Chapter 11: Burdens

"NAAAAAOOOOOOKIIIII!"

"RUUUUUN!"

"WOOOOOAAAH!"

"PEEEERVEEEERT!"

*GRUUAHH CAN'T ESCAAPPE!"

"WAAAANT EEAAAAAAT!"

Naoki was the first to come sprinting over the hill at full speed, Chiaki's unconscious body slumped over his back and shielded from Kagatsuhi's glare by his jacket. The Preta, meanwhile, was running behind them, Shikigami around his neck and Kodama relegated to healing and support duties. These duties should have been shared by the Pixie, but she was instead sitting comfortably in the hood of the jacket, snacking on the Magatsuhi emitted by the human.

The eight of them – Naoki, Chiaki, Hua Po, Pixie, Preta, Shikigami, Kodama and Bill O the Wisp were headed for Shibuya. Shikigami had told them that he knew the way the Shibuya. Unfortunately, it turned out that paper demons absolutely sucked at directions and they'd gotten lost in record time.

At first, Naoki had simply wondered around and tried to find Shibuya on his own as he'd visited the place a couple of times, but it quickly became obvious that pre-apocalypse directions were completely unhelpful. Much of the Vortex World was little more than a deserted. . . well, desert, with scant reminders that a human city actually existed here at all. A few overturned cars here and there, a pile of rubble that may have once been a house, some dead trees. That was pretty much it – aside from that it was a barren landscape of red sand and red sky. Finally, they'd realized that they'd have a better chance of finding Shibuya from the air, so Hua Po had flown up to find the place.

Instead, she'd found trouble.

The eight of them were being pursued by a swarm of monstrous looking birds – Zhenmiao, Pixie called them, lured by the smell of Magatsuhi emanating from Chiaki's body – a smell Naoki himself couldn't detect at all, but which the other demons swore by. At first, Hua Po and Preta had been able to burn the swarm to a crisp, holding them off. But as Kagatushi increased in luminence, so too did the Zhens increase in ferocity, until at Kagatushi's full brightness they actually became able to speak, coordinate plans and fight much more effectively. The group had been forced to run for their life.

Zhens looked a bit like multi coloured skeletons of a large raptor, like a hawk or an eagle, except for the simple fact that they were easily as big as Naoki was himself and actually still had light translucent feathers. They also had serpentine like tails. These tails, apparently, were the dangerous bit - its diet of venomous snakes made a Zhen's body incredibly poisonous. So poisonous, that the slightest touch of its feathers could kill you. There were so poisonous, apparently, that not even the PRETAS would eat one. This didn't stop the group from also been pursued by a small army of Pretas shouting "Want eat Want eat Want eat want eat want eat," all at once until it became an indistinguishable roar.

The old hag hadn't been lying when she said humans were a liability in this world, much as Naoki felt terrible to admit. Chiaki herself had not truly regained consciousness in all the time they'd been travelling, however long that was – time in the form of hours and minutes had no real sense here and his new demonic body was capable of running for seemingly forever. More than that, being unconscious she was unable to walk and her legs were badly injured anyway, which meant Naoki had to carry her. This meant that he couldn't fight.

"Want eat!" The Preta whinged. This had probably been the longest he had ever gone without eating, so maybe the whinging was justified.

Naoki didn't say anything, but doubled his efforts in running. The others ran, or flew, behind him, having run out of their magical powers – their energy, or whatever it was – a fair while ago. This meant that they couldn't throw spells anymore – all they could do was run. This was fine with Naoki, who couldn't' use magic and had to run away all the time anyway. It meant less death and less hurting people. He only wished that he knew what time it was. His digital clock didn't work, nor did his cell phone. And although Pixie had pointed out that there was a standard watch on Chiaki's wrist, checking the time would have involved awkward positioning that simply did not sit right in his mind.

By the time they finally reached Shibuya, everybody was in bad shape, covered in scratches and blood . All magic was extinguished, all were exhausted. Naoki himself had his right eye stuck shut by dried blood on his face – his own, this time, caused by the Zhen's raking talons when they'd tried to swoop on Chiaki and he'd moved to protect her. His left arm was also badly injured to the point he couldn't feel it anymore – he needed to glance at it every few moments to make sure it was still attached.

But at last they had reached Shibuya, having run the entire way from Shinjuku, without sleep or eating or even defecating. Finally, they had reached safety.

Except, of course, for the Zehns. They followed them all the way from Shinjuku, followed them up and down every hill, followed them all the way into Shibuya, even followed them whilst they went sprinting through the desolate streets. And when they arrived at the shopping district, they found themselves surrounded by even MORE Zehns and Pretas, their escape route cut off.

"OH, COME ON!" Naoki shouted in frustration.

"So," Shikigami muttered. "Anybody got any magic left?"

In answer, everybody stared at Pixie as she poked her head out of the hood on the jacket. ". . .what?"

"Grruuuuh…" Bill O the Wisp muttered. "In . . .trouble. . . use . . . magic. . .. "

"It's time to make yourself useful, Fairy!" Hua Po yelled at her. "Fight back!"

The pixie stretched out and yawned. "Go fight them yourself!"

"We can't! You're the only one who still has magic!" Shiki roared at her.

"No I'm not! What about the Pervert?"

Naoki sniffed, partly from guilt and partly from having sand stuck up his nose. "I'm sorry. . .I don't know any magic." And thank goodness for that.

"Of course you don't!" Shiki snarled. "Unlike a certain pint sized coward, you're not a spell caster!"

The Pixie frowned. "Who are you calling Pint Sized, Paper Boy!"

Shiki looked as though he was about to continue the argument, but there were more important things going on. Zhens didn't simply stand by and wait whilst the demons were arguing – they were screeching, readying their tails to swoop.

"Here they come!" Kodama whimpered as they swooped down . ..

Then bounced off an invisible force field that appeared out of freaking nowhere.

"What. . .what the hell! " Naoki whispered, glancing around him in surprise, holding Chiaki's unconscious body close.

"Was that a spell?" Kodama asked.

That looked like. . .a Tetrakarn!" Shiki gasped. "But. . . none of us know that sort of spell! Who. .. "

He was interrupted by a loud shout. "Yoooooooooooooooo Duuuuudes!" Then suddenly there was a massive explosion, followed closely by the sound of hundreds of Zhens falling out of the sky.

Some sixth sense made Naoki turn around. Strangely enough, despite all the madness that had taken place in the last few. . . however long it was, he was still stunned by what he saw. After all, he certainly hadn't expected to find himself talking to a bright orange six foot tall five pointed starfish.

Nor would he have expected said orange starfish to be capable of speaking. "Um. . .before you ask, duuuuuudes, that explosion was my Megido, and NOT what you think!"

"Oh crap," Shikigami whispered from behind.

"You . . .you know this guy, Shiki?" Hua Po asked the paper demon.

Shikigami nodded. "He's Decarabia of the Fallen."

Hua Po was stunned. "We are sooo dead. Are you sure he's Decarabia? As in, THE Decarabia?"

"The same!" the starfish grinned. "These are my Zhens, duuuuuudes. I was going to play a prank on a buddy of mine, but you guys must've stumbled into it instead."

"Want eat," said the Preta.

"You can WANT to eat him all you want," Hua Po taunted, "but he's waaaaay above your level. You hear that, Naoki? Don't screw up and make him mad!"

"Aww, dduuuuuude, don't worry about it," Decarabia smiled. "I won't bite! I recognise the rest of your homies, but I don't think I've met one like you before. What's your name, Duuuuuude?"

"Oh, I'm Naoki Kashima, of the. .. " his voice trailed off, as he came perilously close to saying 'Of the Perverts."

"Want eat!" the Preta said again.

Decarabia grinned. "Well met, Naoki Kashima of the Want Eat Clan! I am Decarabia of the Fallen, Marquis of Hell. Nice to meet you!"

"A Marquis?" Naoki blinked. "But. . but I thought that Forneus was…"

"A Marquis? Yep, he's one too. Oh, hey!" The starfish shouted. "Do you duuuuuudes know Forneus?"

"Oh! Uh, yeah!" Pixie suddenly spoke. "We're great friends of his! Best buddies!"

Naoki turned to her, blinking but not understanding. She hissed at him. "Shut up and play along!"

But you're lying! Naoki thought, but didn't say anything. Somehow a sin such as lying seemed rather minor compared to the genocide, blasphemy and heresy he'd been doing ever since he met the Young Bastard. Besides, calling her out for lying would seem rather hypocritical considering that he'd been lying about his humanity.

"Really! Me too! Oh yeah, Forneus and I, we go waay back!" The starfish wiggled its points and grinned at them. "So. tell me duuuudes. Do you know where that ray of Ice is now?"

"He's dead!" Kodama shouted before Hua Po could cover his mouth.

"Uh, dead tired is what he meant!" She said hurriedly as Pixie shoved Kodama into the Preta's mouth to prevent him from saying anything worse. "Last I saw him, Ol' Forneus was in Shinjuku, eating Pretas."

"Bah- freaking typical!" Decarabia snarled – something Naoki never knew starfish were capable of. "Well, if you see the guy, tell him that his 29 legions of Angels are causing trouble over in Ginza, would you? They're giving Madame Nyx an absolute frightful time, and let me tell you, You do NOT want to piss off Madama Nyx!"

"We'll. . . uh . . ." Naoki stammered. "We'll let him know. If we meet him again." Though that isn't terribly likely. "Um, listen. Have you seen a . . . any humans? I'm looking for some of them."

"Oh I've seen them alright!" Decarabia smirked. "Man. For being an extinct species there sure seems to be a lot of those duuuuuudes around. I just saw two humans recently travelling from old Shinjuku way, a short duuuuude in a freaky hat and a tall weirdo in a red cape with a hell of a sword."

Isamu! But who is – "Do you know where they went? It's really important."

"Afraid not, duuuuuudes. I'm more an expert on herbs and metals than humans and mortals. All I know is they went straight past Shibuya and headed out into the wasteland."

"Awww." Kodama muttered. "Well then, thanks for your help Doooood!"

"No problem, Duuuuuuude!"


Naoki had not been to Shibuya very often – he absolutely hated large crowds, something Shibuya was famous for. It was a major tourist destination. Now, the entire area was as good as completely deserted. From 50,000 people to less than 50. The feeling was absolutely dizzying – the skyscrapers that used to make up Shibuya's skyline? The gigantic screens? The people? All gone.

That said, however! If not for the most definitely inhuman residents, when underground in Shibuya one might be forgiven for thinking the end of the world had no occurred at all. In comparison with the wasteland surrounding them, Shibuya was bright and cheerful. You could still easily identify the shopping districts and the late night dance clubs.

Strangely enough, despite the power being out, all the lights were on.

"Some idiots probably wasted their Magatsuhi on repairing the dance club," Shiki answered when he was asked why the power had been restored. "Some demons actually like human music."

"Heavy metal?" Naoki had asked. He'd always heard heavy metal was satanic, so it made sense that demons would like that sort of thing.

"Not really.. ." Shiki replied, shrugging his paper shoulders. "I prefer classical, myself."

It was a surreal experience, a mix of the familiar and the supernatural. Where before humans had been manning the stores, now there were demons.

In the dance club, a ghostly deejay played music, whilst ghosts and cat demons and Pretas and Pixies and living slimes danced. . .or oozed, in the latter's case. In an odd twist of irony, Naoki recognised one of the songs the club was playing as "Staying Alive", by the Bee Gees. He found this pretty funny in a morbid sort of way.

One area had been completely taken over by what appeared to be a trio of smokestacks, guarded by a humanlike demon that recognised Naoki for what he was instantly and spoke to him about his services. He was the Minister of something called the Cathedral of Shadows, a place of demonic rituals and summoning. As Naoki looked on in horror, mentally blocking his ears, the Minister described the process of summoning stronger demons to the Vortex World – it involved using the smokestacks to completely obliterate two allies, then use their Magatsuhi as an offering to summon a stronger demon.

Needless to say, Naoki humbly tuned down this offer. By way of running through the underground yelling like an idiot.

Finally, outside a store that was originally for . . . err. . .adult entertainment, Naoki found himself staring at a little blue and white snowman shaped creature, wearing a tinkling hat. Part of him found it familiar, somehow . .. he could have sworn he'd seen it somewhere before.

"YOU!" Pixie shrieked, leaping out of his jacket and hurling electricity at the snowman.

The snowman screeched in pain, turned and gave a yell of its own. "Heehoooooo that hurts!" before forming a snowball in its hand that it then threw back at the Pixie.

In the next instant, the two demons were rolling around on the floor, hurling lightning and ice at each point blank, locked in a brutal battle of kicks and punches as each tried to best the other. For a few minutes, it seemed to be a completely even battle. . . but then the dust cleared and Pixie was revealed on top of the snowman, holding it by one hand while the other was using a . . . a. . an object as a makeshift weapon, hitting the snowman over the head with it.

"You! Son! Of! A! Snowball!" She shouted in between hits.

Shiki snorted and smirked from a safe distance away from the squabble. "Children! They're so immature, aren't they Naoki?" No answer. "Naoki!" The paper demon looked around. Kodama and Hua Po were betting macca on the victor of the battle, Preta was eating the merchandise, Bill O the Wisp was staring on disapprovingly, and Naoki . . .

Naoki was outside the shop, sitting down with his hands covering his eyes. Don't look don't look don't look don't look. . .

He could still hear Pixie's voice as she argued with the snowman, continuing to hit it with her improvised weapon. "This! Is for abandoning me in that hospital! This! Is for leaving me to those Pretas! This! Is for getting us completely lost!"

A whinging voice came from the other demon. "Heehoo! I'm sorry, heeho!" It was a high pitched squeaky voice, similar to Kodama's but slightly older, maybe a child aged about ten. "Please heehoo! Please stop abusing the merchandice!"

Pixie stopped hitting him, threw her weapon away and glared at the snowman. "I hate you!"

"I Heehoing hate you too!" The snowman yelled as it climbed back to its feet.

"Fine!" Pixie growled. "Fuck You!"

"Fine! Heeho Of!" The snowman yelled back.

There was long pause, broken up only by demonic snarls as the two demons glared at each other. Finally, Naoki broke it.

"Um. .. uh… Pixie, who . . "

"Oh, this guy?" Pixie asked, grinning as she and the snowman wrapped an arm over each others necks.. "He's my best buddy!"

Naoki stared. Best friend? They nearly killed each other!

"The name is Frost, Jack Frost, he ho!" The snowman chortled. "I've a licence to Chill! Nice to meet you, He ho!"

Shikigami groaned. "Oh Satan, not another irritating minor."

"Uh, my name's Naoki Kashima. Of the . . Fiend Clan?" It was still incredibly bizarre introducing himself as a demon. He looked around warily, suddenly noticed the Preta chewing on the merchandise at a record pace. He pointed at the purple demon. "Uh, sorry about that. Should I stop him?"

Jack's cheerful demeanour wasn't even bothered when he spotted the Preta devouring the items for sale. "He ho! It's okay, Aside from Mara, I wasn't getting much customer demand for these things anyway, he ho."

"Mara?" Kodama asked. "Who's that?"

"Gruuah. . . Never . . . you .. . mind!" Bill O the Wisp replied back.

"So. Tell me something, Jack.," Pixie talked to her friend. "What are you doing selling dildos in Shibuya?"

Jack Frost giggled, perhaps at the sight of Naoki sticking his fingers in his ears from his position in the doorway, refusing to take a single step inside. "I'm trying to save up enough macca to go on a journey, He Ho! I want to be strong, stronger than the great King! I want to –" He sniffed the air. "I smell something…"

"He who dealt it, smelt it!" Kodama yelled.

"No, not like that, he ho! I meant. . . " He continued to sniff, walking around the group – straight through Bill O the Wisp at one point. Finally, he came to a dead stop in front of Naoki,

"You smell of human, He Ho. Why's that?"

"Are you blind as well as stupid, Jack?" Pixie yelled at him. "He's holding a human on his back!"

"He ho? Let me see. . . " Jack jumped up and down, trying to look at Chiaki. "You've really got a real live human, He Ho?"

Naoki nodded. "She's a . . my friend. So, please don't hurt her."

"Aww, I won't do that, he ho. I like humans and not just to eat. Let me see!"

"Oh. .. okay," Naoki decided, still not entirely comfortable with the idea. He knelt down and gently let go of her, letting her unconscious body fall to the ground without injury. Jack Frost took a look at her. . . poked her in the side with a foot. . .

Then went bright orange and began to melt. "Heeeeeeeee Hoooooooooooooooo She's HOT!" He flailed his arms around and began howling at the ceiling.

"Jeez. . .don't be so dramatic. . ." Pixie muttered under her breath. "And she's not THAT pretty for a human. . . ."

Jack wasn't listening – he was dancing around Chiaki's unconscious form, then turning to Naoki and producing a pile of coins out of nowhere. "How much you want, Hee ho?"

Naoki blinked. ". . .Huh?"

How do these demons manage to produce money out of thin air!

"I have 5,000 macca here, he ho!" He pointed to the coins. "Is that enough, he ho?"

What's he talking about? Does he want to –

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. He wants to BUY her. Naoki could only imagine what a snowman demon owning an adult entertainment store would want with an adolescent unconscious . . .

NO! Stop thinking!

"We accept!" Pixie said happily, her eyes the same shape as the marking on the coins. "Macca macca macca!"

"Wait – WHAT?" Naoki shook his head clear of sinful desires and tried to convince himself that he'd heard wrong.

"Aww, don't be mad, Naoki!" The pixie teased as Naoki stared uncomprehending. "This is a good thing. We get the money, your pet human gets a bodyguard. You won't let anything happen to the human. . ." Lightning shook in her fingers as she glared at the snowman with bright red eyes and a snarl. "WOULD YOU, JACK?"

The snowman shook his head vigorously, saluted. "Hee ho no! I, Jack Frost, Licence to Chill, shall protect this human with my life! I swear on my He Ho!"

Pixie smirked. "Good boy."

"Phat Lewt!" Hua Po and Kodama cheered. "Phat Lewt! Phat Lewt!"

"Um, but I don't want to sell her. ." Naoki began. "and I don't think this is a good –"

Pixie waved him off. "Oh, who cares what you think! Let's go to Yoyogi Park, already, we've wasted enough time! Let's go! Let's go!"

Shikigami sighed. "Much as I HATE to admit it, the fairy might have a good point this time."

"Urgh. . . . " Bill O the Wisp moaned. "A…greed. We. . . magic. . . gone. Need. . . healing. . . "

Naoki blinked. "But I thought Kodama healed your guys."

"I did!" Kodama protested. "I even healed the none Jirae, just like you asked, Mister!"

"I do not mean healing of physical wounds," Shikigami corrected. "Rather, the replenishment of magical energy."

"Oh, I understand," Naoki replied, not actually understanding at all. "So. . . you can't heal this . . .err, magical energy. . . on your own?"

"WHY do you not know this –" Hua Po began to yell, then suddenly remembered. "Oh, right. . . half demon, I forgot. Fine, fine, I'll explain. In a nutshell, no we can't. I've heard of demons that can regenerate it on their own, but not us, and not here."

"It sure ain't hell, that's for sure," Pixie muttered. "There's places one can recover though, of course – such as Yoyogi Park."

"That's right, he ho!" Jack said from where he was dragging Chiaki's unconscious form off. "There's a healing spring right over there. Just one dip, and you're all healed. Of course, before you can do that, you have to pay off the healer first."

"They've moved in already?" Pixie grumbled. "Those freaking entrepreneurs! Ah well, just as well we've got the macca then." She scooped it up off the floor – the whole lot, despite not having any pockets. Naoki couldn't figure out how she did it.

Must be a demon thing.

"Right then – Off to Yoyogii Park!" She jumped onto Naoki's head, one leg on each side of his neck. "Yah mule! Mush!"

"But. . " Naoki began to protest. "But I don't want to - OW!" He yelped as Pixie pulled on his ears. "I don't want to leave Chiaki!"

"Well, you're just going to have to!" Pixie grumbled. "She belongs to Jack now. He'll keep her nice and safe while we go off to Yoyogi Park, right?"

"Want eat," said the Preta, jumping up and trying to grab the Pixie.

Naoki was still whinging and whimpering. "But. . . but I don't want to. . ."

"Come on, face it – the sooner I get to Yoyogi Park. . ." the pixie grinned as she pointed to the members of Shinjuku Hospital Infiltration Team. ". . .the sooner you guys can be rid of me."

Shiki looked at Hua Po. Hua Po looked at Kodama. Kodama looked at Shiki. All three of them looked at Naoki.

". . . We have made a decision," Shiki announced as Hua Po flew over to Naoki and grabbed him by an arm. "We are going to Yoyogi Park."

"What?" Naoki whimpered. "But I –" His protests were cut off as the demons went and pushed him out of the store and continued to push until he was out of Shibuya.

Pixie waved behind her. "Bye, Jack! Have fun!"

The snowman went orange and melted slightly. "He ho ho ho ho!"


"What's a matter with you?"

"Hey!"

"Got a no respect."

"Hey!"

"What do you think you do?"

"Hey!"

"Why do you look a so sad?"

"Hey!"

"It's a not so bad… . "

Hey!"

"It's a nicer place –"

"Want eat, " said the Preta.

"AH SHUDDUP YOUR FACE!" All of the demons shouted, even Shikigami.

Naoki only just managed to stop himself from joining in. Much as he hated to admit it, carrying Chiaki around really HAD been a severe liability, rendering him unable to help his allies, something that Naoki had absolutely hated. He hated to be a burden on anybody.

He still felt terrible for abandoning Chiaki at Shibuya, but he knew that he couldn't put her in any more danger. He had to be strong for her and for Isamu. As out of character as it was, it was reality. Moping did nothing – only actions mattered.

And what mattered right now was that the journey to Yoyogi Park without Chiaki was far less eventful than the mad rush to Shibuya with her. Whereas before Pretas and Zhens had followed and tried to kill them constantly, letting up only at silent Kagatsuhi, now they mostly kept to their own. At one point, Naoki and his little group actually walked right through a battle between Pretas trying to eat each other, and the Pretas had taken pretty much no notice of them.

There was, however, one exchange that bothered Naoki, when the group had run into another group of Pretas shouting "Want eat! Want eat!" That wasn't the surprise – what was surprising was that Naoki's Preta, the one he had . . . recruited. . . from Shinjuku, had jumped in front of Naoki and yelled back at the attacking Pretas as they approached.

"No!" It had shouted. "No eat! No eat!" And it had tried to blow a fireball to make the enemy Pretas go away, but was out of magic. The other Pretas had gotten the hint, however – they had fled the impending fireballs as fast as they could, despite the fact that the fireballs never actually appeared

"Why did. . . why did Preta do that?" Naoki found himself asking.

Pixie shrugged. "Not a clue. Them Pretas never make much sense anyway."

" How odd. . ." Shiki wondered aloud. "They usually care about nothing but eating. Why is this one protecting you, Naoki?"

"Who cares?" Pixie whinged. "Maybe you hit him in the head too hard and now he's a little dopey or something. Let's keep going!" She kicked Naoki's neck as though he was a horse. "Giddup!"

The Preta turned back to face Naoki and for a second there was an emotion in its normally blank white orbs. Naoki didn't know what emotion it was.

"Me. . ." the Preta pointed at itself. "Me. . .sorry. . ."

What?

Naoki blinked, and in the next instant the Preta was chewing on a dusty boulder as though nothing had happened.

Was it just my imagination, then?

They reached Yoyogi Park without further incident, which was just as well because by the time they'd arrived the group was out on its feet. Though they were relatively safe from the Zehns and Pretas most of the time, when Kagatsuhi was at its brightest all hell broke loose. It was as though the light drove everybody insane – including Naoki himself, to a certain extent. One time, he'd actually completely blacked out and regained his senses later to find himself chewing on a Preta leg. It was an enemy Preta's leg, not that that was any consolation. It still absolutely horrified him.

Now they'd arrived at the desolate wasteland previously known as Yoyogi Park. Originally an area of lush greenery and a sparkling pond, not to mention a series of police barricades, now little more than a barren desert. Naoki couldn't help but choke back a bit of sadness at this sight – he'd quite liked the Park, particularly when there weren't so many people in it.

Not that there weren't people in it right now. There were souls absolutely everywhere, some of them simply moaning and wailing, others yelling and fighting. Some looked to be drinking an ethereal type of liquor, whilst others were actually fighting.

"That's humans for you," Shikigami muttered ruefully. "Can't stop fighting even when they're dead."

"Want Eat!" said the Preta after it had unsuccessfully attempted to eat one of the ghosts.

"Raar!" The Pixie roared. "Never mind these undead geezers! Let's go find the King and Queen!"

"What?" Naoki was confused. She hadn't mentioned anything about royalty before now.

Hua Po was the one to explain. "The King and Queen of the Fiaries, Oberon and Titania. Apparently, they've decided to move in here to snack on the dead."

"Yep," Pixie nodded. "There was a big old tiff here not too long ago, resulting in an absolute ocean load of Magatsuhi!"

Naoki gasped as he suddenly understood. Hikawa! Hijiri mentioned something about this, a fight between two . . .two demonic cults. So that means that these ghosts are . . the cultists?

As they explored Yoyogi Park further, they began to run into the resident demons. Most of them were hostile and most of them were, to Naoki's surprise, Pixies, looking a lot like the one that Naoki had, but with different hairstyles and clothes. They all had a few things in common, however: blazing red eyes, the ability to shoot lightning, and a general aura of malevolence.

"Hey! Hey mister!" the Pixies had yelled at him. "You're no fairy!"

"Um, no . . " Naoki had began to say. "I'm actually –"

But that was as far as he got – the Pixies had given out a screech of "INTRUDER!" And the next thing he knew, he was being pelted by lightning and tiny punches as they swarmed him. This proved to be a terrible mistake - Shikigami, realizing there was a battle, had wrapped himself around Naoki's head and before Naoki could do anything, the electricity bolts the fairies threw were suddenly being reflected back at them.

The air was filled with the screams of young children – not demons, but young girls as they shrieked in pain and fell to the ground, twitching. Even as Naoki put his hands to his own mouth in horror, his own companions were rushing towards the Pixie horde and were attacking them.

Hell. This is hell.