Human World, Japan, Kuoh.
"Jay-Kun, can you please allow Sirzechs-Chan in for this meeting?" Serafall said with puppy dog eyes. "He is one of the leaders of the Underworld. Plus, his mother and little sister are here."
"Oh, I really don't mind." Rias said with her arms crossed. "He's not the Big Brother I know anymore. He can't even keep his side of a deal."
"Unfortuantely, I have to agree." Venelana said. "Although it wasn't made public, everyone in the know knew that Sirzechs agreed to apologize publicly if he lost the duel to James."
Hearing that, Serafall had no grounds to argue further. Ajuka was also at a loss for words. He had been pressing Sirzechs to apologize to James. However, Sirzechs had continuously put it off, sighting that there were more important matters to attend to.
"Well, if you won't let him in, can you at least tell us where he was sent to?" Falbium asked, in his usual tired tone.
"He should have been stopped outside the barrier." Scathach replied. "So, if he has yet to move, he should be standing on the street directly in front of the front door."
With that, Serafall, Ajuka, Falbium, and Azazel made their way to one of the windows that faced the street. And sure enough, what they saw was Sirzechs standing there with a frustrated expression on his face. While Ajuka, Serafall, and Falbium wore expressions that said they had no idea what to do or say, Azazel began laughing uproariously.
"Ahahahahaha! Oh, man." Azazel said while holding his stomach. "That's a look that I never thought I'd see on his face."
"Now is not the time, Azazel." Ajuka said in an exasperated tone. "We have serious matters to deal with."
"Hey, don't get mad at me." Azazel said, wiping a tear from his eye. "He did this to himself."
After that, Ajuka began to scold Azazel who continued to laugh as if it did not bother him in the slightest. At the same time, Odin was too busy staring at all the beautiful women in the room with perversion flashing in his one good eye.
"Would you like to lose your other eye as well, All Father?" James asked in a scarily calm tone.
"No, thank you." Odin replied without changing his expression or gaze.
"Then, I would suggest you keep your perverted gazes to yourself from now on." James said, letting his demonic power and draconic aura leak.
Finally turning his gaze away from the women, Odin looked into James eyes and could see the wrath building.
"You really need to learn to take things with a grain of salt, young man." Odin said calmly. "You could put our alliance in danger with your brash behavior."
"Oh really?" James asked, his demonic power and draconic aura leaking even further. "Then let me ask you a question, Old Man."
"Go on." Odin replied.
"If someone was staring at your women the way you're staring at mine and my mother, what would you do?" James asked, still with that calm tone.
"I'd make sure they lived to regret it." Odin replied without hesitation. "But there is a difference between you and I."
"Yeah, I'm not a disrespectful scumbag who comes into someone else's house and acts as they please." James said.
"Not quite." Odin replied with a chuckle. "I'm actually strong enough to stop those who would disrespect my women."
"Are you saying that I'm not?" James asked with his eye brow raised.
"For most opponents, yes." Odin answered. "For your age, your strength is more than impressive. But when comparing yourself to someone like me, it's not enough."
While James' expression became even more calm, Odin thought that James had finally understood what he was saying. Unfortunately, Odin did not know James well enough to know that he was not and truly about to lose his shit. Everyone who knew him well, on the other hand, was wondering how long they would have to live in hotels after James lost it and the mansion was destroyed.
*Bang!*
Before the dispute could go any further, Odin was struck in the back of the head by a magical girl wand. Holding on to its handle was Serafall frowning in an adorable way at Odin.
"Lord Odin, you are disrespecting the strongest among the devils. In his own home, no less." Serafall said, resting her hands on her hips. "Does this reflect on how you view us devils?"
"No, I just wanted to let this kid know that he needs to loosen up." Odin said, rubbing the back of his head. "I mean, just looking isn't hurting anyone."
Before Serafall could scold Odin any further, another female voice, that sounded almost emotionless, rang out.
"All Father, I believe you are misunderstanding something." Scathach said coldly.
"Oh, and what would that be, Master Scathach?" Odin said with much more respect in his tone.
"My disciple is powerful enough to kill you if you aren't careful." Scathach said. "And even if you were, you would not leave the battle unscathed. On top of that, one of his swords is made from the same material as my spear. Which means Gungnir would have little effect on him."
"What do you think a sword that bends the laws of causality and strikes the opponent could do to me or Gungnir?" Odin asked in genuine confusion.
"All I can say, is you have been warned." Scathach said, feeling like she gave Odin a big enough hint already.
"Enough, Lord Odin." Ajuka said trying to put an end to this. "Looking down on the young man because he is still young, would be a foolish thing to do."
"Yeah, don't we have a prime example standing out on the streets right now?" Azazel said, trying to hold in his laughter after every peak he took at Sirzechs.
Deciding to drop the subject, not because he was wary of James, but because he did not want to endanger the alliance, Odin looked away from James and focused his lecherous gaze on Serafall.
"Hey, did you notice he didn't look at grayfia with that lecherous gaze?" Akeno asked Tsubaki.
"I did." Tsubaki replied with a nod. "I don't know why though."
"It's because my big brother could seriously injure him if he went all out." Rias chimed in on the [Queens'] conversation.
"So, did he forget that James beat Lord Lucifer without going all out?" Reya asked.
"I'm guessing it's because he doesn't think James could do anything due to his inexperience." Sona also added.
"Then, what does he make of the dragon in human form standing behind James like a bodyguard?" Flora asked.
While James classmates discussed what just happened, the rest of the people in the living room looked at everything with shock on their faces. All except for Scathach, who was eyeing Odin as if she was seriously considering stabbing him with one of her spears, and Crom Cruach, who was hoping that a fight would break out so he would have the chance to fight Odin.
"Anyway, what is this important news you brought us?" James asked after finally calming his anger. "I'm sure you can give Sirzechs the cliff notes version after we're done here."
"*Sigh* We're actually here to see Rossweisse." Ajuka said after shaking his head. "The paper you wrote about Trihexa's seal was stolen today."
"But why?" Rossweisse asked in confusion. "The only thing that research paper went over was the theory behind the barrier that sealed Trihexa. It wouldn't be any use since no one knows where Trihexa is even sealed."
"We have reason to believe that it was stolen by Rizevim Livan Lucifer." Ajuka stated.
"That guy again." James said in a disgusted tone. "We already had to fight his damn dragons today. Why would you think he was behind it?"
"Because Acnologia, the Apocalypse Dragon attacked Asgard when the research was stolen." Odin said in a solemn tone.
"On top of that, we believe that Rizevim was behind Larenius' rebellion as well." Ajuka added. "Though, that one is more of a guess than us having solid evidence."
"It just keeps getting better." James said while rubbing his temples.
"If you think that's bad..." Falbium said. "We're pretty sure that Hades helped him get the dragons into Heaven today. He's the only one who could have let them into Purgatory."
"And that makes three reasons for me to ram my foot up his bony ass." James growled. Once again, James tried to calm down. Then, he looked at Ajuka and asked a question. "What do you need us to do?"
"We want to try and gather as many allies as we can for this fight." Ajuka said in a solemn tone. "Then, we wish to put together a team to find Rizevim."
"And you want us to join this team, right?" James asked.
"Correct." Ajuka replied with a nod.
"Well, I don't really have a problem with that." James said with a nod. "Just let us know. I have a score to settle with Rizevim. He tried to destroy all of Sona's hard work, after all."
Ajuka, Serafall, Falbium, and Azazel nodded in satisfaction after hearing James' answer. Odin, on the other hand was trying not to ogle the women in the room. He knew that things would not stop as easily as they had the first time. Even though he's not afraid of James. In fact, he looks down on him due to his age and inexperience. But even he knows that now is not the time to add tension to the situation.
"I assume you all are alright with it too, right?" James said with a smile.
As James sentence fell, the rest of his peerage showed themselves. After entering the room, they took their places and stood behind James.
"Rias, Sona, we would like you to join this team as well." Ajuka said.
"I agree." Rias said with determination burning in her eyes.
As Sona opened her mouth to agree too, she was cut off.
"Come on, So-Tan, I know you can do it!" Serafall shouted encouragingly.
"All of a sudden, I don't want to, anymore." Sona said while hanging her head. Then, in a small voice she continued. "I agree as well."
"Good. Give us some time, we'll find more members for your team." Ajuka said while nodding in satisfaction. "When we have the team roster together, we'll contact you."
"Understood." James, Rias, and Sona replied in unison.
After that, the three [Kings] and the faction leaders discussed the formation of the team a little more and James made a suggestion.
"I think we should invite Vali and his team to this little gathering." James said. "It's not like Kuroka's not gonna relay this information to them."
"You noticed me, nya." Kuroka's voice rang out from below the sofa James was sitting on.
A moment later, a black cat with two tails crawled out from underneath the sofa. Then, it jumped into James' lap. When it landed, it began to grow, eventually shapeshifting into Kuroka.
"Of course, I did, not even Ayame can escape my perception." James said with a smile while Kuroka snuggled into his chest. "So, am I right to assume that Vali and his team already know about this conversation?"
"Yes, nya." Kuroka purred as James began to scratch behind her cat ears. "I broadcast the whole conversation to them."
"*Sigh* I forgot she was here." Azazel said with a wry smile on his face. "Now it feels like we should have invited them before we even showed up."
After a little more small talk, the faction leaders decided it was time to go, with Serafall creating a teleportation circle. However, before they could be teleported out of the mansion, James stopped them.
"Are you going to leave the abandoned puppy out there on the street?" James said pointing out of the front window.
Standing where James was pointing was Sirzechs. And based on his facial expression, he was seriously considering transforming into his true form to attack the barrier.
"Oops." Serafall said while tilting her head and gently knocking on it. "I guess we forgot."
Then, the five faction leaders made their way to the mansion's front door, left through it, met up with Sirzechs, and spent the next seven minutes trying to calm him down. After all that, they finally teleported back to the Underworld to discuss the team formation once again.
Moments after the six faction leaders were gone, James could no longer hold in his laughter. Falling to the side and displacing Kuroka from his lap, he lay on top of Mio's lap, causing her to blush immediately, and laughed from the bottom of his soul. With Leona quickly following afterward.
"Ho~ly shit!" James struggled to say through his laughter. "Did you see the look on Sirzechs face?"
"I know, the way it changed over time too." Leona said laughing just as hard.
"Priceless!" James and Leona shouted in unison while everyone else, even Grayfia, giggled quietly.