Ji appeared right outside the door to ‘Dragon’s Dream’. Without stopping to look around he pushed the door open and entered the pub. Laughter and the sound of multiple ongoing conversations swapped over to him.

“Tian, ya old turtle get ya ass here!”

The noise instantly died down. Tens of eyes focused on Ji as he stood in the frame of the door. Ji stood confident as if it was his own backyard he was standing in.

“You little….”, an angry voice came from the back of the pub. Something flashed towards the entrance and materialized right in front of Ji. Tian reached out with his hand and flicked Ji’s forehead.

“Stop doing these stupid entrances each and every time you come here!”, Tian appeared to be angry, but secretly he had a small grin on his lips.

“Long time no see.”, Ji stretched out his hand.

“Yeah…”, Tian gripped his hand and they made a handshake. “It’s truly been too long…”

For a moment both stood there smiling at each other faces, then Ji turned around and began to search for something.

“She is in the employee-only part. I couldn’t leave her here.”, Tian was already walking towards the counter, „Come on, I have other things to do today!”

Ji took a short look around and finally moved towards Tian who was already waiting at the counter. The asian man moved behind the counter and walked in front of the shelf with the alcoholic brewages on it. He pulled at one specific bottle and suddenly the shelf moved to make place for a door.

“Here you go!”, He made a welcoming gesture towards Ji.

“You really like your little tricks don’t you?”, Ji shook his head and walked opened the door. A long dark corridor waited on the other side. He entered it with quick stepps.

Tian shrugged as he looked after Ji as he disappeared in the darkness of the corridor. “It’s fun so I do it.”

He closed the door and took a step backwards. The door slowly faded away leaving only the bare wall. The shelve slowly moved back to it’s original position.

Tian turned around.

“Ladies and gentlemen… I have to ask you to leave right now. Due to unforeseen events I have to close the pub earlier than usual.”

….

Saji sat on a bride couch in a small room with yellowish walls. It was used as a break room for the showgirls and right now aside from Saji there were three other girls within the room. As soon as Saji had sat down on the couch all three had surrounded her in their curiousity.

One sat on the right of Saji, the other on the left. The last one had crouched down in front of her.

“So, you live in a real apartment house?”, the girl on the right of Saji asked. She was about 1.50-meter-tall and had shoulder long red hair. A few red scales were scattered around her eyes and two beautiful horns grew from her head.

As far as Saji had understood she was a female dragon who had abandoned her original form.

“Yeah I do.”, Saji readily answered all of their questions. She found it somewhat funny how they were excited about these ‘normal human things’.

“So… you and that friend of Tian…. Are you…“, the girl to Saji’s left, a dryad with cherry blossoms growing in her hair, asked in a more quiet voice.

“No…”, Saji felt awkward. Anyone she met here thought Ji kept her around to use her to relieve his desires, but in truth she personally only knew him for a few hours.

She honestly had no idea why he was even taking her with him.

“He… kind of just keeps me around?”, this was the best she could answer.

Suddenly the door to the room opened and a Ji’s head appeared from the gap.

“So here you are.”, a smile appeared at his face and he fully entered the room.

Inside the room he shot a short glance to the three girls surrounding Saji. “Tian sure has a great collection…”, he murmured, then he looked back to Saji.

“We have to go somewhere.”, he once again looked to the three girls.

“Sorry ladies, but I have to take her with me.”, he took a step forward and appeared in front of Saji.

“Come on.”, he stretched out his hand.

Saji wasn’t even surprised anymore. She looked towards the three girls and said a quick goodbye, then she took his hand. The moment she touched it they both disappeared.

They reappeared in an unfamiliar forest.

Saji let go of Ji’s hand and walked a few steps. “Where are we?”, after looking around for a bit she looked back to Ji. She was surprised to see a very serious look in his eyes.

“What going on?”, she was alarmed.

Ji spoke slowly and his voice was unusually calm. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier…. I felt you should first see what ‘our’ world is like before I tell you about it.”

Saji froze. Her mind furiously thought just what might happen now.

Would he suddenly eat her? Would he tell her that he liked to play this game before killing his victims? Would he strip her naked and defile her body?

She slowly backed away from Ji.

“7 billion humans have died up to this moment.”, Ji looked directly into his eyes as he said this.

…

“Huh.”, Saji stared at him. Confusion written all over her face.

“A few moments after I took you away from your house, massive amounts of spirits and lower gods started to rampage in human cities all across the globe. By now human civilization is mostly destroyed, those who survive only do so because they are protected by other gods…

Humanity will survive, but they will only be numbered in the millions.

I’m sorry I did not tell you earlier.”

Saji stared, still confused.

“Your parents as well as most of your friends have died. Honestly, I could have saved them, but I did not. I however saved you.

I will be honest to you.

Whatever you do is up to you. You can stay with me, I can bring you to place protected by a god or I can leave you here, it’s your decision.

So… what now?”