Hey guys!

Sorry that it's been nearly two months since an update, but I've been crammed with this year's marching band season (which has pushed me to the brink of insanity, I want to quit so bad that I will NOT be doing band my senior year) and my junior year of high school beginning a little over a month ago. So yes, I've been swamped with both school and that one extra curricular that pretty much has demanded to swallow me up and spit me out both bitter and hating everything about the program. But oh well, I guess, there isn't much I can do about that.

In fact, I'm only getting this chapter done right now because I'm spending my time in a coffee shop and more or less forcing myself to get this chapter done. And trust me, I promise that even though most of this piece might seem super random and unrelated to each other, all three of these things will tie together as this is my way of finally beginning to set up the beginning of the second, or Aphrodite, arc! So let's get ready for the backbone of this arc beginning to set up and don't worry, we do have some new bookreaders and demons entering the roster before the huge battle begins. We have quite a bit to cover before anything gets way too serious.

Anyways, I do have some super exciting news about my personal life and that's that yours truly is actually doing some voice acting for an independent cartoon! I'm voicing one of the main characters in the MysteriousMrEnter's independent cartoon 'Growing Around'. You know it's crazy, I actually auditioned for this cartoon randomly at like eleven at night and well, I managed to get the part! It's crazy but you know, I'm super excited to be working on the project and I can't wait for the pilot episode to come out and share it with everybody on both deviantart, fanfiction and my youtube account. Anyways, I should probably just let you all get to the chapter and well, let's just enjoy the chapter as everything finally begins to tie into what will become the beginning of the second arc. I hope you all enjoy it.

xKiha

"In other news today, another odd statue was found around the countrysides of rural towns. Some say these are the marks of some sort of artists trying to make a statement and others wonder if this is a mark of a public menace. But we can all agree on one thing and that is that these strange works of art are truly the most beautiful way of making such a statement."

Kimiko drew in a breath as she finished her breakfast, the fact that they were in their final month of school weighing heavily on her mind as she began to wonder just what was going to happen when summer came. They'd all be free, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't be busy with things like family trips or various other things. The guarantee that she would be seeing some of them on any given weekday would suddenly disappear from the barrel of options for her and she wasn't all too sure on how she felt about it.

Sure, not much would change thanks to the way the Japanese school system worked. Kimiko, Kenja and Aislinn would all be in the same class still and they would continue to be taught by Yukio Kincad. But they'd be older; going into their second years of high school while others like Michael, Flynn and Setsuna went into their third year. In one way, things would be the same and in another, things would feel so different.

"I guess there isn't much I can do about it." She placed her breakfast dishes in the sink before shutting off the television, somewhat ignoring the news that was playing on it, clearly seeing nothing important about it.

"Guess we are all going to grow up, it's not like too much will change..."

At least she could only hope that would be the case.

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Kenja was absent today.

His seat was barren and it didn't take a person with half a brain cell to figure out just where the sickly boy was today. Kimiko sighing to herself as she tried to make a mental note of it as she approached Aislinn who seemed to be staring at a paper scrawled with writing on it. She was focused on it, as if trying to remember something by looking at it.

"What are you doing?" Kimiko asked, peering over her ally's shoulder to try and get a look at what she was trying to hard to study.

"Looking at this." Aislinn muttered, her tone speaking for her that she wasn't exactly thrilled to have the poison bookreader peering at the crumpled paper that sat on her desk. "Cheshire gave it to me, said it was important."

"Important?" Kimiko mumbled, her heart beat quickening with a need to remain stronger then those two, attempting to read the paper that the dream bookreader continued to look over.

'Statues appearing everywhere. Some kind of demon must be doing this.'

"A demon?" Kimiko repeated, furrowing her brow as Aislinn turned around to glare at the so called leader of their friend group. She seemed anything but amused when it came to this, sighing as she nodded slowly. "Yes, Kimiko, remember we do fight those."

"I know...but if there is a demon that Cheshire is writing notes to you about...to try and make you remember that it exists...it must be important that you remember. Did you guys fight some kind of a demon that is...making statues?" Wow, that didn't sound threatening in the slightest. In fact, that sounded down right useless.

Aislinn only shrugged, her faulty memory being the reason why there was a note in the first place. "I don't know." She replied harshly. "All I do know is that it needs to be destroyed."

That was obvious enough to both of the girls, Aislinn sighing as she went to crumple the paper up and discard it before hesitating, folding it neatly up and then tucking it away into her bag. If this really was that important, this might help her remember later since everybody always seemed to grow irritated when she didn't recall things that were considered important in their eyes. Even if she did remember, it probably couldn't hurt to keep something like that with her anyways.

Kimiko on the other hand felt herself smile slightly. If this demon was important, this might be the kind of thing to keep the alliance together and close during something like Summer vacation. Give them a reason to continue to work together even though they had the next few months of freedom ahead of them that they could easily take instead.

Maybe, if this demon was that important, she wouldn't have to worry about something like losing the closeness she had with the first important group of friends she'd ever made. It would instead tie them closer than ever before, giving them a reason to continue to always be together.

The only question was how would she pull it off?

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"I'm sorry, ma'am, but right now unless you're family, you can't enter Mister Sedai's room."

Kimiko cringed as she stood at the front desk of the floor Kenja was currently staying on. This was the kind of thing she didn't want to hear, swallowing back her worry and forcing herself to bow at the man at the reception. "I-I see...well...t-thank you very much Sir." The sound of her heart pounding hurting her ear drums as she tried to keep herself from going into a panic thanks to the inability to know just what kind of condition this was hinting towards.

Did this mean that Kenja was in a critical state or just that they were being cautious in the possibility of something wrong happening? She couldn't be sure and wow did that not help her out at all, thanks to the natural assumptions that everything was going as wrong as possible for the one she would consider her best friend. But she forced herself to head back down to the visitor's spot anyhow, sitting herself down and drawing in a deep breath.

"S-So...so far...everything is stable? It was just a little scare?"

"Yeah, he's not in any serious condition. He's got a breathing mask over his mouth and tubes in him, but that's not anything to raise hell over."

Kimiko turned her attention to the familiar voices, seeing the pale Setsuna sitting in the visitor's room with his hands clasped so tightly together that they were ghost white. The look in his eyes said it all, fear and deathly concern for the one that he had fallen for. Kesai was sitting beside him with a black knit cap over his head to hide the kitsune ears. He didn't seem quite as concerned, but was clearly still a bit fidgety thanks to the entire ordeal.

"S-Setsuna?" Kimiko mumbled as she approached the both of them, the ruby eyed second year jerking as he looked up at her with a moment of ferality before trying to shake it off and calm down. "W-Why are you here...?"

"Do you even need to ask?" He groaned, holding his temples with his hands.

"I-I guess not." She mumbled with a soft sigh, sitting in the empty chair to his right and biting her lower lip. "But does this mean they didn't let you in either since you're not family?"

"Nope." His voice gaining more of a spitting tone as he thought through just how dumb that rule was on a certain degree. "You know the drill, you're either blood related or married to be in the room with them. Even though I know that he'd want to see me when things get scary, nope, I'm not goddamn family so I'm not worthy of being able to see him. He'd tell them that he was mine, but even if he did, I doubt they'd even listen to his pleas. It's just...it's so stupid that that is how they are running this place."

"Hey..." Kesai mumbled, the knit cap losing some of its height likely thanks to the kitsune's ears growing flat against his skull. "It's not like they aren't doing this as some kind of precaution. They don't want him exposed to anything that'll make it worse, so they only keep him by the truest of family."

"Yeah, so if he were to die, I'd just have to wait out here until somebody asked me if I wanted to see his corpse!?"

Kesai flinched, biting his lip pretty hard as he wrung his own hands tightly together. This was neither a question that he wanted to be asked nor wanted to answer as he looked over to Kimiko who he could see no longer wanted to be involved in this conversation either while the kitsune was trapped with having to answer the second year that loved his bookreader so. "I-I don't wanna talk about that."

Setsuna looked like he was going to shout some more before he paused, looking at the widened eyes of the kitsune and chewing his lower lip, beginning to think through what he had just said to the fire demon. "O-Oh...L-Look, Kesai...I-I didn't mean..."

"No...No, you did." He sighed, looking down at his feet. "You meant exactly what you asked. It's not like you're the first to ask about it...Kimi's probably thinking it too." His eyes catching the way Kimiko flinched, finding this as a clear conformation of just what he was thinking as he nodded to himself with a sigh of self loathing despair. "I-I don't know what'll happen if Kenja...if Kenja dies...because every time he wants to talk about it, I just don't wanna listen. I-If you ask him though...he'll probably want to talk about it...H-He wants everybody to know what to do if he does..."

Kesai was actually shaking in his chair, Kimiko biting her lip as she went to get up from her chair and pull the young kitsune close. But right as she moved to do so, Setsuna placed a hand on Kesai's head, the fire demon looking up at the second year in surprise. "S-Setsuna?"

"No, you're right..." The raven haired teen said, this being his own way of apologizing to the partner of his boyfriend. "We shouldn't be worrying about what'll happen if things would get worse. We should focus on him getting better instead, start planning things for the three of us to do when he gets out of the hospital."

"Y-Yeah, we should do things like that. I-I'll ask him what kinds of stuff he'd like to do so you could surprise him." Kesai nodded, smiling brightly with the innocence only a child trying to blind themselves from reality could have.

"How do you get in anyways?" Kimiko mumbled.

"I sneak in~" The child smirked. "A special little demon trick. So I can get in and out without a person even noticing that I was there at all. Just one more reason why it's good to be a demon~"

"You're an evil little thing." Setsuna said, but the look on his face read that he was grateful for this little demon.

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"Where were you?"

By the time Kimiko got home, Tsumi had been waiting for quite a while and by now had grown rather antsy. He rushed to her side when she entered the house, seeing the somber look in his eyes and pursing his pale grey lips with concern. "W-Wait...what happened today?"

"Kenja's in hospital again."

"I-Is he okay?" Tsumi seeming to lose some of that bouncing energy when hearing this.

"I couldn't go see him, so it's a bit worse than those other times. But from what Kesai was saying, he's alright, just needs some serious rest and recuperation in a sterile environment like a hospital. Setsuna wasn't handling it well, but hey, it looks like he and Kesai will have each other to lean on when something gets like this." She mumbled, almost finding it adorable that two of the most precious things to Kenja just might bond together thanks to their love for him.

"Oh...so...this isn't a death scare?"

"Luckily no."

She then sat on the couch, biting her lip as she placed her head in her hands. Maybe...maybe this wasn't a death scare this time, but what was keeping this from being the last health scare this year? From how comfortable Kenja usually was with something like this, this seemed to be nothing but routine with him but he always held a certain aura about him that would make the silent statement that a crushing reality was always pressing down against his chest in a way that he'd never think twice about.

Who was to say that the next time, it wouldn't be the end everybody but him seemed so on edge about? Who was to say that before they all truly appreciated him, that he wouldn't suddenly just leave their lives? Would they all really get time to savor one another before some kind of bitter ending swooped him up and stole him from the alliance?

Nothing in a fight was permanent, Icarus proved that to them after never leaving Xenolith's castle with the rest of them. This made it clear that there was nothing about this that would remain the same the entire time, even their friendships.

Would they even still be close if something like that happened to Kenja? Summer was coming up and that might just mean that they might not be as close as they were as first years by the time the second year of high school claimed them. He might be closer to Setsuna than the rest of them, no longer having the time for the rest of them thanks to the possibility that his summer was filled with a completely different time.

No, she couldn't let them all just grow apart, could she? Not after all they had been through, no, she had to keep everybody together and as close as she possibly could. There wasn't any other way to handle it, no, there just wasn't.

But what could she do to make sure they were together for summer?"

"The demon that makes statues..." Kimiko suddenly mumbled, Tsumi turning to look at her with his head cocked slightly with both confusion and peaked interest in what she was saying to herself.

"Demon that makes statues?" He replied, sitting beside her and cocking his head.

"Yeah! It's something that Cheshire made a note about for Aislinn to read about. It's some kind of enemy I guess and it must be important for Cheshire to try and keep Aislinn from forgetting about it."

"So, this demon is some kind of big enemy?" The poison demon wasn't exactly seeing why a big enemy would be getting her all riled up.

"Yeah! Who knows, it might be as big as Xenolith! Or maybe even stronger!" She nodded, her heart beginning to pound at the thought that they might all be brought together by another big battle just like how Xenolith brought them all together in the first place. Yes, yes, this could be the perfect opportunity for them to spend their time together trying to take down another big enemy that they could only do as the alliance that they held so important when it came to strength in numbers!

"K-Kimi..." Tsumi mumbled, not all too excited about this as he stared up at her with a look that said it all, speaking of the concern that came with seeing his partner so excited about what might be an actual threat.

"Tsumi...we need to find this demon that makes the statues." She said, the look in her eyes both determined and excited.

This would keep them together, she was going to make sure of that. This way they would remain as close as possible, as close as she wanted them to always be. Summer wasn't going to separate them, not if she could do anything about it.