Alright, after I finished packing, I chose to bring in this chapter of Demon Battle Rises. The way this is looking, I know I will release chapter 7 tonight but the question of if I'll be able to release chapter 8 is all up to where I end up by the nightfall of Saturday. I can't do much other than promise that I'll try my hardest, but weather or not the hotel we chose to stay at has internet or not isn't really something I can control.

However, we should enjoy this chapter as it gives us our first ally and my favorite duo that I've gotten to write for so far. Hopefully you begin to love them just as much as I've grown to love them. Enjoy

xKiha

Alright, this won't be that difficult. No, it'll be easy to do this. He looked nice enough, so I'm sure he won't go after us. Not mention we're in a hospital and I doubt anybody in this world would have the courage to attack anybody while in a hospital full of sick people.

Kimiko took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself down as she looked over the hospital building with a sinking feeling. She had no doubts that this is where she would find who she was looking for, after looking for him to show up in class for the past two days only to be met with nothing told her that he had to be here. Well, maybe it was suspicious or rather it was the help of Mr. Kincad who explained to her just where Kenja had gone. He seemed to think the two had become friends, patting her shoulder warmly and telling her this was normal. She played along of course, but only to get the answers she was seeking

"Kimi?" Tsumi looked up to his partner, voice still a bit groggy as he stood beside her, unaware of the intentions his book reader had for this situation. "I just woke up from that dream spell, why are we at a hospital? I'm all better now."

The girl sighed, looking into the eyes of her demon. If he refused to even try what she was planning, this wouldn't be worth risking. However she could see the fear in his eyes, hoping to reduce that by giving him another demon to depend on when things got too rough for them to handle on their own. "A boy from my class should be here and I know he has a spell book. We're going to see if we might be able to get him on our side."

Tsumi didn't want to say anything, but he felt a sinking feeling begin to take over. It wasn't exactly a horrible idea to do something like that, but would it be worth risking a fight that could break out in the hospital? But then again, if the boy was in the hospital, could he really fight back? He was probably sick, or something was broken, which probably left him very limited. "We could try, but it won't be easy to make friends in a game like this."

The brunette knew this going into the situation, but tried to keep herself positive. Kenja had seemed like a nice guy in class, but since she never really spoke to him before she wasn't sure that he really was and going by speculation wasn't always the right path to follow. "Yeah, I know, but we don't have much to lose by asking."

"I know, so let's give it a shot."

.

.
"This is it..Room D209."

Kimiko took in a deep breath as she looked over the door to the room, reading the name on the little sticker against the door slowly. "Kenja Sedai." The nurse at the front desk had given her the information, probably figuring that the both of them were close friends of his just as Mr. Kincad had because she didn't hesitate to give Kimiko the info she had been seeking. However, now that she stood before the door and reality began sinking in, she found her heart was beginning to pound rather wildly and her throat was drying out. "You ready?"

"Yeah." Tsumi's voice trailing off as he watched the door in silence, biting at the thin skin of his lower lip in nervousness before clenching his small hands together and trying to calm himself down. This would all be okay, no matter what it would all be okay. His bookreader wouldn't blindly lead him into danger.

Would she?

The brunette slowly held out her fist, knocking on the door and letting the pounding sound ring in her ears while she remained completely still.

"Come in." A soft voice speaking through the door, sounding rather neutral and nervous.

The school girl looked over to her partner and nodding reassuringly before reaching out and opening the door. Light from an open hospital window stung her eyes as she took a step inside, trying not to react harshly as she tried to refocus her pupils to this situation with Tsumi sticking very close to her side.

When she finally managed to get her eyes used to the sunlight, she looked over the bed beside the window and found her classmate watching her in surprise as he sat up in bed. His long hair tied back into what could have been considered a rather sloppy bun that drooped against his thin shoulders while most of the color had returned to his cheeks, wearing a soft looking red t-shirt and some black sweat pants that were a bit loose around his hips. His voice holding a little more shock than the girl was expecting. "You're one of those girls from class, aren't you? What are you doing here?"

Somehow, telling him bluntly that she came here just for the sake of forming an alliance in the demon battle didn't seem like it would be the right thing to do, slowly walking over to where her classmate sat. "It's going to take a long time to explain, but trust me when I say it's very important." Noticing the teenager eyeing Tsumi with a raised eyebrow as she nervously laughed. "Trust me, he's part of why this is important as well."

Kenja nodded, wringing his hands together and straightening his spine. "I am pretty sure I have an idea about what you are going to say, but keep going, I would like to see just how you are going to explain why you've come."

Kimiko pulled a chair up from behind her, sitting down beside his bed and slowly pulling out her spellbook. However, as this was happening, Tsumi was beginning to feel something wrong, turning and looking out the window in hopes that whatever was watching him happened to be outside that window. For a moment he was met with the rustling of bushes, frowning to himself as he figured this wasn't just some kind of a random happening. Something else was watching him and whatever it was did not want to be seen by anybody. He swallowed, the sound of razor claws once again echoing in his ears as the thought of whatever it was within the bushes being another Cheshire began to run through his mind. He wasn't sure he could take another beating like that, eyes looking down to his shredded knuckles for only a moment of pure terror as he tried to calm himself down.

"You know what this is, don't you?"

Kenja slowly nodded to the girl, reaching over to his bedside table and pulling out the orange book Kimiko had managed to get a glimpse of in class from a thick wooden drawer. "Yes," Looking at her with a glance of weariness and yet what she figured was trust. "I have one just like it, which means we both have demon partner's to look after. I'm going to guess that this means the child you have brought along with you is your partner."

Kimiko gave him a soft smile, her hands running up and down the cover of her book. "You would be right, that's Tsumi, pretty good kid for somebody partaking in this battle. We specialize in poison attacks, but have only unlocked two spells so far. Our first spell is an attack and the second is a shield."

The boy listened to her attentively, seeming to value everything she was saying and be taking it all into deep consideration. "I see. My partner and I specialize in fire attacks and have unlocked three of our spells so far. However, of these three only one can really be considered useful from an offensive stand point, the others spells are if anything, strategic."

Tsumi began to feel that presence begin to get closer to him, frowning as he began to stare down the window in growing frustration. He could basically feel whoever was creeping up on them in curiosity, clenching his fists together and trying not to yell out at whoever this was to stop screwing around with him when they were trying to make an ally.

"Kesai! That's enough teasing." Kenja's voice sounding slightly stern as he scolded whatever hid outside the window after noticing the anguish Tsumi suddenly seemed to be in. "Just come out before we lose their trust."

"Alright, alright." A somewhat snarky child's voice filling the air.

A young child lept through the window, landing on his feet with ease and focusing on the poison duo right away. "I thought I could smell a poison type demon, the bitterness your skin gives off just makes me sick."

The child was quite a sight to look at, having long red hair that reached his waist and forest green eyes that illuminated under his slightly drooping bangs. He wore a black biker's jacket with a plain white t-shirt underneath, dark jeans and brown sneakers. However, the most interesting thing about him happened to be the ears and tail he had. Red fox ears peeked out of his long hair, seeming to twitch every once and a while and move to convey his emotions. A thick fox tail trailing behind him, being tipped with a creamy white color and appearing very soft and fluffy.

Tsumi frowned as he looked over Kesai, both of the children seeming to study the another as they began to walk up to one another. They continued to just analyze on each other for a while, just staring in a moment of pure focus before simply nodding and walking back to their bookreaders.

Kenja merely laughed about this, finding it a little funny that the boys simply studied one another and then walked away like this was a completely normal thing to do. "I guess they approve of one another. Anyways," Turning to the kitsune demon child, who know had his arms folded across his chest. "Kesai, these two were thinking about forming an alliance with us."

"They want to fight with us, like a team?" The kid a bit confused as he looked them both over, hopping onto the bed and sitting by Kenja's feet comfortably. "You know there aren't teams in a game like this, right? He's my enemy. This is a Battle Royale, only one person can win and there are no exceptions to something like that. Stuff like friendship will kill us in this game because you can make friends with ease, but once they trust you, backstabbing suddenly becomes another way somebody can take you out."

The blond school boy folded his arms slightly, that seriousness he had before returning. "And what about if I got worse, if I collapsed during a fight? Wouldn't it be good if we had somebody to protect us, somebody to rely on if things got to their worst and we could no longer handle it on our owns?"

"You're going to get all better! I told you that already!"

Kesai had his fist clenched as he glared at Kenja, who simply took the child's hand, unraveling his fingers briskly and looking to the child with understanding azure eyes. "We can't promise that. I know we both want to believe that it will happen no matter what, but I cannot promise something like that when you've seen me go from better to worse in two days."

The kid shook his head, looking to Kimiko and Tsumi for only a moment in frustration. "Fine, they can fight with us if they want, but they'll never need to protect us, because you are going to get better!" Kesai then sprinting out of the room through the window, disappearing out of sight quickly in an attempt to hide all of his now boiling emotions from the others. Kenja knew he had weaknesses and the blond was the only one who could see them. He wouldn't allow the poison duo to know that sometimes he was afraid, at least not when he still only saw them as people most likely searching for a way to backstab him and his partner.

Kimiko drew in a deep breath, turning to the flustered Kenja. "Is he okay? Should we go after him?"

"No," The blond boy shaking his head slowly. "Kesai struggles with the concept of me being sick, if I ever try to speak with him about it something like this tends to happen. However, he did accept you both as allies, which is quite a feat for him. Kesai isn't exactly the greatest when it comes to social skills, we've worked on them, but the concept is still something a little too difficult for Kesai to grasp."

The brunette nodded, smiling softly. "Well, we're very glad he'll accept us as friends, we're going to need allies along the way."

Kenja only nodded, a knock at the door suddenly bursting through the silence that had only recently come. A doctor and a teenager about Kimiko's age both walking into the room with their usual doctor attire on and rather mature looks in their eyes. The professional looking to see Tsumi and Kimiko and slightly frowning, obviously they were neither needed nor wanted right then, to their silent dismay.

"Well, Kenja, we need to run a few tests to see how everything is going right now. Do you mind if your friends leave for this?"

The blond boy sullenly nodded, taking in a sigh before looking to his classmate. "Before you ask, I better inform you about my illness, as it is only fair if we are going to be a partnership from now on. I have Agranulocytosis, which other than being an annoying mouthful, means that my white blood cell count is known to either increase to a number too many or decrease to where there are so little my body couldn't fight of any infection. This makes my getting sick a varied thing, unpredictable and uncomfortable. It also can be very quick, which means one day I will be recovering and perfectly fine and the next day I may be so weak even opening an eyelid would become the most difficult task. I apologize now for any uselessness I may wind up giving to you"

Kimiko held her breath; not liking what she was hearing but forcing herself to accept it. "I see, well don't worry, we're still part of the alliance. Just having you help me will be enough and don't apologize, the worst thing you could do was push yourself too far when you were sick."

"Flynn, would you mind escorting these two out of the room please?"

The doctor's partner turned around, looking at Kimiko and seeming to recognize her. He had pale blue hair that was rather long, being tied up by a thin blue ribbon. He had freckled cheeks and eyes that nobody could ever forget, his left eye was a dark red and his right eye was a pale blue. The school girl blinking as she remembered him. He went to her school, just a year above her.

The boy smiled to her, noticing Tsumi before opening the door and motioning for them to walk out of the room. After the duo left the hospital room Flynn followed behind, closing the door before turning back to them. "So, what brought you to visit Kenja? I didn't know you both were friends."

Kimiko nervously laughed. "Not exactly, it'd be really hard to explain why I had to visit him so out of the blue like this."

"Is it about that demon battle thing?"

Tsumi turned to Flynn, his heart beginning to pound wildly. How did that boy know about the demon battle, oh no, not another demon! "H-How did you know about the demon battle?"

"I speak with Kesai from time to time," Flynn smiling softly at Tsumi's panic. "I've gotten my share of complaints from the guy about said battle."

Kimiko let out a sigh of relief, glad that this guy didn't pull out a spellbook and consider challenging her to a fight. "I see, well you're a pretty smart guy, Flynn, because you figured me out."

The guy smiled softly, nodding as he continued to walk through the halls with the poison duo. "Well, it's a good thing you showed up, it'd be good for them to interact with you both. Well, it's always good when a person visits around here, but Kenja tends to keep to himself. He's lonely sometimes, but he'd never complain about it or ask any of the staff to stick around just so he could have somebody to talk to or even somebody just to listen to"

"Don't worry about that, I'll visit around here to talk with Kenja from time to time. We're in an alliance now and I'm sure it will work out pretty well. He won't be lonely anymore, I won't let him."

They reached the lobby of the hospital by then, Kimiko and Tsumi standing by the door as they watched the sophomore begin to get a bit nervous, looking up to the school girl. "Well, maybe since you formed an alliance with Kenja, maybe you would consider forming an alliance with Aislinn."

Flynn knew Aislinn?

He knew she was a bookreader too?

Not after what happened could they consider her to be a friend, at least not for now.

Kimiko and Tsumi holding in the emotions of fear and slight horror they now felt and nodding to him in an attempt to seem positive as the girl spoke. "Well, we'll have to see. I'm sure it could work out if we put some effort into it."

Kimiko only held in her breath as Flynn smiled to her in slight joy, the girl trying not to convey what she was really feeling right then as her mind began to surge.

At least we have an alliance, working with Aislinn probably wouldn't work not for now at least. We'll just have to see how everything goes from here, but I have a feeling this will work out and maybe even get better.