[February 14th TST/October 7th DBT]
With their recon team returning safely three days prior, the Revolutionary Army sent over the one hundred and nine people they would be sending away for five years. They had originally been allotted one hundred spots, but the inclusion of Dr. Vegapunk and his Satellites brought the number to 107, with the final two positions being filled by Rebecca and the so-called Queen of the Pleasure District—a stunning, blonde-haired beauty named Stussy.
Though initially skeptical, Rebecca was convinced to place her trust in the Dragon's Pavilion after hearing about the plan to liberate her Kingdom and end Doflamingo's tyranny in as little as a week's time. As for Stussy, she was an exceedingly high-ranking member of the World Government's top Intelligence Organization, CP-0, but she had only infiltrated their ranks at Dr. Vegapunk's instruction, making her a double agent. The apple-headed, Einstein-inspired scientist had asked if she could be extracted since there was a high chance she would be exposed following his disappearance, so she would be participating in the training mission to learn Devil Magic and how to install and maintain Waypoints...
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"Alright, be good. And remember, if things become too stressful or you simply get bored, there's no shame in returning early..." expressed Vahn, caressing the heads of Riko and Kunou as they prepared to pass through the large, dragon-embossed doors denoting the entrance to the training room. He still harbored misgivings about permitting Kunou to participate in the training, but since her mother had given her permission and he was letting other children take part, he didn't have a strong argument for why she shouldn't.
"Return early? There's no way~!" exclaimed Riko her green eyes sparking as she balled her tiny hands into fists, asserting, "I'm going to train my butt off so that when it grows back, it will be rounder and fuller than ever! Just you wait...!"
'I would have preferred to wait five or more years real-time...' thought Vahn, exhaling faintly from his nose but smiling as he shifted his gaze to Kunou, her golden eyes fixed on him as she flatly asserted, "I will return and become Chichiue's bride..."
Hearing Kunou's declaration, Millicas, also participating in the five-year training expedition, had his smile cramp. It was no secret that he had a crush on Kunou, who was also a member of his Party, so hearing her say she would become the bride of his de facto stepfather was awkward, to say the least. It didn't help that Killua, whom he had become good friends with, placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.
"I'll definitely be here when you return..." affirmed Vahn, choosing not to address Kunou's assertion directly but offering a slight nod before turning his attention to Bonney, eyeing him with crossed arms and a narrow-eyed pout. She had tried convincing him to enter the training room the previous night, but since he was just as eager as his wives to welcome his first nine children into the world, he had turned her down as gently as he could.
"What are you looking at? I hope your hair falls out and your balls sag to a glassy floor, you smelly old lizard..." asserted Bonney, snorting loudly and turning her face to the side with a deep, conflicted frown. She didn't want her parting words to Vahn to be vitriol, but since he could live forever, she felt it shouldn't be a big deal for him to give her and the other members of the youth troupe five years of his time...
"Smelly?" repeated Faputa, tilting her head to the side before approaching to sniff Vahn, starting from his feet and working her way up his body until she was perched on his back, sniffing the side of his face before biting his cheek. Then, staring at Bonney disapprovingly, she asserted, "You lie. The father-person smells and tastes delicious, sosu."
"Yeah, and?" challenged Bonney, her frown deepening as she contended, "He might taste and smell good to you, but that doesn't mean he doesn't stink like a week-old clam to others. More importantly, get down from him. You're supposed to be a Princess, aren't you? Behave like one."
Offended by Bonney's retort, Faputa fluffed herself up and hissed without descending from Vahn's back. Before things could get further out of hand, he reached up to caress her head, helping the dark-skinned, white-furred Narehate Princess calm down as he held Bonney's gaze, adopted his best smile, and casually hummed, "I'll be sure to take a bath or two before you return. Take care of yourself, Bonney..."
"Whatever..." muttered Bonney, turning to depart with Wendy, Carla, Fran, Kakashi, and several others trailing after her. That primarily left just those from the Abyss, consisting of Riko, Mitty, Nanachi, Prushka, and the twins, Sherumi and Menae. With them was a striking, dark-skinned, white-haired White Whistle named Srajo, also known as the Sovereign of Mystery, a trio of Narehate, and their willing prisoner—a lithe, lively, swirly-haired woman not much bigger than Riko, named Tepaste.
"Then we'll get going as well," stated Srajo, picking her right nostril with her pinky finger, her pale gold eyes rarely leaving Vahn when they were in the same place.
"Alright, try not to get in too much trouble," responded Vahn, offering a curt nod before helping Faputa down from his head, setting her next to Riko. Then, after caressing the heads of everyone shorter than him one final time, he saw them off at the training room's threshold with a hint of wistfulness in his eyes. Like Bonney, he also felt that five years wasn't a particularly lengthy period. But with several children on the way and other responsibilities to attend, he eventually shook his head, turned away from the self-closing entrance, and sought comfort in his harem, watching and waiting for him a short distance away...
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[Six Hours Later]
'I had anticipated this, but it's still pretty overwhelming...' thought Vahn, relaxing with Koneko and Kuroka in their shared, cat-themed bedroom while observing his private messages rapidly increasing. Every second in the training room was six minutes standard time, so he was receiving a continuous influx of private messages, status reports, and updates from those within.
Unsurprisingly, one of the people Vahn received the most updates from was Bonney. For the first two and a half weeks, from her perspective, she didn't message him at all. Then, like a sluice gate being opened, he began receiving dozens and sometimes hundreds per minute, specifically when she was decompressing at the end of her day.
Fortunately for Bonney, boosting his perception of time by a few hundred wasn't particularly difficult for Vahn. Sis could also upload her messages directly to his memory, so while he wasn't there with her, he knew what she was up to and could even respond if she was in an especially bad mood, such as when she experienced her first period and when she and Faputa got into an argument, resulting in the latter chomping down on her butt in the middle of a group bath.
'Maybe I should produce an Avatar like Gid did with Issei...' considered Vahn, recalling what he had heard from Issei regarding his three-year stint in a Room of Spirit and Time. Gid had a technique that allowed him to split his ego/soul as many as nine times, functionally allowing him to be in two to ten places at once. The biggest flaw of the technique was that, much like Dr. Vegapunk's Satellites, each partition required a fundamental cognitive trait to serve as its core, specifically Esteem, Resolve, Desire, Penitence, Vengeance, Contentedness, Mania, Wanderlust, and Creativity—traits that would be absent or at least dulled in the original until they became whole again.
'But if I were going to do that, I should have done so from the beginning...' thought Vahn, closing his eyes and exhaling faintly from his nose. Nothing was stopping him from creating an Avatar and sending it in late, but while he was confident it wouldn't affect him the same as other people, sending another version of himself to interact with people on his behalf felt wrong.
"Ah...the baby...it kicked..." muttered Koneko, snapping Vahn out of his thoughts and bringing his perception of time in line with the standard flow. Koneko was seated on his lap and reclining against him atop a cozy sofa while Kuroko snuggled up to him on their right, so in response to her words, he placed his left hand on her very pregnant belly and caressed it with all the care and love he could muster.
As if responding to his touch, Vahn felt a surprisingly strong kick against his palm, causing a feeling of pressure and a hint of sourness to permeate his nose and his heart to skip a beat.
"Our daughter is going to be feisty..." hummed Vahn, causing Koneko to narrow and ultimately close her eyes contentedly, responding with a faint, "Nn..." as she enjoyed the feeling of his caress.
"It must be nice..." sighed Kuroka, exhaling wistfully and feigning a pout as she placed her hand over Vahn's and turned her eyes up at him when he glanced her way.
"You have to wait for everyone else..." asserted Koneko, her voice quiet but firm as she gave her sister a sidelong glance. She and Kuroka were on much better terms after ten and a half months of living together, but since many people were waiting to bear Vahn's children, she wouldn't allow her sister to cut the line.
"Yeah, yeah...I know..." pouted Kuroka, closing her eyes and resting her head against Koneko's shoulder. Vahn could sense she was legitimately exasperated, so to cheer her up, he gave her bare bottom beneath her very short kimono skirt a comforting caress, causing her split, soot-black feline tails to form a practiced heart shape.
"Shall we continue where we left off~?" asked Kuroka, raising her head from Koneko's shoulder to stare up at Vahn with narrowed eyes and her lips slightly parted, allowing her to lick them seductively.
"Don't make me pull out the spray bottle..." threatened Koneko, casting another sidelong glance at her sister. She understood where Kuroka was coming from, but as it hadn't been that long since they settled down and began cuddling, she wanted to enjoy being held a while longer.
"But I'm already plenty wet~" purred Kuroka, her gleaming gaze focused on Vahn as the decision was ultimately his. Unfortunately for her, he was also enjoying their arrangement. So, while he continued caressing her soft and warm butt, he had her settle with a kiss before meeting her gaze with an apologetic smile and deciding, "We'll stay like this, at least for the time being..."
"If that's what Goshujin-sama has decided..." sighed Kuroka, closing her eyes and returning her head to Koneko's shoulder. She wasn't truly sad or disappointed, but by behaving as if she were, she knew Vahn would make it up to her when they inevitably had sex. Her body knew this as well, so as Vahn continued caressing her bottom, fragrant and warm fluids flowed in a steady trickle from between her thighs...
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[February 15th TST/October 8th DBT]
After a day that felt extraordinarily long and short at the same time, Vahn was floating in his sensory deprivation chamber with Laev-tan resting on the periphery and her spirit lying atop him with her hands folded on her diaphragm and her feet pulled up, resting on his upper thighs to allow her tail to dangle between them. When he awoke that morning, Bonney alone had sent more than 12,000 messages, so instead of stealing glances into other worlds as usual, he was observing events transpiring in the training room at the speed its inhabitants were experiencing them.
Seeing how drastically the appearances of the youth troupe had changed in one year, Vahn couldn't help but feel concerned about the development of his forthcoming children. Devils grew and matured particularly quickly due to their appearances largely reflecting their self-image, so he would need to cherish their time together if he didn't want to blink and suddenly find himself face to face with full-grown adults. To that end, he should be cherishing his time with the youth troupe as well. After all, he was the one who constantly told them not to be in a rush to grow up. The thought that most would be eighteen to twenty within four more days...it didn't feel right not to be there for them...
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