[The bullet scar garnered Hyoubu an unreadable look - not one of pity or sympathy, but something bordering on consideration - and after a brief pause, Kazuya joined him at the table - after taking almost half of the buffet table with him of course. Multiple plates piled high with food were precariously balanced on his arms in a fashion similar to a waiter. He managed to place them on the table without a messy incident and sat down heavily, across from Hyoubu]
Where to even start... [he started shredding a buttery croissant to pieces, picking at it like a bird, a sharp contrast to his earlier, messy hunger] This has got, like, four different beginnings, and all of them are equally messed up and confusing. Plus background info...
[He trailed off. He pondered as he slowly made his way through the croissant, starting at the corner of the table. After a few minutes of this, he straightened up slowly, and brushed his hands together. Eh, he'll just plunge straight into it. Demons, Gods... it might be normal stuff in this guy's world, after all, supernatural powers were, so...]
I'll guess I'll go with something recent - I mean, this story goes back thousands of years, if you can believe it. Anyway, Naoya - remember him? - got this brilliant idea one day. [Judging by Kazuya's tone, this idea was, in fact, terrible] He decided - with a bit of funding from this cult - to create a device that would allow demon summoning without getting bogged down with all the rituals and needing to sacrifice something or have the knowledge of it at all.
[He made a small circle in the air with his finger, speaking slowly;] To summon a demon, you need to sacrifice something, or have a desire so strong, so emotionally charged, that you can sustain it that way. Naoya got rid of all that, so that the common joe could just pick up this device and summon a demon - with a catch, though. You have to be able to defeat the demon that comes out of it, since they follow a strict hierarchy of strength. They don't obey weaklings. Hah, you can imagine the chaos this caused when it was mass-distributed within Tokyo.
[Torn up roads and cars, corpses in the street, demons running wild... yeah...]
Thousands of people were killed within the first few days, then you had those who did defeat their demons and managed to control them. Some of them went a bit nuts and thought they could do whatever they wanted. Society broke down pretty fast, and worse of all, the only thing the government could do was put the 'infected zone' into a strict lockdown. Everyone was trapped in there, with crazy people and demons, and if they tried to escape, they got shot dead. Demons can take human forms, so, you know, they had to be careful.
[Kazuya sighed suddenly, as if it was something inconvenient, rather than traumatising]
I was stuck right in the middle of that. Why? Because Naoya had a plan. A brilliant one by his reckoning, but I think it was stupid. [pause] And, uh, immoral, since he technically mass murdered like half of Tokyo's population. It's messed up. Isn't that messed up? Do you know what people did there? I mean, demons are terrible, but they're like animals! They kill humans to eat them, end of. People just... ugh, they did horrible things, messed up stuff, and it was like infectious! One of my friends went off the deep end and began killing people who were 'unworthy of living'. Who gets to decide that? What, did God keel over and make Keisuke his successor? Like hell! Not even God gets to decide stuff like that because it's human lives goddammit!
[he kicked the leg of the table, making the plates jump, looking genuinely furious for a moment before it simmered into something more neutral looking]
It makes me so mad. So many people died over something so pointless.
no subject
Where to even start... [he started shredding a buttery croissant to pieces, picking at it like a bird, a sharp contrast to his earlier, messy hunger] This has got, like, four different beginnings, and all of them are equally messed up and confusing. Plus background info...
[He trailed off. He pondered as he slowly made his way through the croissant, starting at the corner of the table. After a few minutes of this, he straightened up slowly, and brushed his hands together. Eh, he'll just plunge straight into it. Demons, Gods... it might be normal stuff in this guy's world, after all, supernatural powers were, so...]
I'll guess I'll go with something recent - I mean, this story goes back thousands of years, if you can believe it. Anyway, Naoya - remember him? - got this brilliant idea one day. [Judging by Kazuya's tone, this idea was, in fact, terrible] He decided - with a bit of funding from this cult - to create a device that would allow demon summoning without getting bogged down with all the rituals and needing to sacrifice something or have the knowledge of it at all.
[He made a small circle in the air with his finger, speaking slowly;] To summon a demon, you need to sacrifice something, or have a desire so strong, so emotionally charged, that you can sustain it that way. Naoya got rid of all that, so that the common joe could just pick up this device and summon a demon - with a catch, though. You have to be able to defeat the demon that comes out of it, since they follow a strict hierarchy of strength. They don't obey weaklings. Hah, you can imagine the chaos this caused when it was mass-distributed within Tokyo.
[Torn up roads and cars, corpses in the street, demons running wild... yeah...]
Thousands of people were killed within the first few days, then you had those who did defeat their demons and managed to control them. Some of them went a bit nuts and thought they could do whatever they wanted. Society broke down pretty fast, and worse of all, the only thing the government could do was put the 'infected zone' into a strict lockdown. Everyone was trapped in there, with crazy people and demons, and if they tried to escape, they got shot dead. Demons can take human forms, so, you know, they had to be careful.
[Kazuya sighed suddenly, as if it was something inconvenient, rather than traumatising]
I was stuck right in the middle of that. Why? Because Naoya had a plan. A brilliant one by his reckoning, but I think it was stupid. [pause] And, uh, immoral, since he technically mass murdered like half of Tokyo's population. It's messed up. Isn't that messed up? Do you know what people did there? I mean, demons are terrible, but they're like animals! They kill humans to eat them, end of. People just... ugh, they did horrible things, messed up stuff, and it was like infectious! One of my friends went off the deep end and began killing people who were 'unworthy of living'. Who gets to decide that? What, did God keel over and make Keisuke his successor? Like hell! Not even God gets to decide stuff like that because it's human lives goddammit!
[he kicked the leg of the table, making the plates jump, looking genuinely furious for a moment before it simmered into something more neutral looking]
It makes me so mad. So many people died over something so pointless.