Underworld, Gremory Territory, Alaverus Estate.
Another day has passed. On the training ground, James is currently deep in thought. With his eyes closed and three fingers on each hand in contact with the ground, James is holding is body upright. While doing a set of one thousand handstand push-ups, he came to a sudden realization.
'It has been nagging me for a while.' James thought to himself. 'Shirayuki Mizore, a yuki-onna, light purple hair... That's definitely a familiar name and description. But, from where?'
Having just past 750 push-ups, James had a sinking feeling that he had seen Mizore before.
'Why can't I remember?' Thought James, beginning to feel frustration.
Continuing his set, James constantly searched his memories.
Just as he finished his set, he finally remembered where he had seen Mizore.
'Rosario + Vampire.' James exclaimed internally. 'Shirayuki Mizore was one of the female leads in that manga. And she fell in love with... Aono Tsukune. One of those personality free harem protagonists.'
James then pushed himself off the ground and performed a summersault landing stably on his feet, as he just finished the thousandth push-up. He then continued his musings.
'Although it's good that I finally got that mystery solved, that's not really the important thing to take from this discovery.' He thought as he raised his right hand to his chin and supported his elbow with his left hand, he continued his analysis. 'Although I'm not completely sure, I think this world was also a fictional work from my past life's memories. I can't really remember the details, but I do vaguely remember reading something with a similar world setting.'
Continuing to mull over his thoughts for the next few minutes, James came to a conclusion.
'This is probably a parallel or alternate universe to that work that I can't really remember.' James mused. A smile creeping on to his face at the outrageous thought that was forming. 'If Mizore, who is clearly from another work, showed up in this world... I wonder what other crossovers I'll find?'
James' elation was becoming increasingly apparent.
'Best of all, I should be the only one who knows their significance.' With this thought, James broke into a bout of hardy laughter.
Unbeknownst to James, his sparring partner was watching him from the training ground's entrance. Auron, having arrive when James had reached around 940 push-ups, calmly watched James finish his workout. As he was about to enter and greet the boy, he saw James slip into deep thought. Observing the changes in James' expression until he eventually broke out into a raucous laughter, Auron finally concluded that the boy had snapped due to training and trouble with girls.
'I guess I should step in before he's too far gone to bring back.' Auron thought to himself as he took a step into the training ground.
As soon as Auron's foot landed past the training ground's threshold, a series of actions were taken in short succession. First, James snapped out of his elated state. Second, Auron vanished from his spot with a burst of speed. Third, James materialized Ochiru Sakura and his sword belt and dropped into an iaido stance simultaneously. Last, James drew his blade and met the overhead swing of Auron's Odachi.
*Shing!* *Whoosh!* *Clang!*
When the two blades met, the sound was loud enough to be heard throughout the entire estate.
Using the recoil from the collision, James summersaulted away to gain some distance. Once his feet contacted the ground, he pushed off. In a blur of speed, James closed in on Auron's position and thrusted his blade toward Auron's left shoulder.
Using the length and weight of his odachi, Auron casually parried the thrust to his left.
Taking advantage of the momentum, James allowed his body to pivot on his left foot and dropped down to perform a leg sweep in the same motion. Auron simply stepped back, leaving the range of the sweep. James then planted his sweeping leg and performed an upward slash without breaking his momentum. Auron once again parried the blow casually, which gave James the opening to land a low kick on the inner side of Auron's calf.
After taking that kick, Auron leapt away. Once he landed, He shook his leg, allieviating the slight numbness.
"Not bad, Kid." Auron genuinely praised. "You've made progress blending your hand-to-hand combat and kenjutsu. I can't wait to see how far you can take it."
Although James was happy to receive praise, he was not foolish enough to drop his guard. And that would turn out to be the right decision. As Auron's words fell, he finally took a proper fighting stance. Then bolted in James' direction, which led to an exchange of fast and precise blows, all of which aimed to incapacitate.
After forty-five minutes of high intensity, live weapon, free sparring, James was sweating profusely with haggard breathing. Auron on the other hand, looked as relaxed as when he first stepped onto the training ground.
"*Pant* Why were *pant* you going *pant* so much *pant* harder than usual?" James asked while trying to catch his breath.
"I had to; today's session has to be shorter than usual." Auron replied calmly. "Did you forget? The girls are coming today."
"Ugh!" James groaned. "I'd rather fight groups of strays and crows then step onto that battlefield."
"Well, I definitely don't envy you." Auron said in agreement. "Now, get cleaned up. Your mother will have both our heads if you're late."
Slumping his shoulders, James replied with a listless "Okay..." Then made his way back into the house.
===Forty minutes later===
Leona, James, and Mizore were seated in the living room waiting for the Gremory and Sitri groups to arrive. Leona was giving James some advice.
"Now remember Sweetie, all you have to do is be honest with them." Leona advised gently.
"*Sigh* Yeah, I know." Said James, "I'd rather be anywhere but here' written all over his expression.
Seeing James expression, Leona smiled gently and said, "I can't say you brought this on yourself, but if you want to be seen as an equal, this is something you need to address. Well, at least you need to address it with Rias and Sona. With Akeno... it would just be the right thing to do."
Nodding his head in agreement, James exhaled another sigh.
"Girls are just so hard to understand." James muttered to himself, which cause Leona to break into laughter.
A few minutes later, Rhea, Sona, and Tsubaki arrived via transportation magic circle. Dispensing with the pleasantries, they immediately delved into small talk. Smiles, giggles, and full-blown laughter could be heard from everyone. Even Mizore had opened up quite a bit. After another fifteen minutes, Venelana, Rias, and Akeno arrived. Immediately, the atmosphere in the room changed. As Rias arrived, she took stock of the situation in the room and immediately began to scowl.
"You! Get away from James!" Barked Rias with her finger pointed directly at Mizore.
Shocked, Mizore shrunk back and grabbed on to James' arm instinctively. This fueled Rias anger even more.
"Didn't you hear me? I said get away from James." Rias roared. Her jealousy fueling her rage even further.
Hearing Rias roars of rage, everyone was shocked. They all knew Rias was fiercely protective of what she has perceived to be hers, but this was a bit too much.
James, with his usual smile now replaced by a deep frown, interrupted Rias' irrational tirade.
"That's enough. I didn't really wanna be here, and you've given me a perfect reason to end this quickly." James said in a low and clearly unhappy tone
Hearing James' voice, everyone was stunned into silence. The boy with the ever-present smile was emitting so much... you could not call it anger, but the sense that he was fed up was clear for all to see.
Taking a deep breath to calm down a bit, James organized his thoughts.
First off, Rias, Sona, I have to apologize to the both of you." James began as calmly as he could.
At the same time, the adults shared the same thought. 'This may be worse than I thought. He even dropped his nickname for Rias.'
He also had a nickname for Sona. He was the one that coined the nickname So-Tan, during the time Rias was hell bent on everyone using a Japanese speech pattern. He stopped using it however, when Serafall also started using it. With Serafall's overbearing affection, the nickname eventually made Sona uncomfortable. And James has yet to find a suitable new one.
"For the last year or so, I've known how you feel about me. About your romantic feelings." James said solemnly.
Having their feelings pointed out so bluntly by the boy they like, the girls could not help but blush.
"Unfortunately, I can't respond to those feelings, at least not for now." Continued James in the same tone. "Do you remember what I said to the two of you when I decided I would create my own peerage?"
With James' momentary pause, Rias and Sona thought back to that day five years ago.
James then continued. "My wishes haven't changed. I want to be able to stand at the same height as the two of you. I want us to stand as equals, and for that I have to work hard."
No one responded to James' declaration. Looking around at everyone in attendance, James made his final statement on the matter.
"Until I've reached High-Class, I won't be considering matters of romance." Said James, putting the final punctuation on the topic. He then continued. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to finally start production on my manga. Let's go Mizore, you can be my assistant."
Taking Mizore by the hand, James led her up the stairs and to the spare bedroom that had been converted into James' art studio. Still in confusion from what just happened, Mizore allowed herself to be led by the hand. Although she was confused, she could still feel a warm and fuzzy feeling from when James got angry on her behalf.
Meanwhile, everyone else could only watch James and Mizore leave.
When the two were no longer visible, Sona turned a sour gaze in Rias' direction and said, "You need to work on your attitude." Then refused to speak to Rias any further.
Rias on the other hand, just stood in place with tears pooling in her eyes.
Venelana exhaled a heavy sigh. Then apologized to Leona, Rhea, Sona, Tsubaki and Akeno. After asking Leona to apologize to James and Mizore on her behalf, she took Rias and Akeno back home.
The Sitri family stayed for a little while longer. to have some tea with Leona. After James calmed down, Sona and Tsubaki were even invited to watch the manga creation process for a while.
On a side note, apart from James' daily spars with Auron and Mizore's energy control training, the children spent all their waking hours working on the manga for the next week. In a seven-day period, with their inhuman levels of stamina and dexterity, they managed to pump out 105 chapters. After that, Leona, acting as James' manager, got his first creation, Bleach, published in as many publications as she could around both the Devil and Human Worlds.