4Ancestry
Chapter 1: Into Akarana
Within Dark-Tsukudo-Cho, a solitary figure stood upon the bridge where, in another realm, everything had begun. It was here, at Ushigome-Gaeri Bridge, that one young girl had pleaded with two detectives to kill her.
It was the very same girl that the younger of the two detectives, Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th, was going after now.
He held, within his hands, the four-colored object, the Amatsu Kanagi, as he thought about all the implications of what he was about to do, and why.
He had heard the entire ritual, the Ritual of Soul-Sending, only once, as he had chanted in his mind along with his alternate self, Raido the 14th. He would be using this very ritual, by himself, to enter a place that the Herald of Yatagarasu had told him was forbidden.
000
"The Akarana Corridor should never be entered by humans, not even by a Devil Summoner," she had explained as Raidou, moments ago, stood before her.
"Why?"
"That place allows any being, human or demon, to travel through time itself. Such a thing is truly dangerous to all living beings. With that place comes knowledge that no man should ever know, power to create or destroy that no mortal should possess."
"If I could avoid it, Herald, I would," Raidou replied, "But I have no choice. Kaya—I mean the demon inside her, is in that very place now. This time period is safe, but she aims to destroy the future. I have to contend with the demon and bring Kaya back safe."
She raised an eyebrow. "You rarely speak so much at one time."
"Yes."
"So you intend to enter anyway?"
"Yes."
"There will be a price to pay."
"I know."
"It will mean greater hardship than you know or have gone through."
"That doesn't matter to me."
"So you say...but it will bring you much grief."
"I don't care. I'll do what must be done."
She sighed and tilted her head slightly. A moment later, she replied, "Yatagarasu agrees with you. Very well. But know that even with his permission, the price to pay will not change one bit."
"It changes nothing."
She nodded, then said, "Ushigome-gaeri Bridge, in Dark Tsukudo-Cho. Hurry."
000
Now, Raidou held the stick in both hand and began to chant.
Tohokami emitama...
Tohokami emitama...
He had a feeling that Raido had been completely drained when he had done this before...just as he himself had been. There was no time to wonder if he would wind up like that again.
Ahariya asobasutomausanui...
Asakurani...
Ibukidonushitohukami...
Orimashimase...
The words were spoken very softly, almost a whisper on the last one. He slowly let go of the object, when now floated by itself. As he put his hands together very slowly in the way he had seen, it rose into the air and was suddenly vertical.
Hurube yurayurato hurube...
Then, beneath his closed eyes, he saw a red flash of light, and heard a voice speak.
"Be brave, and have faith in yourself!"
Doctor Tsukumo, whose spirit was a bright flame...
He knew, without looking, that the many hands were reaching up from the ground. He felt a couple of them take hold.
A green flash...
"Even though I don't have a clue what's going on, I'm rooting for you."
Tae Asakura, with the stubborness of the earth...
Immediately afterwards, another flash...
"...and you've got moxie, kid."
Satake, always calm and cool, like water...
He felt more hands, one on his shoulder, but did not, could not, let that distract him now.
One last flash, blue light...
"If anyone can pull this off, I know it's you."
Shouhei Narumi...Heaven Prism, the most precious...
His eyes snapped open and his head up as he spoke the final words in a louder tone, the last one with much emphasis.
Haraheyare...haraheyare...!
Now he felt the multitude of hands pull him into the ground and shut his eyes again. The first time he had undergone this, the sensation of quickly going from light to total black in a single instant had been...nasty.
00000
When felt his feet hit something smooth and hard, Raidou opened his eyes again.
All around him was something very close to what he had seen in the dimensional rift that he and Gouto had been before when Rasputin had sent them into it at Waden One of Dark Sakuradayama. In front of him was a long set of stairs.
He nearly turned around, then immediately regretted it when he nearly lost his footing. Raidou regained his balance, took a few steps up, then slowly turned around.
Behind him was a large, cube-shaped hole.
He took a moment to get his breathing back under control before going up the stairs. Beside the foot of the steps was a yellow human-shaped being. When he tried talking to it, the language spoken really threw him for a loop.
Coming in the flesh...? Transcribing prior...? Unstuck in time...? No good...I don't understand.
As he continued up the stairs, something unfolded from the back of his mind.
000
Since becoming the 14th Raidou Kuzunoha, his life had certainly stayed difficult...but in a new way.
Raidou moved from his small town to the Capital, which had been known as Edo in the past. The good thing there was that he still went to Yumizuki High School, which was now closer than it had been before.
The hard part, acting as counter-balance, had been saying good-bye to his family.
His mother stayed in her position, sitting on the floor, but her eyes were sparkling.
"Yes," his father had said, "You will be moving to the Capital, now that you have taken the mantle...but we will not go with you."
"Why?" was the only thing he asked.
"You are only 16, almost 17, yes. But now that you have become a Devil Summoner, you are, in the eyes of your ancestors, an adult. It is time that you live on your own."
"That's not the only reason, is it?"
He did not reply to the question, but merely said, "Go and pack your things. You will stay in this house no longer." He made a wave of dismissal.
Raidou nodded, bowed with respect, then went to pack all of his things.
When he arrived in the Capital, the first thing he did was to find the Shinoda Shrine, where he met the Herald of Yatagarasu...and received the Mystic Eye. After that, it was to find a place to live.
The fortunate (and hard part to counter-balance) was that he would be living with his boss, Shouhei Narumi, in the same building as the Narumi Detective Agency.
He thought about all of this while he was in class one day, staring out one of the windows.
"...aaru," he heard a strict voice call, "Saaru Tatsuro!"
He blinked, shifting his attention to the male teacher that was in front of him.
"Have you taken to daydreaming now, Saaru?"
"N-no, sir," he replied, "Just thinking about some work."
"It is good and honorable that you take your job after-school seriously, Tatsuro, but keep your work outside of the classroom during school. I will not tell you this again. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sensei."
"Good," he replied with satisfaction, then continued, "Now, if you will open your books and turn to the section on Edo's founding..."
000
It seemed strange (more like eerie), how Raidou came out of that bit of reminiscing to find himself battling some stray demons, with Belial by his side.
Under normal circumstances, that sort of mind-wandering (or daydreaming) would be considered deadly. For Raidou and the demon, that is.
After sheathing his katana, the Devil Summoner looked about him. The corridors had begun to branch off, with blue, electrical spheres cutting off some of the paths. In front of one of the clear directions was a strange, mechanical item, as well as a soul. Upon talking, Raidou learned that it was called an Hourglass and housed not only visions of certain time periods, but also controlled the distortions.
It doesn't look like any hourglass I've seen.
"You call that an hourglass?" Belial asked, hissing, "You've got to be kiddin', man."
"We have to destroy it if we want to advance," Raidou replied and walked towards the object.
"I've got a bad feelin' about the thing."
So do I, the young man admitted to himself, then reached out to touch it.
The first images that he saw in his mind made him feel physically ill.
Mountains of bodies...
a mushroom cloud on ground and in the air...
a strange man in another country, with a tiny mustache, calling for a Master Race...
What in the gods' name is this...?
He didn't know if he had said this out loud or not, but he heard the soul beside him say, "Anno 1940s. The stuff is from the second World War. Now there was some bad lotto. Believe me, you don't want to know more about it...or that atomic bomb you saw."
Atomic bomb?!
Now he really did feel sick.
Before he could move a hand to his katana, another image began from his mind, and then spread out before his eyes. This one, though, was a lot more familiar...
000
Saaru Tatsuro was training with his katana and pistol behind his home, wearing his school uniform, including the cap.
Everyday, after coming home from school, he paused only long enough to drink some green tea before going right into his lessons. A target range had been set up for the pistol, as well as straw-men in multiple places. From there, he would first attack with only the katana, then the gun, and then both at one time, with variations.
It was using both that was a bit difficult, but he had managed to get the knack of.
After all, he would be the first in his family, perhaps the first Devil Summoner, to use both regularly in battle.
That's if I pass the trial, that is.
Tatsuro had known, from the first time he had seen a demon, what it would mean for him. Rather than being pressed into it, had volunteered himself for the training, ever since he had been eleven.
One could easily say that it was also when he stopped being a child.
The afternoon of this day, though, was warm, with a cooling breeze blowing from the south.
It was the sort of weather and season (early summer) that he liked the most.
As he used a sleeve to wipe the sweat from his face (he had been practicing with the katana on the straw-men), he heard talking coming from the house. The voices belonged to his father and a woman, one that he had never heard before. Whoever she was, her tone carried more than a hint of authority.
He turned towards the firing range and made sure that his pistol was loaded and ready for use. The teenager heard two sets of footsteps behind him and continued what he was doing by aiming at one of the targets in the range, then fired three shots.
The shots were either in the center, or very close to it.
"Saaru Tatsuro," the stranger woman spoke.
He put the pistol in its holster then turned and bowed respectfully towards the woman.
Tatsuro had never seen this person before, who was shrouded in a cloak of black, with a hood that hid her eyes, and otherwise gray clothing.
"I am he."
She frowned slightly, and continued, "Saaru Tatsuro. You are summoned to the Kuzunoha Shrine. You are to undergo the Summoner's Trial. Come with me at once."
"Yes, ma'am."
He made sure that he had his katana, his gun (nothing wrong with double-checking), 8 tubes and his cape that was black on the outside and purple on the inside.
Now, it was time. Time for him to prove his mettle in the Trial, or die there.
000
Before he could take a breath, another image flashed across, this one much more recent, when he first came across Ichimokoren in the Daidouji residence, Dark realm...
That had been a very nasty battle, considering that he had been very new to detective work. The demon made itself invulnerable by closing its eye, then summoning Turdaks. Only after calling a Volt-type demon and defeating the Turdaks did he have a chance.
And now, he had to relieve it again.
Thankfully, Raidou had done precisely what he had remembered, having the demon electrocute the one-eye monster and slashing at it while it was paralyzed.
In retrospect, it seemed almost as if this time around, the demon wasn't as hard as he thought it had been.
000
When he finally opened his eyes, Raidou saw that he was back in the Akarana Corridor, standing in front of the Hourglass that his fingers had grazed.
Somehow, though, during the onslaught of images, he had managed to destroy the device.
It still doesn't look like an Hourglass. Gods above...are all the Hourglasses going to be like this...? Is this the price that the Herald spoke of, that will cause grief...?