A/N: Hello everyone. This is chapter 7 of 10. Just to inform you. Also, Just One Night chap 2 is about 70% complete.

About two hours later, the three girls had reunited and headed for Ragna, whom they had left with the groceries... the boring part of the job, but he would be the perfect man to find the perfect ingredients for the perfect meal. Or something among those lines.
"Hey." Bullet greeted him, carrying a sportsbag and a backpack while dressed in a leather jacket, a tank top and Jeans wide enough to not restrict her movement. "I suppose you`ve got all we need now, huh?"

Caelica was dressed in a typical summer outfit, a short sleeved blouse in a sunny yellow and a dark blue skirt, along with trecking boots since they would have to walk around in uneven terrain for a while. She made that mistake of going there in designer shoes once, but she won`t do that again.
"Makoto got to dress me up, and you weren`t there to watch, Ragna." She pouted, but still smiling a bit. "And Bullet found her clothes after five minutes, so that was no fun either."

Makoto is dressed in a loose, airy black blouse an jean skirt with some kind of shorts beneath it, visible whenever she turns too fast. It has to be deliberate. Beneath that are comfortable hiking boots. She grins and does a little pirouette for Ragna as he looks up from the book he had been reading on a bench beside the grocer's. "Like the lineup, Mister Reaper?"

Ragna folds the book away into a pocket in his jacket, cups his chin in one hand, and takes them all in with a considering glance. "I'm doomed, aren't I?" he asks rhetorically. "If y'all look like this dressing practical, I have no hope of surviving a dress night."

Makoto's smile turns warm. "Not bad, charmer."

Ragna shakes his head. "Yeah, got everything, Bullet." he says with a stretch, indicating a backpack beside him. "Even managed to pay it off with some improv work - this one dumbass was forgetting how to properly section fugu. Coulda gotten someone killed, that ass." He scowls. "Still, saved some money doing it."

He glances over at Caelica. "Well, there's always the next time we go swimming." he says, wry, as he shoulders the pack and heads towards the elevator down from the tower. "Until then, let's hop back on the monorail and get on to the ruins. I don't want to be putting this off."

Caelica blinked, but then grinned mishievously at the thought of picking out a bikini to turn Ragna`s head with.
Why didn´t she think of that? She must be lagging behind between the two masters of flirting, Bullet and Makoto.
"Alright, but once we get there, you guys need to stick around near me. The seithr concentration there is enough to kill you in minutes, and pretty much everything is highly radioactive."

Bullet sighed at the prospect of going to such a place, but nodded. "Charming thought. Always wanted to die and return as an irradiated zombie. Lets get to it then."
As she turned and began to walk out, Bullet crossed Ragna`s path again.
"Be glad you drew the short end of the stick with this." She whispered to him, somewhat annoyed. "They got completely crazy about shopping for clothes... we literally spent one and a half hours in that damned place looking for a skirt to match her blouse."

On the way out, Caelica and Bullet each picked up a tent while leaving the backpack with camping supplies for Makoto or Ragna to carry- it contained sleeping bags, a GPS device to help them find their way, military grade "fuel cubes"- solid, slow burning cubes to cook something if they didn`t find any dry firewood, and some small necessties such as foldable forks, knives and spoons, toothbrushes, a couple of lighters and a can of bugspray.

The entire rest of what Bullet was carrying, the fairly large sports bag and her backpack was filled to the brim with ordenance and explosives. She rather came prepared this time, and besides, it was free.

Ragna snaps off a salute. "Sure, sticking close bosslady. Presume this means bathroom breaks are gonna be pretty awkward, aren't they." He rolls his eyes and shoves his hands into his pockets. "Welp, it's not like we've been all that concerned with personal space or what's acceptable on the first date."

He glances over at Bullet and cocks an eyebrow. "You know that I said "come get me after you're done" specifically because of that, right? I didn't draw the short end of the stick, I planned it that way. You just didn't catch on quick enough." He smiles, satisfied. "I'm guessing you're not really part of the shopping clique, then?"

The elevator chimes and Ragna leads them on, leaning against a wall with a sigh, his unusual cadre drawing stares that he returns with interest. "I know I'm going to regret asking this, but Makoto, what's the damn point of the skirt if it's purposely made too short to cover anything and you have to wear shorts beneath anyways?"

Makoto beams, slinging arms around Caelica's shoulders. "Because I felt bad that Caelica was going to be the only one wearing a skirt, so I decided to pick one up so she wouldn't be alone in having leg goosebumps." She explains cheerfully. "Also, it makes you stare."

Bullet grunted in annoyance and slapped her forehead.
"I should`ve known. Sneaky bastard. And no, as you can tell i`m pretty much wearing the same outfit as before, just a bit more protective."
Which meant the pant legs were longer and the sleeves actually covered her arms.
Catching on to the Makoto topic, she noticed another problem that this outfit might have.
"I find your tail more interesting to stare at. Besides, that uncovers your butt every two seconds anyway... i thought the companies that make clothes caught onto the beastkin trends these days."

By the sheer mentioning of the tail, Caelica found herself clinging to Makoto already.
"It might be a bit disadventagous in tight spaces, but her tail is just incredible." She squealed, rubbing her face against it.

Makoto rolls her eyes. "That's the other reason for the outfit, yes." she mutters. "This place is so out of the way that it doesn't have anything for beastfolk. I kinda had to do some personal work on the shorts to let my tail through, and, well, the skirt helps cover that up a bit." She smiles, a little sheepish. "But it's better than walking around with my ass hanging out, I guess."

She glances back at Caelica with a suppressed smile and the tail twitches, patting Caelica's face. "I don't understand how you monkey people get along without a tail, honestly." she admits. "It helps me keep balanced. And it's really warm. I never need a pillow when I go to sleep."

Ragna snickers at Bullet then turns to Makoto as well. "Do ya comb it or anything?" he asks, curious. "Or shampoo it? Or -"

"Ragna." Makoto says, very plainly. "I'm hygenic. Stop."

Ragna sulks.

Caelica wasn`t even listening, she was just delightfully rubbing herself against that tail.
"It smells of roses... i think..." She swooned, deeply inhaling its scent. Bullet sighed again, then nudged her in the side.
"Please, keep your fantasies to yourself for a while. We have a job to do... lead on, please."
After about seven nudges, the young witch broke free of her desire to hug the tail and nodded quickly, moving swiftly on towards a barren wasteland covered in a strange, grey dust.
"Try not to breath that stuff in." She advised, then moved towards a pile of rubble in the distance.

Dismissing the idea of tasting what it was like, Bullet caught some of the dust in her hand and tried to figure out what it was.
Rough and grainy as it was, it reminded her of...
"Concrete...?"

"Good nose, Caelica." Makoto replies with a smile. "But try not to spread that around, I don't want everyone running up to take a sniff." With a curious smile, the tail flickers once then curls at Ragna. "But you can if you want, Ragna ~"

Ragna waves one hand. "I can probably live without it, even if I'm the one that brought up the topic." He notes. "But thanks. Yeah, Bullet, some of that's concrete; one of the Beast's favorite tricks was an aerosol that dissolved concrete into a sort of mist. Wrecked havoc on cities, and anyone who breathed it in - well, it ain't good for your lungs, I'll say that much." He frowns and flicks a glob of the greyish stuff away. "Jubei told me about it when I was a kid. He wasn't much of one for bedtime stories, I'll say that much."

The ruins loom ahead. It's some kind of observatory, imposing in its desolation, ruined by the aerosol and torn open by time. The front, previously a great shimmering wall of glass, is now empty, and the glass lies in great gleaming minefields across the entire entrance, sharp and brittle. Ragna scowls. "Well we aren't getting in this way. Come on, let's check if there's a maintenance entrance."

Caelica nodded, yeah, getting lacerated by ancient glass shards wasn`t very pleasent. Then again, they have been there before, so they had found a different way in... she just needed to remember where.
"Those ruins are actually vast and wide- some thousand square miles or something. It used to be a city called Tokio... populated by billions of people before they attempted to destroy the beast with a one-hundred megaton bomb." She added that last bit with a bit of gloom and decided to keep the rest of the details for herself.
Walking around the main entrance, she looked around - those remains of concrete walls used to be skyscrapers, short, rusty poles emerging from the dust had to be traffic lights. In the distance, a large structure made of rusty, bent steel used to be the world famous radio tower.
"I think we just made our own way back then, but there should be a hatch or some sort of sewer hole leading down to the lab... if its not covered by dust at the moment."

Ragna snorts. "An entire goddamn city. Well no wonder Kokonoe was so nice about it - this is going to be a hell of a job." he sighs and kicks a nearby streetpole. Porous and weakened by time, it snaps at the base and soars away, bouncing across the ground. "Well, if it's a city, there are maps of it, and those maps will be at places where people are trying to get around." He says practically. "Let's try to find a bus stop, or a big damn intersection, or someplace like that. Once we find a map we won't have to comb this place street by street."

Makoto shivers. "It's so empty." she mumbles, clutching her tail and absently stroking it. "I mean - there's nobody." She laughs nervously. "Um, I know it probably doesn't bother the rest of you, but this is really really weird for me."

Ragna nods absently as he strides over to one side of the road, staring up at a metal pole that had once supported a traffic light. "You beastkin live commually, right?"

Caelica snorted, a slice of dark humor in her mouth. "Well sure. The city hall might not have surivived the carnage, but i`m sure a bus stop will." Looking around, aside from a few skeletons of skyscrapers and bare cinderblocks, the city was as flat as a board. No evidence of something that might`ve been a bus station in the past.

"Hold on, i got this." Bullet raised her hand, then pulled out her smartphone to get a map of the city from the internet. "The web has been around for longer than this city, presumeably. Or if not, then we`ll find some hints at least." Not even two minutes later, Google Earth`s "time machine" function found what they were looking for. "Ah, here we go. ...okay, seeing that radio tower over there? Thats pretty much our only means of orientation, so... i`m assuming we`re..."
The GPS device they bought told her where they were ahead of her pathfinding skills, making her want to slap her forehead. Instead, she entered the coordinates into Google Earth and found their exact location on the map.

Caelica looked over her shoulder, nodding slowly.
"Okay... that tells us where we are, but that doesn`t say where our destination is."

Ragna shrugs. "Less to fall atop a bus station." He reasons practically. "Larger buildings are piles of rubble by now, but a little thing like a station isn't something that would have drawn much of the Beast's attention, eh?" A beat of silence, then he slumps. "Yeah, probably not going to work anyways."

Makoto glances over Bullet's shoulder at the map, tail twitching thoughtfully. "Ask it to check for landmarks." she says. "It should have a map of the major buildings and attractions nearby. I mean, that book Koko wants has to be in one of them, not just some random hole in the ground somewhere, right?"

Ragna, meanwhile, has gone still, glancing about with a frown.

Caelica looked over to Ragna, a bit worried.
"I... i think we hurt the resident survivalist`s feelings."

Bullet did not care for the least, instead, she glanced over the landmarks and blinked in suprise.
"Uh... according to this map there`s a bajillion landmarks all over. Take your pick. ...though it has an amazing array of McDonalds stores plastered all over. Its like the capital of fast food."

Ragna's frown deepens. "No, not that."

He turns around, glancing about, a very bad feeling trickling down his spine. "I just got . . . a really really bad feeling right now. We need to get out of the open. Bullet, does that thing mark subway entrances? There should be one nearby. There might be something down there to point us in the right direction. We just really need to get out of the open right now."

Makoto looks at him curiously. "Spider sense going off, Mister Reaper?"

Ragna shrugs, shoulders tense. "Been pretty damn accurate for me so far."

Bullet nodded, pointing towards what used to be an intersection with a large subway sign right above it.
"Though i don`t feel very comfy about going down there, given the way the city is completely and utterly dead in more ways than one."
The stairway downwards was covered in dust, but thankfully it wasn`t completely caved in yet.
Taking Ragna`s sword without asking him, Bullet quickly abused its wide blade as a shovel to dig a path down to the nearly intact underground train station.

Dim lights illuminated the subway canals, meaning that the rails were still under power, but the lights themselves were slowly giving in to their mortality.
Everything else was exactly how the people left it, a hundred years ago... a newspaper was left unattended on a bench, barely readable due to age.
An old train was still docked at the station, the skeletal pilot not willing to drive it anywhere- though given that there`s actually something left of him, it meant that the tram itself had protected him from the devastation above.
Surrounding them was a soda machine coupled with one for supplying horrible coffee and even worse instant soup, a map of the underground system, a machine for buying tickets and... a door to the restrooms.

Caelica cringed at the last.
"Oh man. If train station toilets are horrible while the city is populated, i so don`t want to see those. There`s probably mushrooms and moss growing everywhere."

"Nah, there'd only be fungi if the water still worked." Ragna answers he takes back his sword, checking for dings or dents in the metal. Finding none, he slings it on his back again. "Really doubt it does, the pumping stations would have lost pressure when the dam fell."

Makoto brightens and bounces over to the map. "Hey Mister Reaper, I found your map." she calls. "Um, right now we're at - Earl Crossing. Okay. And there's a stop for the Institute of Energy Research a little ways down the track at Baobon End. That's pretty vague, but it might be what we're looking for. It sounds all . . . sciency." Ragna guffaws as Makoto flushes. "Hey, shut up, at least I'm contributing."

"True enough." Ragna replies, putting a lid on his mirth. "Uh, Bullet, get your GPS thing to look where this Baboon place is. If your map thingy thinks its a department store it's probably not the right place."

Said and done, the GPS coordinates of the Institute of Energy Research were entered and Google Earth found it on the map as well, a large building complex without discription, near the Fukushima II thorium fusion reactor, built twenty years after the fatal accident of the first fission reactor. Obviously, it was still working, despite the years that went by, otherwise the track they were looking at would be pitch black.
With a mighty punch, Bullet opened the soda machine by force and gathered a whole bunch of cola bottles, Sprite, Fanta and Mezzo Mix included.
As Caelica gave her a worrying look, she waved her off.
"Relax. The only thing thats not artifical about these is the water, and that doesn`t go bad in a sealed plastic bottle." Bullet purred, then opened one of the cola bottles- which gave off a fizzy sound. "See? Still carbonated."

Caelica sighed and faced the other way, where the traincar lurked.
"...Ragna..? If those lights are on and the track is under power, it could be really dangerous to walk there... how about using this subway train instead?"
The rustbucket she referred to didn`t look all that welcoming, especially due to the driver, but each wheel was powered by a seperate motor, so it was unlikely they all locked up by the rust. If they were lucky, it would last long enough for them to reach their destination.

Ragna raises eyebrows at the train car. "True enough." he muses. "I was just going to break the tracks and the circuit so we could walk down, but this probably works better. It'll make a hell of a racket though . . . eh, who cares. Good idea, Caelica."

Makoto hurries over to Bullet with a newspaper bin she had appropriated from a dispenser, and herds the various bottles and cans into them. "If there's any orange soda I call it." she says, quite seriously. "That's the best flavor in the universe. You can't have it."

Ragna boards the train and tosses the driver out one of the lead car's missing windows, then starts up the engine. It puffs to life with a weary moan of steel, and he tosses a thumbs up to the rest. "All aboard, this train is leaving the station!" His spine crawls again and he tries to shove the feeling away. They'll be moving fast enough to leave his hunch behind in about ten seconds.