Hey guys,

Well, I feel like I should write some really long stuff about my life or me, but well, I just don't even know if I have anything to say. Well, it's just kind of a normal day and I've written this two days after the last chapter so all I had to say was in that chapter...

Well, I guess all I can say is if you have anything to say, an idea to submit or a character to change or submit, know you can always pm or review me and I will get in touch with you right away.

And other than that, I hope you just enjoy this chapter~

xKiha

Setsuko drew in a breath, trying to clear her head. She obviously hadn't earned six spells sitting on her butt, but this wasn't just some one off demon battle to her. No, this was more than that; it was Ari she was facing, which gave it a sense of importance. And even with the now bloody Tsumi at her side, she couldn't help but grow hesitant with every thought.

Ari dusted off his white jacket of any remnants of glass shard, looking to what was now sticking out of an innocent tree that happened to be behind him. "My dear, you seem so frightened."

"I-I." She wanted so badly to say that she wasn't scared, but she knew he'd see right through any lie she came up with. "I-I'm going to fight you, A-Ari."

"I'd very much like that." He nodded, continuing to smirk while a clawed hand adjusted the stained black flap of hair.

"Y-Yusuke." The little girl's voice soft and almost tripping over the name of her own bookreader who only could bring himself to nod.

"Donmakai!"

Setsuko hadn't known what exactly he was going to pick, which left what her next move was going to be up to the reader of her book. She drew in a deep breath, focusing her energy and holding out her palms, tightening them into fists for a moment before opening her fawn brown eyes, now holding a bit of seriousness in them.

Before Ari could speak, he found a jagged piece of glass stabbing itself into his shoulder, staining his jacket with the warm red liquid from his body. He jerked in surprise, hearing the sound of something hard striking the ground as he turned his attention to the sound; it was glass.

The demon continued to hear the sound of glass colliding with the earth of the mountain, seeing it coming from all directions before he managed to put two and two together. "T-The sky?" He muttered as he finally looked up.

"That's right." Setsuko giggled with uncertainty, continuing to hold herself in an almost defensive stance. "Try stopping that."

"Cute." He snickered before focusing on Setsuko, glancing in his bookreader's general direction for only a moment, but it seemed to be enough for the mountain top hag to get a clear idea of what she was to do.

And with that Ari sprung into action, Setsuko taking a nervous step back the moment she noticed the clawed demon rushing for her.

"Dono!"

"Dākukurō!"

The glass shards appeared around Setsuko once more, the little girl trying to keep her pulse under control so she could at least strike him with her attack. 'Come on, Setsuko, you can do this!'

Ari got closer, a smile on his face as Setsuko tried to focus her attention on Ari. But when she felt it was time to strike him a wicked smile appeared on the clawed demon's face as he lifted one of his palms, the claw on it seeming to be glowing with dark energy.

"Setsuko!" Yusuke called out in shock.

The glass missed, but Ari didn't, his sharp claw slashing from the base of her left shoulder to her right hip, leaving the child in pure agony as she screamed out.

"Rokuryo!"

Tsumi didn't need a moment to think as the shuriken appeared in his hands. He could hear the acid loudly hissing, eyes tightening with focus as he threw it, aiming for Ari's shoulder. The one without the glass that is. It struck, forcing Ari to fall back with a groan of pain, striking the ground with a heavy thud and the sharp clang of glass piercing into his skin as Setsuko landed on her backside.

She was heavily bleeding, eyes wide in shock as if she herself was unable to process just what happened to her a second ago, Yusuke running to her side with book tightly clenched in hand.

"S-Set!? Are you okay?" He asked, knowing that cleaning up any blood wouldn't be all that possible with the amount they were dealing with here. It was everywhere!

"Y-Yeah, I'm okay." She managed to say through pants, shifting her weight before getting her hurting body to stand up. "I-It's just a cut."

"A cut that went right through your chest…" Yusuke said nervously, somewhat surprised that all of a sudden his demon was being bolder than ever before. She didn't seem scared or upset, in fact the way he could describe it was coping.

Yes, Setsuko was coping with this situation.

"I should have expected that much."

Setsuko and Tsumi directed their attention to Ari who was beginning to stand up. He seemed to eye the shuriken dripping acid that now stuck out of his shoulder coldly, using his claws to grip the thing and roughly ripping it from his flesh with a grunt of pain. "That poison won't be going away, now will it?"

"As far as I know, no." Tsumi said simply, seeing no need to glorify what the acidic spell was capable of. "From what I've seen though, that poison's really going to hurt in a little bit."

"That's to be expected." Ari said simply, ripping any access glass from his body and clothing as he spoke, barely grunting as he did so. "But, I've heard the rumor that if you destroy the demon who brought on the status affect, it will go away." A smile spreading across his face as Tsumi tightened his fists.

Now he had one more reason to hate this guy.

"I guess we'll have to test that out then." Tsumi muttered, looking to Setsuko. "Are you going to be okay to fight?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She said in return, although she seemed a bit pale thanks to the serious blood loss Ari had gifted her with. "This is more my fight than yours, so I can't let you handle this all on your own."

"If you say so." Tsumi nodded, not wanting to argue with this although he would resort to if Setsuko suddenly decided to face Ari on his own.

Ari only smirked, his white jacket more of a red and white tie-die now but this didn't seem to trouble him all that much. "You two are adorable, you know that?" Tsumi blushing slightly as Setsuko tried not to let his words get to her. "Too bad I have to break that up!" Lunging at the poison and glass demons once more.

"Karaotaka!"

"Dono!"

Tsumi fumbled for the needle for a moment before locating it, stabbing it into waiting muscles and taking a moment to let the adrenaline rush through his body while little Setsuko prepared her glass shards.

"Kami Tsume!"

Setsuko tried to block it out, sending her shards at Ari as he closed in, hoping this spell would distract him enough to keep him from dodging and gifting her with a perfect hit.

Tsumi had himself prepared, rushing in an opposite direction at the Kesai like speed the fifth spell gifted him with, something that caught the attention of the clawed demon who turned to face him as the spell his own bookreader had called out took effect.

His claws grew at an amazing speed, shooting out and aiming to pierce through Tsumi's pale grey skin once more, Kimiko flinching in anticipation of just what might come next.

Tsumi dodged and Setsuko fired her Dono spell, Ari calling out in pain as thousands of tiny shards shot into his back. Tsumi noticing this and taking just enough time to send a powerful kick into the jaw of the demon in the mountains, Ari in just enough shock to take a direct hit and hit the ground, glass everywhere as the shards in his back were send further into his back and more shards sliced into his skin.

"H-Holy shit…" Yusuke breathing in a breath of surprise as he watched Ari go through something he personally couldn't.

"I-I wish I could say I haven't been through something like that…" Kimiko muttered, although she knew it would only be a waste of breath.

"D-Did we really just d-do that?" Setsuko breathing in nervously, continuing to hold out her hands in a defensive position as if expecting Ari to just get right back up and walk off the trauma his body was now in.

"Yeah, guess we did." Tsumi drawing in a breath of his own. Had it really been that easy? Directing his attention to Ari's bookreader who didn't seem all that phased by everything, a smirk spreading across her face when Tsumi's eyes met her's.

"Ari, let's not play this game." She said simply, hearing her partner groan and smirking. "That's what you get for being cocky all the time, it'll always end with you on your ass with something up it."

"Yeah yeah, Mizuno." Ari grunted as he forced himself onto his feet, blood dripping from his blood stained back and jacket and staining the ground in heavy puddles. "Just read the fucking spell and leave me to handle what I need to."

"Okay, okay." She waved him off, but everybody could hear her muttering a few curses under her breath when she opened her book. "Suipaku!"

Ari rushed as them again, having a different plan in mind as Setsuko got herself ready for another attack, Tsumi doing the same as he rushed at the demon. The two seeming like they were going to collide for a moment before the young poison demon veered left only for Ari's face to brighten up, having gotten just what he wanted.

The clawed demon turned his body, firing the claw from his left thumb at Tsumi. Said claw seeming to grow at an amazing pace into what seemed to be the size of a missile and going way too fast for even Karaotaka'd Tsumi to dodge.

It dug hard into the chest of the poison demon and sent him hurling backwards in a large tree. And all the while, Ari continued to dart towards little Setsuko who without a spell read by Yusuke was completely defenseless.

"SETSUKO!"

Ari had sent another claw-like missile at the glass demon but this was never going to slice apart the flesh of the young Setsuko. Yusuke would never allow it and he didn't this time.

He rushed forward, shocking everybody when he did so, pushing his partner out of harm's way as the spell clipped his hand.

His book holding hand.

Before anybody could properly figure out what was happening at an incredible pace, Yusuke and Setsuko hit the ground and the missile struck a tree, destroying it as their glass colored book smashed into the ground.

"Y-Yusuke?" Setsuko tiredly asked when she looked up at her bookreader, body hurting greatly as she noticed him shaking. "W-What's wrong?"

"I-I let go of the book." He whispered, shaking when he pulled his left hand into his sight. It was torn and bleeding madly, but all he noticed was the lack of a spellbook.

"Y-You're bleeding!" Setsuko yelped as she sat up, nabbing his palm as the seventeen year old country boy just looked on in shock. Didn't she get it!? The book was damaged, it surely was burning.

"S-Set, the book." He whispered.

"I know, you said." She sighed, but seemed more occupied with her hand. "I-It's burning…I already know."

"Y-You're not…crying?"

"N-No, I am." She whispered, shaking as she continued to study his hand. "I-It hurts…because this means I have to go…but we need to keep fighting…"

"B-But…" Yusuke whispered, shaking in his own shoes as the little girl let go of his palm, looking up at him with misty fawn eyes, smiling through her tears. "How about it, Yusuke? One last go round before I go back to demon world."

He wanted to hug her and cry, refusing to give her up to the demon world that now wanted to take her away from him, but he couldn't. He had to do this for his little girl because if this was the last thing she wanted them to do together, then they were going to fucking do it.

Yusuke could feel his heart sinking to the bottom of his stomach as he ran to where their book was resting, a dark black flame eating it away. He didn't even think twice about the flames burning his shaking hands, finding to his own surprise that the fire didn't hurt when his hands grazed the pages for what would be the final time, tears landing on the flames only for them to seemingly strike the pages as if going completely through the black fire.

"T-The fifth spell!" He choked back a sob as he focused all of his energy, all of his hate onto Ari. "Damarika!"

Ari seemed to still be recovering from his last attack, looking to Setsuko in a moment of surprise as the torn up glass demon focused herself while Tsumi managed to free his body from the claw missile. The poison demon watching in shock as Setsuko put all of her energy into what would become her last spell. "N-No way…S-Setsuko."

The demon looked to her newfound friend, smiling softly as her hushed whisper of a voice left her lips. "Thank you, for everything."

"S-Setsuko!"

The glass shards, now bigger than ever before appeared around Ari and managing to trap him in place, swirling around at an intense speed before moving back and stabbing into the clawed demon in all directions, the sound of him screaming ringing out to everybody around.

And when Tsumi finally managed to open his eyes, he found only an outline of sparkles in the spot where Setsuko once stood, the horrified Yusuke collapsing onto his knees as the last little bit of their book fell to ashes before them. "S-Setsuko." He whispered in shock.

"Thank you." Her tiny and grateful voice filling the ears of the three that she had considered friends and family. "You all made me stronger than I ever thought I could be and I think I can go back stronger than ever before because of it.

"I love you all so much."

.

.

.

Kimiko looked out the window for a moment as the fasten seatbelt sign finally went off. She didn't know how to explain how she felt anymore other than somewhat broken. She remembered seeing that smile on Yusuke's face when he told them to take care, the way he told them that he'd be okay because he knew she left happier than ever before.

Kimiko didn't like leaving Yusuke behind only two days after losing Set, she hated everything about abandoning her cousin. But she didn't have much of a choice in the matter since school started once again on Monday, giving her only Sunday to get ready to get into routine once more.

"You think she's really happy?"

Kimiko directed her attention to Tsumi who sat in the seat next to her, the usually excited to fly Tsumi seeming somewhat distant and deep in thought as he stared at the spellbook in her lap. "Who? Setsuko?"

"Yeah."

Kimiko drew in a breath, not all too sure she knew herself but wanting to say something good about it. "I'm sure she was." Her fingers opening their book just to be able to stroke the pages and to reassure herself that everything was in order. "Yusuke said she was happier than ever when she met us, that we made her stronger…and maybe she'll remember how she did that and be able to do it again with demons back home. Yeah, in fact, I-I'm sure of it. Setsuko is going to make so many friends and grow into a confidant and happy girl."

Tsumi smiled, going to say something else only to look at his partner who had suddenly grown very ridged in her seat, hazel eyes wide in surprise as her hands shook. "K-Kimiko?"

She couldn't even speak to him, her right index finger pointing to one of the pages on their book.

Sitting right there on the page was their sixth spell.