Movie

"When you said we are watching a movie, I was expecting something that we all can thoroughly enjoy." Sona spoke while giving both of her friends a rather deadpanned look. "But why are we watching an American movie about a philanthropist becoming a hero?"

Rias gave Sona an accusatory look and pouted. "I don't see anything wrong with it. This is Iron Man for crying out loud! Everyone's been hyped for this, even Sirzech!" Even Issei nodded and placed the DVD into the disk reader.

"What I was expecting to watch is something like Braveheart or even Titanic!"

This time, Issei decided to interject with an offended look. "Okay, first of all, Braveheart is still quite the violent movie…"

"It's based on a real world event."

"Yes it is…" Rias muttered, exasperated at Sona's insistence on not watching the Marvel movie.

"Second of all, Titanic is boring."

Sona gasped and Rias facepalmed, shaking her head. She knew a fight was coming soon, but silently agreed with Issei that Titanic was boring in her opinion.

"How dare you!" Sona spoke in perfect, posh English. "It was one of the greatest tragic romance movies of all time! How is it boring?!"

"It's just an overdramatized romance story about a ship sinking."

With that, both children broke out into a heated debate on what kind of movie was far more interesting and which genre is better than the other. Rias merely sat down and took her popcorn to snack on it.

'Honestly, this is more interesting to watch than Iron Man.'

Games

"OBJECTION!" The three children shouted together excitedly when Sona pressed the present button on the button touch screen of a light blue Nintendo DS. The children felt a well of pride as the game continued to show the logic behind the argument.

Sona never was one for video games, but when Rias, through Issei, told her about a mystery game that she might enjoy, she decided to take a dive on it.

Fortunately, she didn't regret the decision at all. The game was fun and it showed her that video games were not just mindless, relaxing activities that people participate in. Not that she judged but she never understood the appeal.

Maybe it might be a mistake in the long run, but she was glad that games like this exist. Perhaps she can ask her sister for more of this kind of game in the future when there is time.

For now, she wanted to read how the protagonist of the game argued his way out of the difficult situation.

"For a lawyer, Naruhodo is surprisingly quite the detective too." Sona commented. This comment, for some reason, caused Issei and Rias to snicker. This made her confused with her expression showing the confusion.

"Why did you guys laugh?"

Issei simmered down his laughter, but a few chuckles escaped his lips. "He's actually bullshitting some of the things in the scenario as he goes."

Sona gave a scandalized look, unable to believe Issei's words at all. There was no way a lawyer would make things up so he can gain a favorable ground. Is there? Nah, Naruhodo was a resourceful lawyer and took advantage of any loophole he found in the argument.

It would take Sona years later that she understood why Issei and Rias said those words. Even then, she still vehemently defended the fictional lawyer.

Reading session

Issei did his best to not yawn as he read a thick novel titled "Eragon", in complete English instead of translated form with a translation dictionary on the side.

Rias has been a great help for Issei with his English, even helping him with his pronunciations on many occasions. However, those sessions tend to keep it safe instead of going above and beyond as Issei and Rias prioritize wanting to have fun instead of a study session.

That was until Sona Sitri entered their friend circle and began to schedule monthly reading sessions. Rias took it in stride as she had done with her before, but Issei? It was a nightmare. He tried to convince her to not do so but, in Sona's words, it can help him with English by being far ahead of his classmates.

There was only one problem…

"It's so boring…" He muttered as quietly as possible before his instinct told him to duck. He barely got hit by a pillow thrown by Sona who was angry at the boy. She made a 'I see you' gesture before going back to reading "The Hobbit".

Issei sighs before going back to his book, slowly and carefully reading the English words in the book. He swore someday his brain will become fried from reading so much and his muscles will degrade from lack of activity.

Sure, it was a monthly session but he almost never looked forward to it.

Almost. American comic books like Marvel and DC were still his all time favorite. For now, he has to agonize through the reading session and pray to whatever that was holy that he won't come out dead.

"Issei, focus." Sona ordered and the boy groaned.

Grounded

Rias closed her door and locked it tight out of sadness and guilt before she plopped herself on her bed face first and screamed her heart out.

She was grounded. All because she nearly hurt her nephew, Millicas, for the sake of showing off their family power and making him become fascinated with their power. Unfortunately, her idea of juggling small balls of destructive power had been a harder task than she anticipated and a slip of control was needed to give the poor boy a scare.

She did everything to comfort him, which thankfully, he did. But by the time she comforted the boy, Zeoticus and Venelana had arrived and pieced together what had happened. The girl confessed her crime and, as expected, got reprimanded by them.

She understood her failure and willingly took any punishment for nearly hurting her beloved Millicas. Her parents had forgiven her, but were still willing to bring punishment for her reckless act and grounded her for the week.

'That means I can't see Issei this week…' she sadly thought and looked at the calendar. She noticed a red circle near the end of the week and widened her eyes. Panic filled her entire being as realization settled into her mind.

"We're supposed to go for the matsuri this week!" She quickly turned to her door and readied to open before suddenly hesitating. She knew that, if she told her parents about this, she would be able to go to the matsuri without issue.

But her guilty conscience merely screamed at her for not being qualified to enjoy her time in the matsuri. If anything, the girl was rightfully punished for nearly hurting Millicus.

She sighed dejectedly and sat on her bed, tears forming as she tried to hold it back. She already had a perfect scenario in her mind for the matsuri.

Sona, Issei, and she will enjoy the games together, willingly spending their money on rigged games just for the sake of the experience. Wearing silly masks that made each other laugh. And… if possible… made Issei fluster as she wore her new kimono.

But all of it must go in favor of her punishment. She may be a devil, but she has a moral code she wants to upheld regardless of how painful the decision may end up with.

Her Nintendo DS made a notification sound, signifying someone messaged her with that device. She wondered who it was before turning on her handheld console from sleep mode. Tapping her Mii avatar, she saw it was Issei.

[Hey, are you excited for the matsuri?]

The girl immediately wanted to cry her heart out, but held on to reply to the boy. She thought about lying to the boy by telling him there was a sudden change in plans. However, she opted otherwise and decided honesty was the best policy.

[I got grounded.]

[What?! What happened (0.o)]

She explained to Issei the situation, but left out any supernatural aspect to maintain the secrecy of the other side of the world. By the time she finished explaining, her hands were trembling from weakness and how much she silently cried.

Her heart bled as she told the boy the story. Telling the boy that she had lost the chance to enjoy their first matsuri together simply because of her stupid decision. Now, facing the consequences, her perfect scenario shatters as time goes.

For a while, Issei didn't reply and Rias felt pain in her heart.

"I knew it… Ise-kun's disappointed and angry at me…" Her throat tightened and she coughed lightly, desperately vying for air.

That was until another message was sent to her.

[Aren't you feeling bad that you can't come to the matsuri with me? Maybe you can work up the courage to tell your parents about matsuri. I'm not you though, so I can't really tell what you want to do right now. But in the end, I just think that maybe… just maybe… you can work up the courage to delay your grounding for now and then later work on making up for it.]

[Then again, I got grounded with Iri-kun a lot of times before and just got used to it. For now though, just comfort yourself ok? I'll be here for you Rias-chan.]

Then a badly drawn picture of Issei hugging a crying Rias was sent to her, making her feel lighter and got a laugh out of her. She felt better by seeing it, and the boy's message was encouraging to her at least.

[You still there Rias-chan?]

She wiped her tears off and calmed herself down.

[Yeah, just calming down. Thanks for helping me, Ise-kun.]

[I didn't do much. I was just saying the things that came out of my mind.]

[That's why I said thank you. I'll be going to see my parents and talk about the matsuri. Be right back.]

[Good luck!]

She placed her Nintendo DS down and walked to her door. She hesitated for a bit, still feeling that she had no right to see her parents right now. She worked up the courage and then pulled the door open, prepared to face her parents for the sake of going to the matsuri.

'I can do this, Ise-kun!'

Two months gone and this is what I have to offer? Well, unfortunately yes. College had started for me once again and it took too much time and motivation for me to continue. Even then, I was determined to continued this fic during January.

The real issue I faced in this chapter is just whether to include Sona's birthday or not since this fic was taking place in the summer, but then chapter 3 onward had already established it was a bit beyond Sona's birth month so I scrapped it. Maybe next time. For now, I hope you look forward to the next chapter, the Summer Festival.