Chapter Text
Good little boys go to church.
Good little boys get along with the other good little boys.
Good little boys don't get in fights.
Good little boys eat their vegetables and don't complain.
Good little boys get good grades.
Good little boys don't summon demons in the basement.
Ichimatsu may have lived in the church, but he was not a good little boy in any other respect.
He hated the good little boys.
He got in fights every day.
He hated eating vegetables.
He didn't even try at school.
He was sitting in the basement summoning demons.
The chalk contract marking the floor perfectly matched the one in his book, the lines were carefully drawn with a ruler and the circle was traced around an old table he'd found abandoned down there. The six candles he'd been stealing daily all week, careful to take only one at a time so they wouldn't be noticed all at once. The basement was empty, as it always was, most of the pastors and other children barely even knew they had a basement. That's why it was the perfect place for Ichimatsu, a place to be alone, a place where no one would catch him summoning demons.
Why there was a book on Satanic rituals in a church, no one would ever know, but Ichimatsu found it hiding under one of the pews. He read it from cover to cover, mostly out of curiosity towards the forbidden. The demon summoning ritual caught his attention in particular, he prepared for it for a month. Carefully clearing room on the filthy basement floor for the contract, studying the incantation until he knew it by heart, selecting the demon to summon after a good week of contemplation. Why was he summoning a demon? He wasn't entirely sure for himself, but part of it might have been so he wouldn't be sitting alone in a dirty church basement.
Ichimatsu carefully examined the text he'd read a million times before in his book before setting it aside, sitting up on his knees and taking a small knife from his pocket. Stolen from the kitchen the day before, he only needed a drop. He didn't flinch when he pricked his finger and let his own red blood hit the white chalk.
In a whisper, Ichimatsu recited the spell. The long practiced Latin words rolled off of his tongue into the contract. His candles burned brightly but the already dim basement only seemed to darken. A heaviness filled the air that made it hard to breathe, still, Ichimatsu forced the forbidden words out of his lips. The bright white chalk contract was all that there was, everything else was so dark and only seemed to be getting darker. Until the absolute second Ichimatsu spat out the final syllable of the incantation, then there was no more darkness, no more circle, he wasn't even sure if there was any him for that split second.
Everything was just red. A dark, bloody red.
The red disappeared quickly, taking the darkness and the thick air with it. The basement was in the same disorganized, messy state as it was before he used the spell. With the sole exception being the young man standing in the middle of the circle.
Not standing actually, he was hovering. Only an inch or so off the ground hovered a man who looked to be somewhere in his early twenties. He had black hair and wore a light blue blazer. Dark crimson wings protruded from his back, matching the horns that came from his head, and the thin pointed tail snaking out behind him.
He raised his arms above his head and flexed every muscle he could, appearing to enjoy the sound of several popping while Ichimatsu stared in amazement. The demon rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck before finally deciding he was comfortable enough in his new surroundings. He opened his eyes.
They were a dark, bloody red.
The demon quickly fixed his sight of the small, unkempt child staring back at him. The demon took another quick glance around the room to assure himself that there was no one but the two of them in the room before crouching in front of the child.
"Hey there kiddo, are you the one who summoned me?"
Ichimatsu shook his head quickly to snap out of his stupor before muttering a quiet, "yeah."
"Well, pleasure to meet you kid!" the demon showed off pointed teeth with a large grin, "the name's Osomatsu, more commonly known as Satan, Lucifer, or just the Devil."
"Ichimatsu," the boy tentatively took the offered hand and nudged it rather than properly shake it.
"Ichimatsu, huh…? Ichimatsu, Osomatsu, heh, we match!" Osomatsu proudly rubbed a finger under his nose at his small discovery.
"I guess so," Osomatsu let his grin fade a little at the lack of enthusiasm or reaction in general.
Osomatsu straightened himself out, "alright then, Ichimatsu, what can I do for you? Need someone disposed of as painfully as possible?"
Ichimatsu shook his head.
"Oh, well, you want me to bless you with eternal youth?"
Again, a shake of the head.
"Okay, how about a maiming? A curse? Infinite knowledge? Banishment?"
Ichimatsu continued to disagree.
"I can't make you immortal if that's what you want," Osomatsu sighed, beginning to get impatient with the child.
"I don't," Ichimatsu mumbled.
"Then what is it?" Osomatsu pulled his legs up to sit cross legged in the air, placing his cheek in his hand and elbow on his knee.
"Nothing really…" Ichimatsu replied with a shrug.
"Well I have to do something for you, I can't leave until after fulfilling my contract," Osomatsu informed his summoner.
Osomatsu was surprised to see Ichimatsu's shoulders drop, "oh… you want to leave?"
Ichimatsu wasn't looking at the demon, but body language alone told Osomatsu that the young boy was disappointed, "hey! I never said that!" Osomatsu floated over to Ichimatsu, trying to make the boy look at him.
"If you want to go, go, I'm not making you stay," Ichimatsu told the demon, continuing to turn away from facing him.
Osomatsu huffed at Ichimatsu's insistent avoidance of him, he finally gave up after circling the boy a few more times and went to sit on top of a dusty bookshelf.
"I told you kid, I actually can't, and even if I could, I just got back on Earth, why would I want to go back to Hell?" Osomatsu wondered rhetorically, "I haven't been out here in a hundred years or something, I've missed so much!"
"Don't patronize me, I'm not asking you to stick around," Ichimatsu glared up at Osomatsu getting a better look at the room from the bookshelf.
"I'm serious! This isn't about you, this is about me, the last time I roamed the earth the Black Plague was going on," Osomatsu recalled as he began to mess around with items on the shelf below him, laughing as a cross burnt his skin.
"That was more than a hundred years ago," Ichimatsu pointed out flatly.
"Wow, really? Then I must really be missing out!" Osomatsu jumped off the bookshelf, if shook and nearly fell, but neither of the rooms occupants really seemed to care, Osomatsu cracked his fingers and extended his wings, "what do you say we go out for a bit? Fly around, see what I've missed?"
Ichimatsu quickly scampered to block the demon's path to the door, "you can't go out!" he insisted with a concerned look.
"Why not? You told me I could go if I wanted to," Osomatsu reminded Ichimatsu, but retracted his wings slightly anyways.
"Because if you go out they might catch you," Ichimatsu explained, firmly remaining in front of the door.
"Who?"
Ichimatsu squirmed with embarrassment, "the priests."
"You live with a priest? And you summoned a demon in his basement?" Osomatsu confirmed, eyes wide with excited wonder.
Ichimatsu looked even more embarrassed, "I live in the church… you're in a church basement."
There was a heavy pause, Ichimatsu began to feel his eyes get hot, saying it out loud it sounded so stupid.
Then Osomatsu laughed, "you summoned me in a church? I can't believe it! How did you get me past all the holy spiritual barriers and shit? Damn! You must have a lot of magic in you kid!"
He pat Ichimatsu on the head, sending his veil askew with the rustling.
Ichimatsu was surprised by the touch, even more so by the gentle pride of it.
"I guess that explains all the holy icons and shit down here," Osomatsu burnt his hand trying to touch the cross again before realizing what he just said, "fuck! I forgot you're a kid, I probably shouldn't swear in front of you, shit, I did it again!"
"It's okay, I swear anyways, the priests don't like it, but I don't really care," Ichimatsu shrugged passively.
Osomatsu laughed again, "looks like I'm not the only devil in the church, as if that wasn't already obvious, how'd you end up here?"
"My family is dead," Ichimatsu tried not to show any remorse, stating his situation bluntly.
"Oh."
There was another pause, Osomatsu goes to sit back on his bookshelf, "well, if it makes you feel any better—" whatever Osomatsu was trying to say was lost as he knocked the bookshelf to the ground with a loud crash.
Both of the boys froze and stared. Several long minutes seemed to pass before Osomatsu burst into laughter almost as loud as the crash.
"Fuck! I'm sorry holy shit! I was supposed to say some sentimental bullshit but fuck! Oh my god!" Osomatsu couldn't stop laughing, he didn't really know why, but he couldn't, Ichimatsu quickly found it to be contagious, the smallest smile possible held back some even smaller chuckles.
"Ichimatsu! Are you down here?"
The boys froze, their paralyzed state lasted for only a moment, Osomatsu flew above the door just as it opened. The demon was still barely holding back laughter, which Ichimatsu could see clearly, but the newcomer didn't look up.
"Ichimatsu! Are you okay?" it wasn't one of the priests, which Ichimatsu was thankful for, just one of the older boys.
"I'm fine Shittymatsu, the bookshelf just fell over," Ichimatsu scowled at the intruder.
"How? Were you playing on the bookshelf? Did you hurt yourself?" Karamatsu began to fuss over the younger boy, grabbing his shoulders and checking for injuries.
"I said I'm fine!" Ichimatsu pulled away irritably, "it wasn't even me who knocked it over, it was…"
Satan.
He risked a split second glance up at the demon above the door.
"A cat."
Karamatsu sighed, "you know that you can't keep hiding cats down here, they won't be happy cramped up in this dirty little basement, you should set them free to live as they are meant to."
"Don't count on it," Ichimatsu scoffed, pushing past Karamatsu to get to the stairs.
"Ichimatsu! Please consider the cat's opinions," Karamatsu insisted, following the boy up the stairs.
"The door's unlocked, if he wants to leave he can," Ichimatsu snapped, shooting Karamatsu a glare, "otherwise… I'll see him tomorrow."
Ichimatsu and Karamatsu left the basement nearly empty.
Save for the devil, smiling at the nearly closed door.