James Ran Away

Human World, Japan, Kuoh.

Shortly after James and Tatsuya's spar finished, Tatsuya and Miyuki decided that it was time for them to go home. Not long after they left, issei, Asia, and Irina also headed home. On the other hand, everyone else, meaning Irene, the vampires, Genkai, and Yusuke stayed at the Alaverus Estate, at least for the time being.

"Damn, All the guest rooms are occupied." James said after he and the other residents made up the guest rooms for the new arrivals. "Does that mean I should get the house enlarged again?"

"That might not be such a bad idea." Rias said. Then, with her arms crossed under her chest, she continued. "Bigger is always better."

"Why are you emphasizing your chest when you say that, Rias?" Sona asked with a twitching eyebrow.

"Sona, I have no idea to what you could be referring." Rias said as she wrapped her arms around James' left arm.

Naturally, when Rias wrapped her arms around James' arm, not only were her arms wrapped around it, but so were her breasts. Seeing that, Sona's eyebrow began to twitch with even more intensity. Knowing how he would end up if he got caught in the middle of one of Rias and Sona's arguments, James quickly separated himself from Rias' grasp.

"Sorry ladies." James said with a wry smile while putting some distance between himself and the girls. "But I need to make a trip to the Underworld. Lilith to be exact."

"For what?" Akeno asked curiously.

"Well, Muramasa should be done with my new swords." James said with an excited glint in his eyes.

"Really, has it already been that long since the attack on Lilith?" Cu Chulainn asked. "He said it would be two or three weeks, right?"

"Yeah, it's already been three weeks." James replied. "Time sure flies when you have to make pacts and deal with vampire invasions."

"Hmph!" Akua snorted at James' jab.

"We weren't invading." Kahlua said with a pout. "We only wanted to bring our cute little sister back home."

"Yeah, coming to another faction's territory unannounced and attacking the one who asked for your reason to be here was a great way to convey that fact." Moka said with a deadpan expression.

Surprising everyone present, Kahlua rushed over to James and wrapped her arms around his waist after Moka spoke.

"James, Moka is bullying me." Kahlua said in a whiny tone. As she did, she began rubbing her face on James' chest.

James froze in surprise due to Kahlua's actions. Today was only the second time he had met her. He wasn't complaining about feeling her body pressed against his, however, he was definitely not expecting such intimacy from someone he did not know very well. However, James was not the only one who found himself shocked by Kahlua's actions.

"Sister Kahlua, what are you doing?" Moka asked with a frown.

"Hugging James." Kahlua said with an innocent expression. "Everyone else does it, and they look so happy when they do. So, I wanted to try it too."

Hearing that, no one knew how to respond. Never had they seen such an innocent woman. The rest of the Shuzen sisters, however, could only sigh at the antics of their sister. The was only one person who acted in a completely different manner from the aforementioned two groups of people.

"Oh, and what do you think?" Leona asked with a mischievous smile. "Was it everything you thought it would be?"

With his mother playing devil's advocate... Pun intended... James could only sigh. Figuring that he would not be able to leave for a while, he simply emptied his mind and decided that he would focus on enjoying Kahlua's body pressing against his.

While James was enjoying the predicament, he found himself in, the girls were trying to remove Kahlua from James, Kahlua was holding on to James for dear life, and Leona was egging on all parties involved. At some point, a teleportation circle appeared in the corner of the living room. When it vanished, a silver-haired, red-eyed, maid appeared.

'I'm not sure who all these new people are, nor am I sure of what's going on.' Grayfia thought to herself as she surveyed the situation in the room. 'But after seeing Leona smile like that, I know better than to get involved.'

So, for the next few minutes, Grayfia waited right where she appeared. Eventually, the commotion came to an end and Grayfia made her presence known.

"Good evening." Grayfia said in her usual tone.

"Grayfia, save me!" James shouted as he escaped the encirclement of girls. "I just wanted to go to the Underworld to get my new swords and these crazy women started fighting over me. Then again, I can understand why they would fight over someone as strong and dashing as myself, but that's not the point."

Hearing James' shameless declaration, the girls, with the exception of Kahlua, rolled their eyes... hard.

"Actually, I didn't really mind the girls." James said while stroking his chin in thought. "But I definitely need to be saved from the truest devil in the room, my mom."

'I knew it.' Grayfia thought to herself. 'There's no way Leona wasn't the driving force behind that bedlam.'

"Scatti! James is bullying me!" Leona said, trying to dive into Scathach's embrace.

However, before she could wrap her arms around Scathach, the butt of Scathach's spear knocked Leona on her head.

"Do not try and appear pitiful with me, Leona." Scathach said. "Especially when I, along with many others, watched you instigate those girls into a frenzy. From me, you shall receive no pity."

"You're no fun." Leona said with a pout.

"So, to what do we owe the pleasure?" James asked Grayfia as soon as Leona was put in her place by Scathach.

"Actually, I have come for Miss Ravel." Grayfia replied.

"For me?" Ravel asked while pointing at herself with confusion written all over her face.

"That's correct, Miss Ravel. Grayfia replied with a nod. "On behalf of the Four Great Satans, your father, Lord Phenex, The Four Great Seraphim, and the Grigori I was tasked with retrieving you."

Hearing that her father was the person with the lowest rank that was asking for her, Ravel grew nervous. Before she could overthink, though, James made his way over to her and placed his hand on top of her head. Then, while he gently rubbed her head, He spoke.

"I don't think there is anything to worry about, Ravel." James said with a smile. "With the leaders of all three factions calling for you, it shouldn't be anything bad."

Melting under James' head patting technique, Ravel calmed down quickly. Eventually, she nodded in agreement with what James said. However, she made no attempt to walk toward Grayfia so that she could meet with the higher ups.

"I wanna try that, too." Kahlua said after seeing the expression Ravel made thanks to James head patting.

Eventually, Koneko yanked Ravel from under James' palm after seeing that she was perfectly content standing there where she was.

"Hurry up, Fried Chicken Girl." Koneko said as she dragged Ravel toward Grayfia. "It's not polite to leave the higher ups waiting like that."

"Let go of me you flat chested cat!" Ravel shouted indignantly. "I know more about what's polite than you'll ever know."

With that, Koneko's eyebrow began to twitch in a fashion that was quite similar to Sona not long ago. And naturally, that lead to the first year girls arguing while they approached Grayfia.

"They're such good friends, nya." Kuroka said with a smile. "I'm kinda jealous, nya."

"Who is friends with her?" Koneko and Ravel shouted simultaneously.

"Speaking in unison, nya." Kuroka said in a teasing tone. "You two really are close, nya."

Before Kuroka could tease Koneko and Ravel any further, Rias exclamation caught everyone off guard.

"Where did James go?" Rias asked while looking around to see where James could be.

"Did he run away while we were distracted?" Sona asked while adjusting her glasses.

"That's what it looks like." Mizore said. "I can't believe he didn't take me with him."

"Why would he take you?" Rias asked with an eyebrow raised. "it's obvious he would have taken me."

That statement led to another bedlam between the girls over who James would have taken with him, had he taken anyone with him in the first place. However, none of the younger girls noticed that James had in fact taken someone with him. At least, they had not noticed until someone pointed it out to them.

"Hmm... It would seem that Master Scathach is gone." Genkai said. "It looks like you're off the hook for tonight, dimwit."

"Wait, did you plan on having me start tonight?" Yusuke asked in an incredulous tone. "What the hell, Old Hag?"

"You think you're gonna get strong enough to survive the Dark Martial Arts Tournament by slacking off?" Genkai asked while looking at Yusuke sternly.

"No, of course not." Yusuke said indignantly. "But I think I deserve a break for tonight, at least. I mean we did run all the way here."

Overhearing the conversation between Genkai and Yusuke, the girls stopped their argument. Then, they began to look for Scathach. When they could not find her, they grew even angrier.

"So, he took Master Scathach." Sona said. "Why wouldn't he take me, his fiancée?"

"You say that like you're his only fiancée." Rias said with her cheeks puffed out.

"Do either of you know anything about swords?" Flora asked with a smile.

"What do swords have to do with this?" Akeno asked with confusion in her tone.

"Did you all seriously forget why he said he needed to go in the first place?" Flora asked with an incredulous look in her eyes.

Rias, Sona, Akeno, Mizore, and Shion began thinking hard after Flora asked her question. Meanwhile Moka, Flora, Shuna, and Mio looked at them with deadpan expressions.

"*Sigh* I expected this from Rias and Shion." Flora said with disappointment in her tone. "I mean, both of them have more boobs than sense."

"Hey!" Rias and Shion exclaimed in unison.

"But Sona, Akeno, and Mizore, how did you two forget?" Flora asked.

"I kinda got caught up in the moment." Sona said in an embarrassed tone.

"I wasn't really paying attention at the beginning. However, when Kahlua hugged James, I was drawn into the situation." Mizore admitted with an embarrassed smile.

"That's so like the two of you, I don't know what to say." Moka said while shaking her head.

"And what about you, Akeno-Senpai?" Shuna asked.

"I only got involved in the situation before because seeing James' troubled face when Kahlua first hugged him turned me on." Akeno said with a slight blush on her face.

"*Sigh* That's just like her, too." Mio said.

"Anyway, where did James go?" Rias asked impatiently.

"Like he said, he probably went to pick up his new swords." Flora said with a smile. "He said that they should be ready soon, right before Kahlua hugged him."

"But why did he take Master Scathach with him?" Shion asked with a pout. "I wanted to go with him."

"Actually, I know the answer to that one." Cu Chulainn cut in on the girls' discussion.

"Well, hurry up and tell us, Cu." Mizore said in as impatient a tone as Rias had used.

Even though he was annoyed by what Mizore called him, Cu Chulainn decided that keeping everyone waiting was not worth the trouble. So, he continued, doing his best to ignore Mizore's term of address.

"Master gave the swordsmith a piece of the sea beast that she forged mine and all her spears from as a raw material." Cu Chulainn explained. "So, I'm sure that she wanted to see the final product just as much, if not more than James did."

"That makes sense." Sona said with a nod.

"Plus, that means that he didn't pick Master scathach because she's his favorite." Mizore said with a smile.

Hearing that, everyone simply shook their heads at Mizore and gazed at her with pity.

"Why are you all looking at me like that?" Mizore asked after seeing the gazes of pity that were directed at her.

"Anyway, I guess we can only wait." Shuna said.

"Yeah." Moka added. "But, I bet he will spar with Scathach when they get back."

"Yeah, he'll want to put those new swords through their paces." Dante said. "And that's a fight I definitely want to see."

Although they had yet to say very much, Yuuto and Tsubasa, who were also sword users, nodded their heads with what Dante had to say.

"Well, we probably won't have to wait too long." Leona said. Then, she held up a controller to the console they played earlier in the day. "So, does anyone wanna get in a few rounds of Dead or Alive?"

"Me!"

After hearing that voice, everyone turned in it's direction and was surprised to see that it was Genkai.

"What?" Genkai asked without changing her expression. "When you live secluded in a mountain for fifty years, you eventually find hobbies to keep from going crazy."