Aspite Line was currently making his way to a certain house. That house was no big mansion or anything, nor were its residents special people. No one would have any trouble finding this address and meeting with the people that lived there, so of course Aspite was no exception to that rule.
And that's what was making Aspite mad. After all, the house he was going to visit was Yuuto's house, in other words the residence of a Devil King Candidate.
Devil King Candidates are usually chosen from noble families, so when a Candidate is picked they usually move out of their house, if they hadn't already. That is a way to avoid involving the rest of the family in the Devil King War, and it also works to the Candidate's benefit, since it allows them to make their base however they please, since most of them don't use the Palace provided by Ginsei Academy.
Of course, Aspite knows Yuuto is just a human and his parents aren't rich, so it's not like he can just move to a mansion like how everyone else does it. Even still, there ought to at least be defenses helping protect his family.
Yet, what Aspite found was laughable. If a Candidate decided to attack Yuuto's family, these defenses would be mild annoyances at best. It's to the point Aspite is impressed Ibiza didn't try anything while he was alive. If Aspite was a petty person, nothing would stop him from taking his revenge for his defeat against Yuuto's parents.
"Damn it, Yuuto Morioka. This is humiliating even for me."
Aspite decided he'd have Yuuto fix this. Or maybe he'd just fix it himself. Yuuto defeated Aspite, and that's a fact, so Aspite wished Yuuto didn't make himself seem like such an easy target.
This also worked to justify the reason why Aspite had come here in the first place. Basically, after careful consideration of everything, he arrived at the conclusion that, while he could defend himself against the likes of Death's Group, Yuuto could not.
And, as if to confirm his thoughts, Aspite started catching wind of Yuuto making his own alliance. Since that was the case, Aspite thought to offer his protection to Yuuto. After all, Aspite no longer cared about the Devil King War, but he still planned to have a revenge match against Yuuto.
"Is it here?"
Aspite asked himself as he stood in front of Yuuto's house. It didn't look any special. The neighbors probably had no idea Yuuto currently held a social standing that they could never hope to achieve.
Aspite pressed the doorbell and waited. It wasn't long until the door was opened.
But, rather than Yuuto, the person who opened the door for Aspite was a woman. Aspite knew there were no maids or such in Yuuto's house, so she must have been his mother.
"Good evening. I'd like to talk to Yuuto Morioka. Is he home?"
"Oh, you're Yuu-kun's friend? Come in."
Aspite entered the humble residence. He was guided to the living room, where a man was sitting. That was probably Yuuto's father.
"Oh, we have a guest?"
"I apologize for coming so suddenly. I'm Aspite Line, Devil King Candidate of World Arcana."
"D-Devil King Candidate?! A-and from the Line house?!"
Yuuto's father suddenly got nervous, but Yuuto's mother calmed him down by saying that Aspite was here just as Yuuto's friend.
While Aspite didn't consider that right, he saw no harm done so he just let it be. He'd hardly ever meet these people after today, so it didn't matter what they thought of him.
Yuuto's mother gave Aspite a drink and started making small talk with him. Despite his annoyance, Aspite figured it would be impolite to leave her talking to herself so he replied with little interest.
But, as time passed, Aspite's annoyance only grew. It had already been a while since he arrived, yet Yuuto had yet to show up.
"What's taking Yuuto Morioka so long?"
"Oh, Yuu-kun isn't here."
"He's traveling right now. I think he's only going to come back the day before classes resume."
"… What?"
Yuuto wasn't here? How had Aspite missed that information? Or maybe it had been hidden deliberately.
Regardless, since Yuuto wasn't here, it means Aspite's visit and time was wasted. His annoyance was at an all time high.
He got up to leave this place, but Yuuto's mother grabbed his hand and stopped him.
"W-wait, Aspite-kun, don't you want to stay and talk a while more? I'll even show you Yuuto's pictures from when he was young."
"I'd also like to talk more. I know that, as a teen, Yuuto's pretty happy with girls surrounding him all the time, but we also need male friends around us."
Yuuto's parents insisted Aspite stayed. He really thought about forcing his way out, but then reminded himself he's not such a petty person. Whatever his problem, it's with Yuuto, not his parents.
Besides, Yuuto was a mysterious individual. He was most definitely a human, not even a mixed-blood devil, yet he's much too strong, and even managed to get picked as a Devil King Candidate, something that had never happened before in history.
So, despite his annoyance, Aspite decided to take this as an opportunity to gather information. Maybe, by listening to his parents he'd be able to shed some light into this mystery.
Aspite decided to stay and talk for a while more. A decision he'd ultimately regret, but at least he got some information that helped him understand Yuuto's origins as a Devil King Candidate better.
A certain slip from Yuuto's parents let Aspite to a clue he'd never have dreamed of. And that clue would lead him closer to solving this mystery. With some effort, Aspite was likely to figure out the truth behind Yuuto's being chosen as Lovers' Candidate.
Marios was currently working on the "Frankenstein" Lost had asked of him. He and his Cards were currently working on molding the black goo to a form that was better for them to work with.
Currently, Marios was taking a brief pause after working for so long. He headed for his private room at the top of his tower.
"Master Lost…"
Marios said as he entered the room. There was a new thing there, right in the middle. Something that looked like a black cocoon. Lost was currently inside that.
After the fight with Marchosias, Lost had come to the conclusion that he could not simply let things proceed as they had been. After he made sure Rinne and Hisoka had run away from him, Lost made this cocoon for himself and headed inside.
Of course, no one could know what was happening inside that cocoon. But what was taking place there was, in a simple single word, evolution.
Lost's body was changing itself to better make use of all its power. And it wasn't just that. There were also changes happening in his mind, so that he'd have perfect control of himself.
Whatever came out of that cocoon, be it Lost or something else, would be very powerful. At least strong enough to make front to Triumph Candidates. And Marios and his Cards were preparing themselves for that.
Because no one really knew Lost, the effects of Psyconnect wouldn't disappear, even if what came out was only Lost in body, but not in mind. It's hard to say if that was a good or bad thing with that Characteristic Magic.
In any case, Marios simply rested for now. He still had a lot of things to do, and he wanted to have as much ready as possible before his master came out. So, for now, he had to recover his strength.
Seigi Sannou had just finished her daily training with her Cards, as well as her twin sister, Rikimaru, and her Cards. They may as well be 2 Devil King Candidates rolled up into 1.
With the training done, it was now time to wash off the sweat. Seigi was the first to enter the bath, and she was relaxing in the water.
That was, until Rikimaru entered the bath.
"Aaaah, Rikimaru-chan feels so good relaxing after a hard day at work. And Rikimaru-chan even gets to check out how Seigi-chan's growing."
"Please control yourself, nee-sama."
Rikimaru was always rather touchy during the times they were in the bath. Seigi knew she couldn't beat her elder sister when it came to strength, but she also knew what awaited her if she didn't do anything to escape.
"Stop this, nee-sama. The others are about to come."
"Aah, is that why Seigi-chan is shy? Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with a bit of sisterly love."
"You know I never like it when you do this! W-wait, nee-sama!"
As expected, Rikimaru eventually won the strength contest, and with it got the chance to verify her little sister's growth. Of course, she made sure to check everywhere.
The other girls from the Justice-Strength team, such as Swordia and Flor, arrived for the bath. Since they were already used to such scenes, to the point some even thought there was a secret relationship between the sisters, no one paid it much mind, but everyone kept their distance. They didn't want to be dragged in, after all.
"Nee-sama always does something like this! Sixers!"
Seigi activated her Characteristic Magic, called Sixers. 6 devil swords sprouted from the ground and trapped Rikimaru.
Seigi's Characteristic Magic allowed her to create 6 devil swords at a time, or 66, or 666, and so on. Seigi can freely give these swords powers and other characteristics. That's why all of her Cards are sword wielders.
This is also the ability she used to create Yuuto's sword. Since his strategy seemed to be to pretend to be weak, she used the kind of Devil Sword known as Tenka Fubu, a common beginner's sword, as a base, though Yuuto's was much stronger than the normal ones. She also gave it a perverted personality, since she imagined it would make it easier for Yuuto and the sword to understand each other, and she also made it be a girl, since she guessed Yuuto wouldn't want another man lusting over his women.
Of course, despite her good intentions, what she did was cause a lot of trouble for Yuuto. Yuuto would have a few words with her, but that's a story for another time.
Seigi gave these swords she'd just created to stop Rikimaru the power to stop the movement of whatever they touched. Rikimaru would normally be able to resist such a thing with her own Characteristic Magic, Strongest, but with 5 swords touching her, even she couldn't move.
But that's when Rikimaru noticed something strange. There were 2 swords holding her arms in place, another 2 for her legs, and 1 more for her torso. That made 5, but there should be 6 swords.
"Where's the sixth, Seigi-chan?"
"Right here, nee-sama."
Seigi showed Rikimaru the last sword. But that wasn't a sword so much as it was a 'sword', as in a man's sword. The other girls looked away in embarrassment, Swordia even more, since she could get a lot of details from reading its mana.
"W-wait, Seigi-chan."
"Nee-sama needs some punishment. I'm going to shove this up nee-sama's ass, and I'm the only one who can take it out. If nee-sama starts acting up again, I'll activate this sword's ability, and you don't want to know what it does."
"O-ooh, Rikimaru-chan's first is actually going to be with Seigi-chan."
"I'd suggest you stop before I get really mad, nee-sama."
"Sorry, please don't get mad."
Rikimaru's apology wasn't enough to save her butt though. Seigi still mercilessly impaled her sister.
After that, save for the occasional curious look at the hilt coming out of Rikimaru's ass, the bath finished without incidents or anything out of the normal. Seigi felt rested and relaxed, ready to deal with the next problem on her plate.
Seigi could clearly see that Death's Group was falling apart. She joined out of interest over a common goal and doesn't really care for any of its members, so she didn't really care much that it was coming to an end, but having a group of people to count on was still an interesting idea.
That's when she remembered the rumors of Yuuto making his own alliance. Despite the previous incident with Rikimaru, Seigi thought that their relationship with Yuuto wasn't bad, and he himself didn't seem like a bad person. Perverted, but not bad.
The only problem was that, other than Yuuto himself, all of the members of this supposed alliance were women. It might be a condition Yuuto imposes, given that he's Lovers. That would be a problem for Rikimaru and Seigi, since they have both male and female Cards, but there's little point in worrying about that now.
"Excuse me. Someone has come to visit."
One of the house's maids entered Seigi's room and told her this. Seigi wasn't expecting any visitors, so she was curious as to who it might be.
So she left the room and met this visitor. It was none other than Hanged Man's Candidate, Yotaka.
"Hello. I'm here to ask a simple favor. Can I use your Gate to go to the Devil World?"
Yotaka had been blunt and to the point. It could even be considered a little disrespectful, but that was because she really didn't care about Seigi.
Before this, Yotaka had visited Balance and had also asked for some help with her objective. She got him to use his Characteristic Magic on her, but now she's here looking for Seigi's help.
"Can I ask your reason? I'm sure you have a private Gate of your own."
"It's just for the sake of going undetected. I figured I could ask a fellow alliance member for that."
So Yotaka wanted to go to the Devil World undetected? It wasn't much to go off of, but Seigi could make a pretty well-educated guess.
Yotaka had never hidden that her target was Lovers, or rather Lizel. Seigi might not know much, but it wasn't hard to imagine this. Given that she was just thinking of allying with Yuuto, her answer would obviously be…
"Fine. But our Gate here leads to a private home, so I hope you understand I'll have to escort you."
"That's fine."
Yotaka could hardly be stopped from going to the Devil World. In that case, Seigi may as well try to use this chance to learn more and, depending on the situation, offer her help as needed.
And so Yotaka and Seigi entered the Devil World. But before that.
"W-wait, Seigi-chan. Can you, um, pull it out? It's been a while, so it's fine already, right?"
"… I'm sorry, nee-sama, but I'm in a hurry. I'll take it out once I get back."
"W-wait!"
Seigi also took this chance to punish Rikimaru a bit more.
