I know, I know, long time no see and why did you delete this story two months ago? I'm sorry, I went through an Rping fiasco and at the time I figured the best thing to do would be to delete my Fanfiction account, which you can see didn't work very well. All of my other stories probably won't be back, but I was watching some anime recently and I remembered this story and figured I should try to bring it to life one last time. If you're an old reader of mine and you never met your character in this story, PLEASE resend him/her because I've sadly lost their data if you placed them in a review.

Just so you know, I will be releasing a new chapter every day I can until I go on vacation, which is this weekend. From there I am gone for three weeks, which gives me time to see if I should indeed revive this story. If it does well, Demon Battle Rises will make a comeback, if not, well we'll think about that when the time is more appropriate.

So, without further ado, let's dig back in to the revised first chapter of an old fanfiction I do regret deleting, but am thrilled I saved. Enjoy,

xKiha

Gash did not want to do this.

What he had to do was the one thing he had fought against one thousand years ago and why he wanted to become king. Now he was getting old and his time of being able to rule the demon world was growing short. He was horribly stressed and he was afraid of making the wrong choice, running his hand through his short and thinning blond hair with frustration.

"Gash."

The demon king turned to see Tio, his lovely wife, walking into the main room with a worried look upon her face as she took a step closer to him. "Gash, are you alright?"

All the aged man could do was shake his head, unable to explain just how he was feeling in that moment with normal words. Tio already knew though, walking to Gash's side and saying. "I know this is going to be hard, but we know there is no other choice."

"You do not think I don't know that!?" Gash shouted as his fist smashed into the arm of the throne he was sitting on, surprised by the volume of his voice and checking to make sure he didn't break the chair. "I do not mean to yell, it is just that the thought of putting one hundred children through another demon battle hurts me greatly. We fought against this, almost lost one another trying to stop it from ever happening to another set of kids."

Tio nodded, her voice caring and understanding. "I know it is, but there is no other way." Taking his hand and cradling it in her own two palms. "You only need to choose the proper children who can bring a future to the demon world. Choose only those who you believe deserve it."

The king sighed, a soft look in his eyes. "That is what I shall be doing." Tio smiling warmly and saying. "That is the Gash I know."

Deep in his heart, Gash Bell knew there was no other choice and he was going to be doing what he had to. Yet he promised himself to not force any demon into the battle, that the children who would go would all be chosen because they deserved to be in the competition. Well almost all of them, one child was an exception.

This boy was not too keen on fighting, but Gash had known this child for quite a while and could see the potential hidden beneath his innocent eyes. This child would be sent to the human world no matter how much he whined or tried to convince the king otherwise.

Gash would never regret that choice and the child would forever be grateful.

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'I do not belong, or at least I feel like something is not right with me. That I am missing something about myself, that I am not doing something I need to. Oh, everybody in class is giving me that weird look again. They're all looking at me! I'm already panicking and they all know it, they know I'm a coward...and they think it's funny.'

Kimiko sat in the Freshman class 3-D of Seki High School with her attention on the window separating her and the cold rain, she felt people's eyes on her. This was only normal; everybody in the school had already been friends and knew everyone else well. By the time she transferred to Seki it was too late. Or at least it felt that way when she found herself alone for most of the time.

Something continued to stick in her mind that felt haunting, a dream she had the night before. A dream that she could still vividly remember and picture. Everything had felt so real that it almost felt like a memory, but that could not be. She was sure none of that had ever happened to her, after all she was still fifteen in that dream.

What she had seen; it had been a child. It was a child with a smile on his lips and tears of joy in his eyes, leaving trails of water down his thin cheeks. She had not seen proper features of this little boy, all she had seen was his shadowed body and face with emotions owning it. All the child had done was cry with joy while repeating her name over and over in a soft and yet overjoyed tone. For whatever reason it was, this made Kimiko want to cry as well; but these tears were of sadness instead of the joy the kid was crying for. She swallowed, afraid of emotionally responding to this confusing memory once more, finding that even still, this made her want to cry.

"Isahowa, Kimiko Isahowa."

The girl turned to see her teacher, standing up and avoiding the looks of all her fellow peers. "Yes?" All eyes were on her, people that did not know her and believed her to be anti-social staring hatefully while she trembled. Others who had met her and managed to meet the shy side began giggling, joking against Kimiko with their eager to listen friends.

The teacher only smiled to her in an encouraging way, gently saying. "I want you to solve this problem."

Kimiko stared at the board, oh she hated math. "Okay." Staring at the problem as her cheeks flushed. She did not want to make a mistake, taking a while to try to figure out the problem as her fellow peers only watched and began to snicker at the girl struggling. Kimiko taking a little while to think everything through before meekly whispering. "The answer is one hundred seventeen point five."

"Actually, the answer is one hundred eighteen point six, but you were very close."

The girl blushed madly with embarrassment, looking at the floor as she sat down. The people around her began to snicker as they watched the girl place her head down, burying her face in her trembling arms with humiliation boiling inside of her.

'I only wish I had a reason to be here. That there was a reason I am living this life and why I should even try to keep going at this point.'

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'I need to hurry, if I don't then something bad is going to happen! I'll get beaten before the battle even begins! Then they'll all just going to keep thinking that I'm that little baby that hold my own. B-But, they might be right, I really could be that baby. Because if I'm honest, the thing I really want to do is quit.'

Tsumi, a young demon child, stood in the rain soaked to the skin. He was cold and exhausted and yet he knew he had to find his book partner by what he wished to be the end of the day. As a demon alone in the world all he could do was find the person who could read his book before anything else. He did not remember how long ago this battle had begun or even how long he had been in the human world. All he felt was fear and panic as he tried to race against time to find the only human he would need to rely on.

"Please, could you look at this?" The boy said, holding out the dark purple book he had been given before he was sent to this cursed place. "Could you take a look at this?" People only passed or stared at a few of the pages for a moment before stating that they could not. Failure was what he felt.

Tsumi did not even want any part in this battle; he had no interest in fighting for a crown he felt he could never deserve. However, the king had always been a friend of the boy's and had almost forced him onto the list of one hundred demon children to be sent to Earth. The child had eventually given up on arguing against him and soon woke up in Japan all on his own.

"Get out of the street kid!"

The demon child was shoved by a high school boy, falling into a puddle of water dirtied by passing cars and bicycles. His wide eyes only stared at the laughing group of teenagers, holding his book close to his chest and beginning to whimper.

One of the high school boys snickering, seeming to take a bit of pleasure in Tsumi's pain, voice a deep taunting mess. "Look at the little kid, where are your parents? Did they leave you all on your own?"

'They're dead.' Tsumi thought, biting onto his lip as he turned from them. If any of them were his readers he had no interest in this fight, figuring the rational decision would then be to simply burn through the pages or begging another demon to destroy him.

"What are you doing?" Another said, watching the boy walk away from them, going and standing in the spot he had been in before he had been pushed. "Go home kid!" Tsumi refusing to even give them a glimpse, shivering in his soaking cloak.

"He is not worth our time. Let's get going."

The boy waited until he was sure the high school boys were gone to sit on a curb and bury his head in his knees with a whimper and a gentle sniffle. He was even more frightened than ever, he wasn't strong or anything and now he was wet and lost. Could this get worse?

'I need to find them soon, my time is running out.'

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Kimiko was grateful that she had actually brought an umbrella with her just in case of rain, leaving the school all alone as she always did. She had a few things on her mind, remembering that she needed to pick up a few things at the store for her mother.

Walking through the streets of Hokkaido with her umbrella over her body, glad she was dry as the rain pelted the ground under her, seeming to almost hum a sad melody for the people unlucky enough to be pelted with the falling water.

A shadow suddenly began to get much closer to her, a figure stumbling on the sidewalk in her direction. "A child?" The girl whispered to herself in a bit of confusion.

Sure enough, it was a little boy headed in her direction.

Even thought he was not close enough for Kimiko to see him in detail she knew he was exhausted just by the way he carried his weight. Not to mention that he was soaking wet, his shivers causing his balance to be very off as he tried to walk up to her as quickly as he could.

This sight worried the girl who began to wonder what type of parent would allow their child outside and alone in such weather. Obviously not proper parents, but were they not worried? Kimiko herself had younger siblings and she would never allow them to do such a thing in fear of them getting sick or even lost.

However, as the boy got closer the teenager noticed that he had an eager look on his exhausted face; he was excited maybe thrilled to see her even though they had never met before.

She stopped as he got closer, inspecting the child. He wore a black body suit and a dark purple almost black cloak with dark purple shoes. His skin was a pale grey color, his eyes a soft purple full of life. He stood at the height of an elementary school student, a dark purple book in his small hands.

"Miss!" The exhausted boy said as he finally caught up with her, trying to keep his balance while he stood up straight, continuing to tremble. "Could you...could you please take time to see if you can rea-."

To the shock of Kimiko, the child fell to the ground right before her. She knew he had been tired but that felt too much. He was suffering badly if he was exhausted enough to collapse on the street at the feet of a complete stranger.

"You poor thing." The girl whispered, bending down and picking up the child. His parents were no doubt careless and probably did not worry about their son but she was concerned. "I guess you will be coming home with me, I can't just leave you here on the street in this kind of weather."

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'Ugh, where am I? What is this place?'

Tsumi opened his eyes, knowing something was different just by the warmth this space was giving off. He found himself laying on a white futon in a red bedroom. Close to the futon was a bed dressed with a red duvet with black floral patterns and a black dresser and side table close by.

How could this be?

The last memory he had was trying to give his book to a nice looking girl wearing a High School uniform. Did he ever give her his book? If so, was she just another useless person or was she able to read it? Oh, did he just loose his one true partner?

His book!

The boy was in shock after thinking that through, leaping out of the futon and beginning to search the room in a frenzy. This was not a good thing, if she had his book she might be put into danger. Demons would probably assume she was his book reader, and if she wasn't she'd be forced to pay a price for something she was never involved in in the first place.

'All because of me.' Tsumi thought, beginning to worry about what could happen.

That is when the door to this room opened, Kimiko seeing the child in utter panic. "Looks like you are awake and lively."

The boy released a dresser drawer he had started to open, nodding softly. All of a sudden he began to have a more innocent and shy quality to him. "Uh-huh."

"I am glad." The girl said, walking over to the boy and kneeling so they were eye-level. She had a worried look in her hazel eyes. "Are you okay?" Placing her hands on his forehead and cheeks to check for a fever, finding that he wasn't alarmingly warm to her relief.

"Yes, I am much better now." He slowly whispered, gazing down at his feet.

Kimiko smiled only for a moment before saying softly. "Where are your parents?"

The boy blinked, unable to come up with the perfect lie right there on the spot. "My parents are gone for the weekend." His voice quiet and soft.

"I see." The teenager replied, frowning to herself before turning to the boy and placing her hand on the top of his head and smiling. "Well, looks like you will be staying with me for a while then, or at least until they come back to get you. My name is Kimiko."

Tsumi was a bit shocked, she not only bought the lie he had told, but she had also decided until his 'parents' returned he would be in her care. Could she even do something like that? Whatever the case was, this girl was different from others and he was not sure exactly why. "M-My name is Tsumi."

"Well Tsumi, you will be staying here for a while." Kimiko stood up, smiling as she sat on the bed close to what he know assumed would be his futon.

The boy nodded, sitting down before his previous thought line returned to his mind. She must have had his book! "Um, Kimiko?"

"Yes?"

The demon child wrung his hands together, blinking nervously. "I had a book when you found me, do you...do you know where that book is?"

"Yeah." The teenage girl replied, comfortably lying down on her bed with a sigh of satisfaction. "What was with all of those funny characters? I..."

Tsumi took in a breath, beginning to lay down on the futon. So she was not his book reader after all. The boy felt both disappointed and relieved that this nice girl would not have to suffer while fighting alongside him. It was a good thing, right?

"I do have one question. How come I can only read that little bit that's dark purple instead of violet and what is this first spell?"

The demon child's world crashed down in that moment, whimpering as he shook his head and refused to show that this meant anything at all. This was not what he wanted, he did not even want to be sent into such a thing and yet here he was now.

Before him stood Kimiko, a person willing to bring a wet and strange child to her home only because she worried about him. He did not want to put her though something like this, it would be too much to watch and for him to allow.

"It's nothing, just a book I like to read from a foreign nation."

To protect this person, he was going to lie right to her trusting face and hope that every time she would believe him. He was not sure where this would get him, but this is what he would do just to protect her from the daunting truth that shielded him down. He only could see Kimiko getting hurt, see her going through a lot of suffering and pain only because he was her one true partner. To watch her suffer because he was here to fight for the royal lifestyle, because she agreed to help him only because he wanted to accomplish it.

"Oh, I wonder what language it is then." Kimiko said gently, watching the ceiling. "Probably somewhere very far away."

"Yeah, it's almost impossible to see it or get to there."

Tsumi swallowed, demon world and the secret of the book would have to remain under lock and key. It was the only way. He'd stay until she thought he would go back home and then he'd quit, he'd find and demon and allow himself to be destroyed.

The last thing Tsumi ever wanted to be was a burdon.