Hey guys,

So, because of magic or something, I managed to pretty much get a chapter of DBR done today in around three hours. Happy Easter, by the way, but yeah I am fairly excited to pump out another chapter of this story thanks to that unspoken hiatus that I sort of when on. Yes, I'm trying to get quite a few, meaning around three, characters introduced to join the alliance for the second arc so they can be part of the team. Yes, this means that I will have around eight pairs of demon and bookreader together for the second arc, but since I have chosen a rather unique location, this should hopefully work to my advantage to have such a large group put together.

But hey, this just means, if anything that I will have one more character after today's introduced bunch, to bring in to help fight against the next major threat. I hope to really get into this arc by the end of the summer, but I honestly don't really know how everything is going to go when it comes down to it. All I can really hope is that all goes smooth and that I will be finishing the Aphrodite arc in no time.

BTW, for some reason, I was listening to Steven Universe background music while writing this chapter, a playlist of 102 songs from Season One and I cannot tell you how wonderful that made writing for DBR today. Like geez, I already loved this adorable show, but this made it even better simply because of how nice it is to listen to all of the music from this show. If you haven't checked out Steven Universe, please do. It's surprisingly wonderful for a children's cartoon, like shockingly good for what I anticipated.

But without further ado, I will see you guys when I see you, enjoy the chapter,

xKiha

School was over in a week, but that wasn't what anybody was focused on as Kenja looked up to feel a pair of strong arms wrap around his frailer body. He had been moved to the regular residency earlier than day and that came with a feeling of drastic relief that he couldn't explain until he felt Setsuna s arms wrap around him. He pressed his nose against Setsuna's shoulder, breathing in his scent. "You came."

"Of course I did." He said, breathing a bit heavy, giving Kenja the idea that Setsuna had run down the hall to get here faster. "God, if I didn't have Kesai back and forthing information, I wouldn't have known anything about what was happening to you. I'm just so relieved that you're here again."

"I agree, it's been hard not having you beside me." He said gently, nuzzling against the junior. "But, it's going to be alright now. And luckily, Mr. Kincad has been visiting me with all of my work, so I don't need to worry about being behind, or having to repeat my sophomore year."

"You should be an advanced student like me, if anything." Setsuna chuckled, trying not to let his own emotions swell up too deeply as he pressed his lips to Kenja's ear, making the blond blush heavily. "But, I guess none of that matters as long as you're going to be okay."

"Y-Yes." Kenja said, still a bit fluttery from the feeling of being kissed. "It's all okay."

"And Kesai has kept you up to date on everything that has been happening since you were put in the ICU, right?"

"About the demon who makes statues and how Kimiko may have accidentally provoked them? Yes, I'm up to date on all of that, and soon I'll be ready to help all of them fight against whatever will come next."

"Are you sure everything is going to be alright, with your health and everything?" Setsuna asked nervously. "Maybe you should just take a break from all of this, demon battle stuff, just take a month or two to relax and let the healthier ones focus on whatever is going to happen next."

"We both know I can't do that." Kenja said. "I need to pull just as much weight as the others do, whether they are looking for my help or not. I can't let them, or Kesai, down. I was chosen for some reason and I need to make sure I continue to fight for what I was chosen to do."

"But, you never chose this for yourself." Setsuna said. "Some demonic force decided that you were going to become Kesai's partner, nothing else."

"And you don't think that I was assigned to Kesai, that Nora and you," Setsuna cringed at the mention of Nora, "became partners for a reason? I already know that Kesai has changed my life, he was the one who gifted me with a will to live after all. And that is why I owe it to him, to all the friends that this demon battle has gifted me with, to keep fighting for what we all believe is the truth."

"I just don't want this to make your worse, health wise." Setsuna whispered as he moved so he cold look into Kenja's wide azure eyes. He could see both Kenja's determination to be something beyond weak and he could see his own worried reflection in the irises, he swallowed back any of the doubt that was consuming him, knowing that Kenja's happiness needed to be something that he held above all else.

"I promise you, I'm going to be fine." Kenja said, pressing his thin lips to Setsuna's left cheek.

"And if you hit your limit?"

"I'll slow down or take a break, alright? I promise you, I will keep my limits in mind, I owe that much to all of you." Kenja said with a soft smile. "I am sure you all would appreciate it if I continued to value my own life."

Setsuna nodded, pulling Kenja tightly into his arms once more. "As long as you promise me that you will be careful, I trust you to know what you can and cannot do.

.

.

.

"All of this is happening so fast, isn't it?"

Kimiko sighed, gripping her spellbook tightly in her arms as she looked over to Kyo. They were currently sitting on a park bench, only silently reminiscing about everything that they had seen or were planning on seeing.

"Suddenly, it feels like everybody is getting so tense, like we are all planning on the world around us collapsing before we can even plan on taking a breather. I know I'm not ready to fight another big enemy, I don't think any of us are, but there really isn't much of a choice in the matter, is there?" Kyo said as he leaned against the wood, glancing over to Amera and Tsumi, his partner attempting to teach the poison demon how to properly skip stones.

"I shouldn't have done all of this." Kimiko mumbled. "This time, it really is my fault, so whatever happens if she does decide to come after us, that is going to be my fault. I brought her to target me."

"Maybe, maybe you did." Kyo nodded, looking over to her. "But getting upset about all of that isn't really going to help anybody. It's just going to make you feel worse about yourself, which is only going to decrease your and Tsumi's morale."

"Yes, but we know nothing about what this demon is capable of." Kimiko mumbled. "She might be even more powerful than Xenolith."

"And we have all become stronger since the winter, haven't we?" Kyo said. "I mean, can you imagine what will happen when you and T can fight against a real enemy together? We already know he is more or less just raw power, so who knows what he will be able to do when you two team up against a really powerful enemy."

"I don't want to resort to that, though." Kimiko mumbled. "We still don't know how he operates, or just what could happen if he decides he doesn't want to fight as an ally anymore. T isn't exactly something I think we can depend on yet, not with how he has been so far."

"But even then, all of us have unlocked new spells, have learned more about our demons and maybe have come up with new ideas on how to use spells. I don't think we need to worry about T, but even without him, I still think we stand a good chance."

"It's just hard to accept what might be happening, you know?" Kimiko sighed.

"I know." Kyo nodded, pulling her into his arms, causing her cheeks to ignite. "But, we are all going to get through this together, alright?"

"I-I know." She whispered, wanting to wrap her arms around him to hug him back before something else caught her eye.

A girl with short brown hair and a rather thin build to herself, wearing a white shirt and sneakers along with a blue skirt, seeming to be zipping up a light green book into her bag, a book that Kimiko recognized at once thanks to the cover.

Standing next to her was a rather small child, his skin rather pale with long and bring purple hair. He turned around, seeming to catch a glimpse at Kimiko and Kyo, his eyes a bright green and a club of the same color on his left cheek. He was wearing a blue top hat and suit along with pointed jester shoes, a smirk of his own brightening his face.

Kimiko tried to play it off as if she hadn't noticed him, drawing in a breath and slowly moving so she could look up at Kyo and whisper the information back to him. "There is another demon here."

"You're kidding, right?" Kyo asked, reaching into his bag to grab Amera's book.

"No." Kimiko said, shaking her head and pointing towards the demons. "But, I don't know if they're here to scope us out or not. Can we really take that risk?"

"I'm not sure." Kyo faltered, looking at the clown demon and swallowing. "Maybe we should just give it a moment and see what they decide to do?"

Kimiko thought it over for a moment, motioning for Tsumi to come back to where the teenagers were sitting, both he and Amera slowly approaching the bench.

"Is something the matter?" Amera asked, looking to her partner in confusion.

"We don't know yet." Kyo said. "But, since there is a demon here, we should keep on alert, just in case."

"Demon?" Tsumi mumbled, looking behind the two readers to see if he could see anything out of the ordinary. "But... but we are the only ones in the park right now, Kyo. There is nobody else here."

"W-What?" Kimiko jerked, seeing that her partner had been telling the truth as she found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary facing them in that moment. "But, that can't be! They were here a second ago!"

"Maybe they really didn't want to fight, so they took off instead?" Kyo said.

"Y-Yeah, that could be it. Not everybody would want to suddenly fight, I g-"

"Sh'dowsen!"

The was never a good sign, Kyo jerking as he flipped his own book open, turning around as Amera leapt in front of the bench and drew her sword. "Boru Sorusen!"

Kimiko jerked, never having heard of this spell before as she focused on Amera, watching the demon go from running to flash stepping, moving way too fast to trace, something that Kyo had done just so she could react fast enough to whatever had just been casted to hurt them. He didn't see it fast enough, but Amera did.

A ball of shadow energy was heading towards them, Amera rushing forward and slicing it as quickly as possible, making her movements seem more like a flash of light to those watching her. The ball quickly burst into pure energy, sending Amera flying backwards and crashing into the ground afterwards. With the spell fading, she looked around, a bit irritated and with the hopes of finding just who had send that attack towards them.

"Show yourself." She growled, pushing herself up.

"We didn't want to have to fight ya."

The four jerked, turning to see the small clown-like demon, sitting up in a tree. He seemed to be smiling, but it almost seemed to be forced just to add to the effect of the situation. He fell forward, catching the branch with his hands and allowing himself to dangle from it. "But, if you guys were going to pull out your books on us, I figured that we were gonna have'ta fight you to make sure that we were going to make it out of here okay."

Kimiko looked over to Tsumi, drawing in a breath as she gripped the spine of her book, not sure if she should open it now. "But, we never wanted to-"

"Just go away!" A female voice rang out, none of the four being able to trace just where her voice had come from.

"But we don't want to-"

"Sh'dowsen!"

Kimiko jerked, looking over to the clown demon who only smirked excitedly, holding out his hand and beginning to create a large orb of shadow energy. She gripped her own book, flipping it open to where she knew the second spell resided. "Rerano!"

The poison shield was formed, beginning to spin around and guard them as Kyo took a step back. The sound of the darkness spell smashing into the shield left them with a bitter clanging sound. Kimiko could see the large orb beginning to grow, becoming almost mutated with poison power before the Rerano spell chose to repel it, shooting it back at the clown demon.

"Sh'dowshiel!"

Another spell? Kimiko felt herself frown as Rerano faded away, watching the clown demon drop himself from the branch and land on his feet. He rushed towards the spell and into the light before kneeling in the grass. He looked directly into Kimiko's eyes as his face melted into an all knowing smirk, his very own shadow beginning to rise up from the ground and mutate itself into a large dome like figure that came down to cover the demon and the tree that he had been inside. The shadow and now poison infused orb smashed into his shadow dome, trying to put up a fight against it only for it to erupt into an explosion of energy that sent the group flying back into the ground.

When Kimiko finally came to her senses after a few seconds of shock, she was met with the eyes of the clown demon who only seemed to be howling with laughter.

"See, look at that, we have a shield too! You guys aren't as strong as you thought!"

Kyo growled, tightening his hands into fists. "Well, now that you know that, maybe you will realize that we didn't really want to fight you guys!"

"T-Then why would you pull your spellbooks out?" That female voice came again, Amera jerking as she finally pinpointed the voice as coming from behind the tree the clown had once been sitting in. "Usually when somebody pulls out their weapon, it means they're going to use it."

"We weren't planning on using them unless you attacked us!" Kimiko said, placing her spellbook on the ground and holding up her hands. "So just come out, okay? If you're going to hide, I'm pretty sure that's a sign that you don't want to fight us either."

Kyo swallowed, nervously setting his own spellbook down and holding his hands up. "See? We can't fight you if we don't have our spellbooks."

Slowly, the girl from before peered out, holding herself in a clearly timid body posture as she looked to the clown demon who for the first time, gave somebody a genuine smile. The girl lowered her head, placing her own spellbook on the ground as she took a step closer to them. "But, why don't you want to fight? Isn't that the entire point of this, just to fight and destroy one another?"

"But why should we have to fight right now if neither of us want to?" Amera asked. "It seems a bit over the top to decide you want to take out a demon without giving them a moment to explain themselves, doesn't it?"

"I... I guess you have a point." The girl whispered. "I guess I just overreacted."

"It's alright." Kyo said gently. "Nobody really got hurt, so no harm was done. But, with that out of the way, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Kyo Yakage and that is my partner Amera. Over there is my friend Kimiko Isahowa and her partner Tsumi."

The girl looked from Kimiko to Kyo slowly, feeling her own lips curve into a gentle smile. "Hello there, my name is Yumi Gems and that is my partner Roku."