Game of Monsters - 147 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

Smoke Will Rise-

“It was boring.”

“Well… Yeah, I imagined it’d be,” Joshua replied wryly. “You don’t strike me as a person to appreciate that kind of setting,” he added, leaving unsaid his own disdain for such things. He thought it was pretty obvious to anyone that knew anything about him, really.

“Joshua~ You are corrupting little Shirone with your antisocial ways~”

“Koneko,” the white-haired girl corrected half-heartedly. “And I didn’t like them before either.”

“This is your fault, Joshua~” Kuroka accused exaggeratedly, ignoring her sister’s words. Both Joshua and the younger nekoshou sighed. “See~?!”

“Can’t we meet without her here?” Koneko asked, but he knew she was just joking. Her flat delivery made it hard at times, but he’d made sure to double check what she was ok with and such things. He’d told her to be extra clear if she ever wanted him to make Kuroka go away, either because she was tired and needed a moment or any other reason. He’d talked with the older sister herself and she’d easily agreed to do as he said if he explicitly ordered something.

It was a little exhausting to play mediator, but Koneko was nice and Kuroka was… not as annoying as he’d first thought. She was like Serafall, he supposed. Her personality could be a bit much, but one just needed to learn to let most of it go.

“Eh… she has her moments,” he commented idly, drawing a hum from Koneko while Kuroka… gasped and dramatically moved a hand to her chest. “Anything I should know? Sona’s not going to tell me how things went and Serafall made a promise, apparently.”

“It… wasn’t too bad. Lady Leviathan dealt with it herself,” Koneko commented and Joshua hummed to himself. So, the Young Devil Gathering had gone about as expected. Joshua’s memories of DxD were a bit all over the place, especially because the story itself kind of was. Canon Issei’s PoV didn’t really help matters.

Well, he was sure Serafall would have broken her promise if Sona had actually needed his help. Or, at least, someone would have told him or let him know. Koneko then and there, for example, could have let him know somehow if he needed to step in. He didn’t, apparently, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be keeping an eye on things.

Sona was a good kid and she was Serafall’s sister, that was all the reason he needed.

“Welp, anything you want to do?” he asked, looking at Koneko. He had some free time, with his familiars entertaining Raynare and most everyone else busy one way or another. He’d have been working on some project at that moment, normally, but he’d smashed his head against Project Awakening so much for so long by then that he found himself really needing a break.

“Hm, we could…” Koneko started, pulling his focus back to the present before trailing off, unsure. She looked the same as usual, but he could read her well enough with Life Sense and a bunch of spells around. So could Kuroka, he was sure, but neither of them said anything. Instead, they allowed the girl to gather her thoughts and speak her mind in her own time. “The Youkai places… Could we visit them?” Koneko asked eventually, looking uncharacteristically emotive as she shyly looked down and fidgeted with the hem of her skirt.

“Sure thing,” he answered simply, calmly and confidently. He normally wouldn’t have put that much effort into such an… inconsequential response, but it wasn’t so for Koneko. She was nervous, very much so, if she was showing it. So, the least he could do was make sure she was, for sure, reassured that it was fine. “Let me make a call or two and we can go wherever you want, see everything there’s to see in Youkai Town.”

“Is it called that~?” Kuroka asked curiously and he stared flatly back at her.

“No, it’s just Kyoto, but supernatural. Unless you wanted to go to Tokyo?” he said, turning to Koneko with his question. He hadn’t seen Nurarihyon since his… offer to improve his defenses, as it were. Nor had he heard anything from Yasaka until he asked. From what he’d heard, the guy was basically acting as if nothing had happened.

At least, other than the fact that nobody was saying dumb shit about or related to Yasaka and Kunou.

Which was good, Joshua was no fan of violent means, but he was far from above those. Nobody made the people important to him sad and got away with it. Not if he could do something about it, and he certainly had the strength to make many people’s lives miserable now.

Ravel would surely love to do something other than keeping record of his business, and that would certainly fall to her “expertise”, probably. He’d probably have to check anything with Yasaka and Serafall, but he was certain-

“Kyoto is fine,” Koneko said, cutting off the tangent his mind had gone off on. “You know the place, right?”

“A little bit, yeah,” he answered, tilting his head as he recalled the places he’d been to. Most of his time in the Youkai Faction area had been at Yasaka’s place, but he had visited some places while sightseeing with Jeanne and also during some of his later dates with Yasaka now that they weren’t hiding anymore. “I can show you some places,” he added, making a mental note to ask Yasaka and some of his contacts – mostly servants of Yasaka that he was in friendly terms with, like Fuyuko – for some nice spots that he might not know.

“I’d like that,” Koneko replied with the smallest smile. For her though? It might as well have been positively beaming, evidenced by the way Kuroka cooed over it. So, Joshua smiled back and made a mental note to do his best with this outing and probably take her out on some more in future visits.

[}-o-{]

“You,” Yasaka hissed angrily, eyes narrowed as she took the seat in front of him. Joshua, for his part, looked up from his notebook and blinked at her. It was a good thing that Kunou wasn’t around, since she was in her classes. Hell, nobody was around, it was kind of why Joshua was just sort of idly tinkering, trying to do so while relaxed instead of pressuring himself…

So far, he hadn’t made much progress on Project Awakening but he had gone in what he considered a productive thought tangent regarding Project Intelligence. He’d have to go back to the former eventually, but he didn’t want to pressure himself and mess up because of that. Thus, he was pondering a little on the possibilities of just copying a person’s readings before altering that “base” into something else for his AI spell/spell array. After all, he knew that he’d mess up if he tried to make something “perfect”. So, why not make a regular intelligence that would be “normal”. That could hopefully help smooth things over a little…

Or not.

He was still thinking that over.

For the moment though…

“Yes?” he replied, a little confused. He didn’t remember doing anything that would anger Yasaka. Hell, he’d even taken a step –  little one, but baby steps – in regards to parenting Kunou and all. If anything, she should be happy… Which she had been, at the time, but still.

“You and Serafall, I’m gonna get you both for this,” she told him, her angry frown turning into a pouty one that was honestly more cute than anything, really. ‘Ah, it’s that, huh?’ he thought, his lips tugging into a smile even though he knew that wouldn’t help Yasaka’s mood. “This is not a laughing matter!” she protested in what sounded more like a whine.

“I think it is,” he retorted, getting himself a glare that he responded to with a wider smile. “You asked me for help and I helped,” he said with a smile.

“I didn’t ask you to do that much,” she grumbled at him.

“I did what I thought was enough. By the way, Serafall barely did anything,” he commented, leaning back on his chair and taking a sip from his cup of tea. “I just asked her if everything was in order before going through with that,” he added with a shrug.

“Then how…?” she started asking, confused, before trailing off. Then she seemed to find her own answer. To be fair, it was likely the right one too. “Your pet devil.”

“That’s rude,” he pointed out, unimpressed. “She’s my secretary, thank you. And she’s great at her job, evidently. Or was there anything wrong with the strings we pulled?” he asked, trying to play it off but unable to stop himself from being a little uncertain. Maybe they had messed up.

Serafall hadn’t looked that deeply and Ravel, while great, was a young devil herself. Joshua didn’t have much expertise in the area himself so… Between all three of those factors, it was possible that something had gone wrong.

“No, you did not,” Yasaka grumbled, deflating where she sat. “Don’t make me feel bad, I’m trying to scold you here,” she mumbled, pouting again at him.

“Why is it so difficult to accept that I want to help, especially people that I care about such as yourself?” he asked, giving her an amused smile. “Sure, I might have gone a bit overboard, I guess.” Personally, he didn’t think he did but still. “The Stars almost jumped at the chance, honestly. Everyone’s happy.”

“Joshua, it’s not… I just…” Yasaka started before seemingly starting to struggle putting her thoughts into words. It was quite… odd, to see her like that. She was usually the most put together person he knew, but she did have her moments of weakness in that regard, he supposed.

So, he decided to try and be the rock she had been for him on numerous occasions.

“You don’t like it when people help you,” he finished for her softly, reaching across the table in his library and taking her hand. Off the side of his eye, he saw Cheshire sit at the end of the piece of furniture and tilting her head. He sent her away with a thought… mostly because he was pretty sure Nagini would eat Raynare if he left those two alone and Morag and Margalo were too busy playing with Incinerate Anthem.

He had this handled, he was sure.

And if not, then he’d mess up and Yasaka and him would work to fix things, but he wanted to try and do things himself.

“I don’t,” she admitted, not for the first time, taking a hold of his hand. “I might not have told you, but when he left,” she started and Joshua gave her hand a comforting squeeze. He knew it was hard for her to talk about him. He didn’t know his name yet, because nobody ever mentioned it, least of all Yasaka, even though she was the one he’d heard about the man the most from. He wished one of them would, then maybe he could find him and give him a piece of his mind… Then again, maybe that was one of the reasons he didn’t know yet. “It didn’t just… hurt me. It also hurt my reputation. And now… I’ve spent this long building it back up as someone that doesn’t need… anyone. It’s just…”

“I love you, Yasaka,” he said simply, when she trailed off and didn’t seem like she’d continue from there. He stared straight into her golden eyes and smiled softly. “I’ll do many things for you, so many that it’s easier to count the ones I won’t do. Don’t ask me to not care though, to not try and do things for you just because I love you and I want to show it somehow. I can’t do that.”

“... You are so…” she started, gripping his hand tightly. “So unfair, do you know that?”

“I’ve been told that once or twice, yes,” he answered with a half-smile.

“... I love you,” she mumbled, eyes moving down to where he held her hand in his. “And I love that you care. It’s just… Old habits die hard, indeed.”

“... Then I guess I’ll help you with that too, huh?” he asked, bringing her hand up to kiss her knuckles before smiling at her. “Besides, even if things don’t work out and you dump me, I hope you know you can count on me.”

“Idiot,” she said, a watery smile on her face. “I fell in love with a fool.”

“That you did.”

[}-o-{]

“This is a family outing, son, relax a little,” Soren told him, grinning teasingly at him.

Joshua would have felt embarrassed about the “family” and the “son” parts if not for two things. First, it filled him with weird feelings inside to be included in a family like that, despite the fact that he’d been building a new one for himself for a while now. It wasn’t the same as this, however, because he’d never had siblings or a daughter or anything like the things he had now.

A parent though, he’d had two amazing ones that he’d lost. So, it was all sorts of awkward to be called “son” by someone else that wasn’t just saying that or using it as a nickname of sorts. Not necessarily all bad, but still plenty… odd.

Second of all, he was too busy ignoring him and doing what he’d been doing through most of the outing, where they’d gone to a nice place for a meal in a devil city near the Sitri’s place. What was he doing? He was checking on Soren to make sure he was fine, because that was the first instance where the Sitri Lord had gone outside of his place and from under the influence of Joshua’s spells.

“Joshua,” Serafall said, poking him with a fond smile on her face. “Is everything alright?” she asked, not really concerned. She knew, after all, that he’d have done something if something was wrong. She was asking for another reason.

“No,” he answered, slumping down. “I just worry.”

“You’ll notice if something happens. There’s no need to be that tense, alright?” she asked, taking his hand in hers. When he interlocked his fingers with her, she hummed happily. “Now, what were we talking about?” she asked the table around them, which had her parents smiling at them and Sona looking like she felt very out of place.

“You were telling us how well little Sona has been doing in your show,” Lady Sitri said, throwing her youngest under the bus mercilessly. Joshua found himself torn between laughing and feeling bad for the youngest sister. In the end, he did neither of those, really.

Instead, he just smiled contently as Serafall went on a long monologue regarding her show and its state as of late, with Joshua, Margalo and Sona. Chancing a glance towards his bird familiar, he saw her perched at an empty chair preening proudly. That was nice. He’d specifically brought her to this outing because he knew Serafall would go on and on about her show and his bird loved that with a passion.

It was nice of Serafall and her family to allow him to bring his familiar. He hadn’t been too sure if that was allowed. Because it was one thing to bring one or two of them when he was working, but it was another to do so during a… a family outing that was in public. He wasn’t even sure how those were supposed to go. He’d usually just gone places with his parents and nobody else. The few times he’d gone with others he’d been too busy being an awkward loner to notice much of anything.

Besides, it wasn’t like that’d have helped much, considering his familiars weren’t pets, they were much more than that.

“Well, I was watching the last episode and-” Boy was it a surprise to hear that Serafall’s parents watched her show. Somehow, it struck Joshua as supremely odd that these two relatively ancient devils, lord and lady of their House, watched a show that was almost entirely for children. 

In a way though, it was very heartwarming, because he very much doubted they would have if the thing wasn’t made by Serafall. There was no way they were watching for any reason other than supporting their daughter. It was… very nice. It made Joshua think that his parents likely would have listened to him talk about wards for hours. They had always wanted to bring the excited child out of him with things he enjoyed, just like how he’d sometimes go on speeches about this or that book that he’d been reading.

It was a bittersweet train of thought, he supposed.

Good thing he could easily let it go.

“-I have to say that I’m enjoying these last few ones quite a bit. It’s nice to see the characters’ normal life outside of their adventures,” Lady Sitri continued, once more pulling Joshua from his thoughts. His mind was entirely too all over the place as of late, he felt.

He was already prone to going on tangents in his own head as it was, but he felt like he was doing that much more lately. ‘Awakening is messing with my head,’ he thought, bringing a hand up to discreetly massage the bridge of his nose. Not that he thought he managed that very well, considering the way Serafall squeezed his hand and the look both Sona and Soren sent his way.

“I don’t suppose this trend will stay though, will it?” Lady Sitri finished, turning towards him and Joshua realized then that even she knew something was up. It made him feel… embarrassed and helpless, sort of. It was also, really nice that none of them said anything and looked like they were just… keeping an eye on him.

“I wouldn’t count these chapters off just yet,” he replied instead of Serafall, a smile on his face. Because if they were going to go the extra mile for him, he could do the same for them. “The plan is for them to stay just a little longer.”

“We are setting things up, after all,” Serafall announced, making a peace sign with her free hand. “Even So-tan is excited.”

“Shut up,” Sona muttered, her cheeks slightly red as she looked away.

Joshua just smiled as Serafall started teasing her sister and allowed himself to lean back and just… enjoy being around people.

[}-o-{]

[Karin]

She stood as still as possible… which wasn’t much. She could feel her hands shaking and she couldn’t stop herself from shuffling a little where she stood. Some of the other students snickering let her know that no, she wasn’t being nearly as inconspicuous as she wished she was.

They didn’t matter though.

What mattered was Professor Davis and his opinion of her spell.

So, Karin looked at him at the same time that she wanted her eyes to be focused anywhere else. His expression gave nothing away except maybe slight curiosity as he tilted his head. She’d cast her spell a few minutes before and was still awaiting judgment. That was also her third attempt and there was something to be said about doing something three times, right?…

After all, George and Dion had failed just as many times as she had. So, she was fine, right? Even if she failed, Professor Davis wouldn’t care. He didn’t mind failures so long as they didn’t do something dumb or didn’t learn from their mistakes. Except… Meredith had passed on her second try. Levi had gotten it in his first try.

Karin wanted to succeed too.

Professor Davis might not care if they failed and failed and then failed some more. He probably would encourage them through the whole thing and… be stupidly giving as he’d been with them so far. Karin expected that, really.

That wasn’t the reason she wanted to pass so badly though. It wasn’t the reason they wanted to pass so badly. Because all of them, all the Stars were in the same boat in that respect. They all had that Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.

They were the favorites, the favored. Professor Davis asked them more questions than the entire class put together. They always spoke up, they always participated, they always did well. He asked them for favors, he boosted their reputation, he opened doors for them and he basically picked them all up to bring them right up in the magician ladder with his own rise.

And now, every challenge they faced, they’d have to prove that they were worthy of that.

They had to prove that they were truly Stars.

If they didn’t manage that then…

What was the point?

“Hm, it looks…” The sound of her teacher’s voice broke Karin from her thoughts instantly and she stood straight, facing him. Was it time for her to hear the verdict? “It looks good,” he said and Karin wanted so desperately to ask if it was good enough, because that’s what mattered. He’d told them their attempts looked good before, when they failed. So she needed… She needed to know…

Out of the corner of her eye, Karin saw the rest of the class – and even those that had already passed and gotten out of the Spell Modification class, her fellow Stars – looking on curiously, eagerly, intently. She felt her hands sweating and she desperately stopped herself from wiping them on her clothes. She took a deep breath and…

‘Deep breaths, relax your muscles and then let it out, let that tension out,’ she told herself, repeating what was, among her fellow students, a sort of mantra. Professor Davis would always tell them that or a variation thereof, when he noticed that they were too tense, too nervous, too scared. Not a single one of them ever mocked those that used that advice, because they’d all used it at least once.

And if someone did… Well, bad things happened to them.

On her back, she felt Morag pulling at her hair and her lips twitched. She didn’t know what she’d done to earn the favor of one of her teacher’s familiars, but there she was. The spider always seemed to find a moment to be around her. She’d started coming to their classes a lot more than before too and Karin…

Karin appreciated that. She was a little scary, sure, but she was also a little adorable too. And besides, she’d never say no to a new friend, so there was that. On top of that, Professor Davis’ familiars were all just so full of… nature, that she couldn’t not love them. Not when her magic was all about nature too.

“Very good, actually,” Professor Davis continued. “Did you base it off the work you did on my garden?” he asked and Karin felt a smile form on her face despite her nerves.

“I did… I wanted to improve on that,” she answered somehow, despite the knot in her throat. But damnit if she’d leave a question made by her favorite teacher unanswered.

“Well, you did it,” he said and she felt hope rise up inside her. She held onto it though, not willing to accidentally fool herself. Maybe he meant something else other tha- “You pass, Karin. Be proud,” he told her, a smile on his face that told her he was just that.

“Wohooo! Another one!” she heard Meredith celebrate to the side and there were some other voices, but Karin just stood there… Processing that. There was so much happiness, so much pride… but she didn’t move from where she was. Instead, she stood there, smiling like an idiot.

“Good job,” Professor Davis told her, patting her arm and she almost fell over just with that. Not because it was a strong pat, but because she was suddenly feeling very weak due to the relief and happiness overwhelming her. “Now, anyone else?” he asked, turning towards the rest of the class with a smile. “We have some time. If nobody’s got their spells ready yet, we can go over your work and doubts if you want. Otherwise-”

Whatever else he had to say though, was interrupted by the crack of lightning, a flash of light and an explosion going off on one side, at the main building of House of Water. There were some surprised cries as everyone turned in that direction. Smoke came off of the other side from where they were, in an open space in between wings. Something was going on there though and-

And…

And the pressure.

Karin almost fell to the ground for a completely different reason as she felt the heavy, cold aura wash over here, pressing her to the ground. She felt familiar spells make their presence known once more. The machine, the beast and the guardian, all three of them reared their heads in while Professor Davis’ kind smile disappeared and was replaced by another one that sent chills down her spine.

“Everyone, go in the other direction, right now,” he said, his voice allowing no arguments.

“Professor?” she managed to squeak out.

“Go,” he told her. “There’s some pests on this side that need to be dealt with,” he added, and there was a touch of excitement to his smile that promised no good things for anyone. She’d never known… She knew Professor Davis could be merciless and even harsh. She had heard some of the rumors and even confirmed stories. But this… This was… “Some people need to just die already,” she heard him say as he moved away and she only looked at his back, as if her feet were nailed to the ground.

And as she watched, Karin could have sworn she saw black lines appear on her teacher’s skin.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

You guys know how it goes. A little fluff, a little more fluff but this time romance oriented, then some more fluff but family oriented, some nice class fluff too – because why not? – and then some touch of people about to die. Wait… One of those is not like the others…

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Any guesses as to what’s going on? Shouldn’t be too difficult.

See you.