Chapter 8: Alliance

If there was one thing Forneus prided himself on, it was his voice. He shook, flinging his head from side to side, trying to dislodge the Datsue Ba that was jamming his mouth and ruining his speech to almost complete incoherence. When that didn't work, he bit down instead, down on the broom demon that was forcing its mouth open, biting down as hard as it could and thrashing, blocking the door to prevent both Isamu and Pixie from escaping.

The Datsue Ba began to scream. "NO! I'm far too beautiful to die like this!" The handle of the broom began to splinter, black blood seeping through the cracks. Her screaming just made the Forneus bite down harder, though. As the sound increased, Naoki averted his eyes. Demon as he may be in body, he was still human in his soul and he could not bear to watch.

He didn't need to, however – the demons around him gave him a full running commentary.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! That's GOT to hurt!" Hua Po.

"Fatality!" Kodama. "He bit her clean in two!"

"Serves her right for nicking her clothes." Shikigami.

"Heh. Looks like you're going to have to pay up, Shiki!" Shiisa.

"Want Eat!" Preta.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" Isamu. He was screaming. Naoki looked back up, felt a chill down as his spine. Shattered fragments were all that remained of the Broom Demon. More importantly however, Isamu had been knocked into a corner and was staring at the Ray with wide eyes. For his part, Foorneus was glaring back at the human, either gloating in his victory or merely absorbing the truckload of Magatsuhi the boy was emitting in his terror.

He spoke. "So, little homo sapient, what shall I do with or to you?"

Isamu trembled in reply.

"Should I . . . castrate you? Disembowel you? So many different recommendations and so much time to do it in. Did you know that I am capable of fine precision cutting with these fins! I have a habit of using them to butcher anyone who disrespects me!" Forneus did a couple of flips in the air, spraying ice out his mouth with laughter.

"Hmm . .. I know! I think I'll – " but he didn't get a chance to finish his threat, as there suddenly came an enormous crash up above him. Suddenly, broken glass began raining down on him, causing him to look away from his prey. "What in the –"

The demons up above the ray backed away from Naoki where he'd shattered the annexe glass separating him from Isamu. They were all thinking exactly the same thing, but only Kodama voiced it.

"Hey mister, what did you do that for?"

Naoki ignored them and shouted through the open gap. "ISAMU!"

Isamu stared back blankly.

"RUN, ISAMU!" Naoki yelled. He didn't know if Isamu heard him, but maybe it didn't matter – Isamu was taking his chance, leaping to his feet and running as though every monster in the world was after him. Which, in this day and age, might not be far from the truth. He escaped the hospital, left without looking back.

Forneus frowned, snarled, then showed of his mythical linguistic abilities by swearing in every known human language

"Great, just great," Shiisa muttered. "Now look what you've done!"

"Huh?" Naoki asked, fixated on the scene below him. He got away, Isamu got away, he got away! He escaped!

Demonic snarls and growls interrupted Naoki from his silent celebration. He looked up, turned around, realized that he was surrounded by monsters. Not just Pretas, but purple Skulls, paper demons like Shikigami, fairy demons like Hua Po and lollipop wrappers like Kodama.

"Friends of yours?" Naoki asked hopefully.

Shikigami shook its head. "No. "

Naoki took one glance at the oncoming rush of demons, looked back through the window at the scene below him – Isamu escaped, Pixie seemingly vanished into thin air, Forneus looking absolutely outraged – and decided discretion was the better part of valour. So did the rest of the Shinjuku Hospital Infiltration Team, it seemed – they were running away, not in any real formation – just running away.

Naoki followed them, dodging spells of fire and lightning. Occasionally, Hua Po would throw a couple of fireballs back, Kodama would fling waves of pure . . .force? at any demon that got too close, and the paper Shikigami was made of seemed able to reflect electricity back at its source. The Preta ran as fast as it could, not trying to eat anything for once, while Shiisa. . . what WAS Shiisa doing, anyway?

"Hey Shiki, did I ever tell you about the time I –"

"WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT NOW!" Shikigami yelled at the dog/lion over the demonic growls and roars.

At first, things were looking good – they managed to make their way down the stairs to the ground floor without any real injuries, and the annexe looked to be almost undamaged –

- But then there came a colossal crash, and Forneus came bursting through the wall, roaring and sending the group to a crashing halt. "Freeze!" The Ray yelled, barrel rolling in the air. There was just enough time for Shiisa to yell "SHIT!" then the Ray sent out a . . .well. . ."ray" of ice straight at the group.

They were too close to avoid the blast at it enveloped them completely in a wall of bone chilling cold.. Strangely enough, it was almost calming to Naoki after being electrocuted and burned all the time.

Well, this isn't too bad.

But then the cold grew more intense and suddenly Naoki couldn't move his legs anymore and he panicked. Gradually, the ray of ice faded, but as he looked around he could see that the damage had been done.

Shiisa was embedded in the ice, up to its neck, all four paws completely trapped, The other demons in a similar predicament, some worse off than other's. The Preta was completely encased in ice, two fairy legs sticking out if its mouth.

Did it eat a fairy?

Over there was Hua Po, also completely encased in ice except for one hand, which was pointing towards Forneus . . .with the middle finger extended. Kodama had avoided the ice and was doing figure eights around the other Jirae in concern, whilst Shikigami had wrapped himself around Naoki's head as though he was a bandanna. Naoki himself was frozen in ice all the way up to his middle, his legs completely immobilized and frozen in mid run.

Not good!

"Rats! I . . .I can't move!" Shiisa snarled.

"Yeah, being immobilized in minus 200 degree ice will do that to you," Forneus chortled in his victory. Then he noticed Naoki. "Hey – hey you! In the obsidian lower leg covering!"

"Who. . ." Naoki blinked. "Who, me?"

"Yeah you! I've never seen your visage around before, but I've already concluded that I strongly dislike it! That was a most undesirable jinx you played on me before, letting that human escape. That really made me most disgruntled!"

"What's he saying?" Kodama whispered. "He's using too big words."

"He's saying Naoki pissed him off," Shikigami answered him.

"Oooh. The big meanie!"

"I . . . I'm sorry," Naoki said. I cannot believe I'm actually speaking to a Manta Ray. And the Manta Ray is speaking back. "But, that guy was a friend of mine, and –"

"HA! A friend! You're friends with a HUMAN!" Forneus burst out laughing, not seeming to notice Shikigami staring at Naoki in disbelief. "That's got to be the most hilarious thing I've ever heard in all my centuries of existence. For shame, Shiisa! To think that your precious Shinjuku Hospital Infiltration Team has descended so low as to recruit a human loving demon like that!"

"Oh YEAH?" Shiisa yelled back. "Well, this human loving demon is going to kick your ass, just like he kicked the asses of all your Preta groupies!"

This only made the Ray laugh louder. "Oh, really! So you're one of those demons, are you, punk? You think you can just teleport in here and start disrespecting me?"

"Uh, no. . " Naoki's protests were overridden by Kodama.

"That's right! He's here to smack you all the way back into the ocean!"

"Oh Really?"

"Yea Really!"

"Well, let me tell you punk in the pants, I have this bad habit of butchering anyone who disrespects me. I cut them up with these fins! Hahahaha!" The ray did a couple of flips in the air, spraying ice out of its mouth with laughter.

"Are you done yet?" Shikigami asked, completely disinterested.

Forneus kept laughing for a while, before finally composing itself again. ".. . .yeah, I'm good. PREPARE TO DIE!"

Then he was charging, charging straight for Naoki as the latter struggled to break free of the ice. The Shikigami around his head crackled for a second, then sent a bolt of electricity flying through the air that nailed the Ray in the eye, throwing off his aim. This gave Naoki just enough time to grab the Ray in his hands, one hand on the top jaw, the other on the lower jaw.

With a few well placed electrical shocks, Shiisa broke free from the ice and looked around to see if how many were dead or not . But Naoki was immobilized, still injured from the Preta horde earlier, and he had taken some hits from Forneus as well. The sheer coldness of the ice would sap his demonic strength, slow him down, and the slower he got the more in trouble he would be unless somebody helped him. Not wanting to see their best chance for defeating the Ray go to waste, Shiisa charged forward, readying his electricity to assist in the battle, but before he could go a few paces Naoki shouted at him.

"No! I can deal with this! Help the others! Hurry up!" Naoki shouted from where he was struggling with the Manta Ray and losing. His fingers were just like the rest of him, going numb from the cold. He really couldn't hold on much longer. His arms still ached from the chilling cold, but the desire to protect his friends gave him new strength to hold the enormous ray back.

"You little jerk!" Forneus snarled, firing ice all over the place as it struggled to escape Naoki's grip. Naoki found himself catching a face full of ice, causing him to close his eyes in pain but it didn't deter his hold. He did, however, hear a thud and out of the corner of his eye saw Shikigami land on the ground, immobilized in the ice except for his head.

Meanwhile, Shiisa couldn't believe what he was hearing or seeing. It wasn't that Naoki was fighting Forneus. ON HIS OWN, HURTING IT. Anybody who could take out a hundred Pretas on his own had to be something special.. But the sole reason he was fighting the Ray at all was so the others could. . .escape? That made no sense.

What the Belial is with this demon? He almost acts like a . . .

No, Shiisa couldn't even say the word, it was so horrible. There had to be another reason.

Shiisa blinked, shrugged his shoulders. Well, if he says so. . . He went for the Hua Po first, scratching the ice until she was completely defrosted,

As he glanced at the others, Shiisa could tell that Shikigami had the same look on his face as well: a look of absolute astonishment and disbelief and .. .recognition? Yes, now that Shiisa thought about it, Shiki had told him a little about his human summoner, a member of a cult who had summoned him as a familiar before she was hanged on Kodama's sacred tree. Apparently, Naoki had the same radical ideas of saving people for no material gain as that human heretic did.

How odd. Maybe this guy was summoned to be a Familiar as well, or maybe as a lover to a human. It had been known to happen, particularly with the Incubus and Succubus and Lilim types. It would certainly explain his perverted tendencies. Not that Shiisa had seen any of them.

"The Pervert guy says go help the others!" Shiisa told Hua Po as he finished digging her free.

"Screw that!" she answered. "I'm going to make that fish finger pay for ruining my hairdo!" And with that, she hurled a fireball in Forneus' direction. Unfortunately, her aim was a little off – it missed the Ray completely, but nailed Naoki square in his rear.

"OW!" Naoki yelled.

"Darn, I missed. The ray, anyway."

However, this turned out to be a good thing. The fire was hot enough to melt the ice immobilizing Naoki's legs, allowing him to break free of the ice. Now mobile again, Naoki head butted the Ray, causing it to snarl, then readied his fist and gave Forneus a whopping big punch to the head.

"AAAH!" The Manta Ray reeled, flapped its fins and flew upwards, breaking through the ceiling above them and causing it to cave in. "You miniscule piece of – " the rest of his tirade was muffled by the sounds of falling debris, which fell on top of him and caused him to vanish from view.

But the falling debris split the 1st floor in half, preventing them from getting to the lobby and freedom, and now the demons that had been following them were starting to reappear again.

"What do we do now?" Naoki yelled over the demonic shrieks and bolts of lightning and fire.

Shiisa shook the remaining ice crystals from his coat, sped off towards the stairs. "There's another way to the annexe lobby through the underground facility! Shinjuku Hospital Investigation Team, Awaaaaay!" The lion/dog sprinted off down the basement, closely followed by the Hua Po and Kodama.

Naoki hesitated. "What about the Preta and Shiki?"

"Forget them!" Shiisa yelled back. "Let the other Pretas eat 'em, it'll slow them down!"

Naoki stared at the lion/dog, then at the oncoming rush of demons, then at the still frozen Preta and Shikigami.

"Hurry up, already!" Shiisa yelled.

Naoki hurried. He ran to the still frozen Preta and Shikigami, picked them up in his hands, then hurried off after the others, pursued by an army of irate demons.

It's quiet again. Too quiet.

To be honest, Jyoji Hijiri really hadn't had that much time to study the spinning artefact – he'd been too busy trying to turn invisible, trying to ignore all the terrifying growls he had heard. During a temporary quiet point when it was almost completely dark, Hijiri had left the room and spoken to a ghost in a business suit, learning some valuable information in the process. He had also learned that the ghost he was talking to was a lawyer. This did not surprise him in the slightest. The only ones to survive the Apocalypse were supposed to be the cockroaches and the lawyers, after all.

Back in with the pillar, Hijiri had made no real advances. He was just about to continue his studies when there came a knock on the door. Hijiri froze, despite being pretty sure your average demon would not be so polite as to knock before he devoured you, but relaxed when he heard the voice of the boy he had seen earlier.

"Hijiri! It's me, Naoki! Can I come talk to you for a second?"

A loud roaring sound was heard. It sounded angry and patronising.

The big powerful demon is asking my permission to enter the room. Obviously, somebody hasn't fully awoken to their new powers.

"Sure! Come in!" Hijiri replied cheerfully, not looking up from his position. The door opened to a cacophony of demonic howls and growls outside, the sounds of combat were pretty close as well – whooshes of fire, bolts of lightning, yells and shouts. Then the door slammed shut and the room was silent except for panting.

. "So," Hijiri asked, stooped by the pillar. "What've you learned? Did you find any demons?"

"Err…" Naoki hesitated.

Confused, Hijiri turned around, studied Naoki carefully.

The boy looked even worse than possible, covered in scrapes and blood – black blood, this time. Even more stunningly, he was covered in demons! There was what looked to be a Shikigami around his head like a bandanna, a Kodama on one shoulder, a Hua Po on the other shoulder, a Shiisa sitting at his feet and a Preta in his arms. The Preta also seemed to be eating something, maybe even another demon.

Hijiri blinked. "I guess that's a yes. "

An eerie silence fell upon the room.

Kodama blinked. "Hey. .. isn't that a human? I thought there were none left!"

Shikigami spoke from the top of Naoki's head. "Guess we were wrong."

"Yeah," Naoki nodded. "His name's Hijiri. Un . . . is. . .is everyone okay?"

Shikigami sneezed, wiped his face with his tail, glanced around at everyone. "Looks like we're all still alive – oh, wait – the Preta."

The Preta was still completely encased in the block of ice, two fairy legs sticking out of his mouth comically. Shiisa smirked. "Ha – looks like he ate Hua Po whilst he was at it too!"

"No he didn't!" the fairy demon called back from where she was talking to Kodama about something. "I'm right over here!"

"Did he eat another Hua Po?" Shiisa asked. "There sure were a lot of them around."

The fairy snorted. "Who cares? It's just a Preta! You should have left it back outside."

Naoki shook his head, bent down and picked it up the Preta-cicle. He began to chip at the ice with his fingers. "I want to get him out."

"Careful!" Hua Po warned. "Stupid things are so fragile, you might break the Preta along with the ice! How about I Agi him out?"

Naoki blinked. "You mean melt the ice? You'd do that?"

"Sure, why not?" The Hua Po shrugged. "Just don't point him in my direction when he's free."

Hijiri stared, only making out snippets of the conversation, despite his years of studying the occult and the occult language. He could understand Kodama okay, and Shikigami to a lesser extent – but the Shiisa spoke in an incomprehensible language of roars and growls, while the Hua Po simply chirped like a bird.

It seemed, however, that these demons were friendly – at least with Naoki around they were. Hijiri took out his notebook, ready to write down notes on demonic language and demonic spells. Despite the seriousness of the situation, old habits died hard. Being able to get a visual demonstration of such a spell more than made up for the minor sleight of seemingly being ignored for the moment.

At Hua Po's instruction, Naoki put the Preta-cicle on the ground, safely away from the other demons, then stepped back out of the way, still trying to get some feeling back into his half frozen fingers. Hua Po smirked, waved her hands through the air, then hurled a ball of fire directly at the Preta/ Both demon and ice block were instantly consumed in flames. When it was over, all of the ice was gone – but the usually purple Preta had turned black, charred to an absolute crisp.

Hua Po blinked. ". . Damn. I used too much."

Naoki strared. "You – you – "

"Is it dead?" Shiisa asked.

The Preta stirred, opened its eyelids to reveal glowing white orbs instead of actual eyes. Slowly, he turned his head to Hijiri.

"Want eat," said the Preta, between the legs still in its mouth.

"It's okay!" Kodama cheered..

"What a relief," Naoki sighed, looking around at the others – then finally remembering that Hijiri was still in the room. "Oh, sorry! Um.. . this is Hijiri." He pointed to the human. "He's a friend."

"Are we going to eat him?" Kodama asked hopefully.

"No," Naoki replied.

"Awwww." The demon was very disappointed.

"Who is this Hijiri?" Shikigami asked, suddenly very interested.

"He's a . . . " evil demented moron who's obsessed with demonology and cults and is going to hell if we haven't already arrived in it – "he's a friend – a human friend, a reporter. He's. . .uh, very interested in you guys."

"Oh, okay." Kodama waved at the human. "Hi Mr Hijiri!" Hijiri waved back – nervously.

"Looks like he's scared of us," Shikigami smirked. "Look at him – he's shaking in his boots."

Hijiri was scared – for about two seconds. Then he was rushing over to them, his fears completely forgotten, taken over by an almost childlike curiosity and excitement. "OOOOOOOOHH! Is that a Shikigami? I knew one of those, once – but I accidentally smoked it in my pipe, that was unfortunate. OH, a Hua Po! Hanged any humans recently?"

He was like a human pinball, zigzagging from one demon to the other, asking questions in a frenzy. Naoki could only stare in surprise.

"Why hello little Kodama, aren't you cute! Oh, and Shiisa! I've only seen statues of those! What's that fur feel like? Is it soft? Is it warm? And hey, isn't this a Preta?"

"Oh! Uh, yes, it is," Naoki replied, keeping a hold on the demon to prevent it from trying to eat everything in sight, alive or dead. "There's hundreds of them outside, absolutely everywhere."

"Not surprising – with the recent apocalypse and all, a lot of humans would have been turned into Pretas. "

"What?" Naoki blinked, stunned. "They're former humans?"

"You didn't know that?" Hua Po blinked at him.

"Yep - from Buddhism, if I recall correctly. You know about reincarnation?"

Naoki shook his head. I don't know and I don't want to know, so please pretty please don't tell me. Reincarnation is not a part of The True Religion and therefore blasphemous and wrong.

Hijiri didn't hear his silent plea as he bent over to take a closer look at the Preta. "Well basically, every time you die you are reincarnated depending on your Karma, or purity. What everybody wants to do is reach Nirvana – it's a bit like heaven, really. Those people who were exceptionally greedy in their previous life are reborn as Preta, to be punished for their sins. Pretas are eternally hungry, you see, but no matter how much they eat, they'll never fill their stomachs, nor can they actually taste what they eat. It's. . .pretty sad, really."

Naoki glanced down at the Preta. "That's terrible. So that's why he keeps eating?"

"Duuuuuh!" Kodama told him.

Hijiri either ignored the Kodama or simply couldn't understand him. "Yep, being a Preta sucks. Hey, what's that thing he's got in his mouth right now? Looks like some sort of fairy or – OH SHIT IT'S MOVING!"

"Wha – What?" Naoki nearly dropped the Preta in his surprise and stared at its mouth. Hijiri was right – the legs, previously still and lifeless, were now kicking and flailing from where they were still stuck in the Preta's mouth.

"Wha – what do I do?" Naoki asked stupidly.

"I'm not touching it!" Shiisa howled. "You don't know where it's been!"

"Don't be such a baby!" Shikigami snarled. "Here – I'll grab the Preta, you open his mouth!" Naoki obeyed, dropping the Preta on the floor. Shikigami wrapped himself around its middle before it could start eating the pillar.

Naoki grabbed the legs, one leg in each hand. They were tiny, covered in blue stockings that looked eerily familiar. "Down, boy,. Drop the fairy. "

"Want Eat!" said the Preta, and at that same exact moment Naoki pulled. Out came a suspiciously familiar brown haired demon in a purple swimsuit, red eyes glaring up at him. Naoki's heart sank, having instantly recognised her, having realized the fact that he was now holding her by the legs, forcing them apart, realized what was undoubtedly going to happen next.

Oh no.. . .She's going to –

"You. . .YOU PERVERT!"

I knew it.

He was expecting the electricity this time, but it still hurt, sending him to his knees in pain with sparks leaping across his eyes. "You're that. . .that Pixie. . ." he gasped in between grunts of agony.

"Yes I am," she replied, readying her electricity for a second bolt. "And you're that Pervert I met earlier!"

"I .. . told you. . . it was just a misunderstanding!" Naoki protested, catching his breath now. "Please stop calling me that! And put away that lightning!"

"Pervert!" the Pixie yelled, flying around his face, acting pretty much like an immature brat. "Pervert, pervert, pervert!"

"Pervert?" Hijiri asked, confused, obviously able to understand this new demon okay.

Naoki looked at him with misery on his face. "It's a long story. .. "

Hijiri smirked. "I'll bet."

"So," Hijiri said as Naoki finished. "Humanity's screwed?"

Naoki nodded. "Pretty much."

"Huh." Hijiri's expression was completely unreadable. "So it really has occurred. The end of the earth and destruction of pretty much all of humanity. Well, at least we've still got women, so humanity's not a total loss."

"Uhh . . .sure. What do we do now?" Naoki asked.

"Well, we obviously can't do anything whilst we're stuck in this rotten hospital – we have to get out of here, so our first point of call is getting Forneus out of the way. He's. . . not going to leave because you asked him nicely, is he?"

"Nup," Shiisa growled. "We already tried that – it didn't go down too well. Forneus is there for a reason – he's been told by someone to guard the hospital entrance and not let anybody enter or exit." The dog/lion paused for a moment then growled again. :Oh – and by the way, I'm NOT A DOG! "If he pats me one more time I'll electrocute his twigs and berries!"

Hijiri, not being able to speak demon, glanced at Naoki, who gave him a quick translation, but leaving out the threat.

Hijiri blinked, stopped patting the Shiisa instantly. "Eh, sorry about that. But basically, you're going to have to fight him. I'm sure you'll be okay – look at the allies you've picked up!"

"Hold up, Hat for brains!" Pixie snarled. "Since when am I going to be this Pervert's ally? I joined up with him to get the pass-thingy. I am not teaming up with this pack of idiots who don't even care about their CLAN!"

The Shiisa growled enthusiastically. "We are NOT a Pack of Idiots, we are the Shinjuku Hospital Infiltration Team, seekers of Love, Peace and Magatsuhi!" He raised a paw. "SSSOOOOUND OFF! Shiisa of the –"

The Shikigami snarled, silencing the dog/lion. "He can't understand you, idiot!"

Hijiri ignored the interruption. "Listen, Forneus is a sea monster, right? And you said before that he blew ice at you?" Hijiri asked.

Naoki nodded.

"That might mean he's weak to electricity. As Pixie has demonstrated to us, she is capable of casting Zio, a minor electrical spell, so you'll have a good chance of winning if you take her along."

Shikigami made a noise. "We are NOT taking such a worthless piece of scrappy baggage along with us!"

"Say what, paper boy?" Pixie snarled, throwing her lightning at him. "You think that your lightning's better than – "

That was as far as she got, before the lightning she had thrown at him was suddenly reflected straight back at her, nailing her in the middle. She gave a cough and fell to the ground, unmoving.

Shikigami smirked at her. "Also, unlike YOU, I happen to be immune to electricity. But I guess you've already found that out, huh?"

Naoki stared, tapping the fallen girl on the shoulder. "Um, are you okay?"

No reply.

"I think she's para – para – shocked," Kodama told him. "It'll wear off in a little bit."

"Serves her right!" Hua Po chortled.

"Want eat!" said the Preta, eyeing Hijiri's hat.

Don't touch," Hijiri ordered the Preta, holding his hat up to keep it safely out of harms way.. "But as I was saying, you all need to get out of this hospital, and you all have a common foe in Forneus."

"I know," Naoki replied. "I. . .guess I have to go fight him now. There's no other way, is there?"

"Nope, so off you go!" Hijiri replied. "I'll stay down here."

Naoki blinked. "But – But you'll be alone! We need to stick together!"

"Don't worry about me," Hijiri replied. "I'll only slow you down. Relax, I'm not planning on dying anytime soon – I need to study this pillar. I'm sure that there's something BIG to it."

Shiisa moved forward suddenly, gave the human a poke, then growled. "You're in luck, human! I happen to be an expert on the Amala Terminal! Naoki, as leader of the Shinjuku Hospital Infiltration Team, I hereby order you to take charge of the team and defeat Forneus! I'll just stay here and help with the terminal."

Naoki stared. "You want me to – .but I. . . "

Shiki snorted. "You just don't want to get your beloved fur dirty, do you?"

"No I don't!" Shiisa stamped a paw on the ground. "I am NOT scared of the . . .really large. . . very bad tempered. . .stingray! I merely wish to stay here where I will be more of use."

Naoki was shocked. "Are you – are you sure about this? But aren't these your friends?"

"Don't worry about it, Mr Naoki," Kodama told him. "I'm strong!"

"You're nothing but a hypocrite, Shiisa" Hua Po yelled at the lion/dog. "Fine! We'll just take all the Magatsuhi without you!"

"What are they saying, kid?" Hijiri asked. Damn, I wish I knew how to talk to demons like he can.

"Shiisa is going to stay with you," Naoki replied.

"Wha – WHAT?" Hijiri didn't like the fault of being alone with a lion/dog that could fire electricity from his fur.

"He says that he knows how the Pillar works and that he'll help you work it. Shiki, uh, said that Shiisa was just being cowardly."

"He knows how to work this thing?" Hijiri grinned broadly. "Oh, awesome! Nice to meet you, Shiisa, even if I can't understand what you're saying."

The Shiisa gave a bark/roar that sounded cheerful.

Well, good luck, Naoki!" Hijiri said as he began to push Naoki and the others out the door. "Everybody out! I can't wait to keep studying this thing… I'll let you know how it goes. Bye now! Say Hi to Forneus for me!" The door slammed and locked behind them.

Shiisa smirked at the human. This'll be good. . .