Warning: This is a very chaotic chapter. It took me three - four hours to write this, I don't know why -- but it did.

So, Yuki Uzumaki thought I wasn't giving you guys much Sebastian. And you know what, she was right. I wanted to build Shiori's character as strong as Sebastian's was since she was sharing the lime light with him, but I guess I completely forgot about him in the process. This chapter is completely action-filled and has a lot of Sebastian/Hotaru, and some new characters. I promise to write more Hotaru from now on, and plus, I found out he's a lot of fun to write! o_o This chapter drove me crazy so I'm sorry if it isn't up to your expectations.

Circus

Hotaru arched an eyebrow quizzically, sneering, trying not to laugh at the sight infront of him. As hilarious he thought the situation was, the demon knew it would make matters worse to laugh at their faces. Well, actually, he kind of did always want the situations to go from bad to worse, what's some action without excitement? Plus, the human emotions such as anxiety, fear, and anger brought in the midst of these antics – they were so very arousing. The level of pleasure Hotaru received from them were no words in the human dictionary to describe it.

Not like demons had their own dictionary full of fancy words, or something.

A tiny, round man stood infront of Hotaru, his face was red in anger. Hotaru could swear he could see the steam coming out of the guy's ears, the redness on his face resembling the natural red-colored giant nose of his. The man was breathing so very carefully, as if his breaths were limited – trying to keep himself calm under all of this pressure, but he failed and gave into thinking of all these various disturbing mental images of how Hotaru might be disposed of.

Unknown to the dwarf-like person, Hotaru was pretty much enjoying the malice slowly evaporating from his tiny body and seeping into the demon's. Dark human emotions such as anger, greed, lust, and jealousy was what Hotaru fed on, he craved them as much as he craved human souls, maybe even more. These satanic thoughts and feelings made Hotaru more powerful as a demon.

Blue eyes like the summer sky, disheveled golden hair, a suit with a bow-tie and a matching hat – the small circus leader was definitely a foreigner. He even smelled differently to Hotaru.

The foreigner played with his long mustache that had large swirls at the end and chuckled. "I warned you before boy, didn't I? You can't have them, the twins are an important part of my circus – of my business," the main explained raising his arms, showing off all the circus people that worked under him. They were all standing behind him, snickering and gazing at Hotaru and his friends as if they were some kind of delicious meal.

The circus guy wasn't the only one with friends of his own, Hotaru too brought companions. One of them was a young man called Arashi, his name meant storm – which pretty much went along with his personality pretty well. Arashi had maroon hair that reached his elbows. Some of his strands were tied in a small ponytail, resting on his freely laid ones. He wore his kimono like Shinto priests did, a white top and electric blue bottom. Arashi glared at all the circus people with the same intensity as they were, challenging them silently.

The other man who was much older than the previous guy mentioned stood behind Hotaru and was looking down at the floor was called Yasu. He had midnight green-colored hair that was mostly hidden under his cloak along with his eyes. The black cloak was pretty much what draped his entire body. He chose to remain calm and quite most of the time, and said only when he felt like he was needed to. Which was rarely.

These two were Hotaru's friends for now, someone who he could trust. Someone who Shiori could trust.

"The twins have been bounded to my circus by a contract their mother signed when they were little and came to me homeless, filthy, and hungry. They contract says for them to perform here for there entire lifetime, and if anyone tries to break this contract, it's illegal – we definitely will take action, boy," the old man continued to roll his mustache around his finger.

Hotaru laughed out loud, unable to sustain it. Everyone around him tensed, wondering what was it that this dark man found funny. "I am afraid you will have to action then, sir. I have no intention of leaving this place until I get Sho and Cho."

Humans and contracts, how amusing the two were. A contract was a piece of paper that decided a human's worth, it decided their entire life – a path that, that a human would take if they agreed to it. What were humans without being bounded to a contract or something they felt was important, anyway? Without being bounded to anything – their families, their passion, their jobs, their responsibilities, they would just be bodies of flesh that drifted aimlessly in the world, waiting to rot once sufficient amount of time has passed. There would be no love, no pain, no anger, no anxiety, no lust, no jealousy, nothing he could feast on.

How foolish these humans were, but it was their fate that decided a demon's.

The circus leader's fists tightened. "What are you idiots looking at? Get them!"

A tanned man first appeared infront of them, he was bald except for the little area in the center of his head which had hair and it continued to extend past his shoulders, the skinny man tied his hair into a braid and wore bizarre, exotic-looking clothes. He was armed with two torched sticks. Hotaru pondered what this lanky man could do to hurt them.

It shocked the two standing behind Hotaru when the tanned man placed the burning portions of the sticks one-by-one in his mouth, his cheeks puffing up and eyes dilating, with a lot of concentration he managed to swallow the flames completely. A fire breather, Hotaru identified the man's talent.

"Leave it to me, guys!" Arashi ran towards the fire breather who was now thrusting flames out of his mouth at them. The circus was left to stare in awe as the chestnut-haired boy twirled in midair as if he was doing ballet and with his inner spiritual energy cast a strong gust of wind sending the fire breather flying across the isolated, humongous yellow-orange-red tent they were all currently in. The fire breather quickly recovered from the assault and continued to engage in a battle with Arashi, separately in another corner of the tent.

The circus man groaned, ready to rip his own hair as he saw one of his own men being flung across like a fly infront of one. But the battle had just begum. "What are the rest of you doing!? Everyone go out there at once! Show them who they're messing with!" with that shouted at, all of the circus people slowly made their way towards the two remaining people. Hotaru sighed. Humans, why did they always have to try complicate things? Wasn't the world complicated enough? Oh well, he could feel the malice oozing out of their bodies.

Delicious.

---

Next up was an animal tamer, Hotaru could just smell the scent of various animals dispersing from him. It was a middle-aged man who had a beard, wore western clothes, carried a long whip, and judging from his facial features and smell – he, too, looked like he was a foreigner. The old man called out Hotaru in the center of the circus, as if they were knights were dueling in the grand city of Troy. Nonetheless, Hotaru abided by his request and entered the circular platform.

The tamer cackled and pulled a lever, an over-sized steel cage was brought down by iron chains that clung it from all the sides. Lions were trapped inside of it, they were roaring and pouncing on each other, waiting to get out. Hotaru smirked, was this really the best this man could do? Idiot.

The demon with bloodshot eyes walked to the lions as they were released, the big cats were growling loudly, making their way to Hotaru. The lions were ready to pounce on anyone they saw just because they were so irritated from being so hungry and enclosed in that cage together all the time. The animal tamer couldn't help but smug at the scene infront of him, rubbing his hands together. Oh, this was so exciting. That young lad had been stupid to come and start a fight with them.

Just as the lions were almost ready to leap at Hotaru together, they all suddenly paused infront of him. There was a strange enticing glint in the man's red eyes that they liked, the lions blinked, some of them tilted their heads to the side and now slowly made their way to their opponent. Pawing, licking, and nudging him with their heads instead of trying to rip his guts out. Hotaru laughed and played with them all, rubbing them behind their ears and complimenting their fur. The lions were now lying on the floor wanting to have their belly scratched.

The animal tamer's eyebrows twitched psychotically. What the hell was going on? What happened? Why were they showing affection to his enemy? What in the world was wrong with them? What did that man do to his lions? – The old man ran towards where they were and decided to whip them all. "What are ya doin', ya numbskulls!? Attack, dammit! I told ya to attack that person! Not make love to 'im! Stupid animals!"

Hotaru shook his head, he really shouldn't have done that. The lions snapped their heads back to their owner, they didn't look pleased at all. The cats started approaching him steadily with eyes that lusted for blood like a vampire's would – or an angry demon's would.

You could probably guess how that ended. Hotaru flashed a satisfied smile to himself. Felines were such nice creatures. They were so understanding and didn't complain, unlike humans. He might as well have a talk with Shiori to get cat for a pet. This battle was a good meal for Hotaru, he could feel himself flowing with energy.

---

Meanwhile, the stereotypical 'strong guy' of the circus approached Hotaru's second ally, Yasu. The strong guy was buff, obviously. His body was painted and he had piercings everywhere, and he showed off his muscles by wearing revealing clothes. Like everyone strong guy, this strong guy was also not the brightest pickle in the bunch. Or something.

The cloaked man didn't falter from his position and continued to look down at the floor, unintentionally ignoring the bigger man's presence. The really tall man made a face at the strange man. "Hey.. what is wrong with you? Why aren't you moving or saying anything? You okay? – hey, I'm talking to you! Answer me! I said – " the bigger man ran up to the still one to tackle him, but apparently he had missed him.

"Huh? What the! – " the man looked around and saw the same cloaked man, still looking down at the floor in his zombie-like state. "You're a fast one, aren't you? I'll show you!" the man threw piles of chairs at the man but they all missed the cloaked figure each time – the strong guy however, did manage to knock down one of the pillars of the tent that made it stand. The next thing the circus person noticed was his vision totally blackened out. Yasu took this as an opportunity and sneaked on him, snickering, he decided to inflict pain on him now.

---

Once the animal tamer was dealt with, a hooper – a little girl decided to face the demon. The girl used circular metal blades and rotated them around her body by the rhythm of her hips. Normally, Hotaru didn't really like fighting against little girls but what needed to be done, had to be done. The girl used her angelic appearance to deceive people as she sliced them to pieces. She was no match for Hotaru's speed though, and was easily defeated.

Arashi was now done with the first guy and was now heading to attack another. He saw two slits, people that were standing on long sticks pretending as if they were their legs. Arashi shook his head and kicked their sticks, making them fall immediately. "I have no time for you, two."

There were jugglers who were juggling knives and throwing them towards the three, but Arashi and Yasu took care of them.

The whole circus was growing insane by now, especially the circus leader – he wasn't ready to admit defeat. The dwarf-like person used a human cannonball to try and knock down the pillars of the tent so him and his crew would escape safely. Judging from the all the battles that took place that he watched, these men were strong. Especially that black-haired one, he didn't seem human. They had to run for their lives, and they had to do it quick.

---

Hotaru checked all of the cabins that belonged to the circus people. After going through five-seven of them, he had finally came across what he was searching for. Two twin girls were lying on the floor strapped together, their mouths, hands, and legs tightly knotted. They seemed like they were physically abused too, they were bruises and blood splattered everywhere; their clothes were torn too. Both of them were unconcious.

Hotaru smiled, just like when he found her.