Digital Devil Story: Warrior of the Demon City

by Aya Nishitani

  Shimazaki, who was standing in a corner of the Solomon Hexagram, licked his lips and peered into the display, his eyes full of both expectation and uneasiness at the same time.

  Isma's bony fingers started tapping the keys. The hard disk gave off a whine as it started slowly spinning, and an unintelligible pattern started flashing onscreen. Soon the screen went black, and after an instant of silence, an earthquake rumbled, shaking the very foundations of the manor. Shimazaki's eyes darted about the room in terror, but Isma showed no signs of paying him any heed.

  "He is here!" As Isma cried out, the floor around the computer started to crack and brilliant light shone out of the tiny fissures. A miasma started seeping out of the cracks, but the inside of the Solomon Hexagram was protected from being affected.

  Presently, a writhing, hoarse voice spilled from the speakers.

  "Who calls me?"

  "I am thy romet, Isma Feed."

  "I do not know that name." The voice, sounding as if it echoed from the bowels of Hell, terrified Shimazaki, who dropped to the floor in fear, cowering behind Isma's chair. Cruelly pushing his hands away, Isma stood up, as if in defiance of the display.

  "Know that I plan to join forces with thee, child of Nut, and conquer the Assiah world."

  "..."

  For some time, silence filled the room.

  The hard disk started spinning furiously, indicating that it was handling a huge amount of data. Then the low voice echoed through the room again.

  "What do you offer me?"

  "Anything thou desirest. However, only if thou lendst me thy power."

  "Do you, a mere human, dare to consider yourself my equal?"

  "Indeed I do. There is none other than I that can call thee into the Assiah world."

  "How impudent..."

  As the air around the computer started shimmering as if in a heat haze, a blistering wave assaulted Isma. Before the immense might of that wave of anger, even Isma took a step backwards. The iron girders holding up the ceiling bent like a bow, and the fluorescent tubes of the lights shattered and fell to the floor as dust. Shimazaki fell on his stomach to the floor, his hands over his head as if to protect it. But Isma showed no fear of the computer and simply kept glaring at it.

  "Set, dost thou think that I do not know just how much thy desirest the Assiah world?" At the sound of his soft voice, the fierce wind died down.

  "Thy legends still are known to this day--how thou killed thy elder brother Osiris, how thy turned all the all the other gods led by Horus against thee, and how thy fought them all and survived--all in order to make the Assiah world thy own."

  "So what is it what you want to say...?" There was some hesitation in Set's voice.

  "I have the technology to break the laws that bind thee and thy kind. Joining forces with me would be greatly benificial to thee as well, would it not?"

  "Isma, or whoever it is you are, I vow in the name of Nut to form a contract with you." Set's voice reverberated throughout the room.

  For a demon to vow in the name of one ranking above itself indicated an absolute, unbreakable bond. Isma's face lit up with a victorious smile.

  "Set, tell me what it is thou wishest."

  "Do you vow not to join forces with any demon than I?"

  "Very well. If thou vowest to Nut not to join forces with any human other than I."

  The demon Set and Isma started to go into the details of forming a concrete contract.

  CHAPTER 2

  After returning to the material world from Izanami's burial chamber, Nakajima had visibly weakened, and under the protection of the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, he had been admitted to Kuniritsu-Musashino Hospital, where Charles Feed had questioned him.

  "I think that just about covers all that happened, Dr. Feed." Sitting up in bed, Nakajima spoke in a tired voice before going silent. His face was as handsome as usual, but his gaze seemed somewhat empty.

  Sitting across from Nakajima, Feed got a sense of what was going on. Part of his psyche is refusing to awaken. He probably doesn't want to face the fact that the demon he summoned killed all of his classmates.

  "I don't really know what to say...if only I was in America when you first summoned the demon and contacted Craft, this never would have happened. However, that doesn't change the fact that you have commited a grave crime. Whether or not the law can do anything about it, though..." Feed looked over at Narukawa, who was sitting in a corner of the room, listening intently.

  "It's be tough to establish any proof of instigation of murder. About all he could be charged with is misuse of a computer."

  Caught by Feed's gaze as he looked at Nakajima's profile, Narukawa gave a somewhat forced legal interpretation of the situation.

  Something seemed strange about Nakajima; Narukawa felt a strange sense, like as if he had run into a lover or long-lost relative that he had been separated from ages ago. At first he thought that he had just been stricken by the boy's looks, but as time passed, he realized that this was something different, like an bizarrely unnatural feeling of nostalgia.

  I can't put my finger on it, but I'm sure I've met this boy somewhere...

  However, no matter how hard he racked his brains, Narukawa could not think of another moment where had ever seen Nakajima before.

  "I would never have expected a genius capable of summoning demons with a computer would be born here in Japan..." Feed's murmuring broke Narukawa's strange sense of deja-vu.

  "I think it's less a matter of my ability and more that the conditions in the city of Tokyo are good for summoning demons. I'm sure there are many programs written on the same concept overseas, but I've never heard of an example of any of them working." Nakajima's words were cool and collected, as if he was speaking of someone else.

  "On that note, where is the critical demon summoning program now?"

  "It should be on Jusho High's host computer..."

  "What was the filename?"

  "It's DEMON."

  Feed and Narukawa looked at each other. Nakajima understood the meaning of their glance instantly.

  "Someone deleted it, didn't they?"

  "Who besides you would have been able to do that?"

  "Ohara, I bet."

  As Nakajima responded, Narukawa interrupted into the conversation.

  "I will get right on finding Ohara. I'm not saying that I believe everything that Nakajima is saying, but it definitely seems that Ohara holds the key to this puzzle."

  Almost as if switching places with Narukawa as he opened the door to the room, Nakajima's mother looked in.

  "Mr. Feed, it's been longer than an hour. Akemi is still not well. Could I possibly ask you to come back some other time?"

  Feed shook his head and spoke resolutely. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Nakajima, but for your own son's sake, it's important that I finish my conversation with him."

  "Mom, it's OK." With her son's insistence, Nakajima's mother left with an air of disapproval, but even after she left, her silhouette in the frosted glass showed that she was trying to listen in on the conversation.

  Smiling bitterly, Feed spoke in a low voice directly into Nakajima's ear.

  "You'll work together with me, right?"

  "Yes...of course."

  "So, where do you think we should start from?"

  "...Hmm. I think the best thing to do to start would be to rewrite the demon summoning program." As Nakajima whispered, there was a sort of blankness in his expression.

  CHAPTER 3

  August 1st, midnight.

  The underground storage room seemed somewhat small now, with the huge supercomputer that had now been installed there. Isma had been making large improvements in the demon summoning program that Ohara had stolen. Of course, he also had the skills of the software engineers under Shimazaki's control at his beck and call. Still, materializing the "digital" Set had proved to be more difficult
than expected.

  "Saint, how is it going? Has there been any progress?" Shimazaki's voice sounded somewhat impatient.

  "This program is has too many defects in it! Summoning a demon is a two step process; first you need to create a magnetic field in which to call it forth, and then you can help give it a form. However this program completes the process in a confusing and complicated way!"

  "But wasn't the demon called Loki able to take a body using that program?"

  "Set is a lot more powerful than Loki. The amount of data that needs to be processed is gigantic in comparison. Furthermore, if you try to run the program straight-up, low-ranking demons get their data mixed up with Set, making it even more difficult to give him a form. I'm trying to add my own improvements to handle the data more efficiently, but it's not enough to give Set a body yet. Anyhow, to start with, I'm going to try to separate and materialize those low-ranking demons first."

  Sitting in the middle of the Solomon Hexagram, Isma started to type on the keyboard. The magnetic tape started clacking as the reels began to spin, and the display started flashing wildly. Soon, a musky smell filled the room.

  "Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh." As the low voice sounded, a milky white droplet formed on the display.

  "Oh, at last!" Not moving an inch, Isma and Shimazaki gazed at the screen. As the condensation increased until it seemed to cover the screen, it slid off onto the floor. Two tiny white snakes, small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand, started to slither across the ground. As Shimazaki started to bend toward them, an expression of suspicion on his face, Isma yelled at him.

  "Don't get near them! If you value your life, that is!"

  "What are these puny little snakes?" Shimazaki asked, clear dissatisfaction in his voice.

  "They are Apeps, venomous serpents that serve Set."

  "What kind of power could little snakes like these possibly have?"

  "Apeps enter into the bodies of humans, dissolve their spinal cords with their poison and then replace it with their own bodies, becoming the victim's nervous system and controlling them completely."

  "I-is that so...?" Shimazaki gulped and took a step backward.

  "Apeps are like receivers that Set can use to control humans from a long distance. Depending on how one used them, they could be more useful than any kind of raw power, no matter how great..." His eyes mere slits, as if looking at precious jewels, Isma watched the two small squiggling vipers.

  On the second floor of the same manor, Ohara was in a room about 15 square meters with no other furniture but a bed. Opening the curtains of the window, she saw the moon reflected in the water amongst the reeds of the swamp. Facing the moon, Ohara whispered.

  "Loki...."

  Ohara had no home to return to. According to the report from one of Shimazaki's underlings, they were investigating her house in connection with the incident at Jusho high.

  Nobody knows the truth. No, even if someone told them, they'd never believe it.

  As if in response to her call, the embryo inside her moved around.

  Does a fetus less than three months old like this usually kick this much? I might be giving birth to a child with an unfathomable amount of power. Since it's Loki's child, I'm sure it'll be beautiful...

  Closing the curtains and moving away from the window, Ohara sat down on the bed. Sitting alone at night like this always made her thoughts turn to Loki.

  It's hard to believe that just a few months ago I was hoping to get married like a normal person. Loki, where did you go...

  Her intuition told her that the demon she loved was dead. However, she did not want to admit it. She couldn't possibly believe that anyone in the world could replace Loki.

  Nakajima, Shirasagi, if you still live, I'll make you suffer just like I have!

  Ohara bit her lip until it bled. Though she had not noticed when it happened, green scales had started to grow on the back of her hand. At some point, demonic power had started to flow through Ohara's own body.

  CHAPTER 4

  Sandwiched in between many computers and electronic instruments, a whiteboard covered in complicated looking mathematical formulae dominated a room in the brand new National Electric Research Laboratories (otherwise known as Electric Labs) building behind Shinjuku Park in Tokyo. Surrounding a desk with a terminal around it, a crimson thaumaturgic circle painted on the ground stood out conspicuously. This was the Demon Banishment Project Room, constructed by Professor Feed on direct request to the Chief Cabinet Secretary. Of course, there was no way that they could officially name the project something like "Demon Banishment," and a placard attached to the door read "New AI Project Room," AI short for "Artificial Intelligence."

  A week earlier, late at night, Feed visited Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujita along with Narukawa and the fully-recovered Nakajima. While skirting around Nakajima's own personal culpability in the incident, Feed had explained the details situation to the Secretary--how Nakajima fought with a demon summoned by a computer, and how the incident posed a potential danger for the future.

  However, Secretary Fujita's response had been less than accomodating.

  "Even coming from a brilliant scientist from MIT as yourself, I can't possibly be expected to believe in demons." Behind his glasses, Fujita's eyes displayed an expression of surprise and confusion.

  "Well, at the very least, there are plenty of people in the US government that believe in that possibility." Feed shrugged his shoulders.

  "We're low on help already, and I've already appointed our most elite investigator to help you..." Fujita spoke sardonically, barely concealing his irritation.

  Narukawa, who had remained silent listening until this point in the conversation, suddenly spoke.

  "Nakajima, could you show us Kerberos?"

  "Of course."

  With deft movements, Nakajima pulled out his handheld computer and his fingers started flying across the keyboard. Fujita's feet, which had been tapping impatiently, stopped instantly as a strange mist started billowing forth from the liquid crystal display. Rapidly the mist condensed into the outline of an otherworldly beast. As a gut-wrenching roar shook the office, Fujita found himself staring into two eyes like flame.

  "What is...!?"

  "This is a demon, Secretary Fujita. Though this demon is an obedient one, fiercely loyal to his master Nakajima."

  Shaken by Kerberos' roar, Fujita waved his hand as if trying to say "OK, I get it!"

  The first job of the Demon Banishment Project was to recreate the Demon Summoning Program that had been deleted off of Jusho High's host computer by someone. That itself was easy for Nakajima. Several days later, as Nakajima was going through the nearly complete program line-by-line to check it, Feed called out from behind him.

  "How is it compared to the old version?"

  "Part of the machine-language subroutines might be different, but for the most part, it should be the same." Nakajima's voice was slightly downcast. It might have been that deep down he no longer wanted to have any more association with demons at all.

  "Want to give it a shot?" Stepping into the red thaumaturgic circle painted on the ground with mercuric sulfide-based paint, Feed spoke casually.

  "OK."

  As the computer started up, a musky odor started to fill the room. A low rumbling filled the brand new building, and cracks shot up the white walls.

  "If a demon appears, I'll take care of it." In his right hand, Feed was gripping an ornate cross. Realizing the man's sincerity, Nakajima cast a genuinely friendly smile in his direction for the first time. But the rumbling started to die down, and the musky smell started to thin.

  "Is there some sort of mistake in the program?" Nakajima looked at Feed as if searching for an answer.

  "I don't think so. From what I've just seen, there's no mistake that a magnetic field suitable for summoning a demon was all set up. It may be that the reason no demon appeared was that it mi
ght have appeared in the Assiah world via a different magnetic field."

  "There's still some details about the mechanism for demon summoning that I don't really understand yet."

  "Unusual words, coming from the genius that was the first to successfully summon a demon via a computer." Feed grinned broadly, but his expression soon turned grave as he looked directly at Nakajima.

  "The last demon to appear called himself Set, correct?"

  "Yes, that's right."

  "While it's too dangerous to try and conjecture the state of affairs in the demon world based on our own knowledge of this one, my theory is that the demon world is like a colloidal conglomeration of countless mini-universes, each centered around a powerful demon. Most likely, with Loki's death, the mini-universe in contact with Japan or Tokyo vanished, and Set's mini-universe entered to take its place. Demon summoning is just opening a contact point between the two worlds at the same time."

  "So what would happen if two contact points were opened at the same time?"

  "The demon would decide which it wanted to appear at. However, there are some examples in medieval records of demon summonings that report that when the difference in strength of the two magnetic fields was great enough, the demon would be pulled to the stronger field, regardless of which it wanted to go to..."

  A knock on the door interrupted Feed's explanation. Carrying a stack of thick books, Narukawa closed the door behind him as he approached the two.

  "There are about 6,000 computers in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area capable of summoning a demon. Using mass numbers of investigators, this is the number of locations that could be serached out in detail within a month."

  Since the project was officially started, while continuing to try and track down Ohara, Narukawa had been investigating places with mid-size or larger computers installed, with an eye out for hardware that would be capable of summoning demons.