"It's…. empty?" Chika said turning his head to look around a short wall. He quickly moved on examining every nook and cranny searching for someone. Shito remained much calmer and looked down the Z-Loan office door to see a white sign with big, black hiragana. Shito grabbed the sign and held it up patiently until his partner got fed up and turned to him fuming. "Everyone in the office just can't…"

Chika stopped and put a finger to the sign and read it slowly out loud. "Gone to lunch."

"I told you coming here now was a bad idea." Shito said quickly and replaced the sign on it's hook. Shito crossed his arms as Chika sat down in the Ferryman's chair and put his feet up on the desk. "What do you think you're doing Akatsuki?"

"I'm waiting for the Ferryman; I want to know how much it is until I can be a human again." Chika leaned foreword a bit and began opening up drawers and rustling through the contents. "Ferryman doesn't have anything good in here…"

"I hope he kills you for going through his desk." Shito said cruelly and quickly closed stepped out the door. "I'm going to get back to the dorms so I'm not late."

"Laaaate?" Chika said quite distracted. "For whaaaat?" He said and pulled out a small red box.

"It's Michiru's birthday, don't you remember the threat we received from Koyomi this morning?" Shito asked and stared as the white haired boy as he looked up. Through Chika's mind a chubby figured of Koyomi appeared pointing a finger at him saying 'blah blah blah' with an angry expression. Chika simply shrugged. "I'm leaving anyway, tell me if the Ferryman kills you or not."

"Oy! I'm coming." Chika called and rushed up from the chair and followed him out of the office, the door slamming behind them. "Just leave me alone, Shito, some friend you are!" Chika looked down at his hand and saw the red box still there and smiled and began opening it.

"Where'd you get that from?" Shito asked seeing it.

"Ferryman's desk." He responded playfully and held out Shito's hand and dropped a deck of playing cards in it. "These things are old. Well, they're not as old as you are…" Shito quickly grabbed the deck and the box. "Hey! I borrowed them fair and square."

Shito carefully slid the cards back into the tattered red box. "Go put these back." He said and held the box out to him.

Chika grabbed the box and shoved them away in his back pocket. "Later, after the party, I want cake." He said and smiled towards the un-amused zombie.

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"What's this?" Chika asked shoving a finger into a bowl of ambrosia. "This isn't cake."

"I asked Koyomi to make me ambrosia, I haven't had it in a while." Michiru said quietly. "It's very good and very healthy."

"You're not that fat gopher." Chika said and pulled his finger out and tasted it ignoring Michiru's distressed face. He pulled his finger out, looked at it for a second and shrugged. "It's not that bad, hey Shito, come try this."

Chika stopped and looked around Michiru's room but only saw him and Michiru, "SHITO! KOYOMI!" Chika stood up from the table filled with desserts and whistled loudly. "Everyone always takes off."

"I think Koyomi said something about getting something from her room and Shito excused himself for a few minutes right before you started on about not having cake." Michiru grabbed a small blue box and opened it and pulled out a small necklace. She examined it for a second and sighed. "It's pretty, isn't it? Ferryman stopped by and gave it to me this morning as a birthday present."

"So that's why he wasn't at the office! How am I supposed to find out how far I am from being human if you've got Ferryman occupied!" Chika yelled and then sat down on the floor and pulled out the cards. He poured them on the table's open spot and began shuffling them. "You know how to play poker?"

"Huh?" Michiru asked setting the necklace back in the box.

"Po-ker. The card game." Chika set the deck down and looked at her. "Well?"

"A little…"

"100 yen a hand then!" He said and quickly dealt out the cards before she could protest. Michiru nervously picked up the cards and saw that she had a terrible hand. Chika quickly slammed his hand down. "I got a full house!"

"I lose then." She said and set the cards down face up on the table. It was then the cards began shimmering with a brilliant red light. "What's happening?"

"I don't know…" They both watched as the cards began to float up and formed a funnel in the center of the table. The top of the card tornado slowly moved and engulfed Michiru in a glowing red light.

"Hey!" Chika stuck his hands through the deck and the cards dropped on the open floor. Chika stopped for a minute. "MICHIRU!" Chika quickly got up and moved around the table and began shifting through the cards. "That's a good trick gopher, come out now! MICHIRU!"

He picked up all the cards and began shaking them, "give her back stupid cards! Shinto's going to kill me when he finds out this is my fault!"

"Kill you for what that's your fault?" Shito said walking in with Koyomi behind him. Chika sighed and held up the cards to him. Shito picked the deck up and looked at him. "Akatsuki, where's Michiru?"

"Well, we played poker and she lost so the cards ate her…" Chika sighed heavily and grabbed the cards. "I messed up; I should have listened to you, Shito."

Shito wasted no time grabbing the phone on the wall and dialing quickly. The entire room heard a loud, cheerful voice over the phone. "Yuuta, can you and the Ferryman come over to the dorms, we have a slight problem… I understand. Yes.' Shito hung up the phone and turned to Chika. "Yuuta and the Ferryman will be over here in a few minutes we just have to wait."

"Well, mind as well eat while the foods still good." Koyomi said and sat down to grab a plate and Chika quickly grabbed her hand. The woman looked up slightly confused. "Huh?"

"It's Michiru's feast, we shouldn't eat without her." Chika removed the hand and sat back staring at the cards. He moved his thumb across them folding them out like a fan. "Hey, Shito…"

"What?" Chika set the cards down and removed Shito's hand. Shito took off Chika's hand and they traded. "What's your plan?"

"I'm going in there after her." Chika quickly began arranging the cards into a pyramid solitare format and began playing. "I'm going to lose and see if the cards absorb me too."

"Akatsuki… You should wait until the Ferryman gets here. You might end up trapping yourself there permanently." Shito said sitting down next to him. Chika slowly began to play and the two watched him quietly until Shika was about to pulled the last card with barely half the game finished.

The door opened and Yuuta paraded in, Ken Ken and Kon Kon were already in an argument. The Ferryman walked in behind him and looked over at the two zombies. "So what's this concerning?"

Chika flipped the last card over and he had no moves left. "I lose." The cards stared glowing again and soon Chika was captured in a funnel of cards that slowly fell across all over the floor. Shito sighed. "Now, both Michiru and Akatsuki have been taken by the deck."

The Ferryman walked over and picked them up looking at them, "did Mr. Akatsuki go through my desk?" Shito nodded. "So he took the Red Deck. Well, let's hope they find a way out before the Red Zombie gets them."

"Isn't there anything we can do to get them out?" Koyomi asked sweetly, "I'd hate for them to be stuck in there."

"Well, and this may interest you Mr. Tachibana, the Red Zombie is a very expensive zombie."

"That's a lot of zeros." Yuuta said holding up his hand held showing the price. Shito smiled and grabbed the deck from him.

"Has anyone ever gotten out before?" Shito asked as he shuffled the cards. "I'd like to know my odds of getting out of the deck before trapping myself inside."

"Many people have before, even Yuuta a few years back." The Ferryman said smiling back at her.

"Kon Kon and Ken Ken worked their magic on the people there." Yuttua said and shoved both hands foreword. "Those people are weird." "It's like a gypsy camp."

"Gypsy?" Shito asked and spread the cards out, "Is that why this 'Red Zombie' has such a high price?" Shito slowly began playing a regular game of solitaire.

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Michiru landed on her bottom and looked up to see herself surrounded by a by a forest. She was shocked first off, but then let herself observe her surroundings. "The sky, it's green, and the grass is black? What's going on." She took a couple deep breaths and wrapped her knees together and stared at the bright red moon. "It's pretty…"

"WATCH OUT!" Michiru was crushed on the ground by Chika. Chika raised his head from the dirt and looked around. "Hey Michiru, where'd you go?"

"You're on me…" She said hitting him in the leg trying to get him off. Chika quickly stood up and began laughing.

"Sorry." He said and offered a hand to help her up. Michiru took it and he yanked her off the ground. "Alright, let's get out of here before both Shito and Ferryman decided to kill me!"

"How do we do that?" Michiru asked adjusting her glasses.

"I don't know; let's get out of these woods though." Chika said and began walking in any given direction he felt like. Michiru followed timidly and they soon broke out of the forest and found themselves close to a town of sorts. "Hey, maybe they know how to get out! Come on gopher!"

Chika took of sprinting. Michiru began running after holding her glasses in place. "Right!"

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"Damn…" Shito said under his breath as they were all around him watching him play solitaire, he had won five times already. "I'm not losing at this."

"You're not trying to lose." Kon Kon said in his face.

"He's right, you keep winning because you want to win." Koyomi said. "Start again, we'll tell you what not to do!" She happily raised her fist in the air.

"Well make sure you lose!" Yuuta saluted and leaned over his shoulders as he shuffled and dealt the cards out again. The two watched intently while the cards were being dealt out.

Ferryman was in a corner where he had fell asleep with a magazine's of Michiru's, 'Hair and Make-Up for Women.' He snored loudly and Shito looked up and threw something angrily across the room jolting him awake. "Did I miss something?"

"Not yet, Shito keeps winning!" Yuuta smiled as he finished dealing the cards. "Alright, all you need to do is not see any moves and flip all the cards over."

"But that's not what you're supposed to do." Shito said quietly and went to place a card but Yuuta reached a hand over and slapped his.

"TRY TO LOSE SHITO! Just keep flipping the cards over!" He yelled excitedly and Shito obeyed and flipped all the cards over one by one until he had no more cards left. "Now say it!"

"I… lose?" He said nervously and the cards began glowing.

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Chika began walking casually around the town looking for someone among the bright red buildings. No one was around at all. "Hello?! I need help getting out of the deck… and so does gopher!"

"Hello! We really need to get home!" They both stopped as a trash can was knocked over and a small white cat landed in front of them. Michiru smiled. "Kitty…" Michiru helplessly charge the creature taking it in her arms. "You're so cute!"

"Help me!" The cat cried and he began clawing Michiru. "Get this crazy runt off me! I have rights!" Michiru loosened her grip and the cat jumped down. "If that's how you people treat cats I should have stayed in the garbage instead of coming out here to help you!"

"You want to help us?" Chika said pushing in front of Michiru. "How do we get out of here?"

"I don't know, but I know someone who does. We call her Red, she's this way." The cat said smiling. "She loves visitors."

"The cute kitty has a friend…" Michiru said enchanted by the cat. She went to pick it up and Chika grabbed her shoulder and yanked her away from it.

"If you want to stay here and chase around a cat, be my guest, but do it after I leave." Chika said upset and began walking after the cat shoving his hands in his pocket. "So, cat, do you have a name?"

"Yes, but call me Cat." He said and jumped up on a railing and nimbly walked across it. They walked along the street for several minutes and came to a large intersection where a cheesy jazz music could be heard allowed. "Her club has opened, it'll be pack with people soon."

The cat jumped down and lead them to stair by a building and they slowly descended down, Chika stopped abruptly and cause Michiru, who was watching the cat, to bump into him and lost her glasses. She looked up ad saw a large man in front of them with a pitch black ring around his neck. Michiru stood up on her feet and whispered, "Chika, he's a Zombie."

"Figures, keep your glasses off." He muttered back, Michiru shoved them in her pocket and the cat meow. The large man opened the door and the three entered a bright red room that was decorated in a gothic tone. The two followed the cat to the bar at the far end of the room where there was a tall, very attractive woman in a red dress with dark black hair was sitting on a stool sipping on a drink.

"Red!" The cat said jumping up on the table. "I brought you some fresh conversation."

"Hum?" The woman said and turned around to glance at them. "Why hello there, fell into the deck, did you?"

"Well, somewhat. Can you help get us out?" Chika asked quickly.

"Of course, it's simple, but stay, have some fun first, the parties going to start soon." She said in a happy voice and grabbed two can of soda pop from behind the bar and offered them. Chika took them and handed one back to Michiru who softly said, "She's one too."

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Shito landed softly on his feet in the middle of the forest and looked over the surroundings with little to no interest. He waited for a second and heard a rustling in the brush. Without hesitation he summoned his gun and pointed it at the revealed head of an old man. "Please! I don't want to die again!"

"Again? Are you Red Zombie?" Shito asked kneeling down but keeping the gun barrel in between the man's eyes.

"No, Red's a girl! I'm Shiro! Don't kill me!" He shrieked and Shito moved his gun back.

"I'm looking for two people, a boy about my height with white hair and a short girl with pink pigtails. Have you seen them?" The man nodded his head. "Where are they?"

"One of Red's agents took them in town." Shito began walking away letting his gun go. "Wait!" The old man cried latching on to his arm. "If you go against her, you'll die, she's almost complete!"

"What do you mean complete, old man?" Shito said shaking him off his arm.

"Follow me to a safe place where she can't find us." The old man Shiro lead Shito away from the forest quickly, opposite of where Michiru and Chika had traveled.

"Is it my understanding," Shito asked him as they neared a cave on the edge of the trees. "That you are in fact a zombie?"

"We all are." He said and they entered the cave to find the area dotted with small camp fires surrounded by the living dead. Shiro went and sat down at a small fire with several other men and Shito followed him. "She keeps us trapped in the deck of cards, and when she reaches one hundred stuck… zombie souls, she'll be let loose, invincible."

"So, you all living here is making her stronger?" Shito asked quickly. The men around there nodded. "Then you all need to move on." He quickly summoned his gun to his hand.

"But we don't want to die!" "I'm scared of what's after!" The men yelled.

"You're all being selfish. Most of you will go to heaven, if not all. However, there's a human stuck in here too, and I have to get her out, and possibly Akatsuki." Shito pointed his gun at them and stood up. "Life is something to be envied, but the thing is, you're only supposed to get one. You're all skipping your endings."

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"This place is actually kind of fun, Michiru!" Chika said happily sitting at a table watching everyone at the party. He pointed out to one of the women, "she asked me out, should I say yes now or wait until the parties over?"

"I really want to go home." Michiru said weakly from across the table. Chika stopped and lowered his arm. "I like parties and everything, but, I wanted to spend my birthday with my friends and pig out."

"I'll go tell Red we're through and get her to get us outa here." Chika said standing up. He walked over to the woman and said something. Her face turned sour and with a single hand slap Chika was sent flying across the room. Michiru quickly got up and knelt down next to him. "Chika! Wake up!"

"You stupid girl, how are you not entranced?" Red said walking foreword and picked her up by her collar. Red sniffed her and smiled, "you're still alive, how quaint. Take her and lock her up, set him up so it looks like he passed out. He won't remember a thing."

"No! Leave me alone!" Michiru yelled as she was grabbed by her arms by two zombies and dragged away. "Get off me. CHIKA! CHIKA!"

She was quickly hit on the head and knocked out herself. The zombies dragged her down a long black hall and brought her into a grey cell where they chained her around the neck and left her, closing a large steel door behind them.

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He sniffed the air and looked up from his table to see the party was over. Chika looked around to find himself alone. He sat up and then slid out from the table to looked around the room. He put both hands around his mouth. "Michiru! Where'd you get to gopher?!"

He turned around and found himself face to face with Red. "Your little friend with the pigtails went out with some girls, I heard something about a nail salon."

"Oh okay." Chika said happily and went over to the bar and pulled out another can of soda pop. "You don't mind, do you?"

"No at all." She smiled, "well, I have things to tend to, why don't you stay right here, Cat will look after you."

"Yo!" The cat said jumping up besides him on the counter.

"Alright, later Red." The woman began walking away and Chika waited until she left. He set the can down and summoned his sword pointing the blade at Cat. "Where's Michiru?"

"What's with the sword? I didn't do anything." Cat freaked out and Chika grabbed him by the back of the neck and pointed the tip at his throat.

"I may not be the best friend in the world, but I know that Michiru sucks at making friends, Red's story was a lie, where is she?" Chika said quickly.

"Why should I tell you?" Chika dropped the cat down and then tipped his sword down, the cat fell off. "Because of that."

Chika quickly began searching the place and found a small curtain that lead to a black hallway. "GOPHER! Come on, we have to get out of here!" He heard a small squeak of a noise. Chika quickly ran a few more feet down the hall and yelled again. "MICHIRU!"

There was a loud thumping noise and Chika headed over to a door and pounded on it. There was a quick response and a loud crashing noise. Chika quickly pulled the door open to find Michiru with the collar still around her neck. On the floor there were bits of crumbled rocks all around her and she was knocked unconscious.

"Great, a wall beat Michiru." Chika said sarcastically. He quickly cut the chain with his sword and lifted her on his shoulder putting his spare arm around her back thighs keeping her in place making sure he didn't cut her with the sword. "You're kind of heavy, Gopher."

Chika made his way as quickly as possible out of the club and on to the street. He looked around and saw the forest at the end of a street and began running as fast as physically possible with Michiru still draped on his shoulder.

Two quickly heel clicks and he stopped to see Red in front of him. Chika raised his sword at her and she laughed. "One little zombie with a sword? I don't think you'll get very far with a human on your shoulder."

"Yea… well you look like a hooker." Chika said quickly and charged foreword and lunged at her with the sword. Red caught the sword in between her palms and threw him off. Chika dropped to the ground, Michiru falling a few feet away. "God…" A ectoplasmic bullet whizzed past him and hit her in the chest with little effect. "'Bout damn time Shtio!"

"Is Michiru…"

"She's fine, get Red. I think she's…"

"A zombie." Shito finished. "A very tough one, worth a lot of money."

Chika's eyes lit up. "Let's kill her!" He shouted happily. Chika rushed foreword swinging his sword at his neck. "You're worth lots of money!"

Red quickly moved out of the way to be hit by a bullet in the shoulder. She shrugged her shoulder and wiped it quickly. "You two bore me."

"Can we win this?" Chika asked Shito.

"I'm not entirely sure." Shito said, "Some people told me she was very powerful."

Red smiled and walked over to Shito and picked him up by the throat. "You know where they are?" Chika rushed her and she kicked the sword away which disappeared and followed up by grabbing him by the throat as well. "With you two, that should be enough."

Shito place his gun at her forehead and fire without any injury. "Akatsuki, I think were in trouble."

"No duh!" Chika yelled back and began biting her hand and ripping at it try to get free.

Michiru's eyes blinked open and she looked at the woman with the black strip around her neck. She quickly got up and began following her at a safe distance.

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Red Zombie threw Chika and Shito against the wall of the cave as she walked in and examined the zombies there. Pulling out a small red gem she touched it to her hand and cut a finger open getting blood on the jewel. "Are you all ready to sacrifice yourselves for me?"

Shito and Chika quickly got up and summoned their weapons and tried to charge her again. She easily threw them back against the wall. "You two are first."

The zombie stopped and felt a large thud against her head. She turned and saw a large rock drop to the ground. Her eyes darted up to Michiru who had already gotten another large rock and was adjusting her glasses nervously. "Leave my friends alone!" Michiru launched the rock. Red tilted her head to let it hit a zombie in the background.

"Cute, a human defending zombies. How does this sound little girl, in exchange for these zombies, I'll take you back to the real world. You'll be able to see you family again, go back to school." Red said and walked over placing a hand on her shoulder.

"No." Michiru said and grabbed the gem from her and cut her across the neck with it. The Red Zombie stumbled back and grasped at her neck. Chika and Shito stood up smiling at each other. "Looks like we have an opening, Akatsuki."

"For the last time, it's Chika." He said and rushed ahead sliding the sword into the wound on her neck and cut it open as wide as possible. Shito walked over calmly and fired up into her head killing her. Chika put away his sword, "You get to guide that one Shito."

"I know." He responded re-grasping his gun.

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"So… Were not going to kill the zombie hoard?" Chika asked staring at the happy zombies wandering around outside without fear. "This would greatly diminish our debt."

"They don't have legal contracts, but they are intelligent thinking and don't go after humans." Shito turned to Shiro, the old man, who was approaching them. "Have you found a way for us to go back yet?"

"Yes, we found the deck." The zombie said handing Shito a tattered green deck of playing cards. Shito looked at it and the cards began glowing and spinning causing a strong funnel. Shito put an arm by his face as dirt was being kicked everywhere by the winds.

Chika quickly ran up attached an arm around Shito's neck. "We're hitching a ride!" Shito quickly reached out a hand for Michiru as the cards began spin faster around them in a wide area causing a close to real tornado. "Hurry up gopher!"

Michiru grabbed Shito's hand and was pulled in against him with his arm around her. The winds kicked up even harder then fell away as the sounds of cards hitting a wood floor made them open their eyes.

"Good, you're back." They all opened their eyes to see Ferryman sitting on Michiru's bed reading a new magazine. "Yuuta was getting worried."

"So worried. I thought you guys wouldn't come back." He said bouncing over. He stuck out his hands. "He was getting pathedic." "He was worried!" "Shut up you!" "No, stop it!"

"Well…" Shito unlatched from Michiru and pulled Chika's arm off. "I've had it with all of you. I'm leaving." Shito quietly exited the room without another glance or word and slammed the door behind him.

"He's got a constant weggie or something." Chika said making a funny face. He quickly turn to the Ferryman. "We took care of her, where's my debt stand now?"

"The same." Chika stopped. "I've decided that instead of charging you with breaking and entering along with stealing, that I just wouldn't count this one. Isn't that lucky for you?"

They stopped and watched as Yuuta picked up the red deck and put it away pocketing it. Ferryman stood up off the bed and began walking over towards the door. "I'll be seeing you two soon. Goodbye."

"Well… today just sucks." Chika said absentmindedly.

"Yep." Michiru agreed, "at least it's not your birthday." Michiru turned her head to Koyomi who was sleeping in the corner with a bottle of Fanta. "Will you help me drag her to her room?"

"Yeah, you grab her shoulders." Chika said and watched as Michiru had nearly hauled the woman off the floor with her small frame. He decided to help a bit by picking up a foot. Michiru struggled all the way down the hall until she reach Koyomi's door and fumbled with the knob trying to keep her up off the floor. Finally opening it Michiru continued to do all the work. Chika dropped her foot for a small black package the dropped on the floor from Michiru's pocket. "Hey, you dropped something."

"Just a second." Michiru gave one last strong huff and set Koyomi on the bed by herself and walked out exhausted and closed the door. Chika held the package out. "That's… that's not mine."

"Well, it dropped from your pocket." Chika tossed it at her. "I'm going to go eat all your food."

"Okay." She said and examined the package then tore it open carefully. She spilled the contents into her hand to find a small black decorated comb and a small note saying 'happy birthday – Shito'.

Michiru turned to his closed door and smiled then began walking back to her room. She stepped inside to see Chika had filled his plate up with food but hadn't touched any of it yet.

"It's about time you go back gopher! I forgot I made everyone not eat until you got back. Well, you're now back." He said and began shoveling everything in sight into his mouth. Michiru laughed slightly and sat down across from him and pulled her pig tails back and put them up with the comb. Chika quickly grabbed a can of soda pop and chugged it down with a satisfying sound afterwards. Chika quickly took a deep breath and opened his mouth. "HAPPY…."

He was hit with a small object on the side of his head. Chika fell over rubbing his head and swearing. Michiru turned to the door to see Shito laughing at him. He stopped quickly and looked at the two as Chika was about to charge him. Chika stopped and crossed his arms. "What do you want mister 'take off without saying goodbye?"

"I haven't eaten all day and was wondering if I could join you."

"I thought you were tired of us!" Chika said raising his head away from his partner. Michiru scooted over and Shito came over and sat down next to her.

"Thank you for the comb, it's very beautiful." She said quietly.

"You're welcome." Chika stopped and made an abrupt noise. "Did you choke on you're ego or something, Akatsuki?"

"It's Chika! CHI-KA. Chika Chika Chika."