Game of Monsters - 139 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

All My No’s Just Turned To Yes

“She’s enjoying herself,” Joshua commented, smiling and shaking his head as he looked at his daughter. Kunou, for her part, continued obliviously humming and giggling occasionally. The girl seemed deliriously happy, but he wasn’t too concerned. Especially because Yasaka didn’t seem to be either, and she probably knew better than he did.

“She certainly is,” his youkai partner replied with a grin of her own, her eyes also locked on the young girl that was having the time of her life taking turns mounting either Cheshire or Nagini and generally playing with his familiars on the spacious open space at Yasaka’s place. “She really likes being able to show the world that you are with me, that you are her father,” the woman next to him added, making him chuckle.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” he said wryly. After all, if Kunou had been obsessed with calling him “dad” or “my father” at any chance she got before, now she was even more so. It was kind of funny, just when she had gotten over that, she started again, just that this time it was whenever there was someone around to hear it instead of the opposite.

“Thank you, for making this possible,” Yasaka told him, turning to look at him and he could clearly see that she meant it. Silly woman. As if he’d had any chance to not do what he’d done.

“Don’t thank me for doing what I should do,” he replied with a shake of his head. “Making her happy is a priority, isn’t it? It’s what it should be like. And besides, I love seeing her this happy. Being a little uncomfortable is nothing next to this.”

“Have I told you how much I love hearing you say things like that. As if it’s just a fact that you should care this much for Kunou. As if-”

“As if she were my daughter?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. His lip twitched up into a half-smile. Then his expression softened as he turned towards Kunou once more. “I know it was… quite fast, but I do love her. I wasn’t in a good place, even with my familiars and Jeanne. I was getting better, but I was still just… just starting to connect back with the world.”

Sometimes, Joshua would wonder what would have been different, if he hadn’t come to Kyoto. How would he have ended up if he’d stayed where he was? Maybe he’d have been fine, but… he didn’t want to know, not really. He was happy with his life as it was. That was just an idle thought, a “what-if” and that was all.

“She reminded me of some of my best memories, being a child myself and taking care of my younger relatives. It was a small thing but it was… It meant a lot to me,” Joshua explained, looking up at the sky and closing his eyes. “I guess I got attached quickly because of that. I’m very lucky that she did too, and that you weren’t annoyed or angry about that. I imagine things wouldn’t have ended up well for me,” he added with a chuckle.

“I have a difficult time understanding, sometimes, I guess,” Yasaka admitted and he opened his eyes to turn and look at her. “I know you care for her as your daughter, I can feel it, but… I have a hard time understanding that, or, I guess, acknowledging that. Every time you do something for her, it means the world to her and, thus, me. Every single instance feels like a gift.”

“Well, you’ll get used to it eventually, I imagine,” he told her with a chuckle.

“I both hope so and not,” Yasaka replied, smiling warmly at him. “It’s a very nice feeling, every time.”

“Well, I guess I should do more things like that, then,” he said, drawing a giggle from the woman.

“You don’t have to, but I’m sure Kunou will appreciate that,” she told him.

“Lady Yasaka,” a servant called then, from the woman’s side. When they both turned towards him, the man squirmed a little, clearly uncomfortable under the sudden attention. “I’m sorry for interrupting, but this came in for you,” he informed her then, extending a file that she took and immediately opened.

“Thank you, you can go now,” she replied, getting a bow before the servant left. She seemed deep in thought, Joshua noted, as she read through whatever documents she’d been given.

“Something important?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Just another meeting with everyone,” she answered and he instantly knew what she was talking about. That was what they called a meeting with Serafall, Gabriel and Azazel in regards to Khaos Brigade. Those were happening from time to time, but Joshua stayed mostly outside of it all.

Moves were being made, bases were raided, members were captured.

He couldn’t help but feel like it was all just drops in the ocean. Were they really chipping at the organization or just sending useless strikes at them? So long as the top members stayed around, then they were still a problem. After all, he didn’t remember the fodder of the terrorist organization doing much at all. He could be wrong, of course, but he didn’t think he was.

“Well, good to know. Anything that stands out or just regular stuff?” he asked while she continued reading through the papers.

“Usual stuff, from what I’m getting,” Yasaka answered absently.

“Then it’s nothing to worry about until the time of the meeting right?” he continued, glancing towards Kunou once more, who was currently giggling uncontrollably while Morag tickled her with her many legs. “I’m thinking that our daughter will want to continue playing with the girls, so maybe I can rope Jeanne and Asia into babysitting while we go on a date.”

Yasaka paused, her previously darting eyes stilling.

“Hmm, I think I rather like the sound of that.”

“I thought you would,” he replied with a smile.

[}-o-{]

[Meredith Ordinton]

“... and so, you must never think your defenses are absolute,” Professor Davis explained, the class dutifully taking notes of everything he said. Meredith would have been the same, but she didn’t need this particular lesson. “There’s always a hole, always a weak point or a weak link. Even the best of warders suffer from this, which is why you have to remember this. Always look for new spells, always strive to improve on your arrays, because I can guarantee you that there’s always something that can be done to make it better.”

As if she needed to be reminded that she wasn’t the best and probably would never be. The world was full of such examples, really, and anyone that didn’t realize was either stupid or delusional. It was extra difficult to think that one’s abilities were perfect when you had a person like Joshua Davis standing in front of you, regularly slapping you over the face with the sheer presence that his spells had.

It was hard to be overconfident when faced with such a person.

Meredith was more worried about the opposite, really.

“Even your own arrays, Professor Davis?” some idiot asked at the back of the class. She almost rolled her eyes at the question. It was no wonder she was a “Star” if the regular student was that… lacking.

“Even my own arrays,” Professor Davis answered easily. “It’s why I’ve gotten so good at spell modification, really. I always strive to improve upon what I have. I have a vast library that I regularly study from and I’m endlessly tinkering with spells to try and cover as much as possible, to try and do as much as possible. It’ll never end, but that’s no reason to stop going forward,” the man explained, suddenly seeming to shift into a life lesson instead of a Ward Magic one.

Not that anybody was going to point that out, really. First of all, nobody was that self-sabotaging, especially after Davis had shown everyone what happened to those that annoyed him. Not that Meredith thought he’d go that far for that, but it was an amusing thought. Second of all, it was a good life lesson, at least in her opinion, so nobody felt the need to complain anyway.

Well, nobody smart and those that weren’t smart, were still not stupid enough to say something because of the aforementioned point.

“Back to the topic at hand, this is another example that I want all of you to work with,” Davis said, waving his hand and making a display appear over the blackboard behind him. Meredith was fairly sure that he thought that was nothing, but to them? To the students and other magicians? It was one of those details that were just insane.

Sure, Illusion Magic was nothing that really stood out. It was weak and… gimmicky, really. Few people used it and even fewer people reached any sort of notoriety with it, other than for party tricks and so very niche jobs.

However, the fact that their teacher, a man that they knew had a very strong grasp on many branches, such as Ward, Hex and Boon magic, also had a bunch of other branches that he used just because was… It was just crazy. Many magicians picked up a spell or two for just generally improving their quality of life, sure but...

There was a difference between learning a Storage Spell, or a Teleportation Spell, and learning all of those basic spells and more just because he felt like it. Every so often, Professor Davis would just casually drop some new spell that he knew as if it were no big deal. There were several people in their class that were keeping track of every spell and the list was getting increasingly longer at a ridiculous rate.

The worst part was that, theories told, it was all just the tip of the iceberg.

‘I should focus though,’ she told herself, hurrying to write down the example, because she was sure-

“The exercise for this instance is simple, I want you to look at this array and list all the holes in the defense that you can think of. It doesn’t matter if the solutions are within your ability to make or not. Go wild, anything you can think of, anything at all, even if it sounds impossible, write it down. From the most obvious to the weirdest,” Professor Davis told them, grinning widely as if he were very entertained. To be fair, he probably was. He often seemed to genuinely enjoy teaching them – and making them suffer through grueling homework and even more demanding class work –, which was a rarity, really.

One that they’d all learned to appreciate though.

“That’s all. Surprise me, guys. I’m sure you can do it,” the man told them and then waved them all off. “Class dismissed and all that. I’m sure you can use the extra time to get started.”

There were some grumbles, but they did as they were told. Actively complaining was useless and at least Davis wasn’t doing any of that to be cruel. He was teaching them, even if it was all very… tough.

“Meredith, if you could stay behind,” Davis said, moving to lean against his desk, while Ravel Phenex stood up from the smaller desk that had been set beside their teacher’s for her. The devil had a notepad in hand as she moved to stand beside Davis while Meredith herself walked up to them.

She did so slowly, since it seemed that their teacher wanted to talk in private, which meant waiting a bit for the other students to leave.

“Anything I can do for you, Professor Davis?” she asked, wishing it was the case. It’d certainly be better than if he wanted to drive her further in debt-

“I’ll be blunt,” the man told her, running his fingers through his hair. “I want to name you my official apprentice,” he explained, making her eyes widen. She stood there, frozen, for a long moment while processing those words.

Was that really-?

“You could have been more tactful,” the devil gumbled, side-eyeing Davis.

“Meh,” the man replied with a shrug.

It was happening.

So much for not being more in debt, Meredith supposed.

She should have known better.

“Are you sure-?” she started asking, but it was the devil that interrupted her with her answer, even before she finished the question.

“Meredith Ordinton, Alphecca Tyrant’s current wielder and direct blood relative of the British Royal Family,” the girl counted, tapping on the notepad she held. Meredith guessed she had the list written down. “Also a very talented user of Protection Magic as well as a star student from Mr. Davis’ Spell Modification and Ward Magic classes.”

She’d have said those latter ones were more important than the others, Meredith thought bitterly. Certainly more than her “family”, that was for sure. At least her magic skills were something that she’d earned and hadn’t come back to bite her in the ass.

“There are few better prospects,” the devil finished and Meredith saw, curiously, how Professor Davis rolled his eyes.

“Besides all that, I like your character,” the man added and somehow that felt even better than all the other points combined. “Ultimately, I have to warn you, in the spirit of being honest, that this is for the sake of the connection it brings to have you as an apprentice. This is basically us using each other for our names,” the man explained and that happy feeling soon vanished. “I’m afraid I’m too busy to truly take on the duties of a mentor. I simply don’t have the time to teach you as I should, at least for the moment. I’ll try as best I can, but I can’t make promises.”

Now with a cooler head, Meredith considered that for a moment. Not that she had a lot of time, because the devil took over from there. She’d have really liked some time to her own thoughts, but alas…

“This would be a great help for Mr. Davis here. I’m sure you are aware that he’s an impressive man, but he doesn’t have the solid standing to match. Having you as an official apprentice would boost that quite a bit, together with some other things we have in mind,” the devil explained for her and she sort of liked the idea of helping him. It was just… why did it have to be because of her family and her Sacred Gear?

“And there’s nothing else I can do to help?” she asked, trying to not sound pitiful and probably failing miserably. At the end of the day, she was just that, wasn’t she? Just someone born with a nice Sacred Gear and royal blood. Nothing more.

She hated that.

She hated that she hated that.

Meredith could see, clear as day, that Professor Davis knew what she was thinking. There was no mistaking the pity in his expression. She both appreciated it and despised it. Why didn’t-?

“Actually,” the man said, making her blink. The man’s entire disposition shifted to thoughtful, then inspired and, finally, both things mixed into determination. When his eyes locked on hers, it was all she could do not to just stop breathing. “There’s something you might be able to do for me and I’d really appreciate it.”

She hadn’t even heard what it was, but under those eyes and with all that he’d done for her?

Meredith would do anything.

[}-o-{]

“I’m ready, young man,” Soren told him, giving him an amused and exasperated look. “If you ask one more time, I swear…”

“Sorry, sorry,” Joshua replied with a half-smile of his own as he finished setting down the circles on the floor of the spell room he was using at the Sitri Manor. “I can’t help it.”

How could he? This was Serafall’s father. No matter how confident he was on his spells from Project Awakening, he couldn’t not be nervous. What if he messed up and couldn’t fix any mess the spells could cause? What if the Sleep Disease reacted worse than the last time and he couldn’t keep it under control? What if his spells didn’t work as well as he expected?

There were a number of things that could go wrong with the testing of those spells. It wasn’t like most other spellcrafting projects of his. Most of those, he could slowly build up and take down if they turned out to be failures. If they didn’t work, the worst that could happen was a spell mishap, which he could deal with through a number of other spells in place to deal with the aftermath.

This time though, he couldn’t, because it was all tied to Soren’s condition.

“What’s the worst that could happen if you fail, Joshua? That I fall asleep?” Soren asked then, leaning back on the armchair he was sitting on. Joshua’s previous spells were keeping the illness away, but he’d recommended that the devil take a seat before starting anyway. “I’d fall asleep anyway, even if it might have taken longer. I’d rather try and fight back.”

“The worst that can happen is that you die,” Joshua answered gravely, looking down and making sure all the circles were fine. He’d checked all of them a number of times already, but he couldn't help it. “Or that I somehow make your case of Sleep Disease worse than the rest.”

“Is that likely?” Soren asked, somehow seeming unbothered by his response. Off to the side, Serafall gave Joshua a sad smile when he looked her way. Lady Sitri and Sona, for their part, looked different kinds of pained, with the former closing her eyes and taking a deep breath in while the latter pursed her lips and seemed to stand even stiffer than usual.

“That’s the problem. I don’t know. I can only work with so much information but there’s a lot of unknowns. You saw how it went the other times, there’s always room for the disease to fight back or for my spells not to work completely. We’ve been relatively lucky so far, but one of these days we might not be,” he explained, running his fingers through his hair. Then he closed his eyes, feeling off his many sensing spells already set up so that he could have as good an idea of what was happening as possible when he actually started casting.

“I’ll take that risk anyway,” Soren said firmly.

“There’s no need to rush into things, sir,” Joshua told the devil, almost wishing that he’d take him up on that. “We can wait a little longer, I’m sure I can come up with more monitoring spells and improve on the treatment ones if we can just wait some more.”

“But doing things like this is better, is it not?” Soren asked, his eyes locking on Joshua’s and staring intently into them. “Is that not the case?” the devil asked and he could only grimace, giving away the answer. “I don’t want this sword hanging over my head any longer, Joshua. I trust you.”

He wished the devil would trust him less, in all honesty.

“As you say, sir.”

“I told you to call me Soren, didn’t I?” he was asked then, seeing a smile on the devil’s face.

“That you did, Soren. Sorry,” he replied with a grin of his own, even if it was far from happy. “Then… I’ll start now.”

To that, the only thing Lord Sitri did was nod and settle on the armchair.

So, with that decided, Joshua readied himself. He might need to act quickly before things could spiral out of his control. He’d done a number of adjustments to the first set of spells he’d cast to keep Soren’s illness at bay and all of those times he’d had to make quick patchups on the fly right afterwards. He knew to expect that, even if he didn’t know what he’d have to do.

So, slowly, he went for it.

One spell cast, then another, and soon he was flying through all of them. Sure enough, he felt the shift caused by the Sleep Disease in Soren’s energies and he had to persevere despite those. There were many spells that needed to be cast quickly and then he could see what holes he’d missed or what new development he was hit with. He needed to be faster though, before things got too out of hand.

As he continued placing down wards, hexes and boons, Joshua kept a close eye on every development of the Disease and the spells he’d already cast. His mind started working out patches for everything in case someone out of the expected happened, but things were going mostly according to plan. He just needed a few more spells and then he’d know for sure.

Some more…

Just a handful…

Just the last ones…

And then, eventually, he was down to the very last one, which was placed without fanfare. Immediately afterwards, he took a deep breath in and kept his attention firmly locked on everything he was picking up from his sensing, both personal and spell given. Soren looked more drained than ever, barely hanging to his consciousness, but that was nothing new. The harsh reaction of the Sleep Disease to Joshua’s spells was something they’d gone through every single time.

It wasn’t really indicative of much, but it did spur him to try harder every single time.

That day was no exception.

So, he watched closely, using his many spells to check on anything and everything he’d ever managed to find that could need attention. A small army of wards, hexes and boons monitored everything that happened under their area of influence, notifying him of everything that could be of importance. That is, when he wasn’t checking in on them himself just to be sure that something was going on but didn’t quite trigger the spells.

“Joshua?” he heard Serafall behind him. He didn’t answer her, staring intently at Soren, who continued to breathe with some difficulty but otherwise seemed to be fine. He was recovering, at the very least. But he couldn’t let his guard down. “Joshua is there a problem? You… aren’t casting,” his devil partner asked, concern bleeding into her voice, but he didn’t have an answer for her as he frowned.

Then he looked to the side, where Cheshire stood, looked at him and then meowed.

He let out a breath in the form of a sigh.

“Joshua, talk to me, please,” Serafall urged him and he looked at her.

“Nothing… Nothing happened. The spells worked perfectly,” he said and it should have been good, but it felt wrong. Every single attempt he’d made so far had gone sideways at least a little bit. If nothing was happening, it made him feel like there was something, just that he was missing it.

Cheshire meowed again and his eyes snapped towards Soren.

Then he blinked.

Serafall didn’t call for him again this time, instead deciding to wait. She was smart like that, because she knew that something was going on now. She just had no idea as to what. To be fair to her, Joshua didn’t feel like he knew more, despite his many spells helping him out.

‘No way,’ he thought, eyes widening.

Going over all the data he was getting once again, he confirmed that… it did seem to be the case. He wasn’t reading it wrong, nor was it some kind of fake reading. It just kept going and going. By the second, it became even more readily apparent.

“Joshua?” Serafall asked once again, after making sure that there was nothing urgent going on, probably by reading his expression. “Something we should know?”

“I’d say so, yes,” he mumbled, looking at Soren as if he could pry answers from the man. In turn, Lord Sitri stared back at him in turn, as if wondering what was going on. That day’s “treatment” was going much differently. No wonder about that though, considering… “The Sleep Disease is… letting go,” he said and he didn’t need to look around to see the ripples that his statement caused.

“What do you mean… letting go?” Soren asked, looking and feeling like he didn’t want to get his hopes up.

“The Disease is pulling away. It’s not fighting my spells as it did before. Before there’d always been this pressure that my spells took care of to keep the illness away, but now the Sleep Disease is… for lack of a better way to explain it, giving up,” Joshua explained, gulping as he tried to get a better idea of what was going on. It couldn’t be that…

“So… I’m cured?” Soren asked and this time there was no holding back.

“I don’t want to give you hope without the proper data to back that up, but it… looks like you are getting there,” Joshua answered and the excitement did dim a little in the devil’s eyes but not much. “I’ll have to keep you under observation and likely continue to check up on you to see if anything changes or it starts pushing back after a while. This is literally new territory. I don’t know what can happen now, so I’ll have to visit a few times a day to make sure nothing happens. My spells should warn you if something drastic happens and I’ll come immediately, but still, it never hurts to be careful.”

He was going to say a few more things, but he was interrupted by a soft, watery laugh. A moment later, Soren found himself with a very emotional Lady Sitri throwing herself at him and gripping at the front of his clothes as she cried. With a slight smile, Joshua stepped back as he saw Sona approach her parents, not without giving him a grateful nod that he returned.

“Not going to join them?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the three Sitri.

“I can celebrate with them later,” Serafall said, right beside him, before resting her head on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

“The least I could do,” he waved off easily. “What kind of partner would I be if I didn’t do something like this when I can?”

“You are an idiot,” she mumbled.

“I’ve been called that sometimes, yeah.”

“You are my idiot though,” she added, making him smile. “You are the best, Joshua.”

“I try,” he replied, having to hold back a shrug since she was still leaning on him. “I really hope I’m right and this is what it seems,” he commented, his mood dropping a little. “And there’s no guarantee that it’ll work on those already asleep, so there’s that.”

He was really reaching for things that could be wrong about the set up that he had at the moment. He hadn’t gotten a Quest screen, and he was pretty sure this was the kind of thing that would warrant one. So, either the Sleep Disease would take time to be fully purged from Soren, or there were things to be done to make his current set up actually cure it. Regardless, Joshua would still keep looking.

“Even if he’s not cured, you are getting there anyway. So… thank you,” Serafall said. “I’ll be sure to reward you for your hard work later too,” she added, her tone shifting and he grinned a little wider.

“A celebration of our own?”

“You bet.”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Some of Parent!Joshua, some of Professor!Joshua and some of Success!Joshua, that’s what we have in this chapter, it seems. Story is once more a little derailed from what I had planned but I think I’m finding the tracks again… the way ahead is still kind of misty, but I’m a little less lost…

Or so I think, one never knows with my characters.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter though.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Who’s your favorite character right now? Justify your answer.

See you.