Human World, Japan, Kuoh.
The next morning, a few minutes after 11 a.m., the atmosphere on the second floor of the mansion was quiet and peaceful. Unfortunately, there was one person in the mansion who had no intention of leaving it that way.
*Knock!* *Knock!*
"James, wake up." Kahlua shouted while excitedly knocking on James' bedroom door.
Meanwhile, James was still in bed, deciding to sleep in after the week of extra intense training and the duel. Like James, Rias was also still sleeping next to him after James brought her to his room after her, not so great, encounter with her brother, last night.
"Ugh... What time is it?" James asked while rubbing his eyes. "And why is someone bothering me in the morning?"
"James, go answer the door and tell them to go away." Rias said in a half-asleep state.
"If we don't answer, maybe they'll go away on their own." James mumbled as he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
"You know I can hear you." Kahlua said as she began to knock with more force.
For the next minute or so, James resisted getting out of bed with all his might. However, Rias eventually grew annoyed with the incessant knocking, and added to the number of people trying to force him out of bed.
"Fine, but if I have to get out of bed, then so do you." James said in an annoyed tone.
After that, James pulled the blankets away from Rias, who was trying to go back to sleep as well. Once the blankets were pulled away, Rias was, unsurprisingly, revealed to be in the nude and reaching for the blankets with her eyes closed. Then, James stood from the bed and lifted Rias in a princess carry.
"Nope, you're getting up too." James said.
However, Rias was completely unbothered. Instead of struggling to get back in the bed, Rias just curled up and made herself comfortable in James arms. Naturally, James was dumbfounded for a moment. He was expecting her to struggle, which would eventually wake her up.
"You can either get down on your own, or I'll let you down the fast way." James said with a twitching eyebrow.
"No, you won't." Rias said with a sweet smile while adjusting her position in James' arms.
Knowing that she was right about dropping her, James had a brilliant idea when it came to waking Rias. So, he walked into the bathroom, with Rias in his arms, and turned on the shower.
Hearing the shower running, Rias eyelids twitched while the smile on her face slowly disappeared.
'He wouldn't, right?" Rias asked herself.
However, she then felt James adjust her position so he could hold her with one arm. Then, she heard the sound of fabric sliding across skin.
"Did he just take off his underwear?' Rias thought. 'No, he's just trying to scare me.'
"Hey, Kahlua!" James shouted towards the bedroom door. "Just give me about half an hour. I'm gonna take a shower, then I'll come out!"
"Fine." Kahlua said, clearly pouting as she replied. "I'll be in the living room."
"Got it!" James shouted back.
'Oh, so he was using the sound of the shower to get Kahlua to leave.' Rias thought, the smile returning to her face. 'That's a pretty good idea, I should try it sometime, too.'
"Last Chance, Ri Ri." James said, his smile, apparent in his tone. "Are you getting up? Or do I have to use more drastic measures?"
Instead of responding, Rias adjusted her position to be more comfortable and continued smiling sweetly.
"Fine, don't say I didn't give you a chance." James said with a mischievous smile on his face.
Then, an ear shattering scream could be heard reverberating through the entire estate.
Half an hour later, James and Rias made their way down to the living room, with Rias pouting and refusing to look at James while he snickered in amusement.
"Oh, Rias, what's wrong?" Venelana, who spent the night talking with Leona, Irene, and Evangeline, asked with an amused smile on her face. "You screamed so loud earlier."
At that, Rias flinched, not wanting to talk about it. However, James could not help but start laughing.
"It's not funny!" Rias shouted.
"The hell it isn't." James said while continuing to laugh. "You got what you deserved."
"Seriously, what happened?" Leona asked. "Based off of the volume of Rias' scream, I'm sure it was hilarious."
"Really, have we gotten to a point where we can tell how funny a prank was by how loud the victim screams?" Sona said while adjusting her glasses. "What has the world come to?"
"Culture will always advance, Sona." James said in the tone of a wise expert.
Instead of dignifying James' idiocy with a response, Sona simply rolled her eyes and turned back to the book she was reading.
"Anyway, what happened?" Leona asked with curiosity in her tone.
However, Rias refused to answer.
"It wasn't as bad as Rias is making it out to be." James said with a smile while shrugging his shoulders. "When Kahlua was knocking on my door, Rias tried to make me get up and make Kahlua go away."
"You two are so mean." Kahlua said, her voice travelling from another room . "I had something really important to talk about."
"Anyway, deciding that I wouldn't be the only one to get out of bed, I picked up Rias and walked into the bathroom. Then, I turned on the shower."
"You didn't." Leaona said, trying to stifle the laughter that was coming up from her imagination.
"Would you let him finish." Venelana said while playfully swatting Leona on the shoulder. "Go on, James."
"Keep in mind, I gave Ri Ri two chances to get up on her own." James said. "But she just got comfortable in my arms and pretended to be asleep."
"Hmph!" Rias snorted.
"So, I moved her under the shower head." James said with his smile growing more mischievous by the second.
"But just getting wet shouldn't be enough to make you scream like... that" Venelana said while looking at Rias with a smile.
"Especially since you were probably already naked." Akeno said. "I mean, even if you two didn't have sex, there's no way that Rias was going to sleep with clothes on."
"Clothes or not, that didn't matter at all.!" Rias shouted indignantly. "You'd scream too, if the water was freezing cold!"
"You did!" Leona exclaimed in excitement.
"I did." James said with a smile and a nod of satisfaction.
"I bet she woke up real quick after that." Leona said excitedly.
"Anyway, where's Kahlua?" James asked. "She's the reason for all of this, and she said she would be down here."
"I'm here." Kahlua said as she scurried into the living room from the direction of the kitchen with cookie crumbs around her mouth.
"Kahlua-San." Koneko said menacingly when she noticed the crumbs on Kahlua's face. "Did you go into my snack stash again?"
"No... Of course not." Kahlua said while trying to look as innocent as she could.
"So, then where did those crumbs come from?" Koneko asked in the same tone.
In response, Kahlua wiped her mouth as fast as she could, maintaining her innocent expression the whole time.
"What crumbs?" Kahlua asked with a sweet smile on her face.
Naturally, James was not able to hear what Kahlua spent so much time trying to wake him up for until Koneko's anger was soothed.
Twenty minutes later, James was seated on the sofa with Koneko on his lap. Every now and then, Koneko would open her mouth and James would put a cookie or some other kind of snack in her mouth. Without James' pampering, the little nekoshou might have gone on scolding Kahlua for even longer.
Meanwhile, Kahlua was on the floor, seated in the seiza position with a sign around her neck that read: "I stole someone else's snacks so I'm being punished."
"So, Kahlua, what was so important that you wanted to talk about?" James asked while scratching behind Koneko's cat ears.
"That's right!" Kahlua said, jumping up to her feet."
"Back in seiza!" Koneko said sternly.
"Yes, Ma'am." Kahlua replied while sitting back in the seiza position.
At the same time, the Shuzen sisters were looking at this situation in awe.
"Sister Akua, this is an illusion, right?" Kokoa asked, not believing what she was seeing.
"At this point I'm not sure." Akua replied. "To think that Kahlua would listen to someone else like this. I mean, it's almost impossible to get her to stay in one place for any amount of time."
"Well, even Auntie Leona doesn't make jokes about stealing Koneko's snacks." Moka said. "It was funny when it happened though."
Back to James conversation, Kahlua looked up at James from her position on the floor with a bright smile on her face.
"Test me to see if I'm strong enough to join your peerage." Kahlua said.
"Why are you in such a hurry?" James asked in curiosity.
"Because you and your peerage are allowed to go to Heaven, and I wanna see it." Kahlua replied straightforwardly.
"I guess that makes sense." James replied while stroking his chin. "But I don't even know if my second peerage will be allowed."
"Well, that would be simple enough to find out, wouldn't it?" Venelana said, as she created a communication circle on her right hand.
A moment later, Venelana placed the magic circle next to her right ear. Then, a few moments later, the magic circle glowed a little brighter, signifying that the connection was established.
"Hi, Grayfia... Yes, I have a question to ask... Oh, if you're busy, I'm sure it can wait... Okay, I'll contact you later." Venelana said, speaking into the communication circle.
"Well, I guess we're not getting the answer right now." James said with a shrug. Then, he sat Koneko on the sofa beside him before standing up. "Well, I'm hungry..."
"I'll cook you breakfast!" Shion shouted.
".. For some video games." James continued awkwardly. "I'm really looking forward to putting the smack down on someone. Maybe I'll go to Ise's house and play with him."
And just like that, James ran away from the most terrifying enemy he ever had to face... Shion's cooking.
"And... he's gone." Mizore said, watching James run down the street.
"I wonder if he was so panicked that he forgot that he could teleport." Reya asked as she also watched James run away.
"Even if he wanted to play video games, he should have stayed for breakfast." Shion said with a pout. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, after all. Well, it is pretty late in the morning, do any of you want me to make you some lunch?"
The room fell silent when Shion asked the question. A moment later, the room was filled with excuses to leave and hastily thought up plans for lunch.
"Everyone had plans?" Shion asked. "Such bad luck. I had a really good idea for a new recipe."
"Just out of curiosity, have you ever tasted your own food?" Shuna, the only one left in the living room other than Shion, asked curiously.
In response, Shion shook her head with a big smile on her face.
"Of course not." Shion said. "Wouldn't it be wrong for a chef to deny others from having the first taste of her food?"
"I don't think that's how it works." Shuna said. "But I guess she's not paying attention."
As Shuna said, Shion was too busy frolicking around the living room, gushing to herself about all the ideas she had for her next dish. Seeing that, Shuna shook her head lightly and walked toward the elevator. James had drawn many clothing designs for her to try and recreate after their first date, and she was excited to turn James' ideas into reality with her own personal touches.
Meanwhile, on the streets of Kuoh, James was walking leisurely towards the Hyoudou residence.
"I really dodged a bullet there." James murmured to himself while wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. "No matter how strong I get, I don't think Shion's food is a foe I'll ever be able to defeat. With that cooking skill, I'm certain that Shion is the actual strongest devil in the Underworld."