Hey Guys,

So, this is a rather big deal. I am finally releasing a chapter of DBR that I have written in the last few months. This one is officially never before seen, which makes this very exciting. Funny story about it, the beginning of this chapter was actually written once before a few months ago, but I hated it so much I scrapped it right away. But this time, I like it, because it brings us right into the minds of Yukio Kincad and Kenja.

Other than that, I urge you to get ready, because soon enough, these chapters dive into what I would call my inner horror movie director. Because with the Xenolith arc, we get a lot of horror inspired moments that make me rather happy. What I mean of course is that, at least when writing it, the horror I am attempting to create for Xenolith feels rather genuine. But, I guess that will be decided by readers in the future, if the scenes to come are scary enough.

And anyways, for now it's time for you all to enjoy a new chapter of DBR. I hope you enjoy, because there is so much more to come in the future.

xKiha

"Alright, so, you're sure this is where we would find the puppet master's hideout? Right over here?"

Kenja nodded as he stepped away from the chalk board, the drawing of Hokkaido wasn't all that detailed but he made sure everything looked close enough to what it was so it could at least be recognized when glanced at. "Yes sir, according to what I was told before the image I'm showing you now was burned into my mind, this is where Xenolith is currently hiding."

Mr. Kincad nodded, studying the board. "I see, well he's just as clever as I figured. This would be an abandoned Island that would probably be very easy to use as your own little secret base." The man's hand stroking his narrow chin for a moment as he continued to look over the drawing. "It's just a little worrying to think about, because with all that space, who knows what he could be doing."

The blond student bit into his lip, trying to meet the eyes of Yukio Kincad. "It's even more worrying when you wonder who it was that gave me this information. Because from what Kimiko tells me, the people and demons that are unlucky enough to become Xenolith's puppets always talk about a cold and coaxing voice. What spoke to me and granted me with the location, it had a voice that fits that description rather closely."

"Ah, so you're worried that maybe Xenolith is going to use you and Kesai as his next victims?"

Kenja nodded as Kesai looked up from the game of Sevens he was playing with Icarus, both had been dragged into the classroom by their bookreader and even though it didn't seem like the two would talk or make friends at first right after the teenager gave Kesai a pack of cards to entertain himself it was like magic. The kitsune and the angel had been playing ever since, which made Kenja very proud to see the fire demon finally able to get along with others.

"Somehow, I have a feeling he won't lay a finger on you, at least not yet." Mr. Kincad replied, jotting down a few notes before looking over the map once more.

"Sir?" The student watching his teacher with eyes hungry for understanding.

"Well, you and Kimiko have made it clear that what Xenolith is looking for is this purple gem, which you recently learned was Tsumi himself. Nobody but the Puppet Master knew this before, but it seems he was always trying to push you forward. I have a sneaking suspicion that all of the snippets of information you received before was only a ploy to seek more and that in the end, he wanted all of us together."

"And what does that have to do with the idea of Kesai and I being safe for the time being?" Kenja asked, trying to figure out how exactly all of this fit into the equation.

"Well, because since he's putting us all together, he won't use you at a puppet until you've done as he wanted." Mr. Kincad explained. "If he's the one speaking to you, he's only feeding into your desires for understanding and your need to take him down. Xenolith knows that you want to know where he's hiding and what he's doing and he's sewing his seeds. In the end, I have a feeling that the closer we get to understanding this demon, the more danger we're going to be putting ourselves in."

Kenja drew in a shaking breath, slumping back into a chair, rubbing his temples. So in the end, he was nothing other than another puppet of Xenolith's? Of course he was, just other ploy for another to benefit from. "There's nothing I can do about that, is there?"

"When it comes to fighting against what Xenolith has planned for you, I-I…I don't think you can."

Kenja looked away, trying to push away the fear filling his body. "That's what I was afraid of."

The teacher tried to figure out how to console a student like Kenja, knowing the teenager would just be more upset if he found out that Kincad had been lying to him to make him feel better. When it came to this kid, there really wasn't anything he could do to make it all better. "I know this is hard, but I'm sure it will all work out in the end."

The teenager faked a gentle smile in the hopes that Yukio would believe it and not feel burdened with having to make him feel better. "I'm sure you are right."

'He's going to bury his feelings inside and just hope I don't call him out for it, he's really afraid of worrying me. Almost like he's afraid of being a weight on my shoulders when I'm the one who brought this fear to his attention.' Mr. Kincad drawing in a breath as he began to erase the drawing off the board, not wanting to make eye contact with Kenja anymore in fear of the teenager noticing his concern. "Well, Kenja, you are dismissed. I think I've put you through more than enough for today."

"It was no trouble at all, sir." Kenja replied gently, getting out of the chair with his azure eyes diverted. "Thank you, I'm glad we got to talk over this. It's nice to have an adult on our side that has an idea of what's going on and is gracious enough not to talk down to me."

Even though he didn't turn around to see it, the teacher knew that his student was bowing to him in respect. "Of course, Kenja. Thank you for sharing all of the information you had with me, I'm grateful to be able to work with a student as gifted as you."

Kesai turned to see his bookreader ready to go, turning to Icarus and smirking. "Guess this means I won by default."

"Oh really now?" Icarus asked him, looking back up over their game. "Are you sure?"

The kitsune laughed nervously, waving his newfound friend off. "Okay, fine, fine. You win, okay?" Gathering the cards up while Icarus rolled his eyes at Kesai's somewhat pathetic attempt to try and claim victory against the smarter angel.

"Take care, Kenja." Mr. Kincad turning to see his student head for the door, smiling in a reassuring and paternal fashion. "I'm sure you and Kesai will be able to manage without much trouble though."

"I appreciate that you think that, sir."

'But if anything, we're really going to need your support.'

.

.

.

"Thank you for everything, Flynn. It means so much when you're kind enough to give some of your time to helping us out."

A few teachers sat in the teacher's lounge, smiling to the heterochromic teenager with gratitude as Flynn stood up to leave the room. "Oh it was no trouble at all, I like helping out."

"But still," One of the teachers replied. "You always brighten up the room and you help the process go at lot faster. You're quite the natural when it comes to grading tests."

Flynn laughed gently, blushing slightly in flattery. "Thanks for saying that, you're too kind to me." The teenager then remembering that he had homework that he couldn't neglect and headed for the door. "I better get home; I have some work I need to get done."

"Well, thank you for everything again, Flynn."

The young doctor gave them all a gentle smile before he left the teacher's lounge and entered the hallways. Since it was after hours, the building was basically a ghost town with all the hallways completely baron and empty. He didn't mind all that much, slinging his backpack over his shoulder as he began to walk through these halls with only the goal of getting out of the building.

As he began to pass the lockers however, he found he wasn't alone, turning to see none other than Aislinn removing some things from her locker. The male drawing in a deep breath and trying to keep himself from saying anything stupid to her. "Hey, Aislinn."

Right away the girl with scars turned to see him, blinking blankly for a moment as she studied his face. He seemed familiar enough, but putting a name or identity to this person suddenly felt like an impossible feat. He was somebody, but she couldn't be all that sure who he was. "Who are you?" She bluntly asked, cocking her head.

"I'm Flynn, remember?" The heterochromic teenager knowing not to take this personally as he only smiled to her, not wanting to make her feel like he was frustrated with the forgetfulness she was prone to. "I'm a doctor in training and we've been friends for a while."

Flynn.

Flynn.

Aislinn focused on the name for a few moments before blinking and nodding. "Oh, yes. I remember you now, Flynn." Giving him a soft look that made Flynn faintly blush at just the gentleness within the girl she didn't seem to show most people. He felt so special right then.

"So, uh, what are you doing here so late?" The young doctor asked, trying to keep his mind off the reason he was blushing.

"Just doing some extra work for one of my classes, one of the after school teachers is very helpful." The girl with scars replied, removing another notebook from her locker and placing it in her satchel.

"Oh, alright." Flynn smiling to her before his watch beeped. He had to get home now, especially because he couldn't leave Tora with Eri and Esu this long. He didn't want to leave, but he didn't have much of a choice. "Well, I better get going. My little sister will probably start to wonder where I am if I don't come home soon."

"Okay, goodbye, Flynn." Aislinn nodding with another soft smile, making Flynn blush once more before he forced himself to nod and look away. "Bye, Aislinn."

Although he wasn't too thrilled to do it, Flynn began heading towards the door once more and this time he made it out with no distractions. By now it was beginning to get late, the cold December snow covering the ground in a thick blanket.

But this, as Flynn noticed, was very wrong.

This snow he was standing on was fresh, but he knew it hadn't snowed today. Especially when only feet away there was a lack of recently fallen snow, the doctor in training swallowing. This meant something was very wrong about the spot he was standing in right now.

"Oh, look there. It's one of the Master's pawns, which means he is close with the purple gem. There's our little victim for this operation, Lulu, we've finally found him. And with this, oh think about it, the Master could be all over us. All we need to do is lure the purple gem out and hand him over to the Master, then we'll be able to properly succeed in what everybody else the Lord has sent has failed in doing. Now, read the spell, we don't have a lot of time."

"Tsurara!"

.

.

.

Kesai's ears pricked up right away, the kitsune wrinkling his nose. "Kenja, there's an enemy here." Voice urgent as he tried to keep his mind off the scent he had now caught onto.

"There is?" The teenager frowning as he removed his book from his backpack, looking to the child and finding himself confused by the expression on his face. "What exactly are you doing with your nose, Kesai? Are you trying to make some kind of joke?"

The fire demon looked up at his bookreader with a sigh, not understanding why Kenja would ask such a stupid question in a time like this. "No, I'm not making a joke. You know full well how sensitive my nose it, which is made worse by the fact that almost every different type of demon has its own scent. And if you asked my least favorite type of demon judging by scent alone I'd tell you that it would have to be the ice demons."

"And why would you say something like that? What makes ice demons so unbearable when it comes to their scents?"

"They all have this bitter scent, the main staple in their scent is a rotting pine tree odor and other than that you usually find things like harsh spices and bitter peppermint thrown into the mix. I hate it so much, it's just the kind of thing that burns your nose and leaves you gasping for air or any other kind of thing to focus your senses on other than the stinking demon you're having to fight."

Kenja sighed, holding his book tighter in his hands. "Does this mean I'm going to have to fight with that scent clouding my mind?"

"Probably not." The kitsune replied. "My nose is so sensitive I can pick up on stuff like that, most demons can't identify the different scents of various demons or even the type they belong to. I guess I'm just cursed with the ability to sense all of this."

"What are you two doing? We have a demon out there!"

The fire duo turned to see who was yelling at them, both of them in shock when they realized that it was none other than Cheshire and Aislinn rushing down the hallways. The boys were quick to join up with the other two, Kenja looking to Aislinn who studied his face with a lopsided look. The blond hadn't taken enough time trying to get to know her or give her time to remember who he was. "Oh, I'm Kenja. I'm also part of the alliance, friends with Kimiko and part of the team she formed that's dedicated to stopping Xenolith."

The girl with scars nodded, not sure if she would be able to remember this for longer than the time she figured they would spend together as the both of them ran behind their partners who were outside rather quickly.

Kesai stumbled back as he set foot outside into the snow, covering his nose. "Ugh, just like I said. That rotting wood smell!"

Kenja sighed gently. "Well, that can't be helped, Kesai. Calm down, I need you to fight if we need to, not complain about the smell of a demon."

"Flynn?"

Unlike Kenja who went right to scolding his partner, Aislinn had decided to look ahead to see what was going on. Her eyes widening as she noticed the heterochromic teenager laying in the snow, his ankles had been slashed and now bleeding rather profusely into the snow that seemed rather fresh.

"What happened to you?" The girl with scars asked with a frown, taking a step closer to him. "It was the demon, wasn't it?"

Flynn then turned to look at the both of them, his eyes widening as his voice left his lips in a meek whisper that barely sounded like the Flynn Fukisa the both of them knew. "G-Get out of here…t-this is what she wants."

"What who wants?" Kenja asked as both of the demons cringed, their ears both seeming to flatten at the same time before perking up in the same directions.

"The…The…" Flynn grunting in pain, rubbing his ankles as he tried to sit up.

"I wouldn't do that, Mister Decoy." A rather sweet sounding female voice filling the air, beginning to giggle sharply, causing Cheshire to begin growling.

And from a swirl of snow, a young female demon appeared along with a bookreader. The demon had long lavender hair, the tips reaching her thin waist while the beautiful and well-kept locks naturally curled in a way that would make all girls jealous. Her eyes a cold aquamarine, staring them down with an attempt to be intimidating, which for a reason Kenja wasn't sure, she was. She wore a lavender blouse that was a bit lighter than her hair and dark jeans along with white sandals. She was taller than Cheshire and Kesai and she seemed to be much older as well, which only succeeded in making Kesai feel he would need to prove that younger and shorter people could do just as good.

The bookreader was a fully grown woman, unlike the teenagers or young adults the four were more used to fighting. She had dirty brown hair with cheaply done blond highlights that went down to her shoulders and pale skin. She wore a dark purple shirt with blue jeans and white tennis shoes with purple accents. However, the thing that Kenja and Aislinn noticed almost automatically were her hazel eyes.

They were completely empty, which meant that this woman was just another one of Xenolith's pawns, which meant that this demon was another enemy neither of them would have the patience to want to deal with.

"If you don't mind my asking, who are you?" Kenja taking a step forward, but still not getting close to Flynn who seemed to be wanting him to keep his distance from the suffering doctor in training.

"I'm Lavender and that over there is my bookreader Lulu." The demon giggling, taking a step closer to Flynn. "I work for Lord Xenolith."

"Yeah, we noticed." Kesai muttered. "Your bookreader being a little brainwashed kind of told us everything about who you work for and what kind of a person we should expect you to be."

"Oh, so you've started putting it all together without letting me have any fun?" Lavender pouted teasingly, causing Kesai's ears to droop at this almost flirtatious way of speaking to him. "Well, I guess there's no use in me playing around then."

Kenja placed his hand on the kitsune's shoulder, the child shockingly blushing as he watched Lavender very carefully. The female demon then smiling again, but this time all of the teasing from before was gone and replaced with what the sickly blond could only guess was pure evil. "I know about most of you, especially that you're all close or at least allied with the purple gem and his partner. This means that I could use you all to lure them out here and turn them in to Xenolith. But I have a feeling that you two won't go down without a fight, so let's make this a little more interesting."

Kesai and Cheshire both frowned as they watched Lavender walk over to where Flynn lay in the snow. She smiled in a cryptic way, stroking his blue hair for a moment. "I'm sorry it has to be this way, but the Lord figured that if anything, he could always replace the human he's been using as his means of information. He thanks you though for allowing him to see and learn all about what he's been desiring."

Hold on, what!?

Flynn looked up at Lavender in shock, trying to prop himself up only for the demon to shove him back into the fresh snow. "What do you mean, his means of information!?"

"Oh, well would you like to tell your friends about the voice in your head? About the random headaches, or how you would suddenly black out?" Lavender giggled, Flynn's face dropping as everything she said began to piece together. "Look at you, it's all starting to make sense now, isn't it?"

Flynn was frozen in shock and to be honest, so were Kenja and Aislinn. So, Xenolith really was using everybody on their team and somehow, they all allowed the Puppet Master to plague one of their friends and use him to learn everything he probably wanted and needed to know.

"Oh, just look at their faces!" Lavender laughed, moving so she now held the toes of Flynn's shoes. "Alright, Lulu, you know just what to do."

"Koori!"

Kenja's azure eyes grew wide. "What do you think you're doing!?" The kitsune he called his partner clenching his fists as his bookreader opened his orange spellbook.

"Oh calm down." Lavender said, rolling her eyes as she stood up and brushed snow off her jeans. She moved away from Flynn who shockingly, seemed perfectly fine. "See, no blood or anything."

"Then what did that spell do?" Cheshire growled, not able to think about anything but the evils she knew Lavender had just preformed.

"Ah, wanna see?" The ice demon giggling as she snapped her fingers, Flynn's eyes growing wide as he noticed ice begin to cover his feet. Lavender bursting into laughter once Flynn began to struggle in shock, panicking at the sight of his body being swallowed by ice. "This spell takes time, but soon enough, it'll swallow you up."

"Then I'll just burn it off him!" Kesai shouted, clenching his fists with his voice an irritated growl. Flynn was one of the few people he didn't only tolerate but managed to get along with. He didn't like the idea of the doctor in training being hurt because if anything, the conversations that he and Flynn had shared when Kenja was in the hospital were meaningful. And this meant that at minimum, he wouldn't let this person have to go through the painful process of being frozen alive.

"Oh, what a naïve little fox," Lavender taunted, giggling at the sight of Kesai's ears slightly drooping in humiliation. "If you do that, you'll only succeed in burning your friend, which is probably something he wouldn't appreciate. My ice can't be destroyed by just anything, I either have to will it or you have to defeat me in battle and burn my book."

Cheshire frowned. "That doesn't leave us with many options." Her claws then appearing from out of her front paws, just as sharp as ever. "But, this'll probably work well."

Kesai nodded as Kenja turned to Aislinn, drawing in a breath. "It looks like we're going to have to fight, weather we want to or not." The girl with scars nodding silently with understanding.

"So, I have a proposition for the both of you." Lavender said with a smile that showed careful plotting behind it. "It's very simple. For you to win, all you have to do is burn my book and send me back to demon world. Your friend will be saved from the ice and everything can go back to normal. However, there is a way for me to win. If your friend becomes engulfed in ice he'll only have so long before he's dead, but I can be a very generous demon. I'll spare your friend, release him from the ice and everything, but only if the four of you surrender and allow us to take you back to Xenolith's castle. From there you will become nothing but our decoys and a means of drawing out the purple gem and his bookreader. It probably won't be all that fun, but there is nothing more you will be able to do except honor this agreement and pledge you've made to Lord Xenolith.

"Now, do we have an agreement?"

Cheshire and Kesai exchanged looks, the both of them seeing the serious and understanding looks in the eyes of the other and nodding. They didn't need to banter or even speak to one another to know just what they both of them were wanting to do. In fact, they didn't even need to look at their readers, a common aura seemed to emanate from the group, and of course only one answer left the lips of every person facing Lavender.

"Agreed."