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Hey. Looks like I've got this working.

[Atsuro's face appears on the network under somewhat inadequate lighting. An astute guess would place him in his room illuminated only by the backlight of his laptop.]

Everyone get out of that first mission OK? I can't speak for anyone else, but geez, I think I slept for a few days straight there. If they, uh, wanted a report or anything, the research labs are fine. ...Probably.

[He stifles a yawn before continuing on, the camera zooming out slightly to reveal a lot of bedhead and a conspicuously absent trademark floppy hat.]

Hnn... Sorry.

So! Anyway. I've been thinking a lot. About what they've told us and about... what they haven't. Hah, I'm still surprised this place isn't some weird hallucination. It's a little unreal, right? Like they're asking us to act out a game or a fantasy novel. But... even if it seems like it might be fun to stick around, I think we need to find out what it is we're really getting into. ...There's something I want to say about all this.

You've all run into the monsters by now, right? They talk, they cast magic, they do tricks. Not all of them are bad, but they're things we've heard of in myths and stories from different cultures all across the globe - Cerberus, the hound of Hades. British pixies and kobolds. Nekomata and other youkai from Japan. So... what gives? What're they doing here?

...I'm not gonna get into details, but I should say that these guys - the exact same identical demons - have popped up in at least two other worlds that I know of. And both times.... they showed up because the world was about to end.

I'm not saying this place is the same way, but... maybe that's why they need our help badly.

[addendum a few minutes later]

Ah, someone reminded me - if you guys want to see a database of all the demons I've ever met, you can drop by my room. Libra 5-07.

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[The door opens after the third knock. Atsuro is looking more awake in his normal clothes and floppy hat. He's even letting some sun in.]

Hey! Come on in. Go ahead and sit... somewhere.

[He pushes a pile of wires off his chair from where he'd been setting up his desktop.]

[Yamato, meanwhile, is in his usual military garb (he feels more comfortable with it okay). He strides in, glancing about the place to take stock of its contents, the exits, etc, before looking at the chair.

He crosses his arms and tilts his head slightly]

I prefer to stand.

...Uh. Right.

[Atsuro blinks. And collapses into the chair himself. He's taken a few minutes to clean up (ie: shove everything into the closet) so the room looks presentable, if slightly untidy. It can be ascertained pretty easily that Atsuro is something of a tech geek.]

So you said you've been doing this for 'generations'... Are they pretty widely present where you come from, then?

In a way. Although they are not prevalent enough for the civilians to be privy to their existence, they still are active enough to require some supervision. My family seals and contains demons all over Japan, as well as recording everything that we have encountered with every generation.

[He shrugs]

Although you say you have had only a week...as you come from another world, you may have encountered demons that are not in the Hotsuin database. In any case we both benefit from comparing.

There are definitely demons here I've never seen before. Even if they come from the same... stock, they probably only overlap to a certain degree in the worlds they enter. I'd be surprised if you had the Bel contenders making trouble back where you come from, too.

[Atsuro brings the game system COMP out and opens the Compendium.]

...Where do you keep yours?

[Well, usually here, considering the entirety of JP's is just one massive library. But, Yamato supposed the compendium on his phone would count, even if it was only a fraction of what data the Hotsuin family possessed.

He pulled his phone out and flipped it open]

Here.

Thanks.

[Atsuro will pass his COMP over and Yamato will get to browse through the list of demons he had fought, fused, or otherwise come into contact with. While the strongest boss demons were unable to be fused, it seems Atsuro has added as much as they knew about the Bels in for good measure. Atsuro is silent for a few moments as he examines Yamato's phone similarly.]

...Lugh.

Wait, you're from... the other world I was talking about, then. Ah... that guy -- the one talking about the Sep... Septempterones.

Septentrione.

[Yamato was finding Atsuro's list fascinating. There were, of course, the common demons like Pixies or Kobold's that they shared, but others...these 'Bel' demons were intriguing...

However.]

Which guy was it? The skittish one with the scarf or the one with the rabbit hood?

...Both, actually. I must've forgotten to get their names.

I glanced through your list before - I think it was about 80% the same; most of the ones that were different were 'Unique'. There were one or two with different names, too.

They would be Shijima, the scarf one, and Kaito, the bunny hood one.

[Yamato hands back Atsuro's COMP]

Sadly that [nods to his phone] is not the full compendium. JP's headquarters has it and, well, it is beyond our reach now.

[Atsuro returns the phone as well.]

JP's... Is that the name of your demon-fighting organization? How many more would you say there are?

Hrn, something to that effect.

[It did a lot more than simply fight demons, but, semantics]

Many more. As this has proven, there are numerous worlds that exist beyond our own, and demons can freely come and go from them as they please. There are probably demons that only exist in one of those worlds, and never comes to ours, so...it is impossible to say.

So we're sure that the demons are getting to our worlds from the same place? It makes sense - all of our programs are the same, and it would be pretty far-fetched to have two identical auctions going on.

What would that mean for this world, then? Someone's summoning them here? They're slipping through a natural weakness between worlds?

...Could this be the source?

That is a valid theory, however I don't think we should label this place as the source of them all just yet. Indeed, their number is numerous here, and they have integrated somewhat into society, but that is just the normal adaptation of humans when forced to interact with something like that.

[Yamato thinks]

It is a situation where observation will be best, I believe. Of course, there is the matter of what will be done if this place is determined to be the source. Powers beyond are own are at work here, so it will not be as simple as merely containing them here. Demons are able to slip between cracks of reality because their forms are so undefined, unlike humans who are very anchored down and solid.

For being undefined, they seem pretty consistent across three or four different worlds.

[He understands the general gist of what Yamato is saying, though, even if the guy insists on talking like his high school teachers.]

Either way, they want us to defend this city with our power - containing the demons probably works into that somehow.

...I wish they'd explained a little more.

Ahahaha...

[Well he meant undefined in that they could easily be broken down into information and reformed at will - humans still didn't have that ability]

They wouldn't have explained any more than they already have. It would be to their advantage to give the minimal amount of information in their favour to secure our assistance, while omitting any 'unnecessary' details.

[It's what Yamato did with Hiro and his friends, after all]

...You mean spinning it to make us sound like we're their only hope and also conveniently leaving out anything that would make us run home screaming in terror.

Yes. It is what I would have done, in any case.

[or, have done quite shamelessly]

...At least you're honest.

So -- if we want to get a better idea of how the demons work, maybe it's worth thinking about what wasn't the same across our worlds. Anything in here that caught your interest?

[He waves the COMP. He's pretty sure he knows the answer already, but it didn't hurt to check.]

The 'Bel' demons.

[Cough up the info B| he wants to know!]

Was the theme that obvious?

...The Bel demons were partially the reason our world was invaded in the first place. The competition to become the King of the Bels by defeating all the others - that was the backdrop to the invasion.

[Belder, Belial, Jezebel- yes it was quite obvious to Yamato]

The invasion? Was it just demons during this?

At first.

We found out later that the whole thing was part of some... divine plan. We ended up fighting our share of angels, too.

And... humans, of course.

Divine plan...

[Similar to Polaris then? Although there wasn't anything divine about the Administrator - they had just been corrupted data in need of deleting to him, neither did he have legions of angels at his beck and call. It was all manner of demons and alien entities]

Was there something called an Administrator in your world? He may have been called 'Polaris'.

...I heard about that from your friends. No, we got something a little... better represented in the literature than an alien administrator.

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