It felt like drowning. He was in the middle of a city, but it felt like drowning.
Yuji barely heard himself fall to the ground; he was coughing too loudly. The ground spiraled beneath him as if it were quicksand – and really, beneath all of this swirling murk, he almost thought it could have been. Some sort of large book was trapped in his lungs, he thought, or perhaps an animal – the book had the hard spine and the pointed corners, but it felt as if it were something living trying to force its way out of him –
It had come so suddenly. What the hell was it? Poison gas? Could that be so thick, and so fast at once? No…. No use thinking…. It wouldn’t save him, and it wouldn’t get rid of the feeling that someone had split his skull and ribs at once. Clumsily, a shaking hand raised up to grope at his headphones. They clattered onto the asphalt, still shrieking with the voice of guitars, and the red cord pulled where it was attached to his collar. He felt his COMP slipping out of his pocket – and nearly fell over trying to shove it back in –
But who needs one of those, anyway?
Yuji barely had time to ponder where that thought had come from, when whatever it was that had been trapped in his chest seemed to explode. What a rush! Something like electricity surged as liquid through his veins, and he even thought he heard a crackle – if it wasn’t for the fact that the COMP wasn’t even active, he might have sworn that the beginnings of a Maziodyne were forming at his fingers –
But even as his very muscles seemed to pulse with energy, his mind – continued to drown.
It was hard to describe more elaborately, for even now he was struggling – not to be pulled under –
An image flashed before his eyes – the head of a toad, and a cat, and a man – no!
Was this what he had been warned about? He would not…be submerged. He would not…not….
He was tired…so tired…. drowning…. words…. he'd said… he’d vowed… he had…. a toad a cat a man a toad a cat a…. he…. water…. drown….
Yuji awoke several minutes later, and lifted himself gingerly off the sidewalk. The miasma had lifted as quickly as it had come. There was not even a tendril of smoke in the air.
Straightening, he put his headphones back on and flicked off the music. He raised an arm. The empty space next to him flashed, swirling in bright and deeper crimsons for a moment as if the very fabric of dimension was about to tear. Then the arms of that red spiral dissipated into lengths upon lengths of cobalt coils, and from those coils rose seven blue heads that could become a thousand.
Ananta the Snake was one of Yuji’s favorite demons, and for the moment he could not care less if everyone knew. It seemed confused now, though, for what it perceived before it was its master, and yet not – and to top it off, the COMP wasn’t on. Surely its master couldn’t summon it without that device…? The central head opened its mouth to speak, just as Yuji shook his head.
He stretched out both arms, and that same scarlet vortex seemed to turn for a moment before a black cape deposited itself onto his shoulders. There was a cold wind blowing. Yuji wrapped the cloak around himself. When he blinked, his eyes were red, then blue, then red again.
It seemed he had woken a bit early – out of those who had actually fainted, anyway. But there were still unconscious bodies lying about. And if he was going to win this war, then that was an opportunity, wasn’t it?
He liked this wind. He felt like a thousand spells, a thousand demons were at his fingertips. Calling them would be effortless. He knew this, somehow.
The drowning sensation from before now seemed only a bad dream. Now, he felt only the infinite energy that seemed to pour from him, so that everything around looked sharper, felt sharper. There was no need to describe it more precisely. He could feel it. He was going to use it.
“Shall we begin, Jezebel?” he said, then, “As you wish, Master.” He laughed to himself, and the intersection exploded.
Ananta did not flinch – it was a demon, after all – but a side head seemed to cringe at the noise. A few pebbles skittered in their direction, followed by a strip of twisted metal from a car door. Yuji leaned into Ananta’s scales and watched as the rest of the car disappeared among flames and collapsed into the broken concrete that surrounded it.
“Spectacular”, he murmured to himself. “Was that your idea, Belial? …Do you need to ask?”
