Chapter Eighteen: Tuesday's Disquiet V
Kazuya stared at the ceiling of Naoya's apartment room as he lied back on his cousin's bed. The constant sound of fingers clicking away on the keyboard echoed in his mind, heightened by the suffocating silence. The lighting was dim – just how Naoya liked it – and the screen of the monitor was the only thing that illuminated the room from complete darkness.
The returned King of Bel rolled his head on the side to watch Naoya. Red eyes never moved away from the current working task as his hands would alternate between typing and clicking. Other than the occasional frown or sigh, Naoya's face remained blank, devoid of any revealing thoughts.
Conflict showed in Kazuya's eyes and he slowly sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the mattress. He picked up the headphones lying on the other side of the bed and rested it on his shoulders. He played with it in nervousness before deciding to speak out.
"Naoya," he called. His voice was steady despite the turbulent emotions that seized his being.
His cousin made a noncommittal hum to show that he was listening.
Kazuya looked his back, still covered with the usual black and green haori. He took a deep breath and briefly closed his eyes to reorganize his thoughts.
"I don't know…" Kazuya started slowly, "...if it's because I became the King of Bel or awakened my demonic powers or entered the Demon World… but ever since then, I've been having dreams every night."
Naoya didn't say anything in return and Kazuya quickly continued on with what he was trying to convey.
"I still have these vague, blurry dreams to this day… but, I can't really call them 'dreams.'" Kazuya paused. "They're more like… memories…"
Naoya froze in his actions and slowly turned around on his swivel chair. He looked at Kazuya carefully and repeated the word in question. "Memories…?"
Kazuya looked directly into the other's eyes, trying to discern any kind of reaction.
"I remember," he told his cousin, "I remember my first life… as Abel."
Naoya's lips turned upwards – to Kazuya's bewilderment – and he gave a soft half-sigh-half-laugh.
"So you know everything now," he responded. "Tell me, brother… How do you feel?"
Kazuya's eyebrows furrowed and he quickly voiced his confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Are you melancholic? Do you feel betrayed? Sad? Angry? …Are you filled with hatred…?"
Kazuya stood up abruptly. He opened his mouth to quickly deny those insinuations. "You're wrong!" Kazuya exclaimed in panic, "you-"
Naoya interrupted him, continuing on as if he hadn't spoken, "I wouldn't be too surprised. I did, after all, murder you in cold blood."
Naoya's smile turned sardonic, something flashing in his eyes. "There's no need to lie. Tell me the truth. I'm not-"
"I know…!" Kazuya spoke loudly, forcing Naoya to remain silent.
He sighed before speaking in a quieter voice, "I know how hard you worked in the fields to produce the best yields. I know how you would sneak out at night to check on your crops when you should have been resting in bed. I know how secretly happy you were when father praised you, and when mother enjoyed every meal she ate that had your vegetables or fruits. I know how much you loved me; when you consoled me after my first sheep died from an accident, when you tended to me while I was sick with a fever, or when you always took the blame when it was my fault…"
Flashes of Naoya's more joyful moments of life resurfaced to his mind as Kazuya continued to talk. His eyes almost softened in remembrance, but they quickly hardened to hide his vulnerable state of mind.
"…So you don't deny feeling hatred?" Naoya asked.
Kazuya frowned. "Why are you so insistent that I hate you?"
Naoya explained in his factual tone, "when you died, your soul of Abel fell down to the deepest part of Hell and became a demon. That is only possible if the victim felt an abundance of negative emotions just before their passing."
"I don't deny it…" Kazuya could easily recognize the words forming on Naoya's tongue, and promptly continued. "I did feel hatred, but not at you… I hated myself."
Naoya scoffed. "That is absolutely absurd."
"It's not, Naoya. No… Cain."
The elder of the two brothers' body tensed and he averted his gaze.
"When He did not accept your offering, I could tell how disappointed you were. You were hurt by His disapproval. You had tried so hard to gain his blessings."
"Don't presume to know-"
"And even though you did-"
"You don't understand anythi-"
"I couldn't help you!" Kazuya yelled in frustration.
Naoya looked at him in alarm from the sudden outburst.
"You did so much for me… and I couldn't even help you," Kazuya said. "Yes, it's true that you murdered me and yes, it hurt a lot. But do you know the last thing I saw before I died?"
He allowed the words to sink in before carrying on.
"The agonized expression on your face… The tears that fell from your eyes… You were weeping."
Naoya didn't reply. It was the truth. He remembered that scene vividly, when he imprinted it onto his soul; his own body covered in sweat, blood, and tears. He had needed to take a moment to reclaim his composure and so; he had hidden in the very barn that Abel kept his sheep in.
"I hated how I couldn't erase your pain when you could always take away mine." Kazuya spoke softly, "I don't hate you, Cain. I've never hated you… and if it makes you feel better, then I forgive you for everything you've done in that life or this one or in the countless others."
Naoya looked everywhere in the room, avoiding Kazuya's piercing stare. When he finally looked back at his brother, he gave a weak laugh. Something faded away in Naoya, as he smiled warmly.
"You were always so foolishly compassionate."
Naoya's demon disappeared, and Kazuya de-summoned his own with the others following after. His cousin walked down the three metal steps to the main floor. He carefully surveyed their conditions.
"I'm glad to see that you're all in good health," Naoya told his comrades.
"So, this is where you've been all along," Kaido said, not really surprised.
"Family of yours, Kazuya?" Fumi asked while the others conversed with the newcomer. "I can see the resemblance."
Kazuya nodded and replied, "he is Naoya Minegishi, my cousin."
"What are you doing here, Naoya?" Atsuro asked. He quickly clarified when he realized the tone he accidentally used. "I mean, it's not that I'm not happy to see you, but…"
"I've been helping the civilians," he responded, "they requested my aid and I had no reason to refuse."
Before they could make sense of what he was implying, Ronaldo's voice called out. "Naoya! You're here!"
They saw the hope in Ronaldo's eyes as he spoke to his presumed ally, "these people are with JP's! They're the enemy! We have to defeat them!"
They all walked to the other side of the room; Naoya for Ronaldo and the others for their friends.
"I have no more reason to help you. You're on your own now," Naoya said.
Ronaldo frowned in confusion. A heavy feeling weighed on his mind and he had a dreadful conjecture that he didn't want to believe. "What do you mean? I thought…"
"You thought that I was your ally?" Naoya finished for him. "I'm sorry, but I've never once thought that. You benefited from me while I benefited from you… that is all."
Ronaldo's face grimaced from betrayal. It was true that Naoya had never affirmed allegiance to him, and he knew that the man was sketchy when he had first seen him. Still, Naoya was not only a strong demon tamer, but also a professional with technology. Ronaldo had immediately requested his aid in taking over the Nagoya HQ of JP's.
"Then, you're with JP's?" Ronaldo asked cautiously. He didn't want to know the answer, but it was necessary. He needed to accept whether his once not-so-comrade was someone he needed to treat as a true enemy or not.
Naoya denied his claim. "You're mistaken. My loyalty only belongs to one person: my cousin."
Ronaldo looked at the teenager standing beside Naoya. It was obvious to see that they were related by blood. Thankfully, Naoya was not fully with JP's. He didn't want him as an enemy, partially because of his own feelings and partially because Naoya would be a frightening opponent.
"Well then," Fumi said, "are you ready to give up?"
Ronaldo took his phone out again, as he vehemently refused, "I'll never surrender!"
The ground began shaking before anyone could respond. They could all feel the massive power weighing down over them, and they saw something beginning to form in front of the large clock at the end of the room. Soon enough, a creature resembling a gold ring the size of the clock with green and pink crystalline bars spiking out from it appeared.
Daichi yelped in fear, and he began to stutter, "w-w-w-w-what is that!?"
Hibiki's phone rang and he quickly picked it up. It was Makoto.
[Hibiki…! I finally got through to you! We've spotted a large increase of energy in Naogya! It resembles the enemies of Dubhe and Merak!]
"I'm looking right at it," he responded with a frown.
[What! That can't be…! I'm coming over right now! Don't-]
The line cut off and Hibiki closed his phone when the only sound left was a beeping noise.
"Was that Makoto?" Fumi asked, "what did she say?"
"She said not to fight it."
"That's pretty smart of her," she replied. Her smile then turned upside down. "But I don't think that we have a choice."
Electricity bounced between the crystal spikes until it was shot towards the group with incredible speed. The group scattered and Kazuya immediately moved towards Hibiki, but a pull on his arm brought him away from the oncoming attack. He looked to see that it was Naoya who had grabbed him.
"Hm…" Fumi informed them as she looked down on her summoning app, "it seems that the enemy is called Phecda… and that attack it used was Dark Thunder."
Another strike of lightning – a normal one – struck down on their hands, aiming for their devices. Naoya and Fumi were expecting an attack like this so they managed to dodge just in time. Kaido was also able to save his phone with his superior reflexes.
Atsuro and Kazuya were unprepared.
When Atsuro felt the intense pain, he immediately dropped his phone to its complete destruction before he could get seriously injured. Luckily, the harmonizer from his COMP was on and the attack just barely scraped him. He checked his hand, noticing that there wasn't any kind of injury and only a numb feeling was left from the zap.
Kazuya wasn't as lucky. While he did manage to save his phone, the lightning struck fully on his hand. The agony that he felt loosened the grip he had and his phone fell, skidding away on the floor. Kazuya clenched his teeth to force his yell back down.
He didn't notice Naoya moving quickly up to him until he grasped his arm to examine his injury. There was no worry on his face, but Kazuya knew that he was concerned about him.
Naoya sighed. "You were careless," he told his cousin, "not only that, but you and Atsuro are the only ones to have contracted with demons that have healing skills."
Kazuya knew that he was referring to Atsuro's broken and his lost phone.
"Fortunately," Naoya continued, "the injury isn't too terrible."
Fumi gave him a dubious, odd look when she saw the wound for herself. "Not too terrible…?" she repeated. "It looks pretty bad to me."
"Kazuya!" Atsuro ran up to them.
"Are you alright, Atsuro?" he responded, having heard his best friend's cry of pain.
"You dummy!" Atsuro exclaimed, wincing at the horrible burns on the other's hand, "worry about yourself first!"
"We'll have to take care of the enemy before we can treat your injury, Kazuya," Fumi said, looking back at the original problem.
"Tch. All we've got to do is beat it, right?" Kaido asked before a savage grin appeared on his face, "I've been waiting to fight a monster like this!"
His summoned Kresnik swiftly slashed at Phecda while Pazuzu blasted it with some force magic.
Kaido's expression soon turned surprised. "What the hell? How come that guy didn't get damaged?"
"Phecda is immune to all non-almighty attacks," Naoya said calmly, letting go of Kazuya's arm, "we'll have to defeat it with holy-based attacks."
Fumi sighed before taking out her phone and summoning her demon. "I guess I'll have to take care of it… Yes, Holy Dance should do it."
A beautiful Egyptian woman bathed in the simplest of robes but also with gold jewelry, stepped forward. She pointed to the enemy and Phecda was attacked with bursts of light.
Kazuya frowned, trying to ignore the pain in favor of concentrating on the battle. It didn't seem right… The battle was much easier than the one with Merak. It was too easy.
Naoya confirmed his thoughts, "Hmm… this is too simple. The enemy shouldn't be this weak."
The continuous damage Phecda took forced it to make its next move. It separated into two; the larger copy with the pink crystals jutting out and the smaller one with green crystals. Oddly enough, they were now vulnerable to non-almighty attacks.
"Why would it do that? Did it just weaken itself?" Atsuro asked.
He soon got his answer when they overlapped each other and a beam of energy started to form in the middle of their rings. It grew larger in no time and Phecda prepared to fire it.
"Huh?" Kaido stared at it in confusion. "Where's that thing aiming?"
Hibiki groaned and squinted his eyes to see through the light dust cloud in the air that blocked his view. He could see that Daichi and Io were safe – Ronaldo was unconscious only a few meters away – but he was unsure of the others. Pieces of rubble, small and big, surrounded the sharp indent in the wall that the monster made.
He clenched his hands, and then suddenly realized that he didn't have his phone. Hibiki panicked. Where was it? If he didn't have his phone, then he wouldn't be able to protect himself. He desperately scanned the area and searched the ground with his hands as he crawled.
Luckily, the tiny color of blue separated his phone from the dull color of gray. Hibiki stood up and began to run towards it, faintly catching brightness from the corner of his left eye.
Kazuya's eyes widened in horror when Hibiki ran out of the coverage that the dust provided, and directly into Phecda's path. He saw the death clock blinking loudly with the number zero.
He heard various comments from the others – fear, disbelief, surprise, apathetic – but ignored them in order to run towards Phecda's target.
The ground began rumbling again, and Hibiki frowned in frustration when his phone moved further away from him. The sounds of shouts made him pause and look up. He noticed Kazuya moving towards him, and he caught the silhouettes of some other people behind him. The panic on Kazuya's face caught his attention, and Hibiki quickly looked towards the light that he had ignorantly dismissed.
As the beam shot towards him, Hibiki was frozen to the spot. He had already died once back at the beginning of this whole disaster, and he hadn't expected to return to the dead so quickly.
Just before the attack hit him, he felt an arm wrap around him in security and saw the painful look on Kazuya's face.
It was a huge breath of relief for them when they caught a glimpse of Lilith being summoned before the three of them – Hibiki, Kazuya, and Lilith – were consumed in the beam's harsh light.
"Destroy Phecda now," Naoya snapped them out of their thoughts, "while it is attacking, it is momentarily defenceless."
Since Phecda was no longer immune to non-almighty attacks, Kaido's demons were able to defeat it easily with some support from Fumi's demon, Isis. The green ring was destroyed by Kresnik, while the pink clone was killed by Pazuzu.
The beam dispersed just as Phecda turned into black mist before disappearing.
With the fierce light gone, they could all see a barrier in front of Lilith as she protected the two behind her. Kazuya was shielding Hibiki and in his right, injured hand was a COMP. Blood was dripping down his arm, past his elbow and onto the floor.
Hibiki's eyes were shut tight, but Kazuya looked at them and smiled wearily as he released the other. He quickly switched the COMP to the other hand, and examined Hibiki carefully.
"Hibiki."
The teenager slowly opened his eyes and realized that he was still alive. Before he could say anything, the two of them were separated by their own individual friends.
"The first thing I see when I wake up is you about to die!" Daichi exclaimed, "I really thought that you were a goner!"
"You're safe, Hibiki," Io said, breathing out a sigh of relief, "that's all that matters."
Joe nodded in agreement. He was still pretty shaken from the sight, but he didn't let the small smile fall from his lips.
"You're an idiot!" Air yelled at him, wishing that she could hit him just like she would to Jungo.
"I'll treat you to chawanmushi," Jungo promised him.
Despite the insult and the odd comment that Hibiki received, he smiled guiltily. "Sorry, you guys."
He noticed Ronaldo standing separate from them, looking a little uncertain. Hibiki didn't think anymore of him because the loud commotion on Kazuya's side caused his mind to wander back to them.
"What were you thinking, you idiot?" Kaido asked roughly. He always knew that Kazuya was self-sacrificing by how he always jumped into danger to save others, but this was way too close for comfort.
Atsuro frowned at his best friend. "Please, dude! Give us some kind of warning next time! I almost thought that my heart was going to stop!"
Kazuya looked at Naoya, as his cousin re-examined his wound. Naoya sighed and spoke in a resigned voice, "you've worsened your wound, Kazuya. You really are too reckless at times."
He apologized in response – not only for the wound, but also for using the COMP – and assured that he was going to be fine when Fumi asked.
"What was that thing?" Ronaldo finally decided to ask. He wasn't able to fight against it, but he could tell that it was way stronger than anything else he faced.
"That was Phecda, an enemy of JP's," Makoto's strong voice came out.
Ronaldo frowned. "You too, Sako? This really isn't my lucky day…"
"Ronaldo Kuriki… You really are the cause of this problem like I thought."
"Of course! I'll never let an evil organization that is run by Hotsuin to exist! I'll stop you no matter what!"
Makoto only stared at him before coming to a decision. "I won't do anything today," she told him, "you can leave freely."
Ronaldo looked insulted and he quickly retorted back, "I don't need your pity or your mercy!"
She didn't know how the battle against Phecda was fought, but if Ronaldo had remained despite the fact that he could have run… then it must have meant something. Besides…
"Right now, JP's is in a disorganized state," Makoto told him, "I'm letting you go now but after this, there are no exceptions."
Fumi frowned; she didn't like this idea and warned her friend, "are you sure about this, Makoto? You'll get in some pretty big trouble with the Chief."
Makoto nodded.
Ronaldo looked at all of them and reluctantly agreed to take this chance of freedom. He then addressed Naoya. "I hope that you'll work with me once again, Naoya."
"I have no interest in joining your side," Naoya replied in slight exasperation.
As he left, Makoto looked at the newcomer. "You must be Naoya Minegishi. I've been informed that you would show up eventually."
She saw the odd device in Kazuya's left hand, but the question died on her lips when she noticed his damaged right hand. Alarm covered her face as she exclaimed, "we have to treat your injury! I'm sure that there are still some bandages left in this HQ…"
"No need," Naoya interrupted her, "Lilith is more than eager to heal the wound."
The demon walked towards her son – Makoto stepped back in surprise; she hadn't noticed her presence – and gently took the injured appendage. Her hands glowed, and to Fumi and Makoto's shock, the wounds on Kazuya's hand mended itself. It looked as though it had never been damaged.
"Impressive," Fumi commented, "demons that can use healing skills aren't that hard to come by, but this one is quite advanced. JP's doesn't have many talented healers. The stronger the demon and skill, the more exhausted the summoner would feel, after all."
Atsuro hummed. "Now that I think about it… I did feel weirdly tired after battling even though I barely moved."
"Kazuya," Hibiki called, "did you get injured from protecting me?"
With the worry and guilt clear on Hibiki's face, Kazuya rapidly denied it. He sincerely told him that he had received the injury beforehand.
Hibiki breathed in relief and returned the smile that Kazuya gave him.
"The COMP doesn't exhaust the summoner like the Nicaea summoning app does," Naoya explained.
"Wait, Naoya!" Atsuro exclaimed, "are you sure about this?"
"There's no point in hiding it since it's already in full view."
Makoto repeated the unfamiliar word in hesitancy, "…COMP?"
"Yes," he responded, "I believe it would be best if we discussed this along with your Chief."
A/N: I believe that I'll be ending the third day here. Finally, the COMP is revealed and will be discussed with Yamato. I'm trying to decide whether to leave the discussion to when they're discussing battle plans against Megrez or to do it right at the start of next chapter.
In the flashback, I wanted to show the moment how Kazuya forgives Naoya. Kazuya dreamt of all his memories as Abel, but he still dreams of the other lives that 'Abel' lived along with Cain. Those memories would be blurry and scarce, though. Just wanted to point that out in case I didn't explain it enough... it won't appear again in the story, though. The moments between Abel and Cain, and how Cain did try hard to please God is how I view their past. I also wanted to add how Naoya wants Kazuya to hate him (if you play Amane's route) because I thought it was an interesting aspect of their relationship.
Anyways, the thought of demons healing people came to my mind when I was writing this chapter. I thought that if demons could heal people easily, why would they need so many medical supplies? This idea came... When demons use healing abilities, the summoner becomes exhausted easily because of the Nicaea summoning app. JP's doesn't have many talented people who have enough energy to endure the exhaustion. Otome can, though.
The next update will be an interlude based on Naoya.