Hey guys,

Wow, I wish I had more to talk about, but I really don't. Aside from the fact that I wrote this at a Cheer Competition, or rather most of it. It does introduce you to Setsuko's spells though which I majorly enjoyed. I hope you do too, because here we go!

Enjoy the forty first chapter of DBR (And yes, it is 41, I do not count the intro as a chapter because it is nothing more than an empty profile and example), look at how close we are to fifty. Maybe I should do something big for fifty...any ideas?

xKiha

Setsuko hadn't wanted to talk to Yusuke about this, but now that she knew there was another demon in the house, she couldn't ignore it. She already knew he was awake, probably planning something for everybody to do tomorrow. Typically, she would find herself being dragged along just because Yusuke seemed to think it would be good for her, something she would always severely disagree with thanks to disinterest or the fact that strangers would tag along.

She slowly slid his door open, Yusuke casually turning his head to see the small demon girl, a pencil in his right hand and a notepad under his left arm. He had been planning. "Setsuko?" Voice holding a bit of concern as he looked over his partner. "Are you okay?"

"No…" She entered the room without being asked in, something she'd only do when around Yusuke. "He's a demon too, Yusuke."

The junior in high school paused, looking back at her with a cocked eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

She clenched her small hands into fists, shaking her head nervously. "You don't understand! I was listening in on their conversation…and I know I shouldn't have been doing that, but something just felt off about them…about him." She was beginning to shake in her shoes, obviously completely destroyed over this. "They were talking about a sixth spell and well, I could see the outline of a spellbook! I just, I knew he was a demon!"

"Hey now, it's okay." Yusuke getting up from his desk and walking over to his demon partner, placing his hand on her trembling shoulder. "You're just getting worked up over nothing. I'm sure Kiki and Tsumi had no interest in fighting. I mean, they don't know you're a demon, now do they?"

She couldn't even look at him. "How can we be so sure? It's not like we can just ask them casually if he's a demon. And if they do know, how can we trust them?"

"She's my cousin, I doubt she'd want to hurt you." Yusuke assured, giving her a smile that the girl could only see out of the corner of her eye.

"You don't trust people in a game like this, Yusuke…we're not fighting for fun, this is for a crown." The demon child could feel tears forming in her eyes, something she was ashamed about if only because it made her feel all the weaker.

"Setsuko, don't cry." Yusuke sounding almost desperate, wiping her forming tears from the corners of her eyes.

"We have to fight them, Yusuke."

"Set-"

"We have to." The demon now bursting into full-fledged tears, her partner flinching as he glanced over to their crystal colored book, studying the almost completely transparent cover and seeing it give off a bit of a glow thanks to his attention to it. "Please, Yusuke, we have to. Promise me."

The teenager swallowed, looking from their spellbook to his demon child crying before him. He knew she was hurting, drawing in a breath as he tried to clear his head. This was his cousin he was talking about, a person he'd never had a major conflict with before. But this was his demon partner begging from his help, a child he had promised to help through thick and thin. This wasn't a choice he was ready to or wanted to make.

"I promise."

.

.

.

"A hike?"

Kimiko looked to her cousin in a bit of surprise, the two of them had been washing the dirty breakfast dishes together when Yusuke brought up his plan of action for the day somewhat out of the blue.

"Yeah, I'd like to take you and Tsumi up the mountain, Setsuko and I that is." The brunette giving her a reassuring smile in an attempt to secure her trust. "There's a lot of beautiful stuff up there and I think you guys would really like to see it. And you still like hiking, don't you?"

Kimiko nodded, her mind more on the benefits that the mountain air might have for her and Tsumi. If anything could help them clear their minds it had to be something like this. "Of course. And it does sound like a lot of fun, I'm sure Tsumi will agree." She placed a dish up on the drying rack. "But, are you sure Setsuko will want to go? She couldn't even look at us yesterday…"

"She'll be fine, she just had some jitters when she first met you guys. She'll get over it quick." Yusuke shrugged, handing her a dish to be rinsed off.

"If you say so." Kimiko shrugged, not thinking too much into this as her cousin drew in a breath, feeling a growing pit in his stomach as he thought about the spellbook they had already packed. Maybe Setsuko was ready, but he really wasn't.

"Hey, Kimiko?" The girl looking to her older cousin in a bit of surprise, not all that used to being called her normal name by him. "Do you, by chance, believe in demons?"

She avoided his eyes, laughing nervously. "Yeah, I actually do."

"But not like the stereotypical demon that works for Satan kind of thing…I mean like, a race of demon that can be considered good." He found himself muttering nervously, unable to look at her as well.

"I mean, why couldn't they exist? Nobody's ever really met a demon…so you can't be sure if they are evil…if they were real I mean…" Kimiko stuttering her way through this statement, laughing nervously as she tried not to make a mistake. "B-But, why do you ask?"

"Just curious, I guess." He muttered, not all that sure what to tell her other than that. His worst fear was finding out too late that Tsumi was not one of the demon children fighting for the crown, mainly because he not only would be revealing Setsuko's identity, but he had no idea how he would explain the wounds his cousin and the child would receive to anybody, let alone them.

He just wasn't ready to do what he had to.

.

.

.

"W-Wow, this is so cool!"

Ever since they had begun their hike, both demon children had been doing one thing. For Setsuko, it was practically clinging to Yusuke, either gripping his wrist or his pant leg, while Tsumi continued to just find himself fascinated by everything. Be it a deer and her fawn in the distance, or a beautiful mountain stream rushing down the side, he just seemed to be appreciating everything.

But now, they had reached what seemed to be a completely smooth platform on the mountain, a beautiful pond in the center, the sun reflecting in a way that made it seem completely clear and pure. Yusuke unable to keep from smiling when he looked it over, looking down at the demon child gripping his wrist with a gentle sigh, clearly not mad or annoyed with her actions, probably thanks to being used to this. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's really pretty." Tsumi nodded excitedly. "We don't have anything like this in Otaru. It's all just buildings and roads."

"You make it sound like we live in a city." Kimiko muttered, although she couldn't deny that she was enjoying both the hike and the sights they were seeing, looking over the pond. "Hey, Yusuke, is it safe to drink?" Pointing to the pond before them. It looked drinkable, but better safe than sorry.

"Well, I drink it whenever I come up here and I've yet to get sick from it." He shrugged, not thinking too much of it. "You should be fine."

Kimiko nodded as she and Tsumi headed over to give it a try, it looked pretty good after all and it was becoming increasingly clear that the decision to not bring water for what Yusuke had called a short hike, hadn't been the best of choices.

Setsuko tugged at Yusuke's pants, looking up with needing eyes as the junior hesitated, gripping one of the shoulder straps of his backpack nervously. "Set…I just don't know."

"You promised." She whimpered in return. "You promised you would do this for me." Yusuke glancing once more at his cousin before nodding and taking her hand.

"Alright, I'll do it." The demon child unsure why he had her palm in his, biting into her lip timidly. "Why are you holding my hand?"

"Because…I don't need them looking at me if this is what we're going to do… I want to get this over as swiftly as possible." The demon nodding timidly before glancing to the distracted Kimiko and Tsumi for a moment before the two disappeared into the trees, Yusuke pulling out their clear spellbook as they did so.

"Hey, Yusuke, I was wondering something about this p-" Kimiko turned to speak to her cousin only to find him gone, frowning at once. "Yusuke, this isn't funny." Eyes darting around in an attempt to locate him, remembering during their early years how much he liked to hide and make her look for him before jumping out and giving Kimiko the fright of her life.

"Where did they go?" Tsumi asked as he turned around, hearing the uncertain and annoyed tone in his bookreader's voice and finding himself uncertain on how to feel as well.

"They're hiding probably." Kimiko groaned, folding her arms. "Yusuke, this isn't funny. You're probably going to end up scaring Setsuko by dragging her into this!" Hoping that by mentioning the timid child that he would give in and just come out.

"Think they left?" Tsumi asking this slowly, not sure why that would happen, but since he didn't know either of them very well, he didn't know what was considered normal in their books.

"No, he wouldn't do that." Kimiko said, taking a step closer to the path they had just come from. "Yusuke, we're not playing a game!"

"Donoriko!"

If this had been anything but a spell, Kimiko probably would have paid more attention to the voice that was calling it out. But at the sound of a spell being shouted, she immediately ripped her spellbook out of her own backpack, holding it out before realizing they were still missing to people. "Yusuke! Setsuko!"

No, this couldn't be happening right now, Kimiko looking in all directions to find where the spell would be coming from, Tsumi bracing himself for anything as he chose to look in the one direction his bookreader didn't seem to think of.

Up.

And what he found, to his own horror, was the spell. Something raining from the sky in a rapid way, but having no true color to indicate just what was coming down. In fact, whatever was raining down was completely transparent.

"K-Kimiko…" The demon child looking up in horror, pointing a shaking hand and knowing that their only shield spell couldn't protect them from something falling from the sky.

"Y-You've got to be kidding me…" She whispered, flipping through the pages, desperate for some form of answer but finding nothing of use to them, pulling the spellbook close.

Before either could come up with a proper plan of action, they found spears raining down. But these were not solid spears, they were made of glass, all having a spiked tip powerful enough to stab into a body, but bursting into jagged shards once striking the ground.

They managed to more or less dodge them, Tsumi leaping out of the way of one spear only to find his body landing on thousands of little sharp glass shards, crying out in pain as they cut and stuck into his skin and flesh.

"Tsumi!" Kimiko called out, avoiding another spear and trying her hardest to keep her balance so she wouldn't face the same fate. She didn't know what to do, usually when they were fighting they could at least see the attacking demon. And Yusuke and Setsuko were still missing!

What was she supposed to do!?

Glass spears suddenly stopped coming down, leaving Tsumi to cautiously stand up, able to feel glass piercing through his shoes and stabbing into his feet, surrounded by the jagged shards with nowhere completely safe. "It's Setsuko…" He whispered, yanking out shards of now bloody glass and trying to keep himself from screaming in pain, the shards he was taking out cutting his hands as they were forced out of the flesh in his arm.

"What are you talking about?" Kimiko asked, continuing to look around for Yusuke, for their enemy, for anything.

"Setsuko is the demon attacking us, Kimiko."

The brunette's eyes locked onto him, the girl shaking her head in denial. "No, there's just no way that sweet little Setsuko could be a demon. She couldn't hurt a fly…and by that logic, Yusuke would have to be her bookreader and that's…that's just impossible!"

"And why…" He grunted in agony as he ripped a rather large shard from his right shoulder, blood spilling onto the ground in a sudden splatter. "Why do you say that?"

"Yusuke would never hurt me! We're family." Kimiko retorted, but even she wasn't sure anymore as she continued to look around.

"Who else could it be? Do you really think some random demon would follow us up here just to attack us?"

"M-Maybe!"

"Setsuko!" Tsumi called out, having a rather serious look in his eyes suddenly. "Come out, I already know it's you. And if you're going to fight me, you might as well do it in a serious way. Hiding like that isn't the way to fight for a crown."

Kimiko wanted to interject, but to her own horror, Setsuko stepped out of the clearing, the demon child shaking in her shoes as she looked at Tsumi. "N-No…" The poison bookreader shaking her head in pure horror. "No, you just can't be." Her eyes widening when she watched Yusuke follow behind her, having a spellbook in his own hands.

"I'm really sorry about this." Yusuke whispered, his voice broken while he found himself unable to even look into her eyes. "I-I hope you can forgive me someday."

"Yusuke…" Kimiko whispered, looking to her cousin in pure astonishment. She just couldn't do this. "Why do we have to fight!? We don't have to do this, Yusuke!" Kimiko wanted to cry just as the idea of facing her cousin.

"Yes we do." Setsuko whispered, the child seeming more horrified than anybody else in this situation. Her tiny hands were shaking, looking to her bookreader as her voice became more of a squeak. "Yusuke, another spell, p-please."

Yusuke nodded, fingertips gently stroking a page with nervousness. "Alright, I got you." Eyes looking through the spells as if trying to come up with something to do, which wasn't something that came all that easy thanks to the situation. "D-Dono!"

Kimiko grabbed onto her book, flipping through the book to find what she hoped would be able to take them on. Although it hurt, she would have to do this, just as they did with Kesai and Kenja back in Xenolith's castle. "Rer-"

"Kimiko, no." Tsumi suddenly said, holding out one of his bleeding grey hands.

"Tsumi…" Kimiko found herself saying in return, looking to the both focusing and shaking Setsuko who seemed to be preparing her spell.

"They don't want to fight…and they don't understand that they don't have to…" Tsumi whispered, standing his ground. "If they just see that we don't want to hurt them, maybe they'll stop this."

"Tsumi." Kimiko said once more, not sure how to feel anymore as she watched Setsuko become surrounded by what seemed to be tiny little glowing shards of what she would assume to be glass.

"You're not going to read a spell." Tsumi said forcefully before his purple eyes met the big brown one's of the shaking glass demon. "Setsuko, we don't have to fight."

"Don't lie!" The little girl cried out, sending the glowing shards at him, which turned out to be jagged and sharp shards of glass. Tsumi standing his ground, refusing to move an inch as the glass slashed through skin and stabbed into his body and flesh, the child holding back any cry and grunting instead.

"Setsuko, you don't have to fight." Tsumi repeated, his eyes almost pleading as he found himself coughing up blood, refusing to let himself give in to fighting her as he wiped his mouth. "I don't want to hurt you and I know you don't want to hurt me either, please, let's not fight."

Setsuko felt her tears streaming down her face, shaking her head. "You don't understand, nobody can truly make friends in a fight like this! We're fighting for a title of power! Not something just for fun! There are things like betrayal! Things like the demon in the mountains, that will kill their friends the moment they get a chance!" She was practically sobbing at this point, her hands shaking like mad. "I won't let you do that to me! I-I don't want to die!"

"I would never kill you, Setsuko." Tsumi said, drawing in a deep breath as he continued to stand on his somewhat shaking feet. His body was beginning to hurt so much, but he had to stay upright, he had to prove to her that this was all going to be okay.

"Yusuke…please…" Setsuko bawled. "The sixth spell."

"Damarikai." Yusuke said, unable to shout it with any strength thanks to being emotionally destroyed over all of this.

Suddenly six huge shards of glass appeared, sharp and jagged edges facing the bottom as the six shards circled around Tsumi. The child looking her right in the eyes as he tried to keep himself from showing any fear in this situation. "Setsuko, I want to be your friend. Please, I've made a lot of friends during my time in this battle. Trust me."

"SHUT UP!" She screamed through tears, the shards spinning faster and faster before backing up a bit, flipping up so the jagged edges faced Tsumi's abdomen, the shards stabbing right into his body.

Blood spilled everywhere, Setsuko falling to her knees and sobbing as blood spilt from Tsumi's body and from his mouth. It hurt so much, but he couldn't give in, falling to his knees as the sound of broken glass rang out, the shards stabbing into his knees.

"T-Tsumi." Kimiko whispered, the shards sticking out of his body seeming to be stained red as he panted, sitting there.

"Why won't you just fight back?" Setsuko sobbed, unable to calm herself down. "Demons destroy and kill each other all the time! Why should I trust you!?"

"Because, if I wanted to hurt you, if I was anything like the demons you've talked about, I would have done it already." Tsumi grunted through pain, coughing up more blood. "Please, Setsuko, I really want to be your friend, I want to show you that not all demons have to be your enemies."

"Please, just trust us." Kimiko whispered, watching Yusuke close his book. "You're family and family shouldn't have to fight one another." She walked through the crunching and jagged glass, feeling it stab into her shoes but not paying this any mind as she held her hand out to the sobbing Setsuko. "I want to be your friend, Setsuko, please just give us a chance."

The sobbing demon looked up at her with a sniffle. "But I've hurt you guys…look what I just did to you two…what I did to your demon partner…"

"Sometimes, we have to go through hard or impossible things for what we believe if the greater good." She said gently, watching Setsuko move her small hand as if debating taking Kimiko's hand. "I had to fight and almost destroy one of my friends when he was suffering once…I never had to go that far…but I knew that if I had to, because I had to do whatever I could to help my friend. Just because you had to fight us once doesn't mean that we would become enemies right of the bat."

Setsuko sniffled, taking Kimiko's hand slowly, prompting the elder girl to smile gently. "W-Why are you trying to make friends with me?"

"I told you, you're family now. If you're Yusuke's partner, I want to get to know you and be friends with you." Kimiko smiled, Setsuko sniffling as she looked from Kimiko to Tsumi, noticing the weak and struggling state that Tsumi was in and wiping her face of tears.

"I am so sorry you two…" She sniffled, releasing Kimiko's hand and beginning to stumble over to where the bloody Tsumi was struggling to keep himself conscious. "But…I-I…Yusuke, the fifth spell."

"Y-Yeah…" The teenager nodded, opening his book and this time seeming to be okay with using spell. "Damaria."

Setsuko sniffled as she bent down, ignoring the glass that sliced into her knees and crunched. "I'm going to make this all better." Tsumi not getting a word in before Setsuko kissed his forehead, the poison demon's cheeks lighting up with surprise.

"W-What is she doing?" Kimiko whispered before she watched all of the glass suddenly remove themselves from his body before his wounds began to heal. "A-A healing spell?"

"Yeah, first time we've ever had to use it though…for another demon that is." Yusuke muttered before lowering his head. "Kiki, I'm so sorry, about everything."

"It's okay, we wanted to help…" Kimiko assured.

"You really helped." Yusuke said, watching the healing end as Setsuko pulled Tsumi into her arms for a sobbing hug. "I don't know if she'll say much, but I think for the first time, she'll really trust another demon."