Human World, Japan, Kuoh.
A few months have passed since Kuoh Academy's third years graduated, and it is now July 18. In that time, Kuoh academy's graduating devils moved on to their university studies. While Rias, Sona, Akeno, Tsubaki, and Reya stayed in Kuoh to attend Kuoh Academy's university division, James and Flora when to Kyoto to attend Kyoto University.
At the same time, all the other devils moved up a year. Now, the youngest of the devils attending Kuoh Academy were second year students. Surprisingly, there were no other devils who decided to join the school after those. There were two new members of the supernatural community, however. The first was Le Fay from Team Vali, who entered the Academy as a first year. And the second was Kunou, Yasaka's daughter, who also became a first-year student.
While Le Fay was just happy to go somewhere and make some friends, Kunou was in despair. Originally, she wanted to join Kuoh so that she could see James every day. Unfortunately, James had yet to decide which university he would attend when Kunou was accepted into Kuoh Academy. Luckily, James returned to the Alaverus Estate in the human world more often than not.
Surprisingly, with Rizevim dead, Team DxD was not broken up. Instead, it was used as the Three Faction alliance's special forces unit. If something needed to be taken care of either covertly or with overwhelming force, Team DxD would be called in to do so.
Meanwhile, after James reached the God King-rank in power, Aislynn, also known as Great Red, started pushing James to train even harder. She had decided that he would be her mate, but only when he reached the Apocalypse-rank. Unfortunately, that was a much more difficult task than going from the status of a common mortal to a God King-ranked individual.
Seeing as reaching the next step required a being to not just wield a concept or a law, but to embody it, James had no idea where to even start. Beings like Aislynn, Ophis, and Trihexa had it easy in his opinion. They were all born embodying Dream, Infinity, and The End, respectively. James, on the other hand, knew that he was manipulating matter with his bloodline ability. But he had no idea what it meant to embody that concept.
Today, however, was a day he decided none of that mattered. Early in the morning, shortly after he left Yasaka's residence and he was headed to class, he received a message from his father, Cassiel, telling him to rush home.
"Pop, I'm at the Estate, where are you?" James asked, speaking into a communication circle on his right hand.
{"What? No you're not."} Cassiel replied through the communication circle. {I'm standing exactly where you usually teleport. And there's no sign of you at all."}
Hearing that, James let out an exasperated sigh.
"Pop, you never told me where you were." James said in exasperation. "By home, you meant the Estate in the Underworld, right?"
{"Where else would I be talking about?"} Cassiel asked in a frantic tone. {"Never mind that. Just get your ass over here! This is important!"}
With that, Cassiel ended the conversation abruptly. Meanwhile, James could only look at his hand, where the communication circle used to be, in dumbfounded amazement.
"*Sigh* I guess Mom's water broke." James thought as he lowered his hand with a smile on his face. "I better get going before Pop drives the doctor's crazy."
With that, James created a teleportation circle beneath him. Then, in a flash of light, he disappeared, teleporting himself to the Underworld.
Underworld, Alaverus Territory, Alaverus Estate.
When James arrived in the room designated for incoming teleportation, a feature Scathach helped Cassiel set up with her runes, he saw his father and Scathach waiting for him at the room's entrance.
"Hey, good morning." James said, waving at his father and his [Queen].
"We don't' have time for that, come with me!" Cassiel said frantically, [Flash Stepping] toward James, grabbing him by the arm, then [Flash Stepping] away.
Meanwhile, Scathach could only shake her head in exasperation. Leona was giving birth, not dying. She could not understand why Cassiel was so high-strung. It was not even his first time going through this.
"Maybe I should request that Sirzechs let me train him." Scathach muttered to herself as she began following the father-son pair. "It would not do him any good to be so easily flustered like this."
At the same time, while he was dragging James through the Estate's corridors toward the medical wing, Cassiel began shuddering violently. Then, he lost his footing and fell face first. Luckily, James was able to free his arm from his father's grasp before Cassiel fell and slid forward on his face with the rest of his body suspended slightly above the floor.
"Ow! That's gonna leave a mark." James said before jogging over to his father. When he arrived next to the twitching mess of a man on the floor, James began speaking again as he reached down to help his father up. "I'm actually pretty impressed, Pop. When did you learn how to do the [Flash Step]?"
"Ugh… That was the first time, actually." Cassiel groaned while rubbing his face. "But I guess I'm not very good at it."
Grabbing his father by the arm he was using to rub his face; James almost dropped him when he saw the rug burn that reached from Cassiel's hair line to his chin.
"Damn, Pop! Hahahaha!" James began to laugh hardily when he saw Cassiel's face. "I hope that's not going to be the face you show my new sibling when you finally get to see them."
The reason James was so vague about his incoming sibling was simple. Cassiel and Leona, like they did when he was born, decided that they did not want to know the baby's gender until they were born.
"Oh, shut up, James." Cassiel said, masking his embarrassment behind a layer of anger. "Just use your [Healing Kido] and take care of this while we make our way to the room your mother is in."
"Okay, okay, fine." James said, his hand lighting up as he placed it on his father's face. "Let's go."
Like that, James and Cassiel decided to walk the rest of the way to the medical room Leona was going to give birth in. Along the way, Scathach caught up to them and walked the rest of the way with them. At the same time, Scathach continuously looked Cassiel up and down, as if she were appraising him.
"Uh… Scathach, why are you looking at me like that?" Cassiel asked in an uncomfortable tone.
Meanwhile, James watched the two, having a good idea where this would go.
"I am devising the best training regimen for you." Scathach replied. "it seems you are too easily flustered in situations like this. That could be detrimental in serious situations."
Immediately, Cassiel understood why he started shuddering not too long ago. Then, he looked at his son with a pleading gaze.
James, on the other hand, looked away, trying to hide the smirk that was forming on his lips.
"In fact, I have been newly appointed as the trainer for Lord Lucifer's peerage." Scathach said after seeing the expression on Cassiel's face. "So, you will not be the only one undergoing training. That includes your [King] as well."
Underworld, Satan Territory, Lucifer Estate.
While Cassiel felt better knowing that he would not be getting Scathach's undivided attention, In his personal office inside his estate, Sirzechs shuddered just as violently as Cassiel had minutes ago.
"For some reason, I feel like agreeing to Scathach's suggestion was a bad idea." Sirzechs said to himself as he read over a mountain of paperwork. "What is this? The Council is pushing for James to receive a third peerage? I can't deny that he has brought in quite a few strong reincarnated devils into devil society, but I don't even have my second peerage yet."
Setting the document in his had to the side, Sirzechs knew he would have to bring that up with the rest of the Satans, James included.
Underworld, Alaverus Territory, Alaverus Estate.
When James, Cassiel, and Scathach arrived in the medical wing, James was surprised to see all the residents of the Alaverus Estate in the Human World. On top of that, the members of his peerages who did not live in the estate were also there.
"Did you all skip school today, or something." James asked with a smile on his face.
Before anyone could answer James' question, however, a loud, pain filled, angry shout rang out through the waiting room.
"Cassiel you son o f a bitch!" Leona shouted, her shout reverberating through the entire medical wing. "I'm going to fucking kill you for doing this to me! And if I don't, I'm gonna rip your balls off so it never happens again!"
While Cassiel shivered with fear in his eyes, everyone else in the room looked at him mirthfully. Although they all knew that Leona would not do anything to Cassiel once she was done giving birth, hearing an assassin that no one had ever heard of yelling that she was going to kill you could be a bit scary.
Usually, having never heard of someone would mean their reputation was pretty terrible. However, when it comes to assassins, that is one of the best reputations they could ever have.
For the next fourteen hours, everyone who did not have pressing duties stayed in the medical wing, waiting for Leona's labor too end. As time went on, Leona's curses and death threats directed at Cassiel continued. While long labor and the death threats were making Cassiel more nervous over time, James was amazed.
"Damn, it's been fourteen hours and not once has Mom repeated a curse or a threat." James said with amusement in his eyes. "I wonder how many she has under her sleeves."
"Can't you take this more seriously?" Cassiel said, a nervous wreck after fourteen hours of waiting.
Though James had been joking for most of the fourteen hours in the waiting room, he was more serious about his mother's safety than anyone else. For the entire duration, his perception has been stretched well beyond the walls of the Estate, watching every presence within his detection range.
However, before James could make another witty remark in response to his father's question, the loud cry of a newborn echoed throughout the waiting room.
Immediately, Cassiel disappeared from his seat next to James, reappearing in front of the door where Leona had just given birth. A few moments later, the door opened, standing behind it was the doctor who delivered his second child.
Taken aback for a moment upon seeing Cassiel standing in the doorway, the doctor took a step back subconsciously. However, after recognizing Cassiel, he calmed himself quickly.
"Congratulations, Lord Alaverus." The doctor said with a tired smile. "Your wife gave birth to a healthy baby girl."
Hearing that, Cassiel sighed in relief. At the same time, the doctor stepped aside, allowing the eager father to see his newborn daughter. A moment later, after Cassiel entered the room, the doctor stepped back into the doorway.
"Lord Sataniel, your mother wishes for you to enter as well." The doctor said with even more respect in his tone.
Naturally, James did not need to be told that he was welcome to enter the room. Though not as fast as Cassiel, he was already on his way to the door as soon as his younger sister's cry could be heard. Arriving at the door, James smiled, nodded, and patted the doctor on the shoulder.
"Thanks for your hard work." James said as he walked past the doctor and entered the medical room.
When James was in the room, he saw Venelana, Rhea, and Cassiel standing around the bed where he was sure his mother was lying. Off to the side of the room, Grayfia was carefully cleaning the newborn girl. Then, as James made his way over to the bed, Grayfia had just finished washing the newborn.
Arriving next to his father, James was just in time to see Grayfia hand the little girl to Leona. Although it was clear that Leona was exhausted, she received the baby with steady hands and a loving smile on her face.
When James got a good look at the baby, he found himself in a daze. For some reason, unexplainable to himself, he felt a connection to the baby girl in his mother's arms that was deeper than he would have ever imagined.
'When she can talk, if she asked me to I would pluck a star out the sky for her.' James thought.
Meanwhile, while James was lost in his thoughts, Leona had allowed everyone else in the room a chance to hold the little girl. James was eventually brought back to his senses when Venelana handed the little girl to him. Luckily, he had been paying enough attention t what the others were talking about to know that they had not mentioned the girl's name.
"Mom, Pop, what's her name?" James asked as he stared into his younger sister's eyes that he was sure could not see him.
"Oh, that's right!" Leona said in a quiet shout. "Her name is Aaliyah… Aaliyah Alaverus."
With that, James smiled widened. Then, holding Aaliyah in one hand, he used his free hand to gently poke her on the nose.
"Hey, Aaliyah, I'm your big brother, James." James said with a doting smile on his face.
As soon as James spoke, Aaliyah seemingly smiled, causing James to realize what was going on.
'Fuck, it really must be a law of this world.' James thought as he watched the beautiful little girl in his arms with a content smile on his face. 'Everyone over a certain level of power really is a sis-con.'
~End~