Digital Devil Story: Reincarnation of the Goddess by Aya Nishitani Read Free Book Online Page B

at Hashiguchi. His finger was tipped with a claw that looked almost like a bird of prey's talon. This was about the time where the concept of polygons first started becoming widely-known. Hashiguchi was enthralled by the graphics--graphics that would normally be impossible to display without the use of a massive supercomputer.
    Right about that time, Hashiguchi noticed that the display looked like it was damp, as if covered in a layer of condensation. As he tried to wipe off the sreen with his hand, he felt something stick to his fingertips, and jumped back in surprise. Something slimy was stuck to his fingers, and as he shook them violently, a heavy-feeling, disgusting jelly-like substance fell to the floor with a splat.
    "Ugh! What the hell is this!?" Turning around at Hashiguchi's cry, Inoue was hit with a wave of shock and stood still, dumbfounded. Beneath the skin of the pink protoplasm, a mesh of green-colored veins spread out, and the whole blob pulsated like some sort of organ torn out of its host. The repulsive lump of flesh made a squishing sound as it started to approach the two men. Backing up, Inoue stumbled over a chair and sprayed the contents of his stomach all over the floor.
    "Inoue! Get a hold of yourself!" Grabbing his coworker's arm to keep him up, Hashiguchi ran toward the the door. As he turned, the gelatinous blob lashed out tentacles covered in a viscous sticky fluid like red jam, and in an instant grabbed onto the legs of both men.
    "Shit!" Crying out, Hashiguchi grabbed files and the phone off his desk--any object within reach--and began throwing them at his attacker, and when it showed no fear, grabbed a chair, lifted it over his head, and brought it crashing down on top of the thing. However, the skin of the gelatinous blob simply pulled the steel chair into its body, where it was quickly dissolved right in front of Hashiguchi's eyes.
    Thump, thump.
    Hashiguchi could no longer tell whether the sound he heard was that of his own heart beating, or whether it was the sound of the lump of flesh pulsating. When he was brought back to his senses by a strange sensation emanating from his foot, Hashiguchi's entire right leg was surrounded by the pink lump of flesh. He tried to cry out, but terror had sealed his throat and he could not even speak.
    Steadily, greedily, the pink blob started to pull Hashiguchi's body into its own. He felt no pain. Like sinking into warm mud, along with a boundless feeling of loss, there was only the sense of his impending death.
    Help me... No longer able to speak, Hashiguchi clawed at the air as if trying to find something to grab onto as a last resort, and in that instant, the blob clamped down onto his torso with an incredible force.
    The shock sent Hashiguchi's eyeballs flying out of their sockets, and in an instant his crushed ribs shredded his internal organs; the blood that came pouring out of his body was absorbed by the blob. Only Hashiguchi's skull protuded from the mound of flesh, and presently pink tentacles started flowing out of his open mouth and eye sockets.
    Now the only person on the deserted floor of the building, Inoue could hardly believe that Hashiguchi's gruesome death was for real. His capacity for rational thought completely gone, he stabbed maddly at the tentacle grabbing his leg with a ballpoint pen, as if to try to tear it off, and at that moment he felt someone looking at him and returned to his senses.
    At some point, the gelatinous lump had grown an eyeball. Sinister and full of malice, it stared at Inoue. The tentacle slowly crawled up his body from his leg to his chest.
    Watching his body being sucked into the grotesque mass of protoplasm, something snapped inside Inoue. Overcome with a rush of madness, he let out a shriek of cackling laughter. Right at that time, the floor's elevator made a sound, opened, and his coworkers returned from their break.
    "What's with those guys? What are they laughing at?"
    "I bet they're slacking off on the job