Hey guys,

So, it looks like I managed to pull off a chapter this month after all. Three for three isn't bad after a pretty silent few months, isn't it? Well, luckily for me, I managed to get this done when I had free time in classes today, which seems to be a reoccurring theme with me. But yep, yep, here is a chapter that I may or may not have completely rewritten because I wasn't liking where it was going, so here we are with a bit of a different take on just what I decided to do. I hope you like what it became!

So, I have to go to a funeral up in Michigan next week and I'll be there for about a week, so I will hopefully be working on DBR when I am up there but I don't quite know how it'll go, but if I have free time, I'll try to get some DBR work done.

Thank you guys and I hope you all enjoy the latest chapter of DBR,

xKiha

"I am so sorry about what just happened!" Yumi faltered as she held her book tightly to her chest, lip trembling slowly as she gripped onto her spellbook. "I just... The moment I saw your spellbook, I was worried that you two were going to try to fight us."

"Nope." Kyo shook his head slowly, bringing himself to smile slightly in hopes of reassuring the girl as she continued to look at her feet instead of at them. "But, we are guilty of thinking the same of you. You can't just trust anybody with a spellbook nowadays, can you?"

"N-No, I guess you can't." She shook her head, tracing her feet in the ground nervously.

"But why aren't you two fighting each other!?" The teenagers turned their attentions to the fidgeting Roku as he stared up at them. "The entire point of the game is to fight other demons, isn't it? Why aren't you guys fighting right now?"

"'Cause we are allies?" Kimiko muttered slowly, looking to the two and seeing the confusion written on both of their faces. "You guys haven't seen anybody allied with another team at all?"

"Nope." Roku shook his head. "Seems kinda... dumb, you know? Why spend time making buddies with the teams that you're going to have to turn on by the end of the game. Somebody's gotta win in the end."

"Maybe so, but it's been very useful." Amera said gently. "That way, we are more likely to have a good candidate in the final stretch for the crown."

Roku continued to pout his lips, looking from Amera to Tsumi and shaking his head. "Nah, that wouldn't really do anybody any good."

"I think that might be helpful, actually."

The teenagers turned their attention to the mostly silent Yumi, watching her look down at her feet once more when noticing that they were focused on her. Her face burned with nervousness, finally lifting her head so she could look at the two that she barely knew. "I just... I think that it would be so much fun to be able to have other people there to protect you... Doing all of this alone... it's been so hard..."

"Then come fight with us."

Yumi jerked when she heard those words, holding her book even tighter to her chest as she looked up at the poison bookreader who brought herself to smile out of hope that it would help Yumi calm down. "E-Excuse me?" The girl whispered, face contorted in both confusion and the uncertainty of accepting just what she had been told.

"Come fight with us." Kimiko repeated. "We always have new people joining up with our Alliance and it's always wonderful to have somebody else decide they want to fight for what we do. That the bookreader and demon have enough ambition to want to fight for that crown with good intentions, that's all we want to see in the finals."

Yumi hesitated, looking to Roku who wasn't vocally disagreeing with her interest in the offer, something that was quite a good sign.

"Come on, I'm sure you will have a lot of fun with us. I know you'll fit right in." Kyo said, Yumi turning to see the warm smile that settled on Kyo's lips.

"I... I..." Yumi looked from one of the bookreaders to the other, before finally glancing down at Roku, the cocky grin plastered on his face only growing wider when he took notice of her look.

"I guess it couldn't hurt." He shrugged, earning a surprised grunt from his partner. "As long as you know that when things get serious, that we are going to kick your ass to get that crown!"

"Of course." Tsumi snickered, feeling his own mouth contorting into a smirk. "I wouldn't accept you any other way."

.

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.

Kesai felt exhausted as he lay beside Kenja in the hospital bed. Being quite a bit smaller than his partner, he could easily slip into the hospital bed and found himself feeling both exceedingly calm and a lot safer when beside his bookreader.

And of course, Kenja couldn't help but feel relieved when finding the kitsune demon sleeping beside him, his ears calmly perked and his body curled in on himself in a feeling of safety. He almost looked like a little cat, curled up like that, Kenja couldn't help but feel amused about this. Their spellbook rested on the side table next to a mostly empty lunch tray, Kenja's nose in a book as he let the empty and sterile environment of his hospital room drone out the sound of the busier hall.

"Mister Kenja Sedai?"

He jerked, hearing an all too familiar voice as he looked up to see the man with long auburn hair and bright green eyes. He felt his fingers tighten around the spine of his book, slowly placing it down and resting it against his knee. "Hayao..." He mumbled, trying to hide the fact that his heart was racing a mile a moment. "What are you doing here?"

"Are you really askin' something like this?" He asked, a smirk growing on his face as he pulled his black spellbook out of his white jacket. "I figured you were smarter than that, Kenja."

Kesai's ears had perked up, the fire demon practically shooting up as he looked around, groggy green eyes widening when he noticed Hayao standing in the hospital room. But it wasn't that that seemed to set Kesai off as he jerked his head towards the window, finding Haruo standing on the windowsill, tapping on the glass with a smirk on his face as if to greet the fire demon properly.

"You seriously want a rematch now?" Kesai growled, rubbing his eyes and looking back over to the half of the darkness team that could hear him. "Because, if you're not blind, you could see that we aren't going to fight back right now!"

"Which is why it's the perfect time to fight you both." Hayao snickered, holding out his book as it began to glow a bright and consuming black. "It'll be easy to snuff you both out if you're not strong enough to put in the energy to destroy us."

"You bastard." Kesai growled, standing in front of Kenja and holding his thin arms out. "You can't just come in here and try to fight somebody who's sickly!"

"I don't see why not." He snickered, holding out his book as Haruo held out a flat palm towards the two.

"Yujaga-"

"Stop!"

All attention turned to Kenja, who was forcing himself to get out of the bed, wearing nothing but comfortable pants and a shirt that was probably too big for him. "If you're going to fight us, you're not going to fight me inside of a hospital."

"Kenja..." Kesai muttered nervously, ears flattening against his head as he looked back over to Hayao, who seemed more amused by this than anything.

"I'll be fine." The blond said, forcing himself to smile slightly at the kitsune. His white blood cell count had been getting better everyday anyway, so he was sure he would be able to handle this. And if Kesai truly had the past with Haruo that he claimed to have, there was no way that the two of them were going to lost to the darkness duo.

"Fine then, let's take this outside."

.

.

.

Kesai didn't want them to be here, but by looking at how Kenja clasped their orange book to his chest, it was abundantly clear that the sickly bookreader had his heart set on fighting back. 'This isn't your fight, it's mine' he wanted to scream, 'this is something I need to carry, not you'

Nothing was spoken for a few moments as they stood on the cold grass of a nearby empty park, the two readers locking eyes for seconds before books were grabbed and spells were finally spoken.

"Yujaganshi!"

"Hi-Ken!"

Both demon children only had one thought in their mind when they held out their palms, feeling the energy and element of their first spell surge from their bodies; destroy. Kill the other, finally prove that I was the better of the two.

And yet, from the moment the flames of Hi-Ken left Kesai's hands, he knew that he couldn't be the one with the more powerful spell. He was going to be the weaker one in this battle.

Kenja wasn't in the state to provide him with the energy that he needed. He couldn't be as strong as Haruo, not when things were like this. Raw strength, that couldn't be achieved when you have a partner that isn't in the right state..

-How... How are we going to win...?-

The two attacks combined, the darkness easily swallowing up the flames and smashing into Kesai's body, sending the fire kitsune flying back and smashing into the ground.

"Not feeling up to fighting, are you?"

Kesai growled, looking up to meet the red eyes of Haruo. "Shut. Up."

"Oh, come on, wouldn't it be better to admit what's going to happen if you fight back?" The darkness demon snickered, standing over the kitsune who then forced himself to stand up, sweat beading on his forehead as he glanced over to Kenja and nodded.

"Hi-Ken!"

Once again, it was the same weak flames that fled from the fire demon's hands, Kesai's ears flattening as he wondered if Kenja knew anything about it, watching Haruo study the flames for a moment before snickering.

"Yuyouko!"

Without enough time to process it, Kesai only let one thing consume his mind; run. A powerful beam of darkness shot out of his hand, the darkness shooting straight through the flames and heading straight for the kitsune. He was intending to run, trying to move as fast as possible and even then, his leg was clipped by the attack and sending him into the ground.

"Kesai?" Kenja muttered, the guilt and concern in his voice only making Kesai feel horrible about it.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He muttered, trying to force himself up and feeling the seething burn of a leg that had been hit with a spell much more powerful than himself in that moment. "Just... just focus."

"Don't want to tell him the truth, huh?" Haruo snickered, as he took a step closed to the kitsune, watching him favor his weight on his left side as his right ankle began to bleed.

"Shut up!" Kesai shouted, lunging forward with his hands balled into fists. Haruo easily dodging it as he snickered. "Lying to your partner, what a wonderful thing to do!"

"Shut up!" Kesai lunged forward, trying to punch the darkness demon only for Haruo to side step and easily dodge it, causing Kesai to trip over his own two feet and fall forward.

"Kesai?"

The fire demon's ears flattened against his hair, slowly turning his head so he could meet the wide azure eyes of his bookreader, seeing the desperation for the truth and opening his mouth only for Haruo to smash his foot into the kitsune's right hand, making the fire demon scream out in pain.

"You don't see it, huh?" The dark demon snickered, looking up at Kenja with all three of his eyes focused solely on the blond. "Surely you must be confused about why your spells are suddenly so weak. Why I'm overpowering Kesai's attacks like they're nothing."

"Kenja." Kesai forced out between grunts and cries of pain. "Don't listen to him! It's not your fault You can't help it."

"Oh really, so it's not his fault he's an inadequate bookreader?" Haruo asked, pushing his foot further into Kesai's hand as the demon child screamed. "It's not his fault that if you had been given a stronger partner, that you would be winning right now? That you wouldn't be fighting back with weak fire spells? That him being weak, is making you weak in return? How could it possibly be the fault of the person giving you the power to use spells!?" The maliciousness in Haruo's voice paralyzing Kenja in a moment of shocked revelation.

This was all his fault.

Kesai's cries had finally died down as Haruo took a step back, kicking the fire demon aside and walking back over to his bookreader.

"Kenja..." The fire demon whispered, beginning to force himself to stand up as he looked over to his partner in a moment of silent guilt and concern. "Please, Kenja, please, it's okay."

"I'm sorry." The blond said quietly, taking a shaky step forward as Kesai looked away from him, shaking his head no. "Kesai, I never knew that... That I was holding you back. I am so sorry that I haven't been the partner that you deserved. Kesai, I am so sorry. I thought that I was helping you get stronger by being your partner, but I never meant to hinder your strength by being sick. I'm sorry that you got stuck with a partner like me, that you were given somebody like me instead of a partner that you deserved. You should be so much stronger... but I held you back." His eyes watering slightly as he gripped the book tightly to his chest.

"Shut up, Kenja."

The bookreader stopped in his tracks, frowning as his partner refused to look at him. "Just call out a spell... let`s do this."

"Kesai..."

"Now!" He barked, his voice cracking a bit with emotion as he balled his hands into fists.

"Nisemono!"

The trickery fox was formed from fire, looking more like a fox kit than a grown adult thanks to Kenja's lack of strength in that moment. Haruo looking over to Kesai to see the raw emotion and frustration as his lips curled into a smirk of satisfaction. "You really think this trick is going to work on me? I know your deception attacks, Kesai." The demon lunging forward with his hand curled into a fist. "But you're so desperate, you'll try anything, huh!?"

"Yujaganshi!"

"Naegi!"

Haruo was too focused on trying to hit Kesai to notice the seed that was placed on his body in a flash, Kesai then jumping backwards and trying to dodge the ball of darkness only for it to hit him in the hip, the red headed demon crying out as he hit the ground once again.

"And your spell didn't even work!" The darkness demon laughed. "Looks like your bookreader really is weak! No wonder you two got stuck together!"

"But if I can't give him the energy he needs, you can!"

Haruo jerked, turning to see the blond bookreader panting, a smirk painted on his face. "But, I guess you're too delusional to see that."

"W-What are you talking about?" Haruo growled, only to notice the plant that seemed to be sprouting out of his chest. "What the hell is that!?" Vines beginning to sprout from the plant and dig into his body, sapping energy from the dark demon. Haruo then watching in horror as Kesai began to stand up, the wounds on his body and the exhaustion on his face beginning to heal completely. And Haruo began to feel more exhausted by the moment.

"And this is why he is my partner." Kesai smirked. "Because there isn't another person out there who could pull me out of any bad situation like he does. Nobody else could use a strategy spell like my bookreader. Just because he's sick doesn't mean he's some useless partner that I got stuck with, it just makes us stronger than everybody around me, because we are winning even though we have the odds against us."

Haruo growled, leaning against the ground as Kesai snickered, looking back over to Kenja only to notice that their book had erupted into orange light.

"It's about time." The demon smirked, turning back around to look at the weakened Haruo and cracking his knuckles. "Now come on, let's end this."

"Fureimurasshu!"

Kesai felt himself surge with the energy of the spell and the energy he stole from Haruo, rushing forward as his body burst into literal flames. And yet he felt no pain from it, releasing a yell from his lungs as he lunged forward and right into the body of his long time rival, listening to the sound of Haruo screaming.

-Get out! Get out!-

Within moments, Haruo was on the ground, Kesai landing on his feet as the powerful flames on his body began to extinguish. "Now, get the hell out of here." He growled, looking at the pitiful demon, now covered in burns. Hayao rushed over, picking his partner up as he backed away for a moment before bolting away.

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.

.

"Thank you."

Kesai jerked as he looked up to the exhausted Kenja as the two of them walked back to the hospital. "Thank you? For what?"

"For finding use in me." Kenja said, seeing the look in Kesai's eyes and shushing him before he could speak. "Listen to me for a moment, alright?"

Kesai nodded slowly.

"I know you don't think anything of it, but a lot of demons would have considered me a curse to be partnered with. I know you don't see that, but it still means quite a lot to me that you see so much in me. I'm glad that out of the thousand demons that came to our world, that I managed to end up with you as my partner."

The kitsune felt tears begin to well up in his eyes, not wanting to rub them away in a moment of fragility as Kenja bent down. "Are you alright?"

"Thank you, too." He whispered as Kenja pulled him into a hug. "Thank you for putting up with me, even though it's probably hard to do. I know it would be easier if I had strong attacks, but thank you for using me even though it's hard."

"Ssh." Kenja whispered, feeling Kesai's tears fall onto his neck. "It's alright. I wouldn't have it any other way."