Game of Monsters - 51 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

So Far From Home

“Woah!” Serafall exclaimed exaggeratedly as she circled Cheshire in her tiger form. Joshua was pretty sure the Satan had probably seen much more impressive stuff in her life, or weirder, or both but he appreciated it nevertheless. He’d admit that he was still in awe of it himself, honestly. “What are you feeding your familiars, Joshua?”

“Lots and lots of food,” He answered with a chuckle. “And training too.”

“No wonder you called to have the teleportation circles checked,” Serafall commented then, skipping back towards where he stood. “Is little Margalo gonna change too? Because that could affect the show, you know?” She asked with a level of seriousness that had Joshua blinking momentarily.

“She probably will, although I don’t have an exact date,” Joshua replied. The little bird was sitting at an E+ rank, so that meant she’d still had to go through to and past D- to evolve. On the other hand, she’d been sitting at Bond level 24 for a while already. It was difficult to tell, since it seemed that evolving took a bit of both things. For all he knew, it could actually be neither.

“Hmmmmmmmmm,” She hummed exaggeratedly, narrowing her eyes at the bird. Margalo, the poor little thing, could only look at her, chirping worriedly. “I guess we’ll see what happens,” The Satan decided, pouting in a way that completely undermined her serious tone.

“If it comes to it, the changes could be hidden with illusions,” Joshua suggested, because there was no way he’d let Margalo’s wish be screwed over by her evolution. It was supposed to be an all around good thing, after all.

“Are you offering?” Serafall asked, batting her eyes at him and he had to blink again.

“I mean, I’m sure you must have people that can do illusions for the show, right?” He replied slowly. How had it turned into him… ‘Oh… She wants to drag me to the show to join? Why the persistence?’ He wondered to himself.

“Of course we do, but they have their jobs, Joshua,” Serafall answered, grinning all the while. She knew her arguments weren’t good enough. Then again, Joshua and Margalo were the ones that were making a request, even if the Satan had been all for it when they’d given her the idea.

“I gotta say yes to that, don’t I?” Joshua asked, deflating as he spoke.

“Don’t look so down, Joshua!” Serafall exclaimed. “We’ll have so much fun. Maybe we can get you to join too!”

“I doubt that.”

“Do you?” Jeanne asked from his side, looking entirely too amused by the situation. The absolute traitor. “Because I’m not so sure all of a sudden.”

“See! Gin-tan agrees!” Serafall beamed, even as Jeanne twitched at the nickname.

“Guess we’ll have to see,” Joshua said noncommittally.

“Leviathan-sama, the adjustments have been finished,” Announced one of the devils that Serafall had called to adapt the teleportation spell. Joshua had already forgotten his name, he realized awkwardly. Good thing he probably wouldn’t have to address the guy.

Joshua had actually been studying the Teleportation Spell from his Spatial Magic books to try to do that himself. Unfortunately, he’d run into a bit of a problem while preparing to set the new thing up himself.

[Teleportation Spell - Lvl 1/50

A Spatial Spell which the user can cast to make a target appear somewhere else.

The user can teleport one target.

Consumption with circle – C to ∞

Consumption without circle – A to ∞]

The spell was entirely too energy consuming for him at the moment to cast all the times he’d need to in order to get his whole family to Kyoto. Getting just himself there would probably leave him exhausted. After all, C was the initial consumption. It’d require more if he had to move far and Kyoto wasn’t precisely close by, sadly.

So, he’d at least have to get the ability to teleport all six of them at once before even considering using the spell.

He could probably draw the circle regardless of the limitation. Making those modifications wouldn’t be too difficult, but the issue of the magic power was still there, sadly.

“Good, let’s go!” The Satan exclaimed, suddenly very excited for some reason. ‘She’s coming with-’ Joshua’s thoughts were interrupted by the “magical girl” grabbing his arm and dragging him to the circle. ‘-us?’ He finished wryly. “Aaaaaand, we are here!” She said as the circle activated and moved them back to Kyoto.

Joshua blinked once, and then twice, and then thrice. Next to him, Jeanne facepalmed. He felt Cheshire and Nagini sigh through their link. He didn’t know why they reacted like that though, this was great.

“You like it?” Serafall asked, looking quite proud of herself. “You thought I’d actually dismissed your idea? Puh-lease,” The Satan said, rolling her eyes at him before skipping around the room that was now filled with books. “Ah, we didn’t mean to invade your place or anything though,” She added quickly as he continued looking around. “We asked Gin-tan and Yasaka-”

“You said you’d get a few books, not a complete library,” Jeanne pointed out, pouting all the while. “I’m gonna lose my brother for months with all these books.”

“I’ll try not to be that bad,” Joshua said, a half-smile on his face. “Thank you, Serafall. All this is information on the supernatural?”

“Yep,” The woman nodded, still beaming. “I even asked Ajuka for help to repay you for his blunder. We put extra effort on making sure there would be some that would be especially good for warding.”

“I could kiss you, Serafall,” Joshua blurted out, looking around with his eyes all but shining. He couldn’t wait to start studying them. What would his wards be like after having all that information available? What would they be like after he’d read all that? God, he couldn’t wait to start.

“My, so bold, Joshua,” The Satan said, jokingly fanning herself with her hand. “I’ll have to say no though. Imagine the scandal there would be in the Underworld! No no, we can’t have that.”

He rolled his eyes at her.

“Still, thanks,” He repeated. “If you ever need anything, give me a call. If this is the kind of payment I can expect, I’ll be glad to help. Although… I don’t know where we are gonna put all this…”

“That’s easy,” Serafall waved off. “We can do some changes to the house if you’d like.”

He was suddenly reminded of what had happened to Issei’s house in canon. Yeah, that made sense.

“Sure, that’d be great. How much can I expect to have to pay for that?”

“Pay, oh no. No no no,” The Satan denied instantly, waving her index finger from side to side for emphasis. “No paying. I’m trying to pay you back for all the work and the help you’ve given us, Joshua. You can’t just try to ruin all that, you know?”

“I guess,” He replied wryly. “Well, how are we gonna do this then?”

“Let me worry about that. I’ll talk to some architects and then you can do so too. You can turn this into the perfect place for you. Go wild,” The Satan told him. Joshua suspected that his version of going wild would be very different from Serafall’s. Regardless, he was kinda looking forward to it already.

[}-o-{]

“Good job,” Joshua praised, placing a hand on top of Kunou’s head. “You did much better than I thought. You’ve been reading, huh?” He mused as he continued looking through the girl’s homework. She’d even written down things they hadn’t covered in any classes.

“I read through some of the books you left for me,” She said before looking down with a smile. “It might have been because I was working on my projects though,” She admitted, sounding proud nevertheless.

“So long as you learn,” He waved off. “How are those circles going, by the way?” He asked, settling down where he sat and listening as she explained her work to him. She was doing very well, it seemed.

“Don’t you think it’d be better to show him, Kunou?” A new voice, Yasaka, said from the side. The little girl blinked owlishly at her mother before she processed the suggestion.

“You are right! Be right back,” She exclaimed hastily as she left.

“You don’t have to humor her if you aren’t feeling well, you know?” Yasaka said once she was gone and Joshua gave a weak chuckle as he took a sip from his tea.

“She’s nice to have around, honestly. She keeps me distracted, it seems,” He replied with a shrug. “And I can’t hide anything from you, huh?” He added with a sad smile.

“I’m guessing you’ll be leaving again soon?” The youkai leader asked curiously.

“Probably just for a day this time. Maybe even less than that,” He mused for a moment. “I do have to make a stop that will probably be a little… time consuming.”

“I see,” Yasaka replied simply, seemingly very relaxed. Joshua was pretty sure she was scrutinizing him under her life sensing though. “Kunou will be glad that you won’t be gone for long then. She was quite upset during your time away.”

“I’m sorry for that,” He said, running his fingers through his hair as he pushed it back. ‘Hm, I might need to start tying it back or something,’ He mused idly. It was starting to get more and more bothersome. “I’ll try not to leave too much but-”

“Joshua,” Yasak interrupted, sounding amused. “I get it. You have things to do and places to go. I’m not asking you to stop all that to humor my daughter. It’s great that she looks up to you and that you care so much, but I can’t ask you to put everything aside for her.”

“I know that, I just…” Joshua started before trailing off, failing to find the words to explain himself. “I guess I’ve grown fond of the little one,” He said in the end, although that didn’t quite encompass all of it. “I hate seeing her upset.”

“I get it,” Yasaka nodded, giving him an understanding look. “If you need anything, you know we are here for you, right?” She asked then, somewhat catching him off guard.

“I know,” He said then, even if both of them knew he hadn’t. “I appreciate it,” He added, more truthfully. “I think I might owe you when all is said and done.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. I’m dreading the moment you finish your defense settings. If dealing with the associations and other factions was stressful, I don’t know what I’ll do when it comes to paying you,” Yasaka lamented, although he could see a corner of her mouth twitching up. “Especially with your supremely infuriating negotiation habits.”

“You mean, leaving it to you?” He asked, amused.

“Yes,” She nodded. “Do you have any idea what that’s like for the other side? It might look like it simplifies our jobs, but it just makes it harder. If we give someone what they want in return for a job, that’s fine. But if it comes out that we underpaid you for your services when you didn’t ask for anything in particular, it can negatively hit our reputation.”

Huh, he hadn’t considered that. Was that how it worked? That sounded… weird.

“Well, we’ve talked about my desire to delve into hex magic. I’m sure I can come up with a list of materials that I’ll need for that. Would that help?” He offered, unsure and slightly apologetic.

“That’d be appreciated,” Yasaka replied with a kind smile. “I’m sure other people would too, if you were to make their jobs easier,” She added, her expression turning the smallest bit teasing.

“I, uh, maybe,” He admitted. It seemed like he owed an apology to some people. And he’d have to give more thought to how he dealt with his future jobs. Even if he didn’t care for payments and such all that much, he didn’t want to inconvenience others. That’d look bad on him, make others hesitant to approach him, maybe?

‘Which I guess is kind of how it’s been for others, huh?’ He mused, amused by the irony. Still, he could barely see the logic in that as it was. Then again, he was in DxD, he shouldn’t expect things to make too much sense, he supposed.

“Here!” Announced Kunou as she appeared back in the room and shoved her circles on the table for Joshua to look at. Immediately, she started rambling on about them, which helped him push aside other thoughts for the moment.

[}-o-{]

“You sure you want us here, Josh?” Jeanne asked softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Of course,” He nodded, his expression oddly calm, all things considered. “You are my family now,” He added, a sad smile forming on his face. “I would like a moment by myself though, if you don’t mind,” He added, his hand running through Cheshire’s fur. He wasn’t very sure why the feline had insisted on being in her tiger form, but that was fine. He’d already had to put up an illusion for Nagini anyway.

“Of course, we’ll stay here until you are ready,” Jeanne assured him.

For a long moment he stood where he was before taking a deep breath in and actually stepping forward. He didn’t go far, but he was far enough that the others couldn’t hear him anymore. He still threw on an illusion to mask sound just in case. He wanted privacy at the moment.

“I… I don’t even know how to start,” Joshua said then, receiving only silence as a response. “I didn’t even know if coming here was a good idea… after all, you are not my parents, are you?” He asked sadly. “I wonder if you’d have wanted me to come here sooner or not at all,” He continued as he crouched in front of the gravestones. “I just… couldn’t do it, I guess.”

He’d wondered what to do for this day for quite a while. It was one year since the accident and he’d wanted to do something. Sighing, he sat on the ground, legs crossed as he regarded the pieces of rock that had his parents’ names engraved.

“I wonder if your Joshua is in my world right now. I hope so,” He mused out loud. “Things are probably going well for him over there, I’m sure. I… didn’t come here to talk to you though. I’m sorry if that sounds rude or anything but I can’t… I wanted to have a way to talk to my parents, I guess. God, this is all sorts of weird,” He said, bringing a hand up to run through his hair.

Something that he couldn't do, since he’d finally tied it back. ‘Will have to get used to that, I guess,’ He thought to himself, as he instead massaged his eyelids.

“I… I miss you,” He said eventually, because he’d been waiting to do that since forever, or so it felt. “I miss you a whole lot,” He continued, feeling his throat grow tight. “But… But I think you’d be happy for me, proud even… I wish I could know for sure, but I guess that’s never gonna happen.”

The gravestones remained silent, but Joshua found that just… saying what he’d been thinking over the last year helped. It was almost like he was actually talking to them, in a way. Not quite, but this was the best he’d get, he supposed.

“You’ve finally got that daughter you wanted, guys,” He mused with a slight smile as he turned to look at Jeanne, who was standing patiently with his familiars off to the side. “Jeanne is great. I think you guys would have loved her,” He continued, taking a deep breath in to calm himself a little. “You’d probably have a ton of advice to give me about her… and a lot of things, I guess… I wish I could get it.”

“Anyway,” Joshua kept on, before he could lose his nerve. “The rest of the family is kinda weird, huh? Wonder how much you’d freak out with them. At least Cheshire and Margalo are kinda normal and harmless looking… sometimes. Morag would have won you over though, I’m sure. Nagini… well, that one would probably take some time, I guess.”

He paused after that. It felt like every word was taking a weight off of him. It was good but, at the same time, it left an empty feeling in him. It made the whole thing even more real, in a way, making the loss all the more prominent.

“I wonder how things are going over there,” He said, leaning back and resting on the palm of his hands. He looked up at the sky, almost being able to imagine they were right there with him and that it was just pieces of stone. “Are you doing well? Did dad pick up another project and annoy you to no end, mum? Is mum still throwing her little tantrums whenever she gets angry, dad? Is… Are things the same? Did something change? I want to know.”

Tears pooled in his eyes and he blinked rapidly. A lonely drop fell down his cheek, but he didn’t bother with it.

“I’m…” Joshua started, before gulping down a knot on his throat and continuing. “I’m doing better. I’m doing well. I have friends, a new family, I have a job that I love. I’ll probably have another soon, if I get the cafe thing going,” He told them, a bitter smile on his face. “God, I wish you could see me. I wish I could have been like this when you could see me. I wish I could have been less of a failure and a nuisance… But I guess it is what it is.”

“Is the other Joshua there?” He asked, knowing there’d be only silence as a response. “If not… are you right here, talking to me like I am to you? That’s… a somewhat comforting thought, I think.”

Joshua looked at the gravestones once more for a long moment, taking in the names before closing his eyes.

“I love you.”

“I’m proud of you.”

“I promise I’ll do my best to make you both proud,” He said before chuckling to himself. “I guess I’ve made everyone wait for long enough, right? Time to introduce one of my families to the other,” He added, raising a hand, dispelling the illusion around him and calling over Jeanne.

“Thanks for coming,” Joshua told them all as they approached the gravestones.

“No, Joshua, thank you,” Jeanne responded in everyone’s stead.

Funnily enough, he didn’t even know what she was thanking him for.

[}-o-{]

Joshua wondered what Jeanne wanted to tell his parents in private.

He’d been asked to stand to the side when they’d been about to leave. He had a feeling he had an idea of what his sister wanted, but he couldn’t help but be curious still. ‘Is this how she felt?’ He wondered idly as he waited.

“You have some nerve showing up after all this time,” A voice said to his side, one that he recognized.

“Aunt Sarah,” He greeted with a slightly forced smile.

“You didn’t even show up for the funeral,” The woman accused and he almost sighed. ‘Some things never change,’ He thought to himself as she continued. “You vanished from the face of Earth, after all your parents did for you. After all they had to put up with through the years. I knew you were a selfish thing, but that was a new low.”

“It’s good to see you well,” Joshua said, smile still in place. He didn’t know why he’d expected something different. There was a reason why he hadn’t been very close to most of his relatives before the accident. ‘And things have gotten worse, it seems.’

She didn’t even deign that with a response, simply sneering at him.

“The twins doing well?” Joshua asked, keeping his tone friendly even if he only wanted to give her a piece of his mind. He wouldn’t cause a scene in front of his parents, from a different world or not. This place meant something, and if she wanted to disparage it, then it was on her.

This conversation shouldn’t have happened just yet. He’d wanted to visit her and talk about a few things. Not… have a fight in front of his parents’ graves.

“Don’t you have a book or a TV show to watch? You know, better things to do?” Sarah asked and Joshua had to hold back a wince. That stung, the reminder of how he’d been before. Always having something at hand to keep his attention away from the awkwardness of social interactions. Avoiding them as he grew more and more distant with people.

His relatives had never seen him trying. That trip had been to start on that but then…

Sarah’s eyes moved towards Jeanne, who was still standing in front of the graves.

“Oh, I see why you were so… busy to come before,” She said, and Joshua felt himself tense.

“You know,” He started, his smile twitching into something a lot less friendly. Because she could throw all her vile at him, but she’d better forget doing so with his sister. “Mum always said you were a judgmental bitch.”

“Why you-?”

“Your husband left for a reason, Aunt Sarah,” Joshua commented as if he were talking about the weather. “Did you know my parents were still in contact with him? More so, I’d say. It’s a shame, that one can’t choose family sometimes. You should be grateful though.”

“After everything you have the nerve to-”

“You have some nerve,” He interrupted, stepping forward and making her take one back. “Coming here to criticize me. We were on that trip because you couldn’t be bothered to come to our place. Always too busy to come and visit us but we had to make the whole trip to your house when you felt like it. I bet you wanted us to do most of the work as usual, right? Cook, clean, help organize. When was the last time you saw our house before the accident? But I bet you were very happy when you took that from me after they died and I couldn’t even think straight, right?”

She fell silent then, but there was still rage in her eyes.

“I’d almost forgotten how much of a bitch you were,” He spat, glaring at her. “I guess I wanted to forget it, but thanks for reminding me. I’ll take everything back, Aunt Sarah. So I hope you aren’t too attached to those things.”

“You can’t do that, it’s already-”

“You don’t have any idea the things I can or can’t do, Aunt Sarah,” He interrupted yet again, laughing at her. “It’ll take one call to get everything. Maybe I’ll even get some compensation, who knows?” Even if it wasn’t possible, who cared? A talk with Sairaorg and it would be done anyway, he was sure. If he needed to, he’d talk with whoever he needed. “You are a sad thing, and I hope I’ll never see you again,” He finished, taking a deep breath in to calm himself down.

Mainly because Jeanne was walking back with his familiars behind her. Good thing there was an illusion there. His sister looked confused though, and he couldn’t say he blamed her.

“Everything alright?” She asked hesitantly.

“Yeah… Everything’s fine,” Joshua nodded, giving his aunt a glance. The woman looked like she couldn’t decide if she should be angry or scared from what he’d told her. “Let’s just go.”

“Ah, ok,” Jeanne replied, looking between him and Sarah even as she followed him instantly. “Did… Um, what did I miss?”

“That was my aunt, Sarah Williams,” He said, looking forward and trying to keep his emotions under control.

“That… didn’t look like a happy meeting,” She pointed out, looking behind her.

“That’s because it wasn’t.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Joshua waved off. “My parents were nice, but I can’t say the same thing about the rest of the lot. There was a reason I couldn’t quite connect with most of them… It doesn’t matter though,” He explained, turning to look at Jeanne, who had Margalo and Morag on her shoulders. “I have all the family I need anyway,” He finished, giving them a smile that only grew when Cheshire pushed her cat head against his leg and Nagini poked him with her tail. “Let’s just go. It seems I have a call to make anyway.”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I’ve been looking forward to writing this chapter for quite a while. Maybe that’s the reason I think I haven’t managed to do it justice. Regardless of my nagging brain, I think I did a somewhat decent job at it… probably.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: There’s quite a bit of background information that I’ve been dropping hints of for quite a while but especially in this chapter. Some pieces are more obvious than others. Did you catch any of them?

See you.