20A/N: This story follows my retelling of the first Shin Megami Tensei game, Beta-Testing the Demon Summoning Program. You won't need to read that one first, but the appearance and presentation of a few characters will make more sense if you have. As with that story, this is a somewhat loose retelling of the game of SMT II. There are simply some sections that are too grindy to make for an interesting story like this, and other parts where the limitations of the game (and the fan-translation I'm used to) make the story unclear. But I do think it is a really interesting story with intriguing character concepts. I had fun with writing this, so I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 1: Early Memories
"Do you remember anything from before today?"
"...Mom."
"I see. Do you remember your name yet?"
The young man looked up at him, the older one wearing a long scarf over his light jacket. The young one tried to get back to his feet, clumsily working to get them under him. "Aleph." Finding himself unsteady, he held his arms out to stay seated. Then he tried pointing to the man. "Meka."
"Close, I'm Mekata," he said, starting to move over to help. But then he stopped, waiting to see if he'd manage on his own. "And yes, you are Aleph. And him?" He gestured to one in a white lab coat, working with a computer instead of them.
Aleph looked over at the other man. His mind was buzzing, clicking links here and there trying to find where things were supposed to be. "Ha..." what was it again? "Nana."
"Hanada," the other scientist said, not looking away from his computer. "He shouldn't be having this much trouble with speech."
Clicking his tongue, Aleph felt like it was hard to speak. There were lots of words for things in his mind. Names were simple because that's what the person was. Or, who they were, that seemed more appropriate. But Mekata and Hanada were stringing together words to make more complex ideas. Aleph had to think through what was said before being able to respond, even with just one word.
"But he isn't going to be like the others," Mekata said. "It's easy to write on a blank slate, but with all the modifying we've done to meet their specifications, it seems like some of the information straight up failed to get imbedded. We also had to take out their preprogramming so he can be his own person, but doing that," he sighed.
"I know it's dumb, which is why I kept saying that we should split from them," Hanada said, waving at them.
Aleph put his hands down on the ground, then set his feet to be more firmly there too. This should be simple, he'd done it before he'd fell. Why was everything so much harder for him? But then, there should be so much he could do once he could walk around like them.
Hanada kept talking. "I admit, I was intrigued by their proposal. His base skill line is going to start far ahead of everyone else and only rise from there. That is, once he gets pasts these basics."
"He's a person, please stop talking about him like an experiment," Mekata said, putting his hand on his forehead.
"But he is!"
Having gotten steady near the floor, Aleph stood himself up again. Careful… there was further to fall here. His torso wobbled and he had to get his legs straightened out more to keep balance. Then, he was fully standing up. Good, then he should be able to get to walking soon. He took a step forward and started to fall to the side again.
Mekata caught him this time. "Careful."
"Thank you," he said, since that was the thing to say. He found his balance point again while hanging onto Makata's hands, then let go and worked to keep himself steady.
"We'll go ahead and continue with the mental assessments, then," Mekata said. "What color is my scarf?"
Color? Aleph looked at the scarf; it seemed like it would be soft. There was a color, like sidewalks, metal, most spoons, the floor here. But the name of the color… "No?" he tried, not able to find the name.
Aleph was then brought over to the table to play with things or try to explain them. However, he only found a few words that he was certain of saying. He knew their names, mostly, and he knew 'thank you' was for when someone did something good for him. If he wanted something, 'please' and pointing would work. There was 'hello' and 'goodbye' too, but they weren't needed yet. But the most he got use from was 'yes' and 'no' since they could be used for most anything.
He got asked another color question, which was frustrating. It was a picture of shapes, which he also had trouble with. They were shapes, circle, square, triangle, but while he knew the shapes, saying the word for them didn't work out. And, to name the color of the largest triangle… he pointed out the shape in question, to prove that he knew what was being asked for. "Meow?" he tried, since he'd seen a cat that was that same color of orange.
"Cat is not a color," Hanada said.
Mekata rubbed his chin. "No, but the cat we had around the lab was orange and he did spend some time with him." He then tugged at his scarf. "What color is this?"
Now that there was a picture in front of him, Aleph could just point out the matching square there. "Mmm, yes."
"So he recognizes colors," Mekata said. "We'll have to focus his early learning on speech."
"Right, even if we do return him, nobody's going to want to deal with someone who can barely talk," Hanada said.
"It's an obstacle that has been overcome before," Mekata said, taking out more cards. "But for an accurate assessment of his mental capacity, these tests will have to be modified to account for that."
"Stop stating the obvious and get on with it," Hanada said in annoyance.
"Mmmhmmhmm," Aleph said, closing his eyes and pulling his shoulders in.
"It's okay," Mekata said in a gentle way, reaching over and patting Aleph's hand. "It's just a disagreement." He then set the cards in front of him in a line. "Now, try to put these pictures in an order that makes sense."
After looking at Hanada to make sure they really weren't fighting, Aleph looked to the cards. Makes sense… there was a boy with a pole walking, a boy with a pole with a fish on it, a boy at a house with a dog and a woman in the door of the house, a boy with a pole in a ripple of water with a tree, and lastly a boy at a house with a dog, a woman in the door of the house, and a fish in his hand. One two three four five.
Aleph swapped four to be after two, trading places with three. "Yes."
"Hmm," Mekata said, looking like he didn't understand.
"Mmm." Aleph pointed to the first card. "Two." Then the second. "Three." And the new three. "Four." And the new four. "Five." And the last. "Six. Yes."
He raised his eyebrow at that. "Ah… it's not the order of events you lined up, but the number of objects in the pictures."
"Yes," Aleph said, smiling since he understood now.
After a long time of this game of questions, cards, and pictures, Aleph was taken into the other room and allowed to have some blocks. That was fun; he stacked them on top of each other to see how high he could make a single stack. He hummed to himself and listened to the two scientists in the other room. Maybe if he listened more, he could make speech work for him.
"This isn't good; a number of his capabilities are at the level of a three year old. His language skills are definitely below that, which of course makes it harder to assess the rest. He may be at a toddler stage for emotional and social capabilities, given how he's reacted to us."
"So he's damaged then."
"Given how much tampering his mind and body have been through, I shouldn't be surprised." Mekata sounded disappointed, making Aleph pause in his tower stacking. Had he done something wrong in the tests? "We shouldn't have taken on this project at all."
"Are you kidding? This is something that's never been done before! Even if it never gets done again, we'll learn great things from him."
"Mmm," Aleph said, closing his eyes. Humming filled his mind; he followed it.
"But this is going to make things hard on him. He's not like the demonoids that we started with, creatures with animal intelligence. He's a human being!"
"Well what are you going to do about it? Go back in time and stop this whole Messiah project before we could start it? What's done is done and now that we have him, we should see what comes of all our hard work and study."
Something… moved. Aleph opened his eyes and saw that one of the blocks he'd been playing with was floating in front of him. Was that supposed to happen?
"But we're going to treat him like a person, right?"
Aleph poked the floating block. It dropped to the ground, rolling into his tower and making it all crash down. "Mmm." He tried to hum again, but it wasn't in his mind like before. Odd.
"Sure," Hanada said. "Besides, even if he tests at a toddler level now, he might have the mental capacity of a child who learns far easier and faster than an adult. He should gain his language skills if we just encourage him to talk. Before long, people shouldn't notice he's any different than them."
"We'll have to keep him indoors until he can pass as the adult he is now," Mekata said.
They didn't seem to be arguing now. Relieved, Aleph gathered the blocks to restack. What would Mom think now that he was big now? Come to think of it, where was she? "Mom?" Aleph asked, looking around. There were just two doors here, the one he'd come through and another that seemed to go outside.
She didn't answer. He gripped the block he had and tapped it on the floor. Where was he? He hadn't thought much of it because Mekata and Hanada were here. Focusing, Aleph tried to think back on what had brought him here with them.
He knew his mother's face and voice; soft impressions of her made him feel warm and secure. But then he was taken from her to sleep. When he woke up, he was big and all the words were in his head in a confusing way. Aleph had fallen as soon as he'd been let go, so Mekata helped him into a wheelchair.
There had been an explosion, a huge scary mess that gave off smoke, flames, and bad smells. Hanada joined them. "That's teach those dumb corporates, but we've got to hurry," he'd said. "Run!"
"Mom?" Aleph had asked, but he was pushed along to leave. Alarms had screamed, turning the lights all red. People shouted all around and she wasn't there anymore.
Mekata kept running with him, falling behind. They caught up with Hanada and entered a strange cold room. "I've got the Valhalla lab already set up, we can go ahead and start the next stage without the elders interfering."
"It'll be all right," Mekata told Aleph, patting his back as he had been crying. "We've just got to run now. It'll be better… wait, where's Hiroko?"
"I don't know, but we've got no time," Hanada said.
"But without her…"
Aleph had screamed as the lights brightened.
In the room with the kitchen table and blocks, Aleph's lip quivered. That had been before he woke up here, just a short time ago. "Mom?" he asked quietly.
She still didn't answer.
"Why are you still working on that project?" Mekata asked. This time, it was obvious that he was mad. It wasn't like their scientific discussions. "We're having a hard enough time as is keeping the demon population under control."
"Look, they have some great minds among their numbers. Can you imagine the progress we'll be making with their support?" Hanada was mad too.
"Mmm, no," Aleph said, shaking his head. He got back to his feet, much easier than last time. They should stop arguing, it was bad. Mom would help, if she was around to help. "Mom?"
"The project we got from the elders is horrible enough!" Mekata said, slamming something papery on a surface. "Demons would give us something even worse, I know it!"
"What's so horrible about…?"
There was a tremendous bang from somewhere.
Aleph's heart was instantly racing. What was that? Were things going bad again? But he knew what to do this time. You had to run away from things like that. There wasn't time to think carefully through his movements, so he bolted around the table and to the other door. He bumped into the door for going too fast; his socks were skidding too.
"Aleph?" someone in the other room asked, but he was too panicked to recognize who.
The door slid open and Aleph ran outside. Maybe Mom was somewhere out here and could make sure he got to a safe place with her. Things were safe around her; it'd all be good again. For now, he had to get away from whatever exploded.
After a while of running, he noticed that no one else was running. Maybe it was okay? He slowed unevenly, tearing one of his socks. When he turned around, he realized that this place wasn't familiar. He'd made a few turns, into areas that seemed quiet or unblocked. Where was he? A few people were in sight, but none of them were familiar. None of them was Mom. Crying again, he turned around. No, still nowhere he recognized. It was all tall buildings, tree-lined streets, colorful signs, and strangers. Music drifted out of a few windows, mixing chaotically with the sounds of a train clattering overhead.
"Meka?" Aleph asked, his voice shaking. "Nada? Mom?"
A horrible screech that made him cringe came from one of the windows. Glass shattered across the street as people started screaming and running. A nightmare beast had leapt out of the building, whipping its spiked tail and sending a metal trash can flying. It glared at him as the one person who hadn't run yet, snarling its distorted face and looking ready for battle.
Demon. You are to fight demons. You are given the power of miracles to help you.
Aleph clenched his fists. He wasn't sure how to fight, given that getting around was clumsy to do if he wasn't panicking. Yet, this purpose was clear. He was to fight demons. It pounced at him and he slid aside, punching it in the jaw. When it swiped at him with claws, it was painful, drawing blood. He kicked it with his uninjured leg, then bashed it in the head again. It bit at him, so he bit back. The motions were getting easier.
Then it knocked him onto his back with its tail. Aleph screamed, closing his eyes. What now? He was supposed to fight demons, but this was going badly. Why was he out here, wherever here was? Where was Mom? Strange sounds were in his head, trying to get his attention.
"Hey ya big lug, leave that guy alone!" an old man said. Aleph watched with watery eyes as the man in green attacked the demon with a sword. It was really impressive. After a couple more strikes, the demon was gone in a cloud of black that quickly faded. The man then walked over to him, putting the sword away. "That was a close call, but man, never met a guy gutsy enough to go biting a demon in battle."
Aleph burst into tears. He wasn't able to do what he was supposed to, and now he was in a lot of pain. He didn't know where he was, or where his mother was; this was the worst day of his life.
"Don't worry, I'm calling the hospital," the man said. "Be tough; that won't kill you."
It got even worse when a big noisy vehicle with flashing lights approached. Still screaming, Aleph tried to run; it hurt his wounded leg more and he fell again. Then people came out, stuck needles in him… he lost all feeling in his body and didn't know why. Then they tied him to some bed and everything got lost in a blur.
None of it made sense.
"Hey, you all right?"
"No."
Okamoto looked over the young man he'd rescued earlier today. He could be a tough bugger, that much was clear by how wildly he had fought that chimera. But then the way he screamed after he was out of danger… and right now, he was crying silently while strapped down to a bed in the intensive care unit. His injuries weren't that bad, but the way he'd fought the emergency crew led the hospital to suspect he was a drug addict on a bad high.
Actually, that probably was the case even though he didn't look like the usual junkie. No needle scars, his black hair neatly cut and clean, no bags under his green eyes. But the doctor suspected that he had been on a strong hallucinogenic. Probably one of those crazy designer drugs made from demon venom; some of those things could kill the user, but a junkie desperate for a high would still go for them. The demon-derived drugs were said to linger in a person's body for weeks, hence keeping him here where they could keep him latched down.
"What's your name?" he asked. "I'm Okamoto, the one who saved you from that demon."
The young man looked over at him. "Yes. Thank you. Aleph."
"You're Aleph?"
"Yes." He calmed down enough to stop crying.
"And how old are you?"
He had to stop and think about that. "Two."
"You mean twenty-two?"
"No. Two."
Definitely some brain damage there. "Why do you say that?"
His eyes shifted, thinking. "Yes?"
Maybe he should reword that. "Can you speak much beyond simple things like your name and numbers?"
"No," he said readily.
Rubbing his head, Okamoto pitied the young man. Once the hospital determined that he didn't have drugs in his system, they'd let Aleph go. Maybe even before that, as he had nothing but the few clothes that he'd been in: an old green t-shirt, some shorts, and torn socks. No money, in no condition to work… "You got a home?"
"Yes. Mom."
"You know her name?"
He thought about that. "Hh… ko…" he sighed in disappointment. "No."
"You know your home address?"
"No."
No way to get home unless his mother somehow found out he was here. They'd shift him to the slum district too, where it wouldn't be hard for him to find more drugs and mess himself up beyond repair. That is, if he wasn't there already. Okamoto had seen several promising young people lose themselves that way and he wasn't eager to see that again. He could just walk away from this and try to forget about Aleph. Could, but he couldn't bring himself to be that cold.
But what could be done? Rehab cost money, as would medical bills needed to help him recover. And even here in Valhalla, people of legitimate businesses would not hire an addict of this severity. Aleph could be sent to the Factory district, but Okamoto had never liked the place. He suspected something strange was going on there.
Aleph could also be registered as a Coliseum fighter. Even if he had been high, his talent had shone in that desperate unarmed battle against a chimera. The audience would get a kick out of a wild instinctual fighter; more traditionally trained gladiators wouldn't be sure what to do against him. Gladiators died often, which was why they wouldn't question an addict joining in. Aleph could be difficult to teach and present as a star; he'd definitely need someone to talk for him. But there was a big tournament coming, one where the winning gladiator would earn a citizenship in the Center for themselves and prestige for their trainer and manager. Not only that, but the prize this time around was a million makka, a million!
It was only in six months. Six months, during which he had to turn this troubled young man into a prize fighter. They were very long odds, a small chance at that championship.
But then, Okamoto loved the thrill of long odds.
"Say, I've been thinking," he said, going over to the side of the bed. Aleph watched him curiously. "You've got natural talent, but you've gotten yourself into a lot of trouble with this. I'm a Coliseum trainer, but I've got no students to train now. What's say you to this: I'll give you a shot at fame and a clean restart in life by training you up as a gladiator. We can build you up on demon exhibition matches until the big tournament comes around and we can turn you into a champion."
"Yes," Aleph said, not hesitating. Maybe he recognized he was in need of rehabilitation. Or maybe he just liked the idea of being a champion.
Okamoto smiled. "Good, then we'll make it official today! You'll now be my student and we can start up your training once they release you from the hospital. Maybe they'll even do that before the new year."
"Yes," he said, smiling back.
"Here, I think…" he found the remote to the television in this room and turned on the sports channel. "Yes, they're replaying classic matches this week. Looks like the focus today is on the first champion, Kazuya. Great, he's an incredible one, I can tell you some about him."
Although he was still strapped down to the bed, Aleph watched in fascination, like he'd never seen these matches before.
Of course, this deal meant that the hospital wanted Okamoto to pay for Aleph's medical bills since the young man had no way to pay for himself. And training would take a lot of money too. But the million makka would pay for that, and the fame would let him profit off taking Aleph in under his wing.
Aleph still didn't know where Mom was, but he had Okamoto now. And Okamoto had said that he'd train him to fight demons. Since Aleph wasn't doing so good at that, it was a good thing to stay with Okamoto, at least until his Mom found him. But first, he had to figure out how to get these shoes on. They had laces that kept coming loose.
"Have you tied your own shoes before?" Okamoto asked.
"No," Aleph said, trying to twist the strings together.
"Here, let me show you." He knelt down with a grunt and helped Aleph figure out the knot. Once he saw how it should be done, it was simple enough. Okamoto still made him undo it and make sure it was tighter. "Seems like you have a lot to relearn. But that's fine, I'll get you in shape." He patted Aleph's arm when they got the shoe tying done. "Good, now let's go jog out to where my gym is. We'll be living there."
Once outside, they started running. Aleph had to keep at a slow pace to follow Okamoto and not get lost again. Unlike before, this running was fun and made him feel better just doing it. They ran by the place where they had met; the window was boarded up and no demons were around. Continuing on, they followed a long road that left the part of the city where the hospital was. It led to an island with a smaller cluster of buildings. Since there was no road further on, the gym had to be here. What was a gym?
Okamoto stopped at the end of the long road, before they got into the island's little town. After catching his breath (something Aleph had no trouble with), he pulled out his phone. "You were a little clumsy at the start, but looks like you found your pace. Okay, I'd like to know where you're starting out at so," he looked ahead and pointed to the other end of the island. "This place is small, so I know it's about a half mile out to the edge of the water. Run there and run back here. Ready?"
"Yes," Aleph said. Getting used to being big like this had just taken some exercise. He'd prove himself good since Okamoto was being nice enough to take care of him.
"Go!"
Aleph sprang off, moving over to the sandy area. Some of the concrete areas were cracked, so the sand would be better to run on here. A few people were out walking on the beach, but they kept out of his way. Running was great, and here he had a wide open area to go across as fast as he could. The air was salty and smoky, no demons were around. Overhead, spotlights cast plenty of light to see by from the massive walls further away. He got to where he stepped in the water, turned around… this was much easier with these shoes, even if they were an extra weight. Then he ran all the way back to Okamoto, who was waiting for him at the end of the road.
When he got back, Okamoto was smiling and laughing. "Good going, Aleph, you must've had some track training before!"
"No," he said, smiling at the praise.
"You don't even look worn out; pretty good for someone who just got out of the hospital. I know I was right to stick with you; you're definitely champ material for speed at least. It could be a good start on training funds to have you in some footraces." He pointed over to a three-story building nearby. "My gym's right there. Old place and not actually that great. But we'll make the best of it. Come on; if you're not tired, there's a couple other things I could check you out on."
It wasn't like the tests Mekada had for him. This was punching a bag, or lifting something heavy, or doing stretches to see how far he could reach without moving his feet. For some reason, it all really impressed Okamoto. It was normal stuff, wasn't it? At any rate, Okamoto said that it shouldn't be long before he could take out demons without the trouble he'd had against the chimera. That was good, it was what he was supposed to do.
In exchange for all this, Aleph just needed to get really strong and win something called a Championship. Okamoto seemed to think he wouldn't have trouble, so Aleph agreed to work towards that. Maybe if he did something great, his Mom would show up to praise him too.
Even though Millennium tried to replace all culture with its own, some holiday observances had survived. They were dressed up differently. But having watched human civilization for thousands of years, Lucifer expected that. This was New Year's Day and there were festivals going on in each district at whichever church was the main center of the community. He'd considered going to Holytown's festival since it amused him how that area had turned out. However, Valhalla promised to be the most boisterous this year.
He was currently using an enchantment to make himself less noticeable. There was a balance to this kind of magic. While the point was to become a subtle presence in the crowd, the Temple Knights were trained to watch for demons trying to blend in with humans. They knew how to detect invisibility or total ignorance shields. One had to be just uninteresting enough to avoid regular citizens and the knights.
Although in this crowd, there were enough humans with dyed or even natural blond hair that he didn't stick out that much. He watched them follow traditions that had been in place in this land well before the catastrophes had ruined it. They came mostly with family, to give offerings and prayers (although this was annoyingly to his enemy). Afterward, they pulled fortunes to see how the year might go.
There was a lesser focus on profiting on an event than a century ago. The habits of capitalism tried to creep in, but those in control of this community kept a death grip on every aspect of the lives of the citizens. Unfortunately, far too few of the citizens realized it. They saw demons as a danger that the Center was protecting them from. They even felt that the outer world was too dangerous for civilization and had no desire to see what was outside of their pyramidal prison. While he'd done what he could to thwart the Center, Lucifer knew this was going to be an uphill battle.
Lucifer looked around the crowd ignoring him, thinking… he crossed eyes with a young man who was looking right at him, one whose green eyes showed a bizarrely innocent soul. He was more innocent than the group of kids playing between them. Yet, there was a spiritual power in him that shone like a full moon among candles. Perhaps even a sun.
Who... who was that? It caused a chill in him to be noticed when he was trying to be subtle, and increased to realize how another extraordinary soul had been wandering around this festival without him noticing before. That power reminded him of someone from over two thousand years ago; the Messiah reborn? But no, that one wouldn't bear this kind of innocence, would have a different purity. It was like this soul had only existed for a week.
Some laughter between them broke their attention from each other. "But I wanted it to snow," one of the kids said.
"It's cold enough that you'd think the Center would let us have snow for the holiday," another said, then spun around. "Let's do a snow dance!"
"That doesn't work."
"But your prayers didn't either."
"Well the day's not over yet! It could still snow."
"Snow dance!" another kid said, spinning around and jumping. A few others joined them.
Just as Lucifer was thinking that it'd be amusing to trigger a snowfall though Millennium's weather system to make the kids think that a snow dance worked where prayers didn't, the innocent one across from him closed his eyes and hummed. The hum quickly filled the air in a way that would be inaudible to humans. The computers that controlled the weather were given instructions through the hum to shift over to a moderate snowfall in all of Millennium. While that would take a few minutes to get going, the hum also altered the air around the festival. Large puffy snowflakes appeared as the humidity rose to support the snow.
The innocent one's soul was bright with power, untouched yet by Law or Chaos.
The kids started shouting in delight. "It's snowing, it's snowing!" they called, excitedly running off to parents or other friends to tell them what they thought they accomplished.
While the one who'd actually performed the miracle was distracted by the snowflakes he'd summoned, Lucifer faded out of a physical presence. The Center had been encouraging talk of a Messiah lately. Was this the one they meant to present as one? But then, why was he here in Valhalla, the most sinful district of Millennium? They might have lost him, which was strange considering how controlling they were.
That presented a good opportunity to Lucifer, though, to observe this man and see what could be done to draw him to the powers of Chaos.
