Hub World, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.
*Flash!* x 3
"Um… Did w come at a bad time?" Violet asked as she, Aletia, and shea appeared in the training room.
Seeing Tatsuo on his knees with a lifeless look in his eyes, Sumire, Kasumi, and Tio scolding Mai for something she shouldn't have said, Ayane watching the four without getting in volved, Sakura watching like she did not know what to do, though with a slightly darkened look in her eyes at seeing just how many women were fawning over Tatsuo, and a fairly tall, white-haired woman she did not recognize trying to cheer up Tatsuo in an overly sensual way, Violet did not know what to think exactly.
However, before she could think about it for too long, Shea took a step forward, just happy to see Tatsuo again, as this was the first time she was able to see him since the trip to Antelope Canyon several months ago.
"Tatsuo, I'm so glad to--- Kya~~~!" Shea began to say before she was interrupted.
*Bang!*
Before Shea could finish speaking or make her way over to Tatsuo, she was shoved by the short, blond-haired vampire princess and sent flying into a piece of workout machinery.
"Tatsuo!" Aletia, not even noticing just what she had done to Shea, rushed forward and threw herself onto Tatsuo, hugging his head against her chest. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"Tch! It's you again." Lilith hissed in displeasure.
Yet, instead of answering Lilith, Aletia focused all of her attention on Tatsuo.
"Ow… That hurt…" Shea muttered with teary eyes as while she rubbed her lower back, the place that slammed into the workout machine she was shoved into. "Miss Aletia, why did you do that?"
"Are you okay?"
That soft, gentle voice drew Shea's attention. When she looked in the direction of the voice, she saw a relatively short young woman with copper orange-colored hair and green eyes holding out a hand to her.
"Huh?" Shea intoned in confusion. "Oh... Um… Yes, I'm alright."
"That's good." The young woman, Kasumi replied with a gentle smile. "What's your name? I'm Tenshin Kasumi, Tatsuo-Kun's older sister."
Tilting her head, which caused her rabbit ears to flop to one side, Shea blinked her eyes while processing what she just heard. A moment later, the light of realization hit her. Then, without accepting Kasumi's hand, she shot up to her feet and bowed deeply.
"Oh, it's nice to meet you!" Shea exclaimed energetically with a bit of nervousness in her tone. "I'm Shea Haulia. Tatsuo saved me from a monster and took great care of me after that. He even taught my entire clan how to protect themselves."
At first, Kasumi smiled at the cute, yet voluptuous, rabbit girl. However, when she heard that Tatsuo went out of his way to help an entire clan, she, just like Shea had done a moment ago, tilted her head in confusion. Then, after another moment, she turned to look at Tatsuo.
Meanwhile, Tatsuo, having heard Shea's declaration because of her volume, looked as if he just remembered that event.
"Oh, yeah, I remember something like that." Tatsuo said while looking up to the ceiling in reminiscence. "When I met the Haulia Tribe, they were being hunted down to be made into slaves. Violet, Aletia, and I saved them. Then, to make sure they didn't end up like that again, I turned them into a Brotherhood of Assassins before we left."
"And while Tatsuo-Kun did that, Aletia-San and I trained Shea-San." Violet said, joining the conversation as she approached Tatsuo, Sumire, Mai, Aletia, Tio, Lilith, and Ayane. Then, when she was close enough, she smiled brightly as Tatsuo peeled Aletia off of him and opened his arms. "That feels like it happened a long time ago, doesn't it, Tatsuo-Kun?"
After asking that question, Violet sank into Tatsuo's arms while wrapping her own arms around his waist as his arms closed around her. Then, her cheeks reddened slightly as she closed her eyes and rose to the tips of her toes.
Then, to everyone's surprise, Tatsuo smiled back, lowered his head, and pressed his lipsp to Violet's.
"Tch!" Aletia and Lilith clicked their tongues in unison.
*Growl!*
*Swish!*
*Bang!*
"Ooh! My Tatsu-Chan is so grown up!" Sumire squealed excitedly.
At the same time, Tatsuo's right hand shot out and caught a folded fan made of Giant Sword Tiger materials. Simultaneously, he used his other hand to hold down Violet's arm that had just equipped her spear.
*Smack!*
*Bang!*
"Ow!" Mai yelped
"Bad Mai-Chan!" Sumire shouted as she landed a slap on the back of Mai's head at the same time Tatsuo caught her attack.
Meanwhile, Violet pulled away from Tatsuo, the question, "Why did you stop me?" swirling in her eyes.
"I know she attacked you, Violet." Tatsuo said as he dropped Mai's fan on the ground next to her. "But that's my mom's assistant, Mai-Nee. She's not an enemy."
"Oh… I guess I should have expected that." Violet said with an understanding nod. "You did warm me about her, after all."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Tatsuo replied. He then turned to look at Mai and glared coldly.
At the same time, Mai, feeling the cold glare from Tatsuo, began to shiver. She then, while still covering the spot on her head where she was just hit with her hands, slowly looked up into Tatsuo's eyes.
"No physical contact for a week." Tatsuo said coldly.
"No~~~~~~~~~~!" Mai screamed with despair.
*Thud!*
Then… she passed out with her eyes rolled back in her head.
*Pant!* *Pant!* *Pant!*
Although Mai's passing out caught everyone's attention, the sound of excited panting pulled that attention away almost immediately. And when they looked in the direction the panting came from, no one was surprised at what they saw.
Still standing in the place she had been standing since Tatsuo and Kasumi entered the training room, Tio, with her arms wrapped around herself was twisting in place with her cheeks red, and her eyes glazed over as she stared at Tatsuo with passion.
"Tch!" Aletia clicked her tongue in disgust. "Perverted dragon."
Completely unaware of most of the stares being shot in her direction, Tio's gaze never moved from Tatsuo. At the same time, Tatsuo stared at her with an exasperated gaze. He then raised his hand from around Sumire's waist and started rubbing his forehead to soothe an oncoming headache.
"I knew something like this was gonnna happen..." Tatsuo muttered in a resigned tone. "But I really didn't think it would happen so soon."
"Oh, Tatsuo-Sama." Tio said in a dreamy tone. "That cold glare? Why didn't you send it my way? Why? But then again, the way you've ignored me since the guests arrived... Mmm~~~~! That's good, too. But now, with my outburst, I've surely embarrassed you, right? Then please, punish this insolent slave. My ass is ready for anything you want to do to it."
While most of those present were either disgusted or exasperated by Tio's usual antics, the Devils in the room looked at her like there was nothing wrong.
"Well, she'd fit in with Devil society without issue, wouldn't she?" Venelana asked while covering his smile with her hand. "But I never thought this was the kind of girl Tatsuo was into. Looks like Kunou and Kokoa will be disappointed. I'm sure little Maria would have no problem adapting, though. She is a succubus, after all."
Tatsuo's expression dropped as soon as he heard Venelana's teasing words. And when he saw the corners of Grayfia's mouth twitching as if she was trying not to smile in amusement, he felt his eyebrows starting to twitch.
"Ahahahahahaha!" James laughed uproariously at the situation, his empathetic gaze from shared pain nowhere to be seen. "Damn! I forgot you have your own Ayame, Tatsuo. Life isn't going to be easy for you going forward."
"*Sigh* Why the hell is all this happening at the same time?" Tatsuo asked in a forlorn tone.
"Hey, look on the bright side." Ayane said, her tone filled with schadenfreude as she patted Tatsuo on the shoulder. "At least it's not happening in public, right?"
"Leave me alone." Tatsuo muttered with a pout. "I just hope Alfonzo and Lici get here soon so we can just move on."
*Flash!* x 2
"I'm telling you, Fonzie!" A female voice squealed excitedly just as two more flashes lit up the room. "Tatsuo's cooking really improved. He's almost as good as you. You should really try his cooking. Mmm... Actually, I wonder if he's gonna cook dinner for us tonight."
As soon as those words ended, the two lights faded, revealing a pair of brown-skinned man and woman standing near the rest of the group.
"Well, he did watch me cook for a week." The man, Alfonzo replied with a smile. "So, if he didn't get good at cooking with his bullshit skill, [The End], that would be weird, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess." The woman, Elicia, said while reaching up to scratch her head.
However, before Elicia's fingers came in contact with her head, she froze. Though, she was not the only one, as Alfonzo also froze. And the reason? Because they saw the state everyone was in when they arrived.
Tatsuo was standing next to a purple-haired young woman they both recognized as Ayane with Violet in one of his arms while rubbing his forehead with his other hand. Then, Aletia was switching between glaring at Violet, Tio, and a white-haired woman they did not recognize.
Next, their gazes drifted towards James, who was laughing uproariously while standing with three women, one of which was Scáthach, who they met in the ICDS Universe a few months ago. As for the other two, though they never met them, they could recognize them as Venelana Gremory and Grayfia Lucifuge, especially the latter, as she was identical to the Grayfia in their own world. And it was easy to see that the two women were amused, even if Grayfia's expression was almost completely flat.
Next, they turned towards Shea, who was standing next to another woman they had never met. Though, they could recognize her as Tatsuo's adopted sister, Kasumi. And they both looked as if they were completely done with whatever was going on.
After that, they saw Sakura and Zelretch looking at something with disgust.
Finally, they turned towards what everyone was looking at. And when they did, they saw Tio standing there while rambling about how she wanted Tatsuo to punish her while a woman they guessed was Tatsuo's mother, Sumire, tried to calm her down and another woman they recognized as Mai was laying at their feet, completely unconscious for some reason.
"Huh?" Elicia muttered, her hand still frozen next to the side of her head.
"Yeah... I feel the same way, Lici." Alfonzo muttered in reply. "But I just came to a decision."
"A decision about what?" Elicia asked as she let her hand fall to her side once again.
"If Tatsuo ever comes to our world, he's not allowed to bring Tio." Alfonzo said in atone so sharp that it could cut through the strongest magical metals he could create with his [Metal Magic]. "Because I don't know how. And I don't know why. But I'm certain that she will run into Darkness for some fucking reason. And our world is definitely not ready for something like that."
Hearing that, Elicia started to shiver in terror. Then, her eyes widened, and she turned towards Alfonzo with an even deeper fear on her face.
"And what if Karen shows up, too?" Elicia asked as she reached up to grab Alfonzo's shirt. "And I bet Lucy would be nearby for some reason, too. And that would mean that Virgo would show up, too..."
"Then..." Alfonzo said, continuing from where Elicia left off. A moment later, he continued after taking a fortifying breath. "All hell would break lose. Our world could be driven into mass-hysteria in a matter of hours if such an unholy alliance of perverts were to join forces."
While most of those present looked at the newcomers with confusion after hearing their grave words, those who knew of the people they were talking about, namely Tatsuo and James, put on expressions just as grave as Alfonzo's and Elicia's. The four then exchanged glances and solemnly nodded at each other.
"I'll make sure to never bring Ayame to your world, either." James said solemnly. "Although nothing happened when she met Tio. I'm not chancing anything."
Once again, the four nodded solemnly, silently vowing to never let the five most perverted, masochistic women any of them knew ever meet in this lifetime.
And of course, those vows would fail spectacularly in the future. But that is a story for another time.
*Clap!*
"Tatsu-Chan, is that everyone?" Sumire, deciding that the current atmosphere needed to come to an end, said after clapping her hands to get everyone's attention. "If so, why don't we show everyone to their apartments? Then, we can all meet in our place and have dinner together so we can all get to know each other. How does that sound."
On a side note, when Sumire clapped her hands to get everyone's attention, James shot a smirk at Venelana, who used to do that a lot in the past before James adopted the gesture for himself. In response, Venelana pouted at James coquettishly. But she did not say anything about his teasing.
"Yeah, they're all here." Tatsuo replied with a nod. "But I think I should go out and buy some more ingredients. I mean, although I knew how many people would be here, now that they are all in the same place, I'm starting to second guess if we bought enough."
"Hmm... Well, having too much isn't a bad thing." Sumire said while rubbing her chin in thought. "It's definitely better than not having enough."
*Clap!*
After a moment of thought, Sumire clapped her hands together sharply once again. She then looked at Tatsuo with her eyes shining.
"Okay, how about this?" Sumire said with a smile. "Why don't you take the other two young men with you to go grocery shopping, Tatsu-Chan? While you do that, I'll lead everyone else in preparing the ingredients we have. Meanwhile, everyone who isn't particularly good at cooking can chat and get to know each other in the living room."
"Sure." Tatsuo replied with a shrug. "I guess that works. Well then, let's go, James, Alfonzo."
"Ooh! And while they're preparing ingredients, everyone I've never met has to come with me." Elicia said happily. "I've got some great ideas for clothes after seeing all of you. And I need to get measurements. I'll send whatever I make to all of you when I'm done, 'kay?"
With that, Tatsuo, Kasumi, and Ayane led the four groups of otherworlders down to the prepared apartments. Meanwhile, Sumire grabbed Mai, who was still fainted on the floor, threw her over one shoulder, and took her upstairs to the penthouse so that she could start preparing ingredients.
As for Tio... Well...
She was still lost in her own world. And because of the aura she was giving off, no one wanted to get close enough to her to snap her out of it. So, they just left her standing there.
After living with her for a few months, Tatsuo, Sumire, Kasumi, and Ayane knew that when she came back to herself, she would recall the arrangements without needing to be told. Then, she would go to where she needed to be and act as if nothing happened. So, there was no need to worry about her.