Human World, Japan, Kuoh.
Shortly after Flora joined James' peerage as his newest [Pawn], it was decided that the entire peerage would take Kunou with them and train in the underworld. Catching wind of James' plans, Sona and Rias decided they would also bring their peerages with them to train as well. Deciding she was not interested in staying in an empty house alone, Leona also decided to join them on their trip to the Underworld. Dante was not happy with this decision, though. He wanted to complete a few more jobs in the time the rest of the peerage was away. James put an end to that with one simple sentence.
"You're on payroll, remember?"
Hearing that, Dante deflated instantly. With that, he and Lady joined the rest of the group at the Kuoh Subway Station. As it turns out, the official passage to the Underworld nearest to Kuoh was underneath the platforms normal people used. As the group of fourteen entered the subway station, Sona and Rias took the lead. Making their way to the elevators that lead to the lower platforms, Rias pulled a keycard from her pocket and pushed it into the call button panel. A moment later, the elevator doors slid open.
"Alright, this elevator will lead to the special platform with trains departing to the Underworld." Rias said as she placed her left hand on her hip while gesturing toward the elevator with her right. "The elevator is kind of small, so we'll have to divide into groups no bigger than five."
"Groups of five, huh?" Flora said while looking at all those present. "So, how are we going to group up?"
With that question, a lot of the girls present put on serious expressions.
'We can discard Rias and Sona from the battle of wits as they need to use their own keycards to open the elevator.' Moka thought to herself as she warily looked over the competition.
'Most likely, Cu Chulainn would ride in whatever group Tsubaki was in. And Tsubaki will probably ride with Sona.' Mizore thought, also looking at the girls present as if they were enemies.
'Even though Reya is close to James, she doesn't really seem like a threat right now.' Akeno thought while smiling gracefully. She then turned her attention to Rias and thought. 'Rias will probably step in and make me ride with her. With an excuse like "My queen should be with me at all times." Ugh.'
'James will probably ride with his mother and Kunou. That means there will only be two open spots in his group.' Flora thought to herself then widened her eyes in realization. After that, she overclocked her thought processor and came up with the perfect way to get into that group.
"Auntie Leona, I'll join your group." Flora said with a sweet smile.
Also smiling sweetly, Leona replied to Flora's enthusiasm. "Sure thing. Lady, why don't you ride with us, too? You joined James' peerage a while ago, but I haven't really had the time to talk to you."
Lady glanced at Dante then nodded in agreement to Leona's proposal.
"Then that makes five for us." Leona said with a smile before walking into the elevator unceremoniously. "James, Kunou, let's go."
Shrugging his shoulders, James led Kunou by the hand and followed his mother into the elevator. Shortly after Flora and Lady joined them.
'That sneaky little...' Mizore thought as she gritted her teeth in frustration.
'Damn it.' Moka exclaimed internally. 'Can't underestimate that girl.'
With Rias smiling smugly at her, Akeno could only sigh at the development.
Before the doors closed, James looked at the rest of his peerage and ordered. "Even though it won't be for long, protect the Ladies of the Gremory and Sitri House in my absence."
"Yeah, yeah, just go ahead." Cu Chulainn said, waving his hand dismissively. "The faster you go the faster the elevator comes back. The faster we're all back together."
With that, James let the elevator doors close. Once they were closed, the five occupants felt the elevator begin to descend. However, the speed felt a little fast. A little frightened, Kunou tightened her grip on James' hand. Feeling this, James looked down and saw the fright in Kunou's eyes.
"Don't worry, Kunou." James said with a bright smile. "Nothing will happen to you, I'm here to protect you, remember?"
Hearing that, Kunou looked up only to see James smiling at her. Seeing that infectious smile, Kunou smiled as well. Seeing James interact with Kunou, Leona and Flora smiled happily. Even Lady who normally kept a stoic expression on her face cracked a small smile.
Shortly after that, the elevator reached its destination. When the doors opened, the group made their way to where the official path to the Underworld was located. And what did they see? Another underground subway platform. The only difference with the normal ones was that the trains were all marked with the Gremory and Sitri insignias.
"I have to admit, I was expecting somethng that looked more... I don't know... Supernatural?" Flora said, disappointment in her tone.
"Yeah, I thought there would be a big senkaimon, like in Bleach." Kunou said with her ears and tails drooping in disappointment.
"Hahaha!" James laughed after hearing the girls. "You two have active imaginations, don't you?"
Hearing James laughter, Flora and Kunou blushed in embarrassment. To change the subject, Flora spoke quickly.
"By the way, you still haven't told me what the names of the manga you drew are, James." Flora said.
"Huh?" Lady looked shocked. "You draw manga? A devil drawing manga, that's a weird thought."
"Not all devils are like the ones you hunt, Lady. James said with a smile. "In fact, you only hunt stray devils. Normally devils live harmoniously with humans... Well, they live among them without doing anything violent."
James then turned his attention to Flora, but before he could respond to her question, an energetic little fox girl interjected excitedly.
"You didn't know, Flora-Oneesan?" Kunou said smugly with her chest puffed out in pride. "James-Oniisan made Bleach and School Rumble."
"What!?" Lady and Flora exclaimed simultaneously.
Even though she is not a huge manga fan, even Lady had heard of the popularity of Bleach. She was not sure about School Rumble, though. But with Bleach's popularity, she was sure that the other one could not be all that bad, either. Flora, on the other hand, was dumbfounded. She knew that James must have been the author of a pretty popular manga, especially after finding out that he funded the MMA hall at Kuoh Academy with his own money. But she never imagined that those two were his work.
"So, you're saying that the world's most popular manga, Bleach, is your work?" Flora asked in disbelief.
"You're making a little mistake, Flora." Leona said with a mischievous smile. "It's not just the world's most popular manga."
"Huh?" Flora asked in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Bleach is the most popular manga in all the realms." Leona said with pride.
Hearing Leona's explanation, Flora took a second to remember what James told her about the realms and the pantheons. Not long after she recalled the information, she froze completely. The level of popularity was beyond her comprehension.
Shortly after that, the elevator door opened again. Then, Sona, Tsubaki, Reya, Cu Chulainn, and Moka stepped out onto the platform. Quickly, they joined up with James group and began chatting as they waited for the last group to make their way out of the elevator. A few minutes later, Rias, Akeno, Mizore, and Dante stepped onto the platform as well. Shortly after, the entire group made their way onto the train headed to the underworld. With Rias and Sona moving to the front most car. At least until the train passed the realm barrier.
"What's wrong with Flora?" Akeno asked as she poked her in the cheek with a finger.
"She just found out that I'm the author of Bleach and School Rumble." James replied nonchalantly.
"Ahh." Reya said in realization. "Flora.exe crashed, huh?"
Nodding in agreement, James responded to Reya's quip. "That's right. Just like Reya.exe when you found out."
Reya coughed lightly at James' quip then she turned away and spoke in a small voice. "I don't know what you're talking about."
After chatting and joking around a bit more, eventually that chatter died down and the group began to relax. About forty minutes into the ride, Kunou had a question to ask.
"James-Oniisan, what's the underworld like?"
Hearing Kunou's question, all the first-time visitors to the underworld turned their attention to James. Instead of answering Kunou's question, James thought for a moment. After that he looked at Kunou and smiled with three fingers on his right hand raised. Curiously, Kunou turned her sights to James' right hand. Slowly, James lowered his fingers one by one. After he lowered the last of the three fingers, he gestured with the same hand to the window. When everyone's attention shifted to the view outside the window, they were met with a white flash. Proof that they had crossed the realm barrier into the Underworld. Once the flash faded and their eyes adjusted to the new light intensity, what they saw was a landscape painted with green meadows, tall mountains, enormous lakes, and... A purple sky.
"Are you serious?" Lady asked in bewilderment. "The sky is purple?"
"Yup." Flora replied with a smile. "I don't know which one is prettier. The blue of the Human World, or the Purple of the Underworld."
As they chatted about the scenery, Tsubaki eventually explained some things about the Underworld, after adjusting her glasses.
"The Underworld has the same surface area as the Earth in the Human World." Tsubaki began her explanation. "The major difference is that there are no oceans in the Underworld. There are some absolutely gigantic lakes, but all the water in the Underworld is land locked."
"So, does that mean there are no beaches in the underworld?" Flora asked curiously while glancing at her luggage.
As Flora was asking her question, Rias and Sona entered the car and Sona answered her question.
"There are beaches in the Underworld." Sona said as she adjusted her glasses.
'These glasses girls do that a lot.' James thought as he watched Sona adjust her glasses with a smile.
Noticing James smiling at her, Sona flushed immediately. Rias on the other hand pouted and crossed her arms under her sizable breasts, unintentionally emphasizing them. Seeing that, Sona's blush transformed into a pout as well. She then coughed lightly to refocus on answering Flora's question.
"Ahem. Like I was saying, there are beaches in the Underworld." Sona continued her explanation. "The shores of the large lakes act as the beaches in the Underworld. The biggest difference between the beaches of the underworld and the Human World are that you don't see or hear the waves crashing into the shore."
"Although what Sona said was true, we'll be going back to the Human World for the beach episode." James said with a smile. "Blue skies and seas are a must when you make it to the beach episode, after all."
Hearing James, most of the group rolled their eyes. At the same time, they would not turn down a trip to relax and play at the beach.
"So, what kind of training will we be doing." Rias asked.
"Uh... not to rain on your parade, Riri." James said while scratching the back of his head. "But, as the [King], that's your call, right?"
"The Gremory peerage will be training jointly with the Alaverus peerage." Rias said proudly.
James rubbed his forehead at Rias words. Seeing James like that, Sona made her way to his side and patted him on the shoulder.
"She's trying, James." Sona said, trying to calm James down.
"I know." James said exasperatedly. "That's why I thought before speaking."
Confused by James and Sona's conversation, Rias asked a question.
"Um... Did I say something wrong?" Rias asked while tilting her head in a cute manner.
"Rias, training a peerage is usually a private thing." Sona explained.
"But our peerages always train together, right?" Rias asked. She then realized the problem. "That's after James invites us, though."
James and Sona's eyes widened at Rias' words. Unbelievable, Rias had realized her mistake before someone pointed it out to her.
"She's not just trying, she's getting better." James said in total disbelief.
"Oh my, is the Underworld about to end?" Sona said in mock terror.
"*Sob* *Sob* Oh my little Rias is growing up." Akeno said while pretending to wipe tears from her eyes. "They grow up so fast."
Immediately understanding that she was being mocked, Rias pouted and turned her head away with a blush on her cheeks.
"I'm not talking to any of you anymore." Rias said with a huff.
After that, everyone burst into laughter, except for Dante, who was fast asleep. The train ride lasted another hour with the group laughing and having fun together. When the train stopped, the group had arrived in the Underworld's capital city, Lilith.