Hey guys,

Soooooooooo, it's kinda been quite a long time since I updated DBR, like so long that I doubt anybody is even going to read this chapter just because of that and I really wouldn't blame you guys because of that. BUT, here I am to actually deliver a boring chapter before I try to get into something else that can help bring in more characters and push the series into the Aphrodite's labyrinth arc. Hopefully with summer right around the corner, I will actually be able to work on both DBR and my voice acting.

And hey, if you really want to hear what I sound like, I have some youtube videos meant for my Tumblr of me doing Fire Emblem Awakening voices. Basically just look up Kiha717 on youtube and you should find me in no time. But hey, that's neither here nor there and if you choose to listen to me try to do various voices, I hope you enjoy them. Without further ado though, I leave you with the next chapter of DBR. Hey, today might be a double feature only because I really feel like writing today, but I guess we will see what happens, huh?

xKiha

Kimiko was still rather shocked as she drew in a breath, staring at the man that had both rescued them and allowed the demon woman to escape. "Thank you." She said, staring at him with wide but grateful eyes. "Thank you for saving us."

"Why were you two fighting in the streets?" He asked, looking around for the other demon and finding himself stunned when he couldn't locate her and her bookreader.

"Well, it's a funny story..." Kimiko mumbled before beginning to tell the stranger everything she knew, not exactly frightened by him and his partner after they helped her out. Quite the contrary in fact, in the back of her mind she had decided they were going to join the alliance. Having another adult might be useful after all since Mister Kincad lost Icarus to Xenolith's Castle.

But the man only thoughtfully listened, nodding every once in a while to show her he was still paying attention until the brunette finished her story. "So you went after her thinking she was a kidnapper, but the child...the child was her bookreader?"

"Yep." Kimiko nodded, looking to Tsumi who still looked bewildered by the concept. "I guess anybody can be a bookreader, even little kids aren't safe."

"...We shouldn't talk about this in the middle of the street." The man sighed, looking to his partner with a gentle smile. "Trust them enough to take them home with us?"

"We did just protect them from an enemy." The wolf didn't seem to disagree with his partner. "If you want to talk to them further, it couldn't hurt."

The man nodded. "Well, then, would you mind coming with us?" He said, offering Kimiko his hand and helping the poison bookreader onto her feet.

"No, not at all."

"Good. Oh, I'm Terry Winters and my partner here is Canis."

"Kimiko, it's a pleasure, and my partner is Tsumi."

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"So you're an American but came here to intern teaching English on a foreign exchange program?"

Kimiko was still surprised they weren't being crushed under earth right now, but being in the small apartment of Terry Winters wasn't what she expected of today as she looked down at the teacup he'd given her.

"That must take a lot to want to be a teacher, I've never been patient enough to imagine working with kids."

"Guess I've just always had a knack for it." Terry shrugged, sitting beside Canis who a while back had stunned Kimiko by reverting to the size of a dog for convenience. Which size was his natural one was beyond the poison duo, but the one thing they both knew was how naturally intimidating the demon was. "But, I'm more curious about why you two came here if you live in Otaru."

Kimiko sighed nervously, only now beginning to feel ashamed when thinking about her true intentions before the truth behind the statue came to light. "Well, we came to look for the demon creating all the statues."

Canis s pointed ears pricked right up as he looked to the girl. "Pardon me?"

"Well, you two did hear about the statues all over Japan, right?" She said, pulling the crumpled newspaper out of her hands and placing it on Terry and Canis's side of the table as both men studied it.

"Just look at them." Tsumi said. "Doesn't it look a little too alive to you?"

"Hm...I think I remember hearing this on the news, but I didn't think twice about it." Terry mumbled as he studied the picture. "So you two came to look for the demon behind them?"

"Sort of..." Tsumi said. "We went the see the statue."

"And?" Canis asked. "Did you find anything there out of the ordinary?"

"That's the scary part." The poison demon looking at his feet as he swallowed. He may not have been as smart as some of the other demon children in the Alliance, but he had already figured out the consequences and what was likely to happen after that encounter Canis rescued them from. "The statue wasn't solid rock...it was like the demon was coated in some kind of rock form. A-And it was still warm even though he'd been like this for a couple days."

"Warm?" Canis frowned. "Warm how?"

"Warm like he was alive, like his body heat was still radiating from him." Kimiko finished, chewing the chapped skin of her lip. "But we don't know if he was actually awake in there or if he's sleeping or in some kind of other world. All we know is he isn't actually solid stone."

Terry nodded, clearly a bit surprised by this concept. It wasn't too startling for him to feel this way since he was likely unaware of the whole Xenolith situation that had changed the nature of the game for the Alliance. "So, does this mean that the demon you both were fighting was the demon creating statues?"

Kimiko hadn't thought of this before, her eyes widening as she nodded slowly. "Yes, it could be her doing this...It would explain why both of them could be found here."

Terry seemed to be thinking this over as he nodded. "Alright, but if we have this demon creating the statues, then how can we be sure she won't continue doing this until she has been pronounced the victor of the game?"

"I guess we can't." Kimiko mumbled. "We would just have to track her down and stop her from continuing to do this. Because the longer we just let this continue, the worse it is going to get for all of us. There is no way that this demon is going to get weaker."

"So until there comes an end to her, there is nothing we can do?" Canis muttered, watching the brunette nod as the demon lowered his head in frustration.

She was gone now and there likely wouldn't be another sign of her again until another demon was trapped in the stone statues, the symbol of just another person they could not protect from this mad woman's condemnation.

"This is bad." Tsumi said, causing the three to focus on the young poison demon. "Because...now that we tried to fight her, what if she wants to finish the fight? What if she decides that we are going to be the next statues?"

Kimiko wanted to disprove that fact, wanted to give a reason why that was an impossible event, but couldn t find a reason why that couldn't be the case. "She just might decide that." Kimiko mumbled. "And we wouldn't be able to stop that from happening."

But before that could truly sink into the both of them, a rugged hand was placed on the poison bookreader s shoulder, causing her to look up and see the reassuring look in the eyes of Terry Winters.

"Hey, no need to worry. We will be there to lend a hand, okay?" Terry said, offering her a smile. "You won't have to go this alone, especially since we were there to accidentally let her get away. You've got us to help you."

And that was how Terry Winters and Canis joined the alliance.

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Kimiko lowered her head in silent dismay as she felt the eyes of everybody in the Alliance fall onto her in the silent classroom. Even Mr. Kincad seemed both silent and mortified, not because this was happening but because she did this alone, did this because the fear of summer setting in drove her mad.

"Why?" Was all Aislinn could growl, having not forgotten the issue of the statues thanks to the constant reminders from Cheshire.

"I know it was dumb." Kimiko mumbled. "But, I just needed everything feel like it was going to hold itself together like it did back with Xenolith."

"So you threw yourself into danger?" Setsuna sighed, shaking his head. "God, if Kenja was here he would scold you just like everybody else."

"I know..." She nodded, trying not to think of the friend that was in the hospital and possibly oblivious to this all only because he was fighting illness as they spoke. "But...but what I did, that isn't the important part."

"Then what is?" Kyo asked, seeming to be the only one who wasn't completely shut down on Kimiko.

"It's that, who we fought, what we went there to find...they must be one in the same." Kimiko said. "That this powerful woman and the child that she has taken as her bookreader, are likely the two that are creating the living statues out of innocent demons."

"Living statues..." Michael sighed. "Isn't that a concept made out of fairy tales?"

"It should be reserved for those only." Kimiko said, trying not to dwell too much on it as she looked at her shoes. "But no, they weren't moving, but they were clearly alive. They were warm to the touch."

"Body heat?" Flynn asked.

"Precisely." Kimiko said. "Which means that all she is doing is trapping them so they can no longer play the game, not actually burning their book and ending their involvement in the game at all."

"But, if this is the demon that creates the statues and you lost her when somebody else intervened, why are you telling us this now?" Kyo asked.

I" think that because we upset her so, that she will try to come after Tsumi and I next." Kimiko mumbled, swallowing nervously. "I mean, it wouldn't be too surprising if she decided that we knew too much about what was going on and that we needed to be taken out at once."

"So... So you may have just condemned all of us to another enemy like Xenolith?" Cheshire practically growled this, Kimiko cringing as she looked over to Kesai, who had come with Setsuna, and Shura sitting closer to the back of the group. Both of them seemed rather terrified at that idea, Kimiko chewing at her lower lip at the sight before glancing back at her own partner. She could see the darkening fear that ate up his eyes, Kimiko drawing in a breath as she tried to think this through. It was worrying, it wasn't what she wanted it to be anymore. This was supposed to bring them all together again, not make them scared and possibly make everything a lot darker than she wanted.

"I... I guess this is just something I am going to have to deal with now, isn't it?" She mumbled, pressing her forehead to her inner palms. "I can't ask you guys to help me put up with this if I might have just sicked a powerful demon onto myself."

"We're still going to help you."

Kimiko jerked, looking up at Michael as he leaned back in his chair. "You did something dumb by provoking the demon who may be the one making all those statues, she may turn out to be the next Xenolith or even stronger, but hey, if we stuck by you guys when you were fighting Xenolith, why would we take off when another big enemy surfaced?"

"Yeah... I mean, we are going to have to fight her eventually, right?" Kyo said, bringing himself to smile ever so gently. "I guess now might as well be when we go after this new enemy, right?"

"I didn't mean to drag you all into this..." Kimiko whispered, looking over to Cheshire and Aislinn, neither of them seeming as on board as the others were. "I understand if you don't want to help me, this is my mistake after all."

"We are still going to help." Cheshire said, folding her arms across her chest. "I was planning on taking her out myself anyways, since you guys owe me a worthy opponent after you took Xenolith all to yourselves."

"You're all really going to stay with us if things get bad?" Kimiko whispered, looking across the room at all of the familiar faces that more or less went to hell and back with her once before.

"We are The Alliance, aren't we?" Kesai shrugged.

They were going to go right back to hell with her again.

"But, I should tell Kenja about all of this, he's going to want to know everything." Kesai said as he got out of his seat, heading towards the door.

"But, should you really tell him if he's still in the ICU? We wouldn't want him stressing about all of this if he isn't strong enough to get out of bed". Yukio muttered. "It won't do him any good if that is weighing on his shoulders too."

"Actually, it's looking like he is improving bit by bit." Setsuna said.

"Yeah, Kenja said he might be moved into a normal room by the end of the week." Kesai nodded, smiling gently. "I told you guys he was going to be alright, nothing is going to keep Kenja from fighting."

Yukio looked over to Kimiko, who was only focused on the relief on Setsuna's face before allowing herself to sigh in bliss herself. He was going to be okay, so that meant there was one less thing to worry about when it came to this.

She then looked over to Yukio, seeing both the relief in his eyes at hearing the first news about Kenja since the blond had been sent to intensive care, and the pain that came with knowing that he couldn't fight alongside them this time.

"We'll be careful, okay?" Kimiko said gently, fiddling with her fingers nervously before trying to bring herself to smile. "I know none of this is going to be easy, if she really does turn out to be the statue demon, but I'm sure that we can handle whatever happens. If we did it last time, I know we can do it again."

"I know you will." Yukio nodded, trying to put on a bold front for his students. "You don't need me there to tell you how much you all have grown since winter. I know you all can handle this, but you need to promise me something, all of you. You need to promise me that no matter what, you are going to hold yourselves high and think through every move. Keep each other close if things get worse, okay? We have formed a group for a reason and you should continue to keep the idea of strength in numbers in mind, alright? Promise me that you will stay together, that you will fight as a unit."

Eyes met one another, both looks of mourning and understanding at what might be to come and what this just might mean to all of them. Something was happening, that much was known.

"I promise."