Chapter 1: Just a normal day
AN: I might not be able to update two chaps a day, since I'm busy. You see I'm moving up to senior high and I'm busy with the projects and requirements and stuffs. So yeah.
Also, I made an auxiliary chapters about the characters, go and read it if you're interested or if you forgot some characters, especially the angels.
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Sagiri was calmly sipping her green tea in the dining room, aside from here there is Emi who was writing something, Harribel who was eating a strawberry cake, Rika who was also writing something, and Suzuno who was also calmly sipping her green tea.
The room was silent, despite this, it wasn't awkward in the slightest, the atmosphere was more of a peaceful and serene one than anything else.
As for the others, well they have some important things to do. Especially Alex, who went and visited his mother-in-law to borrow some things. And Alice, who was playing with the Tres Bestias.
"Have any of you seen Starrk?" Asked Emi, as she looked up from the paper she was writing in, "Ever since we returned, we haven't seen even a shadow of him."
Harribel paused her eating and answered, "I think he stayed in Hell to finish some business. I heard from lord Alexander that Starrk decided to help the Empress of Hell."
"Hell has empress now?" Asked Rika in surprise.
Harribel nodded, "Yes. You see, Aizen unified and ruled Hell along with the Espadas, but since his death, every Hollow went to war for the rights to rule Hell. To stop this, a former Espada decided to take the throne and stop the war."
"But rebellion or something happened I guess?" Sagiri said as she looked at Harribel.
The former Espada nodded, "Yes. You see, female Hollows were treated as nothing more than food for the males. Because of that, many Hollows were dissatisfied with a female taking the throne and decided to rebel. And for some reason, Starrk got dragged into it."
"Those who wanted to avoid trouble will always find themselves in one." Said Suzuno as she smiled, "I read that line on one of the novels I occasionally read."
"Well, he does like to avoid troublesome things." Emi smiled, remembering the time when Starrk fought a horde of Demonic Beast when he was just finding a nice place to relax.
How that happened is a mystery that no one will ever know.....except Alex.
"Good morning!" Koyuzu suddenly bursts inside the room holding a wooden box.
With a quick movements, she cleared the table and put the box down and opened it, revealing a miniature Japanese mansion, with wells, trees, roads and circles with numbers written on it. On the center of it is a platform with a large circle with words "Winner" written on it.
"Is that..." Sagiri raised an eyebrow as she managed to take her green tea off the table in time, "...Sugoruko?"
"What's that?" Emi turned towards her with a confused look.
Sagiri hummed and answered, "Basically a Japanese-style Snakes and Ladders."
"Oh," Emi nodded before turning towards the little raccoon, "Where did you get this one Koyuzu-chan?"
Koyuzu grinned, "Well, I was exploring the Yuragi Inn and I found this one in the storehouse out back!"
"Hmm," Sagiri nodded as she observed the board, "Its old, but you can tell that its made with love and dedication."
"Why don't we all play? Alex-niisama, Onee-sama and the others are busy, we're the only one who are quite free at the moment!"
The girls looked at each other before shrugging.
"Sure."
Koyuzu smiled and took out a some sticks with different lengths, "We'll start by drawing lots then. Whoever picks the shortest stick will go last, and whoever picks the longest will go first!"
The girls shrugged and picked up a stick at the same time.
It was that moment, that a puff of smoke covered them. When the smoke dissipates, the girls found themselves in an unfamiliar place.
"What the—!?"
"Where are we!?"
"Wait, look!" Rika pointed at the Japanese style mansion at a distance. "Isn't that the mansion from Sugoruko brought by Koyuzu-chan?"
They looked at it, and indeed, it does look similar. Not to mention that the road has some circles with numbers written on it which is also similar to the Sugoruko.
"Wait," Rika paused as she massaged her forehead in annoyance before he stared at the sky and exclaimed, "We're inside the game!?"
Koyuzu picked up a dice which is half her size and stared at it in amazement, "Wow~ so big!"
"Looks like this isn't just a normal boardgame after all." Sagiri frowned as she looked around with cautious eyes.
Harribel frowned and looked around.
"Should I destroy it?" Emi asked as she took out her sword.
[Welcome everybody! Come hither! I am the spirit inhabiting this Sugoruko game here! I hope ye all have a—]
Crack!
Before the voice could even finish its words, Sagiri threw a kunai at the sky, with enough force to cause it to crack.
With a deadly look, she gaze at the sky as she took out another piece of kunai, "So you locked us inside? Very well. Spirit, get us out of here now, if not, I will destroy everything here inside."
"Yeah," Emi's eyes turned purple as her sword enlarged, "I'm with Sagiri. Get us out of here or we'll destroy you."
[W-W-Wait! Sto-Stoooop! Please!]
"You two," Rika stared at them with a helpless look, "Violence isn't the answer to everything you know? Really, you two have so much in common."
"Fumu," Suzuno nodded, "This is also kind of fun. Experiencing the game like this."
"B-Besides, we were the one who decided to play this. Its not the spirit's fault at all. Alex-nii-sama taught me to take responsibility of our actions." said Koyuzu.
"W-Wha—!? But you guys—!" Sagiri tried to say something but couldn't come up with any words.
"Tsk." Emi shot the sky a disdainful glance as she spat out a saliva on the ground. "You got lucky, spirit."
Harribel actually suppressed the urge to let out an annoyed grunt as she also wanted to destroy the place.
Rika smiled helplessly at them before looking at the sky, "So, Spirit, if we beat this game, can we get out of here?"
[But of course!]
Rika whispered to her half-angel friend, "Emi, if we destroy the place we conversely might not be able to get out, right?"
Emi frowned, before sighing as she un-summoned her sword, "...Ngn, you're right."
Sagiri also considered and sighed before pocketing her kunais, "Whatever, let's start this. I think I picked the longest stick so I'll probably go first."
"Yaay!" Koyuzu cheered as she handed the large dice to Sagiri. "Sagiri-chan, good luck!"
Sagiri hummed before rolling the dice. The large dice rolled for a few seconds before stopping at number five.
"Hm, five huh?" With a cautious look, she stepped at the circular plate with number "1" on it as she began to hop from one plate to the next.
"...2...3....4...5..." She stopped, "Well, this seems like a normal shugoruko to me."
[Yes, yes, now turn over the plate you stepped at]
"Turn over?" She raised an eyebrow before turning over the plate she stepped on.
Poof! Right after she did that, a puff of smoke covered the area.
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"Damn, can't Lailah show some decency?" Alex muttered in annoyance. But still, he was glad that he managed to convince her to let him borrow the Yesod fragment for some time.
He went back to the inn after that, and decided to head to the dining room to find some ice cream on the fridge.
"Hm?" He looked at the board left on the table. "This...isn't this one of the artifacts made by the landlady in the storehouse? How'd it get—....Koyuzu."
With a shrug, he walked towards it and decided to observe it. His lip twitched when he saw tiny-Emi and the others in there.
"Now, this is interesting." with a laugh, Alex took out a bucket of popcorn and watched Emi and the others play a game.
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"Nna—!?" Sagiri exclaimed in shock and embarrassment as a pink tentacle monster appeared after the smoke was cleared and grabbed her on her ankles and raised her up high that her skirt turned upsidedown.
Good thing she wears stockings.
"What the fuck!?" Emi cursed before glaring at the sky, there's a barrier there so she couldn't see Alex, "WHAT THE FUCK SPIRIT!? YOU WANT TO DISAPPEAR!?"
"Its a pink octopus monster!" Koyuzu exclaimed in shock, "It's kind of cute though."
"Urgh, I hate those," Harribel furrowed her brows as she stared at the monster with a disgusted look.
"This, fucking, bastard!" Sagiri gritted her teeth and summoned dozens of kunais and threw them at the octopus.
The octopus just shrugs it off. Sagiri's kunais made of Spirit Energy were just ordinary after all, it wouldn't work on monsters of this strength.
[Do not worry! Ye be in no danger at all! But ye'll stay like that until your turn comes around!]
"DON'T FUCK WITH US!" Emi's hair turned silver as her Celestial Force flooded the space, causing to shake as the cracks from the sky made by Sagiri's kunai began to spread.
[W-Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!]
"Oh my," Rika sighed as he massaged his forehead, "You just went did it now."
"Indeed," Suzuno nodded, "I have never seen Emi-dono look so pissed off before."
[Let's be reasonable here! Please stop!]
Sagiri also glared at the sky as she summoned her black katana gifted by Alex and cut the tentacles that captured her and freed herself.
"Bastard," she spat out in disgust. In another time, in another world, she might've put up with this and just finish the game, but not this time.
Harribel nodded as her sword, Tiburon, materialized in her hand. Her darkish golde Demonic Force also bursts out of her body.
"We'll destroy you."
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Alex snorted in amusement as the girls finally couldn't stop themselves and decided to end this game.
He took a few steps back as the board glowed before exploding.
Alex spread his arms forward as Emi fell to his arms. He smiled at her as she did the same and slid her hands around his neck.
Alex look at the girls who were also force out of the game. Sagiri landed just next to him as she just calmly and cooly patted her shirt.
Rika fell flat on the floor with Koyuzu sitting on her back. Suzuno stood calmly behind him while fixing her kimono, and Harribel just went back to eating her strawberry cake.
He smiled as he put Emi down.
"So how's the game?"
The girls looked at him before shrugging.
"Its boring."