Taken By a Demon

Demonology

"You said you're... taken by a demon?" Diana repeated incredulously.

"Yes," Shizuka answered.

"Okay," Diana said, but not quite feeling it. "I guess those are words that make sense. Um. I would like to do a think?"

Alrighty, so. Demons. Demons? That's... weird, right? Nonsensical, even. Not that Diana minded nonsensical, but she was always perfectly aware of when she did it and wasn't confused about how the world worked. If demons were a thing, it would mean she didn't in know who knew how many ways. The rational answer would be that Shizuka was making stuff up, but the rational answer was rarely the fun answer.

"When you say 'demon', you mean...?" Diana prompted. Maybe she meant something that easily made sense?

"A... sort of magical spirit," Shizuka explained. She deflated front of Diana's eyes. Looked down and away, didn't want to catch Diana's eyes any more. "They, uhm, don't have their own bodies, so they have to possess other people and, uhm-"

"Okay," Diana interrupted and this time she meant it. This wasn't some dumb joke, it was absolute truth and it was so, so important that Diana didn't dismiss it just because it wasn't what she expected. How the hell had she managed to regress in her ability to receive news that might seem impossible? "I believe you."

Shizuka looked up immediately at her first word and when their eyes met again, hope was back in her dark eyes. "You... do?"

"Of course," Diana sent her friend a wide grin. "I don't need to understand yet just to accept your words. If this is how you say it is, this is how it is." She swept some hair behind her ear for a moment to think. "I don't think I'll be able to google my way to trustworthy information on this one, so can you elaborate a bit more? Oh, but I guess you were in the middle of doing that when I interrupted you before? Sorry about that."

Diana giggled to herself as she watched Shizuka's expression grow from disappointment to befuddlement to vague hope to finally looking like she was about to burst in the best possible way. Diana's giggles settled into a smile with the hope of having made up for her earlier blunder.

"Of course," Shizuka said, a grin on her face Diana wasn't sure she'd seen before. "What do you want to know?"

"The basics, I guess? What's a demon and why do you have one? Actually, wait, if a demon has taken over you, does that mean I've been talking to a demon all this time? That'd be pretty cool, assuming they aren't all super evil. But I guess you're not super evil, so that disproves one of those theories... Are all demons super evil? And, like, if demons are real, what else is? Is magic a thing? Do you have magic? That would be so cool!"

"Okay. Um," Shizuka started, trying to decide where to start. "I'm... not a demon. There's a demon inside me, but I am personally human. Like I said, demons themselves are spirits who take over other beings' bodies. Those beings, like me, are called hosts. Umm, my demon, that is, the one inside of me, is called Gijash and he-"

"Guys playing jazz?" Diana interrupted.

"No, it's not quite pronounced like that," Shizuka corrected. "But close enough for now." She paused for a moment, trying to find the thread she just lost. "Gijash is different from most demons. Most of them take over the host completely, but Gijash kind of just... catches a ride. He's very rarely in control and only when I let him. Ah, this is actually visualized, here, look," she continued, pointing at the star in a ring symbol on Shizuka's shirt. Diana hadn't noticed consciously before, but suddenly she realized that it had been on all of the different layers Shizuka had worn that day. That was... interesting.