17, a megami tensei fanfic

Disclaimer: Devil Survivor is not mine.

Summary: Naoya and Kazuya, before everything went to hell. For Parallels Fanworks Exchange 2016.

Author's Note: Giftfic for chidorinnn. I am so sorry about the lame-o title, I was in a hurry and couldn't think of a better one even though it's slightly inaccurate because technically there are eighteen parts in here but WHO CARES ABOUT DETAILS ENJOY THE STORY THANKS FOR READING

Naoya's eyes flick through the unusually large textbook in his hand as his mother converses animatedly with his father's brother's wife on the phone.

"Congratulations!" his mother squeals into the phone, giggling like an excited schoolgirl. "Oh gosh, I wish we could be there, but Daiya had an important business meeting and Naoya got sick around that time. What's his name? Do you have pictures yet? Send us pictures! You have got to bring him over sometime, he can play with Naoya—"

It's too noisy in the room. Naoya closes the book in irritation and trots back to his room.

Naoya borrows his mother's camera for a school project—a collage of his loved ones. Unfortunately, after thousands of sets of families, he has stopped giving a damn about whatever family he gets saddled with (except for one—the only one he considers his true family, but he doesn't even know if his brother has been born in this lifetime yet). If he knows what his brother looks (or will look) like in this lifetime he would just plaster the poster with images of him, but he doesn't so he can't so he has to bullshit pretty much everything on the project and hope for the best. He is halfway out the door when he realises the memory on the camera is full. He browses through the menu and comes upon a picture of a man with his arms wrapped around a woman. The woman is carrying a sleeping baby in bright blue toddler clothes. He frowns, his eyes zoning in on the baby. By all means, that baby should've looked like any other generic baby out there, but…

"Naoya!" His mother yanks the camera from his hands, startling him out of his trance. "What are you doing with this?"

"I need it for a project," he says flatly.

"Oh?" His mother blinks. "Well, the memory's full on this one. Here, I have another camera you can use…"

"Uh huh, uh huh, two in the afternoon, okay, got it! Oh, I can't wait!" His mother slams the phone back into the receiver and rounds on Naoya. He stares back blankly. Sometimes he can't believe he's biologically related to this woman. She's way too energetic.

"Naoya!" she shrieks. "Guess who has a playdate next week?"

Naoya internally curses. In Hebrew.

"Your aunt and uncle are coming over, and they're bringing their son with them. Now, I want you on your best behaviour, okay? Kazuya-kun is only two, so be careful with him…"

He tunes her out and goes back to doing his math homework.

His aunt cancels the playdate next week. Kazuya has a fever and needs to stay at home. Naoya doesn't really care.

His parents die in a car crash.

Naoya is actually happy about that, not because he hates his parents (as stated before, he feels neutral towards everyone but his brother at best), but because after the funeral his aunt and uncle decide to adopt him into their little nuclear family, and when he meets his younger cousin, he looks at the toddler right in the eyes—

—and he knows.

"Naoya-kun," his aunt says nicely, gently pushing the little blue-haired boy forward, "this is your cousin, Kazuya. Say hello, Kazuya."

"Hello," his cousin—brother says shyly.

"Hello," he replies. Hello again, Abel.

"Nii-san," Kazuya says curiously, "why aren't you sleeping at night?"

Naoya has successfully taught Kazuya to call him nii-san despite the fact that they are technically cousins. His aunt is thrilled.

As for the question… well, he can't say it didn't catch him off guard.

It's usually around this time that he starts dreaming of his former lives. Sometimes they're vibrant and happy, sometimes they're bleak and terrifying, but most of the time they're just flashes of mundane life, like making trinkets to sell or (ironically) herding sheep. Luckily, he hasn't dreamt of his first life as Cain… yet. He'll take memories of the Crusades, the witch hunts, the Black Death, the Great Chinese Famine, anything over his first life. At any rate, he often wakes up in the middle of the night, and his mind is wrapped up in so many memories that he can't fall back to sleep again.

Hence the sleep deprivation.

"I've just been having some dreams. How did you know?" Every time he goes wakes up to get a drink he makes sure that all the bedroom doors are closed and his footsteps almost nonexistent.

"Your eyes look like okaa-san's when she said she couldn't sleep at night."

He blinks, impressed. Kazuya is surprisingly observant despite his age. That will be useful in the future.

But apparently being observant doesn't stop him from falling for the oldest trick in the book and being kidnapped by a total stranger in the middle of the day.

Naoya curses his cousin as he races through the streets, reminding himself to teach stranger danger to Kazuya (again—how many times do they have to go over this before it gets through his thick skull?) once they get home. He catches up to Kazuya's kidnapper in a dark alley. Kazuya, holding onto the man's hand, is happily licking away at the large red lollipop on his other hand, not looking the least bit frightened. The man looks behind him, sees Naoya, and scoffs, unimpressed.

"Piss off, kid."

Naoya grabs a rusty lead pipe conveniently lying on the ground and smashes it at the man's head. Now, Naoya, being, among other things, physically twelve years old and a computer geek, isn't exactly the paragon of human athleticism, so that hit with the lead pipe isn't enough to knock out the kidnapper but it is enough for him to momentarily let go of Kazuya. Naoya doesn't waste time, grabbing his cousin none too gently and hitting the swearing man one last time before running away with his cousin in his arms. He doesn't put him down until they get back home, safe and sound and away from potential kidnappers. He seats his cousin on the couch and sighs exasperatedly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Kazuya, that was very foolish of you."

"Huh?" Kazuya continues to nonchalantly lick the red lollipop, and Naoya has to remind himself that Kazuya is his brother and he is important to his plans and he loves him very much.

"You were almost taken by that man. If I hadn't come and gotten you, we never would have seen you again."

"But he said he'd take me back after we finished the candy." And it occurs to Naoya that Kazuya probably doesn't understand just how close he came to being kidnapped.

"He was lying."

Kazuya pouts. "But he gave me candy." He waves the lollipop.

Naoya's eye twitches. "I'll buy you ice cream for every time you refuse a candy from a stranger."

"Yay!"

The things he does for his cousin…

"Let me tell you a story," Naoya murmurs, tucking his cousin to bed. Kazuya tilts in head in interest. "There was once a pair of brothers. The elder brother, Cain, who farmed the lands; and his younger brother, Abel, who shepherded the sheep. One day, they both presented offerings to God: Cain, the fruit of his crops, and Abel, his slaughtered sheep. God was pleased with Abel's offerings, but not with Cain's, though both worked very hard to produce their offerings." Here, Naoya hesitates, then opts to tell him the generally accepted version of the story. "Overcome with jealousy, Cain invited his brother out to the field… and killed him."

Kazuya's eyes widen. "That was very mean of him."

"Yes, it was. And so Abel died full of hatred, and Cain knew deep in his heart that Abel would never forgive him." Naoya takes a deep breath, clenches his hands… and decides to hell with it. "But little did they know that the entire scenario had actually been orchestrated by the bloodthirsty God in order to create a murderer and a martyr."

"Martyr?"

"A person who is killed for their beliefs."

"Oh…" Kazuya doesn't look like he gets it, but Naoya continues anyway.

"Cain is later cursed by God to wander for all eternity, to never be able to yield crops from the ground, and to reincarnate every time he dies with the memories of his former lives intact in order to repent for his sin—a sin that he was manipulated into committing. Tell me Kazuya, who you think is at fault in the story: Abel, for indulging God's bloodlust by slaughtering his sheep; Cain, for slaying his brother; or God, for setting it all up in the first place?"

Kazuya ponders. Then, "What does rain-car-tate mean?"

"Reincarnate," Naoya corrects. "It means to be reborn again after you die."

"Oh." Kazuya ponders some more, then shrugs. "I don't know."

That is to be expected. He is only six. Naoya strokes his cousin's hair. "That's fine."

"Ne, nii-san, tell me another story!"

So Naoya does. He tells him of Ba'al Berith, once the widely adored patron god of Canaan, who was then demonized by King Abimelech of the Philistines; of Baldr, and how Loki fashioned a spear made of mistletoe, gave it to the blind god Hodhr, and tricked him into killing one of the most beloved gods of the Aesir; of Lucifer, and how the archangel rebelled against God and fell from grace as a result. He regales him with tales from all over the world until Kazuya finally succumbs to sleep.

He gives Kazuya a kid's book on world mythology for Christmas.

Kazuya is now officially obsessed with cats. Naoya kind of regrets letting him watch that TV special on felines, or letting him befriend that one classmate who owns a cat. The blue-haired boy won't stop raving about how cute they are, how fun it is to play with them, all the while not so subtly asking his parents to get one. Thus far, his parents have resisted the dreaded Big Blue Eyes, but Naoya estimates they will cave in within the week.

He is right. Kazuya brings home an old tomcat on Day 4 and insists on keeping him. His parents break under the power of The Eyes and let him keep it. Ecstatic, he names the stray Yoshi and proceeds to spoil the cat to oblivion.

In response to the cat mania that has taken over the house, Naoya gives Kazuya a portable music player and a pair of white headphones for his birthday. Those headphones are special because of the mix of demonic and non-demonic materials he used to infuse it with a plethora of defensive passive skills (most notably Anti-All). He also shaped the headband to resemble cat ears at the last minute to indulge Kazuya's fondness for cats. As a result, it is quite possibly the most indestructible magical pair of headphones in the world.

What? Kazuya likes music as much as he likes cats. Naoya is willing to bet he'd still listen to the thing even as he walks through the apocalypse and call it battle music.

"Cool!" Kazuya puts the headphones over his head and grins at his reflection on the glass coffee table. "Haha, I look like a cat! Meow meow! Hey, do I look like Yoshi now?"

Naoya notes that Kazuya will probably love Cait Sith to pieces. He contemplates actually giving the demon to Kazuya for Christmas before banishing that ridiculous thought.

Naoya gently coerces Kazuya into doing his science project for him.

The project is to grow radishes and measure their rate of growth when exposed to different kinds of light. Since he can't plant anything without it dying a horrible, messy death (thanks to a certain Judeo-Christian deity), he has to get his oblivious eight-year-old cousin to do it.

Kazuya thinks its all fun and names the radishes Amaterasu, Loki, and Pazuzu. Naoya snickers at that. Well, at least he knows Kazuya is well on his way to knowing his future allies and enemies. Now, if only he can figure out how to fit demonic spells into his unofficial curriculum…

Naoya first meets Yuzu Tanikawa when he picks up his cousin after school.

"Nii-san!" Kazuya runs up to Naoya, a pink-haired girl following behind him. "Guess what? I made a friend! Nii-san, this is Yuzu. Yuzu, this is my nii-san, Naoya!"

"Nii-san? I thought you didn't have any siblings?"

"He is actually my cousin, but he lives with us so it's okay!"

"Okay… Hi Minegishi-san!" Yuzu smiles shyly at Naoya.

He gives her an indifferent look before switching his gaze back to his cousin. "We're leaving now." He pulls Kazuya away after the boy says his goodbyes and they both head home.

He doesn't exactly approve of Yuzu as Kazuya's companion, but he supposes he will need to start gathering allies for Kazuya soon. But really, he can do better. Although a nice enough girl, Yuzu seems like the kind of person to run away once the going gets tough—and it will get tough, if she stays with Kazuya. He also doubts she will stick with Kazuya if (when) he becomes the demon overlord. He understands why normal humans wouldn't want to stay friends with a demon overlord, but Kazuya needs to surround himself with people who will fight with him to the end, for practicality's sake. Well, perhaps Yuzu will change. Nine years old is awfully young, and there's still plenty of time left for her to grow. If not, she'll be useful as a meat shield, if it comes to that.

As long as she doesn't do anything too bad, he will allow her to stay friends with Kazuya.

Kazuya is becoming more and more like Abel every day. Usually Abel's reincarnations will only have a passing resemblance to the original, but him—Kazuya is turning out to be an almost exact replica of Abel. Naoya can't stand it.

He is tormented by nightmares. He sees the stone knife in his hands, dripping with warm blood, his brother's throat slit like one of his animal sacrifices. He sees those eyes, once full of life and love, now overflowing with shock, confusion, hatred. His heart races as he scrambles to hide his brother's body before anyone finds out, but no, God is here, and—

"What have you done?" God says. "Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground."

—he wakes. He shoots up from his bead, heart pounding, sweat running down his neck. A surge of regret and hatred—his two most faithful companions—rush through him like a tidal wave, and it takes everything he has not to scream and yell and pound his fists on the wall until blood runs down his knuckles. So he calms himself down by thinking of how he will kill God, soon, he only needs to last until then…

He closes his eyes. Damn you…

Naoya, working on a project on his laptop in the living room, looks up as Kazuya enters the house… dragging another boy with him.

"And who is this?"

Kazuya introduces his new friend as Atsuro Kihara, who is his partner for a school project. Atsuro doesn't listen. His eyes are glued to the lines of code on Naoya's laptop.

"Oh yeah, Naoya does computer stuff too," Kazuya adds. "Maybe he can teach you something. What are you making now, nii-san?"

"A game." Actually, he is working on a program that translates demon languages into Japanese, but Kazuya doesn't need to know that. He is also not interested in teaching a random schoolboy anything, and he tells this to Atsuro quite bluntly. Kazuya frowns at his rudeness, but Atsuro doesn't seem to mind. The boy leans closer to the screen and blinks.

"That doesn't look like a game." Shit. The boy is smarter than he looks. "It looks like… like…"

"A game," he repeats, then closes the laptop and leaves. As he goes up the stairs he hears Atsuro telling Kazuya that it must be one heck of a game, since he doesn't recognise anything on the screen. Naoya closes the bedroom door behind him, narrowing his eyes as he sets the laptop down on the desk and continues his work.

He gets to know Atsuro a little better over the course of that school project. The boy, at least, is slightly better than Yuzu. He senses deep devotion within the boy, and if nurtured correctly Kazuya will have someone who will stay loyal to him no matter what. He can be annoying at times, but Naoya can tolerate it. Kazuya will need someone who will stay with him to the end and beyond, if need be.

He also seems to be a budding computer programmer. He will never become as good as Naoya, of course, but he will be good enough to be useful in that regard.

Kazuya stops calling him nii-san and starts calling him Naoya. Naoya doesn't mind. That just means he's growing up, becoming more independent. Which is why…

"You're moving out?"

"I'm nineteen, Kazuya," Naoya explains patiently. "I can't stay here forever." And when the time comes, you need to be able to survive without my guidance. "You can still visit me if you need to; my apartment is just a train ride away."

Kazuya sighs. "It won't be the same without you here." Then he brightens. "So I'm gonna have to visit you a lot to make up for your absence! And you better visit us too; you can't just leave all the travelling to me." Kazuya manages to extract a promise from Naoya before kicking him out of the house with a grin.

Kazuya invades his apartment on his twentieth birthday.

Naoya doesn't know how he does it, considering he has never even given the boy a key. One moment, he comes home from shopping for groceries, and the next he sees his cousin in his living room, watching some inane game show in the middle of a school day, a neatly wrapped present on his lap.

"You should be in school," he says, closing the door behind him.

"Atsuro's covering for me." Translation: Atsuro will hack into the school records later and tamper with my attendance for today.

"Nevertheless, you should be taking your education more seriously." Actually, Naoya doesn't really care if Kazuya skips. There are more important things in life than learning about logarithms like, say, learning the different ways one might go about fusing Pendragon. But he wouldn't be a very good older brother figure if he tells him that.

At Kazuya's insistence, Naoya unwraps his birthday present and arches his eyebrows at the content.

"Ramen is not real food," Kazuya informs him, glaring pointedly at the "groceries" (a week's worth of ramen) on the table.

Naoya chuckles and sets the beginner's cookbook to the side. He doesn't bother to tell him that he's probably forgotten more about cooking than all the world's best chefs will ever learn in their lifetimes combined. He just doesn't have the time to cook.

Kazuya breaks his ankle while playing soccer, and Naoya has to keep himself from strangling the boy who intentionally bumped into his cousin and caused him to trip over the soccer ball. Fortunately, it is a clean break, and the doctor says it will heal nicely in several weeks. Nonetheless, Naoya digs for every bit of dirt on the boy (and there is a lot) and posts it on every social media platform the boy frequents, turning him into a social pariah.

Ah, the wonders of technology. Ruining someone's life has never been easier.

Naoya admits his response is probably overkill, but no matter how hard he suppresses it (which, to be fair, is not very hard at all) Vengeful Naoya has always had a larger influence on his life than Rational Naoya. The only part of his personality that has more influence than Vengeful Naoya is Elder Brother Naoya, who, in this situation, has kind of teamed up with Vengeful Naoya—hence the overkill.

Naoya meets another friend of Kazuya's, a boy named Seito Fukawa.

Like with everyone Kazuya befriends, he runs a background check on the boy. Kazuya is usually a good judge of character, but he can be a bit too trusting at times, resulting in Naoya needing to subtly steer him away from the bad crowd and keep him on the right track. After all, he needs him healthy and clearheaded for when he fights God. So, using both legal and non-legal means, he finds out everything he can about Seito Fukawa, and what he finds does not impress him.

Good grades, good attendance, no criminal record, overall nice kid on the surface… but he also finds numerous chat logs with some of his other friends talking about less than legal activities such as marijuana, cocaine, and underage alcohol consumption. In addition to that, he visits his uncle's house on a regular basis. A quick search on the uncle reveals some minor run-ins with the police on drug charges. Now, Naoya doesn't usually draw conclusions based on what might be coincidental information, but just to be on the safe side, he needs to get that boy out of the picture.

Two weeks later, Seito Fukawa's mother, a freelance financial consultant, is offered a job in Kyoto from a large tech company, and they move away.

He is in his bedroom researching persons of interest in Tokyo—people who might end up helping Kazuya shape the future.

Among others, there is Tadashi Nikaido, leader of the Shibuya Daemons; Yoshino Harusawa, also known as Haru, a suicidal vocalist from the band D-Va; Eiji "Gin" Kamiya, who runs a bar and loves Aya; and of course the Shomonkai maiden Amane Kuzuryu. He has hacked into Gin's security cameras and is now examining the bar owner as he mixes alcohol for his customers.

"Whatcha doing?"

Naoya instantly slams the laptop shut and tries not to show emotion. "Coding." How did Kazuya sneak into his room without him noticing? And once again, how did he get into his apartment without a key?

"Liar." Kazuya leans against the back of the leather chair and gently pokes the elder on the cheek. "I saw profiles of random people on the screen. And I think I saw a window with camera footage of a bar too. Let me guess… You're researching people who might end up crossing my path in the future?"

Naoya stares, because Kazuya is absolutely right and he cannot for the life of him figure out how he does it. So he settles for, "Most people would assume I'm stalking someone."

Kazuya just smiles mysteriously and saunters to the living room.

He will never understand his cousin's logic.

He'll be fine, he thinks as he watches Yuzu walk away with the COMPs. He has been preparing Kazuya for this moment his entire life. He has made sure Kazuya befriended the right people, learned the right skills, and cultivated the right traits to survive the upcoming ordeal, among other things.

For a single moment, he is overcome with an insane urge to lock his cousin in an underground bunker and protect him for all eternity. He squashes it immediately. It took him years to set this all up. Kazuya needs to finish it. To lead the demons, to free humanity, to defeat God.

With that, he takes a deep breath, steels his nerves, and turns around.

I wish you luck, brother. Let's survive.