Chapter 7: Accepting Tragedy
While the desert had seemed so vast when Chiaki left the hospital, the land that she could access seemed small now. There was the hospital, where Isamu might still be holed up with the weird artifact. There was the park that was ruled by fairies now; they didn't let anybody inside, for any reason. And there was this fragment of Shibuya here.
Ghosts and demons had taken over a club in the area. Many shops lay abandoned while what few were open were perplexed to have a human customer. And whoever she talked to had the same baffling question: what kind of world are you going to make? The old world was gone, did any of them care about that tragedy?! Chiaki liked the idea of being one of the chosen few, but did it have to be for such a terrible purpose?
At least Persephone wasn't bugging her about that. Sure, she'd talk a lot about remaking the world if asked, but she'd keep quiet if Chiaki didn't want to think about it all. "What do you want to do now?" the maid asked.
"I'm feeling closed up again with nowhere to go," Chiaki said, running a brush through her hair. Normal things like that felt right, not like how everything else was wrong. "Sure, this place has just about anything I could ask for, but it can't give me the answers I want. But it seems like the only paths ahead are trying out the terminal network or finding a way around the fairies. As long as there's enough room to walk on, I can get past that void, right?"
"It'd be tough, but we could try," Persephone said.
"Not right away though, I'd rather get some sleep first," she said. "Especially if it's going to be tough; we won't know when we'll find another place or what it will be." Like would the place they found next have showers? She realized she'd been lucky to find such things in both the hospital and this shopping center.
They headed for the ground floor of the shopping mall here. There was a bedding store that, as long as you brought over some blankets from a store nearby, had perfectly good futons to sleep on. This time, there was a pair of fairy-like creatures in front of the door. "Hold it, we can't let you in here," the red-dressed one said.
"And why not?" Chiaki asked, annoyed that these fairies would get in her way. Persephone could beat them.
"Cause our friend's in there," she said. "Well, I say 'our friend', but I'm no friend to this stuck-up pixie."
"Speak for yourself, Hua Po," the blue-dressed pixie said, shooting her a venomous look. But then she stopped herself to look up at them. "Oh, but you're human. Are you Chiaki?"
"Yes, that's me." Maybe they'd heard about how tough she and Persephone were. It'd be nice to finally have some good recognition back.
The pixie laughed in delight. "Ah, great, he's been looking for you! He was, uh," she tilted her head in thought, "he was called Naoki before."
"Naoki's here?" Chiaki asked, anxious that maybe it was a trick.
"Sure, lemme see if..." the pixie started to say, but then the door slid aside. "Oh, Demi, your friend's here!"
"Yeah," he said, rubbing his eyes like he'd just woken up. They were the same gray eyes, that was his face… he looked human. And yet, he didn't. His black markings seemed primitive and demonic, with glowing streaks that betrayed them as unnatural. He was also missing most of his clothes, including his shoes. And when he turned his head aside briefly, she saw a black horn sticking out of the back of his neck. That looked uncomfortable. "Good to… good to see you, Chiaki." He closed his eyes and didn't seem well.
"Right, good to see you again, Naoki," she replied, uneasy. Was it really Naoki? She thought he was familiar, but she blinked and he seemed like a stranger. Like any of these other demons around. But he at least recognized her. "What happened to you? Isamu and I searched the whole hospital for days and didn't find a trace of you or Ms. Takao."
"I..." he ran his tongue over his lips, then opened his eyes and looked at her. "I got reborn, in the morgue there. I haven't run into..." he hesitated, "someone I know."
"Are you okay?" If this was Naoki, he was acting strangely.
"C-could we talk in here?" he asked. "Just us two, sorry."
"Oh my god, why didn't you tell us you already had a girlfriend?" the red Hua Po asked in a huff.
"No," Naoki said, shaking his head and then wincing.
"We're just friends, that's all," Chiaki said. "Sure, I'll be glad to. I haven't run into anyone else since I left Isamu in the hospital."
While he'd asked to talk, Chiaki ended up telling him about what she'd been through: escaping the hospital when that monster ray showed up, searching every foot of this scrap of land they were on, getting ambushed by aggressive demons that she couldn't do anything about herself, having her purse with her phone and cash stolen, learning all these rituals for Kagutsuchi that she was supposed to carry out. In the way he listened, he seemed more like her friend. Naoki was a good listener.
"I just don't know what I should do," she said once she got to a loss in topic. "It's so hard to believe that everyone is just gone, like that little earthquake was really the world tearing into pieces that curled up into this strange place."
"It was that, the Conception," Naoki said like it was an undeniable fact.
"That thing we read about in that weird magazine?" Chiaki said. "Sorry, I lost that when my bag got stolen. It fits what we see now, but it's still so hard to accept as real. But then there's bits of familiarity in these places when it's a totally different world." She sighed, clutching the blanket on this futon. "Kind of like looking at you now."
"I know," he said, then licked his lips again. It was creepy, like he might consider eating her now. "I think like a human, and I think like a demon. When the latter comes out strongly, I feel like I barely know myself. It's terrifying, it hurts sometimes. But it also feels natural, I just… don't know myself anymore. It's still a shock thinking of the Conception too; it's not been that long ago for me since I only woke up a… a couple days ago, maybe."
Hearing that, she felt grateful she wasn't going through what he was. But she didn't want to tell him that, or deny that her own situation was awful. "I know, I wasn't able to do much for a long time trying to understand this all. I'm out of tears for the most part now, but I'm not giving in. I'm searching for something that explains this all. Actually, I was just about ready to move on from here. There's not much more I can find here, I think."
"I'm looking for you all, mostly," Naoki said. "Are Isamu and Ms. Takao still alive?"
"I'm not sure about our teacher, but Isamu was fine last I knew, or cared," Chiaki said. "He got obsessed with those terminals and thinks he can use them like teleporters. Look for them and you'll find him eventually."
"I see. Where did you get that ring?"
"Huh?" Why bring that up now? She held her left hand up where the blue-green marbled stone was. "Oh, it was in one of these shops. It suits me, don't you think? A lot of rings have solid colored gems or stones, all looking alike when you think about it. But this one is different, like me."
"You just took it?" Naoki asked, puzzled.
"Well why not?" she said, holding to the ring tight. "It's not like any of the shopkeepers are coming back. Or anyone." She sighed again. "I mean, it was an impulse when I was feeling really awful, and it's not like I can go shopping as a pick-me-up when there's no one to buy from. And it was just the ring, the rest of the stuff I took was all necessities."
"I suppose," then his eye twitched and he looked up. "Almost."
"Almost what?" she asked, mystified by him again.
Naoki got up from the futon he'd been sitting on. "Kagutsuchi is almost at its brightest. Demons run wilder then, including me. I should leave you while I can still think straight."
"All right, take care of yourself out there," she said.
He seemed like he was disappointed briefly. "Yeah. Good luck to you, and be careful." He then left the futon shop, heading down the hall quickly.
Persephone came into the doorway. "Did he treat you respectfully?"
"Huh?" Chiaki was still holding onto her new ring. "Oh, yeah. That's one nice thing about Naoki: he never was a pervert, not even in the slightest when just about every other boy in school went through a phase like that. Some never left it. That was him, he's just really different. Maybe I'm different too."
"A lot has changed," the maid said, coming in and shutting the door behind her. "You'll feel better after you rest."
"Maybe a little better," she said. But she didn't think this feeling would go away, that something irreplaceable was gone with Naoki changed so much.
One thing that Chiaki had told him was that there was a gym with showers in this building. Naoki thought it was a good idea to wash up after trekking across all that sand in the former city. For one thing, there was a lot he had to think about and a shower would help. It didn't occur to him until he was there that Kagutsuchi's power wasn't conducive to actually thinking, but he was already there.
"This is the men's room, are you two really coming in?" Naoki asked when his two companions darted in the door.
"Well who's gonna stop us?" Hua Po asked. "Why've they got to separate it anyhow? Is there some mysterious manly thing in here?"
"Not really," he said. There was a bit of himself that was embarrassed to have girls in here when he meant to shower. But the louder voice said to forget about it and do what he wanted.
"Oo, they have big mirrors," Pixie said, stopping in front of the long one over the sinks.
"Maybe you'll realize what a straight figure you have now," Hua Po teased her with.
He really should be embarrassed because this place had a large open shower with multiple shower heads. But Naoki found himself not caring as he set his pants on a bench nearby and turned on one of the faucets. The water was still hot and there was a box of samples nearby. While some of the things in there were questionable, he only wanted some normal soap and shampoo.
Chiaki found him creepy. Maybe even frightening, but the creepy part had been clear to Naoki. He ran his tongue over his lips, reminded of the taste of her magatsuhi. Even though he'd not touched her, he still caught a whiff of her emotions. There was a numbness to her; she had said she was out of tears at this point. Naoki closed his eyes near the spray of water, knowing that he wasn't there himself.
And even though he'd listened to her story, she didn't ask much about his. He'd hoped she'd listen to him, about the voices of the magatama and the way doing anything normal took more focus than before. She hadn't listened. She'd just gone on to talk about herself. Well, she got self-centered a lot, but he'd hoped this tragedy would make her more willing to think of others. Maybe Isamu or Yuko would be more willing to hear him out.
That was selfish of himself too. But then, he wanted someone more neutral to talk these issues out with. Pixie and Hua Po, plus all the other demons he'd run into, were convinced that his being turned into a demon (and a fiend at that) was perfectly fine. Could they understand this inner dissonance he had with himself? They talked about being changed into other demons like it was a great thing. They might think that going from human to demon was no different.
As Naoki rubbed the shampoo in his hair, he began to wonder why it bothered him so much. The strength the magatama gave him helped immensely in this world of demons. He could produce a blast of frosty breath like he was an ice dragon because of Wadatsumi. And now that he had Shiranui, he knew he could do the same with fire. Iyomante gave him a fog that would blur the sight of his adversaries, which sounded very useful. Then he could heal himself with Anhk while knowing the innate characteristics of anything with Marogareh. Already he had a vast array of abilities that surpassed the two demons that followed him. How much stronger would he be with all twenty-four?
And just feel all the sensations he was aware of now just cleaning himself off. The rush of hot water, the smoothing of steam, the way the shampoo spread across his scalp to wash away the dust composed of the remains of the city: there was a tang of grief and spice of slow building anger, but he would have ignored all this before. And even in here where no windows allowed light from outside in, he felt the power of Kagutsuchi in his blood. It was the power of creation, of all possibility, yet it felt so twisted and intoxicating that he wanted to experience some thrill with his newfound powers.
The shower room door did not creak as it got opened. Naoki didn't bother looking, just felt with his horn. It was another female demon ignoring signs that this was the men's room. In an adjacent room, Pixie and Hua Po were occupying themselves by investigating lockers. The new demon knew skills to charm and panic, would not be ruffled by force magic (not that any of them knew the Zan line), and was vulnerable to electric magic (but Pixie was the one who knew Zio). She crept closer with silent paws.
"What do you want, nekomata?" Naoki asked.
"Grrr, how did you know I was here?" she asked, flicking her forked tail.
"I knew," he said, running a hand through his hair. He was sure all the shampoo was washed out now. "This is the men's room."
"Who cares about that?" she asked, coming into the shower area. "Hmm, you seem different. I could tell you some useful things, if you'd like. It's better than all the gossip in the club, I swear. But you'd have to prove you deserve that. Want to do something naughty with me?"
A dish that didn't match its scent and taste… this was some form of mischief. "I'm not into naughty things if you're trying to be suggestive," he replied, still not looking at her.
That didn't stop her from getting closer. "Are you sure about that? Or would you rather tangle with a guy than a girl?"
"Neither," he replied, finally looking at her. "If you want me to fight for your measly bait, I'd be more than happy to show you what I'm made of." The magatama let him know that it'd be a simple fight for him even alone, especially if he let Iyomante take the lead. Her charm wouldn't be able to touch him then.
She purred at him in confidence. "Heh, sounds purrfect, let's rumble." Then she body slammed him into the wall.
The floor was slick with water; his body moved to keep stable without conscious thought of it. Naoki kicked her off balance, then punched her in the shoulder to knock her to the floor. While that hurt her more than either expected, it wasn't enough. He dropped down to grab her shoulders, flipped her with him, then threw her into the mirror over the sinks. Her feline reflexes were barely enough to help her land on her paws while the mirror shattered around her.
Noticing that she was near death, Naoki brought his fist up and made her flinch. "You really want to keep this up?"
"No, no, sorry!" the nekomata squealed, holding her hands up in surrender. "You didn't seem so tough. Oh, but I will tell you: there's a group based in Ginza called the Assembly of Nihilo, they have both the Lord and Maiden of Creation which are really important humans. Commander Hikawa and..."
"Yuko," Naoki said. So he'd find her in Ginza, as well as that cold summoner.
The nekomata panicked. "Ah, you already knew? Oooo… here, take this treasure, I'm sorry!" She tossed a white pearl at him, then bolted out of the shower room.
Although it was small, Naoki still caught the pearl. Wasn't this more like how his followers thought he should be acting? He smiled; it was so natural if he let himself be like this. But it was the full Kagutsuchi that let him be this way, which was much too short of a time. Once its power started waning, his human side would kick back in and probably be horrified that he'd taken this so blithely. He made sure to rinse off any cat hair that might've gotten on him, then shut the shower off to dry and get his clothes back on. Well, what clothes he had.
With the water off, he heard two cheerful voices in the other room. Naoki crept over to see Pixie and Hua Po with their arms around each other while singing drunkenly. He chuckled at that; they'd be just as embarrassed when this light waned. Still, this was normal for demons. The magatama knew that the full moon had the same effect even if they'd never been touched by real moonlight.
His mind started getting hazy once he was dressed and trying to dry out his hair with the hand dryer. Kagutsuchi waned and an argument broke out near the lockers. Running his hands through his hair, he felt like something had been jarred out of place and then set back. He had to admit that the fight was crazy and yet cool, but could he really be like that all the time? It wasn't right, even if the fault was more with her for creeping in on him in the shower.
"I'd never be friends with you!" Pixie shouted, flying into the room he was in.
"That's cause you won't admit I'm better than you," Hua Po retorted, although she was just as embarrassed.
"Well you're not." She then turned to him and hid her face. "It's nothing, okay?"
"I'll forget what happened between you two if you don't ask about what happened to me just now," Naoki said, coming out from under the dryer to check on how he looked. It seemed good enough to head out.
"Why, what..?" Hua Po started to ask.
Pixie stopped her quickly. "You heard what he said, let's just forget it all. It's Kagutsuchi, you know."
"I did hear that we might find some information in the club," Naoki said. "Then we're going to figure out a way to get to Ginza."
"If you've got a plan, I'm with you all the way," Pixie said.
"Of course, that's what we're supposed to do," Hua Po said, trying to be haughty about it. "The club's in the other underground part, so we'll have to go back out to get there. I don't know how you intend to get to Ginza, unless you figured out how to fly too."
"We'll figure something out," he said.
Entering the club meant another assault of information, this time backed by a thudding techno beat. Ghosts and demons that wanted nothing to do with the battles of Conception were here to lose themselves to music and dance. Anything more than that was superfluous information unless he wanted to take over as DJ or get in a fight here. As he licked his lips trying to clear that out, he noticed his two demons were already asking questions. Not the right ones, but they were trying and still competing with each other.
Naoki joined in, finding that most in the club were talking about the Assembly of Nihilo along with another group: the Mantra. These were all second-hand accounts, but it sounded like Nihilo wanted to a world of perfect serenity, whatever that meant. The Mantra wanted to back someone who'd create a world where power equaled authority. Because of their differing interests, the two groups clashed whenever they met. While this was good to know about, there was little about the people he wanted to find. They talked about how Hikawa was either clever or cruel, but the Maiden was a mystery to them.
After a while, he was ready to quit since the music had not changed at all and was driving him crazy. A woman's ghost who had just come in had something different to talk about. "Some weird guy showed up in the terminal room out of nowhere," she said when all he'd done was nod in greeting.
That could be either Isamu or Hijiri. "What kind of guy?" Naoki asked.
"I don't know, but he sounded excited about something," she said. "Like he had figured something out. I dunno, I'm not about to walk in on somebody rambling away like that."
"All right." He looked for the two others and found Hua Po badgering Pixie about having a dancing contest. "I can't stand the beat in here, let's go," he told them.
"Right, doesn't this guy have any sense for variety?" Pixie said, seeming grateful for an excuse to leave.
"But the whole point is to dance like you don't care, and then you won't care at all," Hua Po said. But she left with them to go back to the other area.
Yes, let's go find that Hikawa person and make him suffer for what he's done.
The other magatamas he'd picked up were more aggressive than Marogareh, particularly Wadatsumi and Shiranui. They were helping him battle more effectively, but they encouraged him to battle more fiercely as well. And more often; they acted like he needed to train himself to be more powerful, to lead a more powerful squadron of demons. It might help, but he didn't want to gain that kind of reputation.
All he wanted to do was find the people he cared about and figure out what to do with their situation. Maybe he should go back to get Chiaki to join him. But then, she found him creepy and clearly had no desire to find Isamu. Naoki didn't want to go further down this path of demons and alienate the humans he knew. And Kagutsuchi was supposed to have the power to create a new world. Couldn't it be persuaded into bringing back the world as it had been? Then the deaths of all he'd once known wouldn't matter as they'd be undone. That was more what he wanted.
As he approached the terminal room, he sensed someone with earthy tones to them. That was Hijiri. Naoki felt a little disappointed that it wasn't Isamu. Then again, Hijiri was an occult reporter and had been kind to him even though he was no longer fully human. It was better running into him than Hikawa. Naoki went into the terminal room; Hijiri got startled and took a step away from the device. "Oh, it's you."
"Hello Hijiri," Naoki said. "Good to see you again."
"Yeah, you too," he said, tapping his hat against his palm. "Sorry about that. You seem to be adjusting well, with some good allies too."
"But I'm the better one," Hua Po said.
"Oh shut it," Pixie argued, turning her back to her.
"It's not peaceful, but it's working somehow," Naoki said.
Hijiri smiled, relaxing in their presence. "Just watch for who you add to your team next so that it doesn't worsen things. You could always try some fusion at the Cathedral across the way. Humans have the strongest free will, so we can adapt to situations as they change. On the other hand, demons can be predictable with enough study. Changing what kind of demon it is will change its traits, although I hear some demons who get fused frequently retain more complexity."
"What the heck are you talking about?" Hua Po asked. "You get fused so you can become more awesome, that's that. But you need to be contracted with somebody that the cathedral accepts as a customer, most of the time."
"They should accept you, Demi," Pixie said.
"We'll try sometime later since you two refuse each other," Naoki said. "What did you come here for, Hijiri?"
"Well, it was one place I was certain of when I finally tested out the transport function," he said, looking back to the terminal. "I've still got to track down Hikawa and some more definite information."
"Hikawa may be in Ginza," he said, causing Hijiri to raise an eyebrow at him. Naoki explained about what people were talking about here in Shibuya, with the Assembly of Nihilo and the Mantra.
While listening, Hijiri turned the top ring of the terminal. "Hmm, thanks for letting me know. Nihilo… that explains this character and it's connection to Ginza."
"I'd like to go there since the woman they call the Maiden is my teacher," Naoki said. "I've been looking for her and my two friends. Chiaki's here, but she was put off by how I'm part demon now. And, I haven't run into Isamu yet, but he seems to have an interest in these terminals as well."
"Maybe I'll contact him at some point," Hijiri said. "If I do, I'll let him know you're looking for him. Would you like me to send you to Ginza through the Amala Network? It's a simple system once you know the characters properly."
"Sure," Naoki said, joining him by the terminal.
"We'll be able to follow you by the contracts, so don't worry about us," Pixie said, although she stuck close to him.
Hijiri spun the middle terminal. "All right, let's get you to Ginza. I may join you there later once I know it's safe for me. You should be fine even with a small party like this."
Should he try getting more demons soon? Naoki wondered about it before he felt something pulling him towards the terminal. That was the transport working, right?
Don't worry, it should be fine. We'll make it fine.
He reached out to the terminal and got drawn into a warm light. Then he was flying down halls, surrounded by a flow of magatsuhi. The rich senses of it blanked out his mind briefly, tastes he knew and tastes he could never imagine before. Suddenly, someone snatched away the connection and he was tumbling down. His magatama tried to shift his body to land better and didn't quite make it. He needed a more physically-oriented magatama to do that.
While he steadied himself on the hard glass floor, Naoki drew out Anhk's power to alleviate the soreness from the rough landing. There was a vast ocean of knowledge here. Just like the terminals, his horn cut off its senses for that because it would drown his mind in information. It rolled just out of his consciousness, waves of omniscience.
"Naoki, are you okay?" Hijiri's voice came to him. "Something disrupted the transmission, I'm trying to figure out what."
He opened his eyes and found himself in a vast triangular hall. The surfaces did seem to be made of glass, magatsuhi flowing in and around it. A vast amount of lights lay beyond the glass. "Amala could drive you insane," Naoki said.
"How's that?" Hijiri asked.
"It'd be like wiring yourself up directly to everything on the internet, but more than that," he said, getting to his feet. "I'm okay, I just can't look too deeply into it all."
"All right, at least you're okay," he said. "You seem to be close to the Ginza terminal. Depending on how you're interpreting the situation, it may just be a short walk to the exit."
"Maybe."
"I can pull up a map of where you are... I'll see if I can guide you through this."
It was not a simple walk, nor a short one. The network seemed to be aware of his presence and it did not want him to get to Ginza. Before long, the path splintered into many ways, his connection to Hijiri broke up, and the doorways he felt were right got sealed shut. And all the residents here were jerks. The demons attacked in large groups and the ghosts did not want to talk.
"Hey, sometimes people just want to be left alone," one of them said just because he walked too close to him. "If you don't respect a person's personal space, you'll come to regret it."
"We're just passing by," Hua Po said. "Jerk."
"Let it go," Naoki said, moving on.
"Well you'd better watch it because the next guy might blow up on you," the ghost warned, even if he seemed annoyed.
The next person they ran across was a demon. "Whaaat aaare youuu doing here?" the spectre said, its voice garbled eerily. "Aaare youuuu here forrr MY magatsuuuhi?"
"No, we're trying to get to Ginza, dummy," Hua Po said.
"And if you don't get out of our way, we'll beat you up like everyone else," Pixie said. Which was a crazy thing to think about, but Naoki realized that it was true.
"Noooo, if youuu waaant past here, youuu waant what's miiine!" The spectre snarled; it had a sharp tartness of wild fruit to it. Maybe it was more feral than not? "Youuu won't get it! My friends will stoop youuurrr friends. Come!"
A swarm of spectres surrounded them, far more than they'd faced at once. Naoki clenched his fist, wondering if they'd bitten off more than they could chew here. If he could put himself back in the mindset he had in facing the nekomata alone, he could face this fearlessly. But that was a demon's way of thinking and he didn't want to fall too far that way.
Hell with that all, quit worrying and get on with it. You've got it.
It wasn't good to listen to the magatama too much. But here and now, it was trust them or end up killed in this ocean of omniscience. "You'll regret this," he said, trying to convince himself too that he could handle it.
And something was going on with Pixie too; sparks of demonic energy flew off her. "Yeah, I will not let you harm Demi!" she challenged the phantoms, speaking in two voices at once. The sparks overshadowed her; her power intensified until she emerged as a taller and more powerful fairy.
"Show off," Hua Po grumbled. "What now?"
"Attack as many as you can, that's what," Naoki said, then used Fog Breath himself. Blurring their vision would keep his team from being overwhelmed with attacks; he might as well see with them how far he could mess opponents up with this ability.
Hua Po had picked up a multi-cast version of her Agi spell; thankfully, it didn't clear up the fog like real fire would. But when High Pixie fired off her Mazio, it was much more powerful than that Maragi. By the time he found the limits of his fog (twice, at which point the specters fumbled so much two crashed into each other trying to attack at once), their spells had wiped out a third of the specters. The specters were most weak to Force, which they didn't have any skills for. Naoki still wiped out a third more in one Ice Breath, leaving a frosty sweetness in his mouth.
When all the specters were defeated, High Pixie and Hua Po both cheered. "We could become unstoppable if we keep getting stronger," High Pixie said.
They could, but was that power he really wanted? No, if he could just find a way to reset the world, that was good enough for him. "We do have to survive," Naoki said, mostly to himself. In the real world, he could get away with resolving things peacefully. But this Vortex World was filled with violence. As much as he didn't like it, he was going to have to respond in kind.
"Naoki?" Hijiri called, his voice coming through clearer. "Can you hear me?"
"Yes, you're clear again," Naoki said.
"Oo, you should of said no," Hua Po said, grinning at the joke.
"That's good, I was worried about you," Hijiri said. "The connection to Ginza's main terminal looks clear now. It should be the only path ahead."
"Yeah, I see it," Naoki said, already heading for it. He was glad to leave this network area behind him.
No, you come see me first.
His human side is too wary, afraid of guilt. His demon side is too reckless, intoxicated merely by leaving inhibition behind. Somewhere between the nekomata fight and the specter fight, that is where he'll find his glory. More on the former side, I hope. Be neither human nor demon, for we need something entirely new to break this stagnation.
"We're sorry to invite you by so suddenly," my assistant says, bowing her head. "We will send you to your intended destination in a moment. But please, will you first hear out my master's request?"
He's not as awed as he was last time; he's more sure of me even as he's wary. You must have heard my name somewhere. Yes, Lucifer the Morning Star. Kashima Naoki the Demifiend, we could be great partners if you so choose.
"All right," Naoki says. He'll listen, but he's not about to make any promises. Good, you don't have to. You'll end up doing it in part, at least.
"As you may have noticed, this is a place far deeper in Amala than where you were in the Network. You do not yet have the strength to walk this labyrinth without my master's protection. Should you gain that strength, you would be able to come visit us for yourself from any terminal. Except, the halls are darkened now. My master had eleven candelabrum that lit the Labyrinth of Amala we reside in. Most of them were stolen from their places
"Those who took them now wander the Vortex World, keeping this place dark. The candelabrum react to each other; I will give you the one that remains, Sovereignty. Would you look for the rest and reclaim them for us? If you put them back in their proper places, the labyrinth will be illuminated again and my master will allow you to traverse its halls. If you manage to reclaim them all, then I promise you, we will answer all of your questions at that time."
"Sure, I'll look for them," he says.
You're not committed yet, I can feel it. I'm not worried about that. As long as you accept, then your training will truly begin. My adversary would not trust a plan this vital to free will. I'm betting that I know humanity well enough to get you to ask me for what I ask of you.
Others have denied or failed me. If you deny me as well, I will simply learn from that denial and choose another again. Yet, I know my limitations. Even I cannot adapt as well as humans. I am acting on faith as well, that this will succeed one day.
Naoki, let that be this time and not another.