Game of Monsters - 57 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

Started Down This One Way Track

“Do you think you’ll join the kendo club?” Joshua asked Jeanne as they walked. Sona was still giving them the tour, because apparently she’d decided to show them every club too. She was really doing her best to sell them the idea, which was kinda funny since he’d basically already convinced Jeanne. The look on his sister’s face told him that the decision was all but made already.

“Sounds… too much like just a sport to me, really,” Jeanne commented, which was fair. They were likely to get into real fights with very high stakes, like their lives. Having a sport to teach her how to use her swords would likely make things worse more than anything, or so they thought.

“Some other club then,” He mused out loud. “Maybe not the Student Council or the Occult Research Club though,” He added with a slight grin, to which Sona shot him a sheepish look.

“We do accept members that aren’t in our peerages, you know?” The devil told them, to which he chuckled.

“Could have fooled me. How many such members do you two have between your groups?” Joshua asked, making the heiress look away and he was pretty sure there was a slight dusting of pink on her cheeks out of embarrassment. “That’s what I thought. I’m sure you can find something to interest you. If not, well, you can just go home. There’ll be the cafe, after all.”

“I guess,” Jeanne agreed, although she seemed a little overwhelmed by all that they’d been told since they arrived. Joshua guessed that with it being quite a while since she’d stopped going to school, she’d forgotten stuff. Nevermind the fact that schools were different in Japan.

He looked at the time then.

‘As good an excuse as any to give her a break, I guess,’ He mused with a small smile.

“Sona,” He called, drawing the heiress’s attention. “We were coming for a visit, sure, but I’d like to get some wards set up while I’m at it too and it’s getting kind of late,” He said. The devil’s expression turned sheepish then, to which he chuckled. “I’m sure we can get the rest of the tour out of the way at some other time.”

“Right,” Sona said, nodding, even if she seemed slightly flustered. “Follow me, I’ll take you to the Ward Room.”

“Ward room?” Joshua asked.

“It’s what we’ve started calling it,” The girl said with a slight smile.

“Appropriate, I guess,” He nodded, considering what to say next. “Anyway, I might be coming around a whole lot to set up wards if Jeanne is gonna come here. I’ll run the wards by you, of course, but I thought I’d let you know that I plan to set up a lot. Or we’ll have to look for another school, I guess, if that’s not agreeable.”

“There’s no problem with that,” Sona said, her back straightening.

“Sona, I know that letting me go wild with wards over your territory is… less than ideal for you. You can tell me, I’m not gonna get offended,” He reassured her with a half smile.

“Nothing like that, Joshua,” She denied instantly. “Rias and I are unlikely to be able to afford for you to set the best defenses you can. If all we have to do is welcome Jeanne here and give her a good experience at this school to get them, then I almost feel like I’m scamming you.”

“Almost, but not quite, huh?” He noted with a raised eyebrow, to which she gave him a sheepish grin. “Devils, why’d I become friendly with your sort? You are incorrigible,” He muttered, shaking his head.

“I do believe you should have known better, Joshua,” A new voice called and they turned to look at Rias. Clearly, she’d gotten word that they were going her way or something.

“Rias, good to see you,” He greeted with a smile. “I hope things have been going well?”

“I think you know the answer to that,” The redhead replied, giving him a beaming smile, although she looked a little nervous too. He wondered why that was. “Thank you, for what you are doing for me.”

“I believe I’ve already said that it’s also for my own sake, really,” He told her with an amused smile.

“Hm, I don’t believe you made the math quite right with how much you are giving and getting back,” The devil heiress said and he had to give her that point. He still wasn’t sure he was losing all that much. Sure, he wasn’t getting paid nearly as much as he could be, but he was building bridges. That was probably even better.

Maybe Sirzechs wouldn’t owe him a favor, but the Satan Lucifer now was on friendly terms with him, and that was almost as good. Could even be better, depending on how he played his cards. His already budding friendship/alliance with Serafall would get even better. Hell, maybe he could build something with Ajuka, if the Satan Beelzebub got interested in his projects, like how he’d done with Azazel.

That was three Satans out of four. How many people could say that?

Joshua was fairly sure that he was doing well for himself.

“And I don’t think you are seeing the whole picture,” He replied with a shrug and a lazy smile. He couldn’t really blame her for that. He did, after all, know many things he had no business knowing, after all. “Hey there, Koneko,” He greeted, his grin widening a little out of amusement when Cheshire rushed towards the Nekoshou. “Kiba, Akeno,” He added, then, nodding towards the other pair.

Joshua was supremely amused when the swordsman replied and instantly got his attention taken away towards Jeanne. His sister didn’t do much better, almost beelining towards the Sword Birth holder. ‘Man, they’ve got it bad, it seems… Makes me wonder why it was so difficult to convince her to come here… Or maybe she was playing me?’ He considered narrowing his eyes on his sister.

Ultimately, he decided to let that go.

“She still doesn’t like me much, huh?” Joshua said then, turning his attention to Akeno, who had muttered a greeting and then promptly excused herself to go prepare tea. She’d never really let go of that one time when he called her out on being half-fallen. It really hadn’t been his fault though, he hadn’t known what he did now when that happened.

“She doesn’t,” Koneko commented bluntly. “It’s not your fault though.”

“I guess?” He mumbled before sighing. Then he turned towards the white-haired girl. “I can leave you to take care of Cheshire while I work, right?” He asked, giving Koneko a somewhat amused look. After all, his feline familiar was already curled up on the girl’s lap and the youkai turned devil seemed perfectly ok like that.

Koneko’s agreeing hum just confirmed that.

“Well, I guess I should get on with it,” He said to himself. “So, to the Ward Room, huh?” He added then, turning towards Rias and Sona. They were the owners of the place, after all.

[}-o-{]

Joshua worked idly on a side project of his, scribbling ideas for a circle on a notebook he held on his lap. It was something he’d thought of a while back. He’d initially thought about asking Sairaorg to help him with this, but he was fairly sure he could make it himself. It’d just need a bit of work for the circle but the real problem would be crafting what he wanted.

He’d need to practice a fair bit to get Crafting to a proper level, if nothing else.

For the moment though, he just waited. He’d still called Sairaorg, after all, since he needed his help with a few things. Also, because he was a friend too, but that was a given.

“Hello, Joshua, doing well?” The devil greeted after appearing with a teleportation circle.

“Yeah, just fine,” The human mumbled absently as he noted some final things down before looking up. “How’s training going?”

“Great. Those last wards we added were a great idea, I gotta say,” The Bael replied with a chuckle as he moved to take a seat on an armchair next to the couch Joshua was sitting on. “So, you said you need help with some things?”

“Yeah, first of all,” Joshua started, once they were done talking about business, they could go back to normal chat, he supposed. “I need lockets like this one,” He said, tapping his family locket, drawing a somewhat surprised look from Sairaorg. “Exactly like it, if possible.”

“Hm, I can do that. I might need to take it for a bit while I contact the people for the job, so they can have the right idea,” Sairaorg told him, sitting straight and clearing his expression to show how serious he was. “I promise nothing will happen to it. I’ll look over the process myself.”

“Thanks, I’d appreciate it,” Joshua nodded, giving the devil a grateful smile. “I want to test some things and check if I can put some circles on it, but I want to make sure it’ll go well before trying.”

“Understandable,” Sairaorg replied before tilting his head. “Anything else?”

“Yeah, I need to meet with the Church again. I was wondering if you’d accompany me once more,” Joshua said with a slight grimace. “I could probably ask Serafall but…”

“That’d be overkill, same with Yasaka,” Sairaorg nodded. “Sure, I can do that.”

“Great. So about payment,” Joshua started, waving his hand vaguely so the devil would say his price.

“Josh, buddy, considering everything, I think I still owe you a lot,” Sairaorg commented wryly. “But I heard you made some communication artifacts?”

“Want some for your peerage? I can do that if you get me the materials,” Joshua said, completely ignoring the first part. “They can be a little annoying, but I really should get some practice down anyway. I have a feeling I might make more of those in the future besides some projects I already have going on,” He added absently, as he idly patted on the closed notebook on his lap before setting it aside.

“Great, I’ll see what I can do about that. I can get you the materials, but I’m guessing you’d appreciate some study material for that?” Sairaorg offered and Joshua just gave him a half smile. The devil just chuckled. “Guessed as much. I guess I have stuff to look for then.”

There was a moment of silence then and, normally, Joshua would have said something inconsequential, starting a random conversation. He’d most probably have started rambling about ward ideas that Sairaorg would listen to curiously or maybe the devil would suggest things for training. At any other time, Joshua would have filled that silence with something or just decided to go on their way. There were many things to be done, after all.

However, something in Sairaorg’s expression gave him pause.

“Sairaorg?” Joshua prodded. He wasn’t sure what was up with his devil friend, really. He just looked, pensive, like he’d gotten lost in thought all of a sudden. ‘Is that what I look like when thinking about wards?’

“Sorry, I got distracted,” Sairaorg replied, shaking his head. His eyes focused again, but the smile that he put on didn’t reach his eyes. “I was just thinking… You are really going to try to duplicate the Phenex’s healing power with wards, huh?”

“That’s the idea. It’ll help with your cousin’s little problem and it’ll be… very useful for me with your faction,” Joshua admitted. Helping Rias was all well and good, but he was doing it more for himself. Having that kind of ward on his side would be a great boon. On top of that, he could solidify his position as an ally of the devils. And if they didn’t quite hold up on their side of said alliance… Well, he was sure there would be a line of factions ready to take him in with such power behind him.

“Hm… I see,” Sairaorg said, but he left it at that. “It seems my mind isn’t quite there today,” He added then, grimacing as he seemed to trail off after his previous words. “I’ll leave you to your things then,” He added, nodding towards the notebook on Joshua’s lap. “Remember to call if you need anything.”

“Sure, see you later, man,” Joshua nodded, watching Sairaorg teleport away. ‘Wonder what that was about…’ He thought to himself before pushing that aside for the moment. He didn’t have a clue, honestly. Maybe he’d ask the devil the next time they saw each other.

[}-o-{]

Joshua concentrated on several things as he sat on the ground. He felt his magic and the magic around him. From his familiars and from Jeanne. He felt his wards, covering the entirety of his surroundings with a mantle of energy. Every layer of them felt different, some harsher, some softer, some warm, some cold, some whispered excitedly at him while others were stoic and silent.

He felt the life around him, from the smallest of insects and the very grass to his family around him. Every life, every breath, every heartbeat. He felt the energy shift. A plant’s energy whimpered, telling him it was sick. Morag’s energy all but cried out at the same time as fly’s, both for very different reasons with very different emotions.

He focused mostly on his own energies though. His magic, restless and ambitious. His life, calm and content. He felt them move inside him, the first boundless and still contained, the second slow but very purposeful.

Once he felt his magic reserves full again, Joshua opened his eyes.

[Meditation has gone up a level.]

[Quest Complete: Reach a Meditation level of 50.

Reward:

+ 10 Mind Resistance Levels]

‘That’s great,’ He thought instantly, a grin forming on his face. It wasn’t a massive thing, for sure, but any level he got in Mind Resistance was very, very welcome. After all, he wasn’t over the fact that his memories had been sealed just yet.

He’d managed to push through and keep living as he did, but the scar remained, throbbing at the back of his mind. What if there were other things that were blocked from his mind? What if there was some massive thing that was still hidden, some important memory that he needed to know about? What if he’d forgotten something key to who he was?

So, he yearned for the day he maxed Mind Resistance, if he was honest.

‘Think about something else, Josh,’ He told himself, shaking his head. The Meditation level was neat too, he supposed. It was a very useful skill, at least in regards to training and such. It meant that he could take a little break whenever he ran out of magic and be full power once more by the end of it if he just took the time to meditate. He wasn’t sure how useful the much smaller buff to his regeneration in general was though.

Five percent certainly wasn’t going to change his life, that was for sure. Still, it was better than not having it though, so he’d take it. Maybe he could get something more to add on top of that. There had to be some other skill, or perk, or something that would do the same thing. Joshua just needed to find it so he could stack the effects.

If not, well, it was still a plus, no matter what.

“Ready to go again?” Joshua asked then, turning towards Jeanne. Even without the system, he was pretty sure she recovered faster than she should. Maybe it was the Hero Descendant thing, or maybe meditation worked just as well without the system, but without the bonuses. Or maybe she just had a better affinity for that. There could be a ton of reasons for that…

And Joshua would admit to being curious. He’d even set up a few wards to keep track of Jeanne’s progress in regards to some things. His sister had agreed to that, of course, since she was curious herself. She wanted to know what the Hero Descendancy meant for her besides the voices and maybe her Sacred Gear.

As it was, they’d found very little.

“Give me a minute, I’m almost ready,” She called, from where she sat on the ground, just like he had a few moments ago. Nodding silently, so that she could continue meditating, Joshua turned towards the trees. He could get some aim practice, he thought, pulling two knives from his Storage Spell.

Juggling with one of them, he looked around once more. Sure enough, Morag was in the middle of a meal. Nagini was… meditating too, from what he could see and feel with his Magic and Life Sense. As for Cheshire and Margalo, the feline seemed to be trying to teach the bird Agility. That would probably be useful, yeah, and it was about time that his youngest familiar learned some magic skills. Maybe that would give her the push she seemed to need to evolve.

Before he could start throwing daggers at the trees around to practice for a bit… Joshua deflated. The game system was great and all, but progress was so slow, it was a bit demoralizing. He had literally no maxed skills just yet, unless one counted the Bond skills. He knew he didn’t though, since those had had really low thresholds before it was raised by Shed.

It was stupid to think like that, Joshua knew. He was aware that he was very good with magic, which made little sense. The only explanations he had for that was that either he had a natural talent for that, or his mind worked differently from everyone else in that world, which gave him an edge. He was inclined to believe it was the second, but he wasn’t very sure. For all he knew, it could be a completely different thing altogether.

‘Stop thinking like that and get to training, will you?’ He thought to himself, slightly annoyed. Maybe he was growing a little tired of the routine of working out, he supposed. A short vacation would probably help with that… ‘Maybe. I did get done with the Kyoto job, which was the most pressing thing. There’s the Phenex ward to work on but… Yeah, maybe I can take a few days off or something. What to do though…?’

As he pondered on that, he threw the first knife against a tree. A second soon followed, the motions almost happening on their own with very little thought being put into it. It gotten easy enough that he was starting to consider ideas to help challenge himself and hopefully increase the speed at which Dagger Master and Throwing Weapon Mastery rose. ‘Trickshots or maybe doing this while blindfolded? Maybe something else?’

Idle musings were interrupted abruptly when he felt one of his wards send a signal to him. Tilting his head, Joshua focused his attention on that. It wasn’t one of the wards at Kyoto, that was for sure. Not the Hunter’s House either. It was…

His eyes narrowed.

Both Cheshire and Nagini looked up from where they were before they turned towards him. Margalo too but a second to notice that her teacher had suddenly put her attention elsewhere. Morag followed only a moment later too.

“Jeanne!” He called, making the girl’s eyes snap wide open and her back straighten. “I’ll be going for a bit,” He told her, eyes still staring off to the side as he followed what his wards were telling him.

“Where?”

“I’ll be at the Hunter’s House for a bit. Call if you need me,” He said, starting to move towards the knives he’d thrown to pick them up again. He wanted to go quickly, but there wasn’t actually any rush from what he could feel. ‘The prototype of adaptive Concealing Ward worked well out of testing too,’ Joshua noted to himself.

“They sprung a trap?” His sister asked from his side and he saw her standing up and walking towards him. “I’ll be going in a bit, the teleportation circles are draining.”

“You can stay here, you know?” Joshua reminded her, grimacing a little. He’d really prefer it if she didn’t go with him.

“I know it won’t be pretty, Josh, I’ve told you,” Jeanne told him, stopping him with a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll gather the knives, just go. And I’ll be following you in a bit, you can be sure of that.”

“Jeanne-”

“Jeanne nothing,” She interrupted with a determined expression on her face. “The voices have been preparing me for this, telling me what will happen and that it needs to happen. How this might go. I’ll… I don’t like it, but I accept it.”

“... Well, I can only hope you won’t get there too quickly, I guess,” He said in the end, deflating a little. Maybe it was selfish of him, but he wanted to keep Jeanne away from the mess he was willingly walking into. Or maybe it was just hypocritical of him.

Or both, who knew?

“See you there, Josh,” Jeanne told him as he started making his way inside. His familiars were already on the move to follow him. Cheshire was the first to reach him, naturally, soon followed by her student, Margalo. Morag was third, jumping on his back and then walking her way to the shoulder that wasn’t occupied by the bird. Nagini was a little slower, but Joshua had to get ready for the teleportation circle anyway.

Eventually though, they all teleported to the Hunter’s House. The trip was draining, very much so. It was expected though, especially considering that he’d brought all his familiars with him. Joshua almost felt like dropping for a nap then and there, but he had something to do.

Thankfully, he’d been pulling at the draining wards in the Hunter’s House while waiting for Nagini. They proceeded to flood him with magic so that he could keep up. ‘I’ll have to charge those back up again later,’ He thought to himself. Thankfully, there were a lot of redundant wards that he could take some energy from whenever he needed it, but he still didn’t like doing that overly much.

“Wait for me here, yeah?” He said and his familiars did as they were told, with Margalo and Morag getting off of him. “Be right back,” He added, teleporting again.

The drain wasn’t nearly as bad, really, since it was just him and the distance wasn’t as long as it was from all the way in Kyoto. He’d probably need to recharge again once he got back to the Hunter’s House though. But that was something for later, as it was…

“Well, hello,” Joshua greeted as he walked into a clearing in the forest. “I hope I didn’t make you wait too long.”

His only response was a grunt and a groan.

“Yeah, I know. Awfully inconsiderate of me to leave you here for that long, but I was sort of busy, you see?” He explained as he walked, his eyes scanning his surroundings. “There are more of you here than I thought, that’s gonna be annoying…” He thought out loud as he counted. ‘Yep, eleven, that sucks… That’s…’

[Teleportation Spell - Lvl 6/50

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

The user can teleport 6 targets.

Consumption with circle – C to ∞

Consumption without circle – A to ∞]

‘Two trips…’ He nodded.

“Well, some of you guys will have to wait for a bit longer while I teleport the others first, yeah? I hope you don’t mind,” Joshua said looking around.

One of the people around started breathing harshly.

“Are you worried?” He asked, turning to that particular person. “You shouldn’t have joined Khaos Brigade, then. You see… I don’t like your terrorist organization very much, since you keep attacking me and people I care about. Thus… Well, I decided to go a little on the offensive.”

He grinned widely, a wicked smile that bode nothing good for the people that had fallen to his ward trap.

The one person that could see his face whimpered.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, I referenced this last bit on a previous chapter or two, I’m sure. I wonder if anyone got that. Regardless, pieces are moving and, slowly but surely, we are moving away from canon. Soon, there’ll be nothing left of it, or so I’d like this to turn out, at least. We all know how well I can predict stuff, so we’ll see.

With that said, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What do you think will happen in the future of this story? Anything you are particularly looking forward to?

See you.