Barbarella was slowly strolling half depressed through the barracks of the Pocket Castle when some agitation attracted her attention. Three monsters were apparently loudly arguing about "the good old times." She could identify Annie, a yoma monk, Elza, a succubus martial artist, and Vivi, a yoma half holy being, half monster. The first two were united against the third one, who was standing haughtily with her arms crossed.

"They're right! Our lord deserves better than that reputation! We know that she was only seeing the good inside people!"

Vivi shook her head negatively. "First, she's our enemy. Second, the more people talk about her, the more they bring about the bad things she did. So if you want people to remember her in a positive light, just wait a little for things to die down first. Third, they'll forget their plan before the end of the day, and fourth, I've got better things to do with Cecile in Grand Noah."

She huffed and turned away. As the strange monster left, Barbarella remembered that all of them came from an era when Black Alice reigned. Was their spat related to something that happened back there? She was so much lost in thoughts that she didn't notice that both martial artists were looking at her until they called out to her.

"Hey! We're going to give the Eighth Monster Lord the reputation she's owed! Wanna join us?"

Barbarella raised an eyebrow. "Why would I?"

"Weeell, there's not many differences between what happened with you and Black Alice, and if we manage to improve her reputation, we'll manage to improve your as well."

The Beelzebub didn't see how those were connected, but decided to humor them none the less.

"Very well. What do you want me to do?"

"Lilith & Lilim have an idea, they told they'd fill everyone in the council room once we'll have gathered all the support available."

"Good, I'll see you there then."

"Actually…" Elza awkwardly scratched the back of her head. "We're done. We'll accompany you right away."

The duo briskly led the suspicious Barbarella to the room in question. To her complete lack of surprise, they indeed had gathered almost absolutely nobody. The only other monsters present than Lilith & Lilim themselves were Uranus, an angel that looked like a quadruped beast with the torso of a woman, Sylvia, a noble looking insect girl, and a pack of arachnes, a trio of blue and black spider girls that looked like triplets and could only be differentiated by their haircuts. The group was awkwardly silent, since nobody was talking with each other, as if starting to talk would lead to a fight.

The oldest of the twins cleared her throat before addressing the small assembly.

"Greetings, thank you for coming for our project on…" She took a good look at the group and decided to switch her words. "Working to improve the reputation of someone. Now-"

"Wait, this isn't about doing the apology of Black Alice's gluttonous habits to get ours better accepted?"

Lilim's eyes narrowed as she glared at the holy beast. "No. We're here to clear up that there was more to our Monster Lord than just that."

"In that case…" Uranus made her way to the door. "That's monster politics. Sorry but I don't really care about that…"

Sylvia soon followed suit, not without launching a tirade about how Lilith and Lilim were just crude upstarts who only appreciated their mistress for indulging in their perverted games and mindsets.

Eventually only the twins, the two martial artists, Barbarella and the trio of spiders were remaining in the room.

"We're less numerous than what we hoped for, but it doesn't change anything. There only needs to be the right one present now for our strategy."

"What is it?"

"There's a tournament at the colosseum-"

"Again?"

Lilith glared at the spider monster who had just interrupted her. Before the discussion could degenerate further down, Annie decided to place her foot between both monsters.

"There's almost always a tournament at the colosseum. A minor one every week. The only time there isn't is when there's a bigger one at the corner."

"Thank you for the explanation. Now, as I said before being rudely interrupted, the winner always gets to speak publicly. If it's one of us, she'll just have toooo…"

Lilim finished her older sister's sentence as the latter seems to not have prepared herself to the fact that their allies had different motivation and left her audience hanging. "The winner will make a speech to say that the stereotypes surrounding us are wrong." She looked at the small assembly. "Spiders can be nice monsters, the same can be said of the beelzebubs, there's more to succubi than just sex-"

"Yeah but I don't care!"

"-And Black Alice was a marvelous person in the past. Any question?"

Barbarella raised a chitinous limb to attract attention. "I don't really want to say I'm nice. I don't want to be known as a powerful monster and to be respected."

"Then you'll say what you want!" Lilith mellowed down as she realized her outburst. "Just don't forget about those who helped you and why."

"Okay, I get it, no needs to get violent."

"Good, in that case… What now?"

Annie chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah, everything's good and all, but, eeehm, I'm not good at speaking in public."

Lilith sighed. She then produced a paper with something written on it. "Then just read this with as much spirit as when you fight."

"Okay…" She took the sheet and read it. She unconsciously started shaking her head in denial while her expression decomposed. "Are you kidding me…" She proceeded to throw the piece of paper away. "There's no way I'm reading that."

Lilith & Lilim stood in front of the demon while Elza took the sheet and read it, chuckling all the while.

"Don't you want Black Alice's reputation to be better? You have to put your heart into it if you want so!"

"Maybe but what… That… It's pure succubus style! Who write that about a beloved leader?! We held great tea party together and enjoyed bonding by feasting on humans?"

"We were closer to her than you could ever dream of being! We understand her heart better than anyone!"

Elza crumpled the sister's text. "Yeaaaaah, no, I'm agreeing with Annie, there's no way it passes just fine. I mean people don't like Black Alice, and you're just deciding to give too much information on her."

"Why do we have to talk about Black Alice? Can't we just talk about us?" One of the arachne tilted her head in confusion.

"Because we're the ones who came up with the idea! If you're unhappy with it, leave."

The spider crossed her arms, soon imitated by her sisters. "No, we'll still fight in the arena."

"I'll keep fighting too, there's no way I'm letting two you be public speakers for anything!"

"Like you're one to talk. You just said you suck."

"You know what else suck?" The yoma assumed the posture of a martial artist, one of her leg raised. The tension was rising as an all out battle threatened to erupt.

"Can we at least keep it in the arena?!" It's only when everyone turned toward her that Barbarella realized she was the one who uttered those words, to her own surprise.

"…You're right." Lilith grimly looked around her. "The most skilled of us will be decided there, and will be the one speaking, just as it should be."

And so the day of the tournament arrived. She was waiting for her first fight when Barbarella started thinking about the ridiculousness of the situation: She didn't care for Black Alice or even really her image, she just had wanted to search her place in the world without degrading herself like her sisters did. But in the end, maybe both of them had a point. Why was she losing time with all of this?

With her mind on another matter entirely, she still managed to scrape a victory in the first round against a local alraune, and was declared winner by abandon against a human in the second one. However, the third one saw her pitted against Cupi, one of the angel that also lived in the Pocket Castle. The small, annoying pink angel managed to make such a quick work of her that everybody ended silent, shocked and disappointed by the speed of the match. She left the arena altogether wordlessly, refusing to witness what was coming next, and she only got a second-hand report of what had happened afterwards.

In the end, her partners in crimes didn't do much better, and none of them managed to reach her (or their in the case of the damn spiders) goals: Annie and Elza ended up facing each other in a vicious brawl which resulted in a draw that got them both disqualified, the spiders "avenged" her by binding and lewdly incapacitating Cupi in front of everyone before being being themselves disqualified for trying to trap someone in the backstage reportedly to eat him. The following imbroglio nearly ended up involving Mephisto, whose name ended up causing the spiders to relent and leave the area in shame.

Lilith & Lilim themselves ended up being beaten by Minamo in the semifinals, the kitsune kunoichi's skills in sexual arts allowing her to resist the succubi's magic, while her brand of ninjutsu and Taoism allowed her to mislead the twins and exhaust them before knocking them down in an elemental storm. She then proceeded to show off her skills by somehow managing to snatch the victory trophy and disappearing in front of everyone, before awkwardly falling into a hole in the roof of one of the building that made for her escape route. The presence of Nanabi close by was considered purely coincidental, it had reportedly nothing to do with the seven tailed kitsune's desire to humble her junior.

The twins succubi themselves had decided to drown their sorrow in the local pub, and got involved in an incident that lasted for the whole night to the great displeasure of the neighbors. By the time the sun peeked out, they had completely forgotten why they even were in Grand Noah. After all, they were first and foremost demons of lust, through and thorough, and their partners also moved on faster than an eye could blink.

And so died the campaign to bring back Black Alice into everyone's heart. Not with a loud bang, but with a pathetic whimper. Meanwhile Barbarella was back at step one, the only thing accompanying her as she went back to the castle being the regret to have wasted a day.

When she was back at the castle, she wallowed around the entrance for a bit before Striga and Media noticed her.

"Where were you? We've been looking for you since this morning!"

Barbarella sighed pathetically. "Really? I thought you'd have moved on with your lives by now. The Fly Queens' existence as a group is over after all…"

Media tilted her head in confusion, but Striga had understood what her fellow meant. "Come on, Barbarella, I know those are hard times, but you have to carry through it." Barbarella turned away, trying to ignore her. "And just because we want to do things on our own doesn't mean we stopped caring about you!"

"…Really? Because it looked like you were really enjoying yourself without me..."

Striga shrugged. "Well, it was not that fun, since Mephisto took charge of the file and asked Poseidonness to sort it out with her grandchild, and since the latter doesn't seems to be bothered more than that, someone else is going to have to take care of it, and that won't be those that accompanied me back then, sooo…"

Barbarella turned toward Media. The latter casted her gaze down. "I tried that inn thing in Iliasburg. I had to leave because people kept trying to grope my abdomen." She showed her breast-covered appendage. "And then some prude woman complained and asked me to cover myself, and in the end it was simpler for me to just leave.

Striga sighed. "Wanna travel to Yamatai together, just like old times?"

"Old times…" Barbarella chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

The purple Beelzebub finally explained them what happened with Lilith & Lilim, and then the disaster that was her participation at the colosseum.

"…Wow, and I thought we had difficulties moving on… Sooo, that's a yes or no?"

"Yes."

The beelzebubs were now resting in the restaurant near Yamatai, happily munching on dangos, stuffed breads, and other oriental delicacies. For the first time since forever, Barbarella, Striga and Media were legitimately happy together.

"That really hit the spot!" Barbarella stretched her limbs as she leaned back. "When was the last time we did something like that?"

"Less than a few days ago actually." Both people turned toward Striga, apparently surprised. "I mean, when we went to the colosseum, all together?"

"…That was only two days ago? It felt like an eternity… What happened since then?"

"Mmmh… We did separate for a bit and did a few things on our own before coming back together…"

"I kinda wish to forget that happened. If anything, I've never been so glad to be with you."

"Me too, but… It could explain why we're happy to be back together." Barbarella got up and solemnly declared. "If anything, those challenges we faced on our own made us realize the importance of our bond and helped us strengthen it against future odds!"

Her sisters looked at her dumbfounded, then at each other, then back at her. Barbarella's whole body slowly tilted back, only held back by her breast-covered appendage before collapsing on the side and starting to snore.

"Too much saké." Striga shook slightly the empty bottle. "Still, she has a point. We should split up from time to time. That makes those moments where were all together kinda sweeter."

"About sweet things… We got free dangos for dessert. Want one?"

"With pleasure."