"We're home~!" Tanis shouted the moment she went through the door.
And from the hallway, Serafall came out with Ophis and Lilith to greet them, "Welcome back~."
A quick scan within the house also revealed that Flanna was lazing around in the living room and Kisuke was in the basement doing something.
Upon seeing them, Serafall noticed the traces of a healing technique on their bodies and stronger fluctuation of their aura, "Did you fight?"
"We wanted to stretch our stagnating bodies so we borrowed Tessai-niisan's training ground for a bit," Claire answered.
Serafall chuckled, "You're too young for your bodies to start stagnating. Did you have fun?"
Tanis nodded, "It has been a while so it's fun~!"
Feeling a bit jealous, Ophis interrupted, "I want to join too."
"It's hard for that shop's training ground to contain it if you were to join so let's wait for the one that Ki-tan is constructing, alright?" Serafall comforted Ophis and also Lilith who didn't say a word but surely felt the same by patting their heads.
"Ah, that's right, Sera-neechan," Kunou tried getting Serafall's attention, "We only borrowed half of the place since the other half is being used by the orange-haired nii-san and his group."
"So they saw you go crazy?" Serafall immediately became interested.
"We didn't go crazy! We just went at it as we normally would!" Claire hurriedly corrected her. However, Serafall couldn't trust those words one bit since she discovered that their common sense was a bit warped thanks to them looking up to Kisuke's crazy group, 'So you went crazy.'
Nevertheless, Serafall doesn't intend to 'correct' their common sense because it's exactly the mindset they needed due to the imminent alien invasion that Earth might not survive.
Which made Serafall wonder what Kisuke's real goal for coming to this world even if it meant cutting all communications and not being able to go back for a long time, 'I know him well enough that I can safely assume that he wouldn't leave the previous worlds where his girlfriends are in without a good reason, especially in these very crucial times.'
With how much of an efficiency monster Kisuke is, Serafall also knew that Kisuke would have already shared relevant information if he already had a concrete plan, 'I guess it's a waiting game for now, huh?'
"...Sera-neechan?"
Serafall was instantly pulled back from her thoughts when she heard Claire's worried voice, "Hmm?"
"...Did we mess up?"
"No, no, no." Serafall hurriedly shook her head, "I'm just thinking about something else. Wash yourselves up and we'll have dinner."
.
.
.
It had been more than a month since Kisuke, Serafall, Claire, Tanis, and Kunou left for another world. And with their departure known to the elders of the Devil high society, it didn't take long for the other factions to get a whiff of it and soon became an open secret throughout the whole world.
Although there weren't any changes on the surface, the very deepest depths of each organization were stirred greatly with all sorts of people moving about to gather and secure their power, by either secretly allying themselves, or surrendering to the aliens that were trying to seduce them.
Although only a month had gone by, it became a big headache for Sona and the others, "This isn't good..."
Irina, who was sitting beside her in a cafe asked, "Which one?" Since there were so many problems that they were tackling right now, she asked which one was not in a good state.
"They're getting more and more obvious about their allegiance to the outsiders." Akeno, who was with them, answered Irina's question.
"Isn't that great? It'll be a lot easier to catch them now."
Sona took a sip of her smoothie before answering, "It is, but it's also hard to make them pay for it since no organization could do it openly. If this problem were to be revealed to the public, it'll cause mass hysteria and the current peaceful world will devolve into a chaotic mess of people trying to figure out who's going to stab them in the back."
However, Akeno couldn't help but sneer at those words, "But that's not what's worrying those old coots. Since this all happened in a short amount of time, they haven't prepared to secure their positions of power, and destabilizing the situation might cost them being thrown under the bus. Let's be honest, those guys don't care if the world is about to end. They only care where they'll end up when this is all over and whether they could still have their commanding tones and wealth."
"That's why this isn't good... The more time they have, the more things they'll mess up..." Sona went back to clutching her head.
"Then why don't we just go with the [Kisuke-route]?" Irina suddenly suggested.
Both Sona and Akeno immediately froze and went into deep contemplation. The [Kisuke-route] is a term they coined that means going through a problem with Kisuke's way of thinking. If it's a mess and it's a problem, it's not messy enough.
A new wave of headaches came to Sona and this time, to Akeno too.
But as much as they didn't want to go through the [Kisuke-route], it's also a very attractive proposition for these very stressed-out ladies.
Resting her elbows on the table and grinning, Sona suddenly instructed, "Akeno, use all our available channels and announce what's happening right now."
"It'll cause mass hysteria, are you sure?"
"A violent and dangerous alien species is currently invading. They should."
"Irina and I will lose our current positions. Not that I care."
"I don't care about it too~!"
"We need more instructors in the academy anyway."
"Many factions will denounce us for the ensuing chaos."
"We've done all the diplomacy we could. And since that's not enough, they can go fuck themselves."
"And the sanctions that are inevitably coming?"
"No supply of Soul Gears for them."
"And if that's not enough?"
"Threaten them to take down the barrier. Since the Evies are getting in anyway, the barrier is useless. We'll bring all of them down to Hell with us."
"They'll spin us as tyrants and enemies of the world."
"They don't like us in the first place so they'll just be making that public."
Akeno stood up with a very refreshed smile on her face, "Understood. Please give me a few hours. I'll make sure that anyone and everyone who can think will hear the announcement."
With that, Akeno left Sona and Irina with light steps in her wake, "She's had enough of talking in circles, huh?" Irina commented at the obviously happy Akeno.
"I can now understand why Kisuke always wants to mess things up. If it can cause a headache and frustration to the enemies and he can laugh about it, it's worth it." Sona muttered and looked up, feeling a massive weight taken off her shoulder, "Now we just have to wait for Yoruichi."