Fourth Night [Action/Voice, Backdated to April 12th]

[cowledcrusader]

[Action]

[Naoya and Dilandau are safely behind bars in the tunnels, secured and locked away with no weapons.   And right now he made sure to take every key to the prisons and secure the entrance with a padlock of his own.  It should be strong enough to hold anyone attempting to break them out for now. 

First thing's first.  He needs to track down the woman named Yuzu that Naoya spoke to.  She did not sympathize with him, but knows of him and his weapon system.  Possessing Dilandau's COMP, he will actively seek her out for questioning and follow up on any leads he can.]

[Voice]

[After speaking with Yuzu and following up where the leads take him, Batman will reluctantly open a voice communication.  Someone has to make the announcement.   He's not much of a talker and he's never been good with people.  But it needs to be done.]

Attention, citizens of Luceti.  Dilandau and Naoya have been detained in the murder of Kohaku, a fellow citizen of Luceti.   They will remain in custody until such a time that the people of this village agree on a just punishment or until they are properly tried by a court of law.   That is all.

Comments

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what he's thinking anymore.

[she puts down the marker. It doesn't look like she's going to be going back to the fliers anytime soon.] I can explain what I know, but it's gonna take a while.

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

[Simply, and flatly:]

Tell me everything.

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

Okay...

[where to start.] Well, Naoya's cousin is one of my best friends. His name's Hiro - we call him Hero, usually. We grew up together so I've known both of them a long time. Naoya's always been pretty weird and distant but I never thought it he'd ever do anything bad, though - not until last summer.

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

What happened?

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

A week before I showed up here in Luceti, Naoya called us up and asked him to meet us in Shibuya. [oh wait] We're from Tokyo. Anyway, when we got there he gave us each one of these. [she taps the COMP on the table.] But it wasn't until later that we found out why.

Naoya's a really amazing programmer... It turns out that he'd been working with a cult called the Shomonkai to build these things. Summoning's supposed to be really complicated, but somehow he worked out how to write a program so that anyone can do it easily. The Shomonkai believed that God was going to send an ordeal and the only way to survive it was to follow this demon they worshipped and summon a lot more demons to fight back.

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

[He intently listens to this tale. ...Honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if Naoya was the one behind this cult to begin with. It's a little too coincidental that a programmer just happened to come up with a "solution" to a religious problem.]

...Go on.

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

But the government found out that demons were being summoned. They shut off the power and locked down the city to keep them from spreading. Of course, they told us it was a "poison gas leak."

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

An obvious lie. How was the problem dealt with beyond that?

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

It wasn't. Things just got worse. Demons started popping up all over, the Shomonkai spread more COMPs around, and regular people started to fight each other. Naoya was right in the middle of everything. He kept 'helping' us - giving us the COMPs, writing a program that told the future, but he still planned for us to get caught up in everything from the start.

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

So the government didn't intervene and let the city tear itself apart. What was he hoping to gain from all of these demons being summoned?

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

He wanted to make Hero a demon overlord.

[and she's completely serious]

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

[...That doesn't make sense. At all. Why... why would he want to do... Wait. His target was an angel here. And he deals with demons on a regular basis. Is he dealing with an agent of Hell itself? Couldn't be.]

...Why? What was so special about your friend that made Naoya target him for that?

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

I don't know. But somehow, it had to be Hero. There are a bunch of demons with the name 'Bel' and they're fighting to see who gets to be king... one of them attacked us, and when Hero beat him he got his power. But Naoya seemed to know that was going to happen.

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

Sounds like he had plenty of experience dealing with these demons directly. What happened to Hero? Did he become the Overlord like Naoya desired, or did he resist?

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

Well... he hadn't decided what to do yet.

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

I see. And Naoya... he's still looking for another demon overlord?

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

I told you, it had to be Hero. Naoya, the angels... everything gets shoved on him.

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

[A truly focused obsession, it seems. Not unlike many criminals in Gotham. Time to switch back to the issue of the COMP.]

These devices. Clearly they're capable of doing more than summoning demons if they function in Luceti. Dilandau claimed they gave him magic.

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

Yeah. You can "crack" the skills demons use and then use them yourself.

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

... So they're a conduit to tap into demonic power for humans to access.

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much it.

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

Are there any known side effects from using that power?

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

Not that I know... [...] That woman said learning to summon here would break our world, though. If she teaches Naoya...

[she trails off. Batman can make the connection.]

[cowledcrusader.livejournal.com]

It would mean armageddon for your world.

...Right now, Naoya won't be summoning anything. His COMP is no longer a factor.

[And hopefully she will too.]

[pinkribbons.livejournal.com]

You're keeping it, then?

[as far as she knows, the one on the table between them is one of the only three in Luceti...]