Alright, so I guess I am able to give you a second chapter today, and since I just finished watching the first Hobbit movie, so why not give you a chapter mostly just full of character development and exposition. No battles here, but hey, sometimes dialogue is more important.

Don't worry though, the plot won't be slowing down one bit! But, I know you all are still gleeful about reading this other chapter which means I want you to enjoy it. Read on, my friends.

xKiha

"Thanks for helping us out, I-I don't want to rely on anybody too much, but we didn't really have any choices. Anybody else would just ask questions and I don't think anybody would believe the story about what happened."

Kimiko was huddled up in the front seat, looking to Flynn who sat in the driver's. She had the number of everybody she could consider a friend in the demon battle, which did include the doctor. He was the only person she was positive could drive, which made him the only person who could understand what had just happened and be able to pick them both up without questioning anything because he more or less already knew. She gave him an empty look of fear before sighing and trying not to just loose it right where she sat. "But thank you for doing this; I don't know what I would do without you."

"It's fine," Flynn giving the girl a soft look of understanding. Even though he was a sophomore, he always seemed much wiser than the girl. She respected him for having that maturity. "I couldn't leave you guys here to suffer and I have an idea of what's going on. When you told me how bad Tsumi's wounds were and what was happening, I ran right out of the door because I knew how serious this was."

The brunette tried to keep her tears inside, turning to see Tsumi lying in the back seat of Flynn's car on top of some old blankets and towels to keep the blood from ruining the cloth on the seats. He didn't look very peaceful but rather pained, every once in a while wincing or shifting to let out a painful moan, his eyes tightly clenched shut and his small fangs stabbed into his lower lip. However, all she could think about was one thing.

"I-I should have protected him better, I should have been there to make sure nothing happened. I was in the way, which only got him hurt when he tried to protect me."

The boy with heterochromic eyes shook his head. "You have done all you could."

"N-No, he continues to protect me from harm only to get hurt in the process. It's my fault!" The girl finally losing it as tears began to fly down her cheeks, covering her eyes and sobbing harshly as the thoughts of how it was her fault began to burn in her mind. She couldn't help it, thinking about how this could have been avoided by not being as useless as she felt she was. Any partner would have been better suited than her. She was just a weakling with no fighting experience; all she could do was read that book of his and pray that he could do better than she could.

Flynn only set his hand against the girl's shoulder, giving her a look of compassion and sighing softly. "It's alright, don't cry. Everything is going to be okay, I promise."

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"Look, he's doing alright now."

Kimiko had managed to calm herself down as she looked at Tsumi who was now lying in a hospital bed after being cleaned and fixed up properly by Flynn who offered the girl a soft look as he backed off. "See, he's going to be fine and once he wakes up he'll be reassuring you as well that none of this was your fault. He'll probably panic or go into stress if you start crying though, so I'd suggest trying to keep your feeling away. Don't become cold or emotionless, but try not to overwhelm him with all of your feelings on this."

The girl nodded as she looked at him from the hospital chair she was sitting in, sighing to herself. "Alright, I won't make a big deal out of what happened, if it will help Tsumi feel better I will do it for his sake."

"Good." Flynn smiling as he stood up and took a step away from the resting child. "Then I guess we'll just give him some time to sleep off anything that hurts and let time and medicine do what it was meant to do."

"Kimiko!"

Both of them turned right away, seeing the door to the hospital room open and a rather flustered Kenja along with somebody Kimiko was stunned to see standing at the doorway.

Kenja took in a heavy and deep breath as he looked into the hospital room, funny how he was going to visit somebody else in here instead of people coming to see him. Strange, but kind of a nice different as he put more thought into it. After all, nobody liked to spend their days lying in a bed in a plain white room. "H-Hey Kimi, Flynn called me and I rushed to get over here." Then motioning to the person behind him. "We ran into one another as I was racing to get here with Kesai and after realizing we both knew you and were both part of this alliance, we came together."

"Yeah, so what happened?" Kimiko blinking as she realized the person speaking was none other than Kyo, trying to keep herself from blushing or anything as the thought of him being here to see her brought the girl some joy. "Kenja just said that he had gotten the message that you both were in the hospital and that Tsumi was pretty hurt from whatever managed to fight you both."

The girl took in a breath, not wanting to think much about it but figuring she didn't really have much of a choice when she was talking to the other bookreaders. "Well, you see…"

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"I just don't understand it." Kyo frowning as he sat on one of the hospital beds, looking to Tsumi for a moment as he clenched his fists. "Why is this Xenolith guy, this crazy powerful mind controller, want little Tsumi so badly? Did the kid do something to him?"

Kimiko shook her head, sighing deeply. "Tsumi and the demon we got information from didn't know. It's a big mystery to everybody who's gotten themselves involved in this thing."

"Ever thought that Tsumi might have some value to Xenolith?" Everybody directing their attention to Kesai, who had his arms folded as he sat on the floor with ears slightly lowered. This child wasn't exactly interested in this figuring out phase, he was only really here for the coming up fight and because he had been asked to by Kenja. Thinking things through wasn't his specialty, he considered himself more of a you think and I'll bash in faces kind of demon. "The kid might not even know this Puppet Master, but there is probably something that only this guy sees inside him."

Nobody had expected something so wise to come out of the kitsune's mouth, but this was a rational thought that he had. Maybe there wasn't going to be an answer this time but instead they would just have to accept the fact that they were going to go into this scenario completely blind but still willing to fight. He was doing horrible things, so why couldn't that be the motivation they needed to find this demon and take him down?

"That does make sense," Amera suddenly speaking. "I don't see why this isn't a possibility, various demons are known to consume themselves with one or two various things and will dedicate themselves with whatever this thing is. If Xenolith has locked onto Tsumi, then there needn't be a reason other than sheer will and lust."

The brunette sighed as she looked to Amera, figuring she was right. "Is there any way to break such a consumption?"

"Not that I, or any other demon has known of." The woman giving the school girl an understanding look. "All we can do is rid of the problem for now, which means unless we want to continue fighting his puppets until everyone else has been sent back to demon world, we need to fight back on our own."

They didn't really have another choice, Kimiko sighing to herself as she pulled her knees to her chest. "Alright, so once again we come back to the fact that Tsumi and I need to destroy Xenolith to stop all of this madness."

"However," Kenja figuring this was as good of a time as ever to say something else. "What I have begun to question is how come Xenolith has yet to come after Kyo and I. We're rather close to you constantly and it would be the perfect chance for a surprise attack that would most likely succeed. I don't doubt that our enemy is a wise man and probably strategic, but that begs the question of why he wouldn't use us as his own toys as well."

Everything suddenly got quiet, Kenja realizing he might have gone a bit too far out of everybody's mindset at the time, looking around as he sighed. "I'm sorry if I made you all too uncomfortable."

"No, it's fine." Kimiko wringing her fingers together. "We need to have reality nipping at us all the time, so we don't forget how serious something like this is. It's a good point."

"Ever thought that maybe Xenolith is waiting to do something like that?" Kyo adding this as he furrowed his brow in concentration while he spoke. "To spring it on us and suddenly do something of that nature when we are at our lowest point."

"Well, we still do not know how something like this exactly works, but that is a possibility we might need to look into. Until we can properly determine just how he gains the power to take control of minds we need to keep that thought in mind as a possibility for any of us that have come in contact with Kimiko and Tsumi during this battle."

Once again it felt like it was their fault, Kimiko sighing to herself as she tried not to think about it. Maybe Kenja and Kyo were angry about what they had unintentionally done but figured they would stick around because they had nowhere to go and figured this would be slightly beneficial to them. "Do you guys hate us for putting you in this position? I'd understand if you did."

"No," Kyo looking to her in a bit of surprise after she said this. "Why would we be angry with you?"

"Because, after teaming up with us you're now a target of Xenolith's and maybe a future puppet that would be forced to fight against us. Are we really worth all that struggle and risk?"

Kenja shifted from the chair that he sat on, giving her a reassuring smile. "It has nothing to do with the risks we are facing when it comes to who we make friends with in something like this. We remain friends with you because we understand the risks but it doesn't have as much value as having this alliance with Tsumi and you. It means a lot to all of us." His azure eyes looking to Kesai for a moment as the Kitsune fumed and the boy laughed. "Right, Flynn?"

The group directed their attention to the doctor, Kimiko suddenly frowning as she looked into his eyes. He had been standing in the room since Kyo and Kenja had first come along with Kesai and Amera but it had been a little strange that he hadn't said anything at all since the serious demon battle conversation had begun. However, now that the brunette studied him with a frown, she began to notice that something looked a little strange as she looked closer.

"Flynn? Hey, Flynn!" The girl's voice getting a bit desperate as he seemed to just stand there blankly, his heterochromic eyes seeming empty.

"Fukisa!"

The teenager shook his head suddenly, blinking with a look of surprise before focusing on the freshmen with a somewhat confused look. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, something's wrong," Kesai hissing as he folded his arms. "You went completely blank suddenly, almost like you were one of those people in the trance."

Flynn placed his hand against his temple, reaching behind him and grabbing the counter for support as he gave them a reassuring look. "I'm fine, don't worry about me. I just must have spaced off or something for a little bit."

"T-Try not to do that," Kyo muttering as he managed to relax himself once again from where he was sitting. "If you had a demon with you we might have mistaken you for one of those puppet teams and accidently destroyed you without even thinking about it." Flynn nervously chucking at this, but the seriousness in his eyes succeeding in making Kimiko somewhat uncomfortable with what was going on right then as they spoke.

"What were you thinking about?" Everybody looking to the brunette who suddenly spoke to Flynn who gave her a sideways look before actually beginning to consider just what she had asked himself. "I, well come to think about it I am not sure exactly what I was thinking about. I just sort of faded away from the world for a little bit and your voices brought me back just as quickly as I went away."

With that Kenja looked to Kimiko, giving her an 'this makes me very concerned' look as the girl nodded to him with understanding. Neither of them liked where this was going but they didn't want to think about it, however they couldn't consume themselves with the sweet but fake reality they wanted to deal with.

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"That reminds me, I was thinking about the alliance."

Kyo and Amera had left a while back to catch the final train to Sendai, which left Kimiko and Kenja alone to try and map out everything and try to make sense of it all in general. They worked at this for a while before the sun had begun to set and the blond boy figured he and the now anxious Kesai better get going. Both then directing their attention to Flynn who had come in a while before to check back on Tsumi, seeing a look of trust and hope in his eyes.

"Yes, what about it?" Kenja brushing a lock of long blond hair out of his eyes while focusing on him. "Is something troubling you about it that you wish to speak about?"

"No, that's not it. It's just that," His cheeks slightly tinting with a light pink both of the freshmen managed to pick up on. "I just have a friend that I think you should both try and make friends with, somebody who just might be interested in joining you both in the alliance you have running."

"Really!" Kimiko getting a little excited as she sat up in her chair. "Who are they, do I know them?"

"Yes, you probably know them," Flynn smiling to the girl sweetly. "Her name as Aislinn Aikihira and I believe she is in your class. 3-D, right?"

A shiver went down the spine of Kimiko, the girl trying not to make a big scene out of knowing who this was and not exactly being on good ground with the person. "Mhmm, I know her from class."

"Well, I think you might want to speak to her, to see if maybe she would like to help you both with the demon battles. She and her partner Cheshire are both very strong and capable on their own, so I am sure they would be great to have when you're fighting people under trances. Aislinn is a pretty smart girl, so it wouldn't hurt to have another brain with the team."

Kenja looked to Kimiko for some kind of a sign only to get something that sort of told him that although she wasn't excited for something like this, that maybe they should give this a try for both Flynn and their growing team. He bit into his cheek, not sure he wanted to know what the history between everybody in this room was or who this Aislinn girl was but judging by the look he just got from the brunette he figured that there wasn't much of a choice in this situation. He was going to meet Aislinn and they were going to try and make friends with them both.

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"There she is, right over there on her own."

Kenja looked to Kimiko as they both held their stuff for lunch for only a moment before redirecting his eyes back to the girl sitting on her own with scars on her face. "Ah, I see. Aislinn is the quiet girl in the room, the person I believe has spoken with only Mister Kincad and nobody else. I always wondered what her name was and more or less what kind of a story she had along with her."

"Yeah," Kimiko softly whispering to her friend. "She and her partner Cheshire fought Tsumi and I and basically destroyed us. I still don't know why she spared us, but I don't want to trust her, it doesn't feel right to try and make friends with the person that almost took you right out of the game. I don't know, she just has this aura that tells me that something's not right about her."

"Yes, well even though we may both object to the idea of doing this, let's at least give this a shot, for Flynn's sake. "

Kimiko nodded, giving her friend an understanding look before they both took in a moment of calamity before going to approach Aislinn.

The girl looked up to the both of them, giving the duo rather cold looks as she placed her chopsticks down. "What do you two want?"

"Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot and you probably don't want to see me after what happened the last time we spoke to one another. However, I was thinking maybe the both of us could try again and maybe you would even want to be part of our alliance." The girl holding back all of her pride as she gave the girl with scars a soft smile, trying her hardest to keep memories of their fight locked away in her mind.

"Uh," Aislinn narrowing her eyes. "Look, who the hell are you guys?"