280 Vali's New Teammate

Human World, Japan, Kuoh.

Although Azazel, Michael, and Gabriel's entrance did not catch anyone's attention, when Azazel asked his question, the atmosphere was broken. Everyone involved in the rather heavy conversation knew that they did not have the room to continue on that subject. So, James took another look at Venelana. Then, he glanced at Rias and Sirzechs before returning his sight to Venelana.

"We'll talk about this later." James said in a solemn tone.

While most of the other people in the living room wore concerned expressions, and the three newcomers were confused, Venelana, Rias, and Sirzechs nodded in agreement.

James then took a deep breath and replaced his solemn expression with a smile.

"Azazel, Michael, Gabriel, please, make yourselves comfortable." James said in a welcoming tone.

When Azazel saw James' forced change of expression, Azazel put on his usual shit-eating grin. However, when he met eyes with James, he felt cold sweat forming on his back in the next instant. Although James was smiling, his eyes were telling Azazel that if he tried to pry into their business that he would become a wingless crow.

"Thanks for having us." Gabriel said with a cheerful smile on her face. "Your house got a lot bigger. It's really nice!"

"Thank you." James replied with a smile. "My future in-laws upgraded it as a Christmas gift."

"So, are these all the members of the team?" Michael asked, getting down to business.

"No." James replied with a shake of his head. "We're still waiting on two teams. Both of which have a connection with our beloved, former Governor-General."

"You actually got them to agree?" Azazel asked curiously. "How did you even get in contact with them?"

"Well, I got Vali's contact info from the lazy cat that lives in my house." James said with a shrug.

"I'm not lazy, nya." Kuroka protested. "I just like my beauty sleep, nya."

"Sure, if you keep telling yourself that, one day it will become true." James replied with a cheeky smile.

"Shirone, James is bullying me, nya!" Kuroka said in a feigned hurt tone.

"Is it considered bullying if James-Nii is telling the truth?" Koneko asked while tilting her head cutely with a cookie in her mouth.

"Shirone is bullying me too, nya." Kuroka said, dropping to her knees with lifeless eyes.

"Oh yeah, I forgot she lived here." Azazel said with a wry smile. "Putting up with her must be hard."

"Nah, not really." James replied casually. "As long as you keep her fed and give her a place to sleep, she stays out of the way. Plus, she can't pass any information to Vali unless we allow her to."

Hearing that, Kuroka began to pout. Living in this house has made her look like an amateur when it comes to being a spy, and it has damaged her pride heavily.

"I see." Azazel said with a nod. "And what about the other ones?"

"Oh, last time I was in the Underworld, I called Shamhazai and asked for their number." James said with a shrug.

"And he gave it to you, just like that?" Azazel asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Yup, just like that." James replied. "And after I got their contact info, I asked Master to convince them to join. She never told me how she did it though. And to be honest, I'm not sure I wanna know."

Azazel then glanced at Scathach. When he made eye contact with her, he quickly turned his head away. When he saw the look in her eyes that said: "If you ask me how I did it, I would be happy to show you," Azazel could feel a primal terror wash over him.

"I see, well I believe they'll be a great addition to the team." Azazel said with a cramped smile on his face.

"I agree." James replied with a smile.

"Um... Excuse me." Gabriel said with a confused expression on her face. "But who are you talking about?"

"Oh, my apologies." James said with a smile. "We're talking about one of Azazel's hidden cards, the Slash/Dog team. A group of humans led by a contender for the strongest human in the world."

After that, James and Azazel told everyone about the members of the Slash/Dog Team. Then, while they were answering question, A communication magic circle appeared next to James' right ear. When he glanced at it, he noticed that it was from Yasaka. So, he injected a bit of demonic energy into it.

"Yasaka, are you ready?" James asked into the magic circle. Then, after a moment, he spoke again. "Okay, I'll ask Master to patch you into the mansion's rune network."

James then nodded in Scathach's direction. A moment later, Scathach's right index finger lit up with demonic energy and she used it to draw a few runes in the air. Then, when she was done, she stood up and walked over to James. When she arrived, she wrote a few more runes on the magic circle James was using to speak with Yasaka. After that was done, Scathach clapped her hands. In the next instant, a magic circle lit up next to the sofa James was sitting on and a holographic image of Yasaka appeared above it.

"Good afternoon, everyone." Yasaka said politely.

"It's good to see you again, Lady Yasaka." Michael replied politely with a kind smile on his face.

"Hi~~~!" Gabriel said cheerfully while waving at Yasaka.

Although it was not intentional, when Gabriel waved, her massive breasts moved along with the movement of her arm, drawing the eyes of James, Azazel, and Issei toward them. While James caught himself quickly and stopped staring, it took Issei a moment longer to do the same. It seems that ever since Issei climbed the stairs to adulthood, his perverted tendencies have been reduced greatly.

Azazel, on the other hand, continued to stare while muttering to himself, with a perverted grin on his face. If one were close enough, they would be able to hear him repeating the same words, over and over.

"Come on, titty! You can do it! Come on, titty! You can do it!"

It was obvious that he was hoping that Gabriel's breasts would liberate themselves from her outfit. Unfortunately for him, however, it seemed that holy magic in combination with Gabriel's innocence would never allow that to happen.

"*Sigh* I'd like to say it's good that you haven't changed, Azazel." Yasaka said while glaring at the fallen angel disdainfully. "But I'd rather not lie so obviously."

"Hehe, it's good to see you too, Yasaka." Azazel said with his eyes shifting straight to Yasaka's breasts.

However, his gaze did not linger for long. As soon as his sight landed on Yasaka's breasts, he felt a chill on his throat. This feeling caused him to look around in panic. Eventually, his sight landed on a brightly smiling James, who at some point had materialized Carnage and was tapping its hilt with his index and middle fingers.

"Ahem!" Azazel cleared his throat forcefully to change the subject.

"So, when are they supposed to get here?" Azazel asked.

"Soon." James replied. "In fact, Vali and his team just arrived."

*Ding Dong!*

Once again, the doorbell rang, and once again, Zest made her way toward the front door to answer it. Then, a minute or so later, Zest reappeared with the remaining members of the Vali team, Vali, Chiron, Bikou, Arthur, Le Fay, Vergil, and someone they had never met before.

The new face, a young man, appearing to be in his late teens, with a pale skin tone, blue hair with bangs parted to either side around a white horn jutting out of his forehead, standing at 5'11" (approx. 1.8 m) and wearing a dark blue robe with ahigh collar that covered the bottom half of his face, matching pants, a white sash, and a scarf that wrapped around his neck and shoulders.

"Oh, a new guy, huh?" James said while scrutinizing the new face. "Mind introducing him, Vali?"

"Not even a hello, James?" Vali said with a grin. "You wound me."

"Dude, you brought an unknown into my house without informing me ahead of time." James said while rolling his eyes. "You're lucky I didn't greet you with my sword."

Although James spoke in an uncaring tone, the killing intent he locked onto Vali made it clear that he was not happy with Vali's actions. On top of that, the aura he released made everyone, who had never felt his power or had not felt it for some time, shiver due to its immensity.

'Damn, he's gotten even stronger.' Vali thought to himself.

"This boy's energy control is quite impressive.' Chiron thought. 'He's released his energy enough that we can all feel it. Yet, it is controlled enough that it is not affecting his surroundings. This is no doubt due to Master Scathach's teachings.'

Chiron, impressed by the control James showed, glanced at Scathach. When Scathach noticed the glance, she looked in its direction. Then, the two trainers of heroes made eye contact and Chiron nodded in appreciation.

Before Vali could recover from James display of his power, Shuna and Shion spoke in unison.

"Souei?" x 2

Shuna and Shion were staring at the newcomer with confusion in their eyes. Meanwhile, the new guy, Souei, was bowing politely toward Shuna.

"Princess, it's good to see you again." Souei said in a flat tone.

Although his tone did not sound too respectful, Shuna showed no signs of discontent. Souei was one of her guards when she was still living as the Oni princess. Although he was only a hidden guard and Shuna did not interact with him much, she knew that flat tone was the way Souei spoke to everyone.

"Souei, what are you doing here?" Shion asked with confusion in her tone.

"As you are aware, I was raised from birth to be one of Princess Shuna's guards in the shadows." Souei said with little inflection. "However, when you and Princess Shuna left, I lost my purpose. So, I left the Oni tribe and began to wander the country. Then, the mainland. Eventually, I ran into Bikou in China."

"Yup, and we had a fight, a good one." Bikou said with a laugh. "When it turned out to be a draw, I thought the guy was interesting. So, I invited him to join our group."

"Yeah, on top of that, he's one of the few stealth-type Oni." Vali said. "And after undergoing Chiron's teachings, I bet he's even better than your little ninja."

With that, the room fell silent. And the silence was oppressive. A moment later, without making any sound, Ayame appeared behind Vali with a kunai pressed on his throat.

"Would you care to repeat that?" Ayame said in a cold tone while adjusting her glasses with her free hand.

"That was bad ass." Issei whispered. "Skiadrum, I should be able to do something like that if I travel through the shadows, right?"

"[As long as the shadow is behind the target, yes.]" Skiadrum said In Issei's head. "[But there's no way you could do it as quietly and with as few ripples as she did. You're too stupid to control your demonic energy that well.]"

"Whose side are you on?" Issei asked with some irritation in his tone.

Around that time, Vali regained his senses.

"Just because you can sneak up on me, doesn't mean Souei couldn't do the same to your [King]." Vali said indignantly.

At that very moment, Souei, who had been watching the situation, suddenly blurred out of existence. Then, he appeared behind James. However, different from Ayame's appearance, James held the tip of Carnage against Souei's windpipe.

"Nice try, dude." James said with a smile. "But I've known that you were there from the beginning. That was a pretty good clone, though."

"*Sigh* She's still better than me, huh?" Souei said before putting his dagger away. Then, he bowed politely to James and spoke once again. "Thank you for your mercy."

*Ding Dong!*

"It looks like the last of our guests have arrived." James said with a smile while sheathing his sword.

While James spoke, Zest once again made her way toward the front door while Souei returned to Vali's team.