The Mysterious Stranger

by tittysatan

Summary:

A traveler visits the worlds that cast them out, looking for the one that holds what they seek.

Or, there are are a lot of versions of Devilman that don't have Satan in them, aren't there?

Chapter 1: 1972

Amon felt eyes on him in the night.

It was long past midnight and the streets were empty, a sea of darkness broken only by the tiny islands of light made by the streetlamps. The humans around him were all asleep. The watcher could only be a demon; but if they were, why didn't his blood sing for battle, why couldn't he feel their thirst for violence calling to his?

He stopped beneath a streetlight and waited. He could do nothing but wait, hair standing on end and nerves humming, for the stranger to make themselves known.

And suddenly he was there, like a trick of the light. A beautiful blonde boy in a trenchcoat, leaning against the wall right next to Amon, watching him with a faint smile. "You look so unlike him," the stranger murmured, voice echoing with something like distant chimes.

With a start, Amon jumped back, taking a defensive posture. He hadn't noticed anything. It should have been impossible to get that close to him without realizing, but… It was as if he appeared out of thin air. The stranger wasn't a demon; he didn't have their scent. But he wasn't human, either. He was too still, his blue eyes too sharp and magnetic.

Amon had no idea what he was faced with, and that frightened him.

Not taking his eyes off the unmoving stranger, he let his skin ripple and change, unfurling his wings, unsheathing his claws and fangs, revealing his true self. "Who are you!?" he challenged, looming over the boy. "Tell me why you're here!"

The stranger's eyes went wide with shock as he stared up at the demon. Then he laughed, tossing his head back with abandon, and again the sound of chimes rang in Amon's ears. "This is Amon? The strongest of all the Demon Army? But you look ridiculous! Is that a belt?"

"Why, you…!" Amon snarled, throwing himself at the stranger, claws outstretched, ready to tear that laughing face in two.

But before he knew it, he was flung back by a wave of searing light that blinded him, skidding across the asphalt. He lay there as the stranger approached, still laughing, and pulled him up with impossible strength. Only then did he realize he was back in human form.

"Akira Fudo," the stranger said, eyes tracing over him without reserve. "Or perhaps I should call you Amon, though you're no more the Amon I knew than you are my Akira."

Amon was pinned under those eyes like an insect in a collection box, helpless to fight or flee. "How do you know me?"

"I was exiled and forgotten, but I should rightfully stand above even Xenon. Not a demon king, but a demon god," he spoke, blue eyes strangely luminous in the dark. "I came here to find you."

"…you're going to kill me."

"That was my intent, yes," the stranger said with a casual shrug. "To cast you out of that body and restore it to its rightful owner. But there's no need. He's not the one I'm looking for."

Slowly, slowly, Amon began to untense. "So…you're not here to punish me for turning traitor?"

"Of course not!" the stranger laughed. "No, I understand you all too well. Keep fighting your war, to protect this beautiful world and the human for whom you betrayed everything." He leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on the demon's forehead. "Go with my blessing, Amon."

"Wait!" Amon called as the stranger turned and began to walk away. "At least tell me who you are."

"An angel, and a demon, and a human," the stranger spoke without facing him. "Ryo, if you need a name."

"Ryo…" Amon spoke, and the stranger shivered.

"To hear that name from those lips is almost too much to bear."

And with a sound like the beating of great wings, he was gone.

Chapter 2: Iron Virgin Jun

Ryo Asuka, aka Count Dracula, aka Satan, watched the car carrying Jun Asuka until it turned a corner and vanished from sight. Then, humming to himself under his breath, he headed back towards the mansion. There were funeral arrangements to attend to, and wills and estates and whatnot. Dull pedestrian nonsense. His grandfather had died happy; anything beyond that really failed to interest him.

Ryo opened the front door and almost screamed as he saw himself standing in front of him. A prank with a mirror, he thought at first, but the other him was wearing a tan trenchcoat he didn't own, and watched him cold and unblinking as he fought to calm himself. No, this wasn't him. The stranger was almost identical, the same blonde hair and blue eyes and delicate features, but something behind those eyes was different, something in the way he carried himself.

"W-who are you?" he stammered, trying to rally some courage. "What are you doing in my house?"

"You're one of my shadows," the stranger murmured, music in his voice. "You're a pale and shameful imitation of myself."

For a moment Ryo's mouth hung open. "Excuse me? Do you know who you're talking to?" he snapped, crossing his arms. "I'm Satan, dread overlord of the Tokyo night! I run occultism in this town! And you come into my house and try to tell me I'm some cheap knockoff of you? Who the hell do you think you are!?"

"Silence," the stranger spoke in a voice that was not a voice, strident with chimes and trumpets, agonizing. Ryo almost collapsed, hands over his ears. "You really have no idea what you are, do you?" he continued, expression almost pitying. "You sense dimly what you were made from and fancy yourself a demon for it, playing at petty cruelties and empty ceremonies. I'm embarrassed you could spring from me."

He wasn't human. Ryo felt a shiver down his spine as he realized it. Sure, he'd held his séances and his summoning rituals, but to be actually be faced with this…

"And Akira, oh, Akira," the stranger sighed, eyes downcast. "I couldn't stand to speak to him. He's a common street punk," he laughed bitterly. "His gentle nature, his belief in justice, his love for this world…everything that is beautiful and good about the Akira I love is absent. If a demon possessed him, he's lose himself in an instant." He fixed his eyes back on Ryo, a cold, scornful sneer on his face. "I could kill you, and take back my seat in this world. But you're not worth it, and neither is he."

"W-wait," Ryo cut in. "You're a real demon, aren't you? You really exist! I've been waiting for this day forever, to actually meet you! Tell me about Hell, tell me how I can serve you! Or even just your name, your real form…!"

"…you haven't even been listening," the stranger sighed. "Foolish, childish human. But you were made from me and bear my name, so I'll grant you this."

There was light that made Ryo's ears ache and sound that made Ryo's eyes burn and they were there, incomprehensibly and agonizingly beautiful, the world warping against the gravity of their divinity like the sky would crack and rain inversion on the barren earth, turning suffering to happiness and love to hatred. Their mouth did not move but they were smiling and their arms did not move but they were cupping Ryo's face in their hands and the contact sang with delirious, rapturous static.

"I am the first of God's creation," and their voice was all radiant cacophony in his bones, "I am Satan, usurper of Paradise."

And they were gone.

Ryo didn't know how long he stayed there, kneeling and dazed in the mansion's entranceway. The stranger was already starting to fade from his mind, memories burnt away in that terrible light, leaving nothing but fear and awe in their wake. By the next morning it was all gone; their face, their name, the fact Ryo had ever met them at all.

He never called himself Satan again.

Chapter 3: Interlude - Home

Akira found Ryo exactly where he knew he would, though he couldn't have told you how. In the wasteland, he was waiting. He was dressed all in white with the sun at his back, and his eyes were so sad when they met Akira's.

"Why did you call me all the way out here?" Akira asked. "I won't turn my back on humanity, and there's nothing you could say to change my mind. I don't care if I die." His gaze dropped to the ground, fists clenching. "…I thought it was over between us."

"I'm sorry, Akira," Ryo said, smiling faintly. "I never meant to… There was so much I didn't understand, until now. I'm not who I thought I was, and I've done truly unforgivable things, but I want you to know why. You deserve at least that much."

Something in his voice was different, and it made Akira shiver. "…I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Let me explain."

 

"…I may have intended to wipe out humanity," Ryo, Satan, continued, "but… How could I, after all this? How could I bear to destroy this beautiful world you fought so hard to protect? I'd be no better than my Father, when he waged war against the demons." They reached out to caress Akira's face, fingers cool and soft and human. "How could I ever fight you?"

The whole time Satan was speaking, Akira had stood quiet and listened, never saying a word. Now he layered his hand on top of theirs and smiled. "You're very kind."

Tears sprang to their eyes. "I…I'm not."

"You are," he said, lacing their fingers together, eyes closed. "You turned against Heaven to protect the demons, and now you're throwing aside your conquest for the sake of humans. You're kind."

Satan wept.

Akira pulled them close and stroked their hair tenderly as they cried. "I'm so relieved this war can end," he murmured. "I really thought it was Armageddon."

"It is," Satan replied, pulling back from his embrace. "I realized when I saw His light over Moscow. He's using us to cleanse the Earth, and He won't stand by and let us call a ceasefire."

"…then what can we do?"

"We finish what I started all those eons ago," they say, face suddenly serious. "We lay siege to Paradise."

"This is all a little beyond me…" Akira laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. "…do you think we could win?"

"With demons and devilmen and humans all as our allies? Yes. We'll win, and claim His seat, and take back everything we've lost." Satan smiled and for an instant Akira was a child again, looking down from a mountain with Ryo at his side and wondering at the beauty of the world. "With you by my side, I couldn't lose."

"Then let's do it," he replied without hesitation, blood singing. "Let's kill God."

Satan laughed with pure joy, all bells and chimes pealing in the air. "Let's kill Him! Heaven will be ours and the world will be free!" They swept Akira into their arms and kissed him with dizzying sweetness.

"Satan…" he murmured, forehead to forehead, and their name was forbidden fruit on his tongue. "Show me what you really are."

They spread their wings and there weren't words. There could be no words. Akira stared with awed and tearful eyes at the vision before him, breathless. "You…you're so beautiful…!"

To look at them was idolatry and to touch them was sacrilege, but Satan embraced him with arms and wings and light and he buried his face in their tender breasts. "I love you," they laughed, "I love you, I love you, my Akira!"

"I love you too," he said, overwhelmed with reverence and happiness. "I love you so much!"

Once more they kissed, and both thought they had never been so happy.

Chapter 4: Grimoire

Psycho Jenny didn't understand what she was looking at.

The creature sitting before her, as casually as if it owned the place, looked like a blonde human in a trenchcoat, but there was nothing human about it. Nothing demonic, either; nothing recognizable to her at all.

"What are you?" she asked, hanging back at the entrance to their hideout. "Tell me what you are."

The stranger laughed sadly, folding arms and legs tighter into itself. "Even you, Psycho Jenny? My most trusted advisor, my dearest confidant… Even you do not know me?"

"I do not."

The stranger's cold blue eyes met hers, and for an instant she felt a strange sense of familiarity. "Look into my mind," it said. "I will not resist."

She did, and she remembered.

"Satan-sama," she gasped, bowing down before them, "please forgive me for my insolence…!"

"Don't talk like that, Jenny," Satan said, raising her with a hand and a gentle smile. "I understand. I don't exist in this world, after all."

"Then…how are you here?"

They explained, starting from the very beginning.

 

"…my lover Akira and I waged war against Him, and we won. But…it was a Pyrrhic victory. Akira died at the hand of my Father, and even after claiming His throne, I could not bring him back. Another in his shape, yes…but he would not be my Akira. The only thing more painful than losing him would be to content myself with an imitation.

"But after taking His throne, I could see beyond the veil of our world. There were so many realms where he existed, but I did not. Perhaps, in one of those, I could find a place to call home.

"So I remade the world. A world of humans, exactly as it was before, save for the two of us. And a world of demons, where the race I fought so hard to protect could finally live without interference. And I left."

Satan sat with their back to a concrete wall, arms around their knees, Psycho Jenny's finger on their shoulder. "He's not here either," they murmured. "I've been searching for so long, and it's never him."

Psycho Jenny opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. Satan already knew, after all. They had to know.

"…I miss him so badly," they said, tears falling from their blue, blue eyes. "Like a hole in my chest. I can't put him out of my mind, even for a moment…" They stared at the ground, the saddest smile on their face. "I wonder, if I was the one who died, if he would feel this way. Perhaps there's a world where that's the case."

Psycho Jenny could do nothing but squeeze their shoulder.

"…I know," Satan finally said, turning their tearful eyes to her many-pupiled ones. "The Akira I loved is gone, and no matter how I search, he'll never return to me." And suddenly Satan was what they were, all white feathers and searing light. They stood, staring at someplace far beyond, as Psycho Jenny gazed up at them in awe. "But what else can I do but search? What do I have left but his memory? He was everything to me, and without him, I am nothing."

"…you could stay here, with us," Psycho Jenny said. "Take your place as our general, and lead us to victory. You may not have him, but would it really be so terrible to live as a demon?"

Satan knelt, and cupped her face in their hands, and smiled. "Please forgive me, Jenny," they murmured, "but I cannot forget what it was to be human, to love him. I could not bring myself to fight them." They embraced her with their wings, kissing her forehead lightly. "I give you my blessing, my friend. But I must leave."

"I don't understand," Psycho Jenny said as Satan stood, preparing to take flight. "You know you can't find him, so why…?"

"Because the search is all I have left," they said, smiling up at the stars. "He would not give up, so neither will I. Even if it's impossible, even if the whole universe is against us, perhaps someday we'll meet again." Satan turned to her, and their face was pure light. "I truly believe that we will. And even if we don't…his memory is with me, always."

With one stroke of their dozen wings, they took flight and vanished.

Oh, my Akira, I know you're searching for me as well, somewhere.

If you were the one to live, I know you couldn't abandon me, any more than I could abandon you.

So I won't stop until the day we're reunited.

I'll keep searching for you, even if it's through a thousand thousand worlds.

I'm sure there's a place where we can be together.

We just have to find it.

As they entered the next realm, Satan was smiling.

Chapter 5: Coda - Elsewhere

There were other worlds, too many to count.

Where an android with a human body fought for justice.

Where a pair of lovers piloted great humanoid war machines.

Strange and violent worlds, not dissimilar from the one Satan had left.

They kept searching.

 

---

 

It was in a human city on a peaceful earth. A beautiful young man with golden hair was reading at a table in front of a café, and a dark, handsome stranger sat down across from him and smiled sheepishly.

“I’ve been looking for you, I think,” Akira said.

“Yes, I think so,” Satan replied.

And they both laughed, because it was all so absurd, after everything.

“You…no, the Satan I knew, sacrificed themself to defeat God,” Akira said, head in his hand, eyes on their face. “Humans and demons managed to come to an accord, and live together on Earth. But, well…” He laughed, just like the Akira they knew used to laugh. “I couldn’t forget.”

“I was the only survivor,” Satan said, reaching across the table to toy with his sideburns. He let them, smiling, leaning into their touch. “I claimed His seat and remade the world, but…not him. It wouldn’t have been right. And I’ve been searching ever since.”

“So have I,” Akira said, layering his hand on theirs. “I may not be your Akira, and you may not be my Satan, but if you’ll have me…”

“Yes.” Tears sprang to their sapphire eyes. “Yes, of course.”

Akira smiled with such pure happiness.

 

---

 

“Have you been here long?” Akira asked as they walked off together, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder.

“What, in this plane?” Satan asked, reveling in the warmth of his hand in theirs.

“I meant this city, but sure. See, there’s this place that does the most amazing gingerbread…” he explained with an almost childish enthusiasm.

“Let’s go there now, then,” they said, leaning against him more strongly. “Let’s stay here a lifetime. I love this place.”

“Yeah, let’s do that!” Akira said, squeezing their hand. “We’ve got eternity to explore together, after all.”

“Do you think there are others like us out there? Searching?”

“Of course. Infinite permutations of us, waiting to find each other.”

“I hope they do.”

“Me too.”

Strangers, lovers, together, they were happy.