Chapter 8

A/N: Hi, everyone. Here is the new you can see, my update is as slow as usual. Maybe even slower than before. I apologize for that and I won't hold you back anymore. Enjoy the chapter!

Beta-ed by: HeavensLuminousArc

Disclaimer: I don't own Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 at all.

Inside the dreamscape

Hibiki slowly scanned his surroundings. In front of him was his chibi self riding on top of Byakko reading a book while Suzaku and a tortoise sparred on the ground. His miniature self sighed, "Genbu, would you make me a pool? I've finished all of my book and have nothing to do…"

Genbu stared at his master for a few moments, his head tilted to the left, then proceeded to walk to where his master trained with Suzaku and Byakko. The ground was covered in rubble and small craters; most likely from practicing combo moves. Lightning and fire were a truly fearsome team.

Spikes came out from its shiny, smooth shell, making the reptile look more vicious. It flipped itself over started to spin around, making a big hole. Finally, it hid its spike and spun around, this time water came gushing out from its shell with pressure and smoothened out the sides while filling the crater.

"Genbu, thanks! I really appreciate it! I'll be right back!" the smaller curly haired boy ran down the corridor to a room that Hibiki recognized: the bedroom of the chibi Hibiki. The place had not changed at all. It was as tidy as before.

The room though, had shelves of thick books now. Hibiki took one of the thicker, hardbound booked down from a high shelf. He read the title aloud, "High Class Demon Summoning." Brushing a lose strand of hair away from his eyes, he flipped the scripture open and looked through its contents.
Hibiki muttered in whisper, "Byakko? Suzaku? Genbu? Cerberus?" He paused at the name, "Cerberus… That's the name of Yamato's demon isn't it? So he's a high classed demon then..." He flipped to a new page and raised a brow, "Huh, Helel? Isn't that the name of the fallen angel?"

The name of the angelic being turned demon piqued his interest. Bright blue eyes scanned the page.

A fallen angel, the lord of Hell and all its demons in Judeo-Christian lore.
He was once the highest-ranking Seraph, second to God, whose name means "Light-Bringer". His pride led him to revolt, taking a third of the heavenly host with him. He now awaits a second chance to challenge God.

How to summon: -unknown-

This demon chooses his own master. He cannot be summon normally unless the summoner is favoured by him.

"A fallen angel that became the lord of hell…" Hibiki mused. He wondered how his appearance looked like. Was it angelic? Or was it demonic? It only made him even more interested.

"Okay, time to wash Byakko!" the miniature Hibiki wore a blue pair of swim trunks. He took a fine brush and a lavender cooked bar of soap then ran out of the room humming. Hibiki felt his lips curl into a smile at the adorable scene and followed the boy.

"Byakko, time for bath!" Said the small boy pushing the reluctant Byakko to the bath, making the tiger growl. The white Devin dug his claws into the earth but eventually feel into the water as Suzaku flew over and helped her summoner. Binomial couldn't help but laugh at the fact that a tiger hated water and even more that this tiger was a powerful demon. He giggled as the chibi spread the soap on the brush and started to run it through Byakko's fur. The miniature version smiled as the dirty matted fur turned back into a fluffy looking white

Right after that, the surroundings started blurring and fogging up, much like steam in a room, disappointing Hibiki who wanted to see more of the adorable display.

End of Dream

"Hibiki, you've finally awakened! I was really worried when you collapsed so suddenly…" Daichi's head hovered over him as soon as he opened his eyes. His clothes were disheveled and his hair messy and wild. 'He must have been really worried...' thought the blue eyed teen sadly.

"We're assigned to guard Osaka. However there will be a medical check up in two hours." Daichi ran a hand through his hair, apologetic to have to deliver such professional information to his best friend right after he wakes up, "We should focus on that first."

"Okay, I'll be going to the training hall for a some light exercises then. I do-"

"EH?! NO! You just woke up! There's no way I'm letting you do something like that!" The brunet said panicked.

"Are you feeling left out? You can watch me train if you want." Hibiki said smiling, "After that I'm going to bake a cake if there enough ingredients…"

"…Fine." Daichi sighed, "But only for a few minutes, okay? Don't overexert yourself!" Hibiki only smirked in reply. Both of them walked to the training hall where Hibiki had trained before.

"So, what kind of light exercise will you do?" Daichi asked. Hibiki only bit his thumb, slightly wincing his eyes when he felt some pain. "Hibiki, what the… You said that you'll only do some light exercise! What part of this is a light exercise?"

"Don't worry! I actually just want to test something out." Hibiki said and pressed on the wound, drawing blood out.

"Genbu!" Hibiki called out. A black tortoise appeared. It was the same tortoise as the one he saw in his dream.

"A new demon? Just how many do you have?" Daichi inquired with a sort of tired look on his face. At times he felt like he was a babysitter for his... talented friend.

"I don't know… My training's done. Let's head to the kitchen." Daichi could only sigh and close his eyes. When he opened them, he yelped in surprise. Next to him was Genbu who pushed him aside and away from Hibiki. "Uh, Hibiki… Please return your demon. He seems to hate me for some reason…"

"I don't see any reason to but if that'll make you feel better…" Genbu disappeared from their sight in a flash making Daichi sigh for about the sixth time since Hibiki woke up. He chose not to say anything and ran up to his friend who was leaving and walked beside him.

In no time, both of them had arrived at the kitchen. Hibiki checked the refrigerator. "Butter, egg, flour…" He continued to mumble to himself while pulling things out and laying them on the counter, occasionally shaking his head and returning something. Daichi only watched him from the side.
Hibiki started screaming together the butter and sugar before throwing in an egg. He set it aside and stirred together dry ingredients like flour and salt. Daichi never understood the point to mixing together something dry but chose to criticize it when he knew how to bake.

Just as expected, Hibiki preformed as well as the chefs on TV and the smells of apples and vanilla began to fill the air. He wasted no time in making the cake, working fast and with gusto and managed to make a fresh bowl of custard somewhere in the process. After a couple of hours the cake was finished and Hibiki placed it into the fridge to cool. He would cover it in icing when it wouldn't melt it.

"You're finished?" Daichi walked over and looked from behind his shoulder, "That smells great. What cake did you make?"

"An apple cake with custard cream. Let's eat it later with everyone," Hibiki smiled sincerely.

He inspected the clock which was hanging on the wall. "There's only about ten minutes before the check up."

"Ah, you're right! We'd better get changed now." Both of them walked quickly down the hallway, chatting eagerly. The meaningless banter made the time seem to pass so slowly.

A few minutes later the two of them stood in front a room with an aluminium plate. It read, "Men temporary changing room".

Daichi opened the door and walked inside with Hibiki following him.
Hibiki took a yukata out from a locker and changed to it. It was a simple grey coloured yukata. Daichi who was next to him had also finished and changing and was currently putting his clothes inside the locker before he shut it and listened to the click the locks made with satisfaction.

"Hey, hey. The two of you! How about a little investigation?" Joe who opened the door asked.

"Investigation?" Daichi asked as Hibiki tilted his head to the side with a blink

"You know what I mean! A little show, that's all!" Joe grinned.

"Oh!" Daichi clapped his hands together. "Will Nitta-san be in there?" He blushed a bit.

"Maybe…"

"I'm in! Let's go, before we miss it!" Daichi and Joe disappeared from the room instantly leaving a confused Hibiki.

"Investigation? A little show?"

Hibiki walked outside, tailing them from a good eleven feet. When he finally caught up to them, he scrunched his eyebrows in confusion as the two were they were slapped by Nitta. "Wh-what are you doing in here?" she gasped in surprise and obvious embarrassment while glaring at both Joe and Daichi.

"You misunderstood! We were only passing by!" Daichi tried to reason.

"There you are, Daichi, Joe! Are you done with your 'investigation' thingy?" Hibiki asked. Nitta's face only got redder and let out a high-pitched scream.

"Did I say something wrong?" Hibiki only got more confused

"N-nothing. Don't pay any attention to it! Now, you should get going!" Nitta pushed Hibiki to the another direction, making sure that he was still innocent. "Um, when is your check up starting?"

As if on cue the speakers on the wall buzzed to life, "Kuze Hibiki, please come to room 12 for check up… Repeating…"

"I should be going. I'll see you later." Hibiki excused himself and went to room 12. The brunet girl sighed in relief. 'Saved by the Bell.' The look didn't last long and she turned around at the males tiptoeing away. "Just where do you think you're going?"

In room 12, some men wearing hospital coats walked about holding charts and papers. One of them looked over at the sound of the door opening and ordered, "Kuze-san, please come this way. We'll be taking your scan now."

Hibiki nodded with no hesitation and followed his instruction. Seemed like the test was endless.

"Please sit on this chair. Don't worry this is the last test." Hibiki sat on the chair eager to finish. The man took a sterilized needle and said, "This will hurt a bit…" The needle pierced Hibiki's upper arm.

Hibiki was taken aback by the pain. The man was not gentle in the least and it hurt a lot. He looked up at the doctor whose face was grinning happily right now. For some reason, Hibiki felt sleepy and felt his eyes droop, before shutting close. But then they snapped open and glared.

The man who was grinning paled and he retreated a step back. Hibiki's eyes was no longer the normal blue but a crimson red.
"Don't you dare hurt him!" He warned with an animalistic snarl.

'Hibiki' stood up, shoving the man to the side as he did and stormed out from the room. He walked to the changing room and got changed to his normal attire. "I'll take care of things for now. Don't worry, my other self." He smiled sincerely at the reflection of the mirror hanging in his locker. Strangely, the reflection did not mirror his movements and stayed impassive with closed eyes. Almost reluctantly, the locker was closed. It was shut slowly as though to avoid waking someone in the empty room.

'Hibiki' took a little stroll around the building. When he was about to turn down towards the training rooms, he turned as a voice called, "Hibiki, how can you do that to me and Joe!"

"Huh? What do you mean? Who are you? Oh wait. I know you. You're his childhood friend." 'Hibiki' turned back to see Daichi and Joe who was calling him.

"H-Hibiki, why are your eyes red? I'm certain that it's blue." Daichi gasped in surprise while Joe was getting nervous.

"You're from that time. The man who was with the Kuriki guy," 'Hibiki' looked the older man over uninterested.

"You shameless men!" Airi stomped up to them, shouting, Jungo right behind her.

"You dare to peep a girl!"

"Peep? Why would I do that? Humans are so weird. So boring. " The black hair summoner said lazily.

"I'm out of here." Hibiki grumbled and walked away.

"Hibiki, where are you going?" Kuriki appeared out of nowhere.

"Ah, the Kuriki guy from before."

"Why are you in control?" Kuriki gritted his teeth.

"Some of your man dared to hurt him so I switched with him." 'Hibiki' said with an enraged undertone. His eyes gleamed with a vengeful anger.

"So someone still picked on him…" Kuriki mumbled.

"Hey, his eyes turned red. Just like that time. Ready your demon!" Shouted a summoner standing to the side, commanding a group of summoners. They took out their phone and summoned their demon.

'Hibiki' snorted. He mocked them, "A challenge, huh? I guess a bit of a fight won't make him angry."

The teen's bunny eared hoodie swayed as he shifted into battle stance, "Seiryuu!" He called out. An azure dragon came out, wrapping itself around 'Hibiki' who only patted the dragon's head.

"A-another demon? Just how many demon do you have?" A woman with a red pixie cried out.

"Master… Shall I eliminate them?" Seiryuu asked.

"I-It talked!" A man gasped.

"Why wouldn't it? It IS a DRAGON, after all." 'Hibiki' said as though talking to a child.

"No need. Just kill their demon. That'll be enough." The dragon acted quickly, moving in front of his summoner a and breathed out a harsh torrent of streaming water. All the summoners' demons disappeared in an instant.

"All of you didn't even form a real contract with your demon…" 'Hibiki' grumbled. "Your demon was binded forcefully to you… Either that or bribed."

"Eh?" All the person who was in that place was surprised. "Is there even a way to summon demon without the app?"

'Hibiki' laughed whole-heartedly, "You don't know about that… hahaha… SO EMBARRASING! HOW PATHETIC!"

"Master, shouldn't you visit your father?" Seiryuu asked.

"Which one? The human one or the other one?" 'Hibiki' demanded.
"The other one," it answered. "He will be delighted to see you. You used to play with him when you're little, master. Before the tragedy happened…"

"Please don't bring that up again. I don't want to talk about it. You may return to your realm, Seiryuu…" The air felt so heavy suddenly. They looked at 'Hibiki' who was frowning. His eyes gleamed with unkind thoughts. He must be thinking of something dangerous. Seiryuu slowly vanished, afraid of its master's wrath.

"Sorry, I've suddenly lost my... Good mood. I'll be switching with him." 'Hibiki' closed his eyes. When his eyes were opened again, it was back to blue.

"Huh? When did I get here?" Hibiki looked around dumbfounded. "Why are you all looking at me like that?" He said tilting his head in obliviousness.

"N-nothing…" They looked away at the same time.

"Lately I've been forgetting many things. I wonder why…" Hibiki sighed with a grimace. "Oh well, since everyone gathered here, how about we eat the cake that I made?"

"You made a cake?" A few of them asked while all of them looked bewildered except of Kuriki who held himself back, Jungo who just did not have it in his nature, and Daichi who had known about it.

"Ah, so all of you are here! I was wondering why I didn't see anyone." Nitta walked to them. "What are you all doing?"
"We're going to eat the cake that Hibiki made!" Daichi answered her with a smile.

"Really? Daichi mentioned that the desserts that you make are the best!"

"It's nothing like that. He was exaggerating. Now, let's go to the cafeteria. It's in the fridge." Hibiki led them to the cafeteria. "Wait here, I'll go get the cake first."

All of them sat down on a big round table, curiously awaiting his return. After a just few minutes, a scream was heard from the kitchen.

They all looked at each other for a second before running towards the kitchen. They stood in shock at what they found. Hibiki was smiling innocently in front of an flaming pan, beside him, several broken plates an pots.

"Hibiki, what in the world are you doing? You said that you're taking the cake!"

"Umm…The chef asked me to help him fry the chicken. So, I helped him?" Hibiki stared at them, still smiling.

"Are you kidding me? I'm pretty sure that it's all ashes now!" Joe said, breaking out of his shock and laughed, clutching his stomach.

"Hibiki, there's a reason why I told you not to cook foods. That," Daichi pointed at the still flaming pan, "is the reason, okay?"

Hibiki was frowned in confusion. He gazed at the chicken and said, "I don't understand… There's nothing wrong with the chicken…" Joe burst out laughing while the rest of them face palmed.

Suddenly they heard a high pitched squealing. "Ano... Does anyone hear that?" Said Nitta.

Joe, still laughing, walked up to the pan. "I hadn't even known that this wa-!" Just as quickly as he has come, he jumped back to the group and altogether they watched in horror as a black pile of what could only be described as sludge crawled out of the pan and onto the counter. It squealed and waves two dripping arms in the air and crawled off the table, hitting the ground five feet below.

Daichi felt his eye twitch, "Hibiki's, are you sure that's all you did?"

The blue eyed teen twiddled his thumbs, "I just felt that it was a bit tasteless so I added in some spices."

"Like?"

"Ermm... Pepper, salt, paprika, cinnamon, bell peppers, gasoline so that it would be really fiery because gasoline lights up right? Ah, some black stuff from the cabinet, I threw in whole lemon because I heard the skin is really healthy, ahh, I asked my demons to help me too. Suzaku was really nice and let me cook it in her flames... Umm.."

Daichi had paled considerably and the others in the room had turned white as a ghost, "Let's just forget about the chicken and eat the cake. The chef can handle the rest." Brown eyes stared at the unmoving form at the side of the room, "Err.. When he wakes up that is."

"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Positive." Daichi threw one of the less broken pots over the growling creature trying to eat his shoe (and failing) then grabbed his best friend by the shoulders from behind. He pushed a confused Hibiki out from the kitchen and asked Nitta to take the cake from the refrigerator. Kuriki led the rest of them back to the table where Hibiki and Daichi were.

"Jungo, are you going to eat the cake? Because of the incident before, I'm not sure that I'm going to…" Airi stopped whispering to Jungo when she caught a glance of a mouth-watering cake. The cake had a very beautiful colour. It had a soft yellow cream as coating. On top of it were some apple carved and arranged prettily into a rose.

"Are you sure that you make this cake?" Kuriki inquired, astounded. He started to wonder how he manage to make a perfect looking cake when he turned a simple dish of fried chicken into something as disgusting and horrifying as the thing he saw earlier.

"Of course! I made my own recipe, for your information!" Hibiki answered, slightly annoyed as he was disdained. Upon Hibiki's answer which carried some annoyance, they waited quietly as Nitta cut the cake into several pieces. She distributed a piece for each person.

Jungo was the first to take a bite of the cake. Airi demanded him to tell her how it taste but Jungo ignored her and took the next bite. After finishing the piece of cake, Jungo announced, "It is very good. You should try it, Airi. Thank you for the cake, Kuze-kun." Hibiki's smiled happily.

Hearing Jungo's opinion about the cake, they all started to eat the piece of cake.

"T-This is very tasty…" Airi gasped.

"The sponge cake is very soft with a sweet custard cream." Nitta commented.

"It looked very sweet when it's actually not. There's a bit of a sour flavour because of the apple that blends in well." Kuriki took another bite of the cake. Soon afterwards, all of them had finished their own pieces.

"Uwahhh… As expected of Hibiki! You should consider being a pastry chef when you've graduate!" Daichi praised Hibiki, swinging an arm over his shoulders.

"Hmmm… Maybe I'll open a bakery." Hibiki smiled. Then his expression changed into a much serious one. "For now, we have to focus on the septentrion if we want to fulfil our dreams."

A/N: Okay, this chapter is longer than usual. I've finally reached 3 k+ words in 1 Chapter. I'll just say thanks for reading the chapter and review please!