Aleph

Aleph (アレフ, Arefu) is the default name of the main character of Shin Megami Tensei II. He is also known under the alias of Hawk (ホーク, Hōku). Along with all of the other main characters, save for Hiroko, Aleph was created artificially; in his case, to be the Messiah of the Millennium Kingdom.

Like the protagonist of Shin Megami Tensei, Aleph cannot cast spells, but has the unique ability to recruit and summon demons.

Appearances

 * Shin Megami Tensei II: Protagonist

"Hawk"
Aleph is introduced in the story with the name of "Hawk", a trainee under Okamoto's guidance. He was saved by Okamoto from being killed by demons that ambushed him while he was on what Okamoto referred to as a "drunken stupor" (presumed to be a consequence of his, at the time fresh, amnesic state). As the owner of a fighting gym, Okamoto, impressed by the young man's abilities, took him under his wing and trained him to be a Gladiator, so that one day he would become a Champion in the Colosseum, with would make both of them achieve citizenship in the Center, leaving Valhalla behind them.

"Hawk" is depicted as a prodigy. Not only he holds the highest score ever achieved in a Virtual Battler, but "literally went through it unscathed", according to Okamoto. He is also a contender and one of the two finalists of the Colosseum's current tournament, and is expected to fight Red Bear, a warrior in a gym owned by Okamoto's rival in the business, Haneda.

One day, while furiously training in the Virtual Battler of the area for the upcoming match, Hawk is surprised by the sudden appearance of a strange man in a wheelchair who predicts that soon a great calamity will befall the city, and as such, he has been for the appearance of strong warriors at the various public Virtual Battlers scattered through town, as to be able to give them what he calls a "Demon Summoning Program"; stating that if humanity doesn't learn how to use the power of the demons as their own, they will inevitably be destroyed by it. Confused, Hawk accepts his offer, uploading the mysterious program into his Arm Terminal.

The day of the fight then finally arrives, but Hawk finds himself suffering from multiple "flashes" of enigmatic scenes that he can't clearly remember, all of them depicting a man in a suit, along with various other individuals preserved naked inside strange laboratory tubes. This phenomenon, however, turns out to be a problem when the visions starts to afflict Hawk right in the middle of his battle against Red Bear. He does manage to achieve victory in the end, and is crowned as the newest Champion of the Colosseum.

After the tournament, Hawk and Okamoto left the main town of Valhalla, and started living in Haneda's old gym (now under Okamoto's management). But one day they receiuve an unexpecte visit from a resident of the Center, a woman named Hiroko, who requires the help of the "new champion" in order to find the whereabouts of a "missing young boy." She explains to them the top-secret details of an accident in the Center, an explosion that happened six months before the events of the game and that, supposedly, was set up by two scientists named Mekata and Hanada. According to her, Hanada is hiding in a mansion who belongs to the governess of Valhalla, a woman who attends only by the title of "Madam". Entrance to the mansion is very strict, but the Madam is know for summoning recent champions of the tournaments staged in the Colosseum in order to congratulate them for their victory; so Hiroko's plan is to accompany Hawk, in order for her to gain entrance to the heavily guarded building and find clues about the location of Hanada.

However, once there, the Madam explains that she too needs Hawk's help, as she's also in search of Hanada, who escaped from her estate, and is planning to open a portal to the Abyss, so that demons can come to the human world and cause disaster. Without much of a choice, and accompanied by Madam's "pet demon", a powerful Cerberus, Hawk, along with Hiroko, travels to the slum districts of Valhalla, in pursuit of Hanada, so that they can both stop him.

Through Cerberus' heightened senses, Hanada is quickly found, but in his pursuit of perfecting his research without any restraints, his mind has gone mad with power: through the use of four specials dolls, and a magical circle, he manages to open a gate to the Abyss, summoning a demon named Mercurius from there, who he orders to kill Hawk and Hiroko. The demon, however, is too powerful for the scientist alone to control, and he is finished off by him after the latter ignored his commands.

Finally taking care of the rampaging demon, Hawk and Hiroko report their findings back to the Madam, but in her mansion, someone called Zayin has been waiting for them. A representative of the Center, he states that he has been looking for Hawk for a long time, who he reveals his true name to be "Aleph", and that he was also a resident of the Center all along. Then, Zayin guides both Aleph and Hiroko back to the Center's headquarters, where they are greeted by the Center's Bishop, who tells Aleph that his memories were erased by Mekata, right after he was kidnapped from the Center, and that he is, in fact, none other than the Messiah: God's chosen savior, whose coming was foretold by John in theBook of Revelations, and that Tokyo Millennium needs him in order to guide the people towards the construction of the Thousand Year Kingdom, an age where, according to him, humanity would finally find true everlasting peace under the watch of God.

The Messiah
The Bishop then introduces to Aleph a woman called Beth, the one who he claims was sent by God with the mission of being the perfect partner for the Messiah. Beth vows to be alongside Aleph forever, and then the two are sent on various tasks by the Bishop to save the city from destruction by the hands of great demons who are wrecking havoc: King Frost, with his ice magic, and a Basilisk, who is claiming the lives of the innocents with a deadly toxin, are terrorizing the Holytown district of Tokyo Millenium. Not only that, they also have to take care of Betelgeuse, a demon who has appeared in the Factory district, taking over the site of a large excavation and mining project, and of several rampaging Demi-Nandis, who the Center breed in the farming areas of that same district for food. While this all is happening, the duo starts noticing that earthquakes are becoming more and more frequent, and the workers at the Factory area are all behaving rather suspiciously.

After successfully fending off the demons' onslaught, Aleph and Beth report back to the Center, where Zayin is waiting. He suggests that Aleph visits Gimmel, in the Arcadia area, hoping that the trip would help make his memory a bit clearer. Once there, he and Beth are faced with a world completely different from the one outside: there are no demons, luxurious houses and great trees fill the landscape, and all the ones who reside there are happy. Finally meeting Gimmel, he tells them that after Aleph went missing, he was put in charge of Arcadia, building it into a prototype of the Thousand Year Kingdom that Millennium wants to build, and that so far, the project was a complete success.

Gimmel then requests that Aleph and Beth go back to the Center and report to Zayin. However, what they find there is a situation of utter chaos: demons managed to break into the Center, and a man who the Bishop refers to as the "Anti-Messiah" is claiming to the populace that he is the true Messiah, and not Aleph. As thus, Aleph and Beth are sent on a mission to intercept the Anti-Messiah's activities, who they then trace back all the way to Valhalla's Colosseum, where they discover that he is named Daleth, and is challenging Aleph to a duel, as to find out who out of them is the true savior from the prophecy.

Nonetheless, in the ensuing battle, Daleth manages to "unleash a brutally powerful attack" that puts Aleph in a near death-state. But, just when the winner of the fight seemed to have been chosen, Beth dives in front of Daleth's finishing strike, saving Aleph from certain death at the cost of her own life. Seeing this, Aleph recovers, finally beating Daleth for good, before sparing his life, as to honor Beth's dying wish that both of the young men survive the ordeal. Daleth escapes, and the Center's Bishop, guiding a crowd of believers into the arena, cry out to the people that Aleph is indeed God's savior, and thus, the true Messiah. Daleth, in the other hand, swears revenge.

After the events that unfolded in the Colosseum, a young boy comes to Aleph, saying that "a funny-looking old man" told him to pass a message onto him. Reading the memo, Aleph finds out that it was delivered by none other than Mekata himself, one of the fugitive scientists that once worked for the Center. Following the paper's instructions to meet him in the Valhalla's slums, Aleph discovers that Mekata is the "man in the suit" that appeared in the strange dreams he had before. The scientist says that he is willingly to tell Aleph exactly who he is, and why his memories are gone, but he has a demand: Aleph must go to the Factory, and free Hiroko, who was imprisoned by the Center for her actions early in the game. Aleph agrees to cooperate with him, but security in the Factory is tough, and the holding cells are maintained in a place separated from the rest of the area, so Mekata explains to him that Aleph will need to go through a secret passage through the Underworld if he wishes to suceed. Once there, Aleph is ambushed by Daleth, who is demanding a rematch: he is once again defeated, and while fleeing, drops an item called "Mars Pillar" that Aleph quickly retrieves.

While exploring the Underworld's dungeons, guarded by the demon Janus, Aleph meets and befriends a little demon girl named Nadja, who seems to develop some kind of "innocent crush" on him. As his temporary minion, she helps Aleph through the mazes, guiding him to the labor camp's location, where they finally find Hiroko's cell, which is being guarded by Zayin himself. After engaging him in combat, Zayin, moved by Aleph's resolution, reveals that even he is starting to have second thoughts about the Center's immoral methods of enforcing its laws, deciding to leave Hiroko under Aleph's care, but not before alerting him that she's "not in her right mind". It's only after entering Hiroko's cell, however, that Aleph discovers what he truly meant: Hiroko is obviously not sane, and won't leave with him. Nadja, seeing Aleph's desperate efforts to save his friend, ends interpreting this as a sign of love, and decides to fuse herself with Hiroko, in order to heal her of the Center's brainwashing (stating that by becoming part of Hiroko, Aleph would also love her).

Strengthened by Nadja's power, Hiroko comes back to her usual self, fleeing from the labor camp, along with Aleph, as both of them decide to meet Mekata, in order for them to finally have some answers. But, once in Valhalla, they meet once again with Zayin, and are shocked to learn that the Center has despatch a gargantuan demon named Abaddon to swallow up all of Valhalla. Utterly disgusted by the Center's actions, Zayin, labeled as a traitor, stages a revolt, taking over the local broadcasting of Millennium News Network, and informing the people of the true purposes of the Center: according to him, the world of the Thousand Year Kingdom that the Center wants to create is a reality only for a limited number of selected people. The ones who are not chosen are cruelly cast aside, just like the citizens of Valhalla (who chose the pleasures of a free life over servitude under the Center's laws). Once the "wheat has been separated from the chaff", Millennium will be destroyed, just like Valhalla. Finally, Zayin reveals that the Factory is nothing more than a concentration camp, where people are forced to work against their wills. By exposing the true agenda of the Center to the people, Zayin hopes to incite them into action, so that they can together stop the machinations of the Center, and fix the corrupted system that is governing Tokyo Millennium.

At the Underworld
Divided by doubt on which side to align themselves with, Aleph and Hiroko befriends a mysterious "blonde man" on Holytown's bar who introduce himself as Louis Cypher. According to him, Abaddon's body can be found hiding somewhere on the Underworld, far below the most depths of Tokyo Millennium and the reach of the Center's influence. Hearing this, they decide to travel once again there, traversing through the multiple different layers of the underground ruins of what once was the original city of Tokyo, encountering it's various residents and gradually discovering how truly grim is the way that the Center treats those who are not considered worthy before their eyes.

First, they have to fight Daleth once again, now in the dungeons of the sunken city of Shinjuku. Unbeknownst to them, Daleth has come up with a new plan to use a love potion on Aleph (manufactured by a prankster fairy named Puck) in order to make him fall in love with Anoon (a timid fairy girl who is the owner of a drug shop in the area), which he hopes it will put him out of commission for good. The plan backfires however, and the love potion ends up hiting Hiroko instead (who then starts to comically chase Daleth around).

After Aleph forces Puck to give him the "Infidelilly Sap", and is helped by Oberon (the king of the faeries, and the benevolent ruler of Shinjuku) to break the spell on Hiroko, Daleth is the next one to suffer from the effects of the sap, falling deeply in love with Anoon (who, since the beggining, also loved him). After these events, Daleth finally abandons his grudge on Aleph, deciding to live in Shinjuku, alongside Anoon, in order to help the fairies there make their lives easier. He also explains that the "Mars Pillar" Aleph picked up in one of their previous battles is, in fact, one of the seven ancient artifacts needed to open a passage to the Abyss. He gives them a hint of where they can find the next Pillar, and then they leave, resuming their exploration of the Underworld.

Next stop is Akasaka, a city under the dominion of the Chirei, hardworking demons (and even some humans) who earn a living by excavating precious weapons and other items from ages past in a nearby site, and selling them to clients from the surface. And lastly, Aleph and Hiroko arrives on Roppongi, a town which has become the last refuge of the "mutant community," a group of humans who were grotesquely disfigured by the toxic radiations that affected the the Earth after the nuclear wars, and were sealed under the earth by the construction of Tokyo Millennium, cast out by the Center and forced to forever live out of the reach of the sunlight.

After meeting with the Mutant Elder, and hearing his story, Aleph and Hiroko are then introduced to Hiruko, who serves as an attendant of the powerful guardian of Tokyo, Taira no Masakado. Desperate to amend his past mistakes, where he foolishly betrayed the Amatsukami clan of japanese gods (and Masakado himself) when he allowed the Kunitsukami, allied with the Hebrew pantheon of gods, to defeat and imprison them, Hiruko begs Aleph to retrieve his master's body parts, which were torn asunder when he tried to mediate the conflict between the two opposing groups, and were taken away by the Kunitsukami not long after they were equally cast away by the same gods who they had aligned themselves with before.

With the help of Hiruko, the doors of different shrines scattered through the Underworld are opened: there, Aleph and Hiroko meet some of the Kunitsukami, who after fighting or being helped by him, grants the duo the parts of Masakado's body they were holding. Then, after discovering the location of Masakado's missing decapitated head (who was in possession of a digger in Holytown who wasn't aware of it's true value), and fusing it all together with Masakado's soul, that Hiruko had with him all along, Aleph and Hiroko finally revives Masakado, who, after thanking them, proceeds to teleport himself, and his servant, to a sealed grotto in the Underworld, were the Amatsukami are being held.

Not wielding the great strength he once had, a temporary consequence of the rebirth process, Masakado's current power is unable to let him do anything more than just removing the giant boulder that was put in the way of the cave's entrance; as such, Aleph and Hiroko are the only ones who can free the gods of the Amatsukami now. Once they manage to do it, they are deeply thanked by both Hiruko and the sun goddess Amaterasu herself. Leaving for the Kongokai (a celestial plane where the Amatsukami intend to heal from their wounds), Aleph and Hiroko are left once again from where they started. But this time, they made up their minds: they shall go back to Holytown, join Zayin in his quest for true justice, and storm the Center's headquarters once and for all.

Rebellion
Once reunited with Zayin, he explains to them that his first priority is to rescue the innocent workers who, according to him, are being forced to labor in the Factory area against their wills. They all rush to the camps, but there, are perplexed to find out that none of the workers, some of which are even children, wants to leave their cells (much like Hiroko once did), indifferent to the inhuman conditions they have been toiling under all this time. Knowing that something is clearly wrong, Zayin suggests that they invade the Factory's watchtower, whose last floor was being guarded by the demon Belphegor, who almost managed to mortally wound Zayin.

After Aleph and Hiroko finishes off Belphegor, they proceed to uncover the Factory's disturbingly dark secret: in the top of the tower, a demon woman named Siren is singing a sorrowful melody which is hypnotizing the laborers into mindlessly working till utter exhaustion and death on the fields. Discovering, however, that she wasn't to be blamed for her actions, and that the music was only her way of mourning the lost of her lover, from who she was taken away from by the Center's men, Aleph and Hiroko decides to finish what Hanada once started: with the dolls he once utilized in their hands, along with an other one that wasn't in his belongings (and was the main reason for the failure of the ritual at the slums of Valhalla), they successfully manage to open a gate that leads directly into the Abyss, where they start their looking for Siren's long lost lover, hoping that by reuniting the couple, she would stop her singing.

However, in the the middle of their search in the plains of the Abyss, Aleph and Hiroko experience a bizarre phenomenon: a "spacial distortion" of sorts teleports them into the inwards of a mysterious building, where on separated chambers, they find people tied to metallic chairs, their brains plugged into computers. Further investigating the upper floors, they are shocked to discover that the responsible for their disgusting state was none other than Gimmel, the real Gimmel, as he reveals to them that the Arcadia that Aleph witnessed before was nothing more than the fabrication of virtual reality, and thus, not real, simply an illusion under his control. Aware that Gimmel would not let them leave that place alive, not now that they know the truth about his fake utopia, Aleph and Hiroko engage him in battle, where he is killed, and his false world of delusions and lies, destroyed.

In the end, Aleph and Hiroko tracks down the location of Petersen, Siren's lover. Bringing him to Tokyo Millennium through the same portal they once came from, they finally reunite him with Siren. The couple thanks Aleph for his help and kindness, traveling back to the Abyss, which makes the spell that once brainwashed the laborers to dissolve itself; now, they are truly free.

Nevertheless, they are not awarded with much time for celebrations, hearing through the television broadcasting on Holytown that the Center's bishop decided to adopt more drastic measures to deal with Zayin's revolt: he states that if Zayin doesn't submit himself to the Center immediately, they will cut out Holytown's air supply, merciless killing everyone who lives in that area. Zayin doesn't intend to give himself in so easily though, heading to the Center's headquarters not to surrender, but to fight them head-on. Making their ways through the Center's corridors, Aleph, Hiroko and Zayin finally found themselves before the doors of the Center's secret chambers, which sheltered their mysterious and true leaders: an enigmatic group only known as "the Four Elders". However, their inhuman nature is quickly revealed when the rebellious Zayin is turned into a stone slab by their ferocious supernatural powers. Seeing this, it is uncovered to Aleph and Hiroko, who proceeded in his rescue, the true identities of the Elders as, in fact, archangels of God all along. Three of them, Michael, Raphael and Uriel, face the heroes in furious battles, but are all scathingly defeated and killed by them.

Notwithstanding, the danger has not yet passed: "God" himself appears this time, in order to exact retribution on Aleph and Hiroko for killing his servants. After an arduous and difficult combat, however, they still managed to emerge triumphant, albeit with great effort. Exiting the chambers, the last Elder then appears in front of Aleph and Hiroko, revealing herself as the last archangel, Gabriel. According to her, the seraphim were all commanded in the past by the real God to look after the building of Tokyo Millennium, being instructed by him to wait for the savior that he would one day send to them. However, the government of the city, under their control, became so irreversibly corrupted, turning into nothing more than a tool to control and enslave humanity, that it simply could not shelter a Messiah of the one God as to lead the people. Unable to wait any longer, the archangels tried to fabricate their own Messiah, a pursuit that lead them led them astray from the will of God, who abandoned them in return. Now, Gabriel, who separated herself from them by the orders of God, is the only seraphim remaining. She uses her magical powers to restore Zayin back to normal, and tells Aleph and Hiroko that he is waiting for them in the Center's control room, before disappearing to destinations unknown.

At the Abyss
Now, temporary appointed as the responsible for directing the Center's activities, Zayin requests Aleph and Hiroko's help once again, stating that they must investigate an strange anomaly that their computers have detected near the area of Holytown. Once there, they are surprised to find out that a strange "drill-like" tower has risen from the surface, and that it's appearance seems to be affecting the civilians in even morre bizarre ways: their natural energies, their Magnetite, is seemingly being absorbed by the enigmatic spinning obelisk. Fainting and desorientation being only the primordial symptoms of what can become future letal occurences. Reporting their findings back to Zayin, he deduces that the object is actually the tail of an even larger demon, whose body, he concludes, must be dwelling in the Abyss for such a thing to be possible. As such, Aleph and Hiroko they decides to go once again to the demon world.

Trivia

 * His outfit is accessible to players using a male avatar in Shin Megami Tensei: IMAGINE.