“You were always a good singer,” Nariko stated, as if she was reading data from a chart. “That’s why I hired that instructor, after all.”

“Which I really liked,” her oldest daughter responded, her enthusiasm carrying the emotion in the conversation. “I liked singing! I also liked that you were around when I practiced.”

“You could say it was a decision that really…” Regan took a pause for extra effect, “…resonated!”

Rave did the courtesy of giggling, while John just shook his head. Low-key, he was noting down all of the puns for later usage, however. It was only bad if he wasn’t the one to do them.

His girlfriend continued, “Didn’t like it as much when you stopped paying him, a few years after you left… kind of a mean move.”

“Mean?” the kimono-wearing woman blinked. “What about it was mean?”

“Ya know, getting me to start singing and then take the instructor away because you’re no longer around?” Rave presented a counter question. “How is that not mean?”

“That wasn’t the cause of my actions. I simply had the report that you practiced in your own free time and knew the instructor couldn’t teach you anything worthwhile anymore. I simply cut the cost and left you to acquire the rest of the skill on your own.” Nariko’s finger circled the rim of her half-full glass of champagne. “I suppose you will now proceed to tell me I should have actually communicated that?”

“I knew I had to get my mind reader capabilities from someone,” Rave sarcastically poked her mother, who sighed and sipped on her drink. “I took that as a sign ya didn’t care about me or my singing anymore. I barely practiced since.”

“Which is a real shame,” John chimed in and cleared his throat. When he continued, he sounded a bit croaky, “Since it’s always such a wonderful thing to hear her sing.”

“Are you a pony, John?” Regan suddenly asked and caused the Gamer to look at him with a raised eyebrow. “You sound a little horse.”

Gaping like a fish out of water, John then groaned and took a particularly large swig of his beer. “No offense meant, Regan, but you’re overdoing it.”

“I think I’ll decide that,” the dad-joking dad answered with a smug smile.

Nariko shook her head. “Men, always hard to stay on topic with you around.”

“Is that a man thing?” John honestly wondered. “Anyway, you two were getting along?”

“Well, I don’t have the urge to strangle her anymore,” Rave confessed outright. “It’s a start.”

That had been how things went for the past hour. They drifted to some topic, some childhood story surfaced and the Hollmey family then proceeded to clear out a bunch of communication difficulties they had. It cleared out a few things, especially since Rave was backing off from being overtly aggressive and Nariko was showing at least a bit of repentance in all instances.

“Alright, to stop dancing around something,” the pink-haired girl leaned onto the bar with a challenging smile plastered on her face, “do ya still disprove of my relationship with John here?”

Liz leaned on in the same fashion. “I think I might get in on it,” she said, which got her disapproving glances from her father, her mother and her sister. Which, to John’s disappointment, was like the entire reason why she even said it, retreating from the conversation, and the bar as a whole, with a giggle.

“I’ll leave you to your drama and make some connections with all the powerful people present,” she waved away, “is good for business.”

“You go do that,” Nariko remarked with a nod, then resumed the topic at hand. “I have never been against your relation with the Gamer.” John remembered a few times he had felt the exact opposite opinion coming from her demeanour, but that was likely her general brashness and overly high expectations than something directly wrong with him. “It is the kind of relationship you choose to have that irks me.”

“Right,” John leaned against the closet with booze, “but will you accept that this is how things go now or will you keep insisting we should change how we go about things?”

“You’re being quite cocky, young man,” Regan reprimanded. “You were more respectful when you were ten centimetres less wide.”

“Well, back then you could have broken me over your knee.” John kept his tone light, not wanting this to sound too much like an insult or anything. “Nowadays I could mop the floor with you one-handed.”

Rave warningly pointed at her boyfriend. “No threatening Daddy, John!”

“Wasn’t the intent.” The Gamer bowed his head. “The point is, I’m in the luxury of being completely honest, because I no longer have to be afraid you’ll hunt me through the city with the proverbial shotgun. I, of course, still respect both of you as my girlfriend’s parents. If nothing else, I would like to have your blessing for our current relationship and what will come in the future.”

“It’s just that we’ll continue no matter what you say,” Rave added and mischievously stuck out her tongue.

“Speaking for myself,” Nariko began, “you have my blessings to go on as is.” That was surprisingly easy. So surprisingly that even her no-longer-ex husband looked taken aback. “I was worried about a number of things. Mostly about how this would reflect on my career and whether or not you could be happy being one of many girls, Jane.” She finished her champagne. “Since the scandal about this has mostly blown over and my career is on hold anyhow, the former point is null. That you’re happy and that the Gamer is capable are both self-evident. That one of my daughters would be part of a harem in any fashion annoys me. Being the leader of one is at least mildly acceptable. That John happens to be a rising influence in the world makes it a drawback that I will live with.”

“I- uh.” Regan scratched the lower end of his chin, where his beard slowly vanished to reveal the regular skin of his neck, and hesitated for a second. “I can’t say I wholly agree, but… you have had that harem arrangement for how long now?”

“The duration of our relationship minus less than two weeks,” John put it simply.

“Basically, started as soon as John found someone else he wanted to get busy with,” Rave added.

“If it stopped at ‘getting busy with’, I would have a whole lot more room in my bed,” John mumbled, looking at the room and the scattered groups of his loves therein. “Lot less emotional investment in one-time flings.”

“You not throwing them away is one good attribute about you, I suppose,” Regan said. “I’ll accept your relationship, not because I’m happy about my baby’s status, but because that’s just the reality of the situation.” Although that wasn’t a ringing endorsement, it was a blessing regardless. “On one condition!”

‘Oh Lord, what could it be…’ John thought and made a gesture for him to continue.

“No more adult videos!”

“Ah,” Nariko let out a shocked noise, likely having just been reminded that was a thing that existed. “You’re right, Regan. That is a shameful display that has to be stopped immediately. John Newman, I cannot believe that, in all your degeneracy, you would drag Jane into...”

The berating continued in the background, but John just looked over to Rave. It wouldn’t be effective if he dispelled this myth. Plus, he had a little hope that Rave would find it just as awkward to talk about sex with her parents as he did. It would have given him an easy road to banter back in future teasing on that topic.

No luck on that end though. “Actually,” the Lightbearer spoke up, interrupting her parents’ ramblings, “I want to be in those. Turns out I’m an exhibitionist.”

“I don’t care for the camera,” John added, just to complete the picture. “I just do what I usually do. I have absolutely nothing to hide.”

“Point being ya can’t demand this away,” Rave sighed. “Tried suppressing that fetish for a while. Didn’t really work.” After a few moments, likely because her mother showed genuine exasperation over this development, the Lightbearer added, “I’m probably going to join another porncast this Sunday. John has an interview with some cute greenskin.”

Nariko pinched the bridge of her nose. “What did I do wrong to get you as my daughter?” she quietly asked, falling back into her earlier patterns of mistakes. In this one instance of it, John found it alright to be lenient.

Rave, however, was just born to tease. “Ya know, abandonment issues make for very unruly daughters with lots of strange desires,” she pointed out in a dry tone. “Just saying.”

In a display of tremendous synchronicity, Nariko and Regan took a deep breath and even mumbled, “”Ok,”” under the exhale at the same time.

“We’ll live with it,” Regan decided, more open on this front than his wife, apparently. Given the man’s liberal stance towards porn, John still remembered the openly displayed porn collection in his media room, that wasn’t too surprising. “But we won’t be happy about it!”

“Seems like we got a theme going there,” John mused. “Sorry, your daughter fell for a hopelessly perverted case like me. You know what you say, similarities attract.”

“I’m pretty sure the saying is the opposite,” Regan retorted.

“Ah yes, and how right they are,” the Gamer grinned, having bet on that response. “After all, Rave is a spontaneous, fun-loving, people’s person and I am a calculating, success-loving nerd.” Even if he hadn’t gotten any pushback, he could have spun himself some way to make it work. That was the beauty of sayings that were so tremendously general. “On a serious note, Nariko,” he took a business tone, “I have a proposal.”

“Yes?” The blue-haired woman reacted to his sudden shift in tone by assuming her own dealmaker persona. It wasn’t a huge shift, but her blue eyes definitely hardened. “I must inform you that I’m in no position to speak for the Abyss Auction right now.”

“I know, that’s not what this is about.” He shook his head. “The Hollmey clan, small as it is, does hold some territory, right?”

“Under my leadership we have gotten a hold on some property, left alone by Korean raids, yes.” Nariko seemed intrigued where this was going. “It doesn’t exceed a single island by much, but it exists regardless.”

“How about joining Fusion?”

The question hung in the air for several moments, lost between the happy chatter in the background. Nobody but the people at the bar heard it. Rave, who had known John wanted to suggest something like this already, awaited her mother’s answer.

After thinking thoroughly, Nariko slowly shook her head. “No. Not like things are,” she said.

John wasn’t surprised. Korea, more specifically the Dangun Clan, separated as its real-life nation currently was, was one of the Abyssal superpowers. It had multiple patron gods, a massive number of available people and a wealth of resources. Their semi-control of Japan wasn’t just an act of vengeance. From a purely hegemonic point of view, it also assured access to the Pacific Fuse, the eastern equivalent of the massive Natural Barrier that John had met Tilgun in.

As those points followed the tectonic lines, it was placed off the east coast of northern Japan. As long as the island nation itself didn’t produce a worthwhile power to take control of its natural resources, the Koreans could exploit away. The added bonus was, should something terrible be born in that place, it would hit Japan and not Korea.

Aside from its own resources, making it a middle power among the nine Divided Gates, the Dangun Clan was a strong ally to the Mandate of Heaven, who were said to be second only to the Sons of Rome. Some would dispute that and say that the Illuminati actually took the number two spot, but, save for war, there was no way to know for certain. The Illuminati kept their cards close to their chest and the Mandate of Heaven isolated its elites in enclaves, highest of all was the Forbidden City.

“It would certainly be unwise to take such a move right now,” John agreed. “Perhaps once the alliance with Illuminati becomes fully active…”

“That wouldn’t do,” Nariko denied once more. “As horrible as the pillaging of Japan is, the Koreans are there for predictable interests. Money, resources and vengeance, that’s all they want. I have found an arrangement under those circumstances and I wouldn’t trade it away to rely on a power on the other side of the globe, led in large part by the Horned Rat.”

“Can’t argue with that,” John conceded. “Then, when Fusion itself becomes a member of the Divided Gates, would you be willing to consider it?”

“At that time, on the day that I’m sure that you could protect my birthplace and should you still honour my daughter, I will gladly pledge allegiance to you,” Nariko promised.