They burst – and burst was the right word – into Club Inferno in Shinjuku; Naoki almost tripped over the floating form of Kodama, and Pixie bumped into his shoulder, ricocheting into Shikigami, who rustled softly. Somewhere behind them was Datsue-Ba, more patient than Naoki and the other, more energetic demons.

The ghost who'd directed them down to the club had been telling the truth, and Naoki froze in his tracks, his demons' antics forgotten.

Chiaki. She was alive. She was alive. "Chiaki-chan!"

She hadn't missed their entrance – how could she have – but her name seemed to break some kind of stasis, and she took a step back, flinching, eyes wide.

Naoki caught himself before he could lunge at her to hug the breath out of her, instead only walking forward, ahead of the little knot of his demons.

Chiaki's hands were stuffed deep in her pockets, a sure sign of worry or stress. Not actually surprising, Naoki acknowledged wryly. "Hey…"

Chiaki looked down, then to the side. Pretty much anywhere except Naoki, really. "…How should I act at a time like this?"

Naoki was taken aback. Then he looked down at his hands, still covered in blood. Blood. He'd never killed anything larger than a spider before the world ended, and now he didn't even notice that he still had blood on his hands and arms. He'd just- When he'd heard that there was a human down in the club, he'd headed straight here, and of course they'd gotten into at least three brawls on the way but he wasn't about to stop to clean up, not and risk losing the best lead he'd had on his friends so far.

He'd hardly even spared a thought for the demon corpses left behind to get looted and eaten. What was this world turning him into?

"Should I be happy?" Chiaki continued, "Like 'I'm glad we're both okay'?"

'Yes,' Naoki wanted to tell her. 'Yes we're both alive and here and we've found each other and that counts for something,' he wanted to say. But the words stuck in his throat, and he didn't even have his jacket to wipe his red hands clean on.

"It is you, Naoki-kun, right? …I can tell."

He must look so different, with the tattoos and the blood and running around with demons. "Yeah, it's me," he managed at last. "I, I'm sorry about, uhm," self-consciously, he dragged his hands over his shorts, but the drying blood just stuck tackily to both.

"Don't worry… nothing fazes me anymore."

Something about the way Chiaki said it made Naoki stop and really look at her. She was pale, paler than the lighting in the club could account for, and she still had her hands jammed into the pockets of her skirt.

What had happened to her, here in this world? He'd been somewhat okay, but only because he was one of the monsters. Even Pixie had only teamed up with him because she thought he was a demon. Would he have fared as well if he'd still been human? Doubtful.

She still stood a bit further from him than she normally would, he noticed suddenly. Not that they'd ever been the casual kind of touchy-feely friends, but this was like Chiaki was scared of him. Or just scared of all demons?

"I realized," Chiaki said, still in that calm voice that was starting to drive him up the wall with worry, "no matter how much I cry or shout, this nightmare won't end."

"Chiaki, I-"

"I'm a little tired," Chiaki confessed, eyes closed, exhaustion written large in that momentary vulnerability.

"I- Do you want to sit down?" Naoki asked, and then wanted to kick himself. What kind of stupid question was that?

Chiaki smiled an empty smile and rallied a bit. "Do you know what happened to the world?"

Well, this was slightly safer ground. Naoki told her about Hikawa and the Conception, and for a while it was like everything was going to be okay, but then Chiaki closed off again, and Naoki wanted to reach out to her but wasn't sure that that wasn't the worst possible thing he could do.

"You saw how it was out there, right? I couldn't even tell where my house used to be. I seriously thought that I was the only person still alive."

Part of him wanted to ask if she'd even stopped to look. But no, that was unfair. He had been gone, hadn't he, off to wherever the hell that kid and the old lady had taken him. And who knew where Isamu had gotten off to. The bottom line was, Naoki hadn't been there when they'd needed him. He hadn't given the situation a lot of thought beyond finding Chiaki and Isamu, and maybe Takao-sensei, but then he'd known they were alive, hadn't he. And as for his family – all their families, really – well, it wouldn't help, would it, to think about something he couldn't change. He had people to find first, and there was always survival to be considered, especially with the demons roaming around. He couldn't afford to break down, damnit. "But, we're still alive, and we've found each other now, right, Chiaki-chan? I mean, we can watch out for each other and- "

The smile she gave him this time was close to panicked, and her eyes flickered off to the side, to the inquisitive group of demons waiting at his back.

"It's… been good to see you again, Naoki-kun. And maybe… there's still hope."

"Hope?"

Her hand came up and flicked nervously at her hair. "There's got to be other survivors, don't you think? Takao-sensei and Isamu-kun might be around somewhere too. I'll go look for them."

'We can look together,' Naoki wanted to say, but the way Chiaki was avoiding his eyes again made him pause.

"They must be alive," Chiaki continued, "Fate can't be that cruel. Otherwise… I don't know what I'd do."

"Wait," Naoki blurted out, reaching out when it looked like Chiaki was about to leave. Chiaki drew back sharply, and both of them froze. "Just. Just wait a second," Naoki tried again, feeling like the worst friend in the world. Why couldn't he think of anything to say?

Frustrated and a little panicked, he looked around the club, spotting a stack of tablecloths in the corner. Quickly he tore a wide strip off one and bundled all the medicines he had into it. Somehow the medicines all fit into his pockets without a problem – like a bag of holding, he would have joked with Isamu, but… No, don't think about that now.

"Here, just. Take these, okay?" he asked as he presented the untidy bundle to Chiaki. "They'll heal you, if you're hurt," he explained, in case she hadn't run into them before, and why would she have? It's not like she went around looting demon corpses, which was mostly where he got them.

Chiaki eyed the makeshift bag uncertainly, then reached out carefully to take it, making sure not to touch him. It was subtle, but he knew her tells well enough to read the precision in her hands. "Don't do anything stupid, okay?" Naoki blurted out, half question, half plea.

That got him something like a ghost of a real smile. "I'm not ready to give up entirely."

She left just as the music started up in earnest, skittering around a cat-demon that passed her on the way out.

Naoki wanted to cry. Naoki wanted to break something.

The cat demon sauntered over to him, and he felt some of his own demons draw close.

"Hey handsome," the cat-demon all but purred, one hand on a seductively cocked hip, "wanna have some fun?"

He could smell the aggression coming off her in waves. "Sounds purr-fect." She was going to try to beat him bloody, and he was going to return the favour with interest. "Let's dance."