Thump, thump.
Hashiguchi could no longer tell whether the sound he heard was that of his own heart beating, or whether it was the sound of the lump of flesh pulsating. When he was brought back to his senses by a strange sensation emanating from his foot, Hashiguchi's entire right leg was surrounded by the pink lump of flesh. He tried to cry out, but terror had sealed his throat and he could not even speak.
Steadily, greedily, the pink blob started to pull Hashiguchi's body into its own. He felt no pain. Like sinking into warm mud, along with a boundless feeling of loss, there was only the sense of his impending death.
Help me... No longer able to speak, Hashiguchi clawed at the air as if trying to find something to grab onto as a last resort, and in that instant, the blob clamped down onto his torso with an incredible force.
The shock sent Hashiguchi's eyeballs flying out of their sockets, and in an instant his crushed ribs shredded his internal organs; the blood that came pouring out of his body was absorbed by the blob. Only Hashiguchi's skull protuded from the mound of flesh, and presently pink tentacles started flowing out of his open mouth and eye sockets.
Now the only person on the deserted floor of the building, Inoue could hardly believe that Hashiguchi's gruesome death was for real. His capacity for rational thought completely gone, he stabbed maddly at the tentacle grabbing his leg with a ballpoint pen, as if to try to tear it off, and at that moment he felt someone looking at him and returned to his senses.
At some point, the gelatinous lump had grown an eyeball. Sinister and full of malice, it stared at Inoue. The tentacle slowly crawled up his body from his leg to his chest.
Watching his body being sucked into the grotesque mass of protoplasm, something snapped inside Inoue. Overcome with a rush of madness, he let out a shriek of cackling laughter. Right at that time, the floor's elevator made a sound, opened, and his coworkers returned from their break.
"What's with those guys? What are they laughing at?"
"I bet they're slacking off on the job and watching TV." Not having any idea what was going on, the men looked at each other, unaware of the carnage that they were about to step into the middle of.
CHAPTER 2
At roughly this time, Nakajima was in the CAI room of Jusho High, facing the Host Computer which was connected via a modem to the outside, and trying to talk to Loki.
"So what's the story? Did the movement experiment work?"
"I suppose it would be best to say that it showed some results--at least to an extent." The low, rumbling voice that came out of the speakers shook Nakajima's very bowels. Nakajima did not know that Loki had already achieved the ability to take form on his own. He thought the "results to an extent" meant that Loki could exist inside another computer as an AI construct.
"So, I guess you have no choice but to recognize how good my technology is?"
"If that's what you want to think, go ahead. But let me just say that we're a long way from perfection."
"Well, that's to be expected. When trying to send that much information in a single burst, there's bound to be some data loss." Sweat glistened off of Nakajima's forehead where his microphone headset gripped his temples. Nakajima continued to talk with a calm and disinterested air, but his entire body, stiff with tension, belied a hint of uneasiness in a corner of his mind.
What will happen if Loki gains the ability to take form? Nakajima asked himself, ignorant of the true situation.
No, that's impossible. Just look, Loki is dutifully obeying me in these demon transfer theory tests.
Demon Transfer Theory.
Gaining the ability to move freely about the earth had been a dream of demons for aeons, not just Loki. Since ancient times, the areas in which a demon could appear on the earth had been extremely limited. Furthermore, once a demon had actually been summoned, it could only hold form within a radius of a few kilometers from the point it was called to. It could easily be said that this was the reason why Earth had gone for so long without seeing an demon invasion.
Nakajima had created a technology that turned what was once common knowledge in the demon world upside-down. This technology would digitize a demon and transfer it to other computers over communication lines. If perfected, it would completely remove the physical restrictions on demon movement on Earth.
Nakajima thought that his experiment had finally succeeded. He was naive in his line of thought. To start with, he was just an ordinary high school student who had never made contact with a demon at all before, yet here he was immediately jumping to deal with an incredibly powerful demon lord like Loki, which could very well lead to tragedy. Still, one could say that he was being prudent and showing forethought by realizing the danger that Loki could pose, should he gain the ability to gain form.
I may end up having to summon another powerful demon from the Atziluth World that can counteract Loki.
Unable to suppress his growing uneasiness, Nakajima started pondering walking down an even more dangerous road when a voice suddenly surged out of the speakers.
"Give me Shirasagi Yumiko."
"What!?"
"Give me Shirasagi Yumiko."
"No. I can't do that." The instant he heard Yumiko's name, Nakajima cried out. Even he was surprised by his own reaction.
"Child, who do you think you're ordering here!?" Loki's voice displayed an anger he had never shown before. The machine let out a strange whine, and sparks flew from where the cables connected to it.
"All right, all right, calm down..." Nakajima folded to Loki's threat with no resistance at all. Angry at himself, Nakajima bit down on his lip, almost enough to produce blood, and an image of Yumiko's face hovered in his mind. Once again, he was pulled into an illusion.
The towering rocky mountains and azure skies were not visible to the youth. His narrow eyes were fixated grimly on the track ahead of him. His parched, earthen-colored lips were encrusted with red-and black dried blood. His feet were swollen and purple, with sharp shards of rock embedded in them. However, the sound of the gasps drawing close behind him made his injured feet speed up his pace even more.
"Izanagi, why won't you wait? Is it because I've become so hideous? You promised me when I entered Yomi that you would bring me back, no matter what happened to me! Was that a lie? I would never run from you, no matter what happened to you!"
"Forgive me..." As if trying to flee from his fear and guilt, the youth clenched his teeth and took off. But the woman's tenacity was slowly bridging the gap between them. The woman's tears, falling from eyes with their lids rotted off, dropped to the ground with her hair as she cried out.
"Izanagi..."
As she cried out, the hole in her cheek became larger and larger, until her white molars were fully exposed. Soon the path ended, and the youth could see a wide expanse of shadowy wetlands in front of him.
"I made it back to Toyoashihara..." His lips trembled with relief. Opening his arms wide, the youth took a deep breath of the humid air, pursed his lips forcefully, turned around, and sat down.
For a while, he stared at the form of the grotesque woman chasing him, then shook his head sadly and closed his eyes.
The youth started to meditate. When the woman had gotten within reach of a stone's throw, his body seemed to float slightly in midair for a moment, and then there was a huge undulation in the atmosphere. As if a huge invisible power had been released, the earth shook, and the fissure that appeared directly beneath the youth spread to the surrounding moutains, and countless rocks started to fall on the path. As the woman stopped, a giant boulder rolled in front of the path in front of her eyes, sealing it off.
"Izanagi! I will come to you! Even if it takes hundreds or thousands of years!" The sound of the woman's bitter cries rose from beyond the towering pile of earth.
"Forgive me, Izanami..." Plugging his ears with his hands, the youth staggered into the wetlands, the tall reeds rising even above his height
.
As Nakajima snapped out of his trance, he left the CAI room in low spirits, and a few minutes later, as if waiting for him to leave a dark shadow slipped through the hallway and into the room. Two hands reached out of the inky blackness, searching for the power switch to a terminal, and soon the light of a display was illuminating fingers on the keyboard.
They were white, smooth fingers. Soon they stopped moving at the coercing sound of a low voice.
"OHARA." That was what the voice said.
"I'm showing you the list for the transport program Nakajima wrote. Can you operate it?"
"I think I can operate it, but not much more than that."
"That's fine. There's no more need for any changes to the technology. If I can move and take form on my own, I can conquer the Assiah world singlehandedly."
"Your will be done." The microphone picked up the excited whisper.
PART 3:
POSSESSION
CHAPTER 1
When confronted with something too unbelievable, people have a tendency to subconsciously avoid thinking about it. Or else, they will attempt to rationalize what they saw as an attempt to relieve their anxiety.
Yumiko did the same sort of thing in regards to her experience with the demon summoning in the CAI room.
That evening, Nakajima had said he summoned a demon using the computer. But when she really thought about it, there was no real hard evidence that what she saw really was a demon. With enough skill manipulating computer graphics, such a scene could easily be staged. As for that demonic beast, Yumiko only saw it for an instant. It would probably be more natural to think that it just been a large dog that Nakajima had used as a guard, and Yumiko's fear and surprise deluded her into seeing it as some sort of horrific monster. Nakajima might be a genius-level computer nut, but the whole ceremony could have been nothing more than something him and his followers had cooked up together. Nakajima had probably just started some sort of occult or magic club.
As the days passed by uneventfully, this was how Yumiko started to think of the whole experience. Jusho High's "gifted" class was still not a place that she felt entirely comfortable at, but she was still able to make a few friends there that she could banter with like a normal girl her age.
Still, it was definitely the case that Nakajima seemed to hold some sort of special authority about the school. Lately he had been spending all of his time holed up in the CAI room, and rarely if ever showed his face in class. The only time he would show up was when other classes were using the CAI room, and even then he would ignore class, programming on his handheld computer instead.
No matter how you looked at it, there was something not right about the situation. But whenever Yumiko tried talking to her friends about Nakajima, they would just clam up and try to change the subject. However, it wasn't as if they disliked him. Their silence was more like a sense of fear and awe, as if they couldn't find the right words to use when talking about such a powerful persona.
Well, no big deal. Besides, it doesn't really affect me anyway...
Even though Yumiko could explain the situation away to herself in such a manner, she couldn't keep her heart from racing whenever she pictured his profile in her head.
It was a morning in July, close to the start of summer vacation.
Yumiko walked to school along the highway between Kuniritsu Station and Hitobashi University every morning. The branches of the trees stretched out to their limits so that their leaves would absorb the blinding sunlight, and as Yumiko walked beneath the lines of gingko trees with their outstretched, pale green leaves, she rubbed her sleepy eyes and thought of the phone call she had received the night before.
That call had come while she was cleaning up after dinner. Her mother casually picked up the receiver, then called to her.
"Yumiko, it's from someone called Yamanaka. Have you got a boyfriend already?"
"Yamanaka...?" As Yumiko cocked her head, wondering if she had a classmate with that name, then had a flash of insight.
"I'm sure he's just passing on a message from school," Yumiko lied at once. While thinking of who it might be, she waited a little bit before gently picking up the receiver.
"Hello, this is Yumiko..."
"...."
The sound of faint breathing was all that could be heard from the other side.
"Hello?"
"Stay home from school tomorrow." All of a sudden, a hushed voice sounded into Yumiko's ear. For an instant, Yumiko thought the voice sounded like Nakajima's, but she couldn't be sure.
"Hello, who is this?"
"He's after you. You should stay away for a while." The tone of the voice became urgent. But that only made it seem more suspicious, and as Yumiko tried to decide how to resopnd, she noticed her mother had stopped cleaning the dishes and was watching her suspiciously.
"We can talk about this at school tomorrow." Yumiko calmly said.
There was the sound of a clicking tongue as the phone hung up on the other end.
"What was that about?" Yumiko's mother asked worriedly.
"It was nothing. Being really popular is really a pain sometimes." Distracting her mother with an unintelligible response, Yumiko tried to recall what Nakajima's normal speaking voice sounded like.
College students in blue jeans and T-shirts passed by Yumiko, discussing their plans for summer vacation. One of them who was carrying a guitar case in his left hand bumped into her.
"Ah, sorry!" As Yumiko looked up suspiciously, the college student smiled shyly at her, but she simply ignored him and looked away.
That really might have been Nakajima...
Yumiko wasn't sure at the time, but thinking about it afterwards, she had the sense that the mysterious person that called her talked a lot like Nakajima.
But if that was the case, what was he trying to tell her? The voice on the phone had been very serious. It was full of desperation, almost like that of someone trying to escape from a pursuer.
What could have happened to him?
After the call, Yumiko had tried to prepare for the next day's class, but even when trying to focus on her textbooks, she kept picturing Nakajima's stare while looking at the typeface on the page, and none of the information in the book stuck. Not only could she not study, but kept up wondering about the phone call, Yumiko had barely slept a wink. Her head dizzy with insomnia, the baseball club members, having finished their morning practice, chatted amongst themselves as they walked by.
Yumiko turned to the left off of University Avenue and through the gates of her school. At that instant, a harsh shiver ran up her spine and her arms broke out in goosebumps. Wondering what happened, she looked around her, and noticed that Ohara was staring at her from the window in the faculty lounge. Her pitch-black eyes had an almost supernatural, sinister look in them, and watched Yumiko's every move. Absorbed in the stare, Yumiko started walked uneasily, and a male student on a bicycle lightly touched her.
"Hey, careful! Watch where you're going!" The bicycle sped up and the student pedaled away.
Returning to her senses, Yumiko looked back up at the window to the faculty lounge, but Ohara was no longer there. As waves of students proceeded inside the school so as not to be late, they turned around and gave quizzical looks at Yumiko, who was standing there as still as a post.
What are you doing? This isn't like you! Admonishing herself, Yumiko ran into the school.
CHAPTER 2
Yumiko ran into her classroom and managed to make it to her seat before the opening bell rang. Soon afterwards professor Ohara entered the classroom and looked over it with a calm face, just as usual. Yumiko had seen her crazy state that night in the CAI room, but even before that, the two had never gotten along. Looking down as if not to make eye contact with anyone, Ohara directed the students to go to the CAI room.
The CAI room for a classical Japanese lesson? What does she intend to do there?
Paying no attention to the dubious Yumiko, her classmates closed their books and stood up, leaving their pens at their desks. Yumiko instinctively looked around to see if Nakajima was in class, but his desk was clean, and it looked like he hadn't arrived at school yet.
"He's after you. You should stay away for a while." All of a sudden, Yumiko remembered the words from the mysterious telephone conversation the night before. A bead of cold sweat ran down her neck from her temple to chest.
"Hey, are you OK?" Yumiko's friend Kano Miyuki entered her spaced-out gaze. Yumiko's big black eyes were sparkling mischievously.
"Hey now Yumiko, no cutting class."
"No, I really don't feel well...."
"Come on, let's go." Miyuki was oddly enthusiastic as she grabbed Yumiko's arm and pulled her up out of her seat. Right at that moment, Ohara came close to the two.
"Ms. Shirasagi, you look a little pale. Do you need to take a rest in the infirmary?" She spoke in a voice that sounded a little bit too kind.
"It's OK, professor. I'll be with her to make sure she's all right." With a grand gesture, Mikuki patted Yumiko on the shoulder. The other students ignored the exchange as they left the room. But Yumiko sensed that there was something unnatural about the way they moved.
They're not acting normal!
A shiver ran down Yumiko's spine, and Miyuki gripped her hand more tightly.
"I'm OK, Miyuki. I can walk on my own." Despite her confident words, Yumiko's voice was shaking. She was determined to throw off Miyuki's grip and make a break for it as she left the classroom, but the minute she stepped out of the door, a throng of male students surrounded her.
Digital Devil Story: Reincarnation of the Goddess Page 5
