Everyone immediately noticed it when Kisuke and Yoruichi came out of the tent and the first one to approach them was Ais. "...How are they?", she asked with concern in her voice.
Grateful for her concern, Kisuke ended up patting her head without thinking much about it and smiled, "They're fine now. Thank you for taking care of them until now." It was only a few seconds later that he realized his mistake when he saw how Ais's eyes widened, 'Crap...'
Kisuke immediately took back his hand and wondered, 'Since when did I develop this habit? It's really hard to stop now...'
And just a second later, he felt a wave of different emotions aiming at him and looked towards the eating folks. Everyone from the Loki Familia was looking at them and most of them were glaring at Kisuke.
But instead of getting angry or scared, Kisuke's smile only grew wider. He was incredibly used to this situation. In fact, he liked this kind of atmosphere and would sometimes do something stupid to pull out these kinds of reactions.
At that moment, however, he sensed two emotions, largely different from others. The first one was coming from a white-haired Adventurer that he knew. Instead of hate, inside his eyes was a look of admiration, '...This kid...'
The other one was coming from an Elf sitting beside the Amazoness sisters. At first glance, she was also giving a hateful and jealous glare like the others and she was even biting her handkerchief in frustration, but different from the rest, it didn't have any malice behind it, 'Now that's one kind kid~.'
Finn, on the other hand, could only smile wryly at his action and called out to him, "Why don't you join us?"
Since it would be rude to refuse, Kisuke accepted his invitation, "We'll take up on that offer. Thank you." He left the still startled Ais who had started to touch her head.
Kisuke and Yoruichi sat down at an empty spot and Line served them the soup for their dinner. The top executives then started to talk to them. Although the topics were just some random everyday life questions, Kisuke and Yoruichi immediately noticed that it was a clever probing into their activities and connections. However, the two of them didn't have to be careful when they gave answers that wouldn't answer the actual question in their mind.
During their talk, however, instead of easing up, the hateful glare from the surrounding only became more intense as Ais recovered from her shock and sat down right beside Kisuke. She joined Finn, Riveria, and Gareth in asking questions, while not probing them, as she didn't have that kind of skill, only genuine interest.
Tsubaki had just come for dinner because she had been tending to everyone's equipment. As she looked around, she noticed some new faces. She sat down near Welf, who sat in a group with the Amazoness sisters, Lefiya, Bell, and Lily, "Yo, Welf-kichi~. It seems that you're already doing fine~."
"Gah! Tsubaki! Don't put your arms around me!" Welf complained.
Smacking his back, Tsubaki laughed out loud, "Ahahaha! Come on now. Don't act so distant!" She then looked towards Bell and Lily, "Thanks for taking care of this little guy~."
Bell immediately shook his head and replied, "No, no, no. Welf-san is very helpful. We should be the ones being thankful for him joining our party!"
Tsubaki then recalled something and said, "Wait... White-haired, red eyes... Are you the one who defeated the Minotaur while just being Level 1?"
But instead of Bell, Tiona was the one who answered her, "Yep! It's Argonaut-kun!"
Bell blushed at the way Tiona called him and didn't know what to say.
"I see, I see. He's the one you're referring to as... Crabel Nell?"
"It's Bell Cranel!" Lily finally interjected.
"Ahahaha, my bad." Tsubaki scratched her head and finally looked towards the two other new faces, "And who are they? Lefiya has been glaring at him all this time as if he's some sworn enemy."
"Those are Yoruichi Shihouin and Kisuke Urahara from the Hestia Familia," Tione answered while looking at them, trying to gauge them.
"Hmm... So they're the ones." Tsubaki muttered as she took a sip from her soup while also staring at them talking to Finn, Riveria, Gareth, and Ais.
Tiona noticed two differing reactions from Bell and Lily from the moment, when the topic came to Kisuke and Yoruichi, "What's wrong?"
"N-nothing! It's nothing!" Bell immediately shook his head.
Lily, on the other hand, just gave him a dirty look after recalling the Alias which the Gods gave him, "Hmph! He's just a womanizer!"
"Womanizer?" Tsubaki asked in confusion.
"Ah, you mean that?" Tione muttered.
"That?"
"Everyone from the Hestia Familia seems to be his lover. Except of course their Goddess." Tiona answered.
"What the hell? So even those girls?" Tsubaki was referring to Sona, Aika and Koneko.
"Yep." Tione nodded.
Bell got curious when he heard 'even those girls' and he knew for sure that his 'teachers' joined the Loki Familia expedition, however, he couldn't find them anywhere. He wanted to express his gratitude for their teaching, "By the way, where are Sona-san, Aika-san, and Shirone-san?"
"You know them?" Tione asked in surprise.
Bell nodded, "Yes. They are the reason why I was able to win my fight against the Minotaur. They taught me how to fight."
"They did...? I see. So they're the ones behind you. They're really amazing." Tiona muttered, 'Then what about Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihouin who are supposed to have taught them?' Tione, Tiona, and Tsubaki thought.
"Uhmm... Where are they? I heard they joined the expedition for the experience."
Tiona smiled wryly and said, "We can't say much, but due to some incident, they got seriously injured and are currently unconscious."
"What!? How are they!?" Bell stood up and shouted, gathering everyone's attention, but he couldn't care less about the other's stares.
But instead of Tiona or Tione, Kisuke was the one who answered him, "They're fine now and resting. Thanks for your concern, though~."
"Ah... Is that so? Thank goodness." Bell sighed in relief. He then finally noticed the stare which everyone was giving him and immediately sat down in embarrassment.
"Bell-sama..." Lily called out to him with her face painted in suspicion, "Could it be that you're after one of those three? You can't do that! Even though they have the same lover, you can't do that!"
"What are you saying!? Of course that's not it! I promised!" Bell immediately corrected her before recalling a certain figure, "Besides..."
"Besides?"
Bell blushed a little bit before answering, "I want to see someone again... I tried asking around for her, but nobody seems to know her."
Lily dropped her soup in shock, "W-w-what!?" It was her turn to attract everyone's attention.
Even Welf was a bit shocked but he just smiled and asked, "Hooh... Mind telling us who that is, Bell?"
Scratching his head, Bell continued with a blush, "As I said, nobody seems to know her. All I know is that she's strong and has long, glistening purple hair. She also wields some strange weapon and chains."
Tiona and Tione were startled as a certain figure entered their mind, "D-does she have a blindfold?" Tiona asked.
"Ah? Yes! Do you know about her!?" Bell asked excitedly. He didn't think that someone here would know about her as even the Guild didn't have any clue about who he was talking about.
"Y-yeah. We encountered her by chance... How did you meet her?" Tiona answered.
"Well, this is embarrassing, but she saved me from a Minotaur that unknowingly got to the upper floors."
'Could it be that day?' However, for some reason, they didn't want to tell him that she was maybe related to Kisuke Urahara.
Yoruichi, on the other hand, could only shake her head in pity as he didn't have even a slight chance to get Medusa's affection.
While she thought that, Kisuke only smiled and thought, 'I won't give her to anyone~.'
It was at this time when the roar of the Goliath on the 17th floor resounded and soon after, panicked voices came from the path to the 17th floor, "Wahhh!!! Nobody told me that there's a monster like that!"
"But didn't the Sword Princess pass through here? Why didn't she kill it?"
"Everything is fine as long as we're safe!"
"So this is the 18th floor..."
"Naaza-san?" Bell muttered as he heard one of the voices and he started to run towards the source of the voices.
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Editors corner
Alexander:
1. All hail to the divine skill 'The Head Pat'. Activate it at the right time and it brings down every kind of woman.
2. Bell, you poor bastard. Shot down, before you could even see her again.
28th00: Well now, ain't that ironic. Argonaut Bell (The Jason of this reality, that isn't actually a total scumbag that deserves to die like the Nasuverse version that Medusa knows and poor Medea was forced to become a love slave by Aphrodite.) is in love with Medusa, the one he was blessed and fated to slay, originally. Side note, that Headpat was trained on the Loli Dragon God(dess), it worked on Serafall, it's definitely gonna work on Ais… If Ophis approves of something, you know it's ridiculous. At least, I think it was? It has to be. She's a Lap Dragon. Just like Koneko is a Lap Cat…
Goyya: Lap Dragon and Lap Cat… Somehow, that seems wrong… But I like it.