Chapter 160 - "...son Of A B*tch..."

Fumio, Havvah, and Ahdem are now in the eighth floor of Red's giant vertical farms, picking coffee beans while waiting for Red to let them out of the treasure dimension.

"So… 24 to 1 time ratio?" Havvah asks in disbelief, almost dropping the basket in her arms.

Fumio just told them about the other advantage of the treasure fragment.

"Right. 24 to 1." Fumio confirms as he continues to pick more beans from a coffee plant with care.

"My love. Why would he lie to you? We'll find out when we leave this place anyway." Ahdem chuckles, but the next moment, he freezes.

"Are we getting out of here?" He asks Fumio.

"Man… I should be the one worried here. I'm the one who's gonna get old." Fumio rolls his eyes.

"But... What's taking boss so long? We've been here for almost three hours now." He gets why the couple is starting to get antsy however.

"Well… If what you said is true, then it's only been seven and a half minutes in the real world." Havvah consoles herself.

"7.5 minutes… It hasn't been that long outside." Fumio groans in impatience.

"Long enough." Red suddenly appears, making the trio stop their activity.

"Why… are you picking the beans by hand?" He asks Fumio.

"Boss… It's meditative." Fumio shrugs.

"So you can pick them NOT by hand?" Ahdem frowns.

"*sigh*" Fumio extends thin tentacles of spiritual energy from his body, attaches them to tens of coffee beans, and picks those coffee beans all at once.

"May I not treat everything as elixir control?" He asks Red as he puts the coffee beans in his basket.

"Meh." Red shrugs, satisfied with Fumio's display.

The couple on the other hand, is impressed by the display.

"How uncouth. And soulless. Picking coffee beans is an art." Ahdem scoffs, jealous at the ability.

"You'll be able to do it soon enough." Red smiles at him.

"But for now, let's get out of here." He then wraps the couple in his spiritual energy tentacles and jumps off the vertical farms, carrying the two behind him.

Fumio stores all of the coffee beans they have harvested to his storage ring before following the three.

"I hate being manhandled like this." Ahdem complains as his feet touches the ground.

"Well, at least, this feels better than how Fumio carried us up. I feel like I'm being hugged by a cloud." Havvah finds the bright side.

"True." Ahdem admits.

The group has arrived in front of a portal.

"Why are we getting out through here, boss?" Fumio asks.

"And not the one right there." He points at the other portal three hundred meters away; the one they used to enter..

"Just get the hell out." Red orders.

"…" Fumio dives out of the portal with a shrug.

The group are soon out of the treasure dimension and find themselves in Red's cave.

"Ah. It's been a while." Fumio comments to himself, nostalgia hitting him as he looks at the interior of the cave.

"Who lives here?" Havvah asks, noticing a futon, a kitchen counter, and a study.

"I do." Red says.

"Huh…" The couple is stunned at how simple Red's abode is.

"Where are we?" Ahdem asks.

"Rural Tokyo." Red says.

"Ah…" The couple look at Fumio for confirmation.

"We are. Nishitama district, outskirts of Hinohara Village." Fumio confirms.

"huh… That's almost 200 kilometers away from your house, Fumio-san." Ahdem calculates.

"Yes." Fumio nods.

"You're fast." Ahdem tells Red in surprise.

"Are we not getting out of here?" Havvah asks, noticing that Red is not leading the way out of the cave.

"What are we waiting for, boss?" Fumio asks too, excited to see the inhabitants of the hill.

"For Nishiki and the uh… beetle guy." Red says.

Fumio and the couple frown in confusion but soon, they see Nishiki and Havvah's demon driver walk out of the portal.

"Bossman." Nishiki greets Red.

"Master." And Olthralos greets Havvah.

"H-hey…"

"Hello there." Havvah and Ahdem are stunned by the appearance of the demons.

"Boss…" Fumio meanwhile, connects something.

"You've made a shortcut? From Niigata to here? Through the fragment dimension?" He asks in surprise.

"That's right." Red nods.

"Now, we leave." He does not let the group dwell on their surprise, and leads them out of the cave.

Havvah and Ahdem can only stare at Red's back, the man's mystery growing even bigger in their minds.

Soon, the group are now standing on spiritual energy platforms atop the wall of bamboo trees, looking at Red's gardens below.

"Fumio-san…" Havvah call out.

"Yes?"

"Your garden is already spectacular. But this…" She cannot take her eyes off the gardens.

"Feels like home?" Red asks with a smirk.

"Not even close in size. But I have to admit, this place is just full of life." Ahdem is not willing to admit that Red's garden rivals Eden.

"Boss. I'll go see the children." Fumio asks for permission to excuse himself.

"No. They'll be here at any moment." Red stops him and points at the bamboo gate.

The group look and they see Yori and Akane jump over it, followed by the appearance of the children gather standing on top it.

Havvah and Ahdem's eyes widen in panic as they see the children, all at once jump from the already high gate a meter more in the air. 

The children meanwhile, perform a unified front flip before landing on the clay ground squarely on their feet.

Soon, laughter and screams follow as the children pull out their wooden swords and chase after Akane and Yori to begin a round of 'Nana's Game'.

"What the…" Havvah and Ahdem and their demon Olthralos are stunned seeing the children running at an incredible speed on the road while swinging their painted wooden swords ceaselessly at their dance teachers.

"Their physicality are at least that of the E - Class Physically enhanced superiori." Olthralos recovers his words.

"The children, yes." Ahdem nods.

"Incredible." Havvah comments in wonder.

"They have their limiters on." Red says as he snaps his fingers.

The group see that the already fast children speed up even more.

"WHA!" Yori and Akane are surprised by the increased speed, making them also increase theirs.

"Beetle guy. Now what class?" Red asks Olthralos.

"D-D Class. Mid-tier…" Olthralos stutters.

"Yikes…" The couple does not know how to feel that the small children are physically stronger than they are.

"Ki- … Sensei." "Sensei." The group grows in size as Kotone and Yoshiko appear out of nowhere.

"Hello you two." Red greets.

"Meet Ahdem and Havvah. New friends I made. They're interested in harnessing their potential for our arts. Oh, and that guy is their demon bodyguard." He introduces the couple to his disciples.

Kotone and Yoshiko give probing looks at the newcomers, wondering why Red called them his 'new friends'.

They are also taken aback by the couple's perfect looks.

"Meet Fumio's juniors. Kotone and Yoshiko. Don't mind the smell of demon on them. They've been cleaning up a few demon prisons around the country." Red introduces his disciples to the couple.

Havvah and Ahdem's return probing looks to Kotone and Yoshiko, curious at how the two young women compare to Fumio in strength. 

"…" Olthralos meanwhile, gets intimidated.

He can only hide behind Havvah and Ahdem, detecting danger from the two demon slayers.

"Hello ladies." Ahdem smiles and blows a kiss at Kotone and Yoshiko.

"…H-hello…"

"…H-hi…"

Kotone and Yoshiko return the greetings almost stutteringly.

Although they feel no sexual intentions from Ahdem, they feel shy and taken aback by the tall, dark and handsome man's flirtatious greeting.

"Aww…" Havvah giggles, finding Kotone and Yoshiko's reactions adorable.

Havvah's beautiful smile and enchanting voice immediately pull out Kotone and Yoshiko from their shyness.

"Yoshiko-san… wanna talk about angels and demon some time? Over drinks?" Ahdem gives Yoshiko a playful smirk.

"I-… I'd like that." Yoshiko blurts out in panic.

She realizes what she said immediately however and, "I-I mean I'll think about it.", corrects herself.

"Oh. 'Thinking about it' usually means no." Ahdem feigns a disappointed groan.

"Kotone-san." He then turns to Kotone.

"You seem like the type that likes Yakitori." He asks.

"H-how did you know?" Kotone is surprised.

"It doesn't matter how. What matters is I cook the best yakitori, or any type of barbecue. Why don't we have a yakitori dinner some time? Just the two of us?" Ahdem asks.

Kotone is lost in the man's charming smile that she did not register the ridiculousness of his offer.

"I… sure?" She utters before even thinking.

"Unbelievable…" Fumio cannot believe that the two women who are always hungry to spar whenever they see him, became shy, blabbering school girls in front of Ahdem.

"How can you even…" He also cannot believe that Ahdem is hitting on his junior disciples in front of Havvah.

"Fumio-san… When will we start our one on one training?" Havvah suddenly clings to Fumio's arm and asks, dialing up her femininity in her voice and body language.

"I-I-I…" Fumio blushes immediately looking at Havvah's beautiful face so close to his, feeling her soft body pressed against his, and her sweet scent filling his nose.

He gets lost in the moment for a few moments before gathering himself.

"What's on terra is going on?" He gently pats Havvah's arm that is clinging to his, as if asking her to let go.

"Aww.. what a gentleman." Havvah pats Fumio's cheek before letting go.

"Seeing as you two are in the mood to play around… You seem to have decided?" Red asks, taking everyone's attention.

"We decided long ago. We had enough time to think while we were picking coffee beans." Havvah speaks up for him and Ahdem.

"And seeing this place, your children, and your disciples, we regret that we did not meet you all much earlier." Ahdem adds.

"Well then. I'm glad to welcome you two to the pack." Red nods.

"Welcome, Havvah-san."

"Welcome, Ahdem-san."

The couple is treated by welcoming remarks from cultivators.

Night arrives.

"How was dinner?" Red finds the couple on the rooftop of Kotone's house.

"It was nice, Kichirou-san." Ahdem gives Red a grateful look.

"It's been a while since we've shared dinner with such a large group." Havvah smiles sweetly.

"Then what are you two doing here? The children were disappointed when they couldn't find you after the dinner." Red asks.

"We just need some alone time to process." Havvah shakes her head.

"We've seen a lot today." Ahdem sighs.

"I see…" Red nods in understanding.

He then notices something on Ahdem's hands. Ahdem's left hand is grasping a pink chalky crystal, and in his right hand, a carving knife.

Red is stunned however by the pink chalky crystal.

The couple notice Red's expression.

"I'm sorry for making a mess." Ahdem says as he pockets the crystal and brushes off the shavings he produced from carving it.

"It's alright. But what was that?" Red asks as he reaches his hand out, palm open to Ahdem.

"It's just Himalayan Salt. I was carving a small figurine of Kanon from it." Ahdem is confused by Red's demanding gesture but he takes out the half-finished salt sculpture from his pocket and puts it on Red's hand anyway.

"Himalayan Salt…" Red utters to himself as he examines the material of the sculpture.

"I get it if you've never seen one before, but to look at it like it's some beautiful treasure?" Havvah is amused by Red's dazed expression.

"I've seen it in internet videos. But… I didn't expect it to be like this in real life." Red infuses some of his spiritual energy on the pink crystal.

A few seconds later, "What the…" the couple is stunned to see that the pink crystal has now turned blue.

"Son of a bitch…" Red curses out with a chuckle.

The couple simply look at him, confused at his reaction and the phenomenon.

That confusion turns into apprehension when "H-hahahaha…" Red starts laughing uncontrollably in a low tone.