Surprisingly, after that tense moment, the rest of the time passed far more pleasantly than anyone expected. At first, everyone was stiff, the others in the room especially, as they watched both Kenji and Sirzech, but Issei's father, somehow either immune to the tension or just blissfully unobservant, just kept talking. And slowly, everyone began to relax.
The kids talked excitedly with each other, and Kenji could even hear Ayaka bragging about how she could now shoot fire. He just hoped she didn't try to demonstrate inside the Hyoudou's home, burning down the host's house would definitely ruin the vibe.
The three women chatted on their own. Miki complained about her son, Issei, his ever-growing lust for women, and how she was worried about him growing up and even dying single. Saying that Asia was her only hope now, her dramatic sigh earned laughter from Anastasia and Venelana, countered by Issei yelling out in protest, and Asia blushing. The poor girl now looked like a tomato.
Venelana asked Anastasia about her life, and Ana admitted she owned a company of her own. They talked about different things, Ana wanted to know how business was in venelana's side, of course she didnt mention the whole devil thing because of miki but venelana had understood and told her that it wasnt all that different from how business was done normally just a bit more cutthroat and very intense and asked if she wanted to start a business on their side too, with ana saying she was thinking about it.
It was a surprise to Kenji, who was keeping an ear out, but he should have expected it, his wife was a businesswoman to her core, and the men, too, kept their conversation light. Mostly with Gorou and Zeoticus moving the conversation forward.
Time seemed to slip by without most of them even realizing it.
Before long, Gorou Hyoudou had passed out from drinking too much, and Miki decided to put him to bed. She insisted the guests continue enjoying themselves before disappearing upstairs to take care of her husband. She herself seemed a little tipsy.
It was after she left that Aoi suddenly rushed toward Kenji, arms full of a sort of creatures, gushing about them. One was a small bat-like thing, another was a fluffy white cat, and the last was a baby dragon.
"Look! Look, look!" she said, shoving the trio into his face. "Aren't they cute!?"
Kenji let out a small laugh. For his usually calm child, seeing her gush like this was rare.
"Look, it's an actual dragon," she whispered reverently, as if holding a priceless treasure.
"And where did you get these little ones?" Kenji asked, already knowing but still asking.
"Rias and the others! Their familiars!" she told him, raising the bat-thing first. "This one's Rias. Then this one is Koneko's," she pushed the white cat next, then raised the dragon last, "and this one is Asia's! Aren't they just cute!"
Kenji and the other parents chuckled at the girl's enthusiasm. Kenji reached out to pet the dragon, only for it to snap at him instantly. He pulled his hand back quickly. Right. This species only liked women, if he remembered correctly, as expected of a perverted world like this one, where they had a whole species of animal that only liked women.
"Can we pleeease get something like this?" Aoi pleaded, moving toward her mother's side, eyes wide open, giving both her parents puppy dog eyes. She too wanted a pet, she wanted a familiar of her own.
Anastasia reached out to pet the familiars, and they all immediately purred under her touch, especially that little dragon. Kenji felt a surge of irrational annoyance toward the reptile. The dragon, as if sensing his thoughts, turned and faced him, giving him what he could only assume was a smug look on its face.
'Why that little shit,' Kenji thought.
"It would be cool to have a familiar," Ayaka said dreamily, as she too joined in. "Maybe I could get a cool dragon or something that shoots lightning!"
"Well, I wouldn't mind having one too look after, too," Ana whispered, as she turned her attention to the small cat. Oh, she loved cats, they were all just so fluffy and so cute and, and.....oh. She gently held the small cat as she turned to give her husband a look that clearly meant 'we have to get one'.
"And do either of you even know where one gets a familiar?" Kenji asked amusingly, ignoring the look from his wife.
That seemed to dampen their mood momentarily, before that tomato hair now decided to intervene.
"Well," Sirzechs interjected suddenly, "if you girls are looking for familiars, I don't believe it would hurt taking you to the Familiar Forest."
Kenji shot him a hard glare. The Devil King was no doubt trying to have him owe favors by helping him with his daughters and wife's familiars, and Kenji was not happy about that.
He sighed dramatically, ignoring the devil and watching how the girls had already turned back to him.
"Really!?" "Do you mean that!?" both asked the man, Ayaka already imagining what type of creature she could get.
"Well, if you want to go to the Familiar Forest, that's fine," Kenji said, acting wounded. "And here I had already prepared something for you girls, and now you don't even want it."
That seemed to halt the girls as they turned back to their father, eyes wide.
"Really? What is it?" Aoi asked.
"Well, it's something I had prepared for both you and your sister. I was going to give it to you back home, but I can see that you want to go see the familiar forest..." Kenji told her. he didn't even finish before the begging started.
"Please! Please! Please, give us!" Aoi pleaded.
"Are you sure you want it here?" he asked, and both girls nodded rapidly.
"Okay," Kenji said as he sat up closer to the table, waving his hand above it. Two familiar red-and-white spheres appeared.
A moment of silence crushed the room.
"…is that… what I think it is?" Ayaka whispered in awe. Who could blame her? What she was seeing could not actually be right? This was just a toy or something, right? Her father didn't actually have Pokémon, right?
Pokémon was one of the few anime that hadn't seemed to have changed from its previous life and was equally as popular here, too.
"No way," Rias breathed out, shaking her head. As a weeb, she knew what she was seeing, but she just couldn't believe her eyes. Hell, one didn't even need to be an anime lover to know Pokémon.
Kenji picked one of the balls and opened it up. A flash of light flew out, and standing right in front of them was a Sylveon, ribbons swaying elegantly.
The catlike Pokémon stood there in front of everyone's disbelieving faces. He didn't think he would see Sirzech looking like an anime meme when they met today. He laughed a little at the face of utter shock on everyone's face.
There was a loud screech before Rias scooped it up in her hands, "I can't believe it!" she said, squeezing the Pokémon. "A Sylveon, an actual Sylveon."
Aoi snatched it out of her hands. "HEY! That's mine!" she said, before pausing and looking at her dad. It was hers, right? She really hoped so. He nodded to her, and she relaxed. Yup, it was hers.
Ayaka grabbed the other Pokéball from the table and summoned her Pokémon: a Charmander. "Charmander…" she whispered reverently as the little fire lizard chirped up at her. "This is the greatest day of my LIFE!"
Both girls were looking like they had just gotten a piece of heaven.
Staaaaaaare.
Staaaaaaare.
He could practically hear it in his mind as his wife stared at him, her hands twitching as it seemed she was preventing herself from grabbing the Pokémon from her daughters' hands.
"You want one too," Kenji said flatly.
She nodded without shame.
He summoned another Pokéball and handed it to her. She swiftly collected it and put the Pokéball into her bag, she was clearly not summoning her Pokémon here now. Though he doubted she'd wait past the first few steps into their home once they returned home.
Staaaaaaaare.
Staaaaaaaare.
He could feel the remaining people in the house were staring too, it seemed everyone wanted one. Well, too bad for them. He expertly ignored them as he went back to facing the soccer game the men had been watching on the TV, commenting about what was happening, changing the subject as if he didn't just magically make Pokémon appear.
The silence in the room was deafening. He could see from the angle how Rias was trying her best not to ask him for a Pokémon, she looked like she was physically restraining herself, and it looked like it hurt. After a while, it seemed he was going to continue ignoring them. The remaining kids sighed and turned back to his girls' Pokémon to play with them.
Okay, now he was feeling bad, especially the sad face on Asia. She was one of the few people that he liked very much because he was an innocent bean. He'd get her one later, but the others he had with him now were of his personal collection, so that's a no go.
"May I ask," Sirzechs spoke, the first to break the silence.
"Hmm," Kenji hummed, but still faced the TV.
"Where did you get these creatures?"
"Oh, I found them while taking a walk. Why are you asking?" Kenji said, still looking at the TV.
That got a blanched expression out of everyone. So you could find actual Pokémon now in the streets. Everyone wanted to shout at him, but held their tongues. Sirzechs continued. "Well, it's surprising because I have never seen these creatures before, and I was curious." Kenji didn't answer. Sirzechs sighed when he realized that the man wouldn't answer.
"In that case, I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor." Sirzechs changed the subject, and that got Kenji's attention. "Would you be willing to attend the meeting of leaders—"
"No."
Before he even finished, Kenji shot him down.
Sirzechs blinked.
"You didn't even let me finish?" Sirzechs repeated, looking tiredly.
"No," Kenji said again, eyes still on the TV., he already knew what the man was going to ask when he mentioned meeting, and that didn't have anything to do with Kenji.
The room went silent.
Sirzechs finally tried again, more diplomatic. "It is important. Only the leaders of the three factions will be present, and we would like—"
Kenji cut him off smoothly.
"I said no. I'm not joining your meeting. I'm not getting dragged into your faction's drama. I don't want to hear it, I don't want to solve it, and I certainly don't want to be in the same room as you demons, angels, and bird people while you argue about whose fault something is."
Sirzechs' polite smile strained. Rias swallowed nervously.
Kenji finally turned to face him fully.
"Don't ask again."
Sirzechs held his gaze… then slowly sighed and nodded.
"Very well. I won't push." It wasn't like he could order him after all, so nothing he could really do, and he didn't want to make a potential future ally an enemy for something that wasn't really necessary.
"Well then, it seems we have to go," Sirzech said as he began to stand, his parents too. "It was nice meeting you, Mr. Takahashi, and you too, Mrs. Takahashi. I hope we meet again another time, please give our thanks to your parents, Issei," he said as he turned to leave. Zeoticus and Venelana both said their goodbyes, too, and followed him as they all left.
"I think we should go too," Kenji said to his wife. Just then, Miki came back down.
"Oh, where are the others" she asked.
"They seemed to be in a hurry and had something to take care of, but they said to thank you for everything," Anastasia told the woman. She had come to like her, she didn't really have many friends when she worked most of the time, but she had come to enjoy the company of this woman.
"We too have to get going, thank you for everything, and please give our thanks to your husband too." Kenji smiled at the woman.
He called out to the kids, who thankfully had put their Pokémon back into their balls, and said goodbye to the other kids before they left for their home.
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