You Can't Run from This

After Mizore agreed to join James' peerage in the future, James decided now would be a suitable time to return to the Underworld. Although he did not explore all of Canada, he did travel from one side of the country to the other.

With that decision made, the trio, James, Mizore, and Auron, made their way to the nearest city, so they could get Mizore a good meal, before Auron teleported them back to the Underworld.

Underworld, Gremory Territory, Alaverus Estate.

Seated in the living room of the estate there are seven people divided into two groups. The first of which consisted of three women gossiping and chatting about interesting news floating around the Underworld. The second group consisted of four girls. Two of which were seated in front of a bowl of water, working on their energy control exercise. The other two were seated off to the side playing a game of chess, while occasionally giving the first two some advice.

Noticing she was about to lose the game of chess, one of the girls, a beautiful young girl with a voluptuous figure for her age, long crimson red hair that flowed down to her thighs, bangs that covered her forehead, side bangs that reach her collar bones framing her face, a strand that sticks straight up on the top of her head, and blue eyes, Rias Gremory, turned her attention to the trio of gossiping women and asked.

"Auntie Leona, how long until James comes back?"

"Checkmate." Said her opponent, a pretty, bespectacled girl with a slender figure, shoulder length black hair styled into a bob cut with purple eyes, Sona Sitri, said as she adjusted her glasses. Her attention also shifting away from the finished game as she was also interested in the answer to Rias' question.

Hearing Sona's declaration of the game's end, Rias flinched. However, her attention never left the tall, light brown skinned, chestnut brown eyed woman with long hair pulled into a ponytail that reached her hips and had a lock of hair that fell over the left side of her face that reached down to her chin, Leona Alaverus, mother of the James she just asked about.

In response to Rias' question, Leona answered with a chuckle. "Oh no, it looks like little RiRi misses James." She then shifted her attention to Sona. Seeing how intently she was listening to the conversation, Leona continued. "It looks like Sona misses my baby, too. Even if she's trying to hide it."

At Leona's teasing, the girls began to blush. With Rias fidgeting nervously, while Sona lowered her head to hide her red face.

Seeing their daughters' reactions, the other two women, Venelana Gremory, a beautiful, violet eyed, extremely voluptuous, young woman with shoulder length flaxen hair and bangs that cover her forehead and eyebrows, and side bangs that fall to her collar bones and framed her face that looks nearly identical to her daughter Rias, and Rhea Sitri, a beautiful, purple eyed, fair skinned, young woman with her black hair done up in a bun, couldn't help but giggle.

"Oh, to be young." Venelana teased in a wistful tone.

"Puppy love is so cute." Said Rhea with a sweet smile.

With their mothers joining in on the teasing, Rias and Sona's blushes deepened.

Seeing Sona's reaction, one of the girls engaged in energy control training, a beautiful, bespectacled, well-endowed girl for her age with long, straight, black hair tied into a ponytail that reaches her knees, split bangs, and heterochromatic eyes with a violet left eye and a light brown right eye, could not help but wonder about. this James she has heard so much about. Until she was broken from her thoughts.

The last of the four girls, Himejima Akeno, a fair skinned, violet eyed, beautiful girl who is also quite curvy for her age with long black hair tied into a ponytail, that reaches her thighs, with a yellow ribbon, bangs that cover her forehead, eyebrows, and the bridge of her nose, and side bangs that frame her face, was also training her energy control. However, she quickly lost control when James was mentioned. That loss of control caused the water in her bowl to splatter in all directions, drenching her and the girl training next to her.

"Kyaa!"

Akeno's loss of control caused a bit of a chain reaction.

Screaming in surprise as she was suddenly splashed, the bespectacled girl also lost control. The water in her bowl also splattering in all directions leaving both herself and Akeno dazed and dripping wet.

Seeing the mess the two training girls caused, everyone else began laughing uproariously, as they all thought back to the day they learned this training method from James.

Hearing everyone's laughter, the bespectacled girl turned red in embarrassment and began to reprimand Akeno.

"Akeno-San, you have to be more careful. Your mistake made me mess up, too. And now, look at this mess we have to clean up because of your mistake."

Although she took some pleasure in the bespectacled girl's misery, Akeno knew now was not the time to indulge in it.

"I'm sorry Tsubaki-San." Akeno apologized.

Shinra Tsubaki, like Akeno, was also a member of one of Japan's Five Principal Clans. However, due to the ability to summon abnormal spirits through mirrors. Due to these powers Tsubaki was isolated by the rest of the Shinra Clan. Meeting Sona is what allowed her to escape her isolation. While Sona and her father, Dante Sitri, were visiting the Shinra Clan for business, Sona ran into Tsubaki and took a liking to her. Because of that, Dante offered to take Tsubaki out of their hair and Tsubaki agreed to join Sona's peerage when Sona was of age.

then Akeno continued. "But I'm also curious to know when James..."

Before Akeno could finish, a magic circle appeared on the floor in the corner of the room. As it rose, three people, a handsome, caramel skinned, chestnut brown eyed boy with dusk pink outlining each iris, and braided black hair pulled into a ponytail that reached his shoulders, James Alaverus, a beautiful, light blue-eyed girl with dark purple pupils and shoulder-length light purple hair, and bangs that are swept to the left covering her left eyebrow, Shirayuki Mizore, and a middle-aged man wearing sunglasses, Auron, were revealed.

Looking around the room, James took note of the situation in the room. His mother and two aunties sitting together in laughter. Rias and Sona sitting on opposite sides of a chess board, also in laughter. Akeno and an unfamiliar girl, both drenched and seated in front of two empty bowls with their heads lowered and blushes on their faces. Not to mention the water that had been splashed all around that corner of the room.

With all that information gathered, James knew exactly what to say.

"Where's the gender equality!?" James shouted in indignation. With an expression filled with mock fury, he continued. "If girls make a mess like this you all just laugh. But when I did it back in the past, I got yelled at and made to clean up immediately. This world truly is unfair!"

The room fell into pin drop silence at James' over the top declaration.

Confusion was evident on Akeno, Tsubaki, and Mizore's faces. Auron's expression showed that there was no way possible that he could care any less. Venelana, Rhea, Rias, and Sona were all trying to stifle another bout of laughter. Leona, however, was not amused. The truth of the matter is, James almost never trained his energy control in the house. Most of, if not all, his training sessions were done out on the training ground. All the messes caused by energy control training were his mother's fault alone. And because of embarrassment, Leona would yell at James, threatening him with punishment if he ever made a mess in the house.

Noticing his mother's right eyebrow starting to twitch, James decided to drop the melodrama.

"Hey, Mom, I'm back!" James said with a big smile, as if he was not just making fun of his mother.

Leona let out an exasperated sigh. Then she stood from the sofa and made her way over to the trio.

As soon as she got close, she nodded to Auron and said, "Cassiel is upstairs in his office. He asked for you to see him when you returned."

Auron simply nodded in acknowledgement, then bowed before making his way upstairs.

Once Auron left, Leona smiled and pulled James into a hug.

"I missed you, Sweetie." Leona said as she hugged James tightly.

Returning the hug, James replied. "I missed you, too, Mom."

Standing behind James, Mizore was unsure what she should do.

'Should I speak up and introduce myself? Or should I wait until James-San introduces me? James-San, hurry up! I don't know what to do!'

Rhea was the first to take note of the pretty, little girl behind James.

"Ara, Ara." She said, hiding her smile behind her left hand.

Although everyone agreed to drop the Japanese verbal patterns after Rias gave up on forcing everyone to adopt it, Rhea decided to keep the "Ara, Ara" as she found it fun, for reasons known only to herself.

With her attention never leaving Mizore once she locked on, Rhea continued. "James, it's good to see you home, safe and sound. But are you going to introduce us to your girlfriend?"

'Shit!' James howled internally. 'I didn't forget about Mizore, but I wanted to introduce her on my own terms.'

And just as James expected, he could feel more than one gloomy aura rising in the room.

'Just as I thought, three pissed off... What? why are there three?' James thought as he looked around frantically.

Looking around the room, James noticed both Rias and Sona looking at him with wrath in their gazes.

'I expected those two to be pissed off, but where is the other one coming from?' James wondered as he tried to find the last source of negative aura. 'This last one doesn't feel like anger... It feels more sadistic.'

As he completed that thought, James and Akeno made eye contact.

'Are you serious? She's a sadist?' James exclaimed internally.

Realizing now wasn't the time to be analyzing the situation, James finally started to explain himself.

"Wait, wait, wait! I don't know why you all seem so angry..." James said as he was about to begin his explanation.

As he began, James could feel his mother's hug tightening. When he looked at her expression, he saw her smirking. Leona then lowered her head to his ear and whispered. "You can't keep running from this. You have to tell them the truth."

Knowing his mother was right, James hung his head for a moment to get his thoughts in order.

"*Sigh* Okay, I know why you all are so angry." Said James, correcting his earlier statement. "But can we talk about that later? At least can you wait until I finish the introductions?"

Although the girls were unhappy and became more unhappy when Mizore hid behind James once their glares landed on her, they allowed James to make introductions.

Sighing once again, James introduced Mizore.

"Everyone, this is Shirayuki Mizore, a yuki-onna." James introduced Mizore with a smile. Then continued. "This stunningly gorgeous woman hugging me is Leona Alaverus."

Hearing James introducing her, Leona smiled brightly.

James then pointed to Venelana, "The Flaxen hair one with the enchanting violet eyes is Aunt Venelana Gremory."

Venelana also smiled, clearly happy with James' compliment.

James then moved on to Rhea. "And next to her, the beautiful woman with the silky-smooth hair is Aunt Rhea Sitri."

Rhea also seemed to enjoy his flattery.

Sighing inwardly, James thought to himself. 'Now we move from normal to hell mode, huh?'

Turning his attention to the chess board, James finally started introducing the girls.

"Next, the cutie in glasses is one of my childhood friends... Er... We're still children though." James stopped to think, clearly getting distracted.

Noticing James slipping off into his own world, everyone, excluding Mizore and Tsubaki, sighed. Thinking, 'At least the three months away didn't change him too much.'

James broke out of his thoughts when Leona patted him on the back and urged him to continue.

"Uh... Oops, I did it again, huh?" James said in embarrassment, before he shook his head and continued. "Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah... The cutie in glasses is Sona Sitri. Auntie Rhea's daughter."

Although James compliment made her happy, Sona tried her best to not show it. She continued glaring at him, suppressing a smile in the process.

Moving on, James began introducing Rias.

"This pretty redhead with the beautiful blue eyes is Rias Gremory, Auntie Venelana's daughter."

Rias did not try to hide her smile at James compliment, but her glare at Mizore intensified. This caused Mizore to move closer to James, which made Rias glare even harder, which made Mizore grab onto the hem of James' shirt in fear... And the downward spiral continued.

Sighing in exasperation, James thought to himself, 'I just want this to be over.'

In order to finish this farce quickly, James moved on to the two soaking wet girls.

Stifling a laugh, James pointed out Akeno next.

"This raven-haired, violet eyed beauty is Himejima Akeno. She will be a member of Rias' peerage in the future."

At James' compliment, Akeno's smile turned from a sadistic one promising pain into a sweet one that could give honey a run for its money.

Without even thinking about it, James moved on, to introduce the final person present.

"And last but certainly not least, this bespectacled beauty with the long, luscious hair is..."

James stopped to think, then took a good look at Tsubaki and finally realized.

"Now that I stop to think about it, I don't think we've been introduced."

An awkward silence fell over the room. After a moment, everyone, excluding James and Tsubaki, broke into uproarious laughter.

After the laughter died down, Sona eventually introduced Tsubaki as a future member of her peerage.

"It's nice to meet you, Shinra-San." James said politely.

Tsubaki only nodded and returned a "Nice to meet you, as well." She was finding it hard to get a read on James' personality.

After the introductions were finished, Rias pointed a finger at Mizore and questioned James harshly.

"Where did she come from? And why did you bring her here?" Rias questioned in a tone that demanded answers. A little more than a little too much malice present in her tone.

James frowned, getting fed up with Rias' princess syndrome.

Venelana, noticing James growing displeasure with Rias' attitude, attempted to change James' focus.

"James, I'm also curious, how did you meet her?"

Taking a deep breath to push down his annoyance, James put a smile on his face again and answered Venelana's question.

"Well, while Sir Auron and I were traveling near the Alaskan/Canadian border," James began his explanation "I saved her from a six-winged fallen angel and a group of stray exorcists who were trying to capture her. To thank me and as a means to get revenge... Oh I won't go into the details about that, that's Mizore's business to talk about or not. Anyway, like I was saying. To repay me, Mizore promised to join my peerage. And I'll train her, so she can get that revenge she wants so much.

"Wait!"

After her exclamation, everyone turned their attention in Venelana's direction who looked like she didn't know how to process this information.

"What's wrong, Mom?" Rias asked in confusion, not understanding why her mother seemed so flustered.

Taking a deep breath, Venelana asked James, "Was it you or Auron who fought the fallen angel?"

"It was me." James answered, unsure what the big deal was. "I was the only one who fought, that old man just watched."

Hearing James' answer, even Rhea was now sporting a shocked expression. Originally, she had just assumed that Auron fought the fallen angel. But Mizore's agreement put the final nail in the coffin.

"Mhm... He made... It look... Easy."

"Anyway," James said, trying to move the topic onto what he thought was important, "Now we all have our first member of our future peerages, that's what's really important."