Game of Monsters - 81 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

The Thunder Rolls-

[Asia Argento]

“I don’t know why you are so shy about asking for something,” she remembered Jeanne saying. “But go for it and ask Joshua. I’m sure he’ll make whatever it is happen. He likes you a whole lot, so I’m sure it’ll be fine. Honestly,” the girl had told her.

And yet, Asia couldn’t help but be nervous. She’d always struggled to get even the smallest things back at the church and now… Now she felt like she was getting too much. To make things worse, her greed had to rear its ugly head, making her want even more things. Why couldn’t she be happy with her new situation, with things as they were. Joshua was great, Jeanne was nice and everyone else she met was the same…

However, there she was, approaching Joshua to ask for more.

She stopped on the door to the garden, looking around the flower beds. They were looking much better than when she arrived, truth be told. Where before the plants had been barely clinging to life with weeds almost growing over them, now they were much healthier with no weeds in sight. Asia was very proud of that, really.

It was no surprise that things had been like that, really, considering that neither Joshua nor Jeanne cared for them. Asia didn’t really blame them. They trained a lot and Jeanne had school to attend to on top of that, nevermind other things she had to do, like going out with friends, practicing with her club and so on. As for Joshua, he was a very busy man indeed. As it was, it was a wonder he could do as much as he did.

Asia thought it was a shame though, which was why she’d taken to caring for the plants around the place. It made the whole place look much more lively. On top of that, it had made Joshua and Jeanne happy, with the former even thanking her with yet another celebratory meal and all.

Now though…

She turned towards Joshua, who was sitting in the middle of the garden with a notebook in his hands and resting on Nagini’s body like she was a large beanbag. It made for a humorous sight… at least for anyone that was familiar with Nagini. Asia could easily imagine how concerning it would be to see a man surrounded by so much deadly snake.

What was a little concerning for her though, was when Nagini looked up at her, noticing her arrival. The young nun didn’t want to admit it, since it would be rude to Joshua’s familiar, but she didn’t think she’d ever be able to look at the snake’s eyes and not be unnerved. There was something very… unsettling about them. Not just on how they looked but on how they made her feel.

“Asia? Did you need anything?” Joshua asked, only slightly tilting his head in her direction. Asia didn’t need to look directly at him to know that she had his attention though. The man had proved to be a very giving person already.

“I… I had a request,” she said, suddenly losing whatever resolution she’d managed to muster due to Jeanne’s words. She still spoke though, and that meant Joshua heard. The man confirmed this when he sat a little straighter before pulling himself to a standing position. Nagini, for her part, coiled onto herself before raising her head to be at the same level as Joshua’s.

“What is it? I know we’ve been kind of imposing on you to heal us during training. If you need anything, just say the word,” the man told her kindly, walking towards her.

Asia dearly wanted to tell him that he was already doing a whole lot for her. He was teaching her, so that she’d be able to live in her new surroundings without problems. He was offering a warmer, more welcoming home than she’d ever had before. He was kinder than she deserved as it was.

With his newly dyed blond hair, she sometimes wondered if that one was his real hair color and he had been an angel in disguise before.

“Asia?” Joshua asked softly, breaking her from her thoughts.

“I just… I’ve been enjoying… Um, taking care of the plants here,” she mumbled, fidgeting with her hands.

“I’ve noticed, and it’s great. Certainly makes everything look better. I’m grateful for that too,” Joshua said, as if she had been reminding him of a favor instead of starting to tell him of her request.

“I… Well, I was thinking… I’d like… I mean, I’d appreciate… I mean,” she mumbled, stumbling on her words as she tried to remember how she’d planned to voice her question.

“Asia, calm down,” Joshua reassured her softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Breathe,” he told her, taking a deep breath in himself to demonstrate. When she followed his example, he smiled at her. “Now, what did you want? Just say it, I promise it’ll be fine.”

“I was just wondering… I’d like to care for the plants more, but I don’t know… And I thought some more plants would be nice… And I know Mr. Joshua uses plants for some of his spells so I thought…” she stammered then, speaking as quickly as she could before she lost her nerve. “But it’s fine if not. I’ll still like tending to the plants we already have so-”

“Asia,” Joshua interrupted, his smile having widened as she spoke. “It’s fine. I’ll make a call or two and get you all the books about plants you want, ok?” he told her, making her smile shyly at him. “And sure, just tell me what plants you’d want and I can get them for you. As for plants I need for spells… I think I can get some, I think,” he explained, growing a little hesitant at the end. “Some of the ones I need are… a little more dangerous, so I think I can continue buying those when I need them.”

“I can take care of those too, I can learn!” Asia protested with a frown. This could be her way to repay Joshua for the favor. She didn’t want it to be limited. She was good with plants, she could do it.

“... Why do I feel like I won’t be able to convince you to let it be?…” Joshua asked perceptively as she gave him her best determined expression. “Fine, I guess you can try, but after you learn how to take care of them.”

“Of course,” she beamed at him as the man grinned wryly at her. “Thank you, Mr. Joshua.”

“Don’t mention it, Asia. Thank you for doing all these. You didn’t need to,” he told her, his smile turning soft once more. “I appreciate it.”

“I like doing this. I enjoy caring for the plants. It’s something for myself,” she told him so that maybe he would understand. His laugh didn’t really leave things very clear for her, but at least he wasn’t thinking badly of her, maybe.

“Yeah, I guess you could see it like that. Never change, Asia,” he replied, placing a hand on her head and ruffling her hair lightly.

To that, she just hummed, even if she wasn’t sure what that was about.

[}-o-{]

[Joshua Davis]

“And that’s the last one,” Joshua said, setting down the last cup on the table. “Did we get them all right?” he asked, looking around the set of tables that they’d set together for the group that had arrived at the cafe. It was getting to the point where he was considering buying a larger table and be done with it. After all, this very group had been visiting for a while and he was fairly sure that they would continue to do so.

“Thank you, Joshua, you are awesome as usual!” the girl with short pink hair replied.

“And Hyoudou wasn’t too bad, I guess,” the one with long brown hair pulled into pigtails added, much more reluctantly.

“I hope you enjoy the stay and the drinks,” Issei said, almost sounding professional, which had Joshua grinning.

“And if you need anything, just give us a call, yes?” Joshua added for his part, receiving a bunch of positive replies from the girls from the kendo club. As he moved away, he saw Jeanne whispering something to Issei before the boy moved towards him.

“Everything ok?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes!” he exclaimed, suddenly sounding scared, which had Joshua blinking in surprise. “I mean, yes, sorry, Jeanne was just… congratulating me, in a way.”

“You’ve been doing surprisingly well, honestly,” Joshua told the boy with a nod, which caused the boy to deflate instead of feeling proud. He guessed it was due to the “surprisingly”, but the boy deserved that one. “Jeanne told me that you’ve been sort of slipping at school though,” he continued, making the guy straighten his back and go back to being scared. “I told you to stay away from those two, they aren’t gonna help you with this, you know?”

“I know that, I’m trying to get them to change too, but…” Issei grumbled before deflating. “They… don’t see the problems with what they do.”

“I mean, you were like that too,” Joshua pointed out.

“Don’t have to remind me,” the boy muttered, looking to the side. “But the wake up call was enough for me… Why wasn’t it for them? It was quite something, to realize that we were… That we weren’t being nice,” the teenager managed to say, struggling to get his message across.

“Still-”

“Look, I… I’ll convince them, ok?” Issei interrupted, sounding both annoyed and nervous, which was an interesting combination. “I just… I’ll convince them,” The boy added, sighing and starting to walk away. “Not like anyone else will be my friend now anyway,” he mumbled, probably not meaning to be heard by anyone, but Joshua did.

For a long moment, the man couldn’t take his eyes off of the boy before he pursed his lips. That… That hit a little too close to home for him. Granted, he had never driven people away like Issei had, or at least he didn’t think so. But… That worry, that fear of rejection that kept one away…

Joshua sighed before making his way to the kendo table. He walked towards Jeanne, just in case Issei saw him, but he actually wanted to talk to all of them. Maybe it was a bad idea to meddle in someone else’s life more than was asked of him, but… Well, he’d taken on the task of helping Issei when he accepted him as a worker in his cafe. ‘Might as well go the extra mile, right?’

“Can I ask you girls for a favor?” he asked, leaning down to make it seem like he was talking with Jeanne. All this seemed to draw curious looks from everyone else at the table/s.

“Sure thing, Joshua, what can we do for you?” one of the older girls asked instantly, beaming at him, which made him smile back. As he looked around to see if everyone agreed with that, he didn’t see the pink dusting on the girl’s cheeks.

“I need help with the next step of Hyoudou’s… rehabilitation, I guess,” he said, drawing some frowns, but overall everyone still looked to be good with things. “He’s doing fine, I’m told, but his friends aren’t really helping him with that. I’m sure you agree.” To that, several of the girls nodded. “So, I need to get him away from them and with… better people, if you know what I mean.”

“So, he needs better friends so that he can act normally without being the odd one out,” Jeanne said, immediately understanding where he was going. He wasn’t very sure if that guess was her or the voices, but it didn’t really matter, he supposed.

“So, any ideas?”

“I… might have one,” the pink haired girl from before said, very reluctantly.

“Well, any help is welcome. Just… don’t be too obvious, yeah? Or too manipulative. Issei seems to be a nice boy from what I’ve seen, he’s just… not that smart,” Joshau explained wryly, which drew giggles from the rest of the table. “Thanks for the help, girls. I’ll stop bothering you.”

“Don’t mention it, Joshua,” the one with brown hair and pigtails said before her smile turned into a bit of a grimace. “And Hyoudou… has been more… decent, as of late. So, I guess we can let bygones be bygones,” she muttered, like saying the words was a struggle. The rest of the girls seemed to agree though.

“That’s great to hear. Issei’s been a great help here from what I’ve seen and what my employees have told me. So, I want to return some of that, help him back, you know. He’s not a bad kid,” Joshua said, aware that he was repeating himself a little, but he didn’t want Issei to be an outcast, not when he was trying so hard to make things better.

[}-o-{]

Joshua looked on with eyes slightly widened as if trying to take in more of the sight before him. A smile spread over his face, almost mirroring the excited one on Kunou’s. Next to him, he could feel the warm presence of Yasaka through Life Sense too. However, he focused mainly on the illusion Kunou was casting.

It was a simple thing, but the important part was that his daughter had crafted the spell herself from start to finish. He hadn’t pointed out a single thing, not even told her if she made a mistake. It had taken Kunou quite some time to pull it off, carefully going over the spell again and again as she searched for anything she might have missed.

In the end, she’d presented the spell before him and said she’d cast it without him checking it. She wanted to see if she could make an illusion by herself. An ultimate test, as it were. Joshua had readily agreed, setting up his wards for spell testing he’d perfected in his House of Water classes.

It seemed that those wouldn’t be necessary, however. Things were going well so far. Not that he was overly concerned, really. Illusions tended not to cause the spectacular results of other wrongly crafted spells did. They could still do so, of course, but it was less likely, or so Joshua felt.

He pushed those thoughts aside though, since nothing was happening.

Instead, he focused on the fox person that Kunou had crafted. It didn’t look familiar, the fox-eared man, but then again, many of her cards didn’t remind him of anyone… At least those that weren’t the Fox Queen and the Fox Princess, that is.

The illusion then opened his mouth and sang, not with words though, but with a… Joshua wasn’t sure what it was called, actually. The melody was beautiful, however, and that was the important part, he felt. So, he listened and watched as the fox-man sang, gently swaying on his feet while his arms moved softly in the air, dancing to his own song.

“Hm, what-what do you think?” Kunou asked once it became evident that the illusion finished its loop and started again.

“It’s amazing, Kunou, you did a great job with it,” Yasaka told her daughter, gesturing for a hug that the child happily accepted. “You’ve been working very hard on it, haven’t you?”

“I didn’t want to just present a good one, I wanted it to be perfect.”

“Well, you did amazingly,” Joshua told her with a soft smile, his eyes moving from the girl to her illusion. “I don’t think I could even improve on that. It’s really good.”

“You think so?”

“I know so,” he corrected her with a grin.

“Well, I had a great teacher,” the girl said shyly, her arms still wrapped around her mother.

“You sure did,” Yasaka agreed, making him awkwardly bring a hand up to rub the back of his neck. “I think I might have been doing you a disservice with how much I pay you.”

“Yasaka, you shouldn’t be paying me at all,” Joshua told her with a wry smile. “I’m her dad, aren’t I? Can’t really accept payment for teaching my daughter, can I?”

“I guess you can’t,” Yasaka admitted then, her eyes turning to Kunou who was beaming even harder. She tended to react like that when Joshua really drove home the fact that he saw her as his daughter too, that she wasn’t one-sidedly pushing things on him. Silly girl.

“Anyway, I think this deserves a celebratory meal, don’t you?” he asked, looking towards Kunou. He almost could see the stars appearing in her eyes as she started bouncing. “Yes, dessert and all.”

“Yay!” she cheered, throwing her arms up in the air and drawing a chuckle from him and a giggle from her mother. “Can I ask for the food and the dessert, please, please~!” she continued then, giving him her best kit fox eyes, like they were even necessary at all

“Sure thing, Kunou. Whatever you want,” he caved immediately. Although, to be fair, he wasn’t even resisting to begin with.

“Within reason,” Yasaka added, giving her daughter a look before she turned it to him. He chuckled nervously, looking away from her eyes. Yeah, he didn’t want disappointed eyes directed at him, that was for sure. Or at least he didn’t want to see them.

“I just wanna say, it’s not my fault she’s that adorable. How am I supposed to tell her no?” he asked, scratching the back of his neck. He heard her sigh then. “So, what should I-?” he started, before freezing.

“Joshua?” Yasaka asked, blinking at his sudden shift. He brought a hand up telling her to wait for a second as he confirmed something.

“I have to go,” he said, his tone completely different from the one he’d been using so far. “Someone triggered one of my traps,” he said, making Yasaka’s face change to something similar to what he imagined he himself looked like.

He was very annoyed then and there. Of all times someone could step inside one of the many wards he’d set to try and catch Khaos Brigade members… It just had to be when his daughter was having a moment for herself, didn’t it? Of course.

Now Joshua was annoyed.

“I’ll deal with this as fast as I can, those dinner plans are still up. You can start thinking about what you want to have, yeah?” he said, trying to regain some of his cheer so that Kunou’s mood wouldn’t be completely ruined. “Can you get the things I’ll need to prepare it, Yasaka?”

“Of course, if it comes to that, I’ll have my servants prepare it for when you come back,” the woman offered, but it didn’t really reassure him. He didn’t want to be late for a celebration that was for Kunou.

Damn it all, whoever it was that had triggered his wards better be sorry and cooperative or he’d go from annoyed to angry. They definitely had terrible timing and Joshua was very keen on letting them know the extent of his displeasure. As it was though, he reigned in his emotions as best he could.

“Be good for your mother, yeah?” he said then, pulling Kunou towards him and giving her a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll see you later.”

“Of course, dad,” she mumbled, smiling shyly at him. “Take care.”

“You too.”

And with that, he turned towards Yasaka who gave him a nod when she shifted her defenses so that he could teleport out. Immediately, he was taken in by a circle. Once on the other side of the spell, he let a frown appear on his face as he looked around at the people on the ground.

“You better fucking spill the beans really quick, because I’m not in the mood. There’s no good cop here, only me,” he added, pulling at his wards so that they more harshly affected the grounded people. People that were definitely Khaos Brigade, he noticed now that he could better sense his wards. They had the same circles that he’d previously encountered on other members of the terrorist organization.

“We are not gonna talk,” one of them groaned but Joshua paid him no mind.

“We’ll see if you say that when I put an Oppressing Hex over you so strong that your bones break and your insides start turning to mush, yeah?” Joshua hissed, placing even more force on the Weighting Ward over them to give them a little taste of what awaited them if they remained stubborn. “I really don’t have it in me to be patient or soft right now, because you had just about the worst timing ever. I have stuff to do, so I’ll make this quick, one way or another.”

“In your dre-” another started before being interrupted as Joshua unleashed his Bloodlust. It was a skill he wasn’t fond of and he’d used it a handful of times in the past, if that, but… Maybe it was warranted at that moment.

[Bloodlust has gone up a level.]

Ignoring the pop up screen, he continued glaring at the fallen Khaos Brigade members.

“Now, I’m going to listen, and you are going to talk, am I clear?” he asked, putting more power on the Weighting Wards once more for emphasis. “I don’t think your bodies can take much more weight before something starts giving in, just saying,” he added, almost casually. His mind supplied a bunch of ideas for spell tests he could use these new prisoners for if they didn’t feel cooperative enough.

He wasn’t nearly as disgusted as he should have been by them, he knew. Then again, they had interrupted one of Kunou’s moments. Joshua could almost see the girl’s disappointed face when he had to leave. How many times had he felt that way, when his parents suddenly had other things to do when they had plans? He’d be there for dinner and make Kunou the best dessert ever.

And these idiots weren’t going to stop him.

No, sir, they wouldn’t.

“Talk,” Joshua hissed.

And they did, but it only made him grow more annoyed, because they were lying. Sure, they spewed stuff about their organization. Half truths, from what he could pick up from his wards and his Sensing skills, at best that is. They were telling him what he wanted to hear, but they were hiding something.

It almost reminded him of Kunou, hiding that she was skipping a class or procrastinating on her homework. The comparison, far from helping him calm down, only angered Joshua more. He was growing tired, even with all the time that had passed since he had to deal with Khaos Brigade.

Not a day passed when he wasn’t worried they’d pull some shit on him. Would they attack Kyoto again? Put Kunou at risk? Would they target Issei, like he imagined they had in the original story? Would they pull some other bullshit on him?

Would they bring chaos into the world and onto his life as he feared?

He’d remember that occasionally, a mere moment, drops in the ocean of his life…

Poisoned drops that he wanted gone.

[Bloodlust has gone up a level.]

“What,” he hissed, glaring at the one person that had remained silent in their group. “Are you hiding from me? Talk,” he ordered, snarling.

“Why, warder,” the woman said, smirking at him, even from where she laid, flat on the forest ground and pressed roughly against it. “Only the fact that you’ve annoyed us, our higher ups and quite a few more people,” she told him, managing to sound in control, despite the strain in her voice and the ridiculously underpowered position she was in. “Only that you will pay for that, and dearly, Joshua Davis.”

And then he felt it, an intrusion in another of his wards.

Intrusion that made him freeze.

“You dare,” he growled. “I’ll come back for you. Every single one of you fucking idiots is gonna die. I promise.”

“If you live, Joshua Davis.”

He didn’t answer her, but he cared little for her words anyway.

So he just teleported… straight to Phillip’s house.

He had a bunch of crows to kill.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, well, well…

Finally something other than SoL, huh? I know, I know, it took me forever to get her. I have nothing to say in my defense other than blaming my muse. Everytime I felt like doing something like this, it just kept going like “Not yet, we could do this before that!” and came up with new SoL fragments.

Finally though, we get some action at last.

Anyway, mini-rant aside, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What Egyptian deity do you think our boy will have to deal with next?

See you.