Arcadia headquarters—
Ryo had barely stepped through the castle gates when he stopped short and caught Kurousagi, who came flying at him.
"Ryo! Ryo!"
Hearing her sob his name, Ryo opened his mouth, but all he did in the end was pat his rabbit on the back, laughing as he comforted her. "What are you crying for? I'm fine, see?"
He kept at it for a good while, until the sobs in his arms finally died down. Then Ryo looked up at the sea of people in front of him.
Leticia stood at the very front, smiling at him, a little relieved.
"What, you're all just standing here waiting for me?" Ryo said, glancing around at the crowd.
The crowd had the loli Athena, Luo Hao, and Pandora from Campione.
It had La Folia Rihavein, Asagi Aiba, and the others from Strike the Blood.
It had Orihime Inoue and Retsu Unohana, brought back from the Bleach world.
It had Rias and the rest of High School DxD, who were still studying how the Little Garden worked. Even Shana, who was still adjusting to this new world, was somewhere in the crowd.
Seeing so many people, Ryo couldn't help muttering, "Why do I get the feeling that I survived Zeus only to get killed right here today?"
That earned him a whole row of eye rolls from the girls.
"Come on, let's go. He can still crack jokes, so he's obviously completely fine. We worried for nothing."
Asagi said this while tugging La Folia along, then teleported away.
La Folia hesitated, glanced at the rabbit in Ryo's arms, and, a little annoyed, grabbed her aunt Kanon Kanase, who looked ready to pounce too.
"Can't you see his main wife is right there? What are you jumping in for?"
"But I can join in!" Kanon blinked. "It's not like I haven't done it with you before... mmph!!"
La Folia, bright red, dragged her away. The rest of the crowd looked at Ryo, some amused, some with a deeper, darker look in their eyes.
Finally, a clear female voice rang out.
"Well, well. Nobody's working, huh? You're all just clogging up the hall? You weren't this eager when Athena was giving you one-on-one lessons, were you?"
The gorgeous woman with the purple hair, dressed in a white straitjacket, bewitching and innocent all at once, gave a savage grin.
"Since you're all gathered so nicely, you can all go do extra training!"
She clapped her hands, and in an instant the entire first-floor hall was empty.
Seeing this, Ryo asked in surprise, "Where did you send them?"
Algol rolled her eyes at him and planted a hand on her hip. "What, you enjoy being fought over by a bunch of women?"
Ryo shut his mouth at once.
Honestly, it did feel a little good. But he also knew how dangerous it was to get all of them together in one place.
If this goes badly, I'll get chopped into a hundred pieces, sewn into dolls, and handed out to every single one of them... Ryo thought to himself.
"Look at you," Algol said, rolling her eyes again. Then she clapped her hands. "I sent them over to Aizen's community. Think of it as getting that calculating guy to give them some extra lessons for free again."
Then Algol gave Ryo and Kurousagi a teasing look. "Once you're done, though, you'll probably have to go apologize to them. Just remember to use a condom or something."
Her gaze drifted naturally to Ryo's face, and she clicked her tongue.
"Seriously..."
She almost said something harsh, but she worried he'd hold back his new beauty secrets out of spite, so after some hesitation she dropped it.
She looked at Ryo, then at the bashful Kurousagi in his arms, and turned around. "Come see me once you've finished."
"Got it."
Ryo answered, then looked down at Kurousagi, whose face was still buried in his chest. Then he looked up at Leticia, who was watching the scene with a doting-aunt smile, and snapped at her.
"What are you staring at? Get over here!" He held out a hand to her as he said it.
Kurousagi's ears shot up in alarm. But she glanced at Leticia, thought about it, and shuffled over to make room.
Leticia looked a little mortified. She clicked her tongue and took a step back.
"What are you thinking?" Ryo rolled his eyes and declared with a perfectly straight face, "This is just a hug between teammates celebrating a win."
'Since when do three people hug at once...' Leticia muttered to herself. But in the end she sighed, walked over in small steps, and wrapped her arms around the open spot.
With Kurousagi right there, so close, Leticia clicked her tongue, her face a bit red. "Well, that's it. I really can't face Canaria now."
Kurousagi burst out laughing, and the tears still clinging to her eyes spilled out with it.
Ryo let go of them both, tugged on the bow on top of Leticia's head, and teased her. "What's there to be scared of? At worst Canaria teases you for a few years and eavesdrops on you a few times. I'm not scared, so why are you?"
"..." Leticia was left speechless by Ryo's shamelessness.
Then Ryo thought for a moment and took out the white Gift Card.
"I brought two of our members back safe."
He paused, then added, "Do you want to see them now?"
Leticia and Kurousagi suddenly went quiet.
Meeting old friends again was a happy thing, but the thought that Ryo had bet his life to make it happen drained the joy out of the moment.
After a long hesitation, Kurousagi spoke up. "Ryo."
"Hm?"
"Don't ever do that alone again."
Ryo rolled his eyes at that and said smugly, "You think anyone down in the lower layers still has the nerve to pick a fight with me?"
Seeing that rare smug look on his face, Kurousagi burst out laughing.
Ryo smiled too and waved the Gift Card. "Okay, joking aside. Who wants to do it?"
"I'll do it."
Leticia wiped the smile from her face and took the Gift Card. She found the former Arcadia members inside, sighed, and let them out.
Before long, two figures slowly took shape in the empty hall.
.
.
.