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“To become a fully-fledged mage, you have to summon a demon, making a pact with them is a bonus, but the first steps are the summoning,” Himiko muttered to herself. She may think it’ll be all unicorns and rainbows but in reality, she’s feeling a sense of nervousness building up. Well, there are many factors that go into that too. And there are specific summoning circles for the different types of demons.
And if she’d done her homework, she should’ve known what she was getting her hands on when she decided to choose this specific book out of the many found in that dusty library. Yet, that was the only one she could grab before she had to leave immediately afterward.
Looking down at the book, she noticed the page was a little bit torn. Not torn, more like ripped. Maybe she should’ve picked a different book perhaps? But, only the demon’s name and type were missing, not the components or what the instructions are to summon that said demon. Then she can continue without a problem. And to be honest, any demon would do, as long as she gets to see a demon, that's all she needs.
The problem, yeah, if she doesn’t mess this up. Which she won’t, she needs more faith in herself.
“Cut your finger with the ceremonial knife and let only seven drops fall in the circle's center. Only seven drops.” She read the instructions.
Placing the book on its stand, she picked up the knife, and made her way to the center of the circle, making sure she didn’t mess up anything in the process. Himiko knelt down and pressed the tip of the knife to her pointer finger. She winced a little as she saw the blood beginning to trickle out of the small wound.
She hovered her hand over the center, counting every drop that landed.
1…2…3…4…5…6…7.
Once it got to the seventh drop she lifted her hand away, making sure no more ended up dripping and messing up the summoning.
She walked back out of the circle, back to the book she began to read the last step.
“Out of playing cards, hold one of the Joker cards in your hands before kneeling at the base of the circle and reciting the phrase ‘Noman Glade’.”
Playing cards? That’s rather an odd request, who knew this demon was picky about the type of card you use to summon them? And, those words are rather easy? Would’ve expected a full chant but two words are cool too, she won’t be complaining.
Luckily she had a pack of playing cards nearby, you could say she never leaves the house without them.
But of course, if this didn’t work then she wasted her time trying to…ahem, borrow a book without permission. And she injured herself for no reason.
She sighed as she went through the deck and picked out the card. She held it in her hand as she closed her eyes and recited those two words.
For a second she had second thoughts about this whole ordeal, maybe she should’ve stopped when she could’ve or, you know, not have -stolen- borrowed that book without permission.
But something unexpected happened, the circle was lighting up. Albeit a bright purple, it was still glowing. Wait, don’t the glowing colors matter when the summoning is in its process? See, should’ve done her homework before she’d done this.
The wind began to pick up as the things present in the room began to circle around the room because of the strong winds. Her hair goes all over the place.
She turned her attention to the card in her hand, well, that was in her hand. It seemed to have dusted away as its particles went into the circle. Damn, now she needs to get a new deck of playing cards, that joker was necessary for what she does. It was probably smarter to not use her favorite deck for this huh? Well, she can’t ctrl Z out of this one.
When the wind stopped, all the items in the room finally fell back on the ground, and all she could do was pout about her lost card. She couldn’t even care about the person in the middle of her summoning circle wearing a rather nice black suit. Yes, she’s sad about nothing, but- wait. Someone, wearing a suit, is in the middle of her summoning circle?
“Nishishi, so who has summoned me?” The demon’s wings splayed out for all to see.
Himiko stared into space as she saw the being in front of her. This is real right?
“Demon!”
“Of course, I’m a demon, who did you think you were summoning?” He smiled, “But this is strange, I’ve never thought anyone could ever summon me with the difficult procedure it takes to summon me or rather the rare book that contains my summoning ritual!”
Difficult…procedure?
It took her about twenty minutes…alone.
Did he think this was like a math test for calculus?
He stretched his arms out, “But I was in a rather important meeting so you better make my time worth it.” The demon flapped his wings a little before he let them rest.
Wow, she summoned a demon. Does that mean she’s finally worthy to become a full-fledged mage? That was her dream after all! Screw the card, her career is finally taking off. Wow, she actually did something promising for a change.
She then felt something under her chin which snapped her out of her little trance,
“You know, I don’t like to get ignored girly, so I suggest we get down to business,” he held her chin making her look at him, “I am the great Kokichi Ouma at your service, and you're the human who summoned me."
Himiko blinked, "I am, yes, and my name is Himiko Yumeno!" She replied proudly. Kokichi smirked a little before leaning in a bit closer to her face, enough so they made eye contact, "Well what could be the reason that a cute little human girl wants to summon a noble demon like me? Name anything you want and I will give it to you, I want to give it to you, as long as you give me what you hold dear-"
"Actually, this is all I wanted, you're free to go back, I just wanted to prove I could summon a demon," She backed away from his grasp and turned away from his gaze to her side, "Nyeh, Kokichi, I'm sorry I took you away from your meeting but I'm okay now, I sacrificed my playing card and I'm glad it didn't go to waste."
He laughed, "Aha, you forgot when I said to make my time worth it, I couldn't have cared less about what you think," he frowned as he walked toward the redhead, "You know, for summoning a higher class demon and not one of those lesser demons, you would expect somebody who wants power or money but no, you just summoned me for funsies."
Himiko's back then hit the back wall, "And as I said, I'm sorry! B-But you can go back to your meeting as I said!"
"I can't do that now, especially with such an interesting human right in front of me, for the first time ever for as long as I lived I had someone summon me all for nothing?" The demon stopped in front of her, "A novice like you summoned me after some of the best sorcerers out there have failed? I find it intriguing at the very least, so I say we strike up a deal shall we?"
He reached inside his suit pocket and pulled out what seemed to be a playing card. To be specific, her playing card. She really thought she would never see that again. But it looked different in a sense. The card still had the Joker half but the back side of the card had a symbol on it. Considering who was holding the card, it must be his symbol.
He held it out, "What about a pact? You've heard of those I'm sure!"
That pact is very tempting, but she should resist the temptation as of yet, "But that wasn't why I call-"
"Since you're the only...successful mage to have summoned me. And since you don't seem to lust over money or power, that must be the other reason you summoned me, right?" His eyes started to glow, and the things around him started to shake.
New Objective: Try not to get the demon boy pissed!
She did truly summon him for nothing but she can't admit that!
"I thought you'll only make pacts with people you can trust, like very powerful sorcerers or something."
Kokichi blinked and crossed his arms, "You're really trying to get out of this?"
The shaking ceases.
Himiko tilted her head as she noticed something...he had only one glove on, who dressed him like that? Oh wait, that's not important! Why is she trying to get out of this again?
He shrugged and tapped her head with the card, "No matter, but you should know the consequences of wasting my precious time, mortal. So why not be my first pact in centuries? Oh actually….first pact ever~! You see I'm such a busy demon after all, I don't have time to be under someone's control. But I'll make an exception for you."
Himiko scratched her head, "Nyeh, I don't know, wouldn't it-"
"Nonsense, whatever you were going to say shouldn't be said, it's smart not to try and get me mad!" His smile grew wider, so scary-like. Why does this demon look so happy?! He kneeled down once again, "Now let's make this pact now shall we? But I must warn you, getting your mark is going to hurt like hell!"
"Wait-"
"Kokichi...what are you doing?"
He lowered his head and let out a silent curse before raising it back up, "Of course, you had to show up at the best part! How like you."
Huh? Who was he talking to? And why did that voice sound exactly like him? If anything, we needed one less Kokichi like 2 minutes ago but now there's more?! How did he get in here???
She looked over his shoulder to see another figure looming in her room. He looked just like the demon in front of her, only wearing white instead of black. As well as his white wings splayed out for all to see.
"Did you come to give this human your Angel blessing or whatever? Well too late, I already have her!"
"I-I knew this was going to happen one day," he said nervously, the total opposite to what the demon was like, "I pre-prepared for this day to come!"
"You didn't prepare for shit! You're totally stuttering out those words!"
The angel stood between the redhead and his doppelganger. He spread his arms out wide to make sure he didn't try anything.
"I can't let you do this, I know what you're planning when you make that pact with this human."
Right now all Himiko wants to do is curl up in a ball and die of embarrassment. She should've never stolen that book otherwise she wouldn't have two people arguing in her basement.
"You can't get rid of me that easily! You're supposed to be a part of me!" The demon cringed at his words, "Please, I'm the dominant half in this whatever relationship we have."
Huh?
"You're not twins?" Himiko asked, confused about what they were even talking about. Demon Kokichi rolled his eyes at her blatant airheadedness. He sighed, "We're the same damn person."
They stood side by side next to each other. Looking between them she saw that both of them only wore a single glove on each of their hands. That explains why he didn't wear two when he first came. It was for whatever aesthetic these two were rocking.
She shook her head, "This doesn't make sense, how is this possible?"
"Well you see," Angel Kokichi looked between the both of them, "We share the same soul except-"
"We're each one half of that one soul." Demon Kokichi interrupted his angel counterpart. The angel frowned, "You know it's rude to interrupt someone, it's against the moral compass."
"Your moral compass is a roulette wheel!"
"Continue the story please, make it quick," at this point Himiko just needs answers now. The angel straightened his attire, "R-Right," he became timider turning his gaze away as if embarrassed, "We would need to meet specific conditions to see wh-who would be the one to take over the soul once and for all."
"Basically, whoever can dominate the other gets to erase the other and become the owner of the entire soul." Demon Kokichi continued the statement.
Now she knows the story, kinda? They're probably leaving some things out. But now that leaves more questions.
Himiko tilted her head to the side, "What are the conditions exactly?"
"Isn't it obvious?" They both look dead at her, "To win over a human's affection of course!" The darker half came up next to her and hugged her arm, "That's why it was sooo hard to get a sorcerer to summon me, they didn't reach the right conditions for the human for our competition~!"
The lighter half came to her other side and hugged her arm just as hard, "E-Even though this is against my morals, I c-can't be bothered to lose."
"There's no turning back now~!"
"You're going to choose who the winner is, kay?"
Her eyes twitched at the two men now snuggling up to her. How could she let this happen? How could one thing lead to an effect this big?
She looked up at her ceiling wondering what was going to happen now, how she'll break this to her master, and maybe that this was the consequence of her actions. None of that matters now though, now she's the judge of whose life is worth more to her.
They both leaned up on her shoulder, nuzzling their heads against her.
Now…
Now she needs to decide between the angel and devil on her shoulder.