bah, humbug

[meaningdies]

Who: Naoya and OPEN.
Where: Near the border of the Gemini and Cancer districts.
Summary: Naoya hates Christmas. He decides to take it out on some demons during the thirteenth hour.
Warnings: Naoya being a jerk is always a warning. Devil Survivor spoilers, if you care about those at all.

Naoya hated Christmas. He hated all of the fuss around it and most of all he hated the fact that he was so conflicted about it. On the one hand he couldn't help but smirk that the religious message had gotten lost in the consumerism, but on the other hand the religious message that still stuck bugged him.

He'd never been fully able to figure out exactly what was going on with Jesus anyway.

Rather than spend the night sulking at home though, he decided to sulk outside. He had his coat with him in case the weather took another sudden turn, and he summoned Coyote to walk alongside him once he reached the edge of the Gemini district.

At the thirteenth hour, he grinned, turning to look at the demons starting to wander the street. A few fairies made a move as if to attack him, and he nodded to Coyote, who leaped forward with an Arm Chopper.

There was no guarantee that the rest of the night would be so easy, however.

Comments

[meaningdies]

"Technically, using a game console. The internet is just where the fuel is from. The rituals and summoning circles are all drawn digitally. It works just as well."

[bondsofsuffering]

There's a pause before he finally just shakes his head. "You'll have to walk me through the process for that one. I'm still not getting how all of that can come together to summon a... well, devil of all things."

[meaningdies]

He pulls out his COMP and holds it up. It's totally not a DS.

"Once the program is loaded on this, then you can activate it. If you defeat the first demon that is summoned from it automatically, then you can contract with it. The needed rituals and such are executed via a rendering program and an automatic translator so that you can comprehend the demon properly. It also has a Harmonizer, which allows you to have more of a resistance to demonic attacks. Really, as long as the correct summoning sigils are drawn and the summoning circles correctly rendered with fuel added, there's no real need for anything else."

He flips it open and presses a button, and Garuda appears in a burst of red and black energy. "Like so."

[bondsofsuffering]

"Whoa-!" He gives a startled (if a little over dramatic) jump, even raising his left arm in front of him like some sort of feeble shield. But he quickly lets it drop, even leaning forwards to get a better look. In the process of this, Naoya may notice that he is in fact armed with a revolver held loosely in his right hand.

"Huuh... And just how many can you summon? Is there a limit? And where do they come from?"

[meaningdies]

That's fine, Naoya has a gun as well.

"It's set up to only allow two per summoner at a time. You can store quite a few in your COMP, however. They come from the demon world connected to my world usually... though I suppose here they come from the one connected to this world. I haven't quite figured out how that works. Theoretically it shouldn't, but perhaps all of the demon worlds are connected."

[bondsofsuffering]

"Two... so no demonic armies or anything unless you have a group of summoners along with them." Interesting.

"What was all of this for? Like, summoning demons is impressive and all, but there's more to it than just bringing demons into your world for kicks, right?"

[meaningdies]

"Usually, no." That didn't stop someone from having multiple COMPs, but still.

"Hehe. Indeed not. The person who commissioned this was aware that a war for the title of King of the Demons was coming to the human world. He wanted to help the demon he had chosen as his new god to win... so he wanted to help. He failed miserably though."

[bondsofsuffering]

"Choosing a demon as a god... That sounds pretty reckless." Really, messing with devils or gods in general was a bad idea, if Yaiba or Kiyotaka were anything to go by. "So it ended up backfiring on him?"

[meaningdies]

"He did. Fortunately for everyone involved, because Belberith would be a terrible ruler." Sure, he was powerful compared to most, but he also couldn't stand up in a fight with anyone who was close to his level.

[bondsofsuffering]

"How much did it end up affecting you? Demons fighting to decide on a king sounds normal enough, but if it was in the human world and summoning was involved... I can't imagine it was easy to make it out unscathed."

[meaningdies]

"A significant chunk of Tokyo was shut down. There was a barricade around it... though that wouldn't have worked for long, and the government's plan to get rid of the demons would only succeed in killing everyone inside the lockdown. I'd estimate that there were thousands of dead by the time it was over."

He shrugs. He doesn't seem very bothered by the death toll. "Really, the main concern in my mind was keeping alive the one human who was eligible to become king of the demons. Better to have a human ruler than a demonic one who has no concept of human nature. ... Or an angelic one, as the heavenly host threatened."

[bondsofsuffering]

"Demons are probably difficult for humans to kill, huh?" Since, well. Demons. Maybe it would be different if he had been there at the time, but as it is, Hizumi doesn't exactly look distraught at the news. People die all the time, whether it's by demons or not. It happens.

"...You'd prefer a human over an angel, though? Really?"

[meaningdies]

"It depends on the demon. Some are quite fragile." Pixies, for one. It was why he'd given Kazuya and his friends COMPs with low level demons. Getting them killed before everything started would ruin everything.

His expression darkens at the question, though. "Angels are mindless crratures that only think of enforcing His plan. Anyone who sides with them threatens the entire idea of what it is to be human - for they wished to take away free will if humankind did not handle the ordeal to their satisfaction."

[bondsofsuffering]

"Eeeeh... So that's the kind of god your world has?" He takes it with a grain of salt, naturally - he's wiser than to take people at their word, particularly when people are so very easily biased.

[meaningdies]

"Heh. Indeed. And too many people are too willfully blind to see the truth." He'd wanted to open their eyes to it, make them see, but no - Abel had to follow Him.

[bondsofsuffering]

"But sometimes, the truth is too much. When people find out what's really going on, they can do some scaaaaary things!"

He should know. He once inspired a certain fellow to begin the systematic murder of his beloved siblings, after all. "That's when they say, what was it - ignorance is bliss?"

[meaningdies]

"Of course they can - but to willingly submit to a tyrannical rule is just utter stupidity."

He's seen it happen before, and then the people rise up against the ruler. It doesn't last forever.

[bondsofsuffering]

"Maybe it is! But y'know... I think I can understand why they would do that."

[meaningdies]

"Oh? And why is that?"

This should be amusing.

[bondsofsuffering]

"Complacency. It's easier to just submit than work for a goal, right? Your rights might be in the middle of being taken away, but it's too difficult to muster up the effort to do anything about it." Something his generation tended to be cursed for by their elders.

"So there's that. And also... fear."

[meaningdies]

"I suppose, though the hope is always that there will be a few who rise up and lead the people out of fear and complacency. It's happened before in history."

Not often enough, but still...

[bondsofsuffering]

"That's the hope." Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And when it doesn't... All that's really left is unimaginable despair.

"So, did yours come through for you? Your hope for a different leader."

[meaningdies]

... He sighs. "Unfortunately, no. The one with the power to change that chose poorly."

[bondsofsuffering]

Ouch. That must have been disappointing.

[His tone's pretty flat, despite his words.]

[meaningdies]

"That's putting it quite mildly." The Kazuya here is very, very lucky they are not from the same version of their world.