Kisuke appeared again in front of the curious Loki Familia members and there was only one thought in his mind, '...How many times do I have to do this?'
Even though he could understand the reasoning behind it and it might as well be the last resort, it still doesn't change the fact that he has to do this for the third time now, 'I'm more interested in how Bell Cranel is faring. But considering how Hermes is attached to him, it'll only be annoying if I interfere directly.'
While Kisuke's mind was somewhere else, Riveria stepped up with him in front of the old members of the Loki Familia, "This is Kisuke Urahara... Aside from his name, I don't really know what else to tell you. Well... He's an unfortunate businessman?"
Kisuke was instantly brought back to reality when he heard that but just when he was about to react, he stopped when Riveria glared at him. Considering what his uncouth mouth did earlier, he let it go and looked in the opposite direction.
This little interaction, however, didn't go unnoticed and made everyone have a conclusion in their minds. Nevertheless, while most of them were happy for Riveria, it's not the same for some and they wouldn't accept him just because Riveria acknowledged him. Like children to their mother, Kisuke would still first have to win them over before he could become their 'step-father'.
"He and his family are the ones who took care of and taught me a lot of things these past few years. I know some of you are still suspicious of his identity, but as you've seen yesterday, he's someone that Loki trusts and he's also someone I could trust my life with..." However, while Riveria was saying shocking things for the Familia, she suddenly became quiet for a moment before taking her words back, "...On second thought, don't trust him or you might end up miserable. If you want something from him, make sure to go through me first."
At her 'joke' Finn started chuckling and stepped forward, "You don't have to be overprotective of him, Riveria. We won't treat him badly. Nice to meet you, I'm the captain of the Loki Familia, Finn Deimne. Thank you for taking care of Riveria." Finn offered his hand while introducing himself.
"She has been taking care of me too. Since I don't really cook my own dinner anymore, she has been a big help.", Kisuke accepted his hand with a smile, 'Well, and other stuff too like creating countermeasures against the known abilities of various big personalities.'
Of course, those who are already biased towards Kisuke immediately misunderstood those words, thinking that Riveria was reduced to a simple cook.
Finn, meanwhile, didn't think much about it but he has been curious why Riveria trusted him so much and wanted to test him by sending Ki to his hand. But before he could do so, a cold shiver suddenly descended dwon his spine and a sharp pain bit his thumb. His face instantly froze as he followed his instincts not to go through it. Finn was staring at Kisuke's face when this all happened and the smile he's making now has an entirely different meaning for him, '...What is he!?'
"I-is that so? I'm happy to see that Riveria is getting along with someone else." Finn, slowly but surely, released Kisuke's hand.
"Don't make it sound like I have trouble making friends.", retorted Riveria from the side, oblivious to the slightly panicking Finn.
"But you don't like making friends," Kisuke added. He thought that Finn was going to do something but he saw that he suddenly stopped so he was a bit disappointed.
After Finn, Gareth approached Kisuke and offered his hand too while introducing himself. While his curiosity is more blatant and frank, Kisuke thinks that it's a lot better compared to Finn trying to hide everything behind that smile of his.
Subsequently, Gareth helped Kisuke by telling everyone's name and Riveria had to follow up because she had to pretend this was his first time meeting them. Soon, they reached the group of girls with very colorful expressions. Ais and Tione have these eyes full of curiosity, Tiona still had this cheerful expression, ready to fire away, and finally, Lefiya who was displaying unbridled suspicion against him with Filvis holding her shoulder to make sure she doesn't just jump on him.
The small white Dragon on top of Ais' head, on the other hand, was also staring at Kisuke as if she was about to bite him, not from malice, but from her instincts that kept screaming at her mind that she has to do it before a certain scent disappears from him. She's only stopping herself because she had already developed enough intellect to separate her from beasts.
Riveria had been thinking about how to provoke them since she didn't want them to do it by themselves with Kisuke as their target but she's drawing blanks right now, 'I can't let them take the initiative... Or they'll really end up miserable.'
Thankfully enough, Tiona presented her with the opportunity, "Say, Kisuke-san. When are you going to marry our Riveria? Or are you two already married?"
Her direct question caused Lefiya to shout, "Tiona-san! What are you saying!? It's obvious that they aren't married! A married Elf has this specially made jade bracelet and Riveria-sama isn't wearing one!"
Kisuke turned to Riveria and wanted to ask if that was true but he paused when he saw Riveria grin for a moment before making this expression as if she were a defeated maiden, "That's true. We're not married. And the talks of marriage couldn't really come up with so many women around him." All those telenovelas were for this moment, 'How was that? I can act too if I want to~!'
However, what she thought was a bit of shock and reprimanding from the girls' side turned into total silence, 'Hmmm? Did something go wrong?'
All of a sudden, a shift in the atmosphere was felt and the previous, warm welcome became a cold one with everyone staring at Kisuke with a bit of hostility. Something did go wrong because Riveria underestimated their reaction. What she didn't take into account was that Kisuke was her 'first man' and there was more importance in that than she realized.
"Uhhmmm... Riveria... Are you still angry about what I said earlier?", asked Kisuke while feeling the animosity.
Riveria immediately went in front of Kisuke to defend him and right her errors, "Wait! You're misunderstanding things!"
The previously cheerful Tiona stepped forward and asked, "What misunderstanding?"
"Uhmmm..." Riveria tried to answer, however, 'It's true that there are no marriage talks... And it's also true that there are many women around him...' She couldn't think of any excuses because none of what she said was a lie in the first place.
And that hesitation from her side was enough to make the girls snap.