Digital Devil Story: Reincarnation of the Goddess

by Aya Nishitani

  "Come on, let's go." As he urged Yumiko along, Takai's eyes wandered aimlessly through the air. Before she knew it, Yumiko was in the dead center of the throng of her classmates. Miyuki continued to hold her arm tightly. Her delicate frame belied the incredible strength of her grip.

  "Please, let go of me." As Yumiko opened her mouth to cry out, a handkerchief was thrust into her mouth to gag her. The students walked in file along the corridor, centered around Yumiko as she tried to escape.

  As soon as the class was inside the CAI room, Ohara quickly shut the door.

  Click.

  As if signaled by the sound of the lock, the students stopped moving. Finally released from Miyuki's grasp, Yumiko looked around the classroom and let out a shrill cry.

  It's just like it was that night!

  There were no chairs or tables in the classrom; Nakajima sat in a leather sofa in the middle of the room. There was a twinge of pity and regret in his face as he stared at Yumiko.

  Nakajima, why... Yumiko's lips moved as if pleading for an explanation.

  Looking straight at Yumiko, Nakajima slowly stood up and pointed at the sofa that he had been sitting in.

  "Today, this is your seat." His low murmur pierced Yumiko's soul. The events of that night vividly resurfaced in her mind.

  "No, I won't!" Unable to stand, Yumiko slumped to the floor. The many scratches on the linoleum tiles only too vividly reminded her of that evening. That night, Nakajima said that he offered Ohara to a demon. Was that for real? And now, was she going to be the next offering? Unable to run or get help, Yumiko started sobbing, and her tears trailed off her cheeks to the floor.

  Black vinyl high heels stepped on Yumiko's tears pooled on the ground. Nervously looking up, Yumiko saw Ohara looking down on her with an eerie smile on her face.

  "There's nothing to be afraid of. Come on, stand up." Holding out her hand, Ohara spoke in a soft, coaxing voice.

  "No! No!" Yumiko furiously shook her head, and looked to Nakajima as if seeking rescue.

  "It's too late now. There's no other way." Nakajima spoke as if trying to convince himself, and Yumiko listened in despair. Nakajima's narrow eyes turned to the host computer beyond the plate glass as their magnetic tapes began to spin. As if in time with the tape, the display in front of flashed in brilliant colors.

  "Prepare the sacrifice." There was no hesitation in Nakajima's voice as he gave the order. Yumiko saw several students approach her to bring her to the chair. However, the next instant, a sudden earthquake stopped them.

  "STOP!" A gut-wrenching, solemn voice cried out.

  "Why did you stop them, Loki!?" Losing his calm at the unexpected turn of events, Nakajima gripped the microphone, his hands covered with cold sweat.

  "I don't need your help any more," Loki said.

  "What!?"

  "Don't you get it, Nakajima? I already have the ability to materialize in the Assiah world on my own."

  Nakajima's eyes were filled with shock as right in front of his eyes, the monitor displaying Loki started to ooze a blue haze. Right then and there, a dimensional tear between the demon and human worlds was starting to form. Giving off vibrantly-colored light like an aura, the atmosphere twisted and writed unusually, and a pungent cold air burst forth.

  Yumiko just stood and watched the haze billow forth, her mouth agape. She was probably paralyzed with fear at the unbelievable events unfolding in front of her eyes. The haze gradually thickened, and started to move itself into a vaguely-defined shape, much like a hologram. Slowly, the form solidified. The light dancing amongst the frigid gust changed into flowing black hair, and the outline of a handsome face gained bronze skin, its deep black eyes gazing at the students in the room.

  "Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh." In an ancient language, Loki declared his own divinity. Ohara, who had at some point fallen on her knees in front of him, put her hands together, looked up at him in awe, and spoke the same words as if worshiping an all-powerful god.

  To think that Loki would have affected Ohara this much... Powerless, Nakajima stared at Loki and Ohara.

  I should have considered the possibilty that this could happen. I'd better find a weakness, and soon!

  Nakajima frantically pointed a sensor connected to his computer at the nearly-fully-formed Loki. Calling up the ISG host computer, he sent the data about the demon that the sensor gathered to the Craft AI. Meanwhile, Loki extended his hand toward Yumiko, who was rigid with terror. His bronze, naked body was beautifully symmetrical, almost like the Greek Apollo, and his muscular chest was covered in black scales. His black eyes, from which no one could possibly fathom any emotion, paralyzed her.

  "Come over here." Pointing his taloned finger at Yumiko, Loki ordered her in a low, cold voice. Yumiko looked to Nakajima for help, but he merely glanced at her and continued talking with the AI.

  Nakajima knew he wouldn't have a chance if he tried to fight Loki directly. But Loki could probably not risk doing anything to him so long as he had control of the computer environment. Nakajima urgently knew that he had to find some sort of weakness to Loki while he still had the chance. He also was guessing that Loki would not be able to leave the magnetic field being generated by the computer.

  However, just as Yumiko tried to stagger away and flee, a strange sound emanated from Loki's arms. For a moment they looked like they were beginning to melt, and then all of a sudden changed into a giant, jiggling, pink-colored blobs of protoplasm. From their tips, multiple tentacles lashed out and wrapped around Yumiko's limbs like whips.

  "No, stop!" The tentacles grabbing onto the crying Yumiko's limbs pulled her up into the air, toward the body of the blob. A new pink tentacle sprouted and grabbed onto Yumiko's body, and the liquid emanating from its membrane melted her clothes, grabbed onto her now-exposed skin and started writhing along her slender body.

  >CRAFT, HURRY!

  Plugging his ears so he wouldn't have to hear Yumiko's screams, Nakajima frantically kept hitting the keys. Finally the data transfer LED lit up, and Craft sent a response.

  >ACCORDING TO THE DATA YOU SENT, THE JELLY SUBSTANCE IS 58% WATER AND 17% ECTOPLASM. THE REMAINING MATTER IS NOT NATIVE TO THE PLANET AND CANNOT BE ANALYZED.

  >HAS THERE EVER BEEN A CASE OF SIMILAR MATTER BEING DISCOVERED BEFORE?

  > YES. THIS CENTURY, SIMILAR MATTER WAS DISCOVERED IN A MAYAN TEMPLE AND IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

  > WHAT IS ITS WEAK POINT?

  > I CANNOT MAKE A HYPOTHESIS DUE TO INSUFFICIENT DATA. HOWEVER, THE MATTER DISCOVERED UNDER A RELIEF IN THE MAYAN TEMPLE WAS REPORTED TO HAVE EVAPORATED WHEN IT CAME IN CONTACT WITH MERCURIC SULFIDE-BASED PAINT.

  > MERCURIC SULFIDE? YOU MEAN A MIXTURE OF MERCURY AND SULFUR. BUT I DON'T HAVE THE TIME TO FIND SOMETHING LIKE THAT. TELL ME HOW TO DEAL WITH HIM NOW!

  > UNFORTUNATELY I DO NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT DATA TO PROVIDE AN ANSWER.

  Angry at Craft's request for more data, Nakajima punched the keyboard.

  At that moment, a strange gasping voice broke Nakajima's train of thought. Turning around, he noticed Ohara, who was writhing around at Loki's feet, hugging her breasts with her chest fully exposed. Nakajima did not miss the fact that a fist-size patch of her skin below her breasts was glowing. He immediately reported the situation to Craft and asked what happened.

  > THE MOST LIKELY CONCLUSION IS THAT SHE IS PREGNANT WITH THE DEMON'S CHILD. SIMILAR SYMPTOMS HAVE BEEN REPORTED IN EUROPE BEFORE.

  "That's impossible! Ohara only had sex with Loki in a virtual world. Could it be..." Thinking of the terrible possibilities, Nakajima shuddered in fear. Could it be that Loki had already materialized several times before, only he never realized it? Meanwhile, as if in tune with Ohara's gasps, Loki's entire body started to change into something bizarre. Aside from his face, all his skin turned pink, and as if its cellular structure changed entirely, started to secrete a viscous substance.

  "Aah..."

  Letting out a cry of joy,
Ohara tore off her clothes and grabbed onto Loki's legs. Loki's body started to jiggle like jelly and started to envelop her. Be it the gods on Mount Olympus or the monsters of Hades, many of those from other worlds had their hearts stolen by the beauty and sexual allure of human females. Most likely even for a demon as powerful as Loki, he could not resist becoming aroused by the prospect of having his way with two beautiful women.

  Leaving his handsome face the way it was, he started changing into a cylindrical lump of flesh that sprouted countless small tentacles. The pink protoplasm started to glow and the movement of the tentacle fondling Yumiko's body became faster and rougher.

  Yumiko lost all will to resist, and her head fell to the side limply as she passed out. Loki started to pull her doll-like body into his own. But he did not notice that Ohara was glaring furiously at Yumiko even as she was eveloped within the protoplasm.

  Many women could not resist the allure of demons and fell madly in love with them once they had sex with them once, even if they despised them normally. For Ohara, who had devoted herself body and soul to Loki, watching him have sex with one of her students in front of her eyes was an unbearable humiliation. Once both of Yumiko's slender white legs had sunken into the the protoplasm until she was almost inside Loki up to her chest, Ohara went mad with jealousy, grabbed her head, and started to twist it.

  "Agh!" Yumiko's face twisted into pain, and her body spasmed in agony.

  "Stop! Stop it!" Crying out in anguish, Nakajima ran to her, only to be struck hard in the face by a thick tentacle. Knocked back against the wall, his vision blacked out for an instant, and when he finally managed to pull himself off the floor, Yumiko's body showed no signs of life; her head was twisted to the side unnaturally and her eyes were open and glazed over.

  Sitting atop the pillar of flesh, Loki's face took on a surprised expression, and glared with displeasure at Ohara inside his body. But being closer and more used to her, she was most likely more important than Yumiko. Loki lifted his tentacle and dumped Yumiko's body on the floor.

  Inside, Nakajima went mad with regret.

  Why didn't I warn her more seriously last night? If I hadn't made such a half-assed phone call and instead told her everything, this never would have happened. I killed Shirasagi Yumiko!

  Not only did he never think that Loki would have attained the knowhow to materialize himself, but he also never thought that Ohara might kill Yumiko. But here Loki's sinister body was here in the Assiah world and the innocent Yumiko had been killed.

  And he just looked on, powerless.

  Reflexively biting down in his lip, Nakajima noticed a faint scarlet light in his peripheral vision and jerked up his head. Loki's body had spread out to the entire CAI room, and the classroom looked like a jungle of protoplasm. Pink tentacles pulsated and twisted, grabbing hypnotized students, pulling them inside Loki's body where they were consumed one by one. However, the red light that had caught Nakajima's attention lay beyond the carnage. By the entrance of the room the atmosphere was permeated with red, and shook like an aurora.

  There's a dimensional warp! It can't be--a demon other than Loki....!? But as Nakajima's attention was drawn away, several stentacles wrapped around his legs.

  "Loki, what are you doing to me!?" Nakajima could not believe that Loki would attack him, and was shocked in surprise to his very core.

  "I bet you thought you were safe so long as you were in charge of the computer. But this woman can serve as your replacement easily enough. Now that I can appear in the Assiah world, not only are your abilities no longer useful--they're a liability." As if to back up Loki's statement, Ohara laughed inside his body.

  Nakajima immediately grabbed his handheld computer and entered the command to summon Kerberos. From the liquid crystal display, a white mist wafted into the room.

  "Go, Kerberos!"

  As if in response to Nakajima's cry, the mist rapidly solidified, and as if impatient to fully take form, assaulted Loki.

  "You are a beast of the demon world and yet you side with the human!?"

  Flame-like breath burst forth from the fang-lined maw, and Loki let out a cry that shook the very earth. Deftly dodging an attacking tentacle as it gave forth a slimy sound, the demon beast Kerberos bit down at its base and tore it off of Loki's body. Loki's purple blood gushed out and melted the linoleum tiling on the floor. With the two demons letting out roars like thunder, cracks shot up the plate glass window, and the ceiling and walls started to cruble. Despite fighting fiercely, Loki refused to drop Nakajima.

  "Kerberos, over here!"

  As Kerberos lept through the air in response to Nakajima's cry, he was finally caught by a tentacle that wrapped around his body. However, his tail split into half and became two serpents which raised their heads and tore off the tentacle grabbed onto him. Freed from Loki's grasp, Kerberos leapt at the tentacles restraining Nakajima in an attempt to save him.

  As if to thwart the beast's effort, Loki bent his tentacle and smacked Nakajima's head to the floor. The impact was almost enough to crush his skull, and Nakajima's consciousness wavered as fresh blood poured from the split in his forehead, his field of vision becoming drenched in red. With his vision distorting, the ferociously fighting Kerberos seemed like a far-away illusion.

  So this is the pathetic fate of the magician...

  As his consciousness faded and he prepared to die, memories of those strange illusions from before spontaneously appeared in a corner of Nakajima's mind.

  What were those? The woman from them called that man that looked just like him "Izanagi." Did it have any connection to the story of Izanami and Izanagi from Japanese mythology?

  Even if I knew, what difference does it make now...?

  Muttering to himself, Nakajima closed his eyes as if in acceptance of his fate.

  At that moment, unbeknownst to anyone, the heart of the seemingly dead Yumiko started to beat faintly.

  Yumiko, Yumiko! A kind voice was calling her name.

  Who are you? Is that you, Mom? Yumiko asked instinctively in her mind.

  As if recognizing that she had awakened, the voice cut off briefly, then started to speak again in a kind voice.

  Stand up, Yumiko.

  Yumiko did not hear the roars of the demon beast nor the sound of the classroom being destroyed. In fact, she had no sense of the terrible experience that she had had at all. All she could hear was the voice of the woman. Timidly opening her eyes, Yumiko realized that the voice was coming from the red aurora in the warped area in the air.

  Through the aurora, the mirage of a peacful countryside was visible. Blue rice paddies with not-yet-ripened seeds. Rolling hills covered in summer grass. And groups of giant boulders, simple yet mysterious.

  Yumiko had seen that scenery somewhere before.

  Isn't that the Asuka Ishibutai tomb...? As the thought popped into her mind, the woman's voice spoke again.

  When you were Izanami in a former life, that's what you called it.

  My former life? Izanami...you mean the goddess from Japanese mythology?

  Yumiko was confused by the suddenness of the words. But what the voice said had the sense of an undeniable truth to them.

  Stand, Yumiko. This space in the air is connected to Asuka, where I rest. Take Nakajima--no, your dearest Izanagi--and come to me.

  The instant she stood in obediance to the voice, the angry cries of Loki and the roars of Kerberos filled Yumiko's ears as she was brought back to reality. Overwhelmed with a sudden dizziness, she immediately sat down again. But as blood rushed to her head and she saw the crumpled Nakajima on the floor, she was struck with an overwhelming sense of duty.

  I've got to save him!

  It was a feeling greater than love or friendship, but closer to instinct. It was a powerful emotion, as if the boy named Nakajima Akemi was literally a part of her, and if he was lost there would be no meaning to her continued existence. Without any
idea how to save him, she stood up and clenched her teeth, and the voice sounded again.

  For a moment, I am going to enter your body so you can use my power--the power to burn anything you stare at with conviction. I pray that your body can take the strain of it.

  From the dimensional rift, a blinding flash pulsed, and a pure power Yumiko had never felt the likes of before rushed through her body.

  "GYAAH!"

  A bizarre cry snapped Nakajima Akemi back to consciousness.

  Opening his eyes, he saw that Loki's tentacle was spasming over his head, smoking and giving off the stench of cooked meat. Enduring the headsplitting pain, Nakajima sat up. Pillars of flame burst out of various spots on Loki's body, and his charred tentacles flailed through air like waves, all giving off the same smoke with the cooked meat smell.

  Furthermore, Yumiko--who he thought was dead--was facing off against him; gouts of flame shot out of everywhere she stared at. In medieval Europe, when magic use was at its height, the ability was called spontaneous combustion.

  What the heck is going on...? Nakajima stared dumbfoundedly at Yumiko, wielding a power he could never have imagined her controlling. But soon, Nakajima noticed that her face was unusually pale, and that her entire body was shuddering. Just with the force of her will, Yumiko was channeling the immense power of Izanami, and her body was getting close to the limit of what it could stand.

  Meanwhile, under intense attack from the flame, Loki ejected Ohara from inside his body and started to chant a spell in an eerie rythm. The pink protoplasm started to condense, changing back into the form of the bronze-skinned youth that Loki had first appeared as.

  Yumiko desperately channeled her will and attempted to incinerate Loki with the power of Izanami, but the flames simply dispersed harmlessly off of the bronze skin, showing no effect at all. However, Loki did not budge and inch and simply stood still as if waiting for her to expend all her energy. A wave of intense exhaustion swept over Yumiko's body, and her vision started to waver. Right as she felt like she was going to drop to her knees, no longer able to withstand the effort, the voice sounded once more.