You've had people hit on you before. You've had people hit on you disingenuously before, even. But it's never been quite so transparent. The blonde in the leather jacket doesn't care about you. She looks through you, not at you.
"Have you...ever done this before?" you ask. No response. "It's just, you're really bad at--"
"Does tonight feel different to you?"
"Different...?"
"There's been a pressure hanging over you for a long time. You never noticed, but it's about to release." She slides a full glass of...something over to you. "Drink."
You definitely don't trust that. Before you can say this, though, your eye is drawn to a man across the room--choking, staggering to his feet, tearing at his shirt.
"I spiked it, if that's what you're worried about," says the woman bothering you. That would grab your attention any other time, but the suffering businessman is starting to warp and shudder, companions flinching back as his body twists into something inhuman.
"What is--"
"My name is Asuka Ran. Do you want to die?" She grabs you by the collar and presses the cold glass to your lips. "You can die with him, or live with me. Choose."
The shrieking man's form has swollen to monstrous proportions, something serpentine bursting free of the human that was there. You should run, but you can't. Her grip is iron, and her dead eyes have you transfixed. Prey instinct. Headlights. The first taste of red teases your lips apart.
[[...hell with it. Okay.|Transformation]]Home feels unfamiliar. You don't want to turn the lights on, in case you see yourself.
You blink, and it's midday. The next day, maybe. It might be more. You're not thinking as hard as you can. Dinner is cold in front of you. There are six missed calls from work. So it might have been more than one day. The phone rings again and you snap to answer, trying to remember the words to tell them you don't know if or when you'll next be in--
"Your address is still the same, right?" says Ran. The dull haze drops away. You're back in the full horror of it all, but at least you're feeling something. "It'd be a pain to have to track you down again," she continues.
"Y-Yes," you mumble without thinking, then bite your tongue with a scowl. "What did you //do// to me?"
"Awakened the Devil-Beast gene within you. It was going to happen anyway, someday."
"Devil-Beast...? Is that what the man I..." You choke on the memory.
"He couldn't control it," she explains. "You can. That makes you a valuable asset. I'll be counting on you when more appear."
"Hey--hang on! I didn't agree to this!"
"I wasn't asking. But, didn't you?" Ran's voice drops. "The part of you that knew what it was drinking. The part that knew it was about to be released. You've never satisfied it until now."
"That's not me."
"Where are you right now? I can picture you, huddled over, trying to keep the feeling out. Miserable." A note of unmistakeable glee creeps into her monotone. "Keeping out the fear, of course. Or is it the excitement?" Beyond glee, even. It's voyeuristic. "You hate that you feel it, right?"
"Okay, fuck off."
"I look forward to working with you," she purrs just before you can hang up.
Silence returns. Alone with the feeling clawing its way in, and now you want it gone again. She can't be right.
[[I wish it would all just go away.|First hunt]]It's been a few days. You're almost feeling human again. You've managed to venture out to the shops a couple times. You're finishing up breakfast, and even managing to taste it, when the doorbell rings.
You answer before you can think better of it, and are greeted by a pair of faceless visors. Flak vests. Heavy boots. Assault rifles at ease. It's enough to break through the remains of your reverie, and you start back before noticing they're not moving.
"A Devil-Beast has been sighted," comes the rasp from behind a helmet. "Come with us." He gestures to a black van at the end of the driveway, stamped HUMAN ALLIANCE.
So that woman represents a larger organisation...devoted to hunting down Beasts that are too far gone? And as one who's in control, they want you as a hunting dog?
The whole thing is unnerving, but...again, that unmistakeable feeling is rising inside of you. Your prey is out there.
[[Take me there.|First ride]]
[[Once was enough.|Persuasion 1]]You wake to a hard bed, a barren room, a needle in your arm, and a gaunt doctor watching you with detached professional interest.
"Where am I...?"
"Subject is conscious," he dictates into a lapel mic. "Forming coherent words. All readings within normal levels."
"Hey." You feel a little strength returning, and frown at him. "I said, where am I?"
"Subject growing frustrated. Withdrawing to remote observation." He backs away as he speaks, visibly nervous. You try to sit up, but your head immediately spins and you remember your injuries as pain shoots through them. The doctor quickly reaches the sparse chamber's only door and swipes a card to unlock it, slipping through. He goes to slam it shut, but is shoved aside as someone steps past him into the room--Ran, of course.
"What a pitiful state you're in," she says, crossing over to you with her hands in her pockets. "What? You aren't going to thank me for saving your life?"
"Who endangered it?" you hiss. "You dragged me out of my house, had me fight that Beast--" Your animated gesturing sends another jolt through you and you collapse back into the bed.
"And you did a terrible job at it," she says. "A tame Beast--a 'Devilman'--was my idea. I'm the one who'll look bad if you die too soon." She takes in your incredulous look. "What? Did you expect me to pity you?"
You grit your teeth, turning away from her. This is a dead end. "...why wouldn't that doctor talk to me?"
"Higashi? Scared, I think. Some can separate the human from the monster. He can't, so he just doesn't let himself acknowledge the human. Understandable, after seeing the footage."
"Footage--? You recorded me transforming?" Somehow it's the most shocking thought so far. Everyone at this facility knows you in a way you didn't even know yourself until recently. Your body, your urges, your sins all laid bare for ruthless examination.
"Of course. We need as much data as possible." A gleam enters Ran's eye. "And sometimes I just enjoy watching it. You make such a gorgeous monster."
Your gaze snaps back around to meet hers. "What is //wrong// with--no, hang on. Are you actually flirting now?"
"Why would I need to chase what's mine?" She heads for the door. "Rest. You should heal faster than most humans, but we don't know when another will appear."
You grip the bedframe white-knuckled as her footsteps recede, trying to keep your panicked breathing under control.
[[What have you done to me?|Test]]Morning hasn't broken yet. The tower block you've been ferried to is dark and silent.
"The emergency calls stopped half an hour ago," Ran says. "Assume there are no survivors to rescue."
"They might just be hiding," you say, steeling yourself for the ordeal that's about to repeat itself.
"Suit yourself. That innocence will get you killed, though." She doesn't sound very concerned.
"Not afraid you'll lose your asset?"
She shrugs. "There are other hunting dogs in the world. Personally, though...you're the cutest I've had so far, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't die." She gives you a shove up the pavement. "Now get in there."
"Alone?" You gesture to the dozens of armed guards securing a perimeter on either end of the street.
"You saw what happened last time. Throwing humans into a fight between monsters is just a waste of resources." Her eyes narrow. "Eat well, Devilman."
[[The door creaks open at your touch.|Tower block]]"Hey."
You bolt awake at a sudden chill--a cold drinks can is pressed to your forehead. You jerk back against the alley wall, the jacket you've been sleeping under falling away.
Green eyes pierce the gloom. Whoever this is, she's not standing over you like you assumed at first. She's hanging from a fire escape, ill-fitting leathers hanging off her...and gleaming in the shadows, a gently-twitching tail, covered in green scales, curls toward you.
"You're--"
"Like you, yeah." She springs over with inhuman grace, settling down next to you. Her earnest grin disarms the fear you should be feeling. "Least, you smell like a Beast," she says, nose twitching for emphasis.
"I guess...they told me I was something else," you mumble. "A 'Devilman'."
"'They'--the hunters, yeah? You got the look of an escaped pet aboutcha." Her thumb briefly extends into a claw to pop the can, and she passes it to you. You guzzle the soda gratefully--you're not sure how many days it's been, but you've hardly been eating well. "Beast...Devilman...what's the difference, then?"
"Like I'd know," you gasp, wiping your mouth. It didn't explode on you; her balance must be incredible, to handle it that deftly. "Maybe...that I can come back from the hunger? You're the first Beast I've met who can stay in control, except me."
"Guess that makes me a Devilman too, huh?" She winks, and you notice the reptilian slit-pupils for the first time. The restless way her gaze darts around is kind of entrancing. "Name's Aki. Mind if I stick with you a bit? I never met another Beast that wasn't super-aggro either." She pushes back some messy hair to reveal a chunk bitten out of her ear. "We get territorial, apparently."
"Y...Yeah..." You're a little overwhelmed by how fast she cycles through ideas, but it's obvious you're not gonna survive much longer on your own. It's hard to even recall the last positive interaction you had. "That sounds good, actually."
"Awesome!" She springs to her feet, offering you a hand. "C'mon, I'll show you a place you can actually sleep outta the rain. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Just try not to fall in love, yeah? I know I'm the coolest."
[[I'll do my best.|Reflection]]"Disappointing, but understandable." She calmly tugs back her jacket to reveal her holstered gun. "I guess I misjudged your need to be controlled. So, what's it to be? The beast devours her handler? Are you ready to become just like the Beasts you've hunted? To be the first target for the Alliance's next Devilman?"
You will fight her...
[[As a human.|Human ending]]
[[As a beast.|Beast ending]]Your demonic strength leaves you. You return to human shape, and leap for the gun--far too late. She's done this too many times. Three shots in quick succession, all dead-on your centre of mass, just like with Higashi.
The pain is sharp but brief, replaced by spreading numbness as you fall. Ran notices this mercy, and seems to take offence. She approaches and stamps down on the bullet-wounds, grinding her heel in until you start to cry out with your final breaths.
"Feel that," she growls. "Carve it into yourself, until even in the next life you remember: //that// is what being human is. I will surpass it. I thought you would be the one to help me, but I'll just have to try another."
She kneels beside you as your vision starts to fade, running fingers slick with your blood through your hair. "I do admire your resolve. But ambition would've served you better, you stupid pretty thing."
There isn't a trace of pity in her voice.
You died as the self that was.
-
ENDING 1/6: "HUMAN"You surge forward with a roar. Ran is as fast and as deadly as a human can be, drawing and firing before you're halfway to her, but it's completely ineffective against your monstrous strength. You don't even feel the shots rebound off your skin.
Dealing a mortal blow is simplicity itself--your claws piercing through her and out the other side, digging into the wall behind to transfix her against it--and so cathartic after all she's put you through. You have to fight to regain your newfound clarity, to come down from the ecstasy of the hot blood running down past your elbow.
"Are you...happy now?" she hisses, clinging to the arm spearing her with both of her own. "Now you're inside of me?"
Your eyes narrow. "This...isn't about you. I'm freeing myself."
"Oh, but I can feel you trembling with joy." She convulses, coughing up more blood. "You...ungrateful bitch." Her head starts to sag. "I released you from mundanity. Showed you what you are. I could've...shown you so much more."
"You--you chose wrong."
"The world...will never know what I could've become, thanks to you. Selfish brat. But y-you...I will..." With a final burst of energy, she brings both hands, soaked in her own blood, up to your face and smears it across your mouth. "...obliterate everything that you were!"
Your mind goes blank. The hunger and the beast take hold. She offers herself, and you lack the will to resist.
Time passes. You fade in and out of control. Sirens, screams, gunfire, and the hunger. You are alone, hunted, your humanity slipping away moment by moment. It's almost impressive, how thoroughly Asuka Ran ruined your life.
-
ENDING 2/6: "BEAST""Now what?"
"Turn right. You'll see it."
You do see it--and realise you've been hearing it too, for several blocks now, but assuming it must be the sound of a construction site. The Beast towers over the city, red eyes the size of cars glaring out from beneath a turtle-like shell metres thick.
You dart back around the corner, keeping the burner phone's line to Ran open. "So much for secrecy." There don't seem to be fleeing crowds--but you hear sirens from a few streets over now. Maybe there's an evacuation corridor set up.
"Yes, there willl have to be an announcement," she says. "Leave all of that to me. You just worry about the hunt. Don't worry, I'm watching."
//That's not enough. I want to feel your eyes on my back when I--// You shake your head. "And how am I supposed to fight something that size?" You take off down the alley as a great clawed foot flattens a house across the road.
"You held that girl before she died, right?" she asks, giving a chuckle as though she can see your expression freeze. "You remember how small she seemed? Were you that big when you first transformed, back when we met?"
You exhale sharply. "What are you saying?"
"The Beast transformation already alters one's physical mass in a way that defies physical law. Normally, that happens on instinct. But if that limitless potential could be harnessed by human will...//that// is why I want a Devilman. Why I want //you//.
"Show me your power." The line goes dead.
Limitless potential...human will...Devilman.
[[You start to transform, feel the energy rushing up through you--and take the reins.|Giant fight]]The collar fits perfectly, like you knew it would. You were made for it, after all. A part of you hates how good it feels, but you've decided to try embracing the other part.
Ran does as she promised, and gets you reinstated as the Human Alliance's top hunter. No-one complains. She must have some incredible dirt on her bosses. With the existence of Devil Beasts known, they have more specimens to study, so you aren't just locked up to be studied. It's a lot more comfortable than before. Not that you have any measure of freedom; you're a top agent's cherished pet. That's the choice you made.
You keep fighting, and your understanding of your powers keeps deepening. The hunt becomes routine. Ran's covetous coldness becomes routine. There's no warmth in her to share with you, but there's something calming in how unwavering her orders are. Just follow to the letter, and don't worry about anything else.
You're still slipping away from humanity, but not into wildness like you feared. You're being tamed.
[[This is what I want. I know it's wrong, morally, but I don't care. I don't care what you've done, what I've done, what you might still be planning. I absolve myself the responsibility of thinking about anything. I give it all to you. Just tell me I'm a good girl again.|Pet ending]]
[[No, this feels wrong. I can't get their faces out of my mind. I want to--I want to let it all go. I really do. I want to just relax and let you take care of me. But, in the end...I can't stop being human.|Hunter ending]]"Interesting." Ran...at first you think it's a grin, but it's more like a predator baring its teeth. "I look forward to what you become."
You pause at the door. "Thank you for this. Really." Your fingers dig gouts into the frame. "If we meet again, it'll be as enemies."
"Then I hope we do."
You resolve never to need her again. You learn to live on your own. You toughen up. You are more than human, more than a Beast: a Devilman. You start to be able to sense the presence of Beasts, and step up to take them down when they wreak havoc. Talk of a monster that hunts her own kind to save humans is getting pretty common on the street, but you avoid making connections. You've been bitten enough. Maybe there are others like you, but you aren't brave enough to look for them.
With knowledge of the Beasts going public, the hunters are able to act more openly. They've been given a startling level of authority to intrude on everyday life. For security, of course. Hard for people to carry on like everything's normal with armoured convoys patrolling the streets. Sometimes they catch word of you, and they come for you. You slay them just as easily.
You miss her. You shouldn't. She did nothing but use you, drink your pain like nectar. You shouldn't, but some nights you ache for her.
One day, you sense more Beasts than you've ever encountered gathered in one place.
The feeling's coming from...
[[The Alliance base?|Ritual]]
This life is everything you want. You put on a fine performance, lose yourself to the beast for just long enough to defeat your prey, then faithfully return to Ran's side. //Good girl.//
She even gets a leash for your collar. She revels in your embarrassment when she uses it on you around the base, or even in public. They're happy for you to take these excursions, since there's no chance of you running at this point; you're far too tamed. "Excursions"...well, they're definitely not "dates". Often it's more just that //Ran// is going somewhere, and you're just an accessory she's bringing for people to look at.
Still, she's attentive to your needs. There's sex whenever you want it, and the release she gives you actually seems to help with the Devil-Beast hunger, more psychological than physical in nature as it is. Very occasionally, if you've been //very// good, she even lets you pleasure her in return, though she always blindfolds you or just forces your head down so you can't see the moment she breaks composure. You still cherish the tremors you feel through her grip, the delighted sounds she makes, just the knowledge you can make her feel this way.
During the day, she does a lot more digging for information, on her superiors, Beasts and more. It seems she's planning something big. Probably to the detriment of the Alliance. Maybe even the detriment of all humanity. You don't care. You gave away the responsibility to care. Pets don't need to think.
You belong to Asuka. You obey Asuka without question. Maybe you even love her. She certainly doesn't love you. But she does use you well.
-
ENDING 3/6: "PET"You try to be what Ran wants--what you want to be. You give it your all, but you can't. You see them every time you close your eyes. A procession of all the Beasts you've killed, all the victims you've arrived too late to save. Higashi, too. But mostly Aki, who fell for you as one human to another, in a way Asuka Ran never could; Aki, who deserved so much better than what fate, and you, gave to her. The part of you that wants to let go and let this subservience be your life and the part that wants to feel like a person are at war.
Eventually, it catches up to you. You swing at a wounded Beast, but catch a glimpse of her in its eyes, and flinch. A fatal hesitation. Only feigning weakness, it strikes you down and escapes into the night.
The Alliance's medical team rushes to save you, but Ran stops them.
"Don't bother. This one was another failure." She won't even look at you, her callous words the last thing your fading consciousness takes in. "She couldn't defeat her humanity, in the end. And after all I did to help her..."
-
ENDING 4/6: "HUNTER"You stop trying to fight your worst and deepest impulses. Asuka Ran is your entire world. You've spent so long trying to fight her, but oh, the sweet release of //surrender//...you lose track of where you end and she begins, the divide between the two of you and your surroundings. Her embrace touches your soul, and you feel your essence being stripped, bound, entered, played with, relished, broken, and bit by bit spun out into the merest fragments of yourself, nothing more than fuel for her endless majesty.
The ritual is complete. //She// is complete, she is divine, she is all that is and governs. You, like everything else, were born for her sake, and now you die for her sake. But a part of you will always be with her, lost in her infinite glory. The world belongs to her, and you give it willingly.
You will be together forever.
-
ENDING 5/6: "GOD"Silence falls after you speak. Her eyes harden. Your grip on each other tightens. The silence stretches on--
--you're faster, claws bursting from your fingers as you stab with enough force to pierce right through her ribcage. But you swing through a phantom image, cruel laughter echoing down from above.
"You poor stupid little creature," Ran calls down, floating just above the sphere of unearthly light. "Do you think you're the hero in this story? You're an ape with delusions of grandeur. You cannot resist the divine will."
"What gives you the right to decide that?"
"Might is my right, dearest. Humans and devils alike only exist to serve me from the beginning. You could've saved a lot of pain by doing so willingly."
She thrusts a hand down into the sphere--and on instinct you leap up at it, transforming and sprouting wings to carry you up towards her, plunging into the light at the same time she does. You grapple at its heart, arcs of demonic power surging into you both. You've unbalanced something, and the whole chamber starts to shake, the magic circle buckling and warping, the spikes holding the Beast-corpses aloft starting to crumble. Finally, the building force bursts outwards, the whole complex sundering apart, leaving a gaping crater in the city centre...out of which loom a pair of gigantic figures, sending people fleeing in terror for miles around.
The destroyed ritual's unstable power fills you both. You are a true vision of the devil, while she is something angelic and terrible. There is no elegance to your fight, only reckless violence; no art, no defence, only a question of who can stand the longest as you carve each other up. The sky splits. The land burns. Her love and hate for you is limitless, and she drives it into you again and again.
And yet...you endure. You have endured so much more at her hands, grown tougher than she can ever hope to control, and it's the divine Asuka who starts to falter, starts to slow at your onslaught. You feel a stab of exhaustion, but instead of staggering you force yourself to double your pace, and a white-hot haze of instinct falls over you.
//"I always heard people talking about love.
Like it was the greatest thing in the world.
I never understood, but I thought I should try.
Did I...do it right...?"//
At the end, there is only you. You are invincible, monstrous, demonic. The world is wrested from her hands. You are dimly aware of reactions from those still in the process of becoming, a mix of joy and terror, but your mind is lifted towards higher things, layers of existence only starting to be revealed to you.
The divine consciousness that broke free from the mortal shell of Asuka Ran is whispering its farewell to you as it ascends.
"I congratulate you, dearest. I hope you enjoy this world you've won. Though you don't seem the type to think of it as 'yours'.
"I can't wait to meet you in the next world. The true world.
"I hope you find your way there soon."
-
ENDING 6/6: "DEVIL"Something floods into you, your heart accelerates, the world is fading into red, and you're growing, changing, and for a moment as you lose sight of the world it looks like Ran's expressionless face is twisted into a gleeful rictus--
All is roaring and tearing and the pulsing beat driving you on. A part of you knows what you are. Has always known. The 'pressure' she mentioned...it really is kind of liberating to tear the lid off. You can feel her watching you, amid the fleeing crowd. You can feel her approval as you tear into the other monster, pull it apart with relish, cry out in triumph--and catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror artfully covering the back wall. A towering, fanged devil. Part of you is still bellowing that this is your real self, but...you don't recognise it as you.
You shiver, looking down at the blood you've painted yourself with, drawn from the insides of the serpent with human eyes. You feel like throwing up. You start to return to normal.
You slump to the floor--weak, exhausted, human, naked but for the guts you've bathed in. You barely get a moment's rest before Ran tugs you up to sitting by your hair, ignoring your startled cry.
"That was good," she says, looking you up and down clinically. "The Beast in you is powerful beyond my expectations. You saved a lot of lives, so be happy. I'll be expecting more of the same from you from now on."
"More...?" you croak. "I never...want to feel like that again."
"I didn't ask you," she says. "It was me who liberated your true self, so it belongs to me. When I give you orders, you will obey." Before you can protest she lets go, and you hit the floor face-first.
Footsteps heading for the door pierce the silence of the ruins of the bar. "Enjoy your evening. I'll call you."
[[This was the worst day of my life.|At home]]Fog hangs heavy over the park, and flickering old streetlamps fail to keep the night at bay. Ran walks ahead of you with pistol drawn, while the pair of soldiers follows behind with their rifles trained on every shadow. Not that you know how to use one, but you feel vulnerable amid all these weapons without one. More from your "companions" than the Beast you're apparently here to hunt.
"Joggers and the like keep turning up mauled around here at night," Ran explains as you advance further into the mist. "It was put down to a wild animal until we got an eyewitness report. We got the police to hold off locking it down until after we finish."
"You can do that?" you ask. "Who //are// you people?"
"Shh." She shoves a hand over your mouth. Her head tilts, straining to hear--
There's a strangled cry, and one of the soldiers is gone. Something large dashes past at incredible speed. Ran and the remaining soldier whirl to follow it, him opening fire while she just frowns, realising it's gone.
You've never heard gunfire up close before and the noise makes you start--directly into the path of the great beast as it circles for another attack.
It swipes you to the ground, roaring--it's like an enormous tiger, with reptilian spines running up the length of its back. Moving hurts. Something must be broken. But you can survive. You can kill it, if you let the change happen...but //you're like me, aren't you? You were human.//
You don't want to become like that.
Bullets ring ineffectually off its hide. Ran is yelling at you to transform. The Beast lunges and sinks fangs as long as your arm into you, and with a scream of pain and surrender you let the bloodlust swallow you.
You rise as a Beast, tearing its fangs from its mouth with contemptuous ease before seizing it by the head and hauling it into the air, swinging it against the ground over and over until you're sure its neck is broken, roaring with laughter as you toss your broken toy aside.
But the moment the adrenaline goes you feel the blood streaming down you. Transforming dulls your wounds but doesn't completely heal them, you realise, and your demonic strength leaves you. You return to human size and sink to the ground, fighting to stay conscious through the stabbing pain.
You start to crawl back down the path--have to get away, have to get home, before--a shriek escapes you as Ran stamps down on the back of your head, pinning you to the ground.
"Trying to escape after such a pathetic performance?" she asks, grinding her boot against you. "We're going to have to work on that reluctance to transform. A weapon that won't fire when I tell it to is useless."
"I...killed it..." you splutter. "Let me...go...!"
"If I leave you alone, you'll die of those wounds. Be grateful." She snaps her fingers to the surviving soldier, who seems almost as shaken as you are. "Get squad 2. She's coming back with us for medical attention."
[[Back where...?|Facility]]"Once was enough. Leave me alone."
"Then you're at peace with the deaths of its victims?"
Ran leans against the van, face slowly emerging through a screen of cigarette smoke.
"What do you want?" you grunt.
"You, obviously," she says without emotion. "You don't look like you've been eating well. We'll work on that. Get in the van, or innocents will be sacrificed to your inaction."
[[Fine. But I'm not doing this for you.|First hunt 2]]
[[There has to be someone else who can do this. Just leave me alone.|Persuasion 2]]"There has to be someone else who can do this. Just leave me alone."
Ran marches up to your door, shoves the soldiers aside--and punches you in the gut. You rock forward, instinctively gripping her shoulders for balance, rising with bared teeth--into the barrel of an automatic pistol.
"There's the look I wanted," she whispers with a smirk. "There's no point torturing yourself with denial. You want to indulge the Beast. Right now you want to tear into //me//. But I wouldn't be entertaining prey, you know. I can take you to another creature like you. There you can really run wild."
The cold metal gently brushes your lips. You can feel the rhythm pounding in your head. You both know what it wants.
[[Take me to my prey.|First hunt 2]]
[[N-No...no, I'm human!|Persuasion 3]]"No...no, I'm human! I can resist this!"
"No, that won't do," she growls.
"I ca-ahhh-!" Your protests are cut off as she shoves the gun's barrel into your mouth. You taste not just metal, but what must be gunpowder. The weapon is well-used, and her hand is steady as she pushes it just as far as you can manage.
"You gave up the right to your humanity when you painted a bar in your first victim's blood." Her finger hovers over the trigger. "If you fight it, it'll eat you from the inside, and you'll die. If that's your plan, tell me so I can kill you right now and get it over with."
You try to answer, but even if the gun wasn't rendering them unintelligible, you're not even sure what words you're trying to form. You're paralysed. There is no answer. Only those dead eyes.
"No more complaints? Good girl. Get in the van."
[[I might actually...need this.|First hunt 2]]You allow yourself to be led to the van. Loaded into the back like cargo--dangerous cargo, as before your reverie lifts enough for you to react your arms, legs and chest are securely strapped to your seat, guns trained on you from the opposite row.
Your mind is a warzone for a moment--indignation, fear, and the Beast considering a new target--when a heavy boot-step brings you back to the surface. Ran climbs up into the van, tossing a cigarette onto the pavement behind her just as the doors are hauled closed.
"You let yourself be captured so easily," she says evenly. "I wonder if a controlled Beast is actually //too// docile to be useful..."
You feel a little less uncertain facing her than the faceless soldiers. You recognise her, at least, though of course you don't //know// her. "U-Untie me," you mumble, still fearful of retaliation.
Ran looks disappointed. "Is that really all the resistance you have?" She gives you a stinging backhanded slap across the face. The force behind it is unbelievable--you taste blood, and your vision takes a minute to return. Before it does you're already glaring up at her, thrashing in your bonds with a guttural noise rising in your throat.
A hint of a grin breaks onto Ran's face as she grips you by the chin to hold you still. "That's better. You want to let it out, don't you? Tear apart all in your path. You could break free yourself...but you won't. Humans like us would be boring prey for you. No, you'll be a good girl, and I'll take you to the release you really need."
[[Please.|First hunt 2]] By the time the door next opens, you've had more than enough time to calm down and just enough time to sink into fearful resignation.
Higashi re-enters the room, clipboard practically a shield between the two of you. You fix him with a dead stare as he speaks.
"I, ah, cannot avoid addressing you directly this time. However, please be aware that if you become emotional I will withdraw and we'll have to start again."
"Right. That would just be unreasonable of me."
He pauses for a moment, then shakes his head and stares down at his notes. It's a psych evaluation, and your eyes stray from the remarkably unremarkable man to wander the room as you mumble through the basic questions. There's cameras built into the ceiling at regular intervals; quite subtly, so you only notice now there's something else in here you so aggressively don't care about looking at.
Ran is watching. You know she is. Watching with a voyeur's eye, gleeful to see her new toy dissected and spread out before her. Your own certainty startles you. She's already taken up such fortified residence in your head.
"A frog is crossing a river. A scorpion asks for a ride. The frog refuses, because the scorpion might sting it. The scorpion protests it would never do such a thing, since it would drown and die too. The frog lets it climb on. What happens?"
This latest question draws you back to the moment. There's actually something to it.
Well, what happens? What //will// happen? What will you show her?
[[The scorpion stings the frog.|Answer 1]]
[[The scorpion doesn't sting.|Answer 2]]
[[The frog drowns the scorpion.|Answer 3]]You're allowed to wander within the facility's confines while daylight lasts, though the guards at your door drag your hands behind you to cuff them as you leave your room. The idea that this will protect anyone is pretty funny. It's mostly nondescript, empty corridors, but you're sure the organisation is is keeping track of your every step.
One door is ajar, though, and a flash of colour catches your eye. You nudge it open with a foot, and...Ran is leaning back across her desk, face frozen in concentration as she slides a syringe out of her arm.
Shooting up? No--you catch sight of the label on the box behind her. Hormones?
"Come in," she mutters as you start to shuffle back. "What? Scared of me being human?"
"Sorry. I had no idea." You cautiously approach, watching her meticulously pack away the whole apparatus, removing the tourniquet from her arm and dabbing at the red pinprick. "I, um, can't imagine it's easy. Being trans around all these military types."
"Could be harder. Pay's good, so I'll never be cut off from treatment." She finishes packing, sagging for a moment like this is the first she's stopped moving all day. "Yeah, it's hard sometimes. Like I'm an inconvenience they're putting up with..." She glances up at you, and the little window of vulnerability vanishes the instant she sees your expression. "Are you //sympathising// with me?"
She drags you further into the room by the collar, shoving you into her swivel-chair; with your hands bound, you're unable to check your balance, completely at her mercy to toss you around //unless you bare the fangs within and tear all asunder until--
But you won't.//
"Don't you dare sympathise with me," she hisses.
You stare defiantly up at her. "If you want me to keep doing this, is it so much to ask to get to know you?"
"What?" she taunts. "As friends?" She lights up a cigarette, holding your head steady against the chair with one hand while leaning closer and closer, until the heat on your face becomes painful, but there's nowhere to escape. The glowing tip sways back and forth as her tongue nudges it, millimetres from brushing your lips with its burning sting. "There is no such thing in this world. Listen. In any relationship, there is only one question that matters. //Who is holding the leash?//"
Actually, it's not quite pain. Just discomfort, and the //idea// of pain. You can feel it in your mind. The shocking moment of //release// if she would either back away or press forward, but here you are hovering on the terrible edge between, caught between fear and longing, unable to move, barely able to open your mouth lest it touch you--lest you like how it feels--
You notice the sadistic glee on her face, and realise how desperate you must look. She raises an eyebrow, expectant.
"Please," you manage to whisper. You don't know which you're asking for. Either. Anything.
Her smile softens and she draws back, parting your lips with her thumb as she goes. "//Good// girl." For fuck's sake, you actually whimper.
She guides you back to your cell with a firm arm around your waist, finishing the cigarette while you drift along in a daze. She //is// human, but...she genuinely can't comprehend that there are relationships beyond 'master and pet'. And she isn't right, it's not true, but she makes it true around her. And if you had to choose a hand to be on your leash...
//I want to kill you.
I want to be a good girl.//
[[I know I can't have both.|Breakout]]"The scorpion stings the frog. They both drown."
"Knowing it would die?"
"Maybe. Stinging is a scorpion's nature."
You stare down the cameras as you speak. Your eyes must look dead. You're speaking directly to Ran. You know she likes your ferocity. Does your resignation disappoint her? Or will she happily sink her teeth into that too?
It occurs to you that you're being optimistic. When she stings, //will// you be in a position to drown her? Or is that just what you hope for--a chance to drag her down with you when she finishes ruining you?
[[And why does the thought set your pulse racing?|Test 2]]"The scorpion doesn't sting. They make it across the river alive."
"Was it only relenting out of self-preservation?"
"The frog should hope not. It's at the scorpion's mercy now."
You stare down the cameras as you speak. There must be a slight pleading look in your eyes. You're speaking directly to Ran. You're surprised how quick you're willing to offer submission. Are you just being optimistic? Can you avoid the sting just by being a good girl and carrying her?
[[Or do you just want to?|Test 2]] "The frog drowns the scorpion on purpose, and makes it across alone."
"Was it right to? Would it have died otherwise?"
"It's alive now."
You stare down the cameras as you speak. There must be a fire in your eyes. You're speaking directly to Ran. If you were just dealing with the impersonal organisation, making this kind of threat would be suicidal. But it's her staring back at you from behind that lens, and you need her to know you're not just going to roll over. If she wants to break you in, she's going to have to work for it.
[[You know she's biting her lip at the prospect.|Test 2]] The questions drone by after that. Do you have any hopes for the future? A best friend? Do you like yourself? //No. No. No.//
Fondest childhood memory? //No.// That's not an answer. //You don't get this. You've laid bare everything else, you--you don't get this too.//
It passes. The interview is over. He's looking at you differently. More sad than afraid. You should be grateful, but maybe there's something exciting to being feared after all.
It passes, and he leaves, and you don't want to be trapped in this box anymore.
[[Let me out of this room.|Office]]It's probably around midnight. You've been lying awake for hours, staring up into the darkness. You've been told you're only here until you're fully recovered, but it's hard to imagine them letting you go at this point.
The door unlocks.
You bolt over before you're aware of being on your feet, finding yourself staring at the scientist from earlier--Higashi. The guards are slumped against the wall, coffee spilling from broken mugs by them. He must have drugged them?
"What is this?"
"I can't deny it. You are human, after all. No matter what you transform into." He gives a worried smile. "I'm kind of scared if enough people tell you otherwise, you'll start believing it."
"You're breaking me out?"
"Yes. I can't countenance keeping you here. You should be able to live the life you want. Come on."
You nod, following him down the darkened corridor. It feels like you're waking from a dream. Of course, there's no need to get locked in that woman's dance. To bite or to heel is a false dichotomy. You can leave--you should leave. And once you're out, never look back--
Three shots ring out in rapid succession. Higashi, rounding a corner just ahead of you, jerks to a halt, gasps, falls.
Ran, flanked by soldiers, holsters the pistol, extending a hand towards you without even acknowledging the corpse she's reaching over.
"Another Beast has appeared. Time to get to work."
You're caught between shock and rage and terror. Run. Fight. Yell. Do //anything// but take her hand, please. Or you really are beyond help...
...
...your prey is out there.
[[Something greedy stirs in you. You reach out.|Hunt 2]]All is quiet and still. No flickering lights--did the hunters cut the power to maintain secrecy, or did the Beast do this? It's not like they tell you anything, just throw you at these things. Wherever this one is...
You climb worn-down flights of stairs, peer through the rare ajar door into empty apartments. Maybe they were right, no sign of life at--
"H...Help...m--"
Your head whips around and you bolt around the corner to the source of the voice. In the doorway to a maintenance closet, a frail janitor is slumped in a pool of blood, one hand weakly reaching for you.
"Please...I need..."
You crouch by him, trying to find his wounds without moving him. "D-Don't worry. I'll stop the bleeding. Then I'll get you out of here, okay?"
"Yes...bl...losing blood...need...//yours//."
You flinch back--too late. He bursts open in a nightmare torrent of fangs and sinew, the creature's true body not just filling the closet but coiling back through the wall and snaking throughout the building. You turn to run, but another head bursts through the wall opposite, now a third and a fourth, from every corridor, the hydra-like Beast's heads seizing you in their jaws and dragging you through the tower in a shower of steel and concrete.
It rises out of the building, its serpentine body growing free of the confines of human construction, carrying you high over the skyline, its teeth...chipping off?
You transformed on instinct the moment it revealed itself, and now the panic is draining away you realise you're not hurting at all. It can't even pierce your skin. You prise its bite off you with mocking ease, crushing its jaws between your fingers, pulling a neck under each arm and dragging it to the ground, soldiers scattering to avoid being flattened beneath the Beast. You snarl in delight as it flails at you, offering you more and more heads to pull free of its concrete nest, tearing it to pieces and hurling them over your shoulder until there's nothing but bloody stumps left covering the apartment block's ruins.
[[Delicious.|Betrayal]]You take a moment to marvel at the size of the monster you've brought down. It couldn't even pierce your skin. When did you get so strong? You hate to praise her, but Ran must have a good eye for talent. It feels like every time you transform, the experience is sharper.
The hunters are approaching. Ready to corral you back to your cell.
Do you have to let them?
Previously it's felt like a choice between two extremes. As a human you have to do what you're told when guns and concrete are used to contain you, but as a Devilman you're a whirlwind of violence, and you didn't want to free yourself if it meant going on a bloody rampage.
But you've just had a Beast to vent your aggression on. You're still a towering, powerful monster, but your mind is crystal clear now. What power do humans have over you, as you grow stronger every day?
Your heightened senses hone in on safety catches flicking off. Ah. They've reached the same conclusion as you. Hoping to put you down before you become too powerful to control.
[[Too late.|VS Ran]]They try to stop you. Completely futile. It feels like just realising what you're capable of has let your potential blossom further. Even their bullets can't keep up with you as you flit from street to street, emerging from the tangle of alleys--
Ran bars the way. Completely at ease, hands in pockets, gaze tracing your statuesque muscles.
"Well done. It's about time you flew the nest."
"Wh...at?" You're surprised to hear words roll past your fangs in this form.
"A pet that can't even outpace mundane playmates like the Alliance is no use. Go. Be free. Survive, and become the mightiest beast of all." Her eyes flash in the gloom. "One day, I'll need what you've become, and I'll call for you. And you'll come running. You're a good girl, after all."
[[...I'll see you around. Asuka.|On the run]]
[[No. You're my enemy, and this ends here.|Fight]]Aki's hideout is in the shell of an old bubble-era mall, long-condemned, but the funding to actually demolish or replace it never materialised. She's got a little nest dug into the wall at the back of a disused arcade, and you didn't realise how tired you were until you catch sight of the old mattress and collapse onto it, asleep the instant your face touches the sheet.
Morning light pulls you up from dreams of cruel laughter and gunsmoke. You shift in the bed--and bump against Aki, watching with amusement as you flinch back in surprise, realising how fully you curled up against the warmth of another human on instinct.
"What, too racy for ya? I'm sure as hell not sleeping on the floor."
Amid the static of your half-formed thoughts, one floats to the surface: "...you're not cold-blooded."
She sticks out her tongue--blue. "You're welcome."
You settle back, looking down the rows of disused game cabinets. "Why'd you pick the arcade?"
"Been roughin' it most of my life," she says. "Never had any games as a kid. But sometimes I could scrape together enough change for a couple turns at the arcade, share a laugh with other kids, feel like a regular person.
"Not for years, though. Kinda been wanting to try these machines since I got here, but..." She reaches back into the half-collapsed wall, producing a sturdy little hand-cranked generator, currently hooked up to a small personal heater. "Only so much charge in this at a time, right? Gotta be sensible and save it for staving off cold nights."
"You have...more than I expected here."
"Oh, yeah. Found some misplaced stock in what used to be a survival store downstairs. Been living like a king ever since." She cocks an eyebrow at you. "But you're not used to this life, right?"
You shake your head. In theory, you still have a home. Not much of a life to return to, but not nothing. But there's no way it isn't being watched closely. Trying to reconnect to any part of who you were would be walking right into the Alliance's hands. The only way open to you is forward, alone.
[[Well, not quite alone now.|Reflection 2]]Days pass, sparse but gentle. You look more human, so you volunteer to be the one to head out, but the two of you eventually agree it'll be more trouble than it's worth if the hunters spot you. Aki assures you she's stealthy enough to scavenge food just fine. "Scavenging" isn't an attempt to claim moral superiority by denying it's "stealing", just a fun way of putting it.
While she's out, you're left to spruce up the place with the free time she doesn't usually get. There's a good couple shops with some furniture left, and it's starting to look a bit more presentable.
It's just such a day, and you've finished hanging a curtain around the sleeping area; now you're just sitting on a stool outside of it, idly turning the generator's crank in preparation for the night, waiting for her to return.
What are you doing here? What is this role you're playing for her? Roommate? Maid? Housewife? Is that, actually, all you're doing anymore? Play-acting human? Is there any point, when at some point the hunger will take you, make you so much more and so much less? Well. That doesn't have to be what transforms you. It can be your own will. Once you choke down the fear, it's kind of exhilarating, reminding yourself the sheer power you wield.
//Do I?// A flash of the dream you keep having, prising its way into your waking mind. Cold fingers, blonde hair, dead eyes.
//Not my will. Not me, wielding the power. It never has been.// You shake your head, trying to get rid of her, but the image just takes on more life. Cold fingers, tracing patterns over your skin. //No, no, this is wrong. I shouldn't.//
Dead eyes, and beneath them her mouth forming the words you've been aching for.
''Good--
''
//I shouldn't feel this way. What's wrong with me?// But you're biting your lip, eyes half-lidded as you lose the battle to keep the train of thought from reaching its destination.
''--girl.''
Something stirs--
"You okay?"
You didn't even notice the sound of the mattress Aki is dragging behind her, her tail poised high to counterbalance the weight. "Now we got two! In case sleeping together still gets ya all twitchy, princess."
"Ah...thanks." To be honest, you're starting to get used to the warmth next to you. Still, it's a bit awkward to actually ask...you're still wondering how to put it when you're both put on edge by loud stomping from downstairs. By the time you make it out into the courtyard, a spindly policeman is already cresting the top of the motionless escalator, flashlight alighting on the two of you.
Time slows to a crawl. You take in information from your human mind and Beast senses at the same time. The expressions on Aki and the cop's faces, the emotions you can smell, the subtle shifts in body language...the situation is pretty clear. He's just looking to kick some homeless people around for fun. But then he spots her tail, and the intensity of everything you're seeing and hearing and smelling doubles. She un-freezes, and he panics and reaches for his gun, and just like that you're between them, a shot tearing into your leg. You feel the pain, but it's dull, distant. It takes mere moments to start healing, bullet clattering against the floor as it's pushed out. Without realising, you've become a snarling vision of terror, fangs pushing their way out between your human teeth, red eyes casting a burning glow outshining his flashlight. He raises the gun to aim for your head this time, with a scream--abruptly cut short as Aki flashes past with incredible speed, suddenly-clawed fingers drawing a thin red line across his throat.
He falls between you, blood pooling beneath him, all sound but both of your panicked breathing receding. You realise you're licking your lips--you shake your head, focusing inward, fighting it back until the pangs die down. //My will.//
You open your eyes...to see Aki completely lost in it, flesh rippling, scales multiplying, eagerly advancing on the corpse.
"Hey, cut it out! Aki! Wake up!" It's no use. The hunger has her. A reptilian monster bursts free of its human confines and lunges, devouring the body in seconds, before raising its head your way. You recognise the instinct.
//"We get territorial, apparently."//
[["Don't do this."|Aki]]You clamp down on the hunger while you begin to transform, wresting the power free from its instincts, fending her off and backing away through the gloomy mall.
"Aki...Aki, can you hear me? It's me. Calm down. I know I'm in your home, but--"
She lunges with a rumbling hiss, and you pull back, but her jaws clamp down around an arm, muscles in her neck sprouting and multiplying to drag you to the ground. You resist, staying up on one knee, fangs biting deeper and deeper in.
"--but! Didn't you want...it to be...//our// home?"
She pauses, jaw slackening a little. A rush of air escapes her mouth, and...words...? The first you've ever heard someone else speak while transformed.
"I...I w-want...you..."
Of course she does. She's wanted you since almost the beginning, with the fervor of a pair of strays huddling for warmth. And now she wants you in the only way a Beast can. To devour and partake of you, to make you part of her, to lick the taste of you off her lips.
You are going to have to kill her.
Blinking back the tears has become easier than it should be. You grit your teeth and tear your arm free before she can tense her jaw again, the spray of your blood in her face blinding her as you swing with the other hand, a fist the size of a human head slamming against her windpipe. She screeches, rearing back; you go to follow up, but she recovers faster than you expected, pouncing. You wrap your arms around and keep her locked close as the two of you smash through a barricade and tumble down to the next level amid a shower of plaster and concrete. Her limbs and mouth flail wildly, tearing chunks out of you, but you hold tighter, tighter and tighter until you feel it all buckle beneath your grip, and finally break--muscle, bone, organs and all.
You sink to your knees, Aki's broken body returning to human form, doll-like in your oversized arms. You've relaxed the bear-hold, but you're still hugging her tight, and you realise your mouth has been moving the whole time, whispering.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"H-Hey..." she croaks, eyes half-opening with effort. "Cut it out. The winner shouldn't cry."
You notice the hot streaks down your face. "I thought they'd all dried up."
"Don't...ever let that happen, 'kay?" She coughs, bringing up blood all over you both. "This fuckin'...this sucks. I got so much I never did..."
You put on a smile. "I'd love to fire up that generator, let you play those games at least once. But..."
"Yeah. I don't have...that long. But...there's somethin' else." Her eyes flash greener as she puts on a final burst of energy, surging up to kiss your monstrous visage. You get the urge to change back, but then you understand. This is the you she wants. The body of the strongest Beast this world can produce, with a heart that can still cry. So you stay as you are, cupping her head to support it and kissing her back until the life leaves her and she slumps back into your arms, tail twitching its last.
//I finally understand. This...is a Devilman.//
With Aki no longer here to put on a strong front for, your injuries catch up and //now// you change back, just managing to set her down on a bench before the world spins out of control and you stagger away, collapsing against a boarded-up storefront.
You awaken to the smell of smoke. The glow of a cigarette appears through the darkness.
"I see you're doing well," Ran says, settling on a bench across the hallway. You try to raise yourself off the ground, snarling weakly at her, but collapse again. An ugly smirk crosses her face. "Oh, that's a good expression," she says, letting it escape into a full laugh. "You look so...pathetic, without me."
Her gaze shifts to Aki's body for a second. "Not easy keeping a pet, is it? Maybe now you understand how hard I have it."
"Sh-She wasn't..." you rasp.
"Oh, spare me. Remember, the one question that matters: Who is holding the leash?" She gives you the most sincerely pitying look you've ever seen from her. "And you, my poor big-hearted Devilman, are discovering just how much more suited you are to the collar than the leash."
"What...do you want?"
"To see you at your lowest, mostly. But..." She stands up, and--still maintaining a strange level of physical distance, compared to how she usually acts--starts to walk back past you, pausing and shrugging off her jacket to dump it next to you. You have no choice but to reach for it--once again, transforming has left you wearing nothing but the cocktail of your own and Aki's blood, and night will be closing in soon. "You should start undressing before fighting," she says quietly, dropping a cheap cellphone into the jacket right before setting off briskly.
"The real battle is close now. The moment I'll call for you. It'd be selfish of you to die on me before then. Keep getting stronger, and learn from today. Pets don't keep pets."
"I'm not...!"
"Then prove it. When the day comes, don't answer." She flashes a grin back over her shoulder, the moment before fading back into the shadows. "But I've got a collar with your name on it."
Days pass.
Wounds heal.
You steal to eat.
The phone rings.
[[You answer.|Hunt 3]]Now you're conscious of it, it's exhilarating. There's an endless well of energy inside you, and you draw on more and more of it, tossing your clothes aside and growing to titanic proportions until you rear up over the city, locking eyes with the rampaging Beast. It freezes for a moment, startled to see another creature on its scale. You take the opportunity and charge straight for it, colliding with enough force to shatter windows all the way down the street.
It's a solid mass of shell and muscle, and you strain against each other to get a proper hold, feet digging great trenches into the road. You shift forward, getting an arm under its shoulder and the other around its neck, now hauling back and with a mighty effort pulling the whole thing into the air, slamming it back down onto the street to drive the wind out of it. It screeches--and lashes out, its whole neck extending snake-like out of the shell to drive its beaked mouth into you like a loosed arrow. It punches right through you, an earthshaking roar escaping you as the unstable energy you massed to reach this size starts to billow out through the wound.
The Beast starts to right itself, towering over you as you're rapidly returning to the 'mere' three metres or so you usually stand at while transformed. You won't beat it like this, but...
//Can't die here. I have to face her again, and...//
And what? //I don't know. But I won't find out until...!//
You seize handfuls of the crackling energy spilling out of you, shoving it painfully back into your body--and right //through// you, bursting out of your back as great bat-like wings. Without a moment of hesitation, before blood loss can start to make you faint, you leap up at the Beast's exposed neck, soaring right up into it and piercing through, claws-first, through its brain-stem and out the top of its skull.
You hang there in the sky for just a moment, your prey collapsing lifelessly beneath you, breath catching as the city sprawls out before your eyes, and beyond it the horizon, the sun just beginning to peek its way up--then fatigue and dizziness catch up with you.
[[The ground rushes up to meet you.|Apartment]]You wake up on a leather couch, reaching instinctively for the soft blanket and hot tea left in front of you, letting them bring you gently back to full consciousness.
Ran walks in with a tray bearing a bowl of soup, beaming as you dive for it the moment she sets it down in front of you.
"Incredible," she says, raising her voice over your slurps and chomps. "I don't even see any wounds anymore. Your regenerative capacity is growing too."
You look up, swallowing, and take in the situation. The wall behind her is a floor to ceiling window, affording a view over the whole city from what must be her apartment. You must have slept a while--it's already evening again.
You set the spoon down. "This doesn't mean I'm indebted to you."
"That's cute," she says, indicating a door behind you. "You might be healed, but you're still a mess. Wash up before you ruin my couch."
"I'm fine."
"No you're not. You've forgotten how to be." She leads you by the wrist into the bathroom, turning on the shower while you discard the blanket and practically shoving you in.
"Are you going to watch?" you ask.
"Do you want me to?"
"I shouldn't."
"There's no-one around to keep up appearances for. Why shouldn't you admit what you want?" She grins. "Because you hate me?"
"I do. But..."
"But?"
You sigh, letting go. "...don't go. Please." //That's all I wanted this morning. Your eyes on me. But maybe...that's not enough?//
You start to clean yourself off. Ran watches with an unmoving expression, but no shame at all about where she's looking, drinking in your muscles, your curves, your roughness, your softness, all of you with equal admiration. It's definitely not a lover's gaze. Maybe more like a wine-taster's. It's like you can feel the heat of it, though, more intense than the hot water, building and building until--
"Are you all right?" she asks, noting your heavier breathing, your hands moving slower over yourself. "Ah. You've been lonely a long time, haven't you? Want me to join you?"
"Since when do you care what I want?"
"I'm not pushing sex on you," she scoffs. "I can pay for that whenever I need it. I'm //asking you// what you need to be focused for what comes tomorrow."
You nod.
She undresses and steps in next to you, reaching out. There's a reassuring solidity to her; long-limbed, smooth, like a statue. You bite down to avoid crying out the moment her hands touch you, a storm of built-up feeling since all this started boiling over all at once. You lean in and reach for her, but your fingers barely brush her hips before she snatches up both your wrists in one hand, pinning them against the wall above you, putting all of you on display.
"I told you," she says evenly. "I don't need it. We are taking care of //you//."
You nod again, letting the thrill take you. Her hand is steady, precise, mechanical, moving over you with the certainty of experience. It's not that she's stronger than you, just so sure of herself, never admitting the slightest tremor. "This doesn't have to be the only time," she whispers as your gasps get faster. "I'm happy to reward you like this when you perform for me. After all, you came running when I called. You've been...//such//...a good girl."
You can't control it anymore. //Now// you cry out in purest joy, and she pulls you in, pressing your bodies together under the streaming water as release crashes through you. This, far more than getting off herself, is what she needs, you think. To have you hanging on every twitch of her fingers. To be an implacable pillar for you--speechless, helpless, addicted to surrender--to lean into.
Eventually you find yourself back on her couch in fresh clothes, gratefully accepting another tea.
"You've really come along well," Ran says, sounding pleased though her face has already returned to its usual stony neutrality. "You're becoming everything I hoped for. And at first I thought I might lose another one."
"What happens now?" you ask, setting down the cup. "Or, what do you //want// to happen?"
She nods. "I haven't been idle. I've done some digging on the Human-Alliance higher-ups, got enough material to get them to roll over on basically anything. Including wiping your kill order and getting you reinstated."
"You want me to walk back into their arms?"
"I'm asking what //you// want." She unfolds her arms, keeping her stare fixed on you while she reaches under the coffee table for something. "Maybe you're starting to feel like you can take care of yourself, even with the Beast inside. Maybe the freedom is worth the hardship. But then, maybe..."
She sits up straight, and places a leather collar on the table between you. Your breath catches. You don't need to check. You know your name is on the tag. You know it's custom-fitted for your neck. You know it would be so...so comfortable.
"The choice is yours," Ran says, leaning back into her chair. "Who are you?"
[[I'm your pet, Asuka. Please take good care of me.|Reinstated]]
[[I'm my own person. Don't call me again.|Independence]]You approach cautiously, watching from a safe vantage across the street. The usual guards are gone. The signal in your mind--like a gentle heat tugging at you--is growing steadily weaker, too. Curious, you approach and find the gate to the hunkered-down complex unlocked, nervously pulling your coat closer around you as you make your way up the silent path to the central building.
No-one at the door, no-one at the front desk, no-one in the little circuit of corridors you were confined to in your previous stay here, no-one at the elevator. But the sensation leading you is coming from below, so you enter and hit the button for the basement. An alarming distance down, the doors slide lethargically open, revealing...death, and the Lady.
A great ritual circle is carved into the floor of the cavernous chamber; at each of its eight jutting points, the ground is warped up into a jagged spike, transfixing the corpse of a Devil-Beast. Some of them have the tatters of Human Alliance uniforms hanging off them; they must have been awakened from among the hunters. Some kind of sickly green light is escaping their bodies, flowing up through the spikes and coalescing in a pulsing mass overhead.
Ran lounges in a deck-chair at the centre of the circle--sunglasses, straw hat, cherry-red swimsuit--sunbathing in the demonic glare. You walk forward in a daze, trying to make sense of it; she locks gazes with you as you, lifts the shades and winks.
"It's good to see you again." She approaches, spreading her arms to indicate the grotesque spectacle around her. "Do you like it? I never told them that fear accelerates activation of the Devil-Beast genes. The fear, for instance, of just knowing such things exist."
You falter. "Then...all around the world...?"
"Oh, yes. More and more will awaken. I doubt human society as-is will last long." She looks positively blissful. "Don't worry, there'll be more like you. The world will belong to Devilmen soon enough. Evolution takes its course."
"And you knew all this? Who are you, Asuka?"
She ignores the question, reaching up and tracing her fingers up your neck. "Look at you. Look how strong you've grown. I've succeeded wonderfully." They linger, cupping your face, and for a moment you close your eyes and take in the feeling before making yourself push her back. "On your own, you would've died a weak human or a mindless Beast," she continues, undaunted, eyes shining hungrily. "But I got out ahead of evolution! I made this world's first Devilman, and you survived all the way to the end!"
"Why me?" you snort. "What, you fell in love from a distance and decided you had to do all this for //my// sake?"
"Oh, no," she says, tutting, "no, don't be stupid. You were nothing. You could have been anyone. You exist for //my// sake. But what you've become...what you are now..." She brings a hand up to her mouth, biting into a finger. "Yes. I do love you."
You burst out laughing. "You? You don't even know what love is. You don't understand humans."
"You hate me, of course. I love that about you." She spreads her arms again. "Come. Complete the ritual. You're the final sacrifice. Don't worry, you won't be gone completely. You'll be a part of me. We'll be beyond humans, beyond beasts and devils and everything that walks this earth.
"Something like God, I suppose."
You take a deep breath, draw yourself up and close the distance between you in one smooth step. Your hand brushes up the back of her head, nudging her into a slow kiss, your murmurings washed away by the crackle of dark magic overhead.
//Yeah, yeah, I shouldn't. But whatever happens next...whatever I decide...this will be the last chance I get.//
//There must be something seriously wrong with me, for this to be my dream girl. But I'm not letting one of us die before we do this at least once.//
You part gently, still holding her around the waist. "Is this what this has all been for? Since the beginning?"
She nods, hands sliding over your chest, tugging at your neckline. "You'll give yourself to me, won't you? Body. Soul. Heart."
You give your answer.
[[Despite everything...I want to be with you, Asuka. I'm yours. I've always been yours.|God ending]]
[[I told you we'd be enemies next time. If you become God, I'll have to become the devil, and fight you with all the passion in my body. That...is the only way I can convey my feelings for you.|Devil ending]]Hey, uh, you shouldn't be able to access this passage! It's just something I'm using to store some text for the itch.io upload page. If you're reading this and you're not me, it either means I've done something wrong or you've done some serious computer wizardry. Either way, as a reward I guess have this official Devil Lady art of Jun about to do, uh, something for Ran she'll probably regret the next day. You know, until the image file hosting goes down. (NSFW, obviously)
https://animeobscura.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/devil-lady-asuka-transformed-1.jpg?w=863
Okay, now please begone and leave me to get on with uploading this.
-
In visual novels and the like with multiple endings, there's usually a "true ending", right? I haven't labelled any of these as such; the whole point of the medium is that you can follow the story down different paths. But if I had to choose...you might not be surprised to hear the "Devil" ending is what I'd call a 'true ending', since it has the metaphysical endgame fully laid out. But I'd actually call the "Pet" ending a 'true end' as well. They're like two sides of a coin; my personal attempt to go all out depicting the two sides of the appeal of the fantasy that's the core of this project--the spicy, combative impulse, and the submissive, masochistic one.''Surviving Asuka Ran''
//A Devilman fan-project//
Please note before playing:
1. This is a homage mostly to the Devil Lady anime (which is quite different to the manga, especially the personality of the focus character here), and partly to the rest of Devilman as a concept. Some sections are practically direct write-ups of scenes from Lady that captivated me, and others are original ideas of mine that felt fittingly Devilman enough. It has the shape of that show, but is far from a faithful adaptation.
2. This is a portrayal of about the worst, least functional possible "relationship" you can imagine. It exists because, for some reason, I think it would be pretty hot if an evil lady was awful to me, and I made this exclusively for those who agree. If you prefer to read about more wholesome relationships about people who should actually be with each other in any reasonable universe, that's totally sensible, but this may not be the story for you.
3. The viewpoint character is fairly loosely defined in the specifics, but Devil Lady is a show primarily about lesbians having a miserable time, so is consistently referred to as being a woman. If you think this, in the story's second-person "you" perspective, might cause you feelings of dysphoria, please exercise caution.
The back button is fully enabled, so please feel free to jump around and explore different choices and endings!
[[Begin.|Opening]]