After impregnating Gabriel, Alex escorted her back to Misty Manor where he had breakfast with the girls before returning to Tortus. The entire ti felt surreal, he was going to be a father.
Though there has always been a possibility of it happening over the last two years, now that it was pretty much set in stone he didn't know what to think. He was forced to put his feelings aside however, when he returned to the hideout and it was ti to resu his Haki training. This ti he only had Grayfia helping him since she used both magic and close combat, and he sent Rias, Kuroka, and Yue to hunt monsters and gather resources. The tracking spell he placed on Haji told him that he was still on the floor where he left him, so Alex wasn't too worried about them running into him. Anne on the other hand was still working on reviving the garden, happy to work on such a project.
After a few hours Alex then ended his training and sent Grayfia to train with the other three, while he assisted Anne for a couple more hours. Anne was very glad to have the company, and spent the ti they were working together discussing various things about their lives the last twenty years. When it got to the afternoon, Alex went back to Asora to spend ti with the girls he didn't get a chance to be wth the day before. Though things didn't progress too far, Alex simply spent the remainder of his day relaxing with them and catching up on what happened over the last two weeks. He did however feel anxious around Gabriel, and tried not to be too partial towards her and let the other girls know sothing happened.
In this manner the weeks started slipping by, it didn't take long for the girls to get their next job change, and Alex figured they would get at least one more before they left to the next labyrinth while Yue would probably get another one or two. As for Haji, after over a week on the sa floor, he finally started moving again and worked his way down steadily. A month after Alex left him, he finally arrived at the final floor to challenge the hydra. Alex waited on the other side of the giant doors for the fight to end, with no intentions of intervening since he wanted to see if he could fight the monster on his own.
After over an hour of listening to the intense fighting on the other side of the door, accompanied by multiple sounds of explosions, everything went quiet. Alex opened the door, and found both Haji and the hydra collapsed, the monster having lost all of its heads and Haji seeming to be barely breathing. Alex walked up to Haji and his entire face twitched at what he saw, was it fate, destiny, or just shitty luck? He looked around but couldn't find it, so Alex just took Haji with him as is and called for Anne.
***
Haji slowly opened his eyes, no his eye, feeling sore all over from the fight. Once he recalled the fight he bolted straight up and looked around, confused at his surroundings. He was now in a bed with bandages all over his body, the last of the dicine he was given used during the fight with the hydra, and there was a very beautiful girl sitting next to his bed. Her skin was a nice brown color and she wore a revealing dancers outfit, sothing Haji thought only existed in ani and manga. She was startled when he bolted right up, but soon recovered and asked,
"How are you feeling?" Haji didn't reply for a second, before he realized he was staring and said,
"I'm fine, a little sore but ok." The girl nodded, and said,
"That's good, I haven't had to heal sothing so drastic for a while, though I couldn't fix the lost eye or arm you got lucky." At the girls words Haji's otaku mind imdiately imagined a scene of this girl laboring for hours on end to treat him, and possibly what may happen after. The girl seed to sense what he was thinking, and said with a frown,
"My hearts already taken, so don't get any strange ideas. Also before you see the rest of the area any girls you see here are also taken, so don't do sothing stupid." Haji was taken aback by the girls harsh remark, and scolded himself, he thought he was done with this kind of attitude. He then pictured Kaori and hardened his heart, setting his determination to see her again before doing sothing stupid. He couldn't help but wonder though, who were all the apparent girls here with? I-it couldn't be just one guy, could it? Haji told himself that wasn't possible, that was another thing that only happened in ani.
He then tried to get out of bed but felt off with only one arm and half his vision to work with. He couldn't help but want to laugh at the irony of the situation, Alex saved him and help heal his broken arm, only for him to lose it later. Thinking about him Haji beca alert, and asked the girl,
"Is there soone nad Alex around here?" She nodded, and said,
"He's the one in charge here, and the one all the girls here are with. I'll take you to see him now." She then left, leaving Haji to dress himself with his one arm, and the realization that all the girls she warned him about did belong to one guy. After several minutes longer than it normally should have taken for him to get ready, he finally left the room and followed the girl. He was worried for a mont when he couldn't find the storage ring with all his remaining weapons, but figured it was with Alex himself, sothing that bugged Haji a little even when he knew he got it from Alex to begin with. He was then pulled from his thoughts when the girl started speaking again.
"I'm Anne by the way, and I heard your na is Haji." He nodded and said,
"That's right, I guess Alex told you." Anne nodded, and replied,
"He also said you have a girlfriend yourself, one who you put your efforts into conquering the labyrinth to see again." Haji grimaced, but didn't refute her words. He didn't know what Kaori was to him until they saw each other again, but he was determined to et with her.
As they left the building a small group of girls approached them, making Haji want to puke blood. They all seed to be the exact type of won all guys longed for, there was the Crimson haired girl that dressed and carried herself like a high class lady, the black haired girl that had cat ears and two(?) cat tails, and what seed to be a little girl that had a really mature aura around her to add controversy to her looks. The one that Haji was paying the most attention to however, was the silver haired maid that seed to be sizing him up, after all maids were part of pretty much every guys fantasies. The Crimson haired girl and the young girl seed to be arguing, but stopped so Anne could start introductions,
"The Crimson haired girl is Rias, the cat eared girl is Kuroka, the young looking one is Yue, and finally the silver haired maid is Grayfia." Haji tried to rember all their nas, but his thoughts were interrupted by the Crimson haired girl, Rias.
"Yep yep, Yue only looks young but she's actually a few hundred years old, to think such a young looking girl was actually an old hag!" Yue glared at Rias's words, along with Grayfia. She knew they were simply continuing their earlier argunt, but still decided to scold Rias later for her remark. Yue then retorted,
"At least I'm not a cow with useless fat hanging off my chest!" Her comnt drew looks from the other girls, but hey decide to let that one go since the two were always arguing. Haji however gasped at what Rias said, and accidentally blurted out,
"You an she's a real life Loli grandma!" At his words all the girls directed strange looks at him. Up until now Haji had fought monsters that would even scare the things nightmares were made of, but he never backed down in the face of them. However the look Yue gave him made him consider going another round with the hydra, before she attacked him with a spell. Haji dodged and since he didn't have his weapons simply tried to avoid her attacks, until she eventually got him and froze him solid before storming off. Rias started laughing at what happened, until Grayfia grabbed her by the ear and dragged her off for her scolding.
It was already an hour later when Haji was thawed out thanks to Anne managing to convince Kuroka, and finally went to see Alex again. Pushing the girls that should only exist in fantasies out of his mind, Haji started to seriously examine the place he was in. Though it seed bright enough for him to be above ground for the first ti in weeks, he almost imdiately realized that the sun above them was actually artificial, and they were surrounded by cave walls. As he tried to figure out the complexities of this place, he was brought to a different building than the one he woke up in.
Anne led him up to the third floor, where they finally saw the sa figure that saved Haji's life a month ago. Alex smiled when he saw Haji, but instead of greetings said,
"Stand over there and we'll talk once you're done." Though he was hesitant about what Alex wanted him to do, Haji listened anyways since he was outnumbered and outmatched, the Loli grandma showed him that. Haji moved to the magic circle and watched what the creator of this labyrinth wanted to show those who passed their trials. Though it didn't change his stance regarding this world, it was an enlightening experience for Haji. Once the recording was done Haji looked over at Alex and Anne, before asking,
"So do you want my help to defeat these "mad gods" or sothing? Just to say beforehand I have no interest." Alex chuckled at Haji's words, and relied,
"Well yes and no, I intend to challenge all the labyrinths and obtain their age of gods magics, sothing I think you'll find interesting. I'll eventually challenge the gods after I find a way to get to them, but you I would like to work with as a transmutation master. While I can learn the skills myself, I doubt I'll surpass soone like you who has to rely on their skills to survive, while in comparison I'll simply use it as one of my abilities and never actually manage to master it fully." That was what Alex thought when it ca to Haji, while he could also learn the skills to be a master craftsman he doubted his creations would surpass soone who was raised in a complete otaku environnt like Haji. Plus it would be beneficial to have soone else to do crafting, otherwise he'd be too busy to do anything else, why not have soone who would genuinely enjoy making new inventions all day working for him? Haji smirked at Alex's proposition, and said,
"I'd refuse but you have outnumbered, so how about a bet?" Alex smiled as he figured where this was going, and played along by asking,
"What bet?" Haji smiled, and explained,
"In one week we'll have a fight, just you and . If I win then I'll do as I please, if you win then I'll follow you as you wish." From what Haji recalled Alex killed the claw bear in one hit, a feat he believed he'd be able to replicate now. He believed he'd be able to stand against Alex and match him in a duel, if not then the weapons he relied on would give him the edge needed to do so. After all being beaten by that Yue girl so easily was enough to show him that other people could be stronger than him, but he didn't have his weapons and they could give him the edge he needed. Plus with his creation magic he would the next week to be able to power them up even further, and possibly do sothing about his arm. As the ideas started flowing into his head, Haji started chuckling evilly again, planning for the upcoming match.
Alex accepted without complaint, as he figured Haji would be like Vali and need to be put into place before truly submitting. Though he knew Haji was a master at planning ahead, it wasn't like he knew what Alex was truly capable of, so he wasn't worried.
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