Kisuke, Serafall, Ophis, and Lilith teleported to Kunou's place which was in the quiet part of London.
Upon arrival, they were immediately greeted by Kunou who led them inside where Claire, Tanis, and Flanna were lazing around.
Since it'd been a while since the group last gathered like this, they enjoyed their time while telling stories of each other's 'adventures'. Because Flanna's range of activity centered around London, it was decided that she'll live with Kunou, who'd decided to attend the Royal College of Arts.
Meanwhile, Claire and Tanis bought and shared an apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts because both of them were attending the Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology respectively.
"...and thus, we settled down quite nicely." Claire finished it up while munching on some cake that Kunou successfully baked.
Although they were now attending various universities, nothing had really changed aside from their schedules and living apart. Same as before, Kisuke and Serafall trusted them with freedom not normally granted to people of their age. After all, they are not really on the same level as normal young adults since from their childhood, they were taught how important responsibility is for they possessed power far beyond normal and could easily shape the world if they wanted to.
If they were responsible with their power, there's no reason not to trust them to live their day-to-day lives. Of course, Claire, Tanis, and Kunou have to cooperate by consulting with Kisuke and Serafall whenever there's a problem that they can't solve.
Kisuke stayed with them for a week, moving between London and Cambridge, until it was time for Soifon's next general check-up.
Before he left, however, Kisuke asked Claire, "By the way, is the church still bothering you?"
Claire shook her head, "No. They haven't contacted me these past few months. The last I heard from them was when they were offering various benefits for me to enter any universities."
Kisuke turned to Serafall and the latter immediately met his gaze, "They crossed the line so I already gave them a warning. They should have stopped stalking Claire-chan now."
Kisuke turned to Claire again and said, "If you feel any prying eyes, you're free to beat them up."
"Isn't that bad?" Claire nervously asked. Serafall already said the same thing but her training doesn't allow her to just suddenly use violence as easily. Not to mention, the amount of trouble it'll cost to their daily peaceful lives and their only source of normalcy.
"It's bad, but you should know whether it's unwarranted violence or not. And aside from that, you guys should already realize how much you can move the authorities."
Kunou and Tanis also perked their ears when they heard Kisuke say that. Although not to Claire's extent, they were still beautiful girls who were subjected to a certain amount of harassment.
"Your identities are not exactly a secret anymore and trust me when I say that even if you kill a man out there, within a few hours, you'll have nothing to do with it."
"T-that..." Claire, Kunou, and Tanis were surprised, but they also understood how that was possible.
"You've learned how to be responsible with your abilities, however, that's not the only form of power you can wield now. Those who want to pull you to their side will do everything to curry favor with you. Pretending that this isn't true is irresponsible because you'll just end up forgetting about it and do more harm than good because you can't control it.
"So instead of not acknowledging it, you should learn how to use it for your own benefit. While you have a chance, you should learn how to use this advantage called influence. Of course, this is going to be a much harder form of power to use because if you're not careful, you'll realize too late that this power is actually already controlling you instead of the other way around."
Claire, Kunou, and Tanis all nervously stared at Kisuke because as he had said, they were trying to ignore it to live a completely normal life.
Kisuke smiled at them and patted Claire's head, "It's a given that you'll be making mistakes, but let me remind you that there is an expert here in that regard." Kisuke took a peek at Serafall.
At the same time, the girls also followed his gaze and looked at Serafall, "Ehem, as a former Devil King who took care of foreign affairs, just do what you think is right and I'll give you a full review of the situation and a score on how well you did. Don't worry about any mistakes for now since you're just in the learning phase and I'll guide you on how to fix it." She proudly declared as she tapped her chest with her fist.
"T-then..." Tanis suddenly raised her hand and said, "There's this guy that has been pestering me nonstop despite rejecting him on multiple occasions."
Serafall gave a thumbs up and replied with the brightest smile on her face, "Beat him up to a pulp!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
Claire, Tanis, and Kunou immediately approached Serafall to get a consultation about the problems they didn't mention because they see it as nothing special but annoying regardless. While they don't have any particular problem themselves, Ophis and Lilith had also joined them.
Kisuke grinned at their reaction and secretly left the girls' meeting and when he was about to teleport away, Flanna approached him and said, "Boss, could you hear me out?"
Kisuke looked at her for a moment and saw her serious expression, "Alright. Let's move to another location."
Kisuke didn't really think of any specific place so he just teleported Flanna with him in a random direction where there were less people.
"Before anything else, I'd like to ask. What's the deal with those swords?"
Kisuke immediately knew that she was referring to Ophis and Lilith's Zanpakuto so he gave her the answer she wanted.
"I see... Those are the same swords that you hold." Flanna muttered to herself before facing Kisuke again, "Then we should probably warn them that they shouldn't try anything like calling the names of those swords. Better yet, it's better not to use them at all."
Kisuke creased his brows and asked, "...Why?"
"It's because their names aren't unknown. Blacky and little Blacky also probably also knew their names, but are just refusing in calling them with it, not really thinking hard about its implications."
A certain individual immediately appeared in his mind and Kisuke understood the situation, "Are saying that instead of calling their names, Ophis and Lilith are trying to give them new ones?"
Flanna nodded, "Exactly. And that's causing a conflict that those two are royally ignoring because it's not a threat to them and probably only see it as a challenge. I don't know what being has given names to those swords, but it'll be alerted the moment the names are overwritten. I didn't really mention it to them because I thought that I should consult with you first and if there's no problem alerting the one who gives names, we'll just let them do what they want."
"But you think it's a problem."
Flanna nodded once again, "I can't really put my hand on it, but if this being is a hostile one, it'll be quite a problem, especially for you and 'Benihime'."