Alright so with my luck I am able to give you another chapter of Demon Battle Rises before I am completely gone. But even though sixteen hours in the car is pretty hard to take, I have written a new chapter of the story, one that I had to rewrite multiple times and now I finally have it just the way I want it. But, we shouldn't be focusing on chapter 20 when we have chapter eight to read! Well, it's getting late over here now and I have another day of driving ahead of me.

I now bid you all farewell for what will either be a week and a half if I get to spend a night with a family member at a hotel or if I won't be able to upload until around the end of July. But either way, I hope to see you all soon. Enjoy the eighth chapter of Demon Battle Rises.

xKiha

"What in the world did you two fight?"

Kimiko sighed as she sat on the metal hospital table in one of the rooms, feeling the cool rubbing alcohol enter the slight burns she had on her arms and legs. It burned a lot, the girl trying to hold in her cries of pain and any reaction at all to make sure she acted more like an adult. After all, the idea of a student a year older than her having to watch her cry in pain over a few burns would be absolutely humiliating.

Tsumi lay beside her, gray face a pale that made the school girl worry about his health. He had gotten his burns treated first and since he had been the one to take a majority of the hits in this fight, it was no wonder that poor Tsumi had been absolutely covered in rubbing alcohol to clean everything before having a strong burn cream being place on his skin. His cries hurting Kimiko by just watching it unfold right in front of her eyes, swallowing her own shame in letting him take so many hits when she was barely touched herself.

"We got into a fight with a water demon, a demon which happened to love raising the temperature of the water to unbearable levels of heat." The girl biting into her lip as more of the rubbing alcohol met her burns. "This actually is the first battle that's involved me being hurt by any kinds of spells." Cheshire only hurt Tsumi with her claws while her spells only defended her and put the child to sleep while the two with silver eyes never managed to do as much damage they should have been able to. Tsumi had a spear graze his chest, but luckily it wasn't too major for them to have to consider the hospital, which for them had been a god sent.

This was the first time they were forced to visit the hospital because of their fear in what would happen if they didn't get the burns treated.

Flynn slightly nodded as he looked the girl over after finishing with the rubbing alcohol, going over to get the bottle of burn cream. "I see, well I figured this fight wouldn't be an easy one. I'm glad you asked for me to help you two out after this. You can keep me updated on this battle if nothing else, not to mention you won't have to lie to me when you explain what happened to you two."

Kimiko couldn't help but feel a little surprised that Flynn wanted to keep himself involved with this fight so much, frowning. "So, you're not a bookreader, right?"

"Nope." Flynn beginning to place the cold cream against her stinging and cleaned burns. "I don't have a spellbook or a demon. I just happen to know a few demons and bookreaders like you, so I always have an idea of what's going on and what exactly this fight is like." His voice slightly sullen when he said this, almost as if he kind of wanted to have a book and a partner like she and a few other people he knew had.

The girl just looked into his heterochromic eyes in a bit of nervous silence, cringing every once in a while at the sting of her burns being touched by his hands. She continued to just trust him though, knowing he knew a lot about what he was doing while she was nothing more than another person visiting him with no experience in the medical field at all. However, she knew if she ever needed to see anybody after being hurt in a fight she would come right to him, to see the one person in this place she would never have to lie to felt a lot more reassuring. It made him all the more trustworthy in her eyes if anything at all.

"Which reminds me." Flynn getting up to remove his gloves and wash his hands. "Kenja checked out of the hospital today, saying he was going home for a while before maybe going over to your home to see if you two could talk about various things like battle plans and how exactly the both of you could work as a team. Kesai didn't seem as thrilled about it, but he didn't seem to be in the worst mood, so I'm sure he'll get over whatever is bothering him by the time they both come to visit."

Kimiko beamed, watching Flynn dry his hands. "I'm glad they left and the fact that he wants to start working together right away is a good sign. It won't be a mistake for us to start working together, I'm sure that we'll make a perfect team."

The young doctor only smiled back to the brunette as he detected her pure joy in this situation, looking to Tsumi as he wondered how long it would take them both to completely heal from this fight. Probably longer than usual only because they would most likely be thrust into battle before they got time to do nothing but relax and plan out their next strategy.

Which couldn't have been more right in this situation, because unknown to Flynn or the poison duo they would be fighting very soon from this moment.

.

Kenja frowned as he looked over the houses in the urban side of their city, none of them seeming to be the one he was exactly looking for. Unable to shake the feeling that he was making the wrong choice when it came to looking for where exactly Kimiko lived to see if he could get a better idea of what exactly they could do with their spells. It was becoming slightly more obvious that this wasn't very smart as he figured he was lost.

Which of course was all the more humiliating when the people around him constantly praised him for being a genius. A genius who could never always find the right directions.

"Told you this wasn't a good idea." Kesai standing beside him with his arms folded, a slightly cocky look in his green eyes that teased at his partner. "We don't need friends in this fight and now the world is agreeing with me. If we were supposed to make friends with them, it wouldn't be this hard to find them."

The blond turned to the kitsune child, giving a shake of his head. "No, this has nothing to do with what you want to happen. This has to do with the horrible sense of direction we both seem to have when it comes to locating certain things we need at various times." The demon rolling his eyes as he realized Kenja was speaking about his difficulty to always locate the grocery store when he constantly continued to state he knew everything about this town. A few times of disappointing his bookreader after coming back empty handed still hadn't taught him the lesson he obviously needed to learn

Kenja smiled softly as he realized he had managed to silence the child, at least for now that is. Continuing to walk through the streets for a while, looking from house to house with Kesai stalking behind him in a slight huff of frustration. Walking through rows upon rows of homes to no avail, which was beginning to aggravate the almost always calm blond, clenching his fists ever so slightly before letting out a deep sigh. "Nothing this simple should become so difficult."

Kesai nodded, opening his mouth to say something when something suddenly silenced him entirely, his ears going flat against his long red locks before slowly lifting and beginning to shift, picking up on something he didn't exactly like feeling. "Kenja, get the book."

"Kesai, what is it?"

"Get the book, now."

The blond had no idea what was going on as the child became more and more desperate, reaching into his bag and pulling out an orange spellbook which he clutched to his chest, narrowing his eyes. "Alright, now what is it?"

"You'll see. Just do everything I say and this won't be as hard as I'm worried this is going to be."

The seriousness in Kesai's voice made Kenja rather nervous, biting into the skin of his lower lip and trying not to think about what was most likely about to happen. They had fought before, but something was different about this time and whatever it was this didn't feel good. Kesai usually mocked the idea of a fight, attacking right away and enjoying every moment, but this time he carried himself with seriousness with eyes narrowed and fists clenched. The teenager could only hope this was just the kitsune child trying to take things more serious, nothing that might be worth fearing.

"Yujaganshi!"

Kesai turned to Kenja, giving him a nod to counter right away as the teenager tried to balance his weight. "Hi-Ken!"

A burst of flame escaped the open palms of Kesai, fire racing through his hands and shooting into the open sky. Kenja looking around to see what had shouted out a spell only to find nothing coming at their own attack. Had they already destroyed it? No, he would have seen something come at them or happen.

Kesai's ears then moved, the kitsune frowning as he turned his head to see a purple ball of energy being shot at the two from behind. "Get down!" His voice desperate as his bookreader trembled and went to move out of the way, but anything but fast enough. The demon finding himself rushed as he shifted on his weight, rushing forward and pushing Kenja to the side, the human falling into the sidewalk as the energy went forward, Kesai narrowly dodging the spell in shocked awe.

"Tch, just as simple as ever, Kesai."

Right away the child recognized the voice that was beginning to speak, frowning to himself and clenching his fists with frustration and bottled up anger. "It's you."

A sharp laughing entered the ears of the partners under fire spells, a demon suddenly teleporting before them along with his bookreader. "That's all I get? I would have expected a little more from you, but at least you remember who I am."

The demon standing before him was slightly shorter than Kesai, his arms folded and a cocky smirk on his face. He had short black hair with white accents, his eyes a stone cold red color that matched Kesai's hair and wearing a black tunic. However, the interesting thing about this demon was his forehead, because in the center of his forehead there sat an open eye that studied him, the iris purple instead of the cold red the others were. The partner was probably two years older that Kenja, having long auburn hair peeking out of a black wool hat he wore on his head and glimmering green eyes. He wore a white jacket, orange t-shirt, black fingerless gloves, blue jeans and white nikes. He simply smiled to them, not seeming to have anything to say to either partner.

Kenja only frowned as he looked over the both of them, then turning to Kesai in desperation for understanding. "Who is that?"

"That's Hauro," The kitsune's ears completely down now as he gave Kenja a backwards look of both hate and slight confusion. "He was a sparring partner of mine and we were for the most part even when it came to everything. He never really liked me that much, because one day he went too far and resorted to his spells. Ever since even the mention of one to the other could have gotten you hurt in demon world. I didn't know he was in the fight as well."

Haruo didn't seem that upset at Kesai's vague description of him, but did grin in joy when the fire demon spoke about him using his spells. Turning to his bookreader and smiling in anticipation and joy. "This is the demon I told you we needed to find, Xenolith said we could touch him so let's do this before we go back to looking for the-" Turning and whispering the rest to the boy who only smiled deviously as he seemed to process everything the young child was telling him.

Kenja wasn't very fond of this, turning to his partner and sighing. "This isn't good, you know only one of our spells actually is offensive, the others don't do that kind of thing." The demon child nodding in dismay and biting at his lip. "We have to do this, I won't go out of this fight by losing to Haruo."

"Yujaganshi!" The bookreader's voice full of a deep joy, Haruo holding out his left hand as a ball of dark energy began to grow, waiting until it was the perfect size for his preference before releasing it and sending it at the others.

The blond teenager got to his feet, clutching his orange book and taking in a deep breath. "Hi-Ken!" Kesai shooting the flames from his hands once more in prayer that it would manage to be so much more useful, the fire shooting forward and right at the energy ball. Haruo smiling in joy as he watched this happen, the pupil in his third eye suddenly dilated. The energy ball trembling and bursting before the flames could even touch it, which sent both the access energy and the flames right back at the fire duo, who hadn't been expecting anything like this and were sent flying back into the pavement behind them.

This wasn't looking good, Kenja choking on the cold air as his back smashed into the ground.

"K-Kenja!"

.

"What was that?"

Kimiko and Tsumi had been walking home when they both noticed something erupting close by where they were, turning and looking to one another in realization that this might not be a good thing. The girl freeing her spellbook from her satchel before looking to her partner, who gave her an understanding nod. "Let's go."

The both of them quickly taking off in fear that this might just be their new ally in a fight with another person under a trance. Would they have any idea how to take down somebody like that? Well, Kenja did say they had unlocked three spells so they could most likely hold their own, but still this didn't leave Kimiko any more comfortable. He was her only teammate in this fight which meant even if he didn't need her right then she would still be there if he ever did.

As the duo got to where they figured the fight was going on, that was confirmed for them both. Kenja coughing harshly but on his feet with the book in his hands, Kesai's ears flat against his hair as he looked from the demon standing before him to his bookreader. He then noticed the other two, frowning to himself before saying something to Kenja softly. The teenager nodding to himself before turning around and seeing Kimiko and Tsumi, azure eyes widening for a moment with surprise and then lowering in joy and relief. "There they are, our allies."

Kimiko nodded as she opened her spell book, noticing Haruo and motioning to Tsumi as they took their places beside Kesai and Kenja, the girl turning to her classmate and smiling softly. "Has he done anything major yet? Are you two hurt at all?"

"He uses dark energy spells and we're fine, the explosion just stunned us a little bit." The blond boy smiling softly and opening his book. "However, now we'll get to show one another some of our spells."

"Yujaganshi!" Haruo frowning to himself as he generated another ball of dark energy, making this one larger than the one he had created before. Something felt familiar about the child he was looking at right then, something that was burning at the back of his mind and bringing frustration.

"Hi-K-" Kenja readying his book and himself for a spell only for Kimiko to shake her head, holding her own book and nodding to her partner as Kesai frowned in disapproval. "Rerano!" The shield appearing and doing its normal thing, stunning Haruo as it managed to destroy the dark energy and leaving Kesai and Kenja in awe of what exactly they just managed to witness unfold before their very eyes.

"That was amazing." The blond trembling in excitement and awe while his partner folded his arms in silent gratitude. Tsumi smiling softly at their thanks but remembering the fight before and that the spell wasn't flawless. "Thank you, I'm glad it didn't mess up this time."

Haruo looked over Tsumi, folding his arms as something began to stick into him. Could that be the poison child that his master had mentioned before? It could well be, after all a lot of the puppets had been sent here to try and destroy them only to end up being destroyed themselves. Well, there was only one way to find out if he had found the person he had been told to keep an eye out for while doing what he had requested to do. "Hayao, use the second spell." The bookreader snickering softly before nodding in a sickly looking joy.

"Yuyouko!"

Darkness erupted from his hands, creating what seemed to be a pure and thick beam of nothing but dark energy. Kesai turning to Kenja and nodding with his own hands held out. "Hi-Ken!" The fire that shot out of the child's hands heading towards the spell only for Kimiko to figure she might as well help as well. "Rachido!"

There we go. Haruo smiling to himself as he watched the acidic gas flee the mouth of the young demon and along with the fire manage to destroy the darkness but not before a deep haze was created that hid everything from view for a moment. Working once again in the favor of the demon who merely sighed to himself, figuring he couldn't continue this right now. Not with that other child being there as well.

"We will finish this fight Kesai, and that next time it will be without interference."

The kitsune bit into his lip, looking around in intimidation as the haze cleared, noticing that Haruo and Hayao had managed to vanish in the smoke that had been created. Of all the low things he could have done right then, he had the guts to leave from a fight before Kesai was finished! How dare he! "Haruo! You can't just leave! Come back here and let me finish you!"

From where he and his partner stood on a roof close by where the enraged fire demon stood, Haruo only shook his head in both dismay and joy. 'For now, I cannot. However, once Xenolith has the one of poison within his grasp, I will finish this fight and finally get to see your spells and earn the ability to use mine against you for the first time. I cannot wait, until then, my friend.' Looking to Hayao before the both of them vanished into nothing but thin air.

.

Kesai folded his arms as he realized no matter how much he yelled it wasn't going to bring the three eyed demon back to fight him, instead it was only going to succeed in boosting the rage that began to grow inside him. "Damn it, you don't just flee from a fight."

"I'm sure he had a good reason, he'll be back to fight you." Kesai turning to see Tsumi looking to him with an offer of friendship through a smile and sympathy. "I'm sure of it."

This only managed to frustrate the kitsune who wasn't exactly in the mood to make friends with the poison demon that he wasn't very thrilled about being 'partners' with right then. "Yes, because it makes it so much better now that I have the hero's positivity!" Folding his arms as his ears lowered. "Oh, tell me Tsumi, how many spells do you have?"

"Two."

"I have three, so I don't need you watching my back."

Kimiko looked to Kenja who sighed to himself, his eyes apologetic. "He's usually like this for a while, but I promise he'll warm up to Tsumi. He won't admit it, but I'm sure he's glad that you showed up and that he managed to get a glimpse of what you both can do and so am I."

The brunette nodded, smiling to Kenja before getting more serious. "That's good that you both are glad we can help you out. Anyways, I think you should probably come over, something is going wrong in this battle right now and we only know one thing. We only know that another demon is responsible for it, we don't know who or why, all we know is they are using teams like puppets and we need to stop it."

"I understand."