Hey guys,

I don't usually update so early in the day, but since I am rather tired from my first day back in Marching Band, I figured that I would upload this early in the day so I wouldn't have to worry about it later. So, a bit earlier today, you are winning this story. I doubt any abed reader would care too much though, if anything I guess they would be excited. But, to those that love this story, are you ready?

Are you ready to have new chapters for this story? Because I am, I really really am!

Okay, now I better give you this chapter, I'm almost wanting to take a nap soon enough. Have fun,

xKiha

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore, he won't speak to me and he barely does anything. I know why he's doing this, but it doesn't make it any easier to watch this happen. I feel like I should be doing something more about this, but what?"

Kimiko stood in the hallway of her home, leaning against her bedroom door. Held up to her ear was a home line phone, the girl sitting in silence for only a few moments before another voice came.

"I know it's going to be hard, but you've got to give him some time." Kyo's voice soft and comforting as his voice came out of the phone. "I mean, it's not easy to be told that you are the thing that Xenolith wants. That the puppet master will do anything to get his hands on you, even if it means destroying everything that you hold dear in the unfamiliar environment you have been cast into. I don't think I would take it very well either."

"You're right." The brunette sighing to herself as she leaned her head back against the wood of her door. "You always know just what to say, Kyo. If you were here I'd probably hug you."

For a moment there was silence, then there came the nervous chuckle of the teenager with raven hair, making the brunette's heart pound slightly when she wondered what emotion that chuckle was trying to secretly cover up. "Well, I will be there soon."

Right away the girl straightened her spine and lifted her head, voice getting slightly excited. "You're coming to visit again? When are you coming?"

"No, not to visit."

Kimiko frowned, holding the phone closer to her ear in suspense. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well," Kyo's voice trailing off for a moment as if he hadn't planned on telling her just yet. "I am moving over to Otaru, I'm coming over to there so I can be closer to you and the rest of the alliance members. It's not great that I am so far away from you guys and that it takes so long for me to go over and visit when I think I should, so I figured the best way to handle this problem was so move over there to be closer to you all. That way I don't have to blow all of my money on going back and forth all the time just so I can talk plans over with you for two hours before rushing back to my home."

"Wow. So, when are you moving?"

"Next week on Thursday. I already have my apartment picked out, so all I need to do is get my stuff and myself and Amera moved over there."

The brunette smiled softly, relaxing once again. "That's great that you are coming over here, I can't wait to have you closer. This way I'll be able to talk to you more, like face to face conversation instead of talking on the phone and hoping the other person can get your point."

Kyo softly chucked from the other end, nodding even though the person on the other side couldn't see him do it. "You've got that right."

The high school girl felt herself softly smile, not wanting to think much about the severity of everything that continued to fall apart around them. She really did want to talk to Kyo for a while longer and savor this conversation, but she couldn't exactly do that when she had something more important to tend to. She looked to the door leading into her room, sighing to herself only because she knew this couldn't be avoided. "Hey, I've got to get going, I'll talk to you later. Alright?"

"Oh? Yeah, that's fine by me. Bye, Kimiko."

"Bye."

She hung up the phone, standing up and placing it on the table that sat close to her. Her thin fingers ran through her hair, the girl trying to keep her momentum up as she turned to her door and knocked after drawing in a deep breath. "Tsumi?"

Although there came no worded response, it was more than a little obvious that the child was in fact able to hear her as the sounds of movement coming from behind the door became much more apparent. If he didn't want to speak, that was fine, but it wasn't going to stop her from coming in and trying to have a decent conversation with him.

The child was laying on his futon, his small back turned to the door. You could tell just by the way that he carried his shoulders and his body language in general that something was more than a little wrong, voice meek and irritated. "G-Go away, Kimi."

"I'm sorry Tsumi, I am afraid I cannot do that," The brunette joked in a monotone voice before walking over to the poison demon, placing a hand on his shoulder. "But in all seriousness, we do need to talk about what you're feeling right now."

"What, that I am putting you all in danger because a man I don't even know wants to have me for a reason I don't know? That without even trying, I am risking everybody that decides to help me just by being there with them!" The child refusing to turn around as he shouted this to her, believing everything he said about this, the thoughts in his mind making him want to scream and cry.

Kimiko felt him tremble, shaking her head. "No, this isn't your fault. This is nothing but circumstance. Rough things happen to everybody throughout their lives and it's going to be alright, even if you don't believe it's going to be now. Remember what happened when we told the others? What did they do when we told them who exactly the purple gem was?"

"Nothing really, they all just kind of felt bad for me and continued with our plans of destroying Xenolith."

"Exactly, so why be depressed about something everybody else is okay with?"

The child sighed, turning to look at her with a look of both fear and concern. "Because, I have an idea of how strong this guy is and I'm pretty sure that he is more than used to getting his way when he wants it. This entire thing might be nothing but a tragic risk and I don't know what I would do if everybody else got destroyed all because of me. I wouldn't be able to live with myself and the thought that he might hurt you is the worst thought of all! He could do that, Kimi, he could go after you and hurt you only because he would know it would make me listen to him so I could protect you!"

It was understandable, the bookreader sighing as she ruffled his purple locks. "I know it's rough, but we can't just sit here and do nothing. We are going to do this because we have to, because it's what must be done at this point. I don't like the idea any more than you do, but I know we don't have much of a choice any more. It's either do something about it or let more people suffer as puppet master tries his hardest to inch closer and closer to us. We are going to have to fight him eventually, so we can't let him tear us up before this has even started."

Tsumi nodded to his partner, faking a soft smile. "I-I know, but I just can't help feeling scared and useless. Like I don't stand a chance and this is nothing but a suicide mission."

"I know, I know. I feel that way too buddy. I feel that too."

.

.

.

"Are you serious?"

Setsuna shut his locker as he glared at Flynn with his ruby red eyes, trying to keep himself calm as he lightly pinched the bridge of his nose in stress "You are going with a bunch of freshmen to try and take down him? Flynn, that has to be one of the stupidest things you have ever said!"

Flynn leaned against some of the lockers, shrugging slightly. "Look, they're going to need a doctor or somebody to make sure they don't get too beaten up, to make sure that nobody di-" The sophomore stopping as he realized his choice of words probably would not be the best.

Setsuna sighed, brushing a long black lock out of his eyes. "To make sure nobody dies, right?"

The guy looking away to avoid seeing the nod he knew Flynn was going to give him, not wanting to see what he knew he was going to get. "Look, none of you guys know anything major about the bastard. Sure, that one kid asked me a few things, but this is basically a blind mission you all are just tearing into!"

"You don't think they all know this?" Flynn replied, sighing deeply in the frustration of knowing his friend was only hearing what he was expecting to hear, not the reasoning or the logic, but only what he wanted. "They are more than a little aware of how serious this stuff is. However, they don't really have much of a choice and now it turns out that our leader's, or the girl we have sort of adapted as our leader, partner is the thing that Puppet Master wants and has been searching for. We're running out of time here, which means we don't have much of a choice anymore."

"Well, if you guys are going, you are probably going to need at least one person who has an idea of what you are all going up against."

Flynn turned to give his friend a confused look, voice getting slightly more airy. "Setsu, you're not going to come along with us, are you?"

"Oh, yes I am." The other replied, his red eyes narrowed now as he folded his arms. "I want to see that bastard go down more than anything in this world, so if you think I am going to pass up the chance to see him go down you have finally cracked, Flynn."

The doctor pursed his lips, trying not to overreact about this. He couldn't exactly push Setsuna away for being unarmed, because honestly so was he when it came to this thing. Anyways, he had less experience in this sort of thing then Setsuna did, so he wasn't in the right sort of position to complain about his friend's choices. "Fine, but you will be the one to explain it to Kimiko and Kenja that you are coming with, whether or not they want you to."

"Kenja, hn, that's the freshmen who talked to me about Xenolith before, right?" The teen with raven locks asked, smirking to himself when he saw his best friend give him a nod of confirmation. "Then I should have no problem getting in to the group."

He didn't want to say anything to bring Setsuna down, Flynn shrugging as he figured his friend would try to do what he wanted and whatever happened next would be what he accepted as the right choice. Oh well, at least he knew it wasn't going to involve him. He would leave it up to the bookreaders, who hopefully would know just how to handle this like they usually did. Well, as long as Michael or Kenja was there to be part of the decision making they would be at least.

.

.

.

The bell that ended the day sounded, the class bowing to in respect before turning around to gather all of their stuff to go home. Right away Kenja's azure eyes met Kimiko's hazel irises, nodding to her with a half-hearted smile. More planning for the phases of this fight tonight, nothing more than planning for what was going to be something they could never really be fully prepared for no matter what. Not something to look forward to, because it involved a lot of stress and a lot of planning for the worst, but at this point they couldn't afford to focus on anything else but the worst case scenario.

"Kenja, Kimiko, I want you both to come speak to me when the room clears."

Both bookreaders froze right away, looking to see their teacher with a rather knowledgeable look in his always warm eyes. The teacher running a hand through his blond hair before motioning them to come closer to him.

"What does he want with us?" Kimiko whispered, glancing over to their teacher before looking back to Kenja. "Did we do something wrong?"

"Not that I can think of." Kenja replied, voice still managing to be calm even though it was pretty obvious he was not looking forward to whatever was about to happen to him. "I know my grades have yet to lower to more than a low A even with me in the hospital, so he is not upset about us failing, or at least me. Maybe he has taken concern in our states after a demon battle and he wants an explanation for that."

"Well, how would we explain something like that to our teacher?"

"I do not know, but follow my lead if he asks this." Kenja replied, figuring that something on the lines of 'we fight with children that use magical powers to destroy each other, but these powers can only come from books that only one person in the entire world can read, which means we have to be there for them all the time in case another demon child comes along to destroy mine' wouldn't exactly sound very convincing. Maybe it would make a good story, but it wouldn't be a very good excuse for getting a bad grade in a class. He might end right back up in the hospital for that one.

With that, the poison and fire bookreaders walked over to the desk of their teacher, eyes avoiding his gaze in fear of getting in trouble for something they were not sure they did yet. However, as Yukio Kincad reached down to get something and spoke, his voice became much more warm. "So, I bet you two are freaking out, wondering why I singled you out from the rest of the class."

"A little bit," Kimiko replied, trying to keep herself composed. "But I'm sure it's a good reason that you have."

"Oh, well you both know the answer to this one deep inside, but I guess because it's so deep you wouldn't consider it on the inside."

With that the teacher sat up, placing a golden colored spell book on the desk, looking up to see the awe-stricken faces of his students and smiling softly. "See, this is something you should always expect to hear, even from people you don't want to hear it from."

"I never considered something like that," Kenja replied nervously, reaching into his bag only so he could feel the spine of Kesai's orange book against his fingertips to comfort himself. "However, now all I can think about is if you are a friend or a foe."

Kincad's own hand was resting on his book, eyes soft as he looked over the two. "Don't worry, I am not here to fight the both of you. I know what you, along with a few others, are trying to do."

"You know about Xenolith?"

The teacher nodded, voice seeming to remain calm as he spoke to them both. "Yes, I know a bit about the man, or at least as much as my partner and I could gather for now. I believe you know more about this than I do about the subject." Kenja nodding in confirmation as the man continued, they knew few things but it was enough to give them an idea of what to expect. "I see, well all I am proposing at this point is to offer my help. I would like to be a part of your team to help you all out and if you will accept, my partner and I will be sure to make worthy adversaries."

Kimiko looked to her classmate, frowning to him in hope that he understood her dilemma. This could be a good thing to have more people fighting with you on your side, but then again this could also be a problem if Kincad and his demon were too weak to keep up with the rest of the group and either endangered them or ended up dragging everybody else down with them in the heat of battle. Well, there would only be one way to figure out if this would be a good or a bad thing to accept.

" , is there any way we might be able to meet your partner?"

"Of course, I believe he is meeting your partners for the first time as well."

"K-Kimiko!"

"Kenja!"

Both of the bookreaders jerked as the door of the classroom flew open, turning to see their partners standing their with voices heavy with lost breath. They had wide eyes and seemed to be trembling, but the moment they managed to find their voices they became desperate to tell them both everything they knew.

"There is a demon," Kesai shouted through slight pants. "There is a demon out there who wanted to be around us. T-Told us that you guys were talking to the bookreader he had!"

"A-Are you guys okay?!" Tsumi muttered, finally catching his breath with cheeks slightly flushed.

To the shock and the relief of the demons, both Kimiko and Kenja nodded in response to their question. They seemed more than a little fine, the teacher sitting at the desk then standing as his hands slid off his golden colored book. Both demons flinched as they saw his hands on the book, not wanting to put too much thought into the situation as they backed up.

"It's alright, I am not here to fight you." Both demons nervously nodding as they froze in place, the man frowning as he looked around. "Icarus. This is not a joke, now come on out."

The children suddenly looked up for a moment only to see a white blur pass them both by, rubbing their eyes in a bit of shock before watching this white blur land on the desk of . The both of them blinking in a bit of surprise as they looked over the young boy.

Right away they took interest in him, the child having beautiful angel wings sprouting from his shoulderblades. They moved slightly before he seemed to curl them up, the wings comfortably pressing against his back. He had short platinum blond hair that teased at his forehead and deep ocean eyes, a wise but cocky look in his pupils. He wore white robes that looked like they had been fashioned in ancient Greece, golden accents and pins holding the robes together, his shoes matching the color of the accents and having rather small wings on them as well. Covering his arms and legs were a spiritual light blue assortment of tattoos, different markings and patterns that may have meant something in a different culture.

"Are you just going to stand there and look at me?" Icarus folding his arms slightly as he sat on the desk of the teacher, crossing his arms but still speaking in a rather wise sounding voice that felt more than a little alluring. "I'm not going to do anything to you guys."

Kimiko glanced over to Kenja, who merely glanced back in a bit of shock. This demon belonged to their teacher and as interesting as he looked and no matter how great the situation seemed, would it really be right for them to fight alongside their teacher? Could they ever be comfortable with something like that happening?

Then again, wouldn't it be nice to have an actual adult there with them during their descent into Xenolith's castle? To rely on an adult figure when things felt like they were too difficult to handle at that point in time.

"Just say what's on your mind, Kimiko, Kenja." Their teacher walking to the front of his desk and leaning against the side by his partner. "I am not forcing you to do anything you don't want to, it's not like I am going to turn on you if this does not go the way I want it to. You are old enough to make your own choices, which means you don't have to worry about hurting my feelings or making choices that aren't always easy."

The brunette turned to her partner, kneeling down and sighing as she whispered. "What do you think? Icarus seems strong and is a really smart guy."

"I know they are strong, I can feel their energy," The poison demon replied, glancing over to the angelic child for a moment. "I want to give them a try, but I don't know about it. They're strangers, but their energy is relaxing and focused, almost like they're trying to get us to believe them, but it's working pretty well."

Kimiko frowned, seeing the serious look in her partner's eyes. "So, what you're saying is you're okay with them going us?"

Tsumi went to nod before turning and looking to Kesai, who broke from speaking with Kenja only so he could look at the poison demon, ears going flat against his hair in consideration before giving his friend a slight shrug. Neither really knew what to think in this kind of a situation and it was becoming a bit more challenging to figure out who exactly they should consider friend and who they should consider foe. Then again this man taught their bookreaders and seemed trustworthy and it wasn't like a horrible aura was radiating off of Icarus. It didn't feel very as welcoming as they would have liked, but hey, in a time like this who can afford to be picky.

"Well, do you have an idea of what you both want to do about this?" Kenja brushing a lock of blond out of his face, azure eyes locked onto Kimiko with hope for a certain answer.

"I think we're going to let them join," Tsumi blurted out, Kesai nodding as he folded his arms and spoke the rest of the sentence. "Another person to help us out and it wouldn't hurt to have that, so we are thinking we should, even if just for that reason."

Icarus smiled slightly, unfurling his wings as they spread to a rather majestic looking length, the pure white down on them catching everybody's eyes. "Good, I'm sure you won't regret letting us on the team."

"Hopefully," Kimiko replied as she looked away for a moment. "Because, we're going to Xenolith's castle next week. We're going to need all the help we can get if this is going to work the way we want it to. Every demon that wants to help us will be accepted at this point, because we don't know much about the puppet master."

"Well, I cannot offer any knowledge on Xenolith, we haven't encountered him ever or heard much about the man." Yukio then placing his hand on Icarus's head as the child smiled very slightly. "However, I can offer your our strength and wit, I can place it in your hands and let you do what you please with it."

The brunette smiled softly in gratitude, nodding to her teacher. "Thank you so much for doing that for us, I don't know how I'm going to repay you."

"Don't worry about it, I'm doing this because we're in the same situation and I know just how hard this is going to be."

"I wish we could have a solid idea of that, but we really don't. But we shouldn't worry about that right now, because what we really need to focus on is one simple thing. That time is running out and soon enough we are going to have to face him, because with every passing day we get closer and closer to the end of our time."