Sorry for another wait. Just got through doing a bunch of assignments and a test or two recently and those kinda things always take up a bit of time. All that's left now is a little speech outline, but that'll be easy. Then again, I am going to have to present it….

Alrighty, here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.

P.S. Thank you once more, Ultimate-Zelda-fan for pointing out my mistake in calling the demons Fausts instead of Mephistos. Can't believe I got them mixed up like that. I really gotta start replaying DMC4 soon….

Chapter 15

Takashi sighed as he scratched the back of his head. "That sure was an intense talk," he remarked. In the little time he had known Dante, he had never seen him look so serious. Not that he could blame him for it given the little info he had for them. Zombies were bad enough, but demonic ones were worse. Seeing how Dante didn't know exactly how many there are right now, Takashi couldn't help but wonder if the others were feeling just as panicked on the inside as he is right now.

He walked down the aisles of a guitar store, hoping that looking around would ease his mind a bit. He was having no luck with that so far. He kept walking down the aisles until he came across a guitar much like the one that his friend Morita had. "Morita…" Takashi thought sadly. He was sad to admit, but he had completely forgotten about the poor guy and his other friends in the wake of this crazy new world. Takashi remembered all of the times he, Morita, and a few other guys would hang out on the roof and talk about a bunch of different stuff. He chuckled as he remembered a time where Morita was reading off a list of girls that he deemed to be the hottest at their school. Looking back on that day, he had to keep himself from laughing himself to death when he recalled Morita saying how he wished to see Saeko in an apron and thong, while Takashi himself did get to see that, despite him having said that it'll never happen.

Takashi also recalled how Morita would practice guitar on the roof almost all the time too. "I wonder if I can do that same rift," he pondered, remembering the little tune that Morita was practicing. Picking up the guitar, Takashi mentally replayed the rift in his head, trying to remember the little he had learned about playing guitar from Morita.

Taking in a deep breath, Takashi played the notes that he thought were it. He winced a bit as soon as he played them; they were the right notes, but he had played them out of order. Tryin again, he almost got it, only messing up a few notes. The third time he tried it, he got it right. "There we go," he muttered happily. He played the rift a few more times, a sort of tribute to Morita. "Hope that at least you died quickly," Takashi thought as he had seen a zombified Morita when he and the others had made a run from the school.

"Wow, onii-chan, I didn't know you could play the guitar!" Alice said, having come into the store when he wasn't paying attention. Her sudden voice had snapped him out of his thoughts and nearly made him yelp.

"Well, aren't you just full of surprises?" Saya said, having followed Alice into the store. She had an appraising smirk on her face that made Takashi chuckle sheepishly a bit.

"Ah, yeah, thanks. But it's not as if I can play really well or anything. I picked up the rift from a buddy named Morita," he explained. Now that he thought about it, Morita did tell him how he was going to ask Saya out for the third time or so the last time they spoke.

"Huh? Who's Morita?" Saya asked, puzzled.

Takashi looked at her in shock. She forgot all about him? "Just how do you forget about a guy who has asked you out three times?" he thought, feeling bad for Morita. Poor guy didn't deserve to be forgotten so easily. "Don't you remember him?" he asked.

"No. Why? Am I supposed to know him?" Saya responded while Alice started asking Takashi for an encore.

Takashi could not believe his ears; Saya truly has no idea who Morita was. He now felt really bad for the guy. "Ah, never mind," he replied, deciding not to push the issue.

He shifted his focus back to the guitar and started to play random notes, trying to see if he can play some parts from songs he knew. Saya and Alice seemed to sense the change in his mood and fell silent as well.

"Hey Saya, how long do you think this place will hold out?" Takashi asked after a moment.

"Originally, I'd say this mall could hold out for weeks what with the food and all, but given the recent events, I honestly don't know anymore," she answered, crossing her arms under her ample chest.

"Yeah… thought you'd say that." Takashi sighed. "If it isn't one thing, it's another," he muttered as he placed the guitar back where it was before.

"Well I think everything will turn out fine!" Alice exclaimed, trying to keep the mood good with her optimism.

Takashi laughed. "Yeah, I hope things do turn out alright." He ruffled her hair while grinning. Alice giggled, happy in knowing that she got Takashi to feel better. And she knew that Saya felt a little better too, but she tried to hide the smirk on her face that appeared when Alice said what she said.

"Hey, don't go getting ahead of yourself, you little brat. There's plenty to do before we can say something like that," Saya said, but in a more amused tone of voice rather than a condescending way.

Takashi smirked; he remembered how Saya really wasn't one to like kids, but right now, it was clear to him that she had grown fond of Alice. He couldn't really blame her either; Alice just had something about her that made people like her upon first meeting her.

"She's got a point. How about we go what the others are doing and if they could use some help in stocking up?" he said to Alice.

"Alright!" she said enthusiastically. And at that, they all exited the store.

Dante, meanwhile, was busy making his way to the store they had locked Shimada up in. Earlier when they were talking, he felt a bad vibe going on and wanted to check it out. He sure didn't want another demon to attack the place; he didn't want to be hounded by the mall survivors like Lady.

"You sure you want to check on Shimada-san, Dante-san?" Asami, who had the keys to the locked store, asked him.

Dante nodded. "Yeah. Something's up and I don't want to wait for it to come bite us in the ass when we're not looking."

Asami got a thoughtful look on her face and nodded. They continued walking in silence for a while and it wasn't long before they got to the store. Asami fumbled through the keys to find the right one, trying out several keys on the lock in a somewhat frazzled hurry. Her childish attitude throughout this process made it hard for Dante to suppress a laugh.

She eventually got the right key and the gate soon popped up for Dante to walk through. "There you go, Dante-san!" Asami said happily at having finally gotten the right key.

Dante shook his head in amusement before growing stern. He felt that strange vibe again. Something was up. He took a few steps into the store before stopping. "Asami-san," he began, "when will your superior get back?" he asked.

He watched as his sudden question caught the young, childish officer by surprise and Asami began to start stuttering out words. "W-w-w-well, I-I'm sure sh-she'll be b-back soon," she muttered out, averting her eyes.

Dante couldn't believe how horrible a liar she was. He could tell that something was up. "She's dead, isn't she?" he asked almost solemnly.

His guess appeared to be on the mark as he saw Asami's face shift to surprise then to shame. Asami looked up at him and appeared to be about to say something to contradict his guess, but then looked down again. "Yes," she said softly.

Dante sighed. "Great. Looks like we're on our own for now." He couldn't believe their luck. He and the others got here, thinking they will finally be able to get some more help and get to a safe zone or something, but now that wasn't the case. And it was bad enough that there's no help coming, but the fact that Asami had been lying to everyone made it worse despite her good intentions of keeping their hopes up. Of course, him, Lady, and Saya knew that something was wrong.

"You plan to tell the others any time soon?" he asked.

"Not really. I mean, I don't want to-," Asami began.

"-Worry them. Yeah, good intention, but if you don't tell them the truth soon, it'll come around to get ya," Dante replied. Asami stood still for a moment before nodding and walking off, her head still down. Dante sighed; he really hoped things don't get any worse with the survivors. At this point, they were already walking time bombs given their mental state.

"Let's get this show on the road," he said to himself as he brought himself to focus back on the task at hand. He scanned around the general area in front of him, hoping to see Shimada sleeping or something to put him at ease, but had no such luck. Shimada must be in the back then.

Walking forward, Dante stayed alert, ready to fight at a second's notice. He looked behind the cash register counter in case the man was curled up there, but that was a no go. After that, Dante walked to the door marked employees only and immediately noticed that it was open. "Looks like the guy wanted to explore a bit," he remarked.

He went through the door and kept on walking despite how dark it was. Dante wasn't worried about bumping into anything; his senses were considerably sharper than a human's and so had no problem seeing. Noticing stairs, Dante made his way to them and started walking down, but as soon as he took a few steps and looked further on down, he saw Shimada. This would have been a good thing if not for the fact that he was dead, a few holes in his body, blood flowing from them quite a bit, making it easy to guess that the holes had both an entrance and exit.

Dante recognized the wounds immediately, having seen them before on a handful of occasions. "Shit!" he muttered and with that, he ran back up the stairs, intent on getting to the others before their guests could.

As Dante discovered Shimada's body, Takashi, Saya, and Alice were currently with the mall survivors. They had tried to find Kohta or one of the others, but they had ended up running into them first, much their dismay; they really didn't feel like dealing with them right now.

"Can we help you?" Takashi asked, his voice showing a lack of interest in the situation.

One of the mall survivors stepped forward. "Leave this place now!" he said.

Takashi and Saya looked rather surprised while Alice jumped back a bit from how viciously the man said it. Saya narrowed her eyes at him. "Why should we?" she demanded.

"Things were going fine until you all showed up and now we have these… these demons running around and we didn't see them until you came here," he explain. Some of the others behind him nodded their heads in agreement.

"But you can't blame us for that!" Takashi exclaimed, taking a step forward, "demons were showing up all over the place now. You would have run into them sooner or later anyways."

"Bull shit! Why the hell would we leave here?" was the comeback.

Takashi was really beginning to feel annoyed. "That's not what I meant and you know it. demons would have busted into this place eventually."

"How would you know that? You're just a kid!" That statement nearly set Takashi off. He was so sick and tired of people using his age against him. Just because he was younger than a majority of them doesn't mean he is clueless on how to do things.

He made a move forward, but stopped when Saya placed a hand on his shoulder. "Forget it. Let them try things on their own," she said coldly. It would seem that she felt the same way he did, only with more self-control.

Takashi looked back at her for a brief moment before looking back to find the man glaring at him, something that Takashi returned. A second later, he sighed and started to walk away from the mall survivors, Alice at his side while Saya lagged behind a bit to give the group a glare of her own before walking faster to catch up with the two.

"I swear those people…" Saya began. However, she didn't continue her sentence as she found herself slamming into Takashi's back. Nearly falling on her butt, she regained her balance, fixed her glasses which nearly fell off and gazed at Takashi. She would have made some sort of rude comment, but something about how still he was made her worry a bit. "What is it?" she asked.

Takashi didn't answer. "Onii-chan?" Alice asked, feeling worried herself.

Takashi once again didn't respond, his eyes instead looking straight ahead as though something was there. He didn't make any sort of motion, not a single twitch or blink. "Takashi?" Saya asked, now really feeling worried.

She didn't receive an answer. Concerned that something was wrong with him, she was about to turn back around and try to get the group to help her or something – as much as she didn't want to – when Takashi finally responded. "Something is wrong."

"What?" She was taken aback by his sudden short statement.

Takashi turned around slightly to look at her. "I… feel something coming," he said, not entirely sure how to say what he was feeling.

Saya stood still for a moment, knowing that if Takashi was acting this way, then something really was wrong. Despite this, she really couldn't help but wonder just what was the problem now. After all, they've already had to deal with getting along with the mall survivors, the attempted rape of Shizuka, and most recently the Blitz followed by having to explain the existence of demons to the people, so it was only natural for her to wonder what else could be next.

"What are you talking ab-?" she let a yelp of sorts as Takashi suddenly grabbed Alice with one arm and practically tackled her before she could finish the sentence. Just as he did so, Saya saw something suddenly shoot out from the left to where her head had just been.

Just as they were about to hit the floor, Takashi rolled so that he would take the brunt of the impact, leaving Saya and Alice unharmed. Standing up quickly and letting go of the two girls, he looked to what he could only describe as some sort of glowing line. "What the hell is that?" he wondered.

He watched the 'line' detract at such a speed that he doubted Saya or the mall survivors nearby, who had bore witness to the whole thing just now, were able to see it move. Looking to where it came from, Takashi saw it actually go through the wall. "The fuck?" he muttered.

Before anyone could move, another one of the 'lines' shot out right at Takashi, moving even faster than before. Acting purely on instinct, Takashi brought up his hands and slam it over the incoming line, practically catching it just as the tip was mere inches away from his face. He knew that he could heal from things that would be fatal to normal people – the stab through the heart Dante gave him when they first met proved this – but he had no intention of seeing whether this same regenerative power of his applied when stabbed through the head.

The line started to struggle to break free from his grip and worm its way closer to his face, Takashi grunting in effort to keep it still, but whatever it was, it was feisty. Then, a strange shadow seemed to appear on the wall where it came from and slowly, but surely, a Mephisto emerged.

The mall survivors immediately began to back up, wanting to get as far away as possible, yet they dared not run, afraid that doing so would make the Mephisto turn its attention on them if or when it got free of Takashi's grasp.

Saya and Alice were scared too, but hid their fear better than the survivors, instead thinking of ways to help. "Hey, brat, go upstairs and get the others!" Saya yelled at Alice. Alice whipped around, looking at her in surprise. Saya could tell from a glance that Alice didn't want to leave them, but she wasn't going to have that happen. "Go!"

Alice flinched from the yell, but nodded. "R-right!" She took off running as fast as she could.

As soon as she was on the move, Saya immediately began to look around for something to use. The gun her mom had given her was hidden along with the other weapons and only Kohta knew where they were since he was the one to hide them. Deciding that she was better off just going with Alice to get Kohta or someone, she rushed off as well, vowing to return as soon as possible with help.

Takashi, on the other hand, was too busy keeping the now obvious finger of the Mephisto from getting any closer to pay attention. "Damn it! If I let go, this thing will get me, but if I just keep holding on, I'm screwed anyway!" he thought. To prove his point, the Mephisto drew closer, its cloak literally sweeping through the floor as it came in low.

Suddenly, the finger retracted right out of Takashi's hand. "Oh shit!" he yelled as the Mephisto raised its other hand and fired another finger. Thankfully for him, the angle it was coming at allowed enough movement for him to dodge, which he did by ducking down low to avoid it while also moving to the right.

Takashi charged forward at the demon, fist cocked back. However, much to his surprise, when he closed the distance and let loose, he found himself going right through it. Having not expected this, he nearly lost his balance from how he swung his fist, but was quick to correct it before running into the wall. But as soon as he turned around, he had to jump to avoid another finger strike, one that pierced right through the wall as though it wasn't even there.

Sparing a brief second to look at the spot where it hit, Takashi was confused to see a hole from the attack. "What the hell? How did it do that while I went straight through it?"

He didn't have the time to dwell longer on that as the Mephisto flew right at him. Just as it was a few feet away from him, it did a sudden curve, now placing it at Takashi's left. In the process of the curve, its cloak began to spin, taking on the sharpness of a blade. Takashi, having not seen it coming, was unable to dodge quick enough to fully avoid the now dangerous cloak. It clipped his arm as he leapt away.

Cursing from the sharp pain he felt, Takashi placed a hand over the cut in his shirt even though the wound was already healing. That didn't mean blood wasn't shed or that the attack didn't hurt. Trying to ignore the pain, Takashi surveyed the area, trying to find a weapon, but then called off his search as he remembered something: the devil arm Dante had given him. Concentrating hard, Gilgamesh took form, just in time for another one of the Mephisto's finger attacks.

Takashi raised his now gauntlet covered fist just as the finger was going to hit. He felt a bit of satisfaction as the finger slammed into the gauntlet, making a slight spark from the finger panging off the side of it. Takashi grinned, glad that the finger couldn't go through the gauntlet like it did the wall.

He knocked the finger to the side and launched himself at the demon, hoping that his devil arm would make a difference. Just to be on the safe side, Takashi was intent on aiming for its head. The Mephisto, sensing a change here, floated up, Takashi's Gilgamesh covered fist, just barely missing its insectoid face. Takashi's eyes narrowed as he felt his fist brush something. "There's something there," he thought.

Takashi went for a kick and was met with a better result, which would be his foot actually hitting something under the cloak, thanks to the increase in speed the devil arm granted him. The Mephisto was actually knocked to the side from the strength of the kick. But it was a demon and like all demons, it was a persistent creature, a fact that was reflected in its next action: its razor sharp, spinning cloak.

The demon didn't have momentum on its side though so it was a good distance away when it started its attack so Takashi had plenty of time to prepare for it. However, as the Mephisto began to rush in, it started to zig-zag as an unexpected burst of bullets were fired right at it. Some of the rounds clipped its cloak, blowing small portions of it off.

Takashi looked to where the gunfire just came from and saw Kohta wielding a slightly steaming machine gun in his hands, a small smirk on his face. "Need a hand?" he asked. To his right was Saya holding the same gun that her mother had given her, the safety off and ready to fire. Alice was not in sight, probably still trying to get the others spread through out the huge mall, although Takashi had the feeling that the gunfire would certainly get their attention.

Grinning at Kohta and nodding at him in thanks, he turned to face the Mephisto once more. "Yeah, I guess I wouldn't mind some support." Takashi actually grinned. He couldn't really explain why, but he was feeling somewhat happy for the help.

In another part of the mall, Saeko, having been meditating in relative peace within a store, heard the gunfire and immediately stood up, her hand grabbing the hilt of her sword out of reflex. As soon as she did, the store doors opened to reveal Dante. "Damn, this place is like a maze," he grumbled.

"Dante-san?" Saeko didn't like the worried look on his face.

Dante focused his attention from his thoughts onto Saeko. "We got a few more uninvited guests," he said.

That was all she needed to hear. Nodding, she rushed past him, eager to help the others take down the demons that had somehow gotten in. Dante was quick to follow right behind her. However, they didn't get too far before Dante placed a hand out in front of Saeko to stop her. No sooner than he did this, a finger shot out from the ground at a relatively slow speed. Slow speed for Dante at least. For a human, on the other hand, it was little more than a blur, but Saeko had spent a good portion of her life practicing the way of the sword and it showed in her reflexes when she brought up her sword, still sheathed, to deflect the incoming attack.

Out of the ground floated a Mephisto, retracting its finger and making a sound that could possibly be seen as a sigh of disappointment. It gazed at the duo ominously.

Dante chuckled. "As much as you'd like to help your boyfriend, it looks like you and I are gonna have to deal with this party crasher first."

Saeko blushed slightly at the boyfriend comment about Takashi, but was quick in focusing on the matter at hand. "Agreed," she said with a bit of a smile, not being able to help but feel infected by Dante's confidence.

Dante whipped out Ebony and Ivory and took aim at the Mephisto. "Then let's rock!"

Ahhhhhh damn! Longest chapter yet! Feels pretty good, I gotta say.

Once again, I feel I must apologize for the long wait. I have gotten so much school work taking up time that it really isn't funny. Well, actually I don't get much homework or anything from college, but nevertheless it does take up a good bit of time to do and it's never fun. That, and I started reading a few new mangas like Bastard!. Gotta say, Bastard! sure is one interesting manga, so much so that it actually takes up a bit of my time on the computer.

Anyways, thanks so much to all of you who have reviewed/favorited my fic! It really means a lot to me. Hope you continue to enjoy my fic. Thanks for reading again!