Ugghhhh…. College is something of a pain to me. It's much less ball busting than I thought (so far at least), but it's still taking up a good amount of my time. The only thing keeping me going right now is that the end result will be worth it once I graduate…. A few years from now anyway…

But enough of my whining! At least I can still enjoy doing what I love doing in my free time!

Anyways, here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 14

Lady sighed, sitting down along with the rest of the group in a clothes store. She had just finished explaining the whole situation to the mall survivors and they were unsurprisingly angry, confused, and scared about it. They had started yelling at the group when Lady had gone into detail of how they had encountered quite a bunch of demons on the way to the mall, but the mall survivors shut up when Lady pointed out that if they don't put aside their anger and start working together, their chances of survival would be pretty damn low.

That had shut them up, but it had been clear that they were still upset. Lady was thankful that Dante wasn't the one to have told them otherwise they might have pissed him off enough for him to whack them all over the head with the blunt side of Rebellion. "Here," Rei said, handing Lady a soda that she had managed to get from the food court.

"Thanks," Lady replied.

"So what do we do now? Whatever trust they may have had in us is undoubtedly gone now and that is something that may affect how things go for us here," Saeko pointed out, leaning up against a wall.

Lady took a few sips from her soda before answering. "That is true, but right now trust doesn't matter. All that matters is sticking together until we can get through this whole mess. They may not like it, but they understand that much at least."

Saeko and the others all nodded in agreement, except for Saya. "We can't be too sure of that. Just because they understand what needs to be done doesn't mean they'll do it. Like we all saw earlier, they were yelling at that Asami woman about being useless when they themselves weren't doing anything to really help out."

"But some of them were gathering up food to store," Kohta pointed out.

Saya sighed. "Gathering food to eat until help comes and actively doing something about the situation are two different things. And while I think that, despite their mental states, they could actually make it through Them if needed, they won't stand a chance against demons."

"Not that we're doing any better," Rei muttered as she rolled her eyes, "whenever we came across those things, it was mainly Takashi, Lady-san, and Dante-san that took care of them. The only time we actually fought them was when we were stuck outside of that wire barricade"

Lady, having finished the rest of her soda, stood up. "That's only because Dante and I have years of experience fighting demons. None of you do save for the times you've encountered them so far. It'll just take you all some time to get used to fighting them."

"Yeah, but time isn't exactly on our side. We still have to make sure our families are okay," Takashi said, gesturing to Rei and Kohta. He also wondered briefly if his parents were okay right now. He couldn't imagine what would happen if they ever ran into any demons. Running into zombies was already worrisome enough.

"Don't worry about that just now. Focus on the current problems we have and then when we're sure we're out of this mess, you can worry about your families," Lady said throwing the soda can away. She turned towards Takashi. "And besides, you're not as defenseless as before. You have the devil arm that Dante gave you. That will give you an advantage you didn't have before and so your chances of survival are higher now."

"What's a devil arm?" Kohta asked.

"It's a weapon formed from the soul of a powerful demon," Lady told him.

That seemed to make everyone there a bit nervous. "Is it safe?" Shizuka asked, Alice sitting in a chair next to her with Zeke in her lap.

"If you're worried that it will suddenly turn into a demon, then don't worry, it won't. Once a demon becomes a devil arm, that's it for them. They can never turn back to normal," Lady assured her.

That seemed to assure Shizuka a bit. "So you have one now?" she asked Takashi, who nodded in response.

"Can we see?" Kohta asked, intrigued by it.

Takashi pondered it for a second before deciding to agree. Closing his eyes for a moment, Takashi began to focus on making them appear. Almost as soon as he thought his request, he felt them reappear. The surprised gasps of the others confirmed it for him as he opened his eyes. He looked at his hands to see the gauntlets and he then extended his arms outwards for them to see. "So what do you think?" he asked.

"Whoa," Kohta simply said.

Saeko moved forward and took hold of the gauntlet, tracing some of its linings with her fingers, her eyes showing that she was concentrating on the gauntlet. Takashi, not exactly used to her being so close to him and in when she was in such a focused state, blushed, much to Rei's annoyance. "Uh, Saeko?"

These two words were enough to break her out of littler trance and she moved back, her face slightly red. Rei's face was as red as Saeko's only, for a different reason. "Wow, onii-chan, that's cool!" Alice said, her eyes sparkling with child like interest.

Takashi scratched the back of his head sheepishly as he turned to her. "Yeah, I guess it's cool, but I haven't had a chance to really try them out yet."

Kohta now came up to inspect it. "Well, it looks cool, but does it do anything special?" he asked.

"Well, according to Dante, it makes me hit harder and move faster," Takashi answered.

"Okay, so it increases your abilities like how you can increases stats in a video game. But how much of an increase are we talking about here? That could make a difference, you know," Kohta pointed.

Takashi rubbed his chin. "Don't know, but those weird demons with the blade arms should be easy enough to take down now. Come to think of it, I had an easy time taking them down before."

"Scarecrows are certainly stronger than humans and those blades of theirs are very sharp, but they move slowly and aren't too smart so it's really no wonder why you have such an easy time with them. The only thing you have to worry about with them is numbers," Lady said.

"Speaking of demons, just what was that thing from earlier?" Saya asked.

Everyone else turned to Lady, realizing that they had forgotten about the Blitz in the aftermath of Dante taking the fight outside. "Remember what Dante said after leaving the mansion?"

"About fighting demons that rely on hearing rather than sight," Saya said, remembering Dante's words.

"The demon from just now was the one he was talking about. It's called a Blitz and as you all saw, it certainly lives up to the name," Lady explained.

"No kidding," Takashi muttered.

Lady ignored him. "It can cover itself in a lightning shroud, which lets it zip around the place just like lightning itself. Combined with its tremendous strength, its attacks are truly devastating. However, it's blind so it has to rely on hearing and that lets us confuse it," she said simply.

"So then if we end up fighting another, we could possibly win?" Rei asked.

Saya looked at her and sighed. "Didn't you just hear what she just said? The thing could move at the speed of lightning. No human could ever hope to react to something that fast. It's actually a miracle that we were even able to see it come through the ceiling."

"Just how fast is lightning anyway?" Takashi asked.

"About a hundred and forty thousand miles an hour," Saya replied, not glancing at him.

Takashi's eyes widened in shock as he recalled that he was actually able to see the Blitz move just a little bit, which showed him just how good his senses were now.

"Yeah, impressive shit, ain't it?" They all turned to see Dante approach. Looks like he had just gotten back.

"Took you a while to get back," Lady commented. She expected a witty response or something to her statement, but was surprised to see that not only did Dante not say anything, but look rather serious. "Something wrong?"

Dante went to the nearest chair and slumped onto it, sighing. "Kinda. I ran into a small group of those zombies."

"That doesn't seem too bad," Rei commented.

"Yeah, you'd think that at first. Thing is though, these things were part demon now. Specifically, part Scarecrow." Dante looked at the shocked expressions of the group.

"Part Scarecrow?" Kohta nearly exclaimed. "You mean that they're eating demons now?"

Dante shrugged. "Who knows? I didn't see how they got that way. I just know that they got some bits of demon in them now and it made them tougher than before."

They all fell silent for a bit. "How much tougher are we talking here?" Lady asked, concerned about this. This could really pose a problem for them in the near future.

"Not much, but they were definitely stronger and faster than they were before. And they also got blades just like the Scarecrows. Good thing is that their off switch is still the same," Dante replied.

"So they can still be taken out by destroying the brains," Lady said, more to herself than to anyone else. Dante just nodded.

"Crap, that sounds bad," Takashi said.

"Agreed," Saeko said, thinking of what this information means. "If they are now eating demons and are becoming more like them as a result, that would definitely make fighting them harder."

"I wouldn't go that far," Dante replied, "they were still pretty easy to put to sleep."

"But what if they encountered one of the stronger demons and ate them?" Saeko brought up.

That shut Dante up. He had thought of that on the way back, but hearing it being said aloud really brought the seriousness of this to light. It seemed that everyone else had the same thing on their mind too. Takashi, for one, slightly shuddered at the thought of Them being more like the Assaults. The thought of super agile zombies was something that he certainly didn't want to be a reality.

"That…. would be bad," he said aloud, knowing how what he just said was something of an understatement.

Lady lightly slammed her fist on a nearby table. "Crap, if it isn't one thing it's another." She looked at Dante. "Where did you fight them at?"

He looked at her, slightly confused. "Dunno. Some street with a dumpster big enough for me to squeeze the damn Blitz in." A thought then occurred to the devil hunter. "You want to see one of bad boys up close, huh?"

Lady nodded. "Yeah. I want to see what it looks like."

"Uh huh. Yeah, not doing it," Dante replied.

Lady narrowed her eyes at him. "Why not?"

"You really expect me to remember my way back to that place? You know that I'm not gonna remember a street name if there's not gonna be another party there." Dante stood to his full height.

Lady was about ready to say something to him when Dante suddenly changed the subject. "So you guys tell the group about our little buddies in the night?"

That certainly stopped what Lady had planned to say cold. "Yes," she said after a moment.

Dante chuckled at the somewhat sour expression on Lady's face. "They must have really been grabbing your shit." Then he grew serious. "Speaking of the group, where's that guy?"

They all knew he was talking about Shimada. Before the Blitz showed up, they were all fully intent on throwing the man into the basement or something, but afterwards, they all decided along with the mall survivors to cut him loose from the ropes, but he's still being locked up in one of the stores, one of them having found a key that can open and lock the doors of each store. When they locked him up, they made sure that some of the lights in the store were off permanently. Lady had been the one to suggest this in order to keep Shimada shook up so that he really learns his lesson.

"In one of the stores," Takashi said.

Dante nodded in response. "Huh, that's good. Kinda surprised the dude's still breathing. I thought the group would rip him a new one and throw him out."

Then his eyes narrowed as he turned around, looking off in some random direction. They all took note of the change. Something seemed wrong. "What is it?" Saeko asked, her face growing stern.

Dante didn't answer at first, opting instead to start walking away. "Not sure."

Meanwhile, the man they were just speaking of was currently slumped up against the wall of the store. He sighed, now regretting his earlier actions having now had the time to think on it. "Fuck," he whispered to himself, "Things have really gone to shit."

He had been locked up in a sporting goods store and after a while, Shimada took the time to look around the isles for something of interest, but that had ended disappointedly. There was nothing good to keep him occupied.

After a moment, Shimada stood up, figuring that he might as well explore the back of the store since he hadn't checked that out. He was always curious about what was back in the employees only section anyway.

He took a few careful steps at first as half of the lights in the store weren't working and Shimada didn't want to stub his toe or something. After making sure that he wasn't in any danger of hurting his toes, he made his way towards the employees only door and tried the door handle. It was locked, but Shimada didn't feel like lazing around so he took a few steps back and ran forward a bit, kicking the door as hard as he could. The lock gave way under the force of his kick and the door swung open, Shimada massing his foot a bit due to how sturdy the door was.

"Damn," he muttered. Quickly shaking off the slight pain, he walked through the door. He sighed, for as soon as he walked past the door, there was nothing but darkness. It would seem that the lights in the back weren't on or simply didn't work. Shimada moved towards the wall, trying to feel for a switch to turn on the lights, but he didn't feel anything. Cursing once more, he decided to forget the lights and just move on.

Keeping his hand up against the wall so that he somewhat knows where he's going, he finds a stairway heading down to the basement. "Might as well check it out. Better than sitting around anyway." Shimada made a move for the stairs, but unfortunately, he didn't notice that the steps were wet with water and he ended up slipping. He let out a cry as he fell down the stairs, his body hitting the steps rather hard.

A few seconds later, he landed on the hard basement floor, side first. He moaned in pain, feeling a bit of blood coming from his mouth. It would appear that he had cut a lip open on the way down. He tried to move to wipe the blood away, but the action hurt his arm quite a bit. Groaning, he stood slowly, clutching the arm that he landed on. "Shit!" he yelled.

He hoped that he could make his way back up the stairs and get someone to check out his arm or something because he certainly didn't want to risk finding out if he had a fracture the hard way. As he began to start making his way up the stairs, he heard a strange noise. It sounded like a whoosh, as though a breeze was passing through.

He turned to look, but saw nothing. Writing it off as a trick of his imagination, he turned back around, but once again, he heard the same sound. This time though, he felt a chill run up his spine in the process. Shivering, Shimada again turned to see what made the sound, but saw nothing once more.

Now he was very worried. What if those zombies were down here? What if it was one of those demon things that had been talked about earlier when that lady explained? These were just two of several questions running through his head.

He saw something out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned, there was nothing. Another thing moved, but when he turned there, he was met with the same result. Another chill overcame him and this time, when something moved, he saw it this time.

Out of the wall came what appeared to be a coat of some sorts, a coat that reminded Shimada very much of the usual depictions of the grim reaper. It was as black as coal and it wisped around as though wind was blowing it.

As it came further out from the wall, Shimada took a few steps back as what looked like a face popped out, resembling some sort of ugly looking bug with dark blue eyes. "Oh my god…." He whispered as the thing flitted closer to him.

He took another step back, but tripped over something and fell on his butt, but was far too scared of this thing before him to feel the pain. He had no doubt in his mind that this was a demon and at that thought, he screamed. Feeling a surge of adrenaline suddenly come over him, he jumped up and made a run for it right up the stairs.

"Oh god, oh god!" he yelled.

The demon – a Faust – looked up at Shimada's running form. Looking at the moving man for a moment, it raised a deathly thin arm from under its shadowy cloak and before Shimada knew what struck him, a finger had extended from the hand and right through Shimada's leg.

He cried in pain and fell face first on the stair step, but the adrenaline running through him allowed for him to shrug off the pain quickly and crawl as fast as he could up the steps. He didn't get very far before he was struck again, this time through his left hand. He gasped in pain as the finger slowly retracted and blood began to seep from the hole.

Looking back, he saw the Faust floating eerily up the stairs before hearing the same breezey sound from before coming from in front of him. Whipping his head around, he saw another Faust emerge from the stairs itself, very close to him.

"N-no… please…" he muttered out. The Faust, now fully materialized, made no movement in response to Shimada's plea.

Raising its hand after a moment, it aimed its index finger right at the man's forehead. The last thing Shimada was able to do before his life was ended was look at his demonic killer in horror, an expression that stayed on his face even after his head fell forward onto the step.

After Shimada was killed, the Faust turned around, towards the top of the stairs. It waited until its brethren from down below show up next to it, followed shortly by another that appeared from the wall. Once the three were side by side, they made their way up the stairs.

And that's a rap! Ah, I can't believe it took this long for me to get this done. Damn, college really does take up some serious time. Ah, hope you can forgive me for that.

And I apologize for basically making this a talking chapter, but given the circumstances, I feel that it'd be best to end it here so that I wouldn't take too long to post this. Hopefully in future chapters, I will be able to make chapters have an even balance of talking and fighting.

And I'm not entirely sure about the speed of lighting that I mentioned in the chapter as that was something I looked up on Wikipedia and a few other sites. If someone would confirm if what I typed is accurate, I'd be most grateful.

Anyways, I hope you were able to enjoy the chapter and please leave a review.