Hub World, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.
Shortly after Tatsuo left for his training trip in Jas' world, two young n could be seen in a small, low-cost apartnt with little more than a stove, a countertop, a kotatsu table, and a small closet in it.
The first, a young man with short, spiky black hair and red eyes was wearing a tank top and a pair of black shorts could be seen lying on the floor with is legs under the kotatsu. anwhile, the second, a taller young man with white-blond hair and brown eyes wearing a black long sleeved shirt, a pair of tan jeans, and a green apron stood in front of the countertop while cutting vegetables.
One of these young n was soone Tatsuo was familiar with, Maou Sadao. The other was Sadao's roommate, as well as one of the generals of the Demon Army he led back in his ho world of Ente Isla, Alciel... Or as he is known on Earth, Ashiya Shiro.
*Chop!* *Chop!* *Chop!*
"My Lord, how long to you intend to wait before you engage in conversation with that young man you ntioned to ?" Ashiya, with the sound of a knife rhythmically hitting a chopping board, asked without stopping his hands.
"*Sigh* Honestly, I don't know." Sadao, after rolling over onto his side, replied. "To be honest, I'm not sure what to think of this new developnt. There's a chance he could be here to hunt us down, as well. And I'm sure the Hero and so mbers of the Church followed us to this world, Ashiya. Though, I have yet to discover where they were hiding."
"I can understand your wariness, My Liege." Ashiya said as he finished chopping the vegetables. He then continued while dumping them into a skillet with an almost indiscernible amount of oil coating its bottom. "Still, from what you told about your last interaction, he seed to already know sothing about you."
"*Sigh* That's true." Sadao replied while rolling over onto his other side.
"Then, do you think it is likely that he knew from the beginning?" Ashiya asked curiously.
"It's possible." Sadao said.
"Then, let's assu it is as such." Ashiya continued. "If he has yet to show any hostility, despite knowing that sothing about you is abnormal, perhaps, just asking him about his intentions would be the best course of action."
"*Sigh* I know that." Sadao said while using his arms to cover his head.
"Then, why, My Lord?" Ashiya asked while stirring the vegetables in the skillet.
Instead of replying imdiately as he had been since the conversation started, Sadao stayed quiet for a while, causing Ashiya to finally look back over his shoulder. Yet, when he did, he was surprised by what he saw.
Currently, Sadao was rolling side to side with his legs still under the kotatsu. On top of that, he was cradling his head in his hands. And what surprised Ashiya the most was the fact that his liege seed to be sporting an embarrassed expression on his face.
"It's because I'm not used to being in the weaker position." Sadao said quietly. "I an, if I were at my full strength, Soramoto-Kun would be no match for . But as I am right now, I'm weaker than he is. And I don't like that now that I know he's more than just a middle school kid."
Hearing that, Ashiya could only stare at Sadao blankly. In fact, he was so taken aback that he was unable to speak or tear his gaze away from Sadao until he slled the scent of burning vegetables.
"Ahh~~~~!" Ashiya shouted when he realized what was happening. He then quickly spun on his heals and started doing all he could to save the duo's al. "No! No! No! If these vegetables are burned, then we won't have anything to eat until I can get to the market tomorrow afternoon."
"Oh, would you take it easy, Ashiya?" Sadao said while rolling his eyes at his lodramatic roommate/subordinate. "I can just bring ho food from work. You know bringing ho so burgers is no problem for ."
Hearing that, Ashiya's expression turned slightly demonic.
"Are you trying to kill , Sire?" Ashiya asked. "Do you have any idea how often we eat fast food? Sure, it's nice that you can bring ho food to help us through these trying tis. But if we keep eating like that, we'll end up in an early grave thanks to hi cholesterol, high blood pressure, and a variety of other health-related issues..."
The longer Ashiya spoke, the faster his speech beca. anwhile, Sadao had started tuning him out while thinking to himself.
'But it seems Ashiya is correct.' Sadao thought to himself. 'There's no point putting this off any longer. I guess I'll call him to find out if he really is a threat to us or not. The only question is... Where do we et? I an, I can't talk about this kinda stuff just anywhere. Don't need regular humans overhearing us. And I definitely can't talk to him at his apartnt. If things went sideways, I'd basically be in enemy territory. As for inviting him here...'
With his thoughts reaching that point, Sadao took a mont to look around his six-tatami mat apartnt before shaking his head. He then decided to give it more thought. Though, he also decided that he would not delay this matter much longer.
Scattered Cherry Blossoms Universe, Human World, Japan, Kuoh.
anwhile, in Jas' world, he, Tatsuo, Aletia, Tio, Scáthach, and Irene teleported back into the Alaverus Estate's living room, drawing the attention of everyone who was still there.
"Oh, you're back sooner than I expected." Evangeline said calmly as she raised a cup of tea to her lips. However, before she could take a sip, she stopped short. "Jas, what's wrong with you?"
Evangeline's question caused everyone to focus on Jas, to see why she would ask such a question. And when they saw his rapidly changing expressions, they understood why she did so.
Currently, Jas was staring at Tatsuo with great intensity. While doing so, his expression shuffled rapidly between excitent, gratitude, anger, and envy.
Yet, when Jas heard Evangeline's question and noticed everyone else's gazes, he glanced at Tatsuo, who was only smiling at him in a friendly manner, once more with a complicated gaze. Then, he took a deep breath.
"Great Red just agreed to make a Hyperbolic Ti Chamber Lite because Tatsuo wouldn't have enough ti to train otherwise." Jas said in a jealous tone.
While most of the people in the room wore confused expressions at the term, those who enjoyed reading the Dragon Ball manga, naly, Rias and Issei, opened their eyes wide in surprise.
"Are you serious?" Rias asked in an excited tone.
"Hell yeah, that's fucking aweso!" Issei cheered. A mont later, he held the back of his head painfully. "Ow~~~! Sorry, Leona-Obachan. I know better than to swear in front of Aaliyah, but I was too excited."
"Um... What's a Hyperbolic Ti Chamber?" Mio asked curiously.
"And why did you call it a lite version?" Maria asked, following up her sister's question.
"Well, the Hyperbolic Ti Chamber was a training room in the Dragon Ball series." Rias said, raising her right index finger while making her explanation. "In that room, spending one year inside will only cause one day to pass on the outside."
"There's an effect of amplifying the gravity in there, too." Issei added.
Nodding in response to Issei's supplentary information, Rias turned back to look at Jas with excitent shining in her eyes.
"But you called it the lite version, right?" Rias asked. "So, that probably ans that it won't be one year to one day, right?"
"That's right." Jas replied. "Great Red said it would be about an 8:1 ratio. aning, for every eight hours spent in that area, one hour would pass on the outside. She never said anything about a change in gravity, either. I guess I need to ask her about that."
While muttering the last few sentences to himself, Jas cupped his chin and started rubbing it with his right hand.
"Wow! He really does look like an old man when he does that." Shizuku muttered quietly.
Usually, one of Jas girlfriends or Fiancées would have had sothing to say in response to Shizuku's muttering. Unfortunately, most of them were too horrified by the prospect of having their training ti dilated to react to sothing like that. And when Rias and Issei, who were excited about possibly training in a place so similar to the iconic Hyperbolic Ti Chamber, finally recognized the ramifications of such a place coming into existence, they both paled rapidly before looking at Scáthach in abject horror like the others.
"No! No! No!" Issei shouted despairingly while pulling at his hair. "How can sothing so cool turn into sothing so terrifying?"
"Anyway, moving on." Jas said, rolling his eyes at Issei's lodrama. "Great Red said the place wouldn't be ready until tomorrow. So, until then, Master is going to test Tatsuo, Aletia, and Tio to see exactly what she has to work with. Then, she'll create a training plan for them. While she's doing that, we'll be free to welco our guests with a party.... or sothing."
With that, Jas and Scáthach led Tatsuo, Aletia, and Tio toward an elevator so they could head down to the third basent level of the mansion where the training facilities were. And during the short elevator ride, Jas turned to look at the three visitors.
At the mont, Tatsuo was standing between Aletia and Tio. And while Aletia was hugging his arm possessively, especially after the show of intimacy Aislynn showed him back at the Team DxD Base, and Tio was simply standing next to Tatsuo with an elegant smile on her face.
"By the way, Tatsuo..." Jas said, catching Tatsuo's attention. "Wasn't your sister supposed to be coming, too? What happened with that?"
"Oh, Kasumi-Neesan got caught up with so family drama last night." Tatsuo replied, looking a bit worried. "She found her younger sister skulking around our neighborhood. Then, just to make sure she did not cause any trouble for anyone, Kasumi-Neesan decided that she would shadow her until the Winter Break was over."
"When you say Kasumi, you an that Kasumi, right?" Jas asked, his eyes widening slightly.
"Yeah." Tatsuo replied with a nod. "The sa one that is the main character of the fighting ga Genkai was playing when we got here."
Hearing that, Jas eyes lit up, on top of widening.
"Then, that ans her younger sister is Ayane, right?" Jas asked for confirmation.
"Yup." Tatsuo replied. "I'm actually looking forward to fighting her. I an, I doubt she would be strong enough to hurt . But testing my skill against her should be fun."
"If I have anything to say about it, it won't be." Scáthach said calmly. "During the eight days you will be here after today, you will spend ten hours in real ti training with . And by the ti I am done with your training, I intend for you to be a completely different fighter from your present self."
Imdiately, Tatsuo started to shudder. Though part of that was from fear, the majority of his shuddering ca from his desire to gain strength. No doubt, that had sothing to do with his draconic bloodline.
Aletia and Tio also started to shudder. And while Tio's reasons were similar to Tatsuo's, Aletia found Scáthach's determination to push them past their limits terrifying. Especially since she could tell that if they did not live up to her expectations... No, if they did not surpass Scáthach's expectations, they would die trying.
"Maybe I should have brought the Perverted Rabbit to taste the pain that is to co, too." Aletia muttered quietly to herself.
ICDS Universe, 2nd Dungeon, 40th Floor.
*Sneeze!*
*Bang!*
"Ahh~~~!" Shea shouted in pain as she was blown backwards after being slapped away by a large lion-type monster.
While engaged in a high-intensity fight with the boss of the 2nd Dungeon's 40th Floor, Shea, who almost never felt sick after being able to directly manipulate her mana, had just sneezed. Unfortunately, because it happened during her solo boss fight and distracted her, she was struck by the giant lion-like monster acting as the Floor Boss. And because of its massive size, she was blown away, slamming into one of the many rocks dotted around the boss room.
"Ow~! That really hurt." Shea grumbled as she picked herself up from the ground. "And just why did I sneeze so suddenly? Is soone thinking about ? I bet it was Tatsuo."
Reaching that point, Shea could not help but smile sweetly. Less than a second later, however, her smile turned a bit perverted.
"I wonder if he was thinking about in the sa way I think about him before bed and when I'm in the bath... Hehehe." Shea muttered to herself, forgetting where she was for a mont.
*Roar!*
Yet, the boss monster, who found it insulting that Shea had slipped into her own world while fighting it, roared angrily, bringing her back to her senses.
"Hey, can't you see that I was thinking about sothing?" Shea asked angrily while glaring at the boss monster. "Geez! You're so rude. I guess I'll have to teach you so manners."
With that said, Shea raised her hamr and dashed towards the lion-type boss monster with the intention of not only defeating it, but beating it to a pulp, as well.
Scattered Cherry Blossoms Universe, Human World, Japan, Kuoh.
Not long later, the elevator reached its destination, and its occupants stepped into the vast training area that had all manner of exercise equipnt, sparring rings, running tracks, and anything else anyone might need to train. On top of that, all of those things were strengthened to a point that even soone as strong as Jas could get so use out of them. Though, his returns were diminishing as he grew stronger and stronger.
However, Scáthach had no intention of using any of the state of the art training equipnt at the mont. Instead, she ordered Tatsuo, Aletia, and Tio to show her all the techniques they could use without the use of [Energy]. And while Tatsuo and, to a lesser extent, Tio, had so martial arts they could show, Aletia just stood off to the side, as she had never had to fight without the use of her magic in her three hundred plus years of life.
Yet, based on the look in Scáthach's eyes, Aletia could tell that she had every intention of making sure that things would not still be that way by the ti the three visitors returned ho.
On a side note, when Tatsuo showed off his proficiency with all the weapons he was capable of wielding and Scáthach showed visible surprise in her expression, Jas snapped a picture with his smartphone's cara so that he could show it to his brother disciple, Cú Chulainn. However, he did receive a strike in the head from the butt of Scáthach's spear for his trouble.
After that, Scáthach ordered the three to show her everything they could do with the use of their [Energy]. And this ti, as a dedicated mage, Aletia had the most to show while Tatsuo had the least.
All the while, Jas watched nostalgically, aside from taking that picture of Scáthach's surprised face. And the reason for that was simple, back when he beca Scáthach's disciple when he was eleven years old, he went through the sa kind of assessnt.
"*Sigh* To think it's been almost nine years since I beca Master's disciple." Jas could not help muttering while wearing a fond smile. "I can't even count how many tis I almost died while in her care."
["Why the hell do you look like you're taking a pleasant stroll down mory lane?"] Ddraig asked in a harsh tone, interrupting Jas' thoughts. ["Or do you like almost dying, or sothing? I guess you and Aya really were made for each other, you God damned masochist!"]
Jas winced at Ddraig's retort. Luckily, he was strong enough to ignore the fact that Ddraig ntioned the Biblical God, as His na was a weakness to Devils under a certain threshold of power. Or rather, Jas was unable to retort, as Ddraig's accusation of him being a masochist hit him much harder than he ever thought it would. Especially when he was directly compared to Aya, a known, world-level masochist.
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