The Demi-Fiend

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**The Demi-Fiend,** also known as Naoki Kashima or Nao-kun, is the main protagonist from ***Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.***

## Canon

Originally a Japanese high school student, Naoki decided one day to accompany his friends, Chiaki and Isamu, to the Shinjuku Medical Center to visit one of their teachers, Yuko Takao. Reaching Chiaki in the hospital lobby, she told him that Ms. Takao was nowhere to be found--Nor was anyone except for the three friends. The hospital was completely empty. Curious, Naoki searched the seemingly abandoned rooms in the second floor for Isamu, who went up earlier to find Ms. Takao.

Eventually, he made his way down to the basement area, where he found the walls covered in blood stains around the corridors, and rooms filled with bizarre occult devices and symbols. Pressing on into the horrific scene, Naoki soon encountered a mysterious man named Hikawa in one of the rooms. Viewing the teen as a potential hindrance to his plans, Hikawa summoned forth the demon Baphomet, intending to kill Naoki, but Ms. Takao arrived just in time to stop him, threatening to back out of their arrangement if Hikawa were to harm her student.

Upon reaching the rooftop, Ms. Takao confessed to Naoki that her supposed sickness was all but a ruse. She actually led the gang of friends to the hospital so that they could survive an event known as the Conception, as due to being inside the eye of the storm, they would be spared from it’s godly wrath. Suddenly, the wind began to pick up, and the sky outside darkened with a deep blue. Naoki could do nothing but watch as the Conception occurred: Every living being outside was killed as black lightning flashed, and the earth bent inwards, wrapping into a sphere as a blinding blue light began to grow from the centre.

The world had turned itself inside out, the sky disappearing, reality distorting. The Vortex World, the purgatory of a world between death and rebirth, had been born.

As he faded in and out of consciousness, Naoki encountered the one who would allow him too to be reborn, just as his reality had . Subdued in his dazed state by an elderly nursemaid, the blond child withdrew a strange looking silver worm-like creature, dangling it above Naoki’s face and dropping it upon him. Painfully, the creature burrowed into his eye, and the parasite merging with him as it slithered down his skull and into his neck. This creature was a Magatama--the essence of a demon--and it’s forced coupling with Naoki gave rise to the birth of the Demi-fiend: One with the body of a demon, and the heart of a human.

His body had been altered, with glowing green markings emerging on his skin and a horn-like growth protruding from the back of his neck, a sort of ancient second brain granted to him by the Magatama, affording him demonic powers such as magic casting and summoning--And the ability to converse with demons. This transformation came with the ultimate destiny: He alone was to either create the new world by supporting a Reason, and reignite the cycle of life, death and rebirth, as the Great Will decreed, and as the voice of Kagutsuchi told him upon awakening within the Vortex World.

But fate would not see him follow that path.

Working alongside the mysterious old man and his retainer, the Demi-Fiend did battle with the Fiends of the Vortex World as he explored the new landscape--Who had supposedly stolen prized menorahs from the old man’s collection. In return for these menorahs, the Demi-Fiend received one of his own to allow him to detect the presence of others nearby, and access deeper into the mysterious Labyrinth of Amala. As he descended, his grip upon his humanity became looser and fainter, and his heart further twisted by his newfound demonic powers. Naoki slipped away with each floor descended deeper into the Labyrinth, and the Demi-Fiend took his place. Having reached the bottom of the Labyrinth, it is revealed the menorah were not stolen at all: They were given to the Fiends by the old man himself, who set them up as a method of testing the strongest demons in the Vortex World, to select a new leader for his demonic armies. This old man was none other than Lucifer himself--And finally, Lucifer had found his chosen one. Thus, the Demi-Fiend was reborn as a True Demon, and the last vestiges of his humanity were obliterated as he was anointed as the newest demon of chaos.

Ascending the tower of Kagutsuchi and killing the god-like entity with nothing but grit and demonic ability, the Vortex World had lost it’s light: All the leaders of the Reasons had been killed, and with Kagutsuchi destroyed, there was no god to remake reality. The world was plunged into darkness, as the cycle came to a halt and time ceased to have meaning. But one last challenge remained before the Demi-Fiend could ascend to the rank of general of Hell: Lucifer himself revealed his true form, and sought to test his new demon’s awesome power. Surpassing even his creator, the very avatar of chaos, the Demi-Fiend proved victorious, and was crowned the leader of Lucifer’s vast army. He was the ultimate weapon, the one who would topple the balance of light and dark, and finally, systematically destroy the Great Will and put an end to it’s reign once and for all. Neither human, nor demon: All bends to his will.

Befitting a general of hell, Naoki is cold and ruthless. He rarely, if ever, speaks, preferring his retainer, Pixie, to tackle most of the social aspects of his mission. Battle is where he truly shines: Though quiet and not full-on homicidal, he is sadistic and brutal in his attacks, often foregoing magic or demonic abilities and preferring to deal vicious killing blows with his bare hands. He is not one to actively seek fights with others for no reason, though when push comes to shove, ultraviolence will usually be his first option. Thankfully, however, Pixie will usually step in around this point to seek a non-violent solution to whatever problem they are faced with, acting as the last vestiges of his moral compass. He has little time for those he views as beneath him, and acts especially hostile towards those calling themselves gods, or servants of a higher power and strong believers in philosophies or reasons.

## Pre-Paradise

The Demi-Fiend has completed the True Demon Ending, as is now on a special assignment from Lucifer: He must hunt down and destroy the most powerful avatars of the Great Will, so that it will be weakened during the final battle against it and its forces.

## Trivia

* Going by the in-universe timeline, Naoki was the first player character to arrive in the hotel. He is also the only one to arrive voluntarily.
* Naoki is the first, and so far only, Shin Megami Tensei character in the hotel—excluding the Persona characters, who in fact fall under the general MegaTen umbrella franchise.