LUSTFUL PARADISE: Shinmai cross DxD

Basara got out of his house early in the morning in order to catch the fresh and refreshing breeze imbued in the morning air. He was in need of some air to calm down his heated and severely disoriented mind.

The night before, he had a dream again but this dream was unlike his usual nightmares; rather it was a kind of raunchy dream that made him ashamed just thinking about it—a dream concerning Asia.

Because of the decadent dream preceded by the events of the bath, he was lost as to how he should treat her from now on.

He obviously couldn’t act as though nothing happened between them. But he couldn’t ask her to take responsibility either, right? Did Asia even understand what really happened between them? He was unsure about the matter.

He was more or less certain that she was the kind of individual who had been extremely sheltered all her life.

Either way, he needed to think deeply about the matter.

Ultimately, his personal affairs aside, the people Asia worked with were a source of danger to him and his surroundings. Lucia had informed the Underworld, but Basara had no reason to leave his safety to some strangers he had no contact with before.

The best solution would be to simply exterminate all of those who posed a threat.

A cold light flashed briefly in his eyes as he planned how to deal with the messy situation. 

———

Walking aimlessly, deep in thought, Basara stopped when he felt his stomach growl, indicating its empty state.

He had gone out earlier without eating breakfast and now his stomach was revolting in displeasure for his neglect.

‘I guess I should grab a bite.’

He didn’t like eating out since it was almost always unhealthy, but it wasn’t a big problem to indulge himself once in a while with unhealthy food.

Since he was near a family restaurant anyway, might as well go and have a hearty meal.

After relaying his order to the waiter, Basara was about to relax when…

“Uwa! Basara-san!”

A chirpy voice sounded from behind him, a voice he could recognize instantaneously.

“Maria…”

“Hehe~! Hello, Basara-san. How have you been?”

Basara smiled an awkward smile when Maria plopped down next to him with no hesitation.

“I have been well. Just a little tired.”

“Ohoh. I see. Are you alone? I hope I am not disturbing you.”

“Why ask when you already know the answer?”

“Tututut~! You are acting as if I was following you. I swear this is a coincidence. Though a most welcomed one, since you had rejected my date proposal yesterday.”

Maria laughed as she jested. She was serious about not having been following Basara. She had no reason to.

She had found a girl with potential in magic among the second-year students and wanted to discuss about her with Mio. 

Still, she wanted to help Mio relax a little first and have some fun to relieve some of her stress. So, after she was rejected by Basara, she went and made plans with Mio and have some fun and leisure today.

They had already taken their seats and placed their orders when Maria saw Basara enter the restaurant. All she could say was that the Gremorys were born with the craziest luck in all the realms.

“Do you mind coming to our table?”

Basara hesitated for a short while before finally nodding. He had already rejected Maria once, but doing so again in such a situation would be ill-mannered of him.

It wasn’t like he hated her after all.

“Yay! Follow me.”

“Wait. First, I need to go and wash my hands.”

“Okay! Our table is the one right there. Come join us when you finish.”

Basara nodded and stood up before walking towards the toilet.

While looking down, he opened the door to the toilet and set a step inside.

"Eh—?"

Basara Toujou raised his face and froze up.

In the opened room—stood a girl.

At that moment, an awkward silence fell onto the small room.

The girl had bent slightly forward, had her skirt rolled up, and had both her thumbs in her white panties, as she was either pulling it down or pulling it up. The girl’s mind blanked out from the abrupt flow of events, and she looked at him completely dumbfounded, unable to utter any word.

But it was a misunderstanding. Basara had by no means opened the door of the female toilet.

The toilet was merely for both genders. She likely had used the mixed-gender toilet, as the female toilet was occupied. However, that toilet had a defect that was known only to the usual guests—the lock didn't close properly making it possible for someone to open it from the other side. 

Therefore, the girls who knew of the door’s defect avoided using that toilet if possible. The restaurant had even posted a small notice issuing a warning ‘Please lock the door properly’ inside to avoid any troubles from occurring. But even if one thought it was properly locked, it was possible that it actually wasn't—yes, just like right now. 

Basara hastily tried to close the door and turn on his heels—but suddenly he heard a 'certain sound'—it was the sound of the girl taking a deep breath. He knew it was the prelude to a deafening shout that would only cause headaches for him in the future. 

Basara reacted instantaneously before she was able to scream.

"—Hey, wait!"

"Mmg!?"

Basara narrowly managed to muffle the scream and sighed in relief for now.

'Wait, what am I doing!?'

Before he had noticed it, Basara had completely stepped into the toilet and covered the mouth of the girl like a rogue rapist.

That wasn't good. It should have been an unfortunate accident due to a  random misunderstanding, but the situation had worsened so much that even excuses were useless now.

"Sorry for scaring you, but please—listen to me without making a ruckus. This wasn't on purpose. It's an unfortunate accident, a misunderstanding…"

The fact that the occupied toilet door opened from the outside meant that the person who didn't lock the door properly was at fault. In other words, the fault lay with the girl; but on an emotional level, she was a victim. 

Therefore, Basara explained about the defect of the lock and about the notice on the door. He desperately tried to convince her.

There was no assailant here, only two unfortunate victims of the whims of fate.

Upon that—as Basara's explanation sound logical, the girl believed him and relaxed her body soon enough.

"Ehm...I take it that you understand now?"

On his question, the girl gave him a nod, showing her understanding. When Basara timidly removed his hand, the girl corrected her posture and laughed a 'Fufu'. A bright smile that seemed like the prelude to the start of a friendship between two misfortune individuals.

Good. Apparently his sincerity was conveyed and she comprehended the situation calmly. Hooked on, Basara also showed a smile with an awkward ‘Haha…’

—At that moment, he received an attack to the cheek though he easily managed to stop it.

If it was before, Basara might have let the girl slap him as a way of apologizing for his untoward behavior. But, he had nothing to reproach himself with. 

Why would he need to peek at some unknown girl when there were two women who were perfectly willing to strip naked for him?

"Why…? I thought I explained it was a misunderstanding.”

While pressing on her arm, Basara looked at the fuming girl and asked her seriously.

"…Come again?"

The edges of the girl's mouth twitched in annoyance, shame, and anger.

"First, you peek at a girl in the toilet, then you get inside, cover her mouth and try to make excuses… Put a hand on your heart and think well about what you would have done in this situation."

Basara merely gave a bitter laugh as a response, unable to refute her retort. 

Indeed, while he had nothing to reproach himself, from an outsider’s perspective what he did was quite the scandalous thing.

"—Hmm? What are you two doing there?"

It was when the two of them were in a deadlock that a familiar voice sounded from outside the toilet door.

““Maria.””

Basara and the girl called out to Maria at the same time, then looked at each other with a confused look on their face. 

“"Eh?"”

Moments later, Basara returned to his seat; two girls sat opposite to him at the spacious table.

———

“Pffft! Hahaha…Pfft!”

Hitting the table lightly with her fist, Maria lowered her head as she teared up while desperately trying to stop herself from laughing too loudly.

She was the kind of person who could happily watch the world explode in chaos while eating popcorn from the front row seat, but even for her, the situation that had been described to her was simply too hilarious.

Just imagining it again made her clutch her stomach and almost roar out in unrestrained laughter.

In contrast to the laughing Maria, Mio was puckering her lips indignantly, wordless for a while now.

...Well, it was understandable.

To tell her to brighten up when someone interrupted her on the toilet earlier would be asking too much from her. It left the worst first impression one could ever hope to leave.

Still…

“Once again, I wish to sincerely apologize.”

Basara lowered his head frankly.

While it was an unfortunate mistake and completely unintentional, it didn’t change the fact that he had seen her in a very embarrassing and controversial situation. 

He knew that most girls weren’t as shameless as Lucia or as innocent as Asia. 

Mio pouted a little before sighing—defeated. She may be in the right, but she wasn’t unreasonable to the point of not recognizing someone who was sincerely apologizing.

She had simply been too flustered during the earlier flow of events.

Maria had talked about Basara to her since she wanted to recruit him and she knew that he was quite the chivalrous boy, so it was nigh impossible for him to do the deed intentionally.

“I am also sorry for trying to slap you earlier.”

Basara smiled hearing her apologetic words. He was happy to see that Mio wasn’t an unreasonable girl. 

“It’s nothing. Let’s leave that event to the past.”

Like this, the atmosphere between the two of them eased up a little. 

“Say, what did you think about Mio-sama's butt?”

Silence fell between the three once again, as Basara instinctively went deep in thought.

“S-stop thinking about it!”

"Hahaha!"

Like this, they spent a peaceful morning together as Maria repeatedly teased and provoked the two of them.

———

"I found him."

While Basara was busy spending time with Maria and Mio, someone else was busy frantically searching for him.

"Oh! Did you? This machine is really incredible."

"What did you think? It was specially created by Azazel-sama."

The object had been sent yesterday by Kokabiel through a portal. It was an object that could help detect the karma lines between the killer and the one killed.

By using the small amount of DNA they were able to collect from Freed's clothes, they could find where the one who killed him was, as long as he wasn't outside of the machine’s range.

Surprisingly, it didn't take long for them to find their target.

"A boy?"

They had been expecting to face some kind of old monster, not a young man.

'Well, it doesn't matter.'

Raynare licked her lips in anticipation. She couldn't wait to end that guy and rise in the ranks of Grimori.

Once he came out of that restaurant, it would be time to hunt him down and show him hell for messing up their schemes.

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