Longest chapter yet and over half of it is team sorting. I totally have this fic under control.

Anyway, enjoy

"Alright, so we're all ready to go in, right?" Kazuya looked over everyone one last time. A few of the group looked less than excited about this, but most seemed ready to get a move on. He figured that was good enough, but if one of the less excited folks wanted to say something, he'd give them the chance.

"I believe we're all ready to go in." Jonathan gave a small nod. "Please, go ahead."

Kazuya looked to Tadano. "It's all yours from here."

Tadano gave a nod and in they went. Time to try and figure out how to get into that door on the bottom floor…! There had to be some hint as to what needed to be done to get through there, after all.

"How long do you think this'll take?" Takeshi moved up to Kazuya, keeping his voice low. "I'd like to get a move on and get back to gaining strength, you know…"

"Sorry Takeshi, but no idea." Kazuya gave him a strained smile. "Hopefully while we're here you won't just… Run off again."

"Ah yeah…" Takeshi rubbed the back of his neck with a laugh. "You're not mad about that, are you?"

"...Maybe a little. That slime was my, uh, only Chaos-aligned demon, after all!" And not very impressive… So maybe it wasn't a big loss that Takeshi fused with it. Still, it kinda hurt that he ran off so quickly after that!

"Come on… Don't be like that!" Takeshi deflated a bit. "None of us would get stronger if we hung around each other, especially when there was such a power gap between us."

"Uh-huh…" Kazuya sighed. He felt trying to argue wasn't going to do any good… He might as well leave him to believe what he wanted.

Tadano frowned as he let his Demonica scan the door one extra time. It really was turning nothing up about how they were supposed to open it… And the only guess he had? Well, there were three indentations in the wall… Maybe they had to find things to put in here?

"I think I'm onto something… But I'm not quite sure." He pointed them out to the closest two. "I think we have to insert some sort of items into these. I'm not sure what, though, and I'm not sure where to find them."

"Should we backtrack and see if we can find anything?" Tamaki put a finger to her cheek and tilted her head to the side. "I mean… Whatever we need has to be around here somewhere, right?"

"Agreed. We shouldn't have too much trouble just looking around all the floors to find whatever we need." Nobu nodded, crossing his arms. "They're not that big, so it shouldn't take that long."

"There's still six floors we'd have to look through, though, for three things." Isamu grimaced. "This is gonna make all of this take twice as long."

"He has a point…" Nozomi frowned. "We've already been here for a while and we aren't making much progress."

"Why not split up, then, hm?" Walter rose an eyebrow. "Three items, so why not have three groups look around. Each take two floors."

"Not a bad idea." Flynn nodded. "We designated three leaders, so they could each take a group without having to worry about who to defer to."

"That's a good point." Tadano looked to Kazuya and Naoki. "You're the other leaders. How does that plan sound to you?"

Kazuya gave a nod. "I like it. We don't have time to waste."

"Sure, why not… Just one issue I could see with it." Naoki crossed his arms. "How are we gonna decide who goes in what group and who goes to what floor?"

"...Good question."

After some deliberation, the three leaders had finally come up with an idea of how to divide the groups… Everyone would pull sticks and be part of the matching color group (all ends having just been scribbled on by Kazuya), excluding Pascal who would simply go with his owner. It was a bit silly, in Naoki's opinion, but whatever. It worked.

"Alright." Tadano turned to the rest of the group as Kazuya held out the sticks. "You'll all pick one and teams will be formed based off the color. Green is with Kazuya, blue is with me, and red is with Naoki. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I have one." Charlie rose his hand. "Why are we going to elementary school for this?"

"Easier than trying to sort it out manually…?" Kazuya gave a shrug. "It just seems like it'll work the best. Besides, it's not just elementary schoolers who do this, you know..."

Yumi nodded. "He'd know if he actually hung out with normal kids from our school."

"Hey!"

"Come on, let's get this going. Who's first?" Naoki looked across the group before his eyes landed on Charlie. "How about you, since you wanted to comment on it?"

"...Fine." Charlie took a step forward, pulling a stick from Kazuya's hands. "...Green."

"You're with me, then." Kazuya gave him a smile. "Who's next?"

Yumi shrugged and stepped forward, pulling one out. "Might as well… Looks like I'm red."

"Might as well have all of me and my pals go, then!" Tamaki stepped forward with a smile, plucking a stick out herself. "Green with Kazuya and Charlie!"

Reiko stepped right behind her, following what the other girl had said. "Um…" She pulled one out. "Red."

"That's one group and Tadano doesn't have anyone yet…" Naoki crossed his arms. "What group is gonna go next and risk breaking that streak, huh?"

Isabeau stepped forward at that point. "I will…" She reached forward and… "It seems I've, ah, broken the streak. Blue."

Flynn moved next to her, Navarre floating alongside him. "I'll go next, then… And assist Navarre, in order to make sure he doesn't peek at the colors."

"Well, I would never…!"

Flynn reached forward, pulling out two sticks. "It looks as if we're also blue."

Jonathan was the next to step forward, upon the others moving to stand behind their leader. "I wonder, will all us samurai end up together…?" He pulled a stick with red on the end. "...It seems that's not the case."

"Too bad." Walter pat Jonathan on the back. "Perhaps at least the two of us will work together on this…" He pulled as well, but his stick's end was covered in green. "...Or not."

"I was about to say that it almost seemed rigged, but now I'm not sure." Nobu whistled as the two made their way to their groups and he stepped forward. "Guess Akira and I'll go and we'll see, though…"

"Go ahead then, pull."

Nobu nodded and pulled directly from the center. "Blue for me."

Akira sighed and stepped forward as Nobu stared at him, seeing as it probably wouldn't stop until he did. He pulled one out (funny to watch, seeing as he decided to do it with his giant, clawed hand), and he sighed. "Red…"

Yuka pat both boys on the back before they finally drug themselves to their groups. She reached out without looking, plucking a stick from the back of the group. "What color is it?"

"Green…" Naoki crossed his arms. "Looks like you're with your boyfriend."

"That works for me!"

As Yuka moved to Kazuya's side, Yuji and Takeshi both reached for the sticks. Looks like they were eager to move in on this now that they were the last of their group in need of picking.

"Blue. That seems like a nice enough group"

"Red! Nice."

Yuji headed for behind Tadano and Takeshi behind Naoki as Zelenin cleared her throat. "Don't you think we should move this along a bit? We're going quite slow…"

"You saying that isn't going to help that any, angell." Naoki gestured to the diminishing circle of sticks. "Just pull."

Zelenin said nothing, instead doing just that… Only to make a face. "I see, red… Along with some of our more… Demonic allies…"

"Come on, Zelenin! Being around them might be good for you." Jimenez snickered as he made his way to grab the stick that had been farthest from Zelenin's. "I- Green, huh? Guess I won't get to see the look on your face while you're dealing with all those demons."

The two began to argue, Zelenin's voice once again feeling like a drill in Naoki's skull. He did his best to block out the voices, just until they were done. He didn't need a killer headache while he was leading a group around here.

When he finally zoned back in, things had seemed to have started moving forward. Aleph, Beth, and Hiroko were all standing there, sticks in their hands. Beth had green, Aleph had blue, and Hiroko had red... Too bad for them that not one of them shared a color, huh? Especially with how many groups had ended up sticking together quite closely.

"Be safe, Aleph." Hiroko gave him a pat on the shoulder before walking towards Naoki.

"Please do. I'll worry if I'm not there by your side…" Beth placed her hands on his shoulders, leaving them there for a few moments before finally turning and making his way to stand behind Kazuya.

"I'm sure it will be fine, you two… Besides, Zayin and Louis still need to choose their groups. Either one of them could be by my side and help keep me safe."

Zayin nodded as he pulled a stick. "It seems that won't be me, though… I'll be in green with Beth."

Louis pat him on the shoulder. "Better luck next time, buddy! Let's see what I get." He pulled out a stick, blue on the bottom. "Oh! Look how lucky that is."

Chiaki stepped up next to him, head tilted to the side. "I don't know why, but something about that seems like cheating…"

"I didn't cheat, though!" Louis gave her a smile. "Promise."

"Hm…"

"And if you don't believe me…" Louis gestured to Kazuya's hands. "How about you pick one too. We can switch and I'll be in whatever group you'd be in."

"Sounds good to me." Chiaki nodded. "I'll be in blue and you'll be in…" She pulled out a stick. "Blue too…"

"Lucky for both of us, huh?" Louis threw an arm around her shoulder and led her behind Tadano. "Maybe it was fate."

Isamu stepped forward with a sigh. "...I gotta agree with Chiaki, that dude seemed like he was cheating. But oh well, guess there's not much we can do about it…"

"Maybe blue is just a popular color right now…?" Kazuya gave a nervous laugh. "H-how about you pull and we see if that's the case."

Isamu shrugged, plucking the one closest to him out of Kazuya's hand. "...Red."

"Well… Let's not get too caught up in the fact Louis got into blue basically twice in a row, alright?" Nozomi was ready to try and clear the air, it seemed. "We're close to having everybody sorted out, so let's not lose momentum now."

Nanashi and Asahi followed behind her. "Yeah! There's only six of us, so why not have us pull three at a time?"

"Great idea, Asahi." Nozomi gave her a smile as she reached for a stick, the teens following suit. "Annnd, go!"

Nozomi pulled out a green stick, Nanashi a blue, and Asahi a red. After they stared at them in silence for a moment, Nanashi spoke up. "Guess none of us decided to match our team to our outfits, huh?"

"Guess not…" Asahi gave a nervous laugh as she eyed red team. "O-oh well! Guess we'll see how the rest of the sorting goes…"

The other three stepped forward, pulling their own sticks as the previous three made their way to their own groups. Gaston pulled a green this time, Hallelujah the blue, and Toki the red. Based off what little interaction Naoki had seen between everyone, this was… Bound to be interesting.

"I see…" Gaston looked to the green group. "I suppose there could be worse than this group…"

"And I'm with Asahi instead of Master…" Toki frowned. "I suppose others will make the group interesting, though."

"W-well, looks like groups are decided!" Hallelujah wasted no time making for the blue group. "Time to decide who takes what floors, I guess!"