Kirio Amy strolled with ease and grace, a slight blush on his face, his typical round glasses, his red and black prisoner uniform looked relatively clean, a jacket with gold shoulder board adored with fringe tassels. He wore the jacket on one side, it otherwise hung loose and rustled as he walked. "Long time no see Iruma, and don't you look good"
Iruma could hardly breathe, barely move, eyes wide, legs locked into place.
"Aren't you happy to see me? Oh, I'm hurt," Kirio said with a simpering voice as his blush grew darker. "The look on your face is so delicious!" he said before lunging forward.
Iruma managed to dodge for a few seconds. But he felt his body slam into something hard. It took a second, but he figured out Kirio had made a barrier behind him as he was dodging Kirio himself.
"You've never looked better!" Kirio screamed as he darted forward.
Iruma rolled off the barrier, fell to the ground, scrambled to his feet, frantically looked around to see a way out, and picked up a piece of debris that used to be a section of a nearby wall. He remembered his training with Opera, turn fear into excitement, turn your enemy's energy and momentum against them. Iruma turned the Ring of Gluttony to Ifrit Mode.
Kirio had a manic glint in his eyes and a smile that seemed to be all fangs. "Look at how pathetic you are! How desperate you must feel!" He created another barrier and launched it at Iruma like an invisible flying wall.
Despite not being able to see it, Iruma dodged pretty well, at first, but eventually, Kirio slammed Iruma with a barrier, smothering him into what remained of a wall.
Kirio had to wipe drool away, his blush covering his face. "I like seeing you this way," he said with a bitter laugh.
Iruma's strong survival instinct took over. Ducked low under the barrier, he came face-to-face with Kirio, whose own survival instincts told him to take several steps back.
"It's cute to see you try to fight back," Kirio teased with a warped smile.
Iruma used the anger of being mocked to fuel his body and charge closer. "Libera!" he tossed the rubble and cast the spell. A mighty mana dragon surged, and the proximity should have guaranteed a direct hit.
Kirio lounged triumphantly behind a barrier, but he had to move quickly to create a second barrier when the first shattered. Within seconds, a third barrier was needed, then a fourth.
"Please help me Ali, try to get past his barrier. Maybe you can knock him out if you take too much mana," Iruma begged. He whispered so as not to give the plan away.
"On it!" Ali took his original shadowy form.
Ali went up and over the fifth barrier, on Kirio, obstructing his eyes as a bonus.
"What is this?! It's eating my mana!" Kirio attempted to grab Ali, but that only led the spirit of the ring to grab more skin.
Within seconds, Kirio collapsed to the ground.
Ali retreated and appeared to Iruma, "All done! You may applaud me now!"
Iruma unironically did applaud. "That was amazing!"
Ali bowed, "I got enough mana to keep-" he disappeared into the ring.
"What's going on here?!" A young woman raced with her maroon hair and pink skirt swishing as she ran. She stopped before Kirio and gasped. She looked at Irum."Don't worry, I'm a member of the staff and I'm here to help. I'll take him and make sure he's brought to the right authorities." She picked up Kirio effortlessly and flew away.
Ali reemerged. "All right! So far, so good!
Iruma nodded."How do you feel?"
Ali puffed with pride, "I'm in tiptop shape!"
"Great, I just hope I don't need to fight anyone again. That was scary! I wonder what's going to happen to him now..."
Ali patted Iruma. "I'm sure your gramps will know, and that's where you're safest, so get going!" he returned to the ring.
"Right!" Iruma said and continued searching, but he didn't have to wait long; Opera found him first.
"All I had to do was follow my nose to your unique perfume," said Opera as they lowered themselves to the ground.
"Oh, Opera, there you are!" Iruma was hugging them before he even thought about it. Normally, he would not want to violate personal space. Only when he felt Opera hug him back did he realize what he was doing. Iruma separated himself from the hug and looked at Opera to guess what the demon was feeling.
Opera, who is normally unreadable except what could be guessed from ears or tail, was undeniably pleased, but there was a hardness in their eyes. "You should have stayed put, but your allies and Ms. T'pog told me everything. I'm very proud of you, young master Iruma." Once again pulled Iruma in a hug. "Now tell me, what was that burst of mana I sensed?"
Iruma told them everything. At the end of the retelling, Opera's tail was unmoving, the fur bristling, the hardness in the eyes grew, yet they spoke smoothly without any verbal tension. "I'll fly you to Lord Sullivan." Without another word, Opera carried Iruma bridal style and flew away.
...
"Oh, my dear, sweet, wonderful, brave, heroic, devi, grandson!"
Opera had retold what they learned from T'Pog and the teens. They had to shout at points as Lord Sullivan wailed, cheered, gasped, and otherwise interpreted to talk to Iruma.
"I'm concerned about the young woman who took the criminal away," said Professor Balam. He tapped his mask with his index finger.
"That is concerning, but we can investigate later, the important thing-" Lord Sullivan started, but was interrupted by a voice from above.
"I never thought I'd see you here."
"How nice to see you, my rival!"
...