Chapter Text
Even before you left the house, you were already starting a list of why going out today was a bad idea. The heat, obviously, was at the top of it. People invented things like fans and air conditioning to avoid temperatures like this, it was spitting in the face of progress to go out anyway.
Besides, you think as you tug at the bag strap over your shoulder, you sunburn way too easily. You should never have agreed to meet them outside the station instead of inside literally any of the stores or cafes around here. If you knew Loki and Amane were going to take so long, you’d have brought a hat. At least your jacket was covering your arms, even if you had to settle for draping it over your shoulders instead of wearing properly. Yet another reason heat was the worst.
Kazuya’s suspiciously vague text, though, was easily number two. You just know he has some kind of annoying, out-of-the-way errand that he’s gonna push onto the three of you. Or, more likely, Amane and Loki were just collateral damage, a way of making sure you got out and agreed to do whatever it is he needs. You sigh. Kazuya makes everything so much more complicated than it has to be. Maybe you’re not really in a position to criticize, but if he just asked you for help like a normal person-
A snicker bursts out behind you. A little too loud, a little too pointed. You stiffen and keep your eyes fixed firmly ahead. Right. ‘People’. Now there was a good contender for third. The crowds are oppressive in their size and certainly aren’t helping at all with the temperature problem. It’s starting to make you feel a little sick, if you’re honest. You tighten your grip on your bag strap, and try not to look at anyone.
...Seriously, what was taking those two so long?
“Naoya!”
There’s no time to react to Loki’s greeting before you suddenly have his arm around your shoulder and his grin in your face. You grimace. “Do you mind? It’s too hot for this.”
“Nah, I don’t mind at all,” Loki said, his grin growing to a truly insufferable size. “Any sign of Amane yet?”
Another day you may have argued and shoved him off, but whatever. Lately it just doesn’t feel worth the trouble. You let it drop, and look back out at the crowds milling along the sidewalks. “No. Haven’t heard anything from her either.”
Loki hums a bit, sounding curious. “Guess we’ll just have to give her an earful for making us wait~”
You raise an eyebrow at him. “You were late too.”
“Yeah, but you both expect that by now. Doesn’t count.”
His logic never ceases to amaze. You start to retort, but at last catch sight of your other friend. As usual, she was hard to miss, moving through the herd of people like they didn’t even exist. No small feat, given they all nearly towered over her. Definitely a talent. You give a quick wave to catch her attention, but it’s made pointless quickly by Loki calling over, “Hey, what took you?”
“My apologies,” she said, a hesitant look on her face as she approached the two of you, “Actually, I ran into Kazuya on my way here.”
“Huh?” Loki pouted. “And he didn’t come with you?”
She shook her head. “He told me that something came up suddenly and he wasn’t going to be able to make it.”
What.
No, seriously, what ? You want nothing more than to sink into the ground from pure aggravation, but settle for a longest groan you can muster. After coming all this way - he couldn’t even be bothered to text any of you about this? No, he just had to make Amane play messenger. What a prick . No matter what kind of excuse he tries to give, next time you see him you’re gonna chew his ear off until he apologizes.
Before you can finish expressing your frustration, Amane interrupts, holding up a plastic bag, “Also, he gave me these. He said they were for the three of us?” She opens it up and - oh. Huh. Wow, three COMPs? You pick one out and gave it a quick look-over. Seems to be in decent condition. A recent model, too. As you inspect it, she asks, “These are communication players, right? Aren’t they video games?”
You nod. “Partially. COMPs can play games, but they also have a messaging system and can access the internet.”
“That’s what I thought - it always seemed a bit redundant to have one of these and a phone to me.”
“Huh, what gives?” Loki said, his COMP already flipped open and turned on, “The menu’s really weird looking. You ever see one like it?”
You look over his shoulder at a red and black menu screen, almost all the usual programs blanked out. With a frown, you turn on your own. It’s perfectly identical.
Loki leans against you, glancing between the two screens. “You think Kazuya did this himself? He did mention doing some programming a while ago... these could be prototypes or something.”
You have to snort at that. “No way. That’s just some story he came up with to keep my parents from bugging him about work. I bet you anything he bought these cheap off someone who screwed with the code as a prank. He probably wouldn’t have even recognized this as weird.”
“Hm...” Loki looks up at you, blinking his eyes in a way you assume was supposed to be endearing. “So you can fix them, right? This is totally your thing!”
“Well... yeah, probably.” No point in false modesty - you did learn from the best, after all. You spot an empty bench nearby and sit down, pulling out your laptop and hooking it up to the COMP.
“You don’t have to do this now,” Amane says, slipping her own COMP into her pocket, “We can go back to your house first, or find somewhere inside to do it...”
Loki leans forward over the back of the bench to watch. “Aww, c’mon, it’s kind of interesting, isn’t it? Someone went to a lot of trouble to make this difficult, there’s gotta be a reason for it!”
“He’s right, I’d rather find out as soon as possible. If there’s something really bad on them, I’d rather get them back to Kazuya than just leave ‘em lying around my room.” Your mom insisted she didn’t snoop, but even if you believed her completely, three new and fairly expensive game consoles were bound to catch her eye no matter what. “I mean, I could hide them, but there’s still a risk.”
“No, you have a point,” Amane sighed.
Besides, the first encryption takes only a couple of minutes to crack. As expected. You grin a bit. “Alright, got the e-mail taken care of. Hand me both of your’s, I’ll get them all opened in no time.”
Almost as soon as you’ve made good on your word, though, the COMPs start to ping. You don’t bother to stop and look, but you hear Amane say, “‘Laplace Mail’... is that some kind of game?”
Loki answers before you even have a chance to pause. “Not one I’ve ever heard of - ‘at 16:00, a man will be killed in his apartment in Aoyama’..” That gets your attention. You finally pull away from the code to see for yourself.
An e-mail from ‘the Observer’? You skim through the contents - a murder, an explosion, and a blackout, all apparently scheduled for later today. “Maybe it’s some kind of puzzle or alternate reality game? Like they use to advertise underground movies sometimes.”
“Or!” Loki practically shoves his face into your’s. “I’ve read a bunch of ghost stories online about people buying used games at garage sales or online auctions! Maybe we’ve got ourselves three haunted gaming systems foretelling our doom.”
“Awfully cheery for someone who just found out they’re doomed,” you say as you turn back to your laptop. “Anyway, there’s still a lot left to unlock on these things. It’ll probably take a while.” Especially since, though you hate to admit it, it’s looking like the first encryption was by far the easiest. “You two should go kill some time somewhere while I work.”
Amane tilts her head. “Are you sure? We don’t mind keeping you company.”
“I’m sure. It’ll be easier to concentrate on my own.”
“Alright,” she nods and looks over at Loki, “You mentioned something around here you wanted to show us, right? We can go see it while we wait.”
“Ah, right!” Loki finally quits hovering over your shoulder and steps over to Amane. “There’s this place up in Shinjuku, I hear it’s one of the scenes of those bloodless murders that’ve been going around.” He keeps going on about how he found out about it and who the victim was rumored to be as he links his arm in her’s and starts leading her away, only pausing to wave back at you and give a quick “Later!” and Amane reminds you to text them as soon as you’re finished.
You mutter a quick agreement, but quickly get absorbed in your new project.
...
Or, well, you start off absorbed in it. Really, it’s a pretty impressive code. Whoever programmed it was definitely more skilled than you gave them credit for. You even think about e-mailing some screenshots of it to AT-LOW later, see if it’s anything he recognizes. But at you get closer and closer to solving it, you find your eyes moving back to the clock on your laptop. By the fifth or sixth glance, 16:00 has come and gone.
It’s stupid. There’s no reason to take that e-mail seriously. You know that. No one has to tell you. And you don’t for one second believe that any of those stories Loki’s read about haunted tech have a single of truth to them.
You know that. You know it, but you still can’t stop checking the time.
After all, even for Kazuya, to cancel so suddenly was pretty weird. Especially after being so insistent that all three of you show up. You try not to think about his apartment in Aoyama, but the harder you try the more persistent the thoughts become. His door forced in, his furniture broken or overturned, and his body limp and covered in...
You slam your laptop shut. It’s no good. Your hands are shaking too hard to type. Nice job, letting something like an e-mail rattle you like this. Just how pathetic can you get?
But Aoyama isn’t too far from here. All you have to do is take a quick look at his apartment, and when you see everything’s fine, you’ll get right back to work. It’s fine, no one has to know. Amane and Loki won’t even notice if you take longer than your should.
You shove your laptop and COMP back into your bag, and start walking. When you hear the sirens and see the police cars speed off past you, pointed right towards Aoyama, it’s all you can do not to break into an outright run.
Police cars. There were police cars in front of Kazuya’s apartment. And warning tape. And a whole group of people clustered outside who weren’t being allowed in. You feel cold. Stuck. You have to ask someone what’s going on. Just assuming isn’t going to help, and standing here staring is making you look strange. No matter what, you have to find out something .
You’re just able to force yourself towards one of the officers, but before you can open your mouth to ask anything, you catch a glimpse of blue in the corner of your eye. You turn and finally see Kazuya, looking completely baffled.
“Naoya? What are you doing here?”
With the fear receding, aggravation is more than ready to step in. “What do you mean ‘what am I doing here’? Those stupid COMPs you gave us are all signed up to some creepy e-mail service! Did you even check them for viruses or bugs before giving them to us?”
He blinks, clearly no less confused than before. “You got this worried over an e-mail?”
“ Of course! ” You blurt out, “You suddenly cancel on us, and then we wind up all getting a warning about a murder where you live ! How could that not make me worry? It was like-” You stop, suddenly noticing a few people looking over at you and your cousin and realizing how loud you’d been. Aware of how ridiculous you must sound, you quiet down and finish weakly, “It was like... ugh, I don’t know. You knew something was going to happen to you. Something like that.”
His expression softens then, and for a second you half-expect him to reach over and pat your head like you were six all of a sudden. Like you didn’t feel childish enough already. “Ah, I see. You’re right, I didn’t even consider you’d take it that way.” So then he did know about the Laplace Mail. But he gives you no room to ask about it, glancing up at the apartment building and continuing, “It was a high-school student who was killed. One of my neighbors, actually. Pretty brutal from what I’ve been told, but I’m sure you’ll hear more about it soon enough.” He looks back to you and smiles. “Well, you know I’m okay now, so you should really be getting back to Amane and Loki. It’s really not good to run off somewhere without letting them know first.”
You’re being brushed off. He’s not even trying to hide it, his words and smile are both as glib as they could possibly be. You try to push it, “So why couldn’t you come meet up with us today, then? You didn’t really say.”
The smile doesn’t even twitch. “I had to meet up with some people from work. I know it was sudden, but I’m afraid it really couldn’t wait.” His answers are always like that. Not lies, you don’t think, but still no meat to them. Nothing that really qualifies as information. Even if you asked about the e-mail, he’ll give you some other song and dance that won’t really tell you a single goddamn thing.
“Fine,” you say, dropping your eyes as you turn to go. “I get it, it was stupid of me to come. Sorry for bothering you.”
“Naoya...” He stops you, hand on your shoulder. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. It wasn’t stupid at all. Just-” He sighs. “It’s been a long day, and you caught me by surprise. That’s all.” You look back at him, really look. He does look exhausted - he doesn’t sleep enough, you’ve known that for ages, but he can usually hide it better. The bags under his eyes have gotten pretty heavy, and his face is looking a little gaunt. That he still manages to look good in spite of that might be irritating, if you weren’t worried.
“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have snapped either.” And he is right, you have to admit. You’ve gotta get back to work on the COMPs. “But you better tell me more later, got it?”
He smiles again and says, “Okay, promise.”
It’s too light a response to really be satisfying. What you want him to promise is that he’s okay, that he’d tell you if something were really wrong. But you don’t have time to push it right now, so you’ll have to take it.
You look back once as you leave, but by the time you do he’s already gone.
It’s another half hour before you finally meet back up with Loki and Amane in front of the Electric Museum. Figures, of course you’d need all three COMPs together to finish cracking the encryption. Of all the obvious tricks to throw you off...
But your internal complaining comes to a halt when you see the two of them. Amane especially looks distracted and too quiet, but even Loki seems a little awkward. He brightens a bit when he sees you, and says, “Hey Naoya, where’ve you been? You’ll never guess who we-”
“Don’t,” Amane interrupts, which Loki, to his credit, actually does. “I’d rather not talk about it right now.”
You look between the two of them. “Did something happen?”
She sighs, and won’t quite meet your eyes. “Not exactly, just... later, alright?”
For a moment you can’t help but want to ask if everyone’s planning on not telling you things today. But just a moment - after all, it has to be something pretty serious for Amane to be acting like this. You get the feeling you’re not the only one who ran into family today. “Alright. Well, Loki, you may be right about the hauntings. Turns out someone actually did die in an Aoyama apartment, right on time.”
“Whoa, seriously?” Loki grinned, “Ha, that’s so cool!”
You stare at him. “You do realize that means a guy was killed , right?”
“Well, sure, that’s too bad and all, but c’mon, it means the prediction was right!” He says, pulling his COMP out and not sounding like anything is too bad in the least, “If these things can tell the future, that’s a way bigger deal. So what else are they hiding?”
Guess that’s about the reaction you expected from him. You sigh and open up your own. “It looks like these three specifically are always monitoring each other, and will only unlock when they’ve synchronized. Amane?”
She must have been more distracted than you thought, because she jumps at the sound of her name. “Ah, yes, sorry. I’ll turn mine on too.” No question about it, you think as she flips her device open. Something must have happened with her dad. Maybe you’ll take the train back with her part of the way, she might want to talk then.
But as the COMPs boot up, you catch another flicker of blue and black nearby. You look away from the screen for a moment, and there he is again. Your cousin, standing on an empty sidewalk across the street. He waves, and you see he’s saying something. There’s no way to hear, of course, but it looks like- good luck?
The screen on your COMP flashes, and when you look down at it lines and lines of code rush across the screen, only interrupted by windows that open and close automatically, in barely enough time for the words to register.
[Decryption confirmed.
DEMON SUMMONING PROGRAM ready to boot.]
[Booting DEMON SUMMONING PROGRAM]
[Peaceful days died.
Let’s survive_]
And then the words disappear altogether, drowned out by a blinding light that forces your eyes shut.
The next thing you know, some kind of blow knocks the wind out of you, knocking you to the ground. You gasp as your eyes shoot open and you see before you some kind of wolf, standing on its hind legs, wielding a club.
Across from you, you hear Loki laugh, too loud and high to be natural. You see Amane, a kind of grim certainty in her eyes. A monster - no, demon, that’s what the program said, didn’t it? - stands in front of each of you, but you only get a glimpse before the wolf steps towards you, its club dragging on the ground.
“ Human. ” The wolf - your wolf, you summoned it somehow, you brought it here - crouches, yet still towers over you. “ Me surprised. Such a scrawny body, should be crushed. ” It starts to reach out towards you, pressing a single claw into your stomach. “ Tougher than look. Good. ” It grins, and you’re close enough now you can see it starting to drool. “ More fun. ”
And that breaks your paralysis. Without even thinking, you rear a leg back and kick at it with all the strength you can muster.
The demon yowls in surprise and pain, and leaps back from you, clutching its chest where you hit it.
You grab the COMP that fell out of your hand. There’s no time to wonder about how it’s working, how someone like you could do any kind of damage at all to something like that. You just have to use it. “Amane, Loki!” you call out as you make yourself stand, refusing to take your eyes off your demon for a second, “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” Amane calls back right away, though it sounds strained.
“Hell of a day this turned into, huh?” Loki says, and if he can make jokes, he’s fine.
Alright, you think as the wolf - Kobold, you notice, that’s the name on your COMP’s screen - snorts and starts to raises itself back up to full height. You’ll just have to trust them to deal with whatever they summoned. And you’ll take care of your own responsibility. Answers and understanding can only come after, and you’re not letting this thing keep you from them.