Hey Guys,

So, this chapter introduces the final teenage member of the roster which means that there is only one more member to go! However, even though this last person isn't a teenager, you've already met him in the story a few times. We'll just have to wait and see, but feel free to guess away, I'll be sure to tell you if it's right or not.

And when talking about the roster, it's come to my attention that the number of people and demons going to Xenolith's castle, a whopping 14! Oh my, is that going to be hard to do. I mean, I've handled 22 characters in a fanfiction I worked on about a year ago which sadly ended early due to circumstance, but when I work on things like novels, I am used to only having three to five main protagonists, so fourteen will be an interesting experience for me. But I will do my best.

Anyways, enough babbling, I better start completing chapter 24, so for now enjoy this one.

xKiha

Come closer, young blossom. Take my hand, I won't be tempted to hurt you if you trust me and allow me to take you as your own master. Hush and submit to me, allow me to pull you close and show you these feelings that I have for you. Allow me to take away the darkness that clouds in your heart and replace it with the security that I can offer. Allow me to seize your jewel, to take the thing only you can care for that I wish to have. Do this for me, my blossom, and all will be freed and protected.

This was all Kimiko could remember about last night, some kind of a voice coaxing her in a deep and calm tone that both made her want to cry and deeply interested her. This man, whoever he was, wanted her, calling her his blossom and saying that he would take away the darkness in her heart. He obviously knew something that she didn't, or at minimum something she didn't want to share. It made her somewhat uncomfortable but she couldn't help wondering just who was trying to win her over and why this voice was the only thing rather definable about the experience.

Not that she wanted to tell Kenja about this, at least not for now, fearing the reaction he would have when it came to this would be related back to the ever present Xenolith crisis. Of course she suspected this as well, but she had no interest in thinking about this right now, not when she felt she had many other important things to think about as well.

"Are you feeling alright?"

The brunette turned as she met the somewhat concerned azure eyes of Kenja who had finished packing up his things to go home. "You seem a little pale, so is something the matter? Are you not feeling well today?"

'Yeah, I guess you can see right through me no matter what.'' Kimiko sighing to herself as she forced herself to smile. "I'm feeling fine, just a little bit tired is all." Giggling rather shyly as she tried not to think about it anymore than she had to.

"Alright," The blond teenager hesitating for only a moment before giving her a soft look. "I am leaving to walk home, do you want to come with or will I be seeing your tomorrow?"

"I think I'll stay here for a little bit longer before I go home. You can go on ahead without me, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

The sickly blond smiled nodding in acceptance. "Okay, I will be seeing you then." Turning away from the brunette and walking out of the room, leaving Kimiko alone with nothing but her thoughts and the memory of that cold voice seeking control of her.

'I guess I can't just leave this to myself, but for now I can only hope I was hearing things due to stress. After all, the last thing any of us need is to begin hearing this guy talk. For him to drive us all mad one by one before he finds exactly what he wants in us. Whatever that is.'

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November wasn't a kind month in Otaru and judging by the color of the sky they would probably be getting snow soon enough, something that never bothered Kimiko but never really brought her a lot of joy either. Snow was beautiful, for maybe the first few weeks, but after a while it would all go from white and thick blankets, to black and dirty clumps of ice. She may have enjoyed the sight of snow, but thought of those clumps returning always ruined the event.

Having a long sleeved dress shirt and somewhat longer skirt didn't exactly protect her from everything, so naturally she was left rather cold as she tried to rush home before the weather became unbearable.

It was once again just her, after recalling that voice, she had told Tsumi to take it easy and relax for the day instead of come to meet her after school as he always did. The child was hesitant, asking why with a look of confusion but accepting her answer when she told him she simply thought he was in need of a nice long break after everything that had been happening recently. He chose not to argue after that, but his bookreader could still see the look of misunderstanding and hesitation in the violet eyes of the poison demon.

However, not everything in this world always works the way you want it to, no matter how serious you get when it comes down to it. Sometimes bad luck finds you and attacks during a time where you cannot handle it and sadly this was just another one of those times.

"Keldion!"

The brunette gasped in horror as she heard a spell being called out, going into her satchel and reaching for her book only to remember she had that but she didn't have the child to make the spells work. This couldn't be happening! Not right now where she couldn't really do anything but stand here completely useless. "No!" The girl found herself shouting as she pulled her satchel containing her spellbook to her chest.

Coming towards her was a green beam of energy, the girl forcing her eyes closed and bracing for the impact that was coming. 'I-I won't let this be the end of Tsumi's journey, this little choice won't be what destroys him and our friendship!'

"Shakir!"

Kimiko gasped as she heard a voice break through the frightening silence, opening her eyes and seeing a large blast of black lightning suddenly shooting forward and into the beam, destroying it with strength and even shooting into the darkness of the area where the beam had come from. More than one demon child was here right now and this couldn't be any worse, Kimiko trying to keep herself from panicking as she held her satchel tighter to her body.

No, no! This was nothing but a bad dream at this point.

"Hey, get out of here! Now!"

Kimiko opened her eyes to see a pair of boys standing close by her, the demon and the bookreader who held in his hands a black spellbook. This really was happening, trying to stop herself trembling before finding herself unable to form words and only silently nodding in response.

The bookreader was somewhat tall, seeming to be a little older, probably only a year or so. He had a somewhat muscular build that suited him, not to mention that he was rather good looking. He had short and scruffy cocoa hair and dark brown eyes that seemed both fun and wise, a slight detection of what may have been loneliness in there as well. Wearing the male's school uniform for Seki, which meant he really did go to her school and he may just know who she was.

The demon child that stood beside him was rather interesting, being the height of a young middle school student. His skin had a tan tint to it and rather soft red eyes. His hair black with silver accents, long and scruffy in a sort of cute way that blew around in the wind. He wore a black mantle on his body along with black boots, his fists clenched. "Come on, go!"

Kimiko nodded, quickly backing away from where everything was going in fear of suffering the consequences of what could happen otherwise. Continuing to clutch her book bag close to her chest only to reassure her that the purple book was safe before looking back up as she looked to the two fighters.

"Keldion!"

"Shashield!"

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"Hey, are you alright?"

Kimiko slowly opened her eyes, blinking as the bookreader gave her a soft smile as he knelt beside her sitting form. "T-Thank you." The girl's voice a soft whisper as she loosened her grasp on her satchel, looking at the ground in a bit of embarrassment. "I don't know what I would have done without you coming to help me."

"It's no problem at all." The guy standing up and sighing to himself. "Just keep this to yourself alright? We don't need anybody walking around and talking about a high schooler running around with a kid that shoots lightning out of his fingers. Right?"

'Not unless I want to screw over Tsumi as well, but this is actually an interesting thought. How will people perceive the demon battle since they could witness it and be unable to understand the severity of what is going on? Do they always remember or does something bring them to forget the power of the demons? Otherwise, we really could have the government on our hands trying to figure out what was up with these supernatural children with books that give them power.' Kimiko couldn't help but think this as she gave him a soft smile of knowledge. "No, you don't need to worry about me knowing. I know what's going on here, I was only unable to fight back."

"Huh?" The teen with cocoa locks turning to her in shock. "Y-You just couldn't fight?"

Kimiko nodded, slowly opening her satchel to show him her own spellbook to the amazement of the guy. "I told my partner to take it easy today and I guess I just have some bad luck when it comes to demons and these fights. Although, I never expected to be saved by another team."

The demon child frowned, looking up to his bookreader who looked a little stunned by this sudden turn of events. "Uh, Michael?"

"Oh, sorry." The teenager blinking with a little embarrassment. "Just wow, I can't believe you also have a book. Small world, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

Kimiko stood up as she began to dust herself off, blushing as she realized just how pathetic she must have seemed to him. Something that would make all of her friends laugh if they ever heard what had happened. Maybe this would become a secret between him and her, but one thing burned inside her mind. She wanted him to join the alliance, nothing was going to stand in her way now that she decided this.

"Anyways, I'm Michael and this is my partner Shura, we specialise in dark lightning spells." The teenager with cocoa locks saying as he gave her a smile. "It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Kimiko," The girl bowing respectfully. "My partner's name is Tsumi and we use poison spells."

Shura cocked his head, blinking in a bit of surprise. "Y You're Tsumi's partner?" Smiling in sudden joy when he noticed the brunette beginning to nod yes. "I didn't know he was still fighting! I'm so glad he made it this far in the battle!"

'I didn't know Tsumi had any friends in this fight, not that he mentioned anyways.' Kimiko looking to Shura in an interested state of mind. "You both were friends?"

"Well, sort of. You see since we both didn't really have parents or anything we ended up living wherever we felt we could. It wasn't always easy to do but wandering until finding the next perfect place was normal for us both. We met one another when I decided to settle down in the town where Gash lived and Tsumi stuck around there for a while. We became friends because for a while we were all we had for one another. However, Tsumi just got up and left one day after the King himself wanted to talk to him in private. Gash probably knew why he left, but to everybody else we all continued to wonder what motivated him to just suddenly drop everything and choose to leave. He looked so happy when he lived there."

"So, he was a drifter?" Kimiko giving Shura a smile as she found herself liking the child who nodded to her wordlessly. "Anyways, I'm sure Tsumi would be thrilled to see you again. Maybe we will have to meet up some other time, the four of us together so you two can catch up on what's happened since those days."

With that the brunette gave Michael a soft look, knowing just how this was going to go if she did this correctly. "Anyways, thank you so much for helping me out. I guess I owe you one."

"Yeah," The teenager with cocoa locks saying, lifting his hand slowly to say goodbye but finding himself somewhat hesitant.

However, Kimiko wasn't going to be this way, turning and beginning to head in the opposite direction with her back turned to the both of them. 'Five, four, three, two "

"Hold on a second!"

Perfect. The brunette turning around to hear the teen's voice and pretending to be surprised by the sudden outburst. "Yes? Is something wrong?"

Michael hesitated when he looked to his feet for only a moment, thinking hard about what he was about to say as he shifted his jaw in concentration. "Well, I was thinking, maybe since I helped you that we might just team up or something to, help each other. Like you and your demon and Shura and I becoming a little team or something. And since they're already friends, I'm sure we'd have no problems all getting along."

'You're taking the words right out of my mouth.' Kimiko having to hold back her giggles of victory and satisfaction. "Well, I do have a group of allies that I work with. We help one another out and right now we're working on figuring out what's going on with something I'll have to tell you about another time."

"A group?" Shura repeating before looking up to Michael who seemed to like this idea a lot as he spoke. "You think, that maybe we could join the group as well?"

"Of course!" Kimiko smiling to him. "We always have enough room and since you helped me out there is no way I could possibly say no to you." Trying to hide in her joy at the fact that this was working out in her favor. Since she was having enough hardships trying to earn Aislinn's friendship it was nice to have a guy that seemed more than happy to join the alliance after helping her out so blindly.

"Awesome." Michael smiling back to the girl as he looked down to Shura who seemed just at happy. "Looks like we'll be working with them then. How many others are there right now?"

"Two other teams, but one of them lives in Sendai so they can't come around very often."

"I see, well it doesn't matter how many. I'm just glad to have somebody to depend on and to consider a friend in something like this.'

'And so am I, Michael, so am I. You will make a good addition to our little team, I can only hope you will be able to handle exactly what we are going to bring you into the middle of.'

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"And that is how the both of us met and why we have another member in our team."

Kenja removed his gym shoes as he took in a deep breath, his cheeks full of vibrant colors as he coughed. This had been his first gym class he had been allowed to attend this school year, to his excitement and dread. Of course this managed to be a running day, which left poor Kenja stunned but still managing to do rather well at. "I see, well that is quite a story."

His azure eyes then looked up to Kimiko and Michael who it turns out was in the same class as Flynn, seeming rather approving. Of course Kenja wasn't exactly the person to pass judgement unless it was earned by the person. "Did you inform Kyo of this?"

"Uh huh." Kimiko nodding. "I called him this morning and both he and Amera sounded pretty happy about it when I told them, so I think everybody is on board with this."

The blond teenager stood back up after tying his normal school shoes, giving a friendly smile to Michael. "Well, I certainly have no problems with this happening. However, I am not sure just how Kesai will react. You know how he can get when he isn't completely satisfied with the verdict."

"He's a good kid, I'm sure he'll understand and get over it eventually. After all, he did make friends with Tsumi, after a while, didn't he?"

"Well yes, but you haven't seen the child when he really doesn't want to do something. Trust me, when that happens the saying pain in the ass becomes an understatement."

Michael gave Kimiko a slightly concerned look as the girl simply waved it off. "Don't worry, his partner's a good kid, he's just stubborn. I'm sure he and Shura will get along just fine." The teenager with cocoa locks nodding slowly as everything he had been told began to process in his mind.

However, just as he went to say something the bell rang, Kimiko smiling as she grabbed her bag. "I would love to stay and keep talking to the both of you, but I got to get going now." Her voice somewhat rushed and hurried as she spoke.

"Oh, where are you going?" Michael looking to her with a cock of the head as Kenja gave her a soft smile. "Not going to give up yet, are you?"

"Nope!" Kimiko turning to go down the hall before giving them both a smile. "Aislinn Akihira is going to be a member of the group if it's the last thing I get to do. I won't let this slip through my fingers!" The girl then rushing to go to her classroom and was out of their sights rather quickly.

With that, Michael turned to Kenja, sighing to himself softly. "Is Kimiko always like that? Happy and energetic but holding in some inner pain?"

"Yes, she had always been this way, at least for the amount of time I have known her, which sadly isn't that long. However, I think that's why people are brought to her, it's a nice personality to surround yourself with."

"Yeah, I think I like it. I think with her as our ring leader, this might be a good ground to stick around with."

"Agreed."