6 weeks since Lumine's arrival to Japan has peacefully passed by without any interesting happenings. Well, that is until the current predicament Issei suddenly found himself in.
"Issei… what the hell is this?" Matsuda and Motohama's eyes are twitching rapidly, and a strained smile can be seen on their faces. Rias, for her part, seems to be either clueless or chooses not to care as she smiles brightly in front of the boys and Lumine.
Issei shakily turned his head to Rias (Lumine swore she could hear door creaking sound) with a darkened look on his face. "I don't remember inviting you here, Gremory." He remembered he only invited Matsuda and Motohama only.
"I'm hurt, my dearest junior." Rias dramatically says while placing a hand on her heart. "Oh the woe of my junior denying my visitation!" Issei could feel a small migraine forming in his head, despite his eyes enjoying the subtle bounces of her breast.
"Oi Issei, you can't just reject Rias Gremory for giving a surprise visit!" Matsuda complained to the Hyoudou teen while Motohama excuses himself entering Issei's home. "I didn't even say I'm not letting her come in, jackass!"
Motohama could only sigh at the argument happening between the two boys before noticing Lumine watching the entrance. "Oh hey, didn't see you there." Motohama greeted the girl with a wave, which she returned with a polite smile.
"Alright, let's stop standing around and come in." Issei announced before allowing his guests to enter. Issei walked past Lumine into the living room before announcing to his mother they have guests. Lumine, meanwhile, suddenly felt everyone's gaze on her.
"So uh… Hi there." Matsuda shyly greeted, slightly mesmerized by her beauty. "Sorry about the last time we met each other." The boys apologized to Issei once they realized how bad they done goofed, but they still felt guilty for causing so much trouble.
"It is fine, Ise and I have already made up." She smiled brightly with small warmth bubbling inside her. That day had been a keypoint to their relationship as friends and they are able to express their thoughts more.
"Ah, let me introduce myself." She stood straighter and before bowing slightly to everyone. "I am Hotaru, a resident in this house. A pleasure to see Ise's friends." Matsuda and Motohama had a luminescent blush on their faces before introducing themselves.
Rias giggled at their reactions before stepping forward with a similar pose. "It is nice to meet you too Hotaru." She bowed slightly before noticing Issei returning to the hallway. He told them to enter the living room where his mother had prepared drinks.
"Oh, hello there Issei's friends." The woman smiled brightly at the group of teenagers. Despite Issei's seemingly failing attempts at making friends in the past, a small part of Miki held onto hope he would find friends. Now, not only Lumine was part of his social circle, he had three more as part of it.
All of Issei's friends introduced themselves to Issei's mother before taking a seat on the couch. "So Issei…" Issei turned his attention to Motohama as he placed a plate of snacks on the table. "With Gremory here I don't think we can do what we planned."
That's right, on the day before all of them had decided to have a gaming session of an eroge that was recently released. With the fact that Rias is in the Hyoudou house, that plan is out of the window immediately. Issei noticed at the corner of his vision that… she seemed to feel awkward, out of place even.
An idea suddenly entered his mind. "Hotaru, do you want to continue our Metal Gear Solid session?" That got everyone's attention and they turned to Issei. "She has been playing MGS with me since last week." He quickly explained before looking at Lumine.
The girl thought for a moment about his proposal. The boy has been playing 'video games' with her for the past week but usually at night. She did notice the awkward atmosphere, but seeing Issei putting effort into dissipating the atmosphere, she made her decision. "Sure, Ise."
The boy's eyes brightened by her acceptance before running to his room. The other teenagers turned their attention to the other young resident of the house. "You have been playing Metal Gear Solid?" Rias asked with a hint of excitement in her voice. Not everyday does she get to find another fan of the legendary game!
The girl nodded. "It has been an amazing experience, even though it can be… a little frustrating." Everyone noted her emphasis on the word little. Maybe it is just beginner's frustration. Issei arrives in the room with his Playstation 1 and his copy of Metal Gear Solid.
"Sorry for the wait." He gave everyone an excited grin. "Why don't we teach Lumine how to play?"
It has been an hour and Rias has the urge to backseat the game as she watches Lumine struggle in the first boss battle. The battle was fairly simple, but seeing the girl having trouble was a bit agonizing.
At the very least, Issei's friends were having a blast at the girl's agony. "Hotaru, you shot the wire again." Matsuda hollered with laughter as Lumine accidentally killed the hostage once more. The girl huffed in frustration before laying down the controller.
"I think I need a break from playing this game." She turned to Rias before giving her the controller. "I see you seem to be holding back. Would you mind playing it for me?"
Rias stared at the controller for a moment before gingerly taking it. Everyone in the room watched her as she restarted the boss battle before she began. In the meanwhile, her thoughts were running a mile in a millisecond. Should she let herself fall into a trance and play the game as good as possible or act as bad as possible?
"Think you can do no damage run on Revolver?" She noticed the challenging grin on Issei's face, who was casually sipping his beverage. "I managed to do it about a year ago during the summer." His friends, except Lumine, were surprised by his declaration of his achievement.
Something inside Rias burst forth before she unconsciously showed a wild grin on her face. "I can do better. Glitchless speedrun this game without taking damage." Issei made an interesting expression before taking out a 1000 yen note and placing it on the table. "1000 yen for beating him in 25 seconds."
"You're on." Rias began the boss battle before Lumine watched in fascination on how the redhead girl was decimating the battle. Her hand movements were fast and practiced, as if she had done it a billion times before. Eventually, she defeated the boss and cheered with an announcement, "Time!".
Issei turned to Motohama, who merely responded with "24.8 seconds.". With the time announced, Issei cursed under his breath before handing the girl the money, which she graciously accepted.
"You know, watching you girls play is good and all but why not a board game together?" Matsuda suggested, feeling slightly bored from watching. While it was interesting to see Rias knew her way around the game and dominated it, he still wanted to have fun with everyone.
"Why not Old Maid then?" Rias suggested immediately, with the number of players being odd numbered. "It should be simple enough for Hotaru to play right?" A moment of pondering by Lumine and Issei led to them agreeing to play Old Maid. Issei provided the deck of cards before beginning playing the game.
Issei reached out to the hand of Lumine, looking for any subtle changes on Lumine's expression to gain an advantage in the game. It was tough for the teenage boy, as the girl had a perfect poker face on her all the time.
Even Rias had a subtle hint of changes in her eyes when he was taking her cards. But it can't be reliable since the redhead was surprisingly deceptive.
"Hurry up Hyoudou-kun, we haven't all day." Rias urged the boy with a cute pout and, perhaps it was his perverted mind, jiggled her breast a bit. He hovered his hand over the cards before taking a deep breath and picking a card. The moment he saw the cards, it took all of his willpower not to crack under agony.
'Another Joker again?!' He mentally screamed as he allowed Rias to take a card from his hand. He watched as the girl pondered over which card to take before picking one, the joker card. Her eyes shook slightly at the sight of the joker card before turning to Motohama to make him pick a card.
Lumine thoroughly enjoyed the game as it doesn't force her to learn a complicated mechanism but requires mental games. She loved this kind of game where she was mentally challenged, trying to outsmart everyone.
Lumine picked a card from Motohama before slamming down her last 2 cards on the discard pile. "I win," she made a smug look as everyone groaned at their defeat. She had been in no loss so far, with Rias behind who had 3 losses.
"How did you get such a good poker face anyway Hotaru?" Matsuda asked as he placed his final pair of cards. "It's so hard to get a read on you."
The girl shrugged in response. "My brother is better at keeping his face unreadable, I could never win against him in a gambling game." She gave a small smile at the reminder of her brother and their days in other worlds.
A small ache pierced her heart as soon as she recalled their separation, but it quickly faded when she noticed Issei placed his pair of cards. "And I am last."
Motohama fell backwards and dropped the joker card in his hand. "Damnit, I don't like these mind games. Why did I suggest it?" Everyone laughed before noticing the time was around evening.
"I suppose I must leave now. I got something to do tonight." Rias announced as she stood up. "I'm very happy to go through my impromptu visit." Her smile struck a chord with Issei for some reason, but he brushed it aside for now with a smile of his own.
"If you want to, you can visit again someday." He internally cheered as the redhead nodded. A sudden chill went down his spine before turning around and saw his friends glaring at the boy.
"You lucky bastard!" Both of them shouted right in his face. "Why the hell did you get two gorgeous girls for yourself?!"
"The hell are you talking about?!" Issei, thoroughly confused, shouted back at them. "I'm just letting her know she's welcomed if she's up for visiting." The brunette became more confused when both Matsuda and Motohama clutched their heads while Lumine and Rias became a giggling fit.
Matsuda grit his teeth and got his face close to Issei's face. "You. Dense. Idiot." Issei took a moment to process this before his face became beet red. He swiftly turned around to Rias and tried to form words before blurbing out, "I was just trying to say I'm okay with you hanging out once in a while, I didn't mean it like anything inappropriate!"
Rias giggled more. "It is fine, I understand what you mean."
When they continued to make small talks among each other as they left. Once they had said their goodbyes at the front door, Lumine noticed Issei had a bright smile on his face.
"You are certainly happy." She stated as Issei closed the door. She noticed the teenage boy had almost never smiled this brightly before when she was around. Perhaps being with a group of friends was what he needed to brough out this side of him.
The boy nodded before a nostalgic expression replaced his bright smile. "I guess ever since my old friend left… I never really got to make new friends." Irina, his childhood friend, left quite the impact on him after the friend left. Looking back, Issei had not made any effort to create new bonds until now.
'Was I afraid to make friends?' He internally questioned, but no answer would come to him as he thought about it. He felt Lumine's hand landing on his shoulder with a comforting smile.
"Then perhaps now would be a good chance to make new friends."
The boy nodded as he felt comforting warmth in his heart. Perhaps Lumine was right that it was time for him to move on and make new friends. He might have taken the first step already since…
"I already made one." His bright smile returned. "And it's you, Hotaru."
Been 2 months isn't it. Sorry for taking such a long time to get this out since I poured out most of my time with my Glitched Heart. I only got this done since I am currently on a week break from writing it, but it will change soon once I posted this chapter.
Another thing I noticed is that barely anyone read chapter 6. But to be fair, it came out less than 24 hours after chapter 5 so I don't blame anyone. Anyway, I have not much to say except hopefully I could be able to make another chapter for next month.
