With the Rating Game concluded, Ethan had expected to have some time off. Instead, he faced a barrage of inquiries and seductions from the Underworld. Then, Mio Naruse brought him another 'good' news.
Gazing at the sign bearing the name Tojo on the gate of the small villa, Ethan subtly looked at the Naruse sisters beside him.
"This is the home of the... brother and uncle you mentioned?"
"Mhm."
Mio Naruse tilted her head, her delicate fingers nervously playing with the ends of her hair. Her gaze shifted restlessly.
Witnessing Ethan and Rias's contract process on the night of the full moon, and later refusing his own contract request, she had been unsure how to face Ethan recently.
She wouldn't have sought Ethan out if the two men claiming to know her biological father hadn't come calling.
She had no choice; aside from Maria, Ethan was the only one she could trust and rely on now.
In reality, Mio Naruse's relationship was closer to Rias; Ethan was merely a peripheral connection.
However, since Ethan was the one who had always helped her solve various problems from the beginning, he was the first person she thought of when encountering trouble.
Unlike the physically sensitive but still inexperienced Mio Naruse, Ethan had indulged in countless group sex parties and paid little mind to that one night's events.
Ignoring Mio Naruse's anxious thoughts, his expression was normal as he reached up and rang the doorbell.
The appearance of the Tojo father and son was a slight surprise to Ethan, but only slight.
Jin Tojo hadn't managed to engineer a chance encounter. To interact with the Naruse sisters, he had to immediately disclose their relationship, pretending to be under the influence of mind magic.
Even Basara Tojo was confused for a period, only barely accepting the fact that he suddenly had two sisters after moving to Kuoh Town and preparing to transfer to Kuoh Academy.
"Hi, one moment, coming right up."
After the doorbell rang, a cheerful boy's voice came from inside. After a series of rapid footsteps, a handsome boy with spiky brown hair and a scar on his face opened the entrance door.
"Oh, Mio and Maria! Please, come in, come in."
Seeing the Naruse sisters, Basara Tojo scratched his head awkwardly as he walked inside. "Sorry, we just moved in, and haven't had time to tidy up yet. It's a bit messy."
"Hello, I'm Akira Uesugi. Just call me Akira." Ethan extended his hand with a smile.
The spiky-haired boy quickly shook his hand and replied, "Ah... I'm Basara Tojo. You can call me Basara."
On this first meeting, Ethan and Basara Tojo both had a good impression of each other.
While Issei Hyoudou possessed a pure heart, if forced to compare, Basara Tojo's personality was more to Ethan's liking.
As for Basara Tojo, Ethan made a great first impression.
He was gentle and refined, and the guy his sister brought over seemed to have a decent relationship with her.
He might be a future brother-in-law, so he certainly needed to get along well with him.
After the initial introduction, the four were momentarily unsure what to talk about. It was only the second time the Naruse sisters had met Basara Tojo.
Although various sources had confirmed that what the Tojo father and son said was true, getting familiar with each other wouldn't happen overnight.
After sitting for a while, Basara Tojo realized he hadn't offered his guests any water.
"Um... I'll go make some tea."
As he stood up, a handsome middle-aged man with half-rimmed glasses, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and a newspaper in hand, emerged from the bathroom.
"Oh, Mio and Maria are here."
Jin Tojo smiled, checking his watch. "Perfect timing. How about we all go out for lunch?"
"Dad, it's not even ten o'clock yet. Don't use your late sleep and missed breakfast as an excuse."
Basara Tojo ruthlessly mocked his unreliable father.
"Well... by the time we get to the restaurant and wait for the food, the time will be about right, right?"
Jin Tojo smiled cheerfully, looking at Ethan and the two girls. "What do you think, little handsome man, Mio, and Maria?"
"Hey! Don't ignore my opinion!"
Basara Tojo took a deep breath. Although he was used to it after all these years, it still made him angry.
"Speaking of which, if it weren't for Mio and Maria, I wouldn't have known I had two mothers!"
Seeing Basara Tojo bring up old grievances, Jin Tojo got a headache.
"Basara, I didn't tell you for your own good..."
"Yeah, and moving all the time and leaving me home alone all these years was also for my own good, right?"
"That was because of the village's mission..."
Halfway through his sentence, seeing Basara Tojo's increasingly dangerous gaze, Jin Tojo wisely dropped the topic.
After that incident, the father and son were exiled from the village, but Jin Tojo had actually maintained contact with the village.
He had kept the truth hidden simply to allow Basara Tojo a normal, peaceful childhood.
However, a "normal and peaceful" life was relative. Compared to truly ordinary children, Basara Tojo's life after leaving the Hero Village remained tumultuous.
Without a mother's care, his father was constantly away. Just as he got used to one place, they had to move again.
He started fending for himself before the age of ten—and occasionally had to look after his unreliable father.
He had mastered various life skills—laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning—and managed to grow up healthy and unscathed.
Then, just as he was starting his new high school life, he was suddenly told to move, that he had two Demon sisters, and two mothers...
It's a testament to his character that, as a former protagonist, Basara Tojo took it all in stride. He merely complained briefly, then accepted the reality and began to face it proactively.
Observing the father and son, who looked almost identical, Ethan, combining the information Mio Naruse had given him with his own memory fragments, roughly pieced together the relationship between the Tojo and Naruse families.
Twenty years ago, Jin Tojo, the strongest genius of the Hero Clan, had reached the God-Class.
He ventured into the Underworld alone, fought against Wilbert, one of the Devil Kings at the time, and defeated him.
Wilbert, far from being angry, was an accommodating Devil King and greatly admired Jin Tojo.
Her sister Sephiya, and Rafaela, one of the Seraphs, accidentally entered the spatial realm of the Ancient Dragon Fafnir during the Great War of the Three Factions.
Dragons are naturally lustful. Influenced by the space, the three became husband and wives, making Jin Tojo the ultimate winner.
Sephiya conceived Basara Tojo at that time, but due to her own status and the current political situation, she had to transfer the fetus into Rafaela's body.
This was the origin of Basara's two mothers.
However, Sephiya couldn't be present as Basara's birth mother, and Rafaela, one of the Ten Pillars of Heaven, also violated heavenly laws.
After giving birth to Basara, she returned to Heaven to face severe punishment and has been unable to descend ever since.
Jin Tojo was God-Class, but there were beings even stronger than God-Class.
There was more than one such being in both the Demon and Angel factions.
Therefore, despite his reluctance, he had to raise Basara alone.
Now that the Three Faction War had ceased, if peace treaties could be secured, their family might have a chance to reunite.
But before that, the matter of the Naruse sisters' safety needed to be addressed.
Mio Naruse was Wilbert's daughter, which made her Sephiya's niece. She and Basara Tojo were first cousins by blood.
To be precise, she shouldn't call Jin Tojo 'Uncle' but 'Uncle-by-Marriage'.
Maria, her half-sister, was in the same relation.
Although Japanese custom doesn't prohibit marriage between first cousins, knowing the truth beforehand, a normal person's first impression would be 'family'.
Given the close relationship Ethan and the Naruse sisters displayed, any feelings beyond familial love were unlikely to blossom.
Wilbert was dead, Sephiya couldn't show herself, and all this was inextricably linked to Jin Tojo.
When Mio Naruse was in danger, even Shelah had taken action, so he certainly couldn't stand idly by.
Jin Tojo couldn't constantly guard Mio Naruse; their generation had their own responsibilities.
Thus, just as Shelah sent Maria, he intended to have Basara Tojo protect Mio Naruse.
This was also an opportunity for Basara Tojo to acknowledge his power and return to the supernatural world.
As the child of him, Sephiya, and Rafaela, and a special existence who received the bloodline of the Ancient Dragon from the Dragon's Nest, there was no way Basara Tojo could live out his life as an ordinary person.
After some joking around, Jin Tojo suddenly turned serious. He said, "Mio, Maria, have you thought about my suggestion from last time?"