Game of Monsters - 79 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

I Got My Mind Made Up

Joshua found himself doing the usual thing while waiting for Kunou to be done with her classes. He usually dropped by earlier than she could show up, but that was mostly because it depended on how fast the girl got through whatever her other teachers were… Well, teaching her. Thus sometimes she’d be waiting for him and sometimes he’d be waiting for her. It wasn’t like it was annoying or anything, since he had plenty of things to entertain himself and nobody seemed to mind having him there by himself.

So, he sat there, working on his wards with a cup of tea courtesy of Fuyuko.

He was especially focused, one could say, since this was both pretty important and he’d hit a few breakthroughs on the project. He was working on the Phoenix Ward, after all. Although, he was considering changing the name of the idea, quite honestly. Not only was there some chance of it being turned into a Phoenix Hex instead, but there was also more to it than just Phoenix stuff now.

After all, Asia’s Twilight Healing had been added into the mix now.  He’d already considered that idea when he’d accepted to take care of her, of course, but he hadn’t really focused on it. There’d been a few other things in mind, like the mess that seemed to be the Holy factions and such. However, once things had calmed down and the girl offered to heal them after a training session for the first time… Well, it was difficult not to connect his project with her Sacred Gear.

Which had in turn given him the idea of checking just about any healing information he had in his possession. He’d already gone through the Restorative Ward, which he’d already known before the whole thing even started, and the several Healing Magic books he had at his disposal, but he looked a bit deeper after Asia. He looked for creatures with healing properties for themselves as much as for others. He looked for how other magics could achieve some healing effects of their own. He similarly looked into how other sapient species dealt with that too.

In most cases there wasn’t much information, but some details could sometimes stand out and give ideas, new approaches for him to go through. Maybe it was a stretch to say that he’d made a lot of progress since then, but he certainly felt like he’d done more than he had while he was just analyzing Phoenix Tears. He didn’t feel particularly close to his goal, but then again, he likely wouldn’t until he was right there, finishing the thing.

‘I need to see if Serafall can let me use a Phoenix Tear on someone. I’d like to see what data I can get from checking it while it works instead of just letting it sit there on a vial,’ Joshua considered, making a note to remind himself to talk with the Satan about that. ‘Doesn’t need to be myself or someone I know. I just need to see it in action, preferably under my wards but if it comes to it, Magic Sense and Life Sense might be enough to pick up on some things…’

Joshua was then pulled from his thoughts as the door of the room opened. He half expected Kunou to have finished her classes, or maybe Fuyuko would appear with another tray and a cup of tea for him or maybe some snacks. His cup had been empty for barely a few minutes, but the woman had learned how he worked quite a bit already. It was a bit unnerving some times, even if it was also greatly appreciated.

Neither of those two were who entered though. Instead, in came Yasaka, which wasn’t that strange, but it was still not quite a usual thing. Or so he thought, maybe he just couldn’t quite get used to the idea that a faction leader came to visit him. Especially since there was little to no reason for her to do so. At least Serafall mostly visited to work on the Phoenix Ward – ‘definitely changing the name’ – even if they usually ended up having sort of a friendly meeting too while at it.

“I’m not interrupting anything, I hope?” the woman asked, taking a seat in front of him on the other side of the table. “I can wait if that’s the case.”

“Uh, no, it’s fine,” Joshua replied, blinking and looking down at his notes. He still had a lot to do, but nothing was quite pressing enough to make Yasaka wait, really. “It can wait,” he added, pushing his notebook and other things to the side. “Did you need something?”

“Can’t I just visit to talk with you?” she asked, raising a delicate eyebrow. She also spoke in that tone that had Joshua wondering how much was teasing and how much was her being serious. It always made him feel a bit nervous, if he was honest.

“Of course you can,” he answered quickly, slightly flustered before he calmed himself. Especially so when she gave him a soft smile that told him things were ok. ‘Don’t do that to me, woman,’ he complained in his mind.

“I did have something that I wanted to talk with you,” she told him, which had him giving her an unimpressed look. Her response of giggling behind her hand didn’t help matters at all, he found. “It’s about what you asked me the other day. I think you should do it.”

“Are you sure? I know it’s more than a little risky. Certainly not inconspicuous,” Joshua pointed out, wishing he hadn’t brought up the idea with her at all.

“It shouldn’t bring as much trouble as you fear. There are several excuses you can use if it comes to that,” she reassured him. He knew she was right, but he couldn’t help but be nervous. “And if it comes to that, I’ll deal with the fallout. I can do that much and, considering everything, I think it’d be worth it.”

“... If you say so…” Joshua replied hesitantly before taking a deep breath in and letting it in a sigh. Deflating, he ran his fingers through his hair. “And if it comes to that… Just let me know what I can do to help. I don’t like politics but… I guess I won’t be able to avoid them all the time.”

The smile he got in response to that made him feel a lot better about his unspoken promise.

[}-o-{]

“Joshua,” Sairaorg greeted him, eyes slightly wide and eyebrows raised as the man walked into his study. “I don’t remember us agreeing on a meeting.”

“We didn’t,” the human replied with a slight smile as he took the seat across the desk from Sairaorg. “I asked Kuisha to help me have a private conversation with you. Apparently, this is one of the only times nobody is around.”

“Oh? And… Why did you have to go through all that trouble?” the devil asked, frowning in confusion.

“Because something’s going on with you and I want to know what’s that,” Joshua said bluntly before taking a deep breath in. “I think we are friends, Sairaorg, and I don’t think you know that’s important for me. Maybe I misunderstood things, and if I did, I apologize.”

“You didn’t,” Sairaorg replied, looking like he wasn’t any closer to finding out what was going on.

“Then why have you been avoiding me?” Joshua asked, making the devil tense up. “You thought I wouldn’t notice? Props to you, it took me a while, but we used to see each other a lot, Sairaorg, and all of a sudden I only saw you when we would get everyone together for a meal or maybe some training. Something is going on, and I’d like to know what, if it involves me.”

“Joshua, it’s nothing bad, it’s just…” the man started before trailing off and grimacing. Deflating on his chair, Sairaorg contemplated his next words, which was fine with Joshua. He didn’t even truly want to know what was going on. He just wanted to know why his friend had suddenly decided to pull away. A social person, he was not, but Joshua thought he deserved to know at least that much. “Your project, the Phoenix Ward.”

“Yes? Serafall told me that some devils wouldn’t be happy with me basically stealing away an inherent ability of theirs, is that what the problem here is?” Joshua asked, frowning. That didn’t make any sense. Sairaorg had never struck him as that kind of person.

“It’s not that, it’s…” the devil said then, struggling with words for a long moment before closing his eyes and sighing. When he opened them again, Joshua thought he looked about twice the age he usually appeared to be. “My mother is in a coma, Joshua.”

Now that wasn’t the kind of thing he’d expected to hear, although maybe he should have. ‘I’d forgotten that part,’ Joshua thought, holding down a grimace. Still, that didn’t make any sense to Joshua anyway. Why was that a problem that made Sairaorg pull away? If anything it should have made things better.

“You are too good, Joshua,” Sairaorg told him with a sad smile. “I knew that if I told you, you’d go out of your way to try and make your wards heal her. The thing is… I’ve made my peace with it, I hate it, but my mother is unlikely to wake up from her sleep,” the devil told him, closing his eyes again as he continued speaking. “Rias though, I believe you can do something to help her and I wanted to let you do that… It was hard though, to be next to you and know that I could just say the word and someone would be trying to help my mother.”

Joshua took a moment to try and put himself in Sairaorg’s place. What would he do, if he found out that someone could maybe bring his parents back? Truly do it, instead of the empty and downright false promises of things like necromancy. What would he do then, if that same hope could mean giving trouble to Jeanne instead of helping her?

He leaned back against the chair he’d taken.

“You are still an idiot,” Joshua told his devil friend, getting a chuckle that held very little actual mirth in it. “... Damn it,” he cursed, tapping against the armrest of his seat with his fingers. “It’d have been better if you’d said something from the beginning.”

“It’s ok, Joshua. Nothing says you can’t work on it after helping Rias, I was going to wait until then. It’s fine,” Sairaorg told him, but Joshua knew what he was doing. He was lying through his teeth.

After all, if Joshua could have his parents back, he wouldn’t be like “yeah, I can wait, no problem”. No, he’d want them back right then and there. Waiting would eat at him every single day and willingly prolonging that, while doable, would destroy him.

“You are a big fucking idiot,” Joshua repeated, with emphasis because he felt like he was falling short. “This is what you are going to do, Sairaorg,” he told his friend, glaring at him all the while and getting a raised eyebrow in response. “You are going to contact Rias’s parents and ask them for as precise a deadline as they can give me. I need to know how much time I have, both the optimistic view and the negative one. After that, you are going to get me all the information on whatever is known about what happened to your mother. Ideally, I’d like to take a look at her with my own spells too.”

“Joshua-”

“Shut up,” he interrupted, because he honestly didn’t care for his reassurances and his promises or whatever. “You are going to do that and I’m going to work to make my spell heal even your mother. Once that’s done, I’m gonna kick your ass, you can bet on it,” Joshua told him, sighing and bringing his hands up to massage his face. “If I don’t think I have enough time for it, I’ll push it aside so I can get the spell done faster…”

“... I’m not gonna be able to talk you out of that now, am I?”

“What do you think?” Joshua asked, giving his friend a glare.

“Thank you, Joshua.”

“That’s what friends are for,” he reassured the devil with a tired wave of his hand. “Don’t be an idiot again though.”

“... I’ll try.”

“Man, you should fix your roof,” Joshua commented, a soft smile on his face as he regarded Sairaorg. “You can’t have water leaking like that in here.”

“Y-Yeah… I guess you are right.”

The healing spell had already been a priority, but as Joshua left the Bael’s house… Well, it had moved up even higher.

[}-o-{]

As everyone was back at his house training, Joshua practiced his own new approach to his Life Concentration. With loud dull sounds, his throwing knives hit the wood of a static target. It was easy for him to hit bullseye, considering the level of his skill and the amount of time he’d practiced doing that, really.

[Throwing Weapon Mastery – Lvl 57/150

Determines the user’s ability to fight with throwing weapons.

Increases accuracy when throwing a throwing weapon by 57%.

Increases Dexterity when fighting with a throwing weapon by 14.25%.

Increases damage output when fighting with a throwing weapon by 14.25%.]

The point of the exercise wasn’t to raise his Throwing Weapon Mastery though. No, instead, it was to use Life Concentration while he did something else. To that end, Joshua had picked a skill that didn’t require much thought at all to practice in the meantime and that didn’t really have much strain either. As such, much of his brain was dedicated to using the Senjutsu ability.

The other approach he’d thought of for this was just running on a treadmill, or walking, really, as he’d thought of starting with. Both things didn’t require much thought, if any at all. They were things he could do while on autopilot but were still more complex than just sitting still. Maybe he was pushing things a bit to improve faster, but he thought it was guaranteed.

He wanted to get on a good enough level with Senjutsu to use the healing techniques he’d read about. Then he’d be able to more accurately pick up information about it and maybe apply it to his healing spell. He’d already had Yasaka arrange for him to do some testing with her Youkai, but it’d be much better if he could feel the whole process while also doing it himself. That would give him the most information, after all. Besides, it wasn’t like he was going out of his way to learn that. Healing Senjutsu was already in his plans, really.

Then he stopped all of a sudden as a screen appeared in front of him.

[Life Concentration has gone up a level.]

‘Good,’ he mused, taking a deep breath in throwing his head back. The training exercise wasn’t physically tiring, but it was certainly mentally so. Somehow, trying not to think about throwing knives while doing so was more difficult than just going about it normally. Sort of like the pink elephant dilemma, he supposed. ‘I need a break,’ he decided, calling for the next screen as he walked towards a bench against a wall that had a cooler with drinks for everyone.

[Life Concentration - Lvl 6/50

Determines the user’s ability to concentrate their life energy.

Increases Life growth speed by 6%.]

‘Progress is progress,’ he mused, sitting down and closing his eyes as he drank some cold water. With a weary sigh, he decided to take somewhat of a break. Somewhat, because he took out a book to read regarding hexes. There was no such thing as a healing hex, from what he’d found, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try to tweak one into existence. Then again, he wondered if that could even be called a hex at all.

The magic branch was, after all, a mainly offensive one. Sure, there were some spells in it that could be considered support and defense, but even those had a nasty twist to them. Hexes weren’t made to be nice in any way, was what Joshua had learned quickly.

He still wanted to try though. It’d feel like he was limiting his options if he didn’t at least consider using them. Besides, it wasn’t like working on that was impacting his ward crafting negatively, so that worked out well. On top of that-

“You shouldn’t be doing that,” a quiet voice told him, snapping Joshua from his thoughts. Blinking, he turned towards the petite girl with white hair that had taken the seat next to him. She was looking forward though, towards where everyone was training, with her impassive expression as usual. “Senjutsu is bad.”

“Is it?” Joshua asked, suddenly wondering why he hadn’t thought Koneko might have something to say about his latest practices. If anything, it was a wonder it had taken her so long to bring it up. “From what I’ve read on the texts I’m learning from and what the youkai I know of have told me, it’s safe enough. At least if one is careful about it.”

“Easy to get out of control,” she told him, her voice barely above a whisper but carrying a surprising amount of firmness with it regardless. “It can take in the malice and ill will, corrupt the user… Make them go mad.”

“Hm, I do remember reading something about that,” he acknowledged with a hum, considering very carefully what to say. “The texts also said that could mostly happen when in an environment full of those, they poison the place like a miasma. It’s not recommended to practice Senjutsu in such places, but it’s easily avoidable, from what I’ve learned.”

“... If you say so,” the girl mumbled, somehow reaching even lower levels of volume without actually just whispering. “Be careful though,” she added, to which he smiled.

“I will, but thanks for the concern,” he replied.

“Rias-senpai needs you,” the girl told him with a small shrug, to which he chuckled. “And… your familiars and your bonds…”

“Yeah, someone told me about that too,” he acknowledged, still grinning. “Still, I appreciate it.”

“You are nice,” Koneko said then, turning to look at him and speaking a little louder. “You are helping us, and your familiars and Jeanne… they talk.”

“You can talk with my familiars?”

“Not really… We can understand each other,” she corrected, which made him hum again. He wondered if she could get a sense of them similar to how he did with his bond. Was it more detailed? Less? Or just different altogether? Now he was curious, but he guessed it would be something for another time.

“That’s neat,” he said, instead of voicing his questions.

Koneko just hummed in response and that was that.

Altogether… Joshua didn’t know how to feel about that interaction, if he was honest.

[}-o-{]

[Kunou]

“All I’m saying is that it shouldn’t matter if I made a drawing next to the essay. I used all the words I needed and it worked without the drawing, so why did I get less points because of it,” she complained, pouting all the while. She didn’t even care that she was being childish, she was in the right!

“Then why do the drawing at all?” her mother asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Because I thought it looked better like that and I was waiting for the teacher to come back so I got bored and I decided to make the drawing…” she started, her voice slowly turning into a mumbled as she reached the end. “The text was still fine though, they could have just told me not to do it again or something,” she grumbled, glaring down at the paper sheet in front of her.

“I know, and that’s why I’m going to let this go,” her mother told her, making her sigh. “I am going to tell Joshua as soon as he arrives, however.”

“But mum!” Kunou protested then. Joshua had told her that he would have to be more strict if she messed up in her classes. She didn’t want that.

“No buts,” her mother told her firmly. “This was part of the deal, or did you think it would be all good?”

She hadn’t. There was even a part of Kunou that wanted to see what Joshua would do on that side of the parental role. Sure, he’d chastised her and taught her stuff and such other times, but it was usually for small stuff. This was a little more serious, she supposed, so she was curious…

A much bigger part of her really wasn’t looking forward to it though, because she didn’t want to see her mother’s disappointed look on Joshua’s face either. Would it make her feel just as bad? Would it be worse? Hopefully it wouldn’t, but she dreaded finding out.

On another side to the whole thing, it could mean that Joshua would tackle the whole thing together with her mother and that could potentially be very good. If that worked, it might be worth looking into doing things like this some other times… Carefully though, Kunou didn’t want to push things too much or have the whole thing backfire on her.

“Didn’t think so,” her mother said.

“Where is Joshua?” Kunou mumbled, looking towards the door. “He’s late.”

“He was going to be. He’s doing something for you, that’s all I’ll say about that,” her mother said, preemptively denying any questions. That made Kunou pout, but it also made her feel bad. Was he preparing a nice surprise for her? Would she ruin it by receiving him with this…? Now she was looking forward to her dad’s arrival even less than before.

“Can we… Mum, can we leave this for another time?” Kunou asked then, placing a hand over her essay and giving her mother her best pleading eyes. “Please?”

All she received was silence and an expression that gave nothing away for a long moment. Then her mother smiled, which was as good as an answer, really, making Kunou beam at her gratefully. Maybe her mother also didn’t want to ruin whatever Joshua was doing. That was good on several fronts, Kunou supposed.

“I guess we can, but only because I want both of you to focus on what Joshua is doing,” her mother told her, making her grin even wider. What could it be though, if it needed Joshua’s focus too? Was he planning another illusion show for her? It’d been a while since the last time. Had he worked out another set of cards for them to add and was keeping it a surprise? “He’s here too,” her mother picked up on.

A few seconds later, Kunou noticed her dad’s arrival. Not long after that, she felt his life energy, nervous but happy, uneasy but hopeful. If anything, his emotions made her even more curious. When he opened the door though, all those thoughts went away together with her concentration.

Joshua had gotten a haircut, which was something that Kunou had expected. He’d seemingly decided some days ago and while it was a little disappointing, she was fine with it. Sure, maybe they would look less alike but not completely, probably, and besides, he was right. They were similar in other ways, so Kunou would be fine with that.

“I hope it looks alright,” Joshua commented, some of his nerves bleeding into his voice.

Kunou’s eyes glued themselves to his now very short hair. Not because of how it was cut however, even if it looked good enough. No, it was because of a very different reason. Soon, she wasn’t able to properly focus on them as tears filled her eyes and everything became blurry. She couldn’t believe it.

“It looks good,” her mother replied, with probably the worst understatement ever. Kunou could honestly say that it looked amazing, although that had probably a lot less to do with the actual cut than with the other thing he’d done with his hair.

After all, he’d dyed it blond.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Eh… Nothing much to comment. I’m a little nervous about the dyed hair thing though, but I can’t even point out why it makes me nervous, honestly. Hopefully it’s just me overthinking things like usual.

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Have you ever dyed your hair? I haven’t and probably never will really.

See you.