Playing With Other Supernaturals

Tiamat didn't speak immediately and just stared at Kisuke. Ajuka, on the other hand, withdrew and just watched. He only needed the two of them to meet, it'd be up to Kisuke to convince her if he wants to.

Kisuke stood up and introduced himself, immediately going straight to the point, "It's nice to meet you, Tiamat-san. I'm Kisuke Urahara. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. This is a bit sudden, but I would like to invite you to my team for the Azazel Cup." He didn't really care if Tiamat accepted it or not as he could just look for someone else. But looking for someone else would take some effort so Kisuke at least appreciated Ajuka's goodwill.

Tiamat didn't return the greeting and turned to Ajuka, "It would be nice if I can join a team since it'll also mean that I'd be relieved of my duties. However, if you're going to allow it, at least give me a choice. You do know the rumors surrounding him, so I would rather join Sekiryuutei's team."

Kisuke didn't mind her rude behavior and turned to Sakura and asked, "Rumors?"

"Ah... I forgot that there are those..." Sakura placed her hand on her forehead while sighing, "There was already previous dissatisfaction with you being proven innocent, but because of you and your group's absence during a war that decided the fate of the world, the rumors of you being in cahoots with Rizevim from the start started gaining traction."

"After all, even Hades sent his Grim Reapers to help several fronts to fight against the Evil Dragons.", added Cleria.

Having words of his own to add, Diehauser faced Kisuke who, contrary to a normal reaction, had an amused expression, "Actually, the most popular rumor is that you're very weak compared the officials claim you to be, so you couldn't participate in the war even if you wanted to without tarnishing the name of the Belial House. Since you're in the same generation as the rising stars and heroes like Issei and Vali, the masses couldn't help but draw a power comparison."

"In the first place, the only time you appeared in public was when you took part in saving the Underworld from the Annihilation Maker monsters, and the most prevailing theory of how you managed to defeat one of them was that you borrowed Great Red's power, who had appeared with you. And the damage you caused in Olympus was contained, so no one actually knows the truth of what happened that day."

"Adding onto that, Sona Sitri's fans actually hate you because they think you're the reason why she had to disband her peerage... Well, that one's true."

With an exasperated voice, Sakura ended it, "In other words, your reputation is shit."

"I thought I'd give a few words of encouragement, but it looks like you're not bothered by it even a little bit.", Ajuka commented.

Laughing at his words, Sakura replied, "If he was bothered by this, he wouldn't have enjoyed it when others started calling him a terrorist!" Her eyes then sharpened and asked, "Wasn't that the reason why you had to fix his status? You people were afraid of what he might do with that kind of title."

Tiamat's eyes widened and asked Ajuka, "Is that true?"

Ajuka answered with his eyes closed, "It was Sirzechs, Azazel, and Michael that were extremely concerned about this. Nevertheless, I'm inclined to believe that there was a basis for their concerns and that was proven the moment I met him today."

His words made Tiamat, who wasn't interested in many things, think. A few moments later, she faced Kisuke properly for the first time and asked, "How about a mock battle?"

Kisuke peeked at Ajuka and thought, 'I see... So this is what you wanted from the start.'

Out of all prominent people in the world, it was actually Kisuke and his group that Ajuka was having a serious lack of information and he indeed hoped for this to happen when he decided to introduce Tiamat to him, 'Stability won't be possible with just ideology. The knowledge that could be used as a weapon in the age of peace is the most important.'

Seeing that Kisuke was remaining silent, Tiamat thought that he didn't like the fact that he's being tested and she can understand that, "As a persistent rule of the Rating Games, if the King is defeated, the game ends. I know nothing about you so I don't know if you'll be able to hold on long enough. If I'm going to join the games, I would rather have a chance to win and not babysit some unknown guy. Naturally, you'll be able to gauge my abilities and make a proper judgment if I really am good enough for your team."

Kisuke sighed and decided to go along with Ajuka's script, "Understood. But before we start, I'd like to know the condition of 'win' for me." Needless to say, he won't be showing a majority of his ability, 'Hakuda without the Hollow reinforcement should be enough.'

Tiamat misunderstood Kisuke's words and thought that he's not confident that he needed a focused condition to convince her, 'It seems that he's at least aware of my identity. Too bad for you, I'll be really strict.'

Tiamat shook her head and replied, "The condition is to make me admit defeat. How you'll do that will be up to you."

At that point, Kisuke also knew that she's misunderstanding him but still giving him the benefit of the doubt. But instead of resolving that misunderstanding, Kisuke amplified it using a worried tone, "What about injuries?"

Tiamat appeared to be annoyed and said, "You won't amount to anything if you're not afraid of a little bit of pain."

The Belial siblings immediately caught onto his ruse and looked at each other and came up with the same conclusion, 'She'll be in a world of pain.'

"Er... That's true..." Kisuke then turned to Ajuka who's confused by their exchange, "How should we do this?"

Ajuka stopped thinking about it and refocused his attention on Kisuke and his actions, trying to read and record every move that could prove as useful information, "I'll prepare a Game Field. In that, you can wreak havoc as much as you want."