From the time the invitations were sent out to the official start of the tournament, just like the previous one, there was naturally a one-month preparation period. This was to make it convenient for those who received invitations to get ready, especially to find teammates.
Although Aiden still hadn't received his invitation yet, that was only a matter of time. As for his teammates, they would naturally still be the Kagura sisters.
Actually, some time ago, Shermie had told him that if there were another King of Fighters tournament, she wanted to team up with him. But the problem was, even if Aiden agreed, the Kagura sisters absolutely wouldn't.
Even though during this period, the relationship between the Kagura sisters and Shermie, Mature, and Vice had eased up a bit, they no longer mocked each other the moment they met, they still rarely interacted in daily life, let alone letting Aiden be "shared."
However, this problem was quickly resolved.
The next day, when Aiden was driving Shermie and King to work, he heard Shermie, who was touching up her makeup beside him, say, "Mature and Vice received invitations last night. A girl delivered them."
"A girl, oh, that should be Rose, Rugal's daughter," Aiden said, not surprised at all that Mature and Vice had received invitations.
After all, they did have some strength. Without awakening, taking on the Three Sacred Treasures families might be a bit much, but against ordinary fighters, they were still fine.
Besides, there was another reason they got invitations…
After Rugal's strength skyrocketed this time, he was probably planning to gather them all together and wipe them out in one go, putting on a satisfying one-versus-many show.
'Very confident!'
But that was Rugal, "simple" Rugal.
He had only one goal, defeat all fighters and become the world's number one.
As Aiden was thinking this, he heard Shermie continue, "Yes, that's the name. Mature and Vice called her that too."
"She's very pretty. She'll definitely be a great beauty in the future. But I don't like her. The first time I saw her, I felt she was very… um, very sly, like she had a lot of schemes. Even though she looks polite and well-educated."
'A "scheming b*tch," huh!'
'Of course she's calculating!'
Aiden had seen Rose's background info. Besides being a "scheming b*tch" with a sharp tongue, she also had some very peculiar emotional quirks, something like that, anyway.
If she were a villain, Rose was far more qualified than her "simple-minded" father.
While Aiden was thinking, Shermie kept talking, "Not only do I dislike her, Mature and Vice don't like her either. That's pretty rare. Those two cunning women actually hate a girl that much…"
"Oh right, Aiden, I'm participating in the tournament this time too, together with Mature and Vice. We've even thought of a team name, Some Man's Harem Team. What do you think?"
"Actually, I feel like that's not quite right. It should be Mr. Aiden's Harem Team, but that might be inappropriate and draw too much hatred toward you… Hey, why do you look like that?"
Aiden shot her an annoyed sideways glance. "You've already come up with a name like that, and you still expect me to look happy?"
"We're just telling the truth. And didn't we say it might be inappropriate and changed it? 'Some man', we didn't even say your name." Shermie propped her chin on her hand and looked at him. "And we really are your harem, aren't we? You're not going to deny it, are you?"
Aiden obviously couldn't deny it, so he could only nod helplessly. "Fine, do whatever you want."
"Then it's decided," Shermie said with a giggle, then sighed.
"Too bad only three people can form a team. Otherwise, we could let King join us too. More people would really fit the name 'harem team' better… And Nyotengu, she said last time that she also wanted to participate."
"Mm, we could add Helena too, her strength isn't bad. Hey, the three of them could even form another team. If there are extra invitations, that is."
At this point, Shermie turned her head to look at King, who had been quietly listening to her conversation with Aiden, and said, "How about you go grab an invitation and form a team? I've already thought of a name for you, Some Man's Second Harem Team. We'll rename ourselves the First Harem Team…"
Aiden felt she was getting more and more ridiculous. Before King, who looked rather interested, could speak, he said irritably, "Then shouldn't Mai and the others change their name to the Third Harem Team too?"
"Sure…" Shermie nodded.
"Sure my a*s." Aiden's mouth twitched. This was way too absurd.
But then Aiden thought again, if there were more women, could he organize an internal harem tournament?
And the prize would be himself?
No, that was even more absurd, but… it actually sounded kind of interesting…
———
After seeing Shermie and King enter the company, Aiden returned to the apartment to keep Mature and Vice company, since they had completely turned into shut-ins at home.
Speaking of which, aside from fighting, those two women didn't really have any special skills. As for hobbies… Vice might be more interested in food, while Mature's hobby was skiing. But in this season in Japan, unless you went to Mount Fuji, there was nowhere to ski.
Those were their former hobbies. Now they had been influenced by Shermie and had started to take an interest in electronic products.
Basically, game consoles.
If Shermie weren't affected by Orochi's will, she'd normally be a full-on shut-in who could stay home all day playing games. Under her influence, Mature and Vice had also come to like these novel toys and often played until very late before going to sleep.
When Aiden arrived at the apartment, the two of them still hadn't gotten up yet.
He glanced at the invitation tossed casually onto the sofa, mixed in with a pile of colorful lingerie, and shook his head. In the first month, Mature and Vice would still clean the place every day.
But after being "assimilated" by Shermie, they had also become lazy. Unless the house got so messy it was unbearable to look at, or Aiden scolded them unhappily, they would absolutely never take the initiative to clean. Even when Shermie ordered them to as the "big sister," it was useless.
"Seriously… it's hard to learn good habits, but learning bad ones happens in a flash."
With a sigh, Aiden started cleaning up the room and the living room for them.
Nowadays, during the daytime, he wouldn't stay at Mai Shiranui's place all day anymore. On some mornings each week, he would stay at the apartment to keep Vice and Mature company. After having lunch with them, he'd then go to Mai Shiranui's place, or go see Athena. With so many people, he had to treat everyone fairly.
It was only because he was full of energy now. If it were an ordinary person, running around like this every day, who could handle it?
Still, sometimes he would take a day off and go out alone. After all, even if his body could handle it, the mental pressure was still quite heavy. Taking care of every woman's emotions wasn't as simple as just chatting with them.