บท 206: Searching

As the magic circle shone in her room Aiko was surprised and slightly scared, before the figure of one of the people she was just thinking about appeared out of it.

"Alex! What are you doing here?!" Aiko asked in surprise. A young man using suspicious means to enter a young woman's room at night, there was a slight blush as she couldn't help but think of yobai. Alex smirked, and answered,

"I have a few things to discuss with you in private, and due to political reasons I couldn't talk earlier. Not only the Knights, if what I have to say was heard by other people of this world it could cause a problem. What did you think I wanted?" Realizing her own mistake the light blush on her face deepened as she said,

"Nothing, I wasn't thinking anything!" As she tried to defend herself Alex suddenly moved forward and grabbed her lightly before pulling her close. The stunned Aiko had never been grabbed this way before and her blush deepened as Alex moved closer and asked,

"Are you sure you weren't thinking of yobai? I wouldn't say no you know." Aiko's mind was about to completely shut down at Alex's words, as no guy ever hit on her before. Due to the fact that she looked like a middle schooler Aiko believed she would never find a guy that would be interested in her, which is why she never noticed the Knights actual feelings and just assumed they were being nice. As Alex pulled her closer Aiko was unable to deny his advances, before a sudden sharp sound snapped her back to reality.

DOPAAANNN

Alex's head jerked forward slightly, but he kept himself from hitting Aiko with it before turning around and seeing an irritated Hajime.

"Don't try to add my teacher to your harem!" Hajime said with annoyance. He had come for the same reason Alex did, and to confirm the situation regarding Kaori, but was unprepared to see Alex trying to seduce Aiko and shot him with a rubber bullet in the back of the head. Seeing that the bullet didn't even seem to faze Alex, Hajime was debating making a stronger nonlethal shot. Alex shrugged and said,

"Ok ok, but there's still a few things we need to talk about, and you're lucky I put up sound proofing barriers before entering otherwise there'd be several people rushing here now." Ignoring why Alex decided to put up barriers to keep sound from escaping the room(he simply didn't want anyone to overhear what he had to say instead of something bad), the three sat down to talk while Aiko still had a slight blush. She was now wary of Alex and on guard against him. Alex then turned serious and said,

"Firstly I'm sure that except for a couple things Hajime came for the same reason I did, but I'll start speaking." Alex then launched into an explanation of Ehito and his intentions for their class, as well as the fact that he had no intentions of allowing them to return to earth. As she listened Aiko became dumbfounded and asked,

"Is that true?!" Alex nodded and said,

"We've already met one of the liberators and heard the truth from them as well, Ehito only sees this world as his plaything and uses people like you to make it more interesting for him. His ultimate goal however is to find a body suitable to inhabit and use for himself since he can't leave his divine space as he currently is for very long. It's possible that he was hoping there would be a proper candidate among your group to use for this." Aiko became stunned at Alex's words, and now started worrying for her students for entirely different reasons. After a few minutes of silence however, Hajime then asked,

"By the way teacher, have you heard from Kaori?" Aiko was startled from her thoughts by Hajime's question, and showed a happy expression as it seemed he still had some concern about at least one of them.

"She still hasn't given up on you." Her words caused Hajime to startle slightly before she continued,

"Though most of the class was too impacted by your death to continue fighting, Kouki and a few others are still training in Orcus while her only goal is to find you. Until she confirms your death with her own eyes, she refuses to believe that you were gone." The small spark that Alex planted in Hajime started roaring as he realized that Alex's words were most likely correct, but then he recalled how he got sent to the abyss, and the other thing Alex said to him.

"If you see her again before I do, tell her the biggest danger isn't the monsters but her own comrades." Aiko was confused slightly by Hajime's words, before he continued,

"What happened to me wasn't an accident and I believe their actions were because of jealousy over Kaori. Though I don't intend to get revenge, that doesn't mean I won't stand by if they try to hurt her." Aiko became slightly distressed at his words, but before she could ask Hajime anything he already started walking towards the door to leave. Alex shook his head and said,

"That guy, he saved red riding hood from the big bad wolf then left her with him afterwards." Aiko jumped at Alex words, as what happened earlier went through her mind. Alex smirked and said,

"Don't worry I won't jump you, the mood was ruined anyways. I'll take my leave as well, but keep what I said in mind and I'll also mention this, If you all return to earth what do you plan on doing?" Aiko was confused at Alex's question until he clarified,

"There would be several groups that would find you all suspicious after disappearing for so long, and others would want to even kidnap or kill you because of what you all could do now. Even if you could protect yourselves what about your families or friends? For the most part, I can provide a new life for those who want it in a small world I control and rule over. If a way to earth can be opened then I could even extend that invitation to family members who would want to stay with them after verifying their safety. Just food for thought." As Aiko had been dumped with so much information in one night she had no idea how to react to Alex's words as he also made his way to her door and left her alone.

Alex's words weren't false, as he recalled several people targeting Hajime and his class, especially Yue and those from Tortus once they returned to earth. With the exception of a few obvious certain individuals, Alex wouldn't mind inviting them to Asora even if they simply became normal residents like the Devils, Angels, fallen angels, and youkai that were already there. Since Hajime could make a key to return to earth as well once he conquers the labyrinths, then they could even extend the invitation to their family members as Alex said. In short the surviving members of Hajime's class had three options on where they would end up once this was all over, they could return to earth and their families where they might be targeted, they could stay in Tortus and possibly become adventurers or something, or they could accept Alex's invitation to Asora. Regardless of which decision they made as long as the certain few followed him he didn't care what the rest chose.

***

Early the next morning Alex led his group to the edge of town to start their way to the mountains to officially begin their search. Alex was unsurprised however to find seven figures waiting there for them, Aiko and the six classmates that made up her bodyguards. He already figured they would try to join them, but Hajime stepped forward and asked,

"And why are you all here?" Aiko stepped forward as well and said,

"We're coming as well, you're searching for someone right? It's better with more people and Shimizu is still missing as well, the only place we haven't checked is the mountain ranges." Hajime wanted to say no to their joining them, but Alex said,

"Alright, but you'll follow what I say when I say it, understood?" Though it seemed the students wanted to argue since they were 'cheat-like' existences Aiko stepped forward and said,

"That's fine, as long as we go along." Her main concern was finding her lost student so she didn't care who was in charge, plus she wanted to hear more from Hajime and Alex about what they told her the night before. Alex then said,

"You can get rid of the horses, we have faster methods." Though they hesitated at first, when Alex started walking towards the forest they reluctantly sent their horses back and ran to follow them. Once they entered a clearing Hajime pulled out the second vehicle since he thought they were taking it. While the students and Aiko were gaping at the big four wheel vehicle he made for areas that the motorcycle wouldn't work, Alex said,

"Go ahead and put that up Hajime, I don't want to take several vehicles." As they would end up taking both Alex's car and Hajime's, he wanted to just fit everyone into one vehicle instead. Hajime joined his teacher and classmates in making confused looks now, until a massive magic circle appeared in front of Alex.

"It's been a while hasn't it, I'm sorry." Alex said to the thing that appeared from the circle, that was making everyone present except Rias gape in astonishment. Alex started patting the side of what appeared and said,

"This is my familiar Zenith, I wanted to maintain a low profile but the mountain ranges are pretty remote and there's quite a few people going with us this time. Plus it would be a bit easier to find any traces of a fight from the air wouldn't it?" No one said anything as Alex and Rias ushered them onto the giant ship floating in the air. As they started flying towards the north, Hajime recovered first and said,

"Hey, isn't the flying transportation only supposed to be unlocked right when a journey is about to end?" Alex smirked and replied,

"Pretty much everyone here is either a cheat-like or bugged character, and you're complaining about how early we're getting flying transportation?" Hajime didn't answer Alex's remark, and instead changed the subject.

"So how many cannons are there?" Alex smiled sadly, and said,

"There aren't any. I'd add some but I'm not sure if it would effect Zenith or not, this is technically a living thing you know." Hajime's one eye widened at the first part of what Alex said, and he acted devastated at the news, to him ship=cannons. The fact there weren't any was something that he considered tragic, and Hajime started thinking of ways to instal cannons onto Zenith while also keeping in mind what Alex told him about it being a living being.

As they flew through the air towards the northern mountain ranges everyone gradually got used to the flying ship and were excitedly watching the scenery pass by. The one who was most excited however was Anne, as she seemed to be completely unaffected by traveling on Zenith; though he didn't say anything, Alex theorized it was similar how Natsu was able to fly around with Happy without being effected. The only one seemingly not excited though was Aiko, as she pulled Hajime from his projects to hear what he had to say about him falling, leading to her realizing it was in fact on purpose. It wasn't long after he finished speaking that Shia cried out from the crows nest above them,

"I see the mountain ranges!" Prompting almost everyone to rush to the front of the ship. Spread out before them were several peaks going into the distance covered in a myriad of colors from green, to red, as well as orange and yellow. Regretfully Alex didn't land the ship so they could search by land, but instead kept flying to prioritize speed. He did however promise himself to bring the rest of the girls here after Tortus was safer to explore. As they started passing over the mountain ranges Hajime summoned another new invention from the storage ring, that immediately took flight and spread out to explore their surroundings. He explained,

"Those drones can search in more detail closer to the ground while we can look below from here." Everyone became serious as they recalled what they came for, and started watching off the side of the ship for clues to the whereabouts of wither Will or Shimizu. After a short while there was suddenly another shout from Shia,

"There's something over there, IT'S A DRAGON!"

(A.N. Regarding Aiko since so many people apparently don't want her to become part of the harem. I'm firstly going to say she's not going to Hajime because there's no pre-existing chemistry between them, and these events would have been where she started falling for him, but now it's changing. Secondly I did originally planned to find someone else for her to fall for, but I can't think of someone suitable(was thinking maybe Barakiel for some random reason but realized she wouldn't fit his M personality) so I'm open to ideas since teasing like in this chapter doesn't mean she's automatically going to join.