With the sudden change in atmosphere from the teleportation, Micael found himself in a room in a house.
He barely had time to properly look around before a rocket of black hair and a ponytail threw itself against him.
"Micael!"
"Ugh!"
Raising his arms with effort, he hugged her back, half leaning backward, his hand lightly rubbing her back. "Take it easy, I'm hurt."
Instead of saying anything, Mari only tightened her embrace, burying her face harder against his chest.
Exhaling through his nose, he ignored the sharp pain coming from his ribs and lifted his eyes, meeting the worried gazes of Miyako and Francisco.
"Are you okay?" Miyako was the first to ask as she approached with Francisco right behind her, their faces furrowed.
"Yeah, as well as a normal human would be after fighting a rhinoceros, so yes, I'm fine." Micael replied with a weak smile.
"That looks pretty bad to me." Francisco said, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm fine, just sore, Asia already healed me, so don't worry." Shaking his head slightly, he kept up the weak smile.
"Hm." Humming, Francisco did not continue the subject, although his gaze made it clear he did not fully believe him.
Shifting his gaze to Miyako who was right behind Mari, looking for any injury on his body, Micael spoke to her.
"It's serious, Miyako, I'm fine, no need to worry."
With her brow furrowed, her gaze was fixed on his shorts, which were soaked in blood. "That doesn't look like the clothes of someone who wasn't hurt." Lifting her eyes to him, she asked with her brow completely furrowed. "What happened? Be honest."
Meeting her serious gaze, he stayed silent for a moment before sighing, seeming to have given up on hiding it. "Things didn't go as planned, a guy much stronger than all of us appeared out of nowhere at the end and practically beat us up, I had to fight him alone for a while and was basically pummeled, but it wasn't anything serious, since I can heal myself as you already know, we just had to wait until Grayfia showed up."
Staring at him after hearing his explanation, Miyako shifted her gaze to the side and looked at Rias. "What he said is true, Rias? Don't lie to me."
Having stepped back a little before, Rias ended up blinking in surprise for a moment, she was left speechless, not expecting to be questioned like that out of nowhere, instinctively her gaze turned to Micael.
Meeting her sideways glance, Micael said calmly. "You can tell her, Rias."
Silently pouting when she met his gaze, Rias then turned back to Miyako, nodding lightly with a weak smile. "No need to worry, Miyako-san, Micael is telling the truth."
Holding her gaze for a moment, Miyako finally turned her eyes to Grayfia.
The silver-haired woman only nodded silently.
Turning her gaze back to Micael, Miyako stared into his eyes, but he only held her gaze without looking away.
In the end, she sighed, giving up on the subject. "Fine, I'll believe you, but you'd better not hide anything from me, understand?" She said, pointing at him with a serious look that left no room for discussion.
"Yes ma'am." Micael agreed promptly, still wearing the weak smile.
Letting out a tired sigh, Miyako approached him and hugged him together with Mari, forcing his head against her shoulder while stroking the back of his neck.
Keeping a blank expression from being treated like a child, Micael lifted his eyes to Francisco who also came closer, but instead of hugging him, he simply placed a hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture.
Exhaling through his nose, Micael silently accepted their display of affection and concern. 'I can't complain about this, after all I'm their son.'
And so, they remained silent in a comforting family moment, with Rias, Akeno, and the others nearby smiling lightly.
Even the always calm Grayfia was smiling faintly at the scene.
But the moment was soon broken by Micael. "Okay, I love you guys too and all, but staying like this is killing my back and neck." He said, pulling away from Miyako's hug before looking down. "You can move away, Mari, don't take advantage of the situation."
Mari did not say anything nor move away, but feeling Micael's gaze on the back of her neck, she ended up loosening the tight hug while moving her face away from his chest.
"Tsk." Crossing her arms as she took a step back, she made a disgruntled face.
Micael narrowed his eyes at her when he heard that. "Don't tsk at me, you brat."
"Hump." Mari turned her face away without saying anything.
Shaking his head, he decided to ignore her tsundere act, if it were another time he would have messed up her hair or squeezed her cheeks, but he was too tired even for that.
Shifting his gaze to his parents, he was about to speak when the door opened.
Creak...
With a light creak, a foot wearing an expensive-looking pointed shoe appeared first, followed by its owner.
Wearing his "work clothes", which were basically a long cape with giant shoulder pads covering most of the view of the clothes underneath, Sirzechs Lucifer entered the room.
"Sirzechs?" Micael blinked in surprise, not expecting to see him there.
"Hello Micael, it's been a while hasn't it? How have you been?" With a friendly smile, Sirzechs closed the door behind him and greeted him without approaching.
"Sirzechs-sama." Kiba suddenly said, bowing in greeting.
Beside him, Akeno and Koneko did the same, with Issei being surprised for a moment before quickly doing the same.
Asia, on the other hand, blinked, not knowing what to do, internally wondering if she should bow too or not, in the end she took a nervous step toward Mari and Micael, seeing that they and his family had not bowed.
And that caught Micael's attention, and considering his family's good manners, the reason for their lack of reaction was probably because he had already met them before and introduced them to each other.
"Brother? What are you doing here?" With a questioning look and her hands crossed on her elbows, Rias asked him.
Turning his gaze to her, Sirzechs raised his arms toward her. "Rias-chan~ It's been a while! Why don't you come here and give your big brother a hug~?" He said with a stupid smile on his face.
Rias widened her eyes when she heard him. "I-I already told you not to talk to me like that!" Her face instantly turned red as she cried indignantly, her gaze quickly darting sideways to Micael.
And finding his questioning look along with a raised eyebrow, she felt even greater embarrassment, making her wish to disappear. 'Ugh! This is embarrassing!'
"Fufufu~"
Hearing that characteristic laugh, Rias decided not to look at Akeno or the others so as not to increase her embarrassment.
"Ah... I see." Sirzechs seemed to deflate, suddenly looking depressed. "So now that you have a boyfriend, you don't want to be spoiled by your big brother anymore, instead you want to be spoiled by your boyfriend, I understand, I'm trying." he said with an understanding look and a gentle smile.
"Brother!" Rias shouted furiously as her blush burned more intensely, the embarrassment was so great that she ended up covering her face with her hands. "How embarrassing..."
While Grayfia, her family and Akeno seemed to be enjoying Rias's expense, Micael cast a silent look at Mari.
The girl had a mocking smile on her face at that moment, but sensing his gaze and meeting it, she quickly lost the smile before looking away.
Micael saw a drop slide down her temple as she realized she could not make fun of Rias.
Seeing that she understood the message, he ended up shifting his gaze back to Sirzechs. "Alright, you've embarrassed my girlfriend enough and I don't think you came here just for that, right?" He said, drawing attention to himself and saving poor Rias.
Turning his amused gaze away from the blushing Rias, Sirzechs looked at Micael. "Yes, you're right." He replied, regaining his friendly smile.
"Does this have anything to do with my family?" Micael asked back, raising an eyebrow and casting a suspicious look.
Seeing the suspicion in Micael's eyes, Sirzechs only chuckled softly. "Yes, don't need to be cautious, Micael, I just wanted to meet the family of my little sister's boyfriend, nothing more than that."
"Micael." Miyako called softly in a reproachful tone upon also seeing the look he had.
But Micael only continued staring at Sirzechs. "Is that so?"
Nodding lightly, Sirzechs continued. "Yes, I was hoping we could meet in a more proper way like a dinner and preferably with my parents present, but given the circumstances, I thought it would be better if I received them and kept them company instead of leaving them alone."
"As well as serving as protection in case they somehow came after my family in the underworld, right?" Micael pointed out without needing him to say it.
"Exactly." Sirzechs nodded lightly. "A group capable of creating a barrier that could hold Grayfia, even if only for a few seconds, is not normal, I didn't think it was wrong of me to speculate that they might perhaps have a method of traveling between dimensions."
Exhaling lightly, Micael nodded at the image of that liquid gold portal Basara had entered. "Yeah, you did the right thing."
Hearing that tone and seeing Micael's look, Sirzechs raised an eyebrow slightly before glancing sideways at Grayfia.
In response, the woman nodded lightly.
"I see..." Sirzechs fell silent for a moment, his face and gaze revealing nothing before he regained his affable smile. "In that case, I would like to discuss what happened in detail, please."
"Alright."
"In that case, let's go to a more suitable place." Opening the door behind him, Sirzechs gestured with his head. "Let's go." Before leaving.
With Grayfia going first, Akeno following and the others nearby following her, Miyako, Francisco and Mari joined them.
Micael was about to go along, but Rias grabbed his arm, making him stay behind.
Holding his arm, she then headed toward the door with the two of them at the back of the rest.
"Are you sure you want to hide this from your family?" She whispered, leaning close to his ear.
Understanding why she had held him back, Micael nodded in response. "It's better this way, they're already under too much stress with everything else, they don't need to know that their son almost died." He whispered back.
"I understand, I'll talk to the others about it, you should also talk to Asia about it, since she lives with you and considering her upbringing and character, it may be hard for her to keep it a secret."
"I know, I'll talk to her."
"Mm." Rias then turned her gaze to him, her eyes narrowing slightly as she spoke in a more serious tone. "And don't think I forgot what you did, we're still going to have a talk about that."
Looking away from the front toward her, Micael met her blue eyes staring intensely at him, recognizing that she would not let it go, he could only smile dryly. "And here I thought you'd just let that go."
Snorting lightly, she pulled away, her hands around his arm tightening slightly. "Keep dreaming."
Micael could only let out a bitter laugh.
While they talked, Sirzechs at the front stopped in front of another door, opening it and going in.
With everyone else including Micael and Rias following him, they entered and settled into the sofas arranged in the room.
"Grayfia, please bring us some tea, I imagine we'll be talking quite a bit." Sirzechs said toward Grayfia, who bowed lightly before leaving.
Then, heading toward one of the four sofas arranged facing a small table in the center, he sat down, crossing his legs and adopting a receptive posture, gesturing toward Micael. "Well, you can start explaining to me."
Seeing that seemingly perpetual friendly smile on the man and his easygoing attitude, Micael felt that this seemed more like a job interview than anything else.
But not caring about that, he exchanged a look with Rias at his side, before looking to the other side occupied by Mari, Asia and Akeno, followed by looking at his family and the others.
Returning his gaze to Sirzechs, he opened his mouth to speak.
...