Hey guys,

I know, I know, I haven't updated in a while and this is probably the longest I have gone without updating in a long time, but with life being as crazy as it is and with school starting for me on Monday and my birthday being on Wednesday I have had no time to breathe. Not to mention band had me always on my toes and then shopping to get ready for a new school year. Well, I haven't gotten anything in the writing department done at all but well, I am hoping to change that.

And thank you for all the support after my boyfriend and I split, it was really touching to see how kind you all were even though I'm a stranger. I'm doing a lot better now and well, I'm back to my normal self. But still, it was really sweet of you all to offer shoulders and try to do your bests to help a girl out.

And now, here comes something embarrassing. I know a few of you tried to figure out Kincad's origin, but well I realized a while after that there was no way you could have. Kincad was what my sister and I used to call Professor Kincaid from the Pokémon Ranger series, probably because we thought it sounded better as 'kin-cad' instead of 'kin-caid'. Silly me, but in the end for trying to figure out something you couldn't have known, cookies for everybody!

Anyways, I have a paper for history I need to finish up and then off to some writing for this story! Enjoy this chapter and believe me when I tell you that this is the first chapter with the horror movie elements Xenolith inspired me to write during his arc. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, after all, who doesn't enjoy a bit of darkness when a villain is looming over the unaware heads of our protagonists? The answer is nobody doesn't enjoy it, believe me.

xKiha

"Although you do not like it, even though your will is strong, you will bow to me."

Kimiko gasped for air, feeing thin fingers begin to run up her throat which by now was garnished in goose bumps. Her hazel eyes slowly opening, unable to see anything in front of her except white walls that were holding her captive. The brunette gasping when she began to feel the warm exhaling of something, or rather somebody. Whoever was talking, they were behind her and she couldn't be sure if they were going to strangle her or not.

"W-Who are you?" She stammered, feeling another set of fingers begin to comb themselves through her long brown hair.

"You don't remember me?" The voice asked, the thin digits on her neck stroking her skin. "We have never met, but you do know quite a bit about me." And as this statement left the person's lips, the voice took on a cold and sinister tone that only made Kimiko gasp.

"You're…you're!"

"Why yes, I am." The fingers on her neck then gripping onto thin flesh, making the poison bookreader gasp in pain. "But, it's all the better when you scream my name."

It was right after he told her he wanted to hear her scream that his nails dug into her skin, Kimiko's hazel eyes filling with tears as the warm feeling of blood began to dribble down her neck. "N-No, please!"

"Scream my name! SCREAM IT!"

His vice grip on her throat became all the stronger, causing Kimi to begin to wonder if this demon was tearing open her flesh, or even worse, if he was tearing it off. "X-Xenolith!"

Right away the nails left her skin, a powerful foot kicking the girl onto the cold white cement floor with a wet thud. This couldn't be real, could it? The pain surging through the teenager felt so real, her hands covering her slashed throat while blood began to stain her hands, clothes and the floor under her. She couldn't even sit up, only able to cry in shock and pain as she lay on the freezing ground.

"Oh, what a shame, my blossom is already on the floor." The cold voice of the demon resonating through the room. "Don't tell me this is really how weak you are, I expected more of you. Especially after unlocking Zunsapen and being able to bring forth the serpent like you have."

"What the hell do you want with us?" Kimiko cried, her voice managing to be hateful even though she was still sobbing in pain. "We never did anything to you!" Her hands trying to stop the violent bleeding from the cuts on her throat, but everything she was trying was unable to stop the blood from flowing.

"You haven't done anything, at least not intentionally." The demon replied, Kimiko too weak to look up at him, but after managing to see his shadow and was stunned to learn that he was sitting with his legs folded in but well, he was floating. She didn't know why, but something about the ability to sit in mid-air and have an honest to god conversation with his enemy, only made her more afraid.

"What does that even mean?"

"It means that I have always only been after your partner, you just happened to become involved with my affairs when you began reading his spells. It's merely a bad draw, nothing you can control but something you are going to suffer for." As he continued to speak, the brunette noticed a rather sinister sophistication about him. Almost like even though he was an obvious bad guy and was proud of it, that he still held himself to a standard. "Well, life's not fair, is it?"

Kimiko shook her head. "No, it's not." Trying to force herself to sit up only to end up crying in pain, the blood continuing to splatter all over the floor. "But why, why are you after my partner? What does he have that you're so desperate to get your hands on?"

"We can't have every answer we want, my dear, but the answer to that will come in time." The shadow of Xenolith getting onto his feet before turning his back to her. "I have my reasons for doing everything that I have done in the past, or that I will do in the future."

The girl now could only look at the floor, seeing that thick puddle of blood and beginning to feel herself grow cold. "Y-You're a monster."

"I am many things, blossom, but a monster is not one of them." The demon snickering before suddenly vanishing into thin air, leaving the human in shock.

All of a sudden, she felt a sharp pain in her neck, the girl crying out in horror as she began to feel the already open cuts begin to grow. Kimiko laying there in terror as blood began to flow everywhere from the now open throat, finding herself completely unable to breathe.

And after that, everything went completely dark.

.

.

.

Kimiko let out a cry of shock, sitting up in her dark bedroom with a cold sweat dripping from her forehead. Her hands were immediately on her neck, fingers feeling their way around the perfectly intact skin, finding no blood or any trace of cuts where they once were. Her throat no longer torn up, her breathing heavy as her mind tried to make sense of everything that had happened.

"I-It was all a dream." She whispered to herself through gulps of air, the memory of what had just happened rather vivid for a dream. "But it was so real and he was there."

"Kimi?"

The brunette turned in surprise, seemly having forgotten that Tsumi was sleeping on his futon in the room. She could already see his figure sitting up, the demon rubbing tired violet eyes. "Oh, Tsumi. Did I wake you?"

"Yeah," The child said, but not seeming angry or upset about this. "What's wrong? You sound like something really scary just happened to you."

"It was Xenolith."

Never before had Tsumi gone from half-awake to alert and petrified so fast, the child swallowing before nodding. "Xenolith? What happened?"

The bookreader watched her partner stand up, wanting to be closer to her when she explained everything. "He came to me in a dream." The poison demon now sitting on her bed beside the girl. "He just wanted to taunt me, telling me that even though I hadn't done anything wrong that he was still going to come after me only because I was your bookreader. And after that, he…he…" Her voice breaking off with strong emotion and fear.

"What did he do?"

Kimiko pulled her knees close to her chest, the beginning of tears in her eyes. "He slashed my throat open and continued talking while I bled everywhere. And in the end, he ripped my neck apart somehow, even though he wasn't in the room. I-I don't know how he did it, but all of a sudden he was so strong and I was helpless to do anything about his murderous intentions. I knew he wanted to kill me and I couldn't say no or run away. He had me caged in and I knew that was where I was going to stay, no matter what."

Even though it lingered in the back of his mind, Tsumi knew that asking about what Xenolith had said about him just wasn't right in this moment. His small hands patting the girl's back as she began to tremble. "It's going to be okay, Kimiko."

"It felt so real!" The girl cried, tears now beginning to run down her cheeks, to the surprise and terror of the poison demon. "It's almost like it was a vision of the future that he plans to slice my throat open or something like that!"

For a moment, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of Kimiko Isahowa's sobbing. Her partner suddenly felt so helpless, unable to completely comprehend the true terror this was probably putting her through. He always knew that Xenolith was seeking him out, but the two had never interacted or seen each other through any kind of medium. No, the Puppet Master instead chose to terrorize Kimiko, give information to Kenja and study and gather information through Flynn. It was almost like he was meaning to tease Tsumi, that by making those who were important to him suffer, that it would be a better means of coaxing him away from his safety.

And little to say, it was working.

"He wasn't showing you the future, I promise you." Tsumi's voice suddenly leaving his lips with a gentle strength he forced himself to muster. "I'm your demon and I've already promised myself that I will protect you from harm, no matter what happens. If he wants to kill you, he'll have to go through me first."

The brunette was suddenly at a loss for words, meeting the violet eyes of Tsumi in the dark. Something about him suddenly seemed to be reassuring and fatherly and even though she was taken aback by it, this felt more than a little right.

"And, we have friends too!" The poison demon continued. "And, since they're part of the alliance too, I know they want to protect you just as much as I do. We won't let this happen, because you've got a lot of people who want to help you, that want to protect you. And to help make sure that even when things get there worst, that you'll always be able to be strong and do the best that you possibly could."

More tears began to form, but this time not because of fear and sadness, the brunette sniffling as she pulled her partner close to her. His small arms hugging her gently in return, the slight glimmer of emotions now beginning to form in his own pupils. "Thank you so much, Tsumi. Thank you so much."

His eyes shut, nodding with his voice gentle. "Of course. Anything for you."

.

.

.

"I see, so that's what happened."

Kimiko nodded, trying not to let her emotions overcome her after she lowered her head. "Yeah, he hasn't come back since last night, but since I haven't slept since I don't know if he'll come back tonight or not."

The brunette was standing before the chalk board in freshmen class 3-D, the other members of the alliance; Aislinn, Kenja, Michael and Kyo, whose first day of school this happened to be, were all in attendance. Kincad stood at the front of the room, more than happy to be going over plans and ideas for this upcoming fight with his three students, a freshmen in a different class and this sophomore.

He had already become quite the adult to have around, especially when people put in the thought that he didn't treat his students like fragile little children he would have to protect. Instead they had become his equals, both in a strategic view and in a mental light. He wanted to know their ideas and opinions and of course any experience was almost needed to be spoken. But it was nice to have an adult around, it gave the group of otherwise only early High School students a bit of security.

"Well, this is quite the reminder that Xenolith would rather toy around than take everything so seriously." Kenja muttered. "If he was willing to fool around for a few moments before making a move, than it is clear to me that what he was doing before, was nothing more than a little joke."

"Slashing her throat was a joke?" Michael asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Why would somebody do that for a laugh?"

"It's not like that." The sickly blond said. "He must have entered Kimiko's mind to make this dream become a false reality, which meant if he had really willed it, he could have done some serious damage to her. However, instead he simply teased at her and in the end made her suffer in a trivial way that in the end wasn't real. We have an idea of what this demon can do and it is obvious that he could do much more that what he did to Kimiko if he had pleased."

"Do you think that maybe he did that just to make her afraid? That maybe he knew she'd come back here to tell us and that we might just end up more afraid of him than ever?" Kyo suddenly chimed in, light green eyes darting around the room to see the faces of everybody else. He more or less knew everybody in this room, but it was still a little strange to think that he lived here in Otaru with the rest of them now.

"That seems more than likely."

Everybody then directed their attention to Yukio Kincad, who was sitting on top of his teacher's desk, eyes narrowed with focus. "We've already concluded that our friend is a smart man, so transmitting things through one of us to give all the others, whether it be feelings or information on him, is rather ingenious. He's already figured out our group dynamic here and is playing it to his own advantage."

"But if he's doing that, then how should we handle things?" Kyo asked. "We can't just stop telling each other everything we learn, right?"

"No, that wouldn't be an option." Mr. Kincad replied, brow furrowed with heavy thoughts. "We still need to share information with each other, but we just need to be aware that the Puppet Master is always aware of this. He's quite capable of playing to everything he has gathered on us, so with one fell swoop he could destroy us all with just manipulation. It's a frightening gamble, but just because he is able to intimidate us and play to our mindset, doesn't mean we can back away."

All the while, Kimiko was silent, looking to her feet and nodding. Of course he picked her, because she was the weakest emotionally. He probably knew that if he could frighten her enough, that she'd become putty in his hands and that she could share this deep fear with the others who probably never would have been as horrified as she had been during that dream.

"Does that mean that, this Xenolith, is going to keep torturing us until we burn his book?" Aislinn asked, voice as cold as ever as she spoke this valid point.

"Most likely." Kenja nodding, Yukio doing the same to show he agreed with the teenager. "It's proved successful in the past and since a bookreader with their mind on other things, probably won't be as difficult to fight as a human and demon with their focus all on an enemy they both deeply resent."

"It's like cheating, using his powers to keep our minds focused on other things." Michael mumbled.

"I don't know if I would call it cheating." Aislinn said. "If anything, it's just using his spells in an affective light. He knows just what he wants and has no intention of backing out. This plan that he's been using, well who can blame him? If any of us had the abilities that Xenolith does, I doubt we would just play it fair. We would probably do the same thing to distract him and keep his mind away from what he might otherwise want to do to us."

"We'd probably justify it as simply strategy, which is probably how our little friend is seeing it." Kenja added, still having a look of deep concentration on his face.

"Why are you saying things like that!" Kyo suddenly interjected, eyes wide and frustrated. "You're making us sound evil, with this discussion of how we would torture Xenolith like he's torturing us! What, do you suddenly think that we're in the wrong here and that we can be as evil as he is?"

"Not evil, Kyo, but strategic." Kincad's voice breaking through the teenager's conversation. "What you're saying here is that you wouldn't play with your enemies, now I understand that it does seem wrong, but when you think about it, a few things can be. This dream visiting he does, well it's similar to a status infliction of sorts because it leaves your enemy unable to do their best. Now all I want to know is this. If an enemy was coming after you for a battle very soon, a foe you had heard a lot of horrible things about and were positive was stronger than you, that you wouldn't jump on the chance to intimidate them? That you wouldn't try and focus your energy into making that person think of something horrid every time they would see you thanks to what you did in a dream? They could never be as frightening and dangerous if they were plagued with other thoughts and fears when seeing you."

"I…I guess I would do it." Kyo slowly relayed, then looking up at Yukio with uncertainty. "But then what really separates us and him?"

"Barely anything." Kimiko whispered, looking at the floor as she spoke.

"Now, now. That's not entirely true." The ninth grade teacher replied, getting to his feet. "We have humanity, the ability to see a demon for what they give to us. As a group, we obviously have come to understand that a group dynamic can be successful because when you are able to battle in numbers, you have fewer weaknesses to worry about. Xenolith has nothing similar, from what we've seen, he tends to think of demons as nothing but a means to get what he wants done. This means that if anything, we separate from him because of our ability to work together instead of sacrificing all that you see as inferior to help you get your way."

All of the teenagers went silent, watching Yukio go back to the chalk board and begin placing neatly written kanji on there. "I think you all know by now that we have no more time to loose, which means that we need to head over to where we know Xenolith is soon." The man turning away from the board to show them what he had placed. The words 'Holiday Break' on the board. "Now, I know we all have a bit of a break during the holiday season coming up, which means that during the middle of it, we are going to leave Otaru and head to the island where our Puppet Master is hiding out. Are there any objections?"

The room was quiet for a good few minutes more while everybody began to think this over before which of course succeeded in making a few of them swallow in nervousness, but when in a fight like this there wasn't much they could do but accept and move forward.

"Alright, then that is a plan, we will gather together to leave on Wednesday." Yukio then beginning to erase the board. "You all are dismissed, that was all I am sure we needed to discuss."

"Wait!"

All of a sudden the door flung open, an out of breath Setsuna and Flynn both now standing in the open doorway. "W-We need to talk to you guys about something!" The heterochromic doctor said, drawing in long breaths.

"Flynn?" Kimiko cocking her head, a little surprised while Aislinn looked at the teenager. He seemed a little familiar, but she wasn't all too sure on exactly who he was.

"S-Setsuna." Kenja looking away after seeing the red eyes of the sophomore, he hadn't expected to see him again anytime soon and still wondered if the sophomore was mad at him for their previous conversation.

"Ah, it's nice to see you once again, Flynn." Yukio turning to look at both of the boys, lifting an eyebrow when noticing Setsuna. "And I don't believe we've met."

"Don't worry, I've not really met anybody in this room." The raven haired teen replied, sighing slightly. "Now, can we just get to the point?"

"The floor is all yours."

Flynn drew in a breath, looking at all of the teenagers and praying they would at least try and understand where they were coming from. "We want to go with, to help take down Xenolith."

"What!?"

Almost every bookreader has shouted this, thanks to the shock of these two somewhat defenseless people wanting to come into a battle as serious as this.

"W-Why would you want to do that?" Kimiko stammered. "This isn't something so easy, Xenolith is a pretty impossi-"

"We know what he's like." Setsuna snapped, the hazel eyes of Kimiko stunned at his tone. "I probably know more than anybody else."

Flynn placed his hand in front of Setsuna to keep him away from the bookreaders, sighing slightly. "What he means to say is that we understand that this battle isn't going to be easy, but since I can offer medical attention and Setsu has experience with Xenolith, we could actually be pretty useful to all of you. We understand that this kind of a thing isn't easy, but we know that in the long run, we'll be anything but dead weight."

"Boys," Kincad taking a step closer to them both. "I know you want to help, but I don't know if I would be comfortable with this. Because if you were separated, you'd have no partner to protect yourself with."

"Mr. Kincad, if you don't mind my saying." Kenja standing up, a bit of a longing look in his eyes.

"No, go ahead."

The blond glanced at the ground for a moment, drawing in a breath. "A lot of the trivial information I have on the Puppet Master, like his appearance and personality patterns, came from Setsuna. He has quite a bit of knowledge on him, which most likely exceeds our own and well, that would come in handy in the long run to have somebody who knows this man."

Yukio lifted an eyebrow. "How exactly do you know Xenolith."

Flynn bit into his lip, the raven haired teenager looking at the ground. "That's not the important thing here."

"But anyways," Kimiko then standing, figuring she might as well lend a helping hand. "Flynn has become our go to doctor to help everybody when things get bad and well, he's been pretty good at it. So, it would probably be useful to have a doctor on the team in case things ended up really bad."

Both of the sophomores were a little surprised by this help from these two, but couldn't help but silently feel grateful towards this aid. Kincad looking to the other members of this team and seeing their looks of approval, causing the blond teacher to sigh fondly, nodding. "Well, if you two are as wonderful as Kimiko and Kenja seem to believe, then not having you around could end up being the worst decision I've ever made. Welcome to the team, boys."

Flynn gave Yukio a thrilled smile, bowing in respect. "Thank you so much, sir!" Setsuna nodding but deciding to skip out on the bow. "Yeah, thank you."

"Anyways, we were just going over plans on when we are going to leave for Xenolith's Castle, so it would probably be for the best that I go over it with the both of you. So, speaking that we have holiday break coming up, the best choice for us would be to…"

Kimiko leaned her chin into her palm, smiling gently at the sight of everybody getting along and sharing knowledge. Maybe, this really could work and they could all make a rather amazing team, the brunette able to believe this with a rather deep passion. With the support of all these people, maybe this could all work just the way she wanted it to.

"Don't get too cocky my dear."

All of a sudden, Kimiko could feel a hand begin to slide up the small of the back, the girl biting into her lip with fear. It was only a dream, nothing more than some kind of illusion. She was in the classroom, looking up at Kyo and shaking. Kyo was there and therefore she was there too, the brunette trying to calm herself down.

"Even if you try to push me aside and convince yourself that I am nothing but an illusion, you know that on the inside, that I am what you are the most afraid of. Blossom, you are so small when trying to convince yourself of your own safety. But do you know why that is? It's because you and I both know that you have no faith in this team and that you're afraid of being defeated. But, this only proves that you need to abandon those that will only get hurt, turn yourself in and allow me to do all I need and all I want."