Chapter 14: The Rise of Four Heroes
Jin looked up at the top of the Radio Tower, wondering if it had gotten rebuilt just as it had been. Or maybe it truly withstood the nuclear strikes and just needed some new paint? Whatever it was, it was now owned by the Mesian Church. They were using the tower to broadcast their mind-numbing sermons, choirs, and staged debates 24/7.
"This is gonna be a debate you can't win," Jin said, smiling to himself.
When he'd left Shinjuku, he'd headed off to Ikebukuro on a whim and ended up before the Court of Chaos. But the court had praised him for his decisions, as well as how he wiped out Ozawa's stranglehold over Shinjuku. The judge then asked him to perform some tasks to prove his worth further, after which he'd put Jin in contact with the leader of Gaean sect. And not the human leader, but the actual demon leaders who were coordinating all the efforts across Tokyo to eliminate the Mesians.
And one task was to shut down the Mesian broadcasts, by whatever means possible. He liked that idea; he'd heard way too much of that junk when he'd still been living with his mother. His step-father would only allow Mesian approved shows and music in the house, forcing Jin and his siblings to miss out on good stuff. Now that they were doing that to everyone, he wanted to free the city from that madness.
They had one of their protective lines and rosaries around to keep demons out. But as it turned out, that didn't apply to him. All he had to do was scuff up the chalk line with his foot and the whole thing would be undone with that one little leak. They were alert to his presence quickly, since there wasn't anything he could do to hide his demonic appearance. "Halt, you will not get any further into this facility, demon!" a priest said, quick to have his symbols on hand.
Jin snorted. "Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try and stop me." He brought out his axe and swung to kill with one blow. This should go quickly.
But it wouldn't hurt to do things even quicker, right? There had been a skill lingering in his mind that he hadn't tried out yet; he'd wanted to kill Ozawa with his own hands. Now was a good time. He held his hand out and focused. This was a limited kind of summoning, not like Kazuya was capable of. But it should be good.
A small scorpion crawled out of a fold of his armor, with the guillotine bladed tail and red exoskeleton. More followed from all over his body; it didn't hurt, as he only felt the pressure of their tiny legs. They hopped off him and began to grow. Not much, but as their numbers were cut down, the survivors would grow until the last was a full sized Guillotine Scorpion. If that one died, he could just call on the hundreds of little ones to get another.
"Come kill everyone in this building with me," Jin said.
The scorpions all scattered, seeking out targets. Before long, screams filled the building as the Mesians spotted the scorpions and tried to fight back. But their success at killing the little scorpions would spell their doom.
Jin headed for the elevator, waving a hand. A good number of the little scorpions followed him, so he let them off on various floors to hunt others. While they did that, he headed for the broadcast studio they used for live programs. Did they have one going on now? That would be just perfect.
As he found the cameras and ugly backdrop, he also found something he hadn't encountered yet: an angel, in particular a crowned principality. "You're a monster whom I shall stop here and now," the principality said, readying a sun-tipped staff.
"I could say the same for you," he said, feeling eager for this fight. If he could pull this off, then the judge would surely be pleased.
As Allen entered the underground mall, he was flanked by the best bodyguards in the Mesian Church. He wasn't used to this kind of treatment; it was embarrassing, actually, like his foster parents fussing over him in front of his friends. Although, not quite as bad as unexpectedly meeting his mother doing the same. Still, he kept his silence on that feeling and instead thanked them for their service. He was very important to the Church now.
And it was time to fulfill his tasks. The people here supported the Gaean cult, but were largely ignored as most of them were too weak to fight the demons. As a result, his presence caused quite a stir. People in ragged clothes eyed him suspiciously; some followed after them, either curious or possibly thinking of robbing them. But they were in need of being saved. That was why he came.
When they got to a larger opening where he meant to address these people, a group of children were playing around there. Most of them scattered on seeing them, heading to the stores nearby or to their parents off to the side. But one of them had a badly damaged leg, with the foot mostly cut off. It must have taken him some effort to get around, much less play with the others. He ended up stumbling in surprise at seeing them. "Oh, sorry," he said, nervous.
"It's all right," Allen said, moving ahead of his guards to crouch by the boy. "Did a demon do this?"
He nodded. "Yeah, but I kicked it in the face and it ran."
He smiled at that. "Good, you're a brave boy. Here, you should have the ability to train yourself so you can fight them better in the future." Then he put one hand on the boy's shoulder and the other near his damaged foot.
A woman came over, likely his mother. The boy stared at him oddly, but Allen had already decided to do this. He tapped deep into his healing powers… as an older wound and so serious, it needed something far more than he usually used. That feeling of light filled him, flowing from his hands. The boy's foot came back just as it had been before the wound, as natural as the rest of him.
"There, you'll be fine now," Allen said, removing his hands.
"It's back?" he asked in shock. He put some weight on it, finding it good. Then he grinned and ran over to his mother and hopped around. "Look, look, I have a new foot!"
"Y-yes, that's wonderful," she said, although she seemed in shock herself. "Who are you, sir?"
He got back to his feet and bowed. "I am the Messiah of the Mesian church, m'am."
"Thank you for restoring him, but, we drove your church out of here a few years ago," she said, bowing back.
"I don't care about that," Allen said. "I've come to help the helpless and show everyone who we truly are. Our teachings have been distorted by those who don't understand, so I would like to help you and teach you about God's mercy for all."
People were quick to gather and listen to him after that. He'd never been much of a speaker in his own mind. But when they wanted to hear what he had to say, he found the words coming to him easily.
When Kazuya woke up, he found that Steven had gotten through restoring and modifying all the robots. The mechanics from Shinjuku had also put in some good work already. When they got around to restoring the terminator unit, even that one would fight to protect humans. And in good time too, as he had requests from a few other towns to send robot guards to help out their forces. He ordered groups of the robots to go out, taking with them postings that the ones with arms could put on the walls. The postings would let the residents know what the robots were there for, as well as some requests Kazuya had for mechanics and other jobs that could get a protection force together across the whole city.
That day and the next were spent visiting other towns and seeing if they wanted the robots. Kazuya tried to avoid the bigger towns where the Mesians or Gaeans had strong holdings. There were plenty of smaller groups of people around, finding ways to survive on their own. Despite that, they were grateful for the assistance. The major groups would ignore the small settlements unless they had something important to their goals. There were even scattered factories where the people lived and worked in large manufacturing lines, producing the goods that people still depended on. They were protected but treated poorly overall. As such, they were grateful for the robots giving them the capacity to become independent.
And in the late afternoon, he'd go to the shrines for his training. Each lesson advanced his skill with the katana. While he could not build physical strength rapidly like this, the heavenly kings were making sure that he had the skill to overcome any lacking of strength. It made the battles against demons much easier, although he still had to allow his demons (especially Alice) into battles to keep them satisfied.
He headed out for Ikebukuro on the fourth day of his training, since he could access another shrine from there. Right out of the terminal room, he spotted someone he'd seen a picture of before: the supposed demon that had killed Ozawa, the police chief of Shinjuku, and a bunch of those brute cops. He'd seemed familiar and now that they were in the same place, Kazuya knew he was. "Jin?" he called over.
"Oh, you recognize me," he said, then turned to face them fully. A nightmarish giant scorpion soon crawled up by him. "It's great to see you again, Kazuya. I'm sorry I took off suddenly the other day; I got a chance that I had to act on fast. But, that's gotten me in a much better position."
Since Jin matched the scorpion, Kazuya took a risk on him controlling it and walked over. "Are you okay? I've been worried about how you were doing since then."
"Oh sure, never been better," Jin said, excited like a kid. "I can finally do what I say I will, and it feels great! People look at me now and automatically respect my power."
"You'd look better as a card solider, but I like the color," Alice said.
"Who's this girl?" Jin asked.
"I'm his daughter!" Alice said, beaming.
"She's Alice from Roppongi, remember?" Kazuya said. "She's a fiend and so I have to make some different provisions for her to work with me."
"Holy..." he caught himself this time, "Wow, I've heard about fiends recently. That's some luck getting one to respect you; other guys around here say that finding a fiend on purpose is impossible unless they're already playing games with you. Oh yeah, speaking of the guys around here," he looked aside, then shook his head. "Man, I've been wanting to talk with you again, but not like this. You made a mistake in coming here."
"Why's that?" Yuka asked. "We're trying to set up the various towns with robot guards to help protect people from demons."
"I guess that's nice somewhere like Shinjuku where not a lot of people can fight for themselves," Jin said. "But they're gonna refuse you here, and in Ueno where the temple is. Every human who lives here is a fighter that relies on their own skills to survive, and they all live with many demons. So here, being a summoner is a crime. I don't really want to do this to you, but the judge Typhon is currently my boss and I have to arrest you on his behalf."
"What are you going to do to my Daddy?" Alice said, frowning in a worrisome way.
Kazuya patted her shoulder to stop her before she did something rash. "Hang on, Alice. That would be a problem, but that would let us talk directly to Typhon?"
He nodded. "Yeah. It's a fair judgment, don't get me wrong; I've seen a few trials play out. But they're fair by Typhon's standards, which are very demonic because he's a demon, one of the Greek titans that were once gods of their own merit. He can be pretty harsh on summoners and he's so strong that he's been undefeated for his entire time here. Hey, but you're a friend so I can give you a chance to slip back out with the terminal. Otherwise I'm obligated to bring you in front of him."
"This could be bad, Kaz," Yuka said. "We don't want to go into a dangerous situation if we don't have to."
There was that; he didn't want Yuka getting hurt because of what he'd done. But then, seeing Alice still glaring at Jin and sulking for not being able to fight him gave him an idea. "Fair by demon standards, huh? I'd like to go see him, even if it's in a trial. Don't worry, Yuka, I've got some ideas."
"Man, you are one crazy guy," Jin said, an admiring look in his eyes. "All right, since you're coming willingly, I'll just take you there without restraints. You're getting infamous with demons, so it won't be hard to convince them to open up a trial for you immediately."
"Good," Kazuya said. "Hey Alice, do you want to play at being my defense lawyer in a demon court?"
Her eyes lit up with excitement. "Really? Yay, I love playing court! Off with their heads!"
"Really?" Yuka said, although she was trying to be serious and not laugh.
"Really, who could lose with a lawyer this cute?" Kazuya said. Just as long as she didn't think it was funny to make him get a guilty verdict.
"Well then you've got to call out Mr. Black and Mr. Red to help us," Alice said. "Even if I can win all by myself, in court, you've got to have a crushing case to convince bullheaded judges. They're really smart and they can help."
"All right," Kazuya said, calling Nebiros and Belial out. He wouldn't have thought to use them as well, but they were high ranking demons too. "I'm being put on trial in front of a demon judge and I asked Alice to be my lawyer," he said as they continued along after Jin. He was listening in curiously, but not involving himself with this.
"Ah, can't go wrong with a demon lawyer in a demon court," Nebiros said. "Especially not one of her kin."
"But you guys gotta help make a crushing case to humiliate these people who think they can get the better of my Daddy," Alice said.
"Now that could be entertaining, depending on the trial format," Belial said, smiling. "Who's the judge?"
"Typhon," Kazuya said, which made Belial snicker.
They had to wait a few minutes to get into the court, during which they were locked into the waiting room. But they could hear a crowd of humans and demons through some barred windows in there. Apparently those had been put in place so the residents could jeer at the prisoners. Those who did come by seemed curious in having them be there, whether it was Alice skipping around and making court plans, or him and Yuka sticking together near the entrance to the court.
"You really are becoming well-known for having only been in this time a few days," Yuka said.
"I didn't think anything I'd done was big enough to get all this notice yet," he said. "But apparently so. I could understand Yousei demons because there was a Jack Frost who once said he'd pass word to the rest of his kin that I was a good guy to them. Maybe it spread out from them."
"Or maybe it's because you have a fiend and that causes waves," she pointed out.
"Well if we could weed out the ones who want to harm, abuse, or just use us for their own ends, there's some of the demons that seem like they'd be a boon to us," Kazuya said. Then he leaned over and whispered, "But from the sounds of the chatter out there, I don't think any demon here qualifies like that."
The door by them opened and those outside hurried to get in elsewhere. A strange man with golden skin and a striped collar came out. "Summoner Kazuya, your trial will begin immediately," he said. "Bring your..." he glanced at Alice, "companions with you. They will share your verdict."
"That is a breech of personal justice to do that with them," Kazuya said. "But since this is your town, it's your laws."
Alice giggled at that while the court official narrowed his eyes at him. He then sniffed and turned. "Come inside."
There were cheers in the auditorium like court. In front, a giant humanoid demon presented in the fashion of a judge and a god awaited them behind a rather flimsy looking set of bars; he wore nothing but a sword belt with an undecorated bronze sword. The iron bars in front of the spectators were sturdy, enchanted so that not even magic could pass. There was blood on the dirt floor, hinting that executions in court were fairly common. With no furniture in the convict's cage, so to speak, there was nowhere to sit but the floor. There was a large metal chain tied to a concrete block in the floor, but the demon escorting them in did not move to lock any of them down.
Typhon raised a hand to the audience. "Order in the court," he said, quieting them.
"Off with his head!" Alice said, pointing at the demon who'd brought them in. Some laughed at that. "For breech of personal justice!"
"Alice, the sentences come after the trial, at the end," Kazuya said.
"Aw, okay, I'll wait," she said. "You may go with your head still on, for now. Thank you!"
"Sure," the demon said, trying to play it tough. But he was quick to get out and lock the door behind him. Someone booed at that.
"Well then," Typhon said, looking down at him and acting like the disruption wasn't much, "we shall begin the trial of the demon summoner Kazuya, for breaking the contract of interactions between demons and humans that has existed since time immemorial. And, these demons with you are?"
"They're my legal team for this," Kazuya said.
"Yes, we will be arguing for him. I am Nebiros, necromancer." He bowed politely.
"I'm Belial, a general of Lord Lucifer's army," Belial said, not bothering to bow. He looked Typhon directly in the eyes as if daring him to go through with this.
"And I'm Alice," the girl said, giving a curtsey. "Could we get this trial over with quickly so we can get to executions and tea time?"
"We shall take that into account, Lady Fiend," Typhon said, causing some murmurs in the crowd from those who might not have recognized her for what she was. "You have some powerful demons speaking for you, summoner. But still, it does not change the fact that the demon summoning program you use is a farce that only imitates the true nature of contracts between demons and humans. We should have never agreed to such technology being allowed into the world."
"No, I would disagree," Nebiros said. "The demon summoning program does allow an unprecedented equal field between demon and human in a contract. While I might have scribed different terms of contract by traditional means, accepting the program's version screens out contracts that are poorly balanced in favor of the human, which we have long suffered from. The demon summoning program instead lays out a standard format that cannot be altered by either party."
"Unless you have informal agreements to go along with the formal terms, but that seems to be unique to Alice here so far," Belial said.
"We do not want a standardized version of the contract to exist," Typhon argued. "Each case should be a unique agreement between summoner and demon, to fit the circumstances of the summoning. That will give each side the best of what they want from the contract. With a standardized version of the contract out, the terms will always be the same and what we get out of a contract will be reduced."
Nebiros shook his head. "It's not reduced, I can tell you that. I have been contracted many times in many ways by humans of varying skill levels. While I have only been contracted to Kazuya here for a few days, he is already a superior summoner to most of those I've worked with, perhaps even all. In the past, I had to constantly work to have my summoner in the right mindset to give me the magnetite I required. There is no need for that with the demon summoning program. He's also treated me with respect, so I have no qualms in continuing to work for him even if," he glanced at Alice, "this is not my usual work when I'm in the human world."
"But we have word that he has been using demons in defense of others, which is not in accordance to your usual terms, none of you," Typhon said.
"Does it matter?" Alice said, putting her hands on her hips. "He's my friend and I'm fighting for him, so there."
"Yes, does it really matter what the usual terms would be at this point?" Belial said. "With the world in the state it's in, I'm finding fights everywhere, even if I can skewer most of them without effort. As long as he keeps calling me into battles and the program gives out a fair amount of magnetite, I don't care what those battles are for." He shrugged. "Believe me, I've worked for much less magnetite in the past, sometimes poor enough that it made me ill, just to have a good fight. I hated working out the details of contracts, so having them standardized is great by me."
"And what kind of argument can you put up against that from a general, huh?" Alice said. "If you're still gonna proclaim him guilty, then I'll proclaim you guiltier and execute you!" She pulled out her deck of cards.
"Hold on, let me consider these arguments," Typhon said. Alice glowered at him, but held off. "Those are convincing considering they're from demons of your status. But I have to ask the summoner, what is your intention of coming here?"
"I came to investigate the situation here, then go off to train myself to be stronger," Kazuya said.
Typhon nodded in approval. "In that case, what would you say to performing a request for me? If you are successful, then I will drop all charges against you and allow you to move within this town and other Gaea affiliated locations freely."
"No," Kazuya said. The room became an anxious hush. While the judge stared down at him in shock, he patted the badge on his jacket. "I'm here as the chief of Tokyo's police, putting back together the city as one whole instead of many divided towns. I will assess the situations in each town and help out where I see fit. For the sake of impartiality, I am not taking requests directly from the Mesians or the Gaeans. Or for this court that lobbies for the way demons do things. I won't be doing requests for you."
Typhon put his hand to his curly beard. "Normally I'd throw the book at anybody who supports a law that's not our own in this court, but you're not actually supporting Law either. Very well, I'll drop that for now, even if you would be well rewarded beyond the pardon. And on the word of the demons here, I will let you off as a summoner for now. But know that we will be watching you closely any time you are within our territory."
"That's fine with me," Kazuya said.
"So no executions?" Alice asked, putting her hands behind her back and swaying. "Well as long as we're still going to have tea time, I suppose that will do."
"We might find somewhere here for that, I hope," Kazuya said as the door was unlocked behind them.
There was one thing that the titan Typhon had made clear: they needed Kazuya to believe in Chaos. Jin didn't want to force beliefs on anybody else, not after so many people had tried that on him. But, this was different. Somehow Kazuya had the potential to change the whole world. Jin couldn't figure out why, but he still believed it. Kazuya was a great guy, always encouraging. He was even inspiring; that might be why, after all. People would want to follow his lead, especially now that he'd made himself an official good cop when people like that had all but disappeared in this time.
It was strange, though. Jin trailed them to the first floor where the main town was, to a tea shop that would satisfy Alice. While he'd thought the shopkeeper was weird for opening a tea shop in these times, it was lucky now that he could catch them there. The stranger thing was that Kazuya was traveling with some incredible demons who were definitely on the side of Chaos. According to some talk during the trial, Nebiros was infamous for assisting madmen like Manu push the limits of humanity and medicine, Belial actually stated up front that he was a general to Lucifer, and Alice… well, Alice inspired a terrified awe in those who knew of her. It was baffling to those like Jin who had no idea why everyone would be scared of a little girl. But she was a fiend and would threaten to execute Typhon in his own court.
When they were getting settled in, Jin slipped up to them. His chest was aching for some reason, but he ignored it. Others would call him a wimp for letting something like that stop him. "Hey, that was impressive how you got out of that one," he said to Kazuya. "You mind if we talk for a bit?"
"Sure, join us if you'd like," Kazuya said.
"Does he have to be here?" Alice asked, glaring at him again. It did give Jin chills, although he resisted showing that.
"I'd like to talk with him," Kazuya said, getting up from the table. "Why don't you get a tea party set up with the others? I'll join you later."
"Okay, but you better not miss out," Alice said, then grabbed Nebiros by the shawl and pointed out things to him.
"So how'd you get them working for you?" Jin asked as they took seats at a neighboring table. His Guillotine Scorpion scuttled closer to be with them.
"Mostly by convincing Alice not to kill me," Kazuya said. "What about your scorpion there? He seems unusual."
"I had a guy who helped me get the first one," Jin said, not wanting to admit that he didn't remember why Louis had agreed to that. "Then my current form lets me call on a new one if I don't have one with me. It's a Guillotine Scorpion, like my axe."
"I see. So what are you doing for Typhon?"
"Just some miscellaneous tasks at the moment," he said. "But I get to meet with one of the higher ups now since I've proven myself to him. If I keep doing that, I can get into the Gaea group near the very top before long."
Kazuya actually smiled at that. "Sounds like normal business progression, but with demons."
"Hey, I'm no lame suit and office junkie," Jin said, although he had to admit it was funny. "What about you? How'd you get your hands on robot cops?"
"They'd taken over the police academy I attended, so I took it back and made them work for me," Kazuya said. "I'd intended on becoming a forensic detective originally, but," he shrugged, "here I am now, the police chief of Tokyo when most of the force is comprised of robots."
Maybe he didn't need to worry about convincing Kazuya too much. That already sounded like a plan this Chaos psychology or philosophy, whatever, something the demons would encourage doing. But that just made him even greater, for being able to think like a fighter of Chaos when he was in a profession that should be strongly Law leaning. "That's cool. You're making your own strength where others think there's nothing; I always liked that about you. You could get a lot done if you worked with the demons and Gaeans, you know. They'd also admire how you rely on yourself most of all."
"I wouldn't say that," Kazuya said. "I'm only strong because of who I associate with, like you, or those at the table there," he gestured to where Yuka and Alice were cheerily talking about something while the two male demons tried to seem like they enjoyed what they tolerated. "I am working on changing that; I've got some folks already who are helping me. And I don't want to decide on an affiliation until I've got the bigger picture clear in my mind."
"So that's how it is?" He shrugged. "I decided to go with Typhon and the demons because their ways suit me more than anyone else. Before, I thought these old gods would be aloof losers, but they're working hard as underdogs too. They encourage you to reach your own strength, just as they are reaching out to regain their true forms. But they're in a position that makes it harder for them to change, which is why they like stuff like fusion for progression and teaching by combat. If we work for them and help them achieve what they lost, then they will free us of the bonds that have been set upon us by the tyrannical God that the Mesian Church follows fanatically. So things that were seen as unacceptable or sins will no longer be an issue. You can be who you truly are among the demons and they'll praise you for it."
"A lot of them seem to treat humans like trash, especially the powerful ones," Kazuya said. "I've met quite a few who honestly want to help humans and live with us. But there are so many others that will attack the powerless out of the thrill of it. Even those with me; I can keep everyone a little safer by keeping them with me."
"They could lead you to great power too," Jin said.
"I'm not after power," he said, shaking his head.
"But then you'd prove your worth to everyone, like I'm doing," he said, finding this strange. And yet, so like him.
"I don't have anyone I need to prove myself to, other than myself," he said, then glanced over at the other table. "I know Yuka will always be with me, as I will always be with her. As long as I have that, I don't want anything more for myself. But for everyone else, there is so much I can do for them. So I'll do what I can for them because it's what I want to do."
"Man, a softhearted attitude like that is going to get you killed in these times," Jin said.
"It hasn't yet," Kazuya said.
"Oh, Kaz, there's something we want to tell you," Yuka said with a big smile.
"Somehow I think this is going to be trouble," he said, putting a hand to his face. He was still smiling.
"Maybe some trouble," Yuka said.
"I wanna go on a trip with Mr. Black and Mr. Red!" Alice said, her eyes bright. "But we'd have to leave you, so we gotta talk about if it's okay."
"Master Jin?" A dwarf came up and tugged at him. "You should come back to Typhon's court, um..."
"Sure, hang on," Jin said, getting up. "Sorry, seems like I need to go see about this."
"No problem," he said, shaking his hand first. "Take care of yourself, okay?"
"Of course," Jin said, then headed out with the dwarf as Kaz went back to his group. "What's the matter?" he asked.
"We caught the Church's Messiah and brought him to court," the dwarf said. "But, I got a feeling things are going to go very wrong. Nobody else believes me, but I know. We could use your backup there."
The Church's Messiah? This should be challenge, but he looked forward to testing himself. "All right, let's go."
When he entered the court through the prisoner's door, he found a sight that, for the first time as a demon, scared him deeply.