya had kept his armcomp connected from last night so he had no trouble in downloading the file and transferring to his armcomp. He questioned why he would need such a program but wasn't willing to spend time on such a question with much more pressing concerns at hand. He also opened the document on demon summoning and gave it a quick skimming until his attention was interrupted.

"Kazuya, how long do you plan to sleep!" Megami shouted while banging on his door provoking a frustrated growl from Kazuya.

"I'm awake mom! You can stop asking that alright!" He yelled back at her getting really tired of her constant nagging. Getting out of his pajamas he took his shower and got dressed into his uniform making sure to place his armcomp on his wrist just in case before leaving for breakfast.

"Good morning, Kazuya!" His mom greeted him once again causing Kazuya to simply roll his eyes and sit down to eat. Megami took note of her son's behavior and wondered if it had anything to do with the "incident" she had overheard last night. She giggled lightly to herself at what she might discover by probing the issue further.

"What happened to you last night? You were calling out to someone in your sleep." She asked Kazuya who dropped his chopsticks at the moment she said it. Instantly getting embarrassed he turned his flushed face away, already knowing how this was going to go.

"I-I have no idea, what you're talking about mom. I wasn't calling out to anyone." Kazuya defended himself, his face red from knowing how she was going to spin his reaction. Megami laughed at her son's all too cute reaction and decided to tease him more.

"I think it was a woman's name. The girl next door, Yuka, was it?" She wondered out loud knowing that Kazuya had had a crush on Yuka many years ago. She was concerned for her boy's love life and was hoping that the hormones had finally kicked in so she could start seeing her little man bring home girls once in a while. She figured that if he could find himself a sweetheart, he might be able to open up to the world and get out of the funk he was in.

"I-it wasn't h-her." Kazuya retorted unknowingly admitting to his mom's accusation. All this while his mind was plagued by fears of what might happen when his mom brought this news to the neighbors. He was in the same class as Yuka after all and he was already uncomfortable enough at school for his tastes. His mother continued on enjoying this dialogue far more than she knew she should.

"Eh? Why are you turning all red all of a sudden? It can't be." She exasperated in mock surprise causing Kazuya to reach his peak level of embarrassment.

"Okay I'm done here, be back later bye!" Kazuya stammered out quickly as he dropped his plate, grabbed his school back and headed for the door.

"Be careful, Kazuya. Don't come home too late." She reminded her son while he shut the door and ran for school leaving Pascal by the door feeling slightly neglected. Megami walked over to Pascal and placed a dog treat in his mouth.

"Who knew my son was such a cute tsundere?" She said to Pascal who seemed to bark back in agreement.

Kazuya put on his headphones and made his way to school his mind still reeling away from the incident this morning. Between his mother's teasing and home and the strange people in his dreams Kazuya now looked at School in a more… positive light. It was, at least a place where he was confident he could just keep to himself away from a world that he felt he understood less and less each day.

The walk to school however was interrupted by a sight that caused him to scream out in agony. Just as he was about to turn a corner he saw something creep into his line of sight and appear before him. The creature in question was… a human? Some sort of Yakuza guy? He looked relatively typical for a gangster expect for his skin which was so yellow it looked like it came from an old American Propaganda poster during the second world war. The man was holding a knife and had a thirst for blood in his eyes. Kazuya turned to his sides to see if anyone else could see him but everyone else just walked by like nothing was happening.

"W-what do you want?" Kazuya questioned the man his own fear starting to take hold of him. The Yakuza member snarled and spat at the ground.

"You little brat! I'm sending you six-feet under!" He yelled at Kazuya swinging his knife in the process. Kazuya jumped back and narrowly dodged the blade his mouth wide open scared for his life.

"Hey! What are you doing! Stop!" Kazuya shouted back reaching to his pants pocket for his knife. The Yakuza member took note of the blade and cackled in a tone that didn't sound human. The sound of his laughter brought Kazuya back to the time when he tried to save Takeshi from that demon in his mind. Not only that but the way his eyes were red and without any pupils made it clear to Kazuya that whatever this man was, he wasn't human. Gripping his knife in his right hand Kazuya cast his fears aside and darted towards the demon and with a piercing strike stabbed him in the chest.

The demon looked down at the wound and laughed again. He simply walked backwards and then swiped forward his knife cutting diagonally in a curved motion at Kazuya. Kazuya turned at the right moment and avoided most of the strike, the blade leaving only a cut across his left arm. Pivoting to the right Kazuya stabbed the demon again and this time got him in the back. He plunged the knife as deep as he could until he heard a gasp from the demon. Kazuya withdrew his weapon and let the creature fall to the ground in a pool of blood.

"What have I done?" He asked himself as he watched the corpse bleed for a few seconds until it dissipated into nothingness. Even the blood on his face and his close disappeared and with it any evidence of this encounter ever occurring. He looked around to see if anyone had seen this fight take place. But no one even looked at him. Two people had fought with each other with knives in the middle of suburban Tokyo, and no one batted and eyelash. Nobody cared to even ask what was going on.

Kazuya suddenly felt very alone in the world, even more than usual.

END OF CHAPTER II

A/N: Sorry for the wait, now that summer is over my responsibilities are taking up more of my time. Not only that but I recently got my hands on the first Raidou Kuzunoha game and it's taking up plenty of my time (this project was actually something I was doing in between Megaten games.)

Despite that I will continue to try and update, but on a rather whimsical schedule. I apologize if my writing is confusing and poorly done, I'm not very good at editing and I've got a lot to work in. The humorous tone of these chapters I understand may seem a little "off" in what is really a very dark game. But I felt that I couldn't write these scenes without humour and whimsy shining through. Otherwise it would feel like the characters were being angsty simply for angst's sake. At any rate the horror elements should be coming to the forefront soon along with the departure from the "everyday life of Kazuya Akanaka" format the story currently has.

Also in case you're confused by the fake out at the beginning of the chapter, let me explain. As I mentioned before I write this series while I play the game. However my memory isn't the best for remembering certain details. So when I wrote the end of the second chapter I didn't realize that the um... "Incident" at home doesn't occur until later on. So rather than trying to rewrite the ending (which I already loved.) I decided to just make it a bit of foreshadowing for later.

So until then please read and review!

Kazuya: Are you honestly going to end the chapter here?

Drake: What?

Kazuya: *sigh* the chapter you moron! You're going to end it without even getting to the damn demon summoning? What the hell do you think people read this story for?

Yuji: As much as I appreciate your effort Drake, I have to agree, you've been doing a rather poor job at transcribing our story so far and I'd like to see you make more of an effort.

Kazuya: Hey you're right Yuji! What gives Drake? Making me into some prissy, whiny, emo-teen genius? I wasn't anything like that in the game!

Drake: To be fair, you didn't have a personality in the game, you were a silent protagonist.

Kazuya: HEY! You're saying just because I had no back story or dialogue, that I had no character!

Takeshi: Sounds like it, I wouldn't take that Kazuya. If I were you.

Kazuya: *laughs evily* oh I don't need to do anything when I've got allies.

Drake: *clears throat* A-allies?

Kazuya: That's right, hey Naoki!

Naoki: Yes?

Kazuya: This guy says that you don't have any character or personality. That you're just a dull player substitute with no real identity of your own.

Drake: WHAT! I didn't say that! I've never even agreed with any of that crap!

Naoki: Dull and uninteresting hmmm? Apparently being the Demi-fiend isn't enough to impress you. *cracks knuckles* perhaps my talents will change your mind.

Drake: Oh shit…

The following asskicking has been omitted due to a combination of epic level awesomeness and violence so intense that it cannot be described in narrative form.