Hub World, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.
After Tatsuo and Tio got back home, Tio immediately headed to her room to prepare for the trip to the Scattered Cherry Blossoms Universe. Meanwhile, Tatsuo went to find Kasumi and Ayane to ask if they wanted to come with him.
Finding his adopted sisters did not take long, as they were both in the training room with Sumire and Mai. And to Tatsuo's surprise, Mai, Kasumi, and Ayane were all sparring against Sumire, which was unusual because Sumire usually sparred with everyone one-on-one.
Even more surprising than the group battle was the fact that Sumire was still fighting them off with only her left hand. Though, Tatsuo noticed that Sumire was moving significantly faster than she usually does during her spars with everyone. {Pic}
"This is gonna take a little longer." Tatsuo muttered while watching the sparring match. "Well, I wasn't planning to leave immediately, anyway. I'll just let James know it will be a little while before I show up."
{[Dimensional Chat]
Tatsuo (Admin): James
James: Yeah, what's up?
James: You coming over now?
Tatsuo (Admin): Not quite
Lici: Why don't you ever come here to visit?
Tatsuo (Admin): I'm waiting for Mom to finish sparring with Kasumi-Neechan and Ayane-Oneesan
Lici: I wanna see Natsu's face when you use dragon slayer magic
Tatsuo (Admin): And when they're done, I'm gonna see if they wanna come along, too
Alfonzo: He'll come eventually, Lici
Tatsuo (Admin): Oh, and Tio is coming, too
Tatsuo (Admin): So, either prepare yourself or hide Ayame somewhere
James: Damn it
Alfonzo: Oof
Lici: It will be like when Virgo and Darkness meet
Momo: What do you mean?
Aletia: Masochists
Aletia: Perverts
Akatsuki: That sounds even worse than Naotsugu
James: It's pretty bad
James: whenever they get to talking, everyone's sanity points drop noticeably
Tatsuo (Admin): Yeah...
James: Anyway
James: We'll be ready when you get here
James: It will be at the house in Kuoh again
Tatsuo (Admin): I wanted to see the purple sky in the Underworld
Violet: Purple sky?
Momo: Interesting
Zelretch: I'd like to see it, as well
James: I can send pictures
Alfonzo: Although I already know the sky in the Underworld is purple
Alfonzo: it still sounds like some kind of acid trip to me
Lici: Have you ever tripped on acid?
Violet: Do they have acid in Earth Land?
Akatsuki: Drugs are bad
Momo: Acid has been completely phased out in my time
Alfonzo: No
Alfonzo: I've never triied acid
Alfonzo: I don't know if it exists in Earth Land, either
Alfonzo: But I have surfed the internet in T's world
Zelretch: Ohoho
James: I wonder...
Tatsuo: Mhmm
Violet: Makes sense
Momo: I understand
James: Anyway, I gotta start getting ready for Tatsuo to get here
James: So, I'll talk to you all later}
Scattered Cherry Blossoms Universe, Human World, Japan, Kuoh.
"Alright, everybody!" James shouted as he walked down the stairs from the second floor of the Human World's Alaverus Estate with his personal maid, Zest, trailing behind him. "Listen up."
Hearing James, everyone in the living room, namely Leona, Venelana, Grayfia, Lilith, Scáthach, Rias, Akeno, Sona, Cú Chulainn, Issei, Asia, Koneko, and Kuroka, looked up towards the stairs.
"What's up, Sweetie?" Leona asked casually. "Did you come up with a new idea for a manga, or something?"
"Nah." James replied while waving dismissively as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "it's much more fun than that. A lot shorter, too."
"What has you so excited, my disciple?" Scáthach asked in interest.
"Tatsuo's coming in a little while." James replied with a smile. He then turned to Grayfia and Zest as he continued. "So, I'll need you two to get refreshments and all that stuff ready. They may spend the night, too. So, get a few guest rooms ready, too."
"Yes, Master/Lord Sataniel." Zest and Grayfia said in unison before turning to stare at each other emotionlessly.
"Hasn't this gone on long enough?" Leona asked with an eyebrow raised. "I mean, it's been almost a year since Zest got here and you two still do this every time."
Neither Grayfia nor Zest replied to Leona's question, opting to stare at each other for a few seconds longer. Then, as if they had come to some kind of agreement, they both turned away and left to complete the tasks James assigned to them.
"Well, that went exactly the way I expected it to." James said with a smirk as he shrugged his shoulders.
"So, what should I do to get Tatsuo to join my peerage?" Venelana asked while looking up at the ceiling with a contemplative expression on her face.
"I would suggest you give up." Scáthach said. "On top of the odds of that boy actually agreeing being infinitesimally low, were his mother to find out, I believe she would raise quite the ruckus. And she gives me the feeling that she would not be easy to deal with."
"You felt the same way, Master?" James asked as he used the television remote to change the input.
"Hey! I was watching that!" Rias shrieked indignantly.
"Sorry, Ri Ri." James said as he reached up and patted her head. "But this is necessary."
"For what?" Rias asked in a huff while leaning into James' petting.
"For the other guests who might be coming." James replied with a smile.
"Ah, now that you mention it, you did say there would be more than just Tatsuo coming." Sona said while adjusting her glasses while squeezing herself between Rias and James.
"Hey, Sona! What do you think you're doing?" Rias exclaimed in annoyance.
"So, who is coming with him?" Sona asked while fending off Rias' attempts to move her. "Will it be the same two as last time?"
"You're half-right, Sona." James replied while turning on the video game console with the controller. He then continued while navigating through the dashboard to a certain game. "And this is the key to finding out who's coming."
"Oh! You're playing DOA?" Leona asked in an excited tone. "I want in."
"DOA is the key?" Sona asked rhetorically while stopping to think. "Didn't you tell us that Tatsuo's adopted sisters were from that franchise?"
"Exactly." James replied while starting Dead or Alive 5: Last Round. {A/N: The best game in the series, hands down.}
"So, you intend to surprise them with seeing their own likenesses in a video game?" Scáthach asked.
"Damn right." James exclaimed while simultaneously ducking Leona's hand that was aimed to slap him upside the head. "Can you imagine the looks on their faces when they see themselves in a video game?" {Pic}
"This is trippy, Nya." Kuroka said as she, in her cat form, walked across the couch's backrest. "To think we're going to meet characters from a game that James and Leona play all the time, Nya."
As Kuroka finished speaking, she stopped just behind James on the back of the couch. Then, she started pawing playfully at the back of James' head. But only a moment later, her sister, Koneko, picked her up by the scruff of her neck.
"Hey! Put me down, Nya!" Kuroka squealed while her legs hung limply. "I hate being picked up like this, Nya."
"Then, don't bother James-Nii while he's playing." Koneko said sternly.
"Nya! You're not even married yet." Kuroka said in an exaggerated tone of heartbreak. "But you're already siding with him. *Sniff* After you get married, you'll forget about me completely, won't you?"
"I've been trying to do that for years." Koneko replied with a deadpan.
*Poof!*
In the next instant, Kuroka, who was being held in Koneko's hand, burst into a cloud of smoke. A moment later, when the smoke cleared, Kuroka was in her human form. Then, she pounced on Koneko, both sisters falling to the floor.
"No! Don't forget about me, Nya!" Kuroka cried out mournfully.
"Get off, Nee-Sama!" Koneko shouted while trying to push Kuroka off of her.
Struggles like this between the two Nekoshou sisters were nothing new. So, no one in the living room paid much attention to it. But they were still curious to know if anyone else was coming with Tatsuo when he arrived later.
"So, you said Sona-Senpai was only half right." Issei said curiously. "Then, who else is coming with Soramoto-Kun? Is it going to be that scary blonde girl or the weird masochist girl with the huge oppai?"
While Issei spoke, Yaegashi Shizuku, a classmate who was caught up and transferred along with Tatsuo, Violet, and James during the Arifureta [Mission], stepped out of the elevator in the living room. And judging by her sweat-soaked training clothes, she had just finished training.
"Did you say Soramoto-Kun was coming?" Shizuku asked with a hint of excitement in her tone.
"Yup!" James replied. "He's bringing Tio and his sisters, too."
"*Sigh* It will be nice to see someone from my world... sort of." Shizuku said with a small smile. "it's kinda weird that I have memories of him but none of those memories were real."
"Oh, they were all real." James said. "Ha! Take that, Mom!"
"No! What kinda bullshit is that?" Leona growled. "How did your kick come off faster than my punch?"
"Tch! She can cuss as much as she wants while I get popped every time I do." James muttered. A moment later, he continued responding to Shizuku as his volume went back to normal. "Anyway, where was I? Oh, right? Those memories were real. Think of it like this. We lived lives up to the point our [Mission] started. Then, after that point, we were inserted into those lives, integrating the memories from both lives... Or something like that."
"I think I get it." Shizuku said after thinking about what James said for a about a minute.
However, James was not paying attention to Shizuku at that point, as he had to dive forward to catch the controller his mother threw towards the floor in frustration.
"Come on, Mom." James said with a frown. "Do you have any idea how expensive controllers are now-a-days?"
"Sorry." Leona said, having the decency to smile sheepishly as she did so. "I got kinda heated. Losing that bad in our first match is kind of an omen of how things are gonna go today."
"Grandma is bad enough." James muttered.
"What did you say, Boy?" Lilith asked with an eyebrow raised while her expression said there would be hell to pay if James' answer did not satisfy her.
"Nothing... Nothing at all, Grandma." James said as he climbed up from the floor and handed the controller back to his mother.
"As I thought." Lilith replied with a satisfied nod.
"He's never that docile with me." Leona grumbled.
"Maybe if you didn't slap him in the head so often, he would be more obedient." Akeno said while covering her smile with her left hand.
"Would that stop Senpai from beating me up, too?" Issei asked Akeno with hope shining in his eyes.
"Issei, everyone has been telling you that for a while." Asia said softly.
"Really?" Issei asked in a dumbfounded tone. "But... What do I do that gets me beat up so often."
"You're a pervert." Koneko said while continuing to wrestle with her sister. "I think that's enough of a reason."
"*Sigh* Then I guess I'm just gonna keep getting beaten up." Issei said in a resigned tone. Then, he stood up and pumped his fists with vigor as he shouted. "Oppai are life! I'll never give them up!"
*Bang!*
In the next instant, a lump of demonic power flew across the room before slamming into Issei's right eye, making him somersault backwards and land on his face.
"Ow!" Issei groaned into the floor.
"Oh, Issei..." Asia muttered as she hurried over to him and started treating the bruise on his face with her [Sacred Gear], [Twilight Healing]."
Meanwhile, everyone else in the room stared at James, whose right hand had been flung backhandedly towards the spot where Issei had been sitting.
"Really, James?" Rias asked incredulously.
"Yeah, sorry about that." James said while scratching the back of his head. "When I heard Ise yelling, my hands got itchy. Then, before I knew it... Well, you know the rest."
*Chirp!* *Chirp!*
The room fell silent after James' excuse. So quiet, in fact, that everyone thought they heard the chirping of crickets, which should have been impossible thanks to all the enchantments set up around the house to keep out pests.
"*Cough* *Cough* Anyway, let's get back to the game." James said after two fake coughs to ease over his awkwardness. "Anyone else want a turn or do you wanna catch another hot one, Mom?"
"I'll play." A young woman's voice said from the elevator.
Looking in the direction of the elevator, everyone saw one of James' [Pawns] from his second Peerage, Genkai, stepping forward with her hands clasped behind her back.
"I wanna play, too!" Issei said after getting up from the ground. "Although I can't beat James-Senpai in a fight, I can definitely win at video games."
"Bring it on!" James said with a new level of intensity. "I accept all challenges."
"You two have to get in line." Leona said as she held the controller tightly. "There's no way I'm gonna give up after getting beat like that."
Like that, another match began between James and Leona while the others in the living room watched. And as time passed, the controller passed from the hands of the losers, with issei and Genkai getting their turns, as well. At one point, even Koneko, after she finished wrestling with her sister, joined the gaming session, as well.
*Flash!*
Then, about forty-five minutes later, James and Genkai, having chosen Ayane and Kasumi, respectively, started a new match. And just as the loading screen transitioned into the character introduction animations, a flash of light from behind the couch lit up the living room.
From that flash of light, the guests, Tatsuo, Kasumi, Tio, and Ayane appeared. And because of where they appeared, the first thing they saw was the 100" TV hanging on the wall in front of the couch.
Immediately, Kasumi and Ayane's jaws dropped in surprise, Tio pulled a hand fan out of her kimono sleeve to cover the smile spreading across her face, and Tatsuo raised his hand to massage the space between his eyebrows with an expression of fond exasperation. {Pic}
"Yeah, there's no way James didn't do this on purpose." Tatsuo muttered.