Sirens blared as the police surrounded an apartment complex. Several of the inhabitants left their homes to figure out the cause of the commotion only to be assailed with questions by detectives. It was almost surprising how little these people knew about the atrocity that had occurred right in their home.

An entire family was brutally murdered by what could only possibly be a monster. While none of the neighbors were allowed to see what had happened for themselves for obvious reasons, the investigators did their best to describe it to them while holding back their own squeamishness. Each member of the family had been slaughtered, not just killed. Chunks of their body were missing. Their bodies were surrounded with visible tooth marks not unlike those a dog could dish out. But at the same time, they had bruises surrounding seemingly afflicted by a blunt object of some sort.

By far the strangest thing, however, is the trail of bloodied footprints the culprit left behind. As if to give more credence to the theory that the perpetrator was a monster of some kind, there were no footprints found at the scene. Rather, they were pawprints. Stranger still, the investigators have reason to believe that the culprit never actually entered the house in the first place. The pawprints started at the room of the family’s son and ended only after whatever creature did this left the building. The police’s search for evidence as to a possible motive for the boy’s death proved inconclusive.

His name was Tendou Ryuga. From what they could gather, he was just an average boy with no real enemies, okay marks, and was not a member of any particular club. The only other thing they could find out about him from his room was that he was also a major fan of video games. Recently, it seemed as though he had been hopped on the bandwagon and started to play the new Digital Demon game and had been playing it moments before his death. His blood soaked phone was on his bed with the app opened up, with the following message taking up the boys screen:

“Kobold has not been fed in 5 days.”

---

Ueno Station. 11:30 AM.

July 15, 2017.

The day had largely been uneventful for the vast majority of Tokyo's population so far. Other than being particularly hot, nothing of any real note had happened lately. The school year's first term was nearing its end and some students were acting as though it were already over. To be fair, with all of their exams out of the way, it practically was. That's way the Ueno station was so packed on this particular day. Not only was it a weekend, but the atmosphere was fairly light all things considering all of the weird rumors that had been floating around.

News of the family's death had already spread far and wide. The further the story traveled, the more distorted it grew as time passed. Some versions of the tale had spun it so that the Digital Demon app was responsible for killing all of them. Of course, most took the rumor as mere slander for the exceedingly popular game, though many had their own theories about what could have possibly killed the people. The most popular theory so far was that the murders had been carried out by some deranged extremist out to give the game a bad rap for its use of religious figures as tamable demons. It wouldn't be the first time something like this happened, but many of the game's most vocal detractors had been claiming that the deaths were caused by a rabid fanboy or something who had too much time on his hand to play the app. The debate was almost inescapable wherever one went.

Not only that, but news of the Japanese Self Defense Force's presence in Tokyo had spread far and wide that morning alone. While their presence was not particularly alarming, it was abrupt enough to quickly become a main subject of discussion so early on. The common consensus was that they were getting ready for an announcement of some sort, though many felt as though it was connected to the brutal murder case just three days before. Most assumed that they were getting ready for a public service announcement or something along those lines.

But that was about it as far as noteworthy events were concerned.

All the same, priority number one was making the best of the off time they had. There was a good reason why Ueno station of all places was so packed. With so much free time on their hands, people could go to the station and visit Ameyayokocho Street which was just outside of the station. The numerous vendors who sold food, art, and fashion accessories made it a booming social hotspot during the weekend. Jack Frost key chains were all the rage these days. The creature's popularity was well known even to those who had never even touched the Digital Demon app.

Those walking around Ueno station on this day would hear an almost angelic sound as they went about their day. There was a short, foreign man playing a flute that enthralled all those who heard it. By the looks of things, he was an Indian street performer who captured the hearts of all those who heard him playing. All the same, he took no donations. The strangest part was that his audience (primarily consisting of women) almost looked like they were caught in some hypnotic trance by his flute.

Juichi slowly made his way out of his house, the strap to his carrying case resting diagonally across his broad chest. His parents waved goodbye, happy to see him heading out. Of course, they thought he was applying at the local McDonald's, but they didn't need to know that he was planning to hang out with some friends. The news had said that the defense force was spreading out farther than usual, and the anxiety was slightly unnerving Juichi - after all, they may think he was a tourist that was trying to cause trouble. Thank goodness he had the sense to bring his carrying license with him, or else he would be in major trouble... Then again, he should just be thankful. School would have been open today had it not been for the defense force suddenly appearing - the school board was extremely worried that something was going to happen, and decided to close school for the day. Smirking, Juichi wondered if he would be able to get Monday off as well. After all, this surely had to be an issue of national security... To be quite honest, the sudden expansion of the defense force did startle Juichi when he first heard. After all, their presence expanded across the entire nation overnight, so their had to be something wrong going on. Of course, no way in hell would Juichi let anybody notice how he felt - if any of his friends said anything about it, he would just say something like:

"Well, when you got someone as bad ass as me walking around, you need a little more muscle to make sure they don't try anything."

Then they would laugh, and go hang out at a Karaoke place after they were done at the dojo. Only a few kilometers more till he reached the station, Juichi finally took notice of his surroundings; people in military attire, most likely members of the defense force, were scattered around here and there, and the civilians that didn't look scared by them were all looking at their phones. Juichi, not wanting to be a nosy person, didn't look at any of them, but he knew what kept them busy - the demon summoning app. It wasn't uncommon to see children and adults playing the game anywhere you went the past few weeks. The game had everybody addicted, and even the opposition to the app seemed to be ignored completely. Juichi simply sighed, wondering how anybody could find themselves so caught up in a game, before making his way into the underground labyrinth that was Ueno Station.

The loud noises of the subway quickly began to fill Juichi's mind. He was very familiar with the sounds of the subway - after all, he took it everyday to school - but today was far louder than usual. Perhaps Juichi's ears were more sensitive since he wasn't rushing to school... Sighing, he gently slid his earbuds on and listened to some music from his phone. Making his way to the ticket machine, Juichi checked his pockets - just enough for a two-way ticket. taking his pass from the machine, he quickly passed the turnstile while sliding his pass over the sensor. From then on, he continued to walk down the crowded station, passing the occasional store that opened shop in the underground. A small crowd of people (primarily women, Juichi noted) seemed to be forming around an individual near the corner of the station, and seemed to be listening in silent wonderment. Juichi shrugged his shoulders, assuming it to be a politician or one of the crazies that talked about how "the end was nigh." Whoever it was, they had to be pretty attractive to lure such a large crowd of ladies... Shaking his head, Jucihi rushed to the rails. He couldn't keep his friends waiting.

Standing next to a businessman and a group of younger children, Juichi began to look around the station more seriously - since he wasn't in such a rush, he could afford to do so. It wasn't until his gaze passed a small map of the train routes that he never noticed before that he realized something - what if he wasn't the only person from his school here? After all, school was out today, so there had to be some kids meeting up with their friends, right? And Juichi had at least 20 minutes that needed to be wasted before his train would arrive. And he was pretty noticeable, considering he stood nearly a head taller than most of the people on the station. Perhaps a fellow student would see him and hang out for a bit. And if not, he could always waste some time on the Demon Summoning App.

The recent murder had been in the news for most of the morning. Of course, they hadn’t shown most of the crime scene since the police were keeping the reporters out of the building. However, they had the victims’ neighbours to question even if they couldn’t get pictures of the blood. The fact that the killer was still at large, and that no one seemed to have seen or heard anything to form some sort of profile meant that it was unlikely that whoever had murdered that family was going to be caught anytime soon. The world couldn’t exactly just sit in fear, however, and life still moved on.

Hotaru would have been perfectly happy spending her day of Not-Having-To-Deal-With-The-People-At-School lounging around the apartment playing Mario Kart, but her dad had given her a list of errands to run while he’d been called into work. What did the office need him for anyway that couldn’t wait until Monday? She thought. Not that he could argue with the higher ups. She left the apartment shortly after he did after checking to see if she needed to add anything to their grocery list.

As she walked towards the train station, several imposing looking vehicles passed her. As well, there were several people in Defense Force uniforms gathering about. Hotaru figured it just had to do with the recent murders needing increased security, but it was still freaky to see so many of bunched together so close like this. The news hadn’t mentioned anything that had happened in their neighbourhood, so why were there so many around here? She didn’t want to seem like she was nosing around their important business, so she hurried along before they could notice her.



Ueno Station was busy as usual, and Hotaru made that sure her phone was on silent as she moved through the crowd. The train would still be a while, and she glanced around at the other people around the station. One person who really stood out was someone she recognised from school; he was a year ahead of her and was in student council and the Captain of the Kendo team. It seemed as though people were giving him a wide berth, and Hotaru wondered what he was thinking, bringing a sword out in public with everything that’d been going on.

Strange music reached the edge of her hearing over the buzz of the crowd and rumbling of nearby trains. After checking how much time she still had until the train arrived, Hotaru decided to check it out, passing Nakada-senpai as she went. She soon found the source, although a large group of people surrounded the musician, and she vaguely noted that they seemed dazed as they listened. Hotaru could almost see the man despite standing behind everyone. His flute playing was very skillful, and it was really easy to get sucked in.