Hey guys,

Well, I said I would try to give you a new chapter as soon as I could and well, here it is. This will start of the first of likely three, possibly four, chapters focused on some of my favorite side characters. And it begins with finally learning about Setsuna! It's time for answers but beware, this is also the first slip of Yaoi between Setsuja which will be a cannon couple in this story.

Alright, I better go, recovery is being a little harder on me than I thought and preventing my throat from swelling up is proving to be a struggle. Maybe I will see you tomorrow with a new chapter, which might really result in this arc being done sooner than later.

Have a good day readers,

xKiha

In the final trap hallway of Xenolith's castle, a group of five males struck a grey cushion to keep their bones from shattering. Only Icarus had taken the time to process this, unfurling his wings moments before impact to catch himself from striking the cushion. His big blue eyes were wide, flying over to his bookreader. "Yukio!?" Voice dripping with concern. "Are you alright?"

"Aside from the fact that no man in his late thirties should be making a fall like that, yes." The teacher muttered as he rubbed his aching head in an attempt to relieve the pain rushing through his skull. "And you?"

"I'm fine." The holy demon said gently. "I caught myself before I could hit the ground."

Yukio only nodded, tending to his head for a moment more before his eyes went wide. The kids! "Kenja! Kimiko! Kyo! Michael! Aislinn! Flynn! Setsuna!" Icarus slightly surprised the man called every name; the look in the teacher's eyes one of pure panic. He couldn't lose these kids in a place like this! What if they got hurt?

Or what if something worse happened?

Yukio Kincad pushed aside the throbbing in his head, forcing himself to his feet to look around for anybody else with him.

"M-Mr. Kincad."

The teacher gasped, turning to see Kenja Sedai struggling to even sit up, Kesai seeming a bit stunned but more concerned with the safety of his partner than himself, bright red ears flat against his head.

"Kenja!" The man's voice a serious blend of worry and relief, rushing to the side of his student and beginning to look him over with darting eyes. "Are you feeling alright? You aren't hurt, correct?"

"I am fine." The sickly blond replied as he finally managed to sit upright, drawing in deep breaths. "Just in a bit of shock is all."

"Just breathe," Yukio patting his back. "Just keep breathing and you should be good to go in no time." Seeing Kenja nod as the teacher smiled gently, a bit more calm now that he knew that he'd at least be able to protect the physically weakest member of the group.

"B-But…where's Setsuna?" Kenja asked in between pants.

"Setsuna?" The holy bookreader repeated, not taking time to think as he began looking around with concern now over taking him once more. "What do you mean, where's Setsuna?"

"He was right behind me…" Kenja replied. "He must be here."

God damn it, he better be. Yukio nodding as he looked around, heard pounding. "Setsuna! Setsuna!"

For a moment there was silence, Kesai's ears suddenly perking as he turned his head. "Setsuna…"

Both of the bookreaders glanced to where Kesai was looking, finding Setsuna Yuuki sitting against the wall with a completely black book in his arms. He was clutching it very tightly, red-violet eyes darting in every which way they could, the sophomore shaking in sheer terror.

"Setsuna!" Yukio rushing to go check on the student he had sworn to protect, Kenja following close behind as they quickly reached him.

"X-Xenolith…" The sophomore practically cried when he whispered this name. "He's going to kill again…" Tears welling up in his petrified eyes as he tried to force words out. "He's going to do what he did to Nora again…"

"Nora?" Kenja inching closer to Setsuna so the sophomore could look into his trusting eyes. "Who is Nora, Setsu?" Voice gentle and surprisingly, very loving.

"Nora was my partner." The sophomore whispered, continuing to clutch the book tightly to his chest and shake. "B-But Xenolith took him away. Xenolith killed my best friend."

The fire bookreader looked back at Yukio Kincad, who seemed to be just as shocked as he was. Kenja swallowing a nervous breath of air as he reaching for one of Setsuna's shaking hands and holding it tightly in his own. "Is that book Nora's?"

"Y-Yes!" Setsuna stammered, his own palm gripping Kenja's in a desperation for comfort of any sort. "It's Nora's."

Kesai and Icarus exchanged glances, neither really sure how if the book would remain in Human World if the demon was no longer there. Why would the book stay?

But then again, there wasn't a 'What should happen if a serious enemy kills you during the Demon Battle' class you could take before heading to the other world. This was honestly just as surprising to them as it was to Kenja and Yukio.

The sickly blond stroked Setsuna's left hand lovingly, looking up at the trembling sophomore with voice hushed and caring. "Setsuna, can you please tell me what happened to Nora? Can you please tell me about your demon?"

Setsuna Yuuki had never been so venerable, nodding with a nervous sniffle while glancing from Yukio to Kenja. Mr. Kincad rather shocked at how Kenja was able to open up the usually closed of sophomore so well, placing his hand on the sickly blond's shoulder while the freshmen focused all of his attention on Setsuna.

"It's going to be okay, Setsu." Kenja whispered. "It'll feel better if you talk about him."

"O-Okay." Setsuna sniffled as he looked back to Kenja, drawing in a deep breath.

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'For the longest time, my life wasn't really anything to brag on or think anything of. It was just a normal old life. Sure, I never really met my biological father, which means me and my little sister are technically only half-siblings, but that wasn't something too big. And maybe we learned my IQ was surprisingly high when I was little and it let me skip a grade when I was in Elementary School, but that wasn't really anything too big either. It was just normal little occurrences that I knew could happen to everybody, which just made my life just another everyday mundane thing.

'But, that all changed for me, I stopped being normal when he showed up in my life. When he decided to change everything and his book decided to pick me, just some everyday guy, as his one true partner.'

Sixteen year old Setsuna Yuuki was walking home from his part time job at a local pet store in the heavy rain when he noticed the whimpering of an animal coming from behind him. "Huh?"

Setsuna turned, eyes widening when he was confronted with a soaking wet Akita Inu dog standing behind him. The dog offered him a friendly wag of the tail, his unnatural light purple eyes glowing in a rather friendly way. The dog's fur was a red-violet color but it seemed to be covered in what Setsuna thought resembled some sort of African tribal markings. But, the weirdest thing of all was that the dog had a book in his mouth, the cover matching the fluffy and soaked dog's fur.

"You shouldn't be out like this." Setsuna felt a soft smile creep up onto his face. "Let's get you out of this rain."

The sophomore offered the dog his arms and to his own surprise, the canine accepted and lept into the open arms of the teenager, causing Setsuna to laugh. "Hey there, somebody's really friendly." Patting the dog's wet fur gently with a smile.

'I brought him home and snuck him up into my room without Mom or Tsubasa finding out about him. I gave him some water and dried him off. But after I figured we were situated, he changed my life forever with that book of his.'

"Hello there~!"

Setsuna jerked as an unfamiliar but excited voice filled the room, looking around to see if somebody was playing a joke on him only to finding that just as he figured, it was just him and the dog in his bedroom. He looked to the fluffy dog, sighing gently with a smile. "I must be crazy, it's not like you can talk or anything."

"And who's to say I can't?"

Setsuna practically screamed when he heard and saw the dog speak, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head. "This has to be a dream! Dogs don't just talk! It's not possible!"

"Maybe not in the Human World." The dog replied. "But in Demon World, dogs are just as educated and smart as the human-like demons."

"Demons?" Setsuna said as he looked at the canine in utter terror. He didn't understand it, he'd always been a good student who did as he was told and now this! A dog was talking to him and for some reason, this felt completely real. The teenager watching the dog leap onto his bed with the book he had before in his mouth.

"I want you to try and read this." The dog plopping the book onto the teenager's bed, Setsuna looking over the markings with a frown. "I've never seen this language before. What exactly is it?"

"Demon." The dog replied.

"And what makes you think I can read demon!?" Setsuna asked, feeling somewhat offended at the mere implication that he could read something others would consider to be satanic.

"Just trust me." The canine replied. "But, don't read it out loud if you can, alright?"

Setsuna rolled his eyes, not sure what to feel any more about the situation as he simply nodded and opened the book. For only a second he saw nothing, moving his fingertips against the first page as a passage suddenly began to glow at the introduction of his aura. "I-I…I can read it." He replied. "But only this first spell." The teenager more or less baffled by all of this.

"Fantastic!" The dog then cried with joy, his tail beginning to wag a mile a minute with thrill. "That makes you my one true partner! My name is Nora and I look forward to having you as my bookreader in the battle for Demon King!"

'I remember forcing him to tell me what exactly he was on about because I was in too much shock to figure it out for myself. It was just something that didn't happen to normal people; a talking demon dog shows up in your life looking for their one true partner that just so happens to be you. I didn't know how to feel; excited, frightened or insane. All I did know is that if we were partners, than he was my responsibility and it was my job to take care of him.

'I taught him everything he would need to know to make sure we could remain a team. Nora learned to act like a pet when around my mother and sister and we learned that whenever we were hurt, we could rely on Flynn to help us out and make sure we were always okay in the end. He really was my best friend, because we could do everything together. We had something that bonded us like nothing no normal person had and I was the only one that could do this for Nora.

'But, even though we were a strong team, even though we had taken on everything that had tried to take us down and walked away the winners; we weren't ready for a demon named Xenolith. Nobody could have been, but unlike every other demon we had ever come across, this one had no morals and no restraints.'

"Akubiomu!"

Setsuna could hardly read his own spells, trying to hide back his emotions of pure terror as Nora released a powerful beam of dark energy from his mouth. The demon dog was exhausted, trying to keep himself upright while the attack was sent flying at their enemy who seemed to only grow more satisfied with every attempt to strike him.

"Haroki!" A seemingly soulless and yet laughing bookreader calling out a spell of his own, causing Xenolith to smirk with joy.

"Nora look out!" Setsuna cried, but had already seen this spell before. It came in every which way and nobody could see it, clasping their book tight to his chest to protect, figuring the spell would head for the book as some kind of low blow to get in a quick victory.

"Oh dear, now what are you doing?" Xenolith taunted, watching Setsuna practically hunker over the book as his palm opened, eyes widening in a cryptic way the sophomore would never forget.

From behind him, Nora shrieked, blood suddenly spilling everywhere as flesh was torn by energy nobody could even see, Xenolith's deep laughter filling the ears of Setsuna who could only look on in horror. He didn't even know if he could read another spell, watching a bloody and exhausted Nora hit the ground.

"N-No…Nora." Setsuna then whispered, looking at his partner who seemed to be putting everything into trying to keep on fighting, at least for the sake of his bookreader.

"Oh, come now, this isn't your best, is it?" Xenolith snickered, reaching out a single palm towards Setsuna who pulled his book closer to his chest and stumbled back.

"Don't you dare touch him!"

'Nora.' Setsuna gasping as he watched his Akita Inu demon force himself back onto all fours, covered in blood but snarling with teeth bared and ready to tear flesh if need be.

"How cute." Xenolith sneered. "The little puppy is trying to protect his Master. As they say, dog is man's best friend. But, is a best friend somebody worth dying for?"

If Nora wasn't so infuriated by everything, if he wasn't so consumed by a hate for their enemy in that moment, he would have said yes. He would have told Puppet Master that Setsuna was a friend worth dying for. But he never got his chance to say that, snarling as he rushed forward, consumed with anger.

"Yuu, the spell." Xenolith purred, not thinking much of this. "Be a dear and select the one that'll make him regret his emotions towards me."

"Shifuku!" The bookreader replied with a smirk, Setsuna never having heard of this spell as he looked on in horror.

In mid pounce, Nora was trapped in an orb of white light. The dog in pure shock as the orb brought him higher into the air, red sparks of hate flying from the dog's coat and accumulating in the orb. That is right, Nora's own hate for Xenolith was being sapped from his and converted into energy, Nora unable to escape as suddenly a powerful red electricity was sent through the bloody dog's body.

"NORA!" Setsuna shrieked in pure terror as he watched his partner go through this torture before the orb shattered, the Akita Inu demon's limp body making the decent to the ground and smashing into it hard. The sophomore in too much shock to do anything as he just looked on in horror, able to hear Xenolith's laughing in the background.

"That should be the end of that. He had enough hate built up inside of him to kill the four of us in one go." The demon said with a smirk. "Now, come along Yuu, we best continue our hunt for my Purple Gem. Time may be running short for us both." The Puppet Master's partner nodding as he rushed to catch up with his demon.

Only a few seconds after they left did Setsuna snap into reality, rushing to his partner's aid with tears rushing down his face and his book clasped tightly in his left hand. "Nora!" He cried out as he reached the demon dog. "Nora, please be okay."

The demon was destroyed, his body burned and bloody with chest struggling to rise and fall. Setsuna sobbing as he nervously reached out to touch his partner's cheek, shaking with fear when he saw Nora flinch and whine at the feeling of his partner touching him. "Please, no, I can't lose you." The sophomore cried. "I just can't."

For a moment everything was quiet, Setsuna's chest racked with sobs as his partner suddenly moved his head, eyes almost completely lifeless as he struggled to speak his final words to the partner he cared for so dearly. "Be strong; Set…" The demon whispered, tears welling up in the eyes of the Akita Inu demon. "I'm so happy… I could meet you… I am glad you are my partner. I am grateful to you for staying with me. I'm sorry I can't stay anymore. Don't forget… I love you… Good… bye… my… friend…"

Setsuna sobbed, holding Nora tight as the life faded from the eyes of the partner he cared for so much, unable to accept that his partner had just died as he held on tighter. "Nora please, don't leave me! I need you!" The sophomore cried, suddenly gasping when the demon's body began to fade into nothing but sparkles, just as the bodies of the burned book demons had. "Please, no!" He continued to sob, watching the body of his best friend fade.

It was only then that Setsuna noticed their book, watching the red-violet cover of the book begin to become completely black. In fact, everything was turning black in the book, from the covers to the pages to every spell that had once been in there.

'That was the day that changed me. Because no matter who comforted me, who promised the world would get better or that Nora would always be with me in his own way, it didn't bring him back. I didn't get to say everything I needed to say. I never could properly tell him how much I loved him…no instead I begged him to stay with me. I said selfish things to him and I can't ever beg for the forgiveness I don't deserve…

'I shut myself in after that, never wanting to make another friend like Nora so that way I could never lose a friend like Nora again. People tried to reach out, but soon enough everybody gave up and even I thought this would make me happy. But in the end, I don't think I have ever been or will ever be happy again after losing Nora. But this is why we need to kill Xenolith when we have the chance, because nobody else needs to go through what I have. Nobody deserves to lose their Nora…'

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By the time Setsuna finished speaking, he found himself sobbing in the arms of Kenja Sedai, the younger teenager holding him tightly, stroking the long locks of black that Setsuna had. For a moment, the sophomore closed his eyes, feeling true comfort as Kenja cradled him.

"I promise, you won't have to go through pain like that ever again." Kenja said sweetly as the other continued to cry in his arms. "Nobody here is going to get hurt like that and I am going to make sure you never have to struggle with that kind of pain anymore."

Setsuna, for the first time ever, truly believed somebody when they said things would be alright, sniffling as he felt Kenja's face get closer to his. The soft lips of the sickly Kenja Sedai finding their way onto the cheek of a sniffling Setsuna. "Kenja…" The once bookreader sniffled as he felt the book slip out of his hands.

"Hush, it's alright." Kenja said gently with a nurturing smile, moving his face from the cheek of the one he truly did care about.

Setsuna nodded as he closed his eyes, feeling Kenja wipe tears away. But in the back of his mind, all Setsuna could do was cry, because he could feel himself finding another Nora.