The Venerable One, Reincarnator Extraordinaire, has lived through all. Nine lives showed him many shades of life; he was a Hero once and Demon Lord in another; again a Heavenly Beast and a Time Manipulating Vampire in another. Finally, a Cultivator...
Baihu, the White Tiger, was a very powerful heavenly beast. His body would be too much to absorb for a Gold Ascension; it'd kill Tsubasa. That's one of the reasons I'm willing to choose some weaker tiger.
After explaining the situation to him, he grumbled and nodded in understanding. He truly did seem threatened when I patted his head and said those words, but after hearing me out, he didn't hesitate to help me.
With a roar, he summoned the top executives of his heavenly mountain, and they bowed before us. "Ancestor," he looked at me and said, "these five are the greatest of my descendants in this mountain, each an Ultimate-Class entity as you can sense. You can choose whoever you want... but I have a little condition."
Hearing his words, the newly arrived tigers flinched and looked up in shock, surely confused and curious about what their lord was giving themselves to me for. I too was surprised, but for something else. He had the audacity?
I looked up at him too, with my eyebrow raised. "Oh?"
"...No matter the case, they're still warriors. To just sacrifice them would be an insult to the years they spent under me. So..." he hesitated, closing his eyes and hesitating. "Why not a duel between that girl and one of the tigers here? She has white tiger blood in her veins; even if she's a descendant of the Shinra Clan, something like that has never happened before. So she's a tiger of her own, she should hunt her own food and not have it served on a platter."
"Uh..." Tsubasa rubbed the back of her head while I shrugged.
"Here I was wondering if your condition will be something outrageous. Sure thing, she will fight it out," I said. Tsubasa was just at Jade, while each of those tigers was Ultimate-Class, so the matching was disadvantageous for her, but I trusted in her.
The tiger grinned, "Let us prepare a duel then."
Baihu explained the situation to his five confused descendants, while I invited the others inside. The Shinra clan head, Byakko Shinra, Rias, and Tsubaki were allowed to spectate this scene. It wouldn't hurt to let them watch.
****
"Whoa, insane..."
The devil girls had wildly fascinated expressions as they entered the bamboo forest, littered with maple trees here and there. Rias' eyes darted around, having never seen heaven before she must be excited. Tsubaki looked quite enchanted as well, although a sense of bitterness remained in her expression.
The clan head and Byakko's expression remained neutral. We circled an empty spot in the bamboo forest, and Tsubasa stood before five tigers, waiting to be chosen. She had taken off her hoodie for this, showing off her muscles.
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"Is she going to be alright?" the Clan head asked as if he was worried.
"We'll have to wait and see. Ah, and no she's not going against all five of them at once," I cleared up the possible misunderstanding.
