章 31: An Older Imouto
"Damn, that sucks…" Jake said, rubbing the back of his head. The shock of his circumstances still hadn't quite caught up to him. He had just had a very trying recent experience, after all. "20 years, huh? So, what did I miss?"
The boy who was now a grown man just let out a bellowing laugh. "Hahaha, you've missed quite a bit, Jake," he replied. "To start with..." He paused for suspense. "You have a little sister now!" he exclaimed.
"Really? I have a little sister?" Jake felt a smile form on his face at that thought. He couldn't wait to meet her!
"Yeah, she's a real firecracker, my little cousin." He paused again. "She's a bit of an otaku though..." he trailed off.
"So how old is she?" Jake asked. "I hope I didn't miss too much of her life." Sairaorg told him she was 17 years old, which then made Jake pause for a moment in thought as he did the math.
"Sairaorg…" Jake spoke to him in a deadpan tone. "I'm only 16 still, my birthday isn't until July."
"Oh," Sairaorg let out another billowing laugh. "Well, you have a big sister now instead!" He waved it off like there was no difference. There absolutely was a big difference! Jake had just lost his status as the potential cool older brother, and now he would be the little one!
"…"
As their conversation came to a bit of a lull, Jake asked Sairaorg where they were and what year it was. Sairaorg told him, confirming to Jake that he had truly sent himself forward 20 years in time. Apparently they were also in Sairaorg's territory in the underworld. Yes, Sairaorg was technically the real 'Lord Bael' since he came of age as his father had mysteriously vanished 20 years ago after being declared a criminal... It wasn't exactly easy for Sairaorg to claim the title though.
He told Jake that his strength had been officially recognized as Lord Bael and as an ultimate class devil when some branch members of the Bael clan tried to take his birthright of lord from him due to him not inheriting the power of destruction. In response to their challenge of his birthright, Sairaorg then challenged all of his clans naysayers all at the same time and beat the crap out of them for the whole underworld to see! His mother, who Jake remembered being a total milf, had also been extremely supportive of him the entire time.
After speaking about his mother, Sairaorg actually bowed to Jake in appreciation. "I would like to thank you and Blaze for saving her!" He said with his head lowered and with great sincerity.
*Chirp chirp* Blaze, who had been flying around, chirped in reply to Sairaorg.
"And thank you as well, Noble Phoenix Blaze." Sairaorg waved at Jake's familiar in the sky. Jake was a bit confused at his sudden thanks.
"Um...you're welcome?" Jake questioned. He had no idea what he was being thanked for. Sairaorg then went on to explain to him that apparently his mother had fallen into something called the devil's sleeping sickness. Not much was known about the illness, except that once a devil had it and fell asleep, they would never wake again. However, the vial of true phoenix tears that had been paid to Sairaorg when they met as children was actually able to wake his mother, Misla, from her eternal sleep.
Sairaorg then continued and told Jake that after his mother awoke, the news of her awakening from a 'miracle cure' had spread all over the underworld. People from all over wanted to seek out the 'Noble Phoenix Blaze' along with its mysterious master so they could cure their relatives who had been affected by the sleeping sickness as well! The 'mysterious master' never showed himself, but apparently Jake's peerage member, the enigmatic Luna Lovegood, had handled all of the negotiations and payments in his name. Sairaorg went on to explain that Jake was apparently filthy rich now after profiting heavily from Blaze's tears! Jake was blown away by that news. One moment he's fighting for his life and the next he's accidentally time traveled again and then he had some money to his name.
Jake might have missed out on that thousand galleon prize from the tournament, but he didn't care about that anymore. He was apparently loaded now! Jake looked up to his phoenix flying in the sky, still happy at his return. He gave him a smile, "Blaze, you're absolutely awesome and can have all the bacon you want forever!" Blaze chirped ecstatically over that! It had the best master in the whole world! The phoenix thought to itself that his master was way better than Fawkes's old wrinkled master! The two had something of a rivalry for the past few decades due to them being the only current living phoenixes…
Before Jake could ask Sairaorg any more questions, a sound that resembled a ringing phone went off nearby. Sairaorg reached into his pocket and answered the phone he had pulled out. "Yeah, I'm here," he spoke to whoever was on the other end. "And he finally arrived too," Sairaorg said with excitement in his voice as he looked at Jake. He ended the call and slipped the phone back into his pocket. "Come on," he said to Jake. "Let's go. You've got some people who want to see you, who've been waiting a long time."
Jake simply nodded as Sairaorg slung the body of his unconscious father over his shoulder and grabbed Jake's arm with his other hand. Jake assumed Sairaorg was going to teleport them somewhere. Maybe to Luna? What would she even look like after all this time? Jake figured she'd probably look pretty good, considering she was an immortal devil now too.
"So, devils have cell phones," Jake said jokingly.
Sairaorg just scoffed, "Of course we have cell phones. We're not savages running around with pitchforks down here in the underworld, after all. Now, let's go." He said holding onto Jake securely.
A teleportation circle formed underneath Sairaorg and Jake, and they vanished in a flash of light.
—-----------------------------
When the bright light faded, Jake found himself standing in an extremely luxurious room, definitely the ritziest place he'd ever been in his life.
"Jake! It's so good to see you again!" Across from him and Sairaorg was Jake's older brother, Sirzechs. He was there along with his maid-wife, Grayfia, and another incredibly beautiful woman who somewhat resembled Misla Bael.
Jake just gave his brother a tired wave. "Hey. I'm back... I guess." Jake actually found himself shocked as Sirzechs moved at incredible speed and embraced his younger brother in a tight hug.
"Welcome back," Sirzechs said as he released him a few seconds later. "And I'm so glad you finally let Onii-chan hug you! Last time you didn't let me!" Sirzechs continued, his eyes almost tearing up in happiness. He was really overbearing with affection...
"Ahem." Grayfia interrupted her husband's embarrassing display of affection. "It is good to see you again, Lord Jake, and you too as well, Lord Bael." Grayfia addressed Sairaorg as well.
"It's always good to see you again, Grayfia," Sairaorg replied. "And you too, cousin and Aunt Venelana."
Jake leaned over and whispered to Sairaorg, "Aunt?" He questioned.
"Indeed," Sairaorg answered him. "Allow me to introduce Venelana Gremory, formerly of the Bael clan." He explained to Jake.
"It's nice to finally meet my stepson," she greeted Jake with a kind smile. That was relieving to him. He was afraid she might end up hating him and being an evil stepmom or the like. Maybe he'd just seen too many movies...
"She is my mother along with our sisters," Sirzechs spoke up. "Speaking of," he asked Venelana, "where is Rias? She was supposed to be here to greet her long-lost brother!" As he said the last part, he was once again forming tears of love in his eyes.
"I'm here!" The nearby door slammed open, and in charged a girl with the same red hair as Jake and Sirzechs. Jake saw that she looked to be around the same age as him, and he would describe her as incredibly beautiful. She was looking slightly disheveled though. She was followed by an also incredibly beautiful Japanese girl with surprisingly large assets.
"Ara. I'm afraid my king was up all night watching anime again and has just woken up a bit ago upon getting the news of her long-lost brother's return." The Japanese girl explained to everyone in the room while Jake's new sister looked mortified.
She pouted at the other girl. "Akeno! You're not supposed to tell them I was up all night watching anime. You're supposed to make something else up." She stomped her foot adorably.
Jake just started laughing loudly and nearly tearing up at their antics. Everyone turned to him in surprise at such a display. "I'm sorry," Jake said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "It's been an incredibly trying day for me," he trailed off sadly. "Apparently, I lost a whole bunch of time."
Rias, his sister, walked over and actually gave him another big hug. "It's nice to officially meet you, Jacob, or I guess you prefer Jake, huh?" She spoke kindly to him. "I grew up with Big Sister Luna telling me all the stories about your adventures together and at that wizard school, Hogwarts. I've always wanted to meet you!" She finally released the hug with a smile.
"Thank you," Jake said as he felt a lot better about everything that was going on.
He had truly missed out on a whole 20 years, and now it was just catching up to him for real at seeing he had a full-grown, almost-adult sister now.
Jake took a seat on a nearby luxurious couch and just let out a sigh. He was glad nobody seemed to care that he was completely disheveled and covered in blood, sitting on a probably super-expensive couch.
"Why don't I leave you all to get reacquainted with each other," Sairaorg once again spoke out as he hoisted his unconscious father over his shoulder. Jake had forgotten the former Lord Bael was even still alive. "I'll just leave this guy in your dungeons to face justice later." With that, he took off down the hallway.
The other girl, Akeno, Jake recalled, just bowed to everyone and said she would escort Sairaorg to the dungeons. She shut the door behind her as she followed him out.
The rest of the people in the room, "his family," Jake reminded himself, took seats around him with understanding looks on their faces. "I know you've been through a lot, Jake," Sirzechs said with sincerity. "But we'd appreciate if you could tell us what happened in that final task of yours 20 years ago—er, I mean, today. That way we can officially start a trial against the former Lord Bael now that we've caught him after all this time." He finished with a quick apology at the end.
Jake just nodded but didn't speak right away. He supposed he would have to get used to it being 20 years in the future. When he time-traveled to the past before, he was basically a poor orphan with no friends or family, but after gaining friends, however few, he was sad that they had probably continued living their lives thinking he vanished for good or something. Other than Luna, that was. 'Did she foresee this entire event happening?' If so, Jake wondered why she didn't warn him!
Rias, who he had only known a few minutes, was already proving to be a great sister when she spoke up, noticing Jake wasn't responding right away. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it right now, Jake," she said. "We're not exactly in a rush. We can wait a few more days for you to get acclimated. Plus, you look pretty banged up. Well, not you, you actually look surprisingly fine. It's your outfit that looks absolutely mangled, though," she said with a bit of concern. Rias wondered what kind of fight he had been through to have so much blood soak his tattered robes. Venelana also agreed with her daughter and decided to put her foot down on this one.
"Rias is right," Venelana said to Sirzechs with slight shame. "My new son has clearly been through a lot today. Why don't we pick this conversation up again tomorrow or, better yet, the day after?" Venelana then turned towards Jake and told him that she'd have a maid escort him to his new quarters where he could bathe and get out of his bloody robes and change into what she called proper clothing for a descendant of a pillar clan.
Jake thanked her as he stood up to do just that when he realized he had forgotten something. He looked around the room before realizing what he was missing. "Huh," he said aloud. "What happened to Blaze?"
Flash!
As he spoke his familiar's name aloud, there was a flash of fire in the room, and his phoenix appeared nearby, perched on the back of a chair.
Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!
Blaze's chirps sounded angry, and Jake realized that when Sairaorg had teleported them here, they had... forgotten about Blaze and left him behind.
"I'm sorry, buddy. I didn't mean to forget you out there!" Jake exclaimed as his new sister just giggled next to him.
PECK!
"Ow!"
-End Chapter-
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