Human World, Hanging Neck Island.
"How in the world did you forget you had an arrow with Samael's poison on it?"
Ddraig asked, not bothering to conceal his voice.
"I haven't done any inventory management in a while." James replied with a shrug. "Either way, I remembered it at just the right time, right?"
"It wouldn't have mattered in the long run." Ddraig replied. "After improving to the God King-rank, you would have won… eventually."
"True." James said with a nod.
With that, James stopped to look around his surroundings. What he saw was a completely destroyed arena and many demons that did not live through the conflict.
"I guess the tournament will have to continue in the old stadium, huh?" James asked while scratching the back of his head. "No one's gonna ask me to pay for this, are they?"
"I don't think that will be the case." A smooth male voice said from James' left.
Looking in the direction of the voice, James saw Sakyo, followed by the younger Toguro approaching.
"That's good." James replied with a nod. "But to be honest, I didn't expect either of you to survive."
"When that thing…. That dragon… smashed through the roof, I didn't think we would survive, either." Sakyo said while shaking his head. "Anyway, is there even a point in continuing this tournament. It's obvious that this was just a playground for you."
"Not really a playground." James replied while shaking his head as well. "Participating in this tournament was exactly what I needed to get to the level of strength I have now."
"Where is Yusuke?" Toguro asked after there was a slight pause in the conversation.
"Now that you mention it…" James trailed off as he looked back to where Irene's barrier once stood. "That's a good question."
Turning his head back to the front, James raised his right hand to his right ear, a communication magic circle flickering into existence on his fingertips.
"Yo, Irene." James said in a cheerful tone. "Yeah, everything is taken care of over here. Rizevim is dead and so is Acnologia … So, where did you go? … Oh, you went home? How's Mom? … Okay, exactly what I was expecting … Sure, if you want to … Alright, I'll be here when you get back."
A moment later, James dispelled the communication circle and focused on Sakyo and Toguro.
"They went to my estate in Kuoh." James said, finally answering Toguro's question. "They should be here soon."
"I see." Toguro responded simply.
"Oh, and Sakyo." James said after getting Toguro's reply.
"Yes?" Sakyo replied, curious to know what James could possibly want with him.
"Even if you were to win all the money from your bets, you would never succeed in opening a portal to the Demon World."
Taken aback that James knew his end goal, Sakyo opened his eyes wide.
"How did you know about that?" Sakyo asked.
"I'm one of the Underworld's Five Great Satans. My information network is much broader than you think." James said with a smirk.
"[A broad information network my ass.]" Ddraig scoffed. "[The only reason you know is from all the memories from you past life.]"
'I know, right.' James replied internally. 'But this sounds much cooler and makes me sound more mysterious, doesn't it?'
"[Making yourself look good and messing with people is all you ever think about.]" Ddraig said, scoffing once again.
Instead of responding, James simply smiled. Though that gave Sakyo a different feeling.
"This was my life's work." Sakyo said in a downcast manner. "What am I supposed to do now?"
"You could get reincarnated into a devil." James suggested. "All your resources in the huma world would be great for the Underworld. On top of that, you would have a chance to grow stronger, personally."
Having never heard of the [Evil Pieces] or devil reincarnation, Sakyo was intrigued. Though he was still a bit despondent from hearing that all his plans were a failure. However, before he could ask any questions about James' proposal, a teleportation magic circle appeared behind James. An instant later, Irene, along with Leona and everyone she teleported away from Hanging Neck Island reappeared in a flash of light.
"Mom, why are you here?" James asked, stepping toward his mother before giving her a gentle hug.
"I missed my baby." Leona replied, returning the hug. "Besides, the house was really boring with everyone out fighting."
James could only chuckle after seeing his mother's annoyed pout. Then, he looked at Irene with a smile.
"Thanks for protecting everyone, Irene." James said.
"It's not a problem." Irene replied with a smile of her own.
"So, how did you manage to get the mother and daughter at the same time?" Leona asked with a few nudges of her elbow to James' side. "You know, Lana is gonna be really jealous when she hears about it."
In reply, James could only laugh awkwardly. Although a bit of Oyakodon was nice, he was not sure he could get down with having both Rias and Venelana. He did still see Venelana as an auntie, after all. At the same time, however, he had warmed up to the idea quite a bit since the last time he saw her.
"Hey, what happened to that big dragon?" Kuwabara asked after looking around the area. "And why is that guy's body here? Didn't he get turned into a bloody mist before we left?"
Internally sighing in relief that someone said something to get him out of answering his mother's question, James turned toward the huge puddle of foul-smelling goop that used to be Acnologia and pointed at it with a smile.
"He's over there." James said.
Looking in the direction James pointed, everyone wore confused expressions when they thought of that goop as Acnologia, the super-powerful, intimidating black dragon that destroyed most of the arena.
"What did you do to turn that thing into… that?" Jin asked with a tone of disbelief.
"Well, I had an arrow that had been soaked in Samael's poison, and…" James said with a shrug.
While the people who were aware of Samael looked at James in shock, those who did not were thoroughly confused.
"When you say Samael, do you mean the one who tricked Adam and Eve into eating the Forbidden Fruit?"
When they heard that question, everyone other than the question's asker looked in the direction the question came from instinctively. However, when they saw who asked the question, they were surprised.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Keiko asked while stepping back nervously."
Most people were surprised that Keiko had inserted herself in the conversation. Meanwhile, those who already knew who Samael was looked at her with a bit of curiosity.
"Keiko, are you a Christian?" James asked with a note of curiosity in his tone.
"No, I'm not." Keiko replied with a shake of her head. "But I find myths and religions interesting. So, I've read a lot of religious texts and myths."
"Got it." James replied. "Anyway, Samael's poison is the most lethal thing to a dragon, in any realm. So, it completely broke him down into that."
Though not everyone understood James' explanation, they all nodded in understanding. Then, James pointed at Rizevim's corpse.
"As for him, he faked his death at the hands of Acnologia. Then, he tried to sneak attack me." James said, shrugging his shoulders once again. "So, I faked my death too, got him to tell me how he concealed his presence from me, stole the artifact he used, and killed him."
"Looks like a Mortal Kombat Fatality." Leona remarked after seeing Rizevim's body. {A/N: Thanks Sica_rio.}
Genkai nodded in agreement while James smiled, thinking the same.
"If you think so, you would have lost it if you had seen it in person." James said.
"Damn, I wish I had." Leona said with a pout.
"Anyway, let's get to something important." James said, turning his attention to Sakyo and Toguro, who stood in place and waited patiently. "What are we going to do to end this tournament?"
Hearing that, Koto's eyes lit up. The Dark Martial Arts Tournament was what she lived for, so leaving it unfinished left a salty taste in her mouth. However, when she heard Sakyo's answer to James' question, she could not help but deflate.
"It seems as if there's no point." Sakyo said while shaking his head. "Even if Toguro won against Urameshi, I had no way of winning against Kuwabara."
Immediately everyone, including Toguro, nodded in agreement with Sakyo's statement.
"And since you made it clear that my life's work would not succeed…" Sakyo continued in a downcast tone. "I don't really have anything to live for."
"Are you going to kill yourself?" Kuwabara asked out of curiosity.
"Now hold on a second." James cut in. "Don't answer that question until I've had time to explain my proposal, alright."
Sakyo simply nodded his head in response. He knew that if James did not want him to die, he would not be able to kill himself. Until James allowed it, anyway.
"And what about you, Toguro?" James asked.
"I would still like to fight Yusuke." Toguro said without changing his expression.
"So, you want to die too, huh?" James said, surprising the members of Team Urameshi, Genkai, and Toguro himself. "Instead of despairing over the deaths of all your disciples from fifty years ago, wouldn't it be better to nurture a new generation. Or if training kids is too much for you, you could do something that brings smiles to the faces of children."
"Bring… Smiles?" Toguro asked, confusion written all over his face, even with his sunglasses on.
"Yup, I know a certain devil who would love to have you in her peerage." James said with a wide smile on his face. "She's kind of in the business of making children smile."
Seeing James smile, Toguro felt a shiver oof terror, something he had not felt in decades. Meanwhile, Irene could only face palm. After seeing the state that Issa was in, she knew it would be rough if Toguro accepted James' offer. Meanwhile, Leona had to walk away from the group, accompanied by Erza for protection, to not ruin James' plan with her uninhibited laughter.
"Yusuke, you never really wanted to fight Toguro anyway, right?" James asked.
"Not really." Yusuke replied. "If I wasn't forced into participating in this tournament, I wouldn't have even come to watch."
Nodding in understanding, James returned his gaze to Toguro.
"And there you have it." James said with yet another shrug. "Fighting Yusuke now would have been pointless. Besides, with Master's training, you probably would have lost even if Yusuke was still hiding his emotions."
Though Toguro was unconvinced of James' statement, everyone who had trained with Scathach nodded their heads vigorously.
After a bit more small talk, James collected Rizevim's corpse. Then, the entire group teleported to James' mansion in Kuoh, even Koto and Juri. Although he didn't think either of them would fit in with anyone's peerages, James did have a great job in mind for both of them.
Considering that they had acted as referees during the Dark Tournament. James decided that he would get Koto and Juri jobs as referees for the [Rating Games], since he doubted there would be another Dark Martial Arts Tournament after the fiasco that happened today.
James also had plans for the defeated demons, who also traveled to Kuoh with James and the others. He planned to introduce Chu, Rinku, Jin, and Touya to Ravel. She could use some experienced [Pieces] to add to her peerage, though he had yet to run that by the quartet of demons yet.
A few hours later, after all the fighting was over with, James took Team Urameshi and their entourage back to Hanging Neck Island. More specifically, the hotel they stayed in, to pick up their luggage before teleporting Yusuke, Kuwabara, Keiko, Shizuru, and Botan back to Tokyo, where they could return to their normal lives.
Yukina on the other hand, decided to join Ravel's peerage after Ravel's persuasive invitation, much to Hiei's disagreement. However, he had to keep those thoughts inside because he wanted to keep it a secret that he was Yukina's brother.