Title: Dog Plus Dog
Fandom: Shin Megami Tensei – Devil Survivor
Rating: PG
Length: 470 Words
Content Notes: No notes apply.
Author Notes: Using the manga name (Kazuya) for the protagonist.
Summary: Fusion is a delicate process that occasionally makes no sense.

* * * *

Orthrus and Kobold had nothing to say as they disappeared into the program for the Cathedral of Shadows, reduced to data to be recombined into a new demon for Kazuya to send into combat. It seemed peculiar to see a two-headed dog and a dog-faced humanoid reduced to strings of 0s and 1s, but ... it might not be as simple as that, for all that Kazuya could understand. What he did understand was that the information soon emerged from the program in a different shape, materializing before him as ... a young woman? How did he get that from uniting the two canine demons together?

"I am Silky," she said, her emerald pupils like points of light against the black of her eyes, "and I –" She tilted her head to one side, her green hair cascading behind her. "You seem confused, Master. Am I not the result you desired from this fusion?" And he immediately asked her why A and B had come to equal her as C. She thought about it for a second before replying, "I imagine it has to do with combining specific energies, rather than identities, but, if you recall my myth, I am also of bestial origin. Since I am walking among humans here, though, that aspect of me has already been discarded."

And she looked around her, noting that the abandoned shelter in which he had been obliged to summon her had been reduced to a state of ruin before saying, "If you have brought me here to tidy up, then my origin is the least of your worries." He reassured her that the debris around them was not his home. "No, then? What am I to do?" And he offered her a brief summation of the situation, telling her that the city had been overrun by demons that, unlike her, had no obligation to any summoner. "I see. Combat, then. I find it distasteful, but you will see that my strength is no trifle."

They soon departed to rejoin the others, but Kazuya could not quite get over his bemusement. Orthrus and Kobold had both served him faithfully in battle after battle, and they had managed to become a demure fairy. Granted, he and his friends had conducted other fusions that had offered similarly strange results, but ... this one struck him. Perhaps all the stress of the past several days had started to come home to roost? He allowed himself a smile and a shake of the head as they headed down the street to the playground that the others had established as their temporary base of operations.

Next to him, Silky offered a shrug of resignation, as if she had seen it all before. And perhaps she had. How many times had she been fused into existence, after all?

END.