Things to Come

Hub World, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.

Shortly after Tatsuo left for his training trip in James' world, two young men could be seen in a small, low-cost apartment with little more than a stove, a countertop, a kotatsu table, and a small closet in it. 

The first, a young man with short, spiky black hair and red eyes was wearing a tank top and a pair of black shorts could be seen lying on the floor with is legs under the kotatsu. Meanwhile, the second, a taller young man with white-blond hair and brown eyes wearing a black long sleeved shirt, a pair of tan jeans, and a green apron stood in front of the countertop while cutting vegetables.

One of these young men was someone Tatsuo was familiar with, Maou Sadao. The other was Sadao's roommate, as well as one of the generals of the Demon Army he led back in his home world of Ente Isla, Alciel... Or as he is known on Earth, Ashiya Shiro.

*Chop!* *Chop!* *Chop!*

"My Lord, how long to you intend to wait before you engage in conversation with that young man you mentioned to me?" Ashiya, with the sound of a knife rhythmically hitting a chopping board, asked without stopping his hands.

"*Sigh* Honestly, I don't know." Sadao, after rolling over onto his side, replied. "To be honest, I'm not sure what to think of this new development. There's a chance he could be here to hunt us down, as well. And I'm sure the Hero and some members of the Church followed us to this world, Ashiya. Though, I have yet to discover where they were hiding."

"I can understand your wariness, My Liege." Ashiya said as he finished chopping the vegetables. He then continued while dumping them into a skillet with an almost indiscernible amount of oil coating its bottom. "Still, from what you told me about your last interaction, he seemed to already know something about you."

"*Sigh* That's true." Sadao replied while rolling over onto his other side.

"Then, do you think it is likely that he knew from the beginning?" Ashiya asked curiously.

"It's possible." Sadao said.

"Then, let's assume it is as such." Ashiya continued. "If he has yet to show any hostility, despite knowing that something about you is abnormal, perhaps, just asking him about his intentions would be the best course of action."

"*Sigh* I know that." Sadao said while using his arms to cover his head.

"Then, why, My Lord?" Ashiya asked while stirring the vegetables in the skillet.

Instead of replying immediately as he had been since the conversation started, Sadao stayed quiet for a while, causing Ashiya to finally look back over his shoulder. Yet, when he did, he was surprised by what he saw.

Currently, Sadao was rolling side to side with his legs still under the kotatsu. On top of that, he was cradling his head in his hands. And what surprised Ashiya the most was the fact that his liege seemed to be sporting an embarrassed expression on his face.

"It's because I'm not used to being in the weaker position." Sadao said quietly. "I mean, if I were at my full strength, Soramoto-Kun would be no match for me. But as I am right now, I'm weaker than he is. And I don't like that now that I know he's more than just a middle school kid."

Hearing that, Ashiya could only stare at Sadao blankly. In fact, he was so taken aback that he was unable to speak or tear his gaze away from Sadao until he smelled the scent of burning vegetables.

"Ahh~~~~!" Ashiya shouted when he realized what was happening. He then quickly spun on his heals and started doing all he could to save the duo's meal. "No! No! No! If these vegetables are burned, then we won't have anything to eat until I can get to the market tomorrow afternoon."

"Oh, would you take it easy, Ashiya?" Sadao said while rolling his eyes at his melodramatic roommate/subordinate. "I can just bring home food from work. You know bringing home some burgers is no problem for me."

Hearing that, Ashiya's expression turned slightly demonic.

"Are you trying to kill me, Sire?" Ashiya asked. "Do you have any idea how often we eat fast food? Sure, it's nice that you can bring home food to help us through these trying times. But if we keep eating like that, we'll end up in an early grave thanks to hi cholesterol, high blood pressure, and a variety of other health-related issues..."

The longer Ashiya spoke, the faster his speech became. Meanwhile, Sadao had started tuning him out while thinking to himself.

'But it seems Ashiya is correct.' Sadao thought to himself. 'There's no point putting this off any longer. I guess I'll call him to find out if he really is a threat to us or not. The only question is... Where do we meet? I mean, I can't talk about this kinda stuff just anywhere. Don't need regular humans overhearing us. And I definitely can't talk to him at his apartment. If things went sideways, I'd basically be in enemy territory. As for inviting him here...'

With his thoughts reaching that point, Sadao took a moment to look around his six-tatami mat apartment before shaking his head. He then decided to give it more thought. Though, he also decided that he would not delay this matter much longer.

Scattered Cherry Blossoms Universe, Human World, Japan, Kuoh.

Meanwhile, in James' world, he, Tatsuo, Aletia, Tio, Scáthach, and Irene teleported back into the Alaverus Estate's living room, drawing the attention of everyone who was still there.

"Oh, you're back sooner than I expected." Evangeline said calmly as she raised a cup of tea to her lips. However, before she could take a sip, she stopped short. "James, what's wrong with you?"

Evangeline's question caused everyone to focus on James, to see why she would ask such a question. And when they saw his rapidly changing expressions, they understood why she did so.

Currently, James was staring at Tatsuo with great intensity. While doing so, his expression shuffled rapidly between excitement, gratitude, anger, and envy.

Yet, when James heard Evangeline's question and noticed everyone else's gazes, he glanced at Tatsuo, who was only smiling at him in a friendly manner, once more with a complicated gaze. Then, he took a deep breath.

"Great Red just agreed to make a Hyperbolic Time Chamber Lite because Tatsuo wouldn't have enough time to train otherwise." James said in a jealous tone.

While most of the people in the room wore confused expressions at the term, those who enjoyed reading the Dragon Ball manga, namely, Rias and Issei, opened their eyes wide in surprise.

"Are you serious?" Rias asked in an excited tone.

"Hell yeah, that's fucking awesome!" Issei cheered. A moment later, he held the back of his head painfully. "Ow~~~! Sorry, Leona-Obachan. I know better than to swear in front of Aaliyah, but I was too excited."

"Um... What's a Hyperbolic Time Chamber?" Mio asked curiously.

"And why did you call it a lite version?" Maria asked, following up her sister's question.

"Well, the Hyperbolic Time Chamber was a training room in the Dragon Ball series." Rias said, raising her right index finger while making her explanation. "In that room, spending one year inside will only cause one day to pass on the outside."

"There's an effect of amplifying the gravity in there, too." Issei added.

Nodding in response to Issei's supplementary information, Rias turned back to look at James with excitement shining in her eyes.

"But you called it the lite version, right?" Rias asked. "So, that probably means that it won't be one year to one day, right?"

"That's right." James replied. "Great Red said it would be about an 8:1 ratio. Meaning, for every eight hours spent in that area, one hour would pass on the outside. She never said anything about a change in gravity, either. I guess I need to ask her about that."

While muttering the last few sentences to himself, James cupped his chin and started rubbing it with his right hand.

"Wow! He really does look like an old man when he does that." Shizuku muttered quietly.

Usually, one of James girlfriends or Fiancées would have had something to say in response to Shizuku's muttering. Unfortunately, most of them were too horrified by the prospect of having their training time dilated to react to something like that. And when Rias and Issei, who were excited about possibly training in a place so similar to the iconic Hyperbolic Time Chamber, finally recognized the ramifications of such a place coming into existence, they both paled rapidly before looking at Scáthach in abject horror like the others.

"No! No! No!" Issei shouted despairingly while pulling at his hair. "How can something so cool turn into something so terrifying?"

"Anyway, moving on." James said, rolling his eyes at Issei's melodrama. "Great Red said the place wouldn't be ready until tomorrow. So, until then, Master is going to test Tatsuo, Aletia, and Tio to see exactly what she has to work with. Then, she'll create a training plan for them. While she's doing that, we'll be free to welcome our guests with a party.... or something."

With that, James and Scáthach led Tatsuo, Aletia, and Tio toward an elevator so they could head down to the third basement level of the mansion where the training facilities were. And during the short elevator ride, James turned to look at the three visitors.

At the moment, Tatsuo was standing between Aletia and Tio. And while Aletia was hugging his arm possessively, especially after the show of intimacy Aislynn showed him back at the Team DxD Base, and Tio was simply standing next to Tatsuo with an elegant smile on her face.

"By the way, Tatsuo..." James said, catching Tatsuo's attention. "Wasn't your sister supposed to be coming, too? What happened with that?"

"Oh, Kasumi-Neesan got caught up with some family drama last night." Tatsuo replied, looking a bit worried. "She found her younger sister skulking around our neighborhood. Then, just to make sure she did not cause any trouble for anyone, Kasumi-Neesan decided that she would shadow her until the Winter Break was over."

"When you say Kasumi, you mean that Kasumi, right?" James asked, his eyes widening slightly.

"Yeah." Tatsuo replied with a nod. "The same one that is the main character of the fighting game Genkai was playing when we got here."

Hearing that, James eyes lit up, on top of widening.

"Then, that means her younger sister is Ayane, right?" James asked for confirmation.

"Yup." Tatsuo replied. "I'm actually looking forward to fighting her. I mean, I doubt she would be strong enough to hurt me. But testing my skill against her should be fun."

"If I have anything to say about it, it won't be." Scáthach said calmly. "During the eight days you will be here after today, you will spend ten hours in real time training with me. And by the time I am done with your training, I intend for you to be a completely different fighter from your present self."

Immediately, Tatsuo started to shudder. Though part of that was from fear, the majority of his shuddering came from his desire to gain strength. No doubt, that had something to do with his draconic bloodline.

Aletia and Tio also started to shudder. And while Tio's reasons were similar to Tatsuo's, Aletia found Scáthach's determination to push them past their limits terrifying. Especially since she could tell that if they did not live up to her expectations... No, if they did not surpass Scáthach's expectations, they would die trying.

"Maybe I should have brought the Perverted Rabbit to taste the pain that is to come, too." Aletia muttered quietly to herself.

ICDS Universe, 2nd Dungeon, 40th Floor.

*Sneeze!*

*Bang!*

"Ahh~~~!" Shea shouted in pain as she was blown backwards after being slapped away by a large lion-type monster.

While engaged in a high-intensity fight with the boss of the 2nd Dungeon's 40th Floor, Shea, who almost never felt sick after being able to directly manipulate her mana, had just sneezed. Unfortunately, because it happened during her solo boss fight and distracted her, she was struck by the giant lion-like monster acting as the Floor Boss. And because of its massive size, she was blown away, slamming into one of the many rocks dotted around the boss room.

"Ow~! That really hurt." Shea grumbled as she picked herself up from the ground. "And just why did I sneeze so suddenly? Is someone thinking about me? I bet it was Tatsuo."

Reaching that point, Shea could not help but smile sweetly. Less than a second later, however, her smile turned a bit perverted.

"I wonder if he was thinking about me in the same way I think about him before bed and when I'm in the bath... Hehehe." Shea muttered to herself, forgetting where she was for a moment.

*Roar!*

Yet, the boss monster, who found it insulting that Shea had slipped into her own world while fighting it, roared angrily, bringing her back to her senses.

"Hey, can't you see that I was thinking about something?" Shea asked angrily while glaring at the boss monster. "Geez! You're so rude. I guess I'll have to teach you some manners."

With that said, Shea raised her hammer and dashed towards the lion-type boss monster with the intention of not only defeating it, but beating it to a pulp, as well.

Scattered Cherry Blossoms Universe, Human World, Japan, Kuoh.

Not long later, the elevator reached its destination, and its occupants stepped into the vast training area that had all manner of exercise equipment, sparring rings, running tracks, and anything else anyone might need to train. On top of that, all of those things were strengthened to a point that even someone as strong as James could get some use out of them. Though, his returns were diminishing as he grew stronger and stronger.

However, Scáthach had no intention of using any of the state of the art training equipment at the moment. Instead, she ordered Tatsuo, Aletia, and Tio to show her all the techniques they could use without the use of [Energy]. And while Tatsuo and, to a lesser extent, Tio, had some martial arts they could show, Aletia just stood off to the side, as she had never had to fight without the use of her magic in her three hundred plus years of life.

Yet, based on the look in Scáthach's eyes, Aletia could tell that she had every intention of making sure that things would not still be that way by the time the three visitors returned home.

On a side note, when Tatsuo showed off his proficiency with all the weapons he was capable of wielding and Scáthach showed visible surprise in her expression, James snapped a picture with his smartphone's camera so that he could show it to his brother disciple, Cú Chulainn. However, he did receive a strike in the head from the butt of Scáthach's spear for his trouble.

After that, Scáthach ordered the three to show her everything they could do with the use of their [Energy]. And this time, as a dedicated mage, Aletia had the most to show while Tatsuo had the least.

All the while, James watched nostalgically, aside from taking that picture of Scáthach's surprised face. And the reason for that was simple, back when he became Scáthach's disciple when he was eleven years old, he went through the same kind of assessment.

"*Sigh* To think it's been almost nine years since I became Master's disciple." James could not help muttering while wearing a fond smile. "I can't even count how many times I almost died while in her care."

["Why the hell do you look like you're taking a pleasant stroll down memory lane?"] Ddraig asked in a harsh tone, interrupting James' thoughts. ["Or do you like almost dying, or something? I guess you and Ayame really were made for each other, you God damned masochist!"]

James winced at Ddraig's retort. Luckily, he was strong enough to ignore the fact that Ddraig mentioned the Biblical God, as His name was a weakness to Devils under a certain threshold of power. Or rather, James was unable to retort, as Ddraig's accusation of him being a masochist hit him much harder than he ever thought it would. Especially when he was directly compared to Ayame, a known, world-level masochist.