Waking Dream - Devil Survivor CYOA

You ask Kumiko how her parents are doing.

"My parents?  Oh, they're pretty good.  They've been better, obviously.  But they're fine.  Um...  Well, Dad's got a nasty cough.  Which is why I'm crawling around looking for some cough medicine.  But that sort of thing's getting irritatingly hard to find, and it's just going to get worse without anyone to, y'know, make any more...  I may have to give in and try begging from some military personnel."

"Why not just find a de-hee-mon to hee-heal your father, ho?" King Frost demands.

"There's plenty of demons with healing magic out there," Kijinuma suggests.  "And some with special talents that go beyond normal healing."

"I... want to save that for a last resort.  It's just a cold, after all," Kumiko says.  "I don't know how healing magic affects people long-term, especially people who can't handle demons themselves."

You warn her that it can take some time for magically regenerated tissue to really blend with the rest of your body... which you learned the hard way.

"Thanks for the advice, Kira.  I'll stick to my plan, then.  Try to find some medicine, and only go to a demon if things get worse.  Um...  If you'll excuse me, I need to keep looking.  I'll talk to you later, I hope."

With that, Kumiko excuses herself, crossing the street into the ruins of a large general goods store.

---

Fate with Kumiko is now level 2!
You'll unlock more skills when she joins you in battle.

---

You glance at your phone.  It's three o'clock now.  Three o'clock...?  Three...

You aren't sure why, but you feel like there's something important that you're forgetting.  Something you need to do, somewhere you need to be...?

(A) Hospital (George and Elise)
(B) Downtown (Kumiko)
(C) University Library (Rita)
(D) River Docks
(E) Military Base (Sara and Jackson)
(F) The Farm (George and ???)

I'll back this. Rita is like our cute Littlw Mascot.

Rita closes her book, a heavy tome about cell phone design and how they interact with servers and satellites.  Her long-term goal is to figure out how the demon summoning application works.  So far, it's not progressing too well.  She reaches out for her next book, a treatise on the theory of magnetite.

Rita notices the room seems dimmer than before.  She glances at her phone.  Only 15:02.  Darker than it should be.  Without power, the only light comes through the windows, but at this time of year, the sun should keep the room bright for a few more hours.  The light decreases noticeably as a sound rings out in the distance.  Something's definitely wrong.  "Grey?  Is someone here?" she calls out quietly.  He's two floors below, at the only entrance.  If anyone comes in, he should be able to warn her, even at this distance.  She checks her phone.

"Grey.  Status: Dying."

The light suddenly vanishes completely.  The only light is a thin stream pouring around the drawn curtains.  Rita chokes down her fear and clings to her phone, using its dim light to navigate through the shelves towards the window.  As she reaches out to raise the cover and let the light in, a black tendril suddenly shoots from the darkness and snares her wrist.  Rita lets out a startled gasp.  Before she can react, more tendrils reach out, latching onto her ankles and midriff.  Another coils around her neck, tight enough to be painful but not so much to cut off her blood supply.  She reaches up with her free hand, trying to pull it off, but it's too strong.

The tentacles snap to the side, slamming Rita into a bookshelf.  The shelf goes flying over, knocking over the next.  As a chain of shelves fall in the distance, the tentacles quickly reverse and slam their captive into the wall.  Rita, stunned, abandons her struggle as the tentacles tighten painfully around her extremities.

The tentacles slowly bring her into the shadows.  A white figure materializes from the abyss, with the general size and shape of a man's head, but lacking any facial features.  A black suit frames it, and the outline of a ludicrously tall humanoid creature is barely visible in the gloom.  Rita stares at the monstrosity's face, transfixed, until the sound of scraping catches her attention.  She turns her neck - the tentacle loosens just enough to let her look at the source of the sound.  Rita can just make out a pair of tentacles shaving the wood from a fragment of fallen, broken bookshelf, sharpening it to a deadly point.  Rita snaps her head back to the monster's face.  A large crack has appeared where the mouth should be.  A solid black, jagged, zigzag, a disgusting parody of a smile.  Rita realizes the creature's toying with her, taunting her, enjoying its prey's fear.  In spite of herself, a panicked cry escapes Rita's lips.  Another tentacle coils around her mouth to silence her as the smile inverts.  It doesn't seem to like screaming.

Rita dangles helplessly, struggling futilely with her one free arm, listening to the sound of the wood being carved.  The noise stops, and the creature brings Rita closer, stopping her with only inches between their faces, as if enjoying the sight of the panic in her eyes.  Rita tries to prepare herself for the end, but can't collect her thoughts.  Instead, she settles for a weak punch to the monster's face, which only seems to amuse it further.  The tentacles start to wind up, then they fling her towards the wooden spike.

"King Frost!"

Rita slams into a wall of snow and ice.  Painful, and cold, but not deadly.  She crumples to the ground, badly injured from being thrown around earlier.

"Kijinuma!"

A glimmer appears in the air above Rita's limp body.  The dust slowly sinks to the ground, coating her.  Rita forces herself to her feet, aided by the giant crowned snowman.  The tentacled creature takes a step back, disappearing into the darkness.

You recall your demons, rushing to Rita's side over the downed bookshelves.   You cast Dia, and Rita straightens up.

"I'm...  I'm OK..." she assures you, gasping for air.  A tentacle whips out of the darkness, and you step back just in time to avoid the lash.  Looks like this isn't over yet.

(A) Grab Rita and run for the nearest exit
(B) Wait for the creature to show itself, then attack
(C) Rush to try to open a window
(D) Use fire spells to ignite the books for light

Current Party, if you want to make any changes, let me know.

Oh, right. Yeah. I should probably tell you what you're up against.

---

You check your phone, trying to get a fix on the white-faced demon.

Vile: Sl3n&e%#4n
L3#e1: 2^
W5%k73s5: ?*@1
-es!8Ta#c3: N04e
S*)l1s:

The rest is similarly illegible.  But apparently this demon's not much above your level.  Such a strange, arbitrary way of gauging people's relative strengths... you'll need to ask Bast and Vorvadoss how they calculate it later.

"There's too much interference for me to get a read on this monster," Vorvadoss explains.  "Are there a lot of Unknown-type demons in the area?"

A black poof-ball looking thing floats by, only visible thanks to its white eyes.  You bring up your phone and scan it.

Unknown: ???
Level: 1

After you notice one, you quickly notice the room's full of them.  Fortunately, they don't seem hostile.  Or even capable of fighting.

"Just worry about the one with the white face," Bast tells you.  "It's a Vile family demon, so it can attack from way out of your range.  But it's slower than most demons, so you should be able to outrun it, or corner it so it can't use its ability!"

(A) Grab Rita and run for the nearest exit
(B) Wait for the creature to show itself, then attack
(C) Rush to try to open a window
(D) Use fire spells to ignite the books for light


(Currently 1 vote for A)

I want to clarify this again. This isn't FE. Unless specifically listed, characters won't die when running out of HP, they'll just be unusable until they're revived or the fight ends. At which point they'll be fine. I'll always be abundantly clear when a character running out of HP will result in actual death instead of KO. And, as I said before, if ALL units are defeated, that's game over.

And Rita and Grey are both fully healed.

You tell Rita that you should go.

---

Victory: Kira escapes
Defeat: Kira and Rita are defeated
Special: If Kira falls, Rita will have to carry her.  If Rita falls, Kira can choose whether to carry her or abandon her

---

You take a look around.  The main staircase is behind you, but the downed bookshelves... you'll have to either make your way over them or around them.  It'll slow the monster down, but with his ability to attack at range...  Plus, you'll be turning your back on where you last saw that monster.

You could jump out the window...  Though you're on the third floor.  And that monster might try to cut you off.

There's an emergency exit staircase behind where you last saw the monster.  If you sprint by, he'll probably only get a hit or two in.  But that staircase is still indoors.  If it's dark in there, maybe that monster could follow you.

(A) The main staircase
(B) Window
(C) Emergency Exit

A but with this Added

Kira keeps an eye on the demon while Rita and the demons clear the books behind us. Rita and her demons focus on clearing a path while Kira and her demons focus on watching the demons.if anyone has fire magic use it on a book so we have some type of light.

We go as fast but as safe as possible

Grey, Kira, and Rita have fire magic. Anyway.

Last chance to make party changes.

(A) Rita defends, Kira clears the way
(B) Kira defends, Rita clears the way

B