I pick up the last slice of pizza and take a bite. I lean back in my chair as I enjoy the cheesy, saucy deliciousness that is pizza.

It's been three weeks since I got back from that fiasco in Japan. And those two weeks have been bliss. And yeah, I no I'm not really doing anything special, but honestly, after that final battle, just about any amount of relaxing is blissful.

'Come to Japan, I need some help. Don't worry, you'll only be here for a few days. It's nothing too serious.'

My ass, Alpha! I ended up staying in Japan with Crimson Squad for a month helping you take down a shadowy organization that wanted to help Senki-Shu harness demon energy! And that was after the Hanzō girls had to convince Hebijo that we weren't their enemies!

And then there was the final battle, which was basically if the final bosses of Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, and God of War all had a child together, and that child just wouldn't die! How we managed to get out of that is beyond me. I'm half-demon, and even I'm shocked that we're still alive!

I just sigh at the memories...

However... I can't it was all bad. I did get to sightsee, the food was good, and, I will admit, I did enjoy Crimson Squad's company...

Especially Homura...

I look over to the picture I had on my desk. It was me and Crimson Squad just after we had killed a yōma that had attacked us at the beach. We were all standing around it with smiles on our faces. They were proud that we had bested the beast, whereas I was happy I got to fight something.

I was snapped out of the pleasant memory when the phone on my desk rang. I kicked my feet up and slammed them on my desk hard enough to make the phone bounce off the desk and into my hand.

"Fantasy's Edge." I said, stating the name of my business.

"Hey, Cmonkey! Where the hell is my money?! You still owe me for-" The voice on the other end shouts angrily before I cut him off.

"I'm sorry, but none of our employees are currently in office right now. Please, call again at a later date." I said with a fake chipper voice.

"Cut the bullshit, I know that's you!" The voice retorted.

"Then you already know what I'm gonna say, Tom." I say with a mischievous grin.

I then flip the phone back into the machine, hanging up on him.

I plan on paying him his money back at some point... but I wanna see just how long I can get away with it before he comes to my office to collect personally... that, and I kind of don't have enough to pay him back.

Oh, and if you're wondering what my business is... allow me to go back to Devil May Cry as a reference. Basically, that's what I do. I get hired to do jobs that deal with demons. 9.5 times out of 10, it's usually killing demons that want to harm humans. I do some private investigation on the side, but for the past year or so, the police seem to be doing their job well.

I'm suddenly snapped out of my thoughts yet again when I hear a knock at my door.

Considering that the last three people who literally knocked on my door have tried to kill me, I nonchalantly grab my sword and one of my pistols and walk over to the door. I then wrap my tail around the handle and practically rip the door open, pointing my gun at whoever's standing on the other side.

Which just so happens to be...

"Dude, what the hell?!" Exclaims a terrified Alpha.

I just sigh as I lower my gun away from him.

"What now?" I ask in a groan as I pinch the bridge of my nose.

"First off, why the hell were you pointing a gun at me?!" He shouts angrily as a tick mark forms on his head.

"Do you really wanna know what kind of people knock on my door?" I ask nonchalantly.

He was about to respond before he caught himself and thought about it.

"On second thought, no I don't." He said as a bead of sweat rolled down his head.

"Anyways, I ask again, what do you need?" I ask.

"Well... you remember our little trip to Japan, right?" He asks.

"We were there for a month fighting the demon Noburu, his shadowy organization, and his Senki-Shu allies. Hell, when you think about it, it would have been longer than a month if they hadn't stopped time for what felt like a few days. I wouldn't call that little. And I definitely wouldn't call it a vacation." I replied.

"Whatever. But, you remember our shinobi friends, right? Specifically Crimson Squad?" He asks.

I perk up the mention of them.

"Yeah, why?" I ask.

"Well-"

"I'm so hungry!" A familiar voice whines.

Alpha turns around, and we both see a familiar group of girls walking towards my office.

Said then girls look up, then smile when they see us.

"Hey, Nate!" Homura exclaims with a smile as she waves at me.

"Homura! Hey! What are you girls doing here?" I ask.

The girls then all sigh as beads of sweat roll down their heads.

"Well, that's a bit of a long story, darling. To put it simply-" Haruka began.

"The entrance to our cave collapsed." Hikage cut off monotonously.

Evidently Hikage is still emo, Mirai still acts like a little girl sometimes, and Haruka is still... Haruka. Nice to see they haven't changed.

"Really? Are you girls okay?" I ask.

"We're fine. And when we checked the camera system that Haruka and Mirai set up, we saw that all our stuff is fine, too." Yomi replied.

"But, even though it was just the cave entrance, it's going to take a while to excavate it. After all, you know how big the cave entrance is." Homura said.

"Right... I guess my next question is who's excavating your hideout? I mean, you're here, and since you want to keep your hideout's location a secret, I'm guessing you didn't hire a company to do it." I said.

"Gessen decided to do it since they're our friends, and we made Miyabi's team pitch in because they owed us for saving them from Michio." Mirai replied.

"Oh yeah. They still owe me for that as well." I said.

"Don't worry, darling, we were very clear on that." Haruka commented.

"Hey, they owe me for that too!" Alpha added.

"Alpha, all you did was show up at the last second and shoot him in the head." I said with a smirk.

"I did more than that, and you know it!" Alpha shouted, a tick mark appearing on his head.

"And you only managed to do so after I gave you an opening." I continued.

Yomi simply sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Well, while I am glad to see you girls again..." I began.

I then look over to Alpha.

"If they came to you, then why bring them to me? Why not let them stay with you?" I ask.

"Well... you see, um... Asuka, her team, and Daidouji were sent over here for a mission." Alpha began.

"They were sent to Escia for a mission?" I ask.

Why would Kiriya send his students here for a mission? I mean, yeah, Escia is an island nation in the middle of the pacific and isn't the farthest from Japan, but still, that's a long way. Then there's the implications of sending a covert team of ninja's to another nation where they have no jurisdiction, which is especially bad when you consider that Escia became an American territory recently.

Maybe I shouldn't have let Alpha give them portal coins.

"Yeah. Anyway, I told them they could stay with me while they're here, and then Homura heard that I was back in Asukasa and told me about what happened to their hideout." Alpha explained.

"What were you doing in Asukasa?" I ask.

Then a thought suddenly occurs to me.

"Alpha, I swear, if you pissed off the Yakuza again, I'm not saving your ass this time!" I exclaim.

"No! Besides, their still busy recovering from when Sekuyo turned on them and helped us burn down their headquarters." Alpha replied.

"Oh yeah." I said as I recalled the events he described.

"Anyways, Hanzō team is staying with me." Alpha began.

I the look to Crimson Squad.

"And given you're quirky relationship with them, having you and them in the same place for that long is probably not the best idea." I deduced.

"Well, that, and we also thought that Alpha-kun here would appreciate having some alone time with Katsuragi~." Haruka said with a smirk on her face.

"T-that's not it at all!" Alpha shouts, trying to avidly deny the statement.

However, the small blush on his face wasn't helping his case.

"And I'm sure the fact that Daidouji is there makes it even better." I said with a smirk.

"Shut up!" Alpha exclaimed.

Haruka and I fist bump as we smirk at him.

"Ah, whatever! They're here now, and I have to get home to make sure that they're getting settled in." Alpha said as he stormed off.

Haruka looked like she was about to say something else, but Alpha used a portal coin to get back to his place.

I then turned to Crimson Squad, who were just standing outside my office doors.

"Alright, come on in." I said as I turned around and walked back into my office.

The girls followed me inside.

"First order of business." I said as I dug through a bag on my desk.

I then pulled out three boxes of pizza and set it down on my desk. I then opened said boxes, revealing three hot and fresh pizzas. The girl's then stared at the pizzas, unknowingly drooling over them.

"H-how did you..." Yomi tried to ask before trailing off.

"Mirai was just complaining about how hungry she was. And you girls looked miserable when you were walking towards my office." I replied.

They all looked at each other and shrugged, apparently having nothing else to say. Then they all dug in, with Yomi going straight for the bean sprout topped slices, Homura taking the meat topped slices, and Haruka, Hikage, and Mirai taking slices from the regular pepperoni pizza.

I should've put something together when Alpha had pizza delivered to my office.

"So, Nate... how've you been?" Homura asked after swallowing a bite of pizza.

"Eh, not much going on. My soul is still stuck in my sword, so that's still a thing." I said nonchalantly.

"Still? I figured you would have found a way to fix that by now." Mirai said.

"Mirai, my soul has been trapped in this sword for 12 years. The fact that it's been stuck in there since I was five should tip you off that fixing that isn't exactly easy." I replied.*

"Oh... yeah, I guess you're right." Mirai said.

"Anyways, I got four empty rooms upstairs that you can use as bedrooms while you're here." I said.

The girls then look at me curiously.

"We're not staying in your house?" Hikage asked.

"Hikage... we're in my house right now." I explained.

"You... live in your office?" Haruka asked.

"Eh, why not? Saves me the hassle of commuting back and forth." I said.

I then wrap my sword in the cloth I use to avoid suspicion from bystanders, then walk towards my door to head out.

"Wait!" Homura exclaims just before my hand reaches the handle.

I then turn to look at them.

"Where are you going?" Homura asked.

"Well, since you girls are staying with me, I have to go pick up a few things." I replied.

"Oh. Well, before you go, there are two things we wanted ask." Homura said.

"Firstly, where is your shower?" Yomi asked.

"There's a communal shower for 4 in the basement, plus the shower in my bedroom." I replied.

"You have a communal shower in your basement?" Hikage asked.

"Came with the building. Besides, I don't use it." I explained.

"That also kind of leads into the second question: you said that there were four rooms we could use. But, there are five of us." Homura said.

"One of you can sleep in my room." I said.

Homura then stiffened a little when I said this.

"O-one of us will be sharing a room with you?!" She exclaimed, a small blush on her face.

I didn't notice it at the time, but her team did, and they looked at each other, a smirk on three of their faces.

"No, one of you will be sleeping in my room. I will be down here on the couch. Since I provide 24-hour services, I don't sleep much, anyways." I replied.

"O-oh." Homura said, a bit of disappointment lining her voice.

"Anyways, you girls get settled in. I'll be back in a bit." I said as I turned around and opened the door.

"Wait! I have another question!" Mirai exclaimed.

With our looking back, I toss the card with the wi-fi password over my shoulder, and she catches it.

With that, I left the office to pick up some things to make the girls' stay more comfortable.

Timeskip

I finally got back from my little shopping trip, which took way longer than it needed to. Hell, I left when the sky was sunny and blue, and now said sky is golden because the sun is going down. Even worse, I feel like I got scammed at some of those shops.

Whatever. Now that I'm back, I can hear the showers in the basement running. I guess they managed to decide who got to shower on their own.

"Hey, Nate?! Is that you?!" I hear Homura shout from upstairs.

"Yeah! I'm back!" I replied.

"Could you help me out with something?!" She asked.

"Yeah! One second!" I said.

I then walk upstairs and into my bedroom. I see that the door to my bathroom is slightly cracked open, and I can hear water running.

Not wanting to walk in on Homura, I knock on the door first, and she opened it...

Which gave me brief view of her naked body.

"H-Homura!" I exclaim as I cover my eyes, blushing from embarrassment... and nothing else... yep, just embarrassment...

"What?" She asked nonchalantly.

"C-could you at least cover yourself?!" I exclaimed.

She then looked at herself, then at me... and then it finally clicked for her. She then immediately grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself whilst blushing profusely.

"S-sorry. I just got used to you being gone..." Homura apologized.

"It's fine. I would say to remember we're staying together again, but I don't think I need to remind you that you ninja girls have a habit of discarding clothing quite often." I said.

"Hey! It's not always by choice! It's not our fault that our battles get heated sometimes!" Homura exclaimed, a tick mark appearing on her head.

"I was referring to when you're not in battle." I clarified.

Homura opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it, probably because she knows that I'm right.

"Anyways, what did you need my help with?" I asked.

"R-right. I was wondering how you turn on the hot water. I turned the knob all the way, but it's still freezing." Homura said.

"Oh, yeah. I had a pipe burst a while back, and since I still haven't been able to fix it, you gotta turn on the sink to use hot water in the shower." I explained as I moved past her and turned on the sink.

Homura then stuck her her hand in the shower and sighed in relief.

"Thanks, Nate... and thank you for letting us stay with you." Homura said.

"It's the least I could do. Especially after you girls saved my ass from Ichiro." I replied.

Homura then looked away in slight shame.

"I wouldn't necessarily say that we saved you... you only survived because your healing abilities let your limbs grow back. He sliced off your arm, had his demon pet bite your leg off, slashed you across your chest twice, then shot you with your own gun, which knocked you unconscious for a week, and you were only able to communicate with me because your soul was in your sword, which I had..." Homura said.

"Yeah, I remember. And I can say with utmost certainty that it would have been worse if you five hadn't intervened." I said with a warm smile.

Homura let out a small gasp, then smiled back.

"Yeah... I guess your right." Homura said.

I then turn around and walk out of the bathroom.

"Anyways, I'll leave you to it." I said.

"Hey, Nate?" Homura asked.

I then turn around, and see Homura blushing.

"It's good to see you again." She said.

She then closed the door, and I was left there, blushing a bit myself.

I then went back downstairs and sat down on the couch.

I guess I have to deal with Crimson Squad's antics for a bit longer.

And you know what?

I'm not complaining...

"HARUKA!!!"

Okay, maybe I'll complain a little bit.

——————————

*A.N. Yes, Alpha, I aged myself down for this. There was something about the thought of a man my age hanging out with a bunch of teenage girls that just felt... odd. And not in a good way