Hey guys!
So, I know that you wanted this do be finished a bit earlier, but now we have it done and there isn't really much for me to say about it besides the fact that this one is a bit of a mess of people before finally kicking off the second arc! I'm pretty happy about this, since everything changes with this chapter! But, other than that, I know you guys are going to want to read the chapter and not listen or read me babbling on and on about this. So yeah, see you all super soon and enjoy the chapter!
xKiha
"On the outskirts of Otaru today, another of those peculiar statues has appeared, this time on the side of the road. Once again, although the artist remains unknown, the lifelike quality of the statues are impressive enough that people have crowded the streets to admire the odd piece of art. Although the creature that was created isn't one we're familiar with, we can say for certain that seeing a piece like this near Otaru is an exciting delight."
Kyoshiro Yakage turned off the television, not wanting to hear any more of what was being broadcast. This meant that whatever Kimiko had seen that day was coming, and they had absolutely no army to stop just whatever this woman truly was. It was frustrating, to realize just how close war was now and just how they couldn't evade it.
But without the Alliance working as one unit, Kyo had absolutely no idea what to expect about who would react and how when they went after this enemy.
If somebody thought another got in their way, would they fight them? Kyo didn't want to imagine it, the idea of Cheshire and Aislinn destroying Roku and Yumi or Michael and Shura facing Kimiko and T, just none of it felt right to him.
"You're frightened, aren't you?" Amera sighed, seeing the pale look on her reader's face.
"Of course I am… you heard the news… That woman and her child bookreader are getting closer and yesterday didn't exactly spell victory for our group since everybody is starting to turn against everybody." Kyo said down at the table beside her, slumping backwards. "I just don't know what we're going to do now. Everything was so clear when we were going to fight Xenolith, but now that everybody is questioning everybody, I have no clue what's going to happen now."
"It'll pass, it always does." Amera returned, looking to her bookreader worriedly. "None of them can stay mad at Kimiko or anybody else forever, not after all we have been through with each other."
"Where did Michael even get this idea?"
"I don't know… but the only reason he did this in the first place was out of fear." The demon replied. "Something or somebody planted doubt in his head and that's why he's acting like this. Sometimes, the hardest things to accept are the dangers that were right in front of you that you never thought were dangerous in the first place."
Kyo nodded, unable to suppress the sigh that fled his lips, feeling as frustrated as ever. "I just can't believe nobody disagreed with him, that they all jumped on the bandwagon to start blaming everybody, calling out anybody they could for being a possible threat."
"In a way… they're not wrong."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Well, Kyo, you let enough people in and eventually one of them is going to be willing to turn against you for their own benefits. Somebody doing this while in the demon battle doesn't sound too farfetched, no matter who the friends are or how long they have been together."
Kyo frowned, looking over to his partner. "So even you considered this as a possibility?"
"Of course I did." Amera sighed. "But, I'm still willing to put my trust in those willing to trust us, because I doubt any of us could have beaten Xenolith on our owns, and I doubt that we could truly take down this statue demon if we were all working separately."
"If only the others could see that." Kyo sighed.
"They will… It's just going to take them some time to realize it."
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"Just how much are we supposed to trust these others anyways?"
Aislinn looked up to meet Cheshire's silver eyes, then looking back down at her cup. It was a headache, remembering all of these people. And now on top of having to recollect all of them, she was being asked about how much she and by extension Cheshire, should be trusting these confusing names. "I don't know."
Hell, the only reason that she had joined them in the first place was because Kimiko annoyed her to the point where saying yes felt like the only option they could choose.
"The only think I want to do concerning them," Cheshire growled, curling her paws while letting her claws come out. "Is make sure that I prove to that stupid poison demon's other half that I am not weaker than him."
Aislinn didn't remember that part, but with how negatively Cheshire spoke about it, she was a little glad she didn't remember what sounded like the biggest humiliation that her partner ever faced. "But, we don't have to trust them to do that?"
"No, it would make it a hell of a lot easier if we didn't trust them and I got to slit that brat's throat." Cheshire ran one of her claws against the table, snickering at the sound of wood cracking under the slight press of her claw's tip into it.
"They did help us get stronger though… Right?"
Cheshire looked at her bookreader, ears flattening. "They took us to help fight Xenolith… but they never exactly had us help them with the actual man. They let us fight one of his underlings and then took him on by themselves. So much for teamwork when you take the hardest part for themselves.
"Xenolith would have made us so much stronger… But instead we had the difficult part taken away from us and given to the two rookies we took down forever ago. And now they're going to try and take this statue demon away from us too."
Aislinn vaguely remembered one of the men, maybe it was Kyo, yelling at Kimiko yesterday about things, potentially this statue demon. "So, what will we do instead?"
"We're going to burn the book of this demon on our own, like we should have done with Xenolith back in December." Cheshire growled. "Nobody to stand in the way and try to take what should be ours, just us and this demon that is turning other demons into statues."
Something about that didn't sound completely right to Aislinn, but she couldn't deny she liked the idea of going out there with Cheshire and being able to take care of this situation by themselves. It would be a challenge, but that was the idea that drew the both of them to it. It had to be difficult with an opponent who decorated the surrounding areas of Japan with those she was stronger than, she was no run of the mill opponent for the two of them.
"She left a statue outside of Otaru. I have no doubts that she is either here or going to be here soon." Cheshire said, a wicked smile spreading itself across her face. "But I'm sure she will be pleasantly horrified to meet both of us in Otaru, ready to kill her once the moment is right."
Aislinn couldn't help but smile in return. Surely if they had a battle that big on the horizon, she would remember this one forever.
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"You cannot really be doubting people right now! These are our friends, not animals that we picked up off the streets!" Kenja Sedai was in a huff, something he didn't exactly enjoy being in on the third day of his release from the hospital, but that seemed to be how today was going to be. He, along with Kesai, Flynn and Setsuna, had been meeting at a local fast food place for lunch and it wasn't exactly going according to plan for all of them.
"I can't help but doubt." Setsuna sighed, gripping his cup a bit too tightly as soda spilled from the edges. "Michael did have a point, Cheshire could decide to step on Kesai at any point and take him out."
"Wait, why Cheshire?" Flynn frowned, turning to his best friend. "Aislinn and Cheshire aren't the type to just turn around and hurt you! Aislinn's a sweet girl on the inside!"
"Says the boy who has a crush on her," Setsuna returned. "It wouldn't be that surprising if Cheshire decided she was sick of this and cornered one of the weaker members of the Alliance and took them out."
"I'm not weak." Kesai muttered spitefully, but his ears drooped in hurt.
"I'm not saying you are," Setsuna said, but didn't exactly seem apologetic about it in that moment. "What I'm saying is that at any moment, nothing is stopping Cheshire or anybody else from turning their backs on everybody and spilling blood from our team."
"Aislinn wouldn't do that to us." Flynn returned.
"She sure as hell could. She's one of the coldest members of the group and you can never tell just what she and Cheshire are thinking. Even if she is this sweet girl that you say she is, have you met her demon partner? Cheshire is as detached as you can get!"
"Stop talking about them like that… you don't know who they really are." Flynn muttered. "They're not cold monsters, Set, they're still our friends."
"And I'm trying to protect those who are important to me!" Setsuna returned, Kesai's ears flattened against his head in dismay while Kenja sat back in his seat. "If they decide to turn their backs on anybody, to get rid of competition, who do you think they're going to go after?! It sure as hell isn't going to be somebody they think is actually worth keeping around."
"Setsuna, you should stop…" Flynn muttered, looking away from him and trying not to seethe.
"Look, Michael was right. Anybody could turn against anybody at any point and that's only going to mean that we lose people like Kesai all the quicker!"
"Kesai?"
Setsuna jerked at the sound of Kenja's voice, hearing the hint of worry in his voice and seeing Kesai standing himself up from the table and beginning to walk away.
"Kesai? What are you doing?" Setsuna asked, a hint of worry in his own voice.
"I don't want to talk to you if you're going to say stuff like that."
"Say what?"
"I don't want to talk to you if all you're going to do is talk bad about me like I'm not right there!" The kitsune shouted, tears blurring in his forest green eyes. "I know I'm not that strong, that I'm weak, but you don't have to make it so obvious to everybody!"
"Kesai… I didn't…" Setsuna muttered in a bit of shock, not too sure how to comfort the demon child before the kitsune ran out of the place completely.
"Kenja, I didn't know that…" Setsuna found himself saying when he watched his boyfriend stand himself up, shaking his head to himself in silent frustration.
"No… Thank you," Kenja grunted as he stood up, collecting his things. "Thank you for showing me just how much you believe in me and Kesai. We might not be as physically strong as Cheshire, but it's not like we are so weak that we would be taken out without hesitation."
"You know I didn't mean it that way." Setsuna said. "I just don't want you two to be hurt, for somebody stronger to decide they wanted to destroy you two and do it."
"We can take care of ourselves, Setsuna." Kenja said. "But thank you for your concern. The weakest members always need to be supported, otherwise nobody will remember why they're around if they can't really help the stronger members win."
With that, Kenja left in pursuit of Kesai, leaving Flynn and Setsuna sitting across one another, the frustrated junior sitting down and placing his head in his hands. "I wasn't calling them weak… You know that, right?"
"You did make it sound like you were doubting them both because you thought they were easy targets for anybody who decided to go rogue." Flynn said. "But seriously, do you have to insult Aislinn and Cheshire like they are some kind of evil group? Just because you don't know her like I do, doesn't mean that you can just decide that they're out to get your boyfriend. Even if you meant well by saying these things, you can't just insult Aislinn like that, she isn't what you have decided you are at all."
"I… I should go." Setsuna sighed. "No point in talking about these people if they're not going to be here, and if Kenja and Kesai don't want us to keep an eye on them."
"Setsuna…"
"I'll see you later, Flynn." Setsuna said, standing himself up and leaving the building, leaving Flynn on his own to try and come to terms with everything that he just saw. Setsuna and possibly the flame duo mistrusting Aislinn, along with Kesai and Kenja trying to fight against the idea of being weak and useless to the group.
"God… What is happening to all of us? This really can't be how this ends for all of us, not after we've done so much to stay together."
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"Thanks, Terry. I guess we will be seeing you when we do." Kimiko said as she hung up the phone, looking around at the night sky and shaking her head. She couldn't believe all of this, the whole being exiled by the Alliance only for a statue to show up right outside of Otaru. It was like the demon knew just when to strike, just when to come after them after things became worse for everybody that could fight against her.
"So he said yes?" Tsumi nervously asked, wringing his fingers together.
"He said he's not sure when he can train in, but he will do his best to be here tomorrow." Kimiko replied, then reaching for her old school bag and removing all of her summer homework from it. "But, we have to focus on getting to where we need to go right now."
"Wait… is it really a good idea for us to go investigate the statue right now?" Tsumi asked nervously.
"It has to be. At least if we go see it at night, we won't have to worry about other people trying to get involved and then possibly get into danger."
Tsumi wanted to bring up how they should at least call somebody and ask for their assistance, but it was clear that nobody was going to want to help them check out this statue after what happened the day before. He still didn't feel dangerous, but there was no point in fighting something that everybody practically jumped on the bandwagon to support. They were allegedly at fault and that was how it was going to be.
"Don't stress about it, Tsu." Kimiko sighed, placing their spellbook in her bag. "Even if she does show up and tries to attack us, we have T on our side, we will be okay. I know it."
From the way that everybody talked about his other half, it didn't exactly sound like he was a very pleasant creature. If anything, he just sounded pretty scary.
"Are you sure that bringing T into this is a good idea?" Tsumi asked. "I mean, the others don't make him sound like he's anything we would want to be allied with."
"I know, but he's there with us for a reason. It's not like Xenolith was looking for him just for entertainment. Something is up with that spell and we are going to continue to use it until we figure out just why all of it is in our book."
Tsumi hesitated for a moment before nodding, following Kimiko out of the door as the two of them headed to where the news had stated time and time again that the demon statue was. But the entire time, Tsumi couldn't help but question just what was happening to them now. He felt uneasy, sick and worried about everything that was happening right then. It just didn't feel right, none of it did.
"Are you hoping that we are going to find her with the statue?" Tsumi found himself asking as they reached the outskirts of Otaru.
"Well… It would be easier." The sophomore found herself muttering, continuing walking forward so her partner couldn't look at her face. "I know we can handle it, if we really have to fight her that is…"
"How do you know we can stand up to her?" Tsumi said. "We barely stood up to Xenolith and made it out okay. If she's any stronger than Xenolith, than we can't promise that we are going to make it out of here okay, if at all."
"…I know we can do it, Tsumi." She said, quite a bit of ferocity in her voice when she said this. "Leave all of the worrying and figuring out to me, okay?"
The demon child didn't want to agree, but he knew that trying to fight with Kimiko at this point would be almost pointless for both of them. He brought himself to grunt in false agreement, following behind her quietly.
They were getting closer, but it was then that Kimiko stopped dead in her tracks.
"Kimi? What's wrong?"
That's when he noticed it, the statue in the distance, but being the entrance marker of what appeared to be a large stone maze. It appeared to span throughout the once fauna filled field, the plain grey stone walls tall and strong looking.
"What do you think that is?" Tsumi whispered.
"It looks like some kind of labyrinth…" Kimiko said. "It's got to be some kind of threat… Clearly she is trying to mock us, by building something huge just to mock anybody who knows who and what she is."
"What are we going to do?" The poison demon asked.
"We are going to go inside!" Kimiko said bluntly, walking towards the large stone maze. "We can't just leave it here, people could wander into here and get hurt if somebody doesn't stop her."
"Shouldn't we call somebody first though? Going in there alone, that can't be a good idea."
Kimiko shook her head, clenching her hands into fists as she continued to walk forward and towards the stone labyrinth. "Nobody is going to come to help us, remember? We are a threat, we are only going to backstab them… If they are going to think we are only there to betray them, then we are going to do this all by ourselves."