After we go through the portal and it closes, we end up in what looks like a tailor shop. In front of us is a shrimp of an old man wearing a fancy suit with a bushy white beard and a bald head. The old man looks to us with an ecstatic smile before shouting, "Cerbero, my favorite customer! It's been a while.", as he opens his arms ready for a hug.
Cerbero meets the stranger with a hug as he happily replies with, "Celti, it has been far too long old friend! How has your shop been since I last shopped here?"
The geezer, who I'm guessing goes by Celti, cheerily answers with, "It's been pretty good. It sometimes gets a bit slow, but I manage. But you didn't simply come here to talk to an old man, what is the special occasion?"
"My son and his friend here need your finest suits! My son, Reiji, is getting married!", Cerbero confidently replies as he turns his gaze over to us.
"A wedding!? How wonderful! Who is the lucky girl? She better be a cute one.", Celti jokingly adds as he adjusts the eyeglass over his right eye.
"She's quite the looker Celti, you should see her. She's a Snow Woman.", Cerbero tells the tailor while raising his eyebrows.
"Oooohhh, a Yuki Onna. It's been a while since I've seen one of those. Last time I did business with one of those ice ladies she wanted me to make her a dress that would resist even the heat of the Underworld while also being stylish. That was a tricky one. I'm beginning to ramble aren't I? My apologizes.", Celti goes on before stopping in front of a large door.
As the elderly man opens the door, he welcomes us, saying, "Welcome to my workshop." As the light peers through the doorway we see a wide collection of suits. "Every single one of these beauties was hand crafted by yours truly. Do you have a specific color you want or do you just want to go with the standard black and white tux with a red tie?", Celti asks us as he turns around to see what we need.
"Would that match whatever the women wear for a Snow Woman wedding?", Tsukune nervously questions the tailor, earning a light chuckle from him.
"Of course kiddo. The traditional suit works with almost any fancy occasion. From what I remember, Yuki Onna wear Kimonos at their weddings so these wonderful suits should work nicely. They won't overshadow the bride and her outfit while also being able to stand out on its own.", Celti replies while patting Tsukune firmly on his back.
"Kimonos? Does that mean that Moka and the others are going to be in Kimonos as well?", Tsukune asks with his face a slight shade of pink before seeming to wonder off into his own little world.
I can't help but laugh at the thought of that wrathful redhead in a Kimono and add, "Just imagine Kokoa in a Kimono! Bet she'll be all sorts of pissed about that!"
"You two can think about girls later, now I have to get your measurements. Hold still for a few moments.", Celti sternly replies as he pulls out some measuring tape from his pocket and wraps it around me multiple times. "You've grown into quite the man, Reiji. Last time I saw you was when Cerbero brought you here to get new shoes. But that was years ago.", Celti gleefully notes as he finishes taking my measurements. As he begins to measure Tsukune, the old man's slight smile melts into concern as he says, "Kiddo, I can smell the stress all over you. What's eating at you? Girl trouble?"
Tsukune tries to brush it off, laughing at the old man's comment at his own expense, so I choose to answer for him, telling Celti, "You don't know the half of it. Tsukune here basically has his own harem."
"A harem you say? Well then you my boy are both the luckiest and unluckiest man in this room right now.", Celti chuckles as he finishes measuring Tsukune's feet.
"It isn't exactly that simple, Reiji.", Tsukune groans through his embarrassment, turning away from everyone to hide his dark red cheeks.
"Child, you have at least three girls falling head over heels for you wanting you to be their lover. I would consider that a harem.", Cerbero cheerfully reminds Tsukune as he innocently pats the brunette on the head.
"At least? How many girls are there then, Cerbero?", Celti growls as he suddenly stops his measuring, turning his gaze to Cerbero with his tape shooting back into his pocket. Cerbero begins to count on his fingers and holds up five fingers. "Five? Five girls? Why didn't you count the other two then?", Celti questions as he goes back to his work, walking over to a small computer sitting on a desk at the center of the room.
"Well, one isn't legal yet and the other one isn't quite at the point where she wants him to be his lover. Before today it was six, with my son's future wife being one of them.", Cerbero explains as he takes a seat in one of the nearby comfy looking chairs.
"So at one point this boy had five girls falling all over him and one girl that may or may not want to fall all over him?", Celti gasps as he turns from his computer to look at the boy, seeming less than impressed by Tsukune's bland aura.
Cerbero replies with a quick nod and Tsukune frantically shouts out, "It isn't like that, I swear!"
"If Cerbero says it's true, it's probably true kiddo. I'm not gonna judge ya, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit concerned about one thing.", Celti says as he puts his hands on Tsukune's shoulders.
"What's that, sir?", Tsukune curiously asks the tailor as the old man takes off his monocle.
"How in the name of the Underworld are you going to choose without getting yourself killed?", Celti asks, causing the boy to pause for a second in thought.
"How am I.. going to live through picking one?", Tsukune asks himself as he thinks about it. "How am I going to live through that!?", he asks himself in a more panicked tone, grabbing at his head as he continues to freak out. If there is a God, then please help Tsukune find his way through this, because I sure as hell don't have a clue how to answer that.
Suddenly Cerbero snaps his fingers and says, "I have a solution to that problem, Tsukune."
"Y-you do? Please tell me Cerbero! How can I do it?", Tsukune pleads as he turns to the guard dog for an answer.
Cerbero suddenly pulls out a small book from inside his suit pocket and says, "I read this book and it seems to have the answer you're looking for."
The man hands Tsukune the book and as he opens the book the boy reads the first page out loud saying, "Polygamy for dummies?"
We all stop before awkwardly looking over at him. There's a giant shit-eating grin across his stupid face, like he just solved all of Tsukune's problems with a book. "Cerbero, you fool! The boy can't marry that many girls!", Celti scolds the demon, shaking his cane at him like a weapon.
"Why not? It would work out perfectly for him and everyone involved. No heartbreak, no torn apart friendships, you might have to wait a bit longer for Yukari, but that's all on you.", Cerbero replies with a shrug as if this plan has zero holes in it.
"What about his mother? How does he explain his five to six wives to her?", I mock him with a slight chuckle, earning a slight smirk from my old man.
"He simply tells her that he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. That should be enough to satisfy her, right?", Cerbero replies before looking his plan over again.
"My mother wouldn't buy any of that! She'd kill me for bringing so many girls home and saying that I married all of them!", Tsukune furiously replies, shouting at the top of his lungs in a rage.
Cerbero lets out a weary sigh before turning back to the boy and telling him, "Well I guess someone's bound to get hurt then. It's a shame though. All those girls seem to really like you too."
"It can't be helped kiddo, you're going to have to pick one eventually. And when that day comes, I suggest you let them down as gently as possible. Might just save your life.", Celti suggests as looks at his monitor then over to a nearby closet full of suits. Tsukune's starting to lose it, I can tell from the smoke coming from his ears. As Celti pulls out two suits similar to Cerbero's from the closet, the old man lets out a light chuckle before showing them to us and saying, "These should work nicely, don't you think? Perfect sizes for both of you and they match." We stand there for a moment, baffled by how quickly he was able to find us matching suits and he says, "Well come on! Try 'em on already! And don't worry about payin' me, consider this a weddin' gift to both of you." He points to the nearby changing rooms and says, "You can change in there. Now hurry up so I can get a preview of what you'll look like on your big day."
I let out a light laugh at the tailor's cheerful nature before we take our suits and go to our separate changing rooms to change into our new outfits. Surprisingly, all the pieces of this suit fit me perfectly. Not too tight yet not too loose. Celti really knows his stuff.
As we exit our changing rooms in our suits Cerbero and Celti seem more than pleased with themselves. "You've done it again Celti. Your handiwork never fails to impress me.", Cerbero happily notes as he gets up from his seat.
"Of course, I'm the best in the business. Now you three better get going. The Miss will be home soon and tonight's the night we usually go out and eat. I have to go get ready, call next time, okay Cerbero?", Celti says as he leaves the room and closes the door.
"I guess that's our cue to leave. Ready boys?", Cerbero asks as he makes a portal in the middle of the room. We both nod before grabbing our clothes and head through the portal.
We end up back in the kitchen, but it seems like nobody is here. Did they go to get the girls ready for the wedding? "Hey, where did everyone go?", Tsukune worriedly asks as he looks through the house for anyone else.
"I don't hear any heartbeats from upstairs so I can only guess that they left to get stuff for the wedding tomorrow.", Cerbero replies as he heads for the stairs. "You two should get changed and hang those suits up. Wouldn't want to have wrinkled clothes at your own wedding now would you?", Cerbero says as he walks up the stairs.
We head to the bathroom to change out of these suits and as we're changing Tsukune asks, "Hey Reiji, do you have any clue what I should do? For who I should marry I mean?"
"I don't know Tsukune. You're asking me to pick your poison. There isn't a real 'good' outcome here.", I bluntly answer him, earning a slight frown from my friend.
"I know, but if I do what Cerbero suggests and marry everyone then they'd all be happy, right?", Tsukune disheartenedly asks as he looks down at the suit in his hands.
I can't help but laugh at him and say, "It'd be exactly the same as what you go through now. They'd be fighting each other for your attention and superiority. If you don't want things to change then you could do that, but if you want to give your all to a single person then you'll need to pick, Tsukune."
"I just don't want to make the others sad, you know?", Tsukune tries to explains as best he can, seeming more nervous about this than he usually is.
We finish changing and take our clothes into the spare room to hangup. As we do this I say, "Don't worry about making the others sad. Worry about making that one girl you really care about as happy as possible, because if you pick everyone then you might as well have not picked at all." Tsukune simply nods and I can tell that he really understood what I meant and didn't give me some half-ass nod to shut me up.
When we enter the spare room we see Cerbero has already leaned himself up against the wall preparing to go to sleep. Tsukune lays down in his sleeping bag and I prop myself up against the wall opposite of Cerbero. Before we have the chance to go to sleep though, Cerbero says, "Hey son, don't you think you need one last thing before you get married?"
I think about it for a minute and then I finally realize what he meant... I don't have any rings! How can I get married without rings?! "Where are we supposed to find rings at a time like-?", I begin to ask but before I can finish my question I see a sly grin come across Cerbero's face.
He pulls a small box out of his suit pocket, how big is that pocket of his, and says, "I've been waiting for the right time to give you these. This seems like the perfect time to give you them." What the hell is he talking about? He just has rings hidden in his pocket? He walks over to me and hands me a small ring box and says, "These used to belong to your parents. I know they would've wanted you to have them. What could be a better time to give you these than when you truly needed them most?"
I open the box and see two rings, one simple golden band and a golden ring with a diamond in it. I close the box and say, "Thanks Cerbero, for everything."
Cerbero simply looks to me with a warm smile and says, "That's what fathers are for, right? Helping their children in their time of need?" He walks back over to his spot along the wall and passes out. I place the ring box on the ground next to me and fall asleep.
In the middle of the night I hear the girls get back home. They don't seem to be trying to be quiet at all. I barely open one eye and I can easily tell that Cerbero was also woken up by their loudness. Tsukune however seems to be sound asleep. I bet that'll change as soon as Kurumu finds him. "They just love to be loud, don't they?", I whisper over to Cerbero. I know he can hear me.
"They're quite the loud ones.", Cerbero growls back to me from his corner.
Suddenly the door swings wide open and the light's turned on. We see Kurumu standing in the doorway with a large white shopping bag. She sees Tsukune, who is still sleeping through all of this noise, and calls out to her lover, shouting, "Oh Tsukune!", before landing crotch first onto his stomach.
Yukari comes charging in and slams her wand down full force on her head while whispering, "You busty buffoon, can't you see they're trying to sleep!?"
"But he just looks so cute when he's sleeping~", Kurumu whimpers as she plays with Tsukune's face.
How is this guy sleeping through all of this? Then we hear Cerbero ask, "Who dares disturb my slumber!?", while releasing a large amount of monster energy, filling the room instantly with the threatening energy. Both of them quickly run out of the room after turning out the light. "Scardy cats.", Cerbero groans to himself before resting his head against the wall and falling back to sleep.
Though Cerbero's gone to sleep, I stay up a bit longer to see if I can hear anything useful. "Well, that was fun.", I hear Moka cheerfully notes as I hear her walking towards the closed door.
"Yeah, I haven't been able to buy new clothes in such a long time. I almost forgot what wearing clothes without holes in them felt like.", I hear Ruby reply as her loud heels clank against the floor outside.
"It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I thought you all were going to doll up and play dress up or something, but it was actually kind of fun.", I hear Kokoa surprisingly add, forcing me to raise an eyebrow at her claim. She enjoyed that? Interesting.
"It was great, but I think I need to go back to bed.", I hear Moka note as she lets out a long yawn.
"You better watch out then, because Cow-tits McGee over here almost woke up Cerbero. And based off of the amount of energy he put off, he might just kill anyone who wakes him up.", Yukari warns the vampire.
"Is Reiji in there?", I hear Mizore ask them, earning a confused 'Hm' from succubus.
"Yeah, I think he's in the same spot he was earlier. I don't understand why they didn't just take the free sleeping bags. They would be more comfortable than the floor you'd think.", Kurumu answers her, somewhat confused by our choice of sleeping arrangements.
The door opens again and I can see Mizore in the doorway, though she hasn't turned on the lights yet. I silently grab the ring box before hiding it in my hand and pretend to be asleep. Hopefully she buys it and they all just go to sleep.
I hear someone walk over to where I'm sitting and sit down with me. As they lay their head on my shoulder, I can tell instantly from this soothing cold feeling that it's Mizore. Is she going to sleep next to me all night...?
I hear more footsteps come into the room and I hear Kurumu say, "Aww, how cute~ The soon to be married couple is sleeping together for the first time~"
"Cut it out Kurumu. Let them have their moment. Let's just go to bed and leave them be.", I hear Moka say before more people come into the room.
It sounds like everyone else gets in their sleeping bags and go to sleep. As Mizore falls asleep on my shoulder I get this weird feeling of peacefulness. This feeling of peace makes me feel so relaxed that I fall asleep.