Digital Devil Story - Chapter 2

Tokyo, Kuniritsu.

Now summer vacation, the plaza of Jusho High was empty. The blazing sun, now slightly less fierce, quietly illuminated the building. As if trying to avoid its rays, housewives and students walking by the rows of gingko trees along University Avenue cast curious glances in its direction.

A week ago, the school's CAI room had been destroyed, and the entire class that had been in a lesson there had vanished.

"The entire class colluded together to destroy the facility, and then ran off somewhere." That was the explanation their instructor, Ohara, had given. But nobody could have even imagined the truth behind the incident, which was like a symbol of the growing violence that had been going on inside the school.

One of the seniors at the school, Nakajima Akemi, with his handsome feminine looks, had had a tendency to be an object of jealousy amongst the other male students. Blessed with genius computing ability, Nakajima had discovered the similarities between computer theory and magical theory, and succeeded in summoning the digital data of the demon Loki with his computer. Using Loki's power, Nakajima had attempted to exact revenge on other students who had wronged him. Living inside the CAI room's computer as a digital construct, Loki had granted Nakajima's wish by taking control of the students attending lecture there.

Meanwhile, in secret, Loki had achieved a physical body on his own, and Nakajima started becoming a threat to him. The beautiful teacher Ohara, who had been given to Loki as an offering, was enthralled by the demon's charm, and learned to operate the demon summoning program in Nakajima's stead. Soon Loki had slipped from Nakajima's control, and became a maneating beast that started brutal killing sprees. Feeling a deep responsibility for the results caused by his curiosity and desire for vengeance, Nakajima summoned the demon beast Kerberos and challenged Loki. He was defeated, but an unlikely ally had appeared in the battle.

It was the Japanese goddess Izanami, who had possessed Shirasagi Yumiko, a transfer student with a crush on Nakajima. In the indescribably harsh battle, the CAI room had been reduced to ruins. And Izanami teleported the wounded Nakajima and Yumiko to Asuka, the place of her burial. Loki too headed to Asuka in hot pursuit.

Of course, nobody could possibly have known the true circumstances of the incident, and only the surface end results made it to the mass media in a typical sensationalist manner.

"Elite Class Destroys Classroom and Disappears!" That, and similar titles, were what were making the headlines of the weekly papers.

Until the police had concluded their investigation, the CAI room in question was off limits. Though it had faintened considerably, a stench that was difficult to withstand still wafted through the rubble-strewn room . The machine room, miraculously undamaged, separated from the rest of the classroom by cracked plate glass, had a suspicious figure lurking in it. Deep red fingernails massaged the terminal's keyboard. The LED light of the disk drive flashed busily. It appeared to be copying either a long program or huge amount of data. As the copying finished, filling ten large 8-inch floppy disks, the woman breathed a sigh of relief.

"Professor Ohara, are you done yet?" Reluctantly opening the door, the janitor looked around the area before sticking his head into the machine room.

"If they find out I let you in here I could get in big trouble."

"I'm really sorry. I'll be done in just a minute." As the woman spoke in a nasal tone, the janitor grudgingly pulled his head back. Softly clicking her tongue, she returned to her typing. A message displayed on the screen.

> PROGRAM "DEMON" DELETE YES OR NO?

The computer was asking whether or not she wanted to delete one of its programs.

> YES

Slowly entering the command, the woman pressed the Return key. As she did, the magnetic tapes of the host computer emotionlessly spun and clattered, before soon grinding to a halt. That instant, the demon summoning program that Nakajima Akemi had written vanished without a trace from the Jusho High computer system.

Resting his elbows on the concrete fence surrounding the school building, Isma Feed stood like a shadow. He was dressed like he was in Massachusetts, draped in a black cloak over a yellowing flaxen robe, and wearing black leather boots. Despite his unusual appearance, the people passing by him on the street appeared to be paying him no heed at all. It was not as if they were avoiding him deliberately; rather, it was as if they did not even realize that he was standing there. Isma had surrounded himself in a magical field. The ability to hide one's presence with a magical field was thought to be the speciality of the Japanese Onmyojis, but its roots were actually far older, and had been mastered by ancient Mayan magicians far earlier. For Isma, who was a descendant of those same magicians, hiding his presence was an easy task. But his eyes, turned to the school building, were full of discontent.

I can't sense anything. There seems to be no doubt that the boy named Nakajima summoned a demon, but I can't feel any demonic presence...

Isma had noticed the similarities between computer theory and magical theory years ago. He had thought the reason that it was so difficult to summon demons into the human world was that it was easy for the weather and the earth's magnetic field to interfere in the environment needed to successfully perform a summoning. Therefore, he theorized that if he was able to create a strong magnetic field inside a computer, it would be possible to eliminate said outside influences and thus was attempting to do so himself. However, upon learning from the ISG databanks that a young man in Japan already succeeded in doing so, he immediately flew to Tokyo.

Looks like I'm just going to have to take the time to search out Nakajima Akemi myself.

Disappointed, Isma slowly turned around and started to walk away, when he heard a pleading voice say "Professor, please keep all this a secret..." Turning around, he saw an ordinary-looking middle-aged man calling to a woman carrying a large bag. The woman waved her hand irritatedly and started walking toward Isma.

She was a very alluring woman. Her beautiful symmetrical body--one that could easily be that of a model--emitted feminine charm. Her hot yet somehow dark gaze could not help but kindle desire in any man that saw her. But that was not all; Isma sensed something from Ohara that set off his instincts as a magician. A smile formed on Isma's lips as his eyes traveled up and down her body.

A demon really DID come to the Assiah world. The demonic life within that woman's body is the proof.

Isma blinked twice, three times rythmically. Perhaps it was a gesture to drop the magical field surrounding him, but Ohara stopped in her tracks as if struck by lightning.

Ohara's love for Loki was special. She had been given as an offering to the demon Loki by Nakajima Akemi in June. At the time, the digital Loki had made love to her in a virtual world. The voluptuous Ohara was no stranger to sex, but the intense, nearly-fatal ecstacy she felt from sleeping with a demon had brought out the innate feminine devilishness within her to its umost extremes. Soon Loki materialized, gaining the ability to take form in the human world. Ohara belonged to him heart and soul, and she became impregnated with his child. But after chasing Nakajima to Asuka to kill him, Loki had seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. Believing that it would be impossible for a demon as powerful as Loki to be defeated by one as weak as Nakajima, Ohara had tried to use the demon summoning program over and over again, but she had gotten no response from Loki. Instead, the only one that appeared was a different demon calling himself Set.

Furthermore, the critical CAI room had become off-limits after the incident there, so she couldn't use the computers there freely any longer. Finally Ohara had copied the demon summoning program, but she had no idea how and where she could run it to find Loki, and while mulling over what to do next, she noticed Isma and stopped in her tracks.

"Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh." The words of the spell that Loki had cast left Isma's lips.

"Who are you...?"

Ohara was entranced by the mysterious blue, shining eyes of this oddly-dressed foreigner. Isma closed those eyes halfway, whispered "Let's go" and silently started to walk. As if being pulled by an invisible line, Ohara followed after him.