Game of Monsters - 101 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

I Wanna Feel Better

“Are you ready?” Joshua asked as they reached their destination. “Didn’t forget anything, right?”

“We have everything and yes, I’m ready, Mr.-” He fixed Asia with a hard stare. “Joshua,” she mumbled, a slight smile on her face. That was more like it. He’d put up with it for a while but… Well, it felt weird to still be called that after so long.

“You know what to do if someone bothers you?” he asked then, specifically looking at the young nun. It wasn’t like Jeanne needed him to tell her anything in regards to that. He honestly pitied anyone that decided to pick on his sister. Between her boyfriend and her, they’d probably die or something.

“Not tell you nor Jeanne because you’ll do something rash?” Asia answered, not quite managing to sound neither casual nor innocent even if he could tell she tried. Instead, all she managed was a shy, nervous expression, smile still in place, as she turned her head slightly down.

“Look at her, already making jokes,” Joshua said, using his other hand to wipe an imaginary tear. “They grow up so fast, Jeanne.”

“She’s my age, you know?” his sister pointed out flatly.

“And you are back talking to me,” he replied, feigning dismay. “Where’s the nervous girl that didn’t even know how to stand straight?”

“Joshua!” Jeanne exclaimed, scandalized.

“So fast,” he repeated, shaking his as if he were lamenting the passage of time. “Back in my day-”

“If you are done, old man,” his sister interrupted, rolling her eyes at him. Asia, next to her, giggled behind her hand. ‘Mission accomplished,’ Joshua thought. After all, the girl had been really nervous about her first day at Kuoh Academy, so he’d thought he might try and help her relax.

“Good luck, you two,” he told them, deciding that that was enough acting.

“Thank you, Joshua,” Asia replied with a kind smile and a wave.

As he waved back, his eyes darted to the school’s entrance where Sona stood by the door. The devil girl gave him a nod when she noticed his gaze, to which he replied with a half-smile. Yeah, Asia would be in good hands. Besides, his wards over Kuoh were almost as good as the ones over his own house, only weakened by the fact that they covered much more ground.

“She’ll be fine,” Jeanne reassured him, giving him a pat on the back. “I’ll keep an eye on her, and I’m not gonna be the only one.”

“Thanks. I know I’m being a bit overprotective but… It’s just-”

“I get it, Josh. She’s… Not weak but-”

“Fragile,” he finished for her.

“We are helping her get better though. She’s getting there,” Jeanne told him. “See you later.”

“Later,” he replied with a nod. He knew his sister was right. Asia had come a long way from the girl that couldn’t stand up for herself. She wasn’t that girl that was surprised by small acts of kindness and that thought she didn’t deserve anything. She wasn’t quite where he’d have liked, but as Jeanne said, she was getting there.

With a nod, he turned where he stood, trying to ignore the eyes on him. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought half the students at the entrance were staring at him. Joshua knew it was just his general shy self being uncomfortable with so many people around, but still… The fact that he looked so different from most people made things even worse, since he stood out like a sore thumb.

Fortunately, once he was a little further from the school, he just cast an illusion and teleported back home.

Once there, he took a moment to check more carefully on his spells and senses. The Fallen trio was at the training grounds while his familiars were sort of scattered all around. After a moment of consideration, he made his way towards the formers. ‘Might as well get some training done and then I can go see Kunou and Yasaka,’ he mused with a smile.

When he arrived, he cast a glance towards the three Fallen. All of them had paused what they were doing when he walked in, freezing up and turning to look at him. He simply gave them a wave of his hand to get them to go back to what they were doing. Before starting to do his own thing, however, he checked on them.

Kalawarna seemed to be where the training spells were constantly on, working out. Raynare, for her part, was in the target practice zone, throwing light spears. Then there was Mittelt, who was sitting on the ground, close by. Joshua was fairly sure the latter was training her sensing, since that seemed to be her strongest point.

Taking all this in, he walked up to the blonde Fallen, drawing a slightly nervous expression from her. The other two didn’t notice, however, since he’d put up an illusion before moving. Joshua kept his expression calm, clear, feeling the woman’s emotions start to get agitated.

“I-Is there something you need, sir?” she asked him, gulping.

“You could say that,” he answered, turning his head to look at the other two Fallen for a moment. “They can’t hear nor see us,” he informed her then, looking back at Mittelt, who looked far from reassured by this statement. “I’m sure you know that I don’t trust any of you three.”

“We haven’t done anything, sir. Raynare and I even keep an eye on Kala-”

“I know,” he said, interrupting her and making her mouth click shut. “I noticed,” he added. A slight smile forming on his face, barely a hint at the corner of his lips. “Funny that you mention that. I wanted to tell you something in regards to that.”

“You did?” she asked, clearly unsure of where he was going.

“Yes, I want you to keep an eye on Kalawarna,” he told her, only managing to confuse her more. After all, she’d just told him she was doing that and he told her that he knew about that. “And Raynare,” he added then, making her eyes widen. “You seem like the smartest of the three. Or, at least, the one with a better sense of self-preservation.”

“Thanks?” Mittelt answered, clearly unsure if she should take that as the compliment it sounded like or if he was secretly mocking her.

“Kalawarna is just waiting to stick a knife in my back and Raynare isn’t much different. So I guess I’m left with you as the reliable one,” he told her before nodding and shrugging. Then he fixed her with a more intent look that made her stiffen. “That’s all, keep an eye on them for me, yeah? I can’t always be watching.”

“I will, sir,” she replied with a squeak.

“With that said, I have things to do,” he said, turning and leaving.

With his back towards her and the illusions still hiding his actions from the other two, he grinned widely. ‘Maybe all that acting with Serafall is more useful than I thought,’ he mused. Not that he was going to tell the Satan that.

It’d just make her want to make him take part in even more parts of her show.

[}-o-{]

[Raynare]

Another day, another raid at Hexennacht.

That wasn’t quite how things went, but they’d attacked three of the stray magician bases in as many weeks, really. Raynare wasn’t sure how she felt about Davis managing to do so much damage to an association that had held itself up for so long. The general message she got was that the human was certainly not someone to be crossed.

Not that she had any such delusions, if she were honest.

Even without seeing the kind of things he could do, she had thought it almost impossible to actually go against him. After watching his twisted, disturbing projects in action and witnessing how far his reach went… Well, safe to say the thought of trying to do something of the sort and failing terrified her.

She might be a proud Fallen, but she liked to think she wasn’t stupid.

Considering some things, she was less than pleased with the doubts in regards to that last part that arose in her mind.

Regardless of all that, Raynare wanted, above all, to be better. So, she tried to do just that. She trained with and without Davis, using every tool offered to her by the man so that she’d get that much stronger. She studied, not only from the limited amount of books the man had offered them, but also from the man himself. She watched Davis do his own things, at least for as long as he was in the house and out and about, which wasn’t much.

However, there were little things to look for, especially when they were training together. The way he directed his familiars against the Fallen, the way he directed the Fallen against his familiars, the way he fought against one group, or the other, or both. With more or less words involved, there was something to be learned in that, she supposed.

Raynare hated it.

It was admitting that a human was better than her and she despised the mere idea. However, what she disliked even more was doing nothing while knowing that was the case. Denying the fact would be a height of stupidity she didn’t want to reach. Accepting it and not trying to get better would have been even worse.

She refused to stay a weakling.

If Davis was stronger than her, how many other humans or lowly beings would be too? Maybe she couldn’t match a freak of nature like Joshua Davis, but if she could lower the number of pathetic creatures that stood above her, then all the better. She was… compromising, as it were. It made her blood burn and filled her with the need to kill something, or several hundred somethings… But she could do nothing about that.

It was better to focus on something he could actually do something about.

So, instead, she took all her frustrations out on the Hexennacht magicians during the raids. It was a surprisingly good outlet, honestly, and Davis didn’t seem to mind overly much if she went a little rougher than necessary. Evidently, the stray organization was on his shitlist too, and that was all the better for Raynare. The more people that were on the list, the more chances that she’d go lower in it, which meant that Davis would focus on them instead of on her.

With any luck, that would go on long enough for the human to forget about her almost entirely.

Unlikely, but a girl could dream.

For the moment…

A magician cried out as one of her light spears skewered her through the chest. It reminded her of why it was so good a de-stressing technique to attack these people. They were weak. Weaker than her, more specifically. After getting her ass handed to her by Davis (a human), his Familiars (animals, admittedly superpowered, but still), Davis’ sister, who was apparently a Hero Descendant so that made it mildly more understandable and a bunch of Devil brats…

Raynare was fucking tired of getting beaten. Sure, some fights were more even than others and she and her fellow Fallen sometimes would get the upper hand, but still. So many losses and struggling victories would wear on her. Hexennacht magicians thought? They were next to nothing. They were certainly good enough to remind Raynare that no, she wasn’t at the bottom of the food chain as she sometimes felt.

“Someone’s enthusiastic,” she heard from the side and she considered it an absolute win that she didn’t flinch or otherwise react. When had the bastard gotten so close? “Don’t mind me,” he told her, sounding amused. Raynare didn’t even look at him. Somehow, she knew what type of expression to expect. Davis sounded like he knew exactly what reaction he’d gotten out of her, even without her showing it.

‘Stupid sensing, stupid wards,’ she grumbled internally.

“Did you need anything?” she asked, trying and probably failing at keeping her annoyance under control.

“Not really, no,” the man replied casually, as if his familiars weren’t completely decimating the magicians around, as if Raynare and her fellow Fallen weren’t killing people left and right. He stood there, as if he weren’t the cause of the massacre going on.

As she’d come to realize, Davis regarded the battlefield with the cold mind of someone doing a scientific experiment. It took an especially disturbing turn, she had learned, when he literally tested things on the field. How someone such as him, someone that seemed so…gentle, could turn into such a person out in the field was…

A magician fell to the ground and Raynare noticed Davis’ head turning towards the man rather sharply. That got her attention too, as she focused most of her attention on that poor bastard while sending one last spear into another Hexennacht member. Davis spoke then, and his words gave pause to Mittelt and Kalawarna as much as they did her.

“I wonder how Project Fall will go,” he commented idly, tilting his head as if to get a better look at the magician. Raynare didn’t notice anything too important about that though. He looked like any of the other people that she’d seen fall prey to the Draining Wards and the Parasitizing Hexes. Weak, barely able to move for the moment until he finally succumbed to the lack of energy.

Still, she’d learned her lesson with Project Winter. She watched intently as time passed, having to take some attention away to continue fighting. Although, to be honest, Davis’ familiars seemed to have things handled by themselves. It was a little sad that they were three raids in and Hexennacht hadn’t managed to pull themselves together yet.

That wasn’t important at the moment.

The first hint of a difference didn’t come from the magician himself but from Mittelt. Raynare heard her gasp and she turned to look at her. The blond Fallen was now pale, a disturbed expression on her face that spoke of something Raynare couldn’t begin to guess. That is, until she was given a clue.

“Hm, so, when there’s no magic, life energy automatically takes its place,” Davis commented, making her break in cold sweat. It didn’t take a genius to realize what Project Fall was. Draining the energy out of something, until there was literally nothing else and then keeping it up. “Good to know,” he added idly, before waving his hand, presumably to let the poor bastard of a magician stuff suffering, if he could even suffer anymore in his passed out state, and letting one of his familiars take the kill.

The only project they hadn’t witnessed or heard about yet was Summer, and Raynare was both curious and scared of finding out what it was.

[}-o-{]

[Elizabeth Báthory]

She was very scared of Joshua Davis.

She’d learned, before ever truly interacting with the man, that he was concerningly good at magic. When she’d felt his spells wash over her and the presence they held, she had decided that he was someone to be wary of. After meeting and interacting with him, she had decided that he was unpredictable, and an unpredictable opponent was the worst kind of opponent.

Now, however, Elizabeth held nothing but a very healthy amount of fear for the man.

When she’d given him the information about Hexennacht, she’d expected a number of things to happen. She’d noticed, fairly easily at that, Davis’ contempt for the organization, but she’d assumed it was the general disregard that many magicians held for their stray counterparts. She’d thought the man wanted to find some information or resources less… publicly available. Or any number of other options.

She didn’t think he’d be hunting them.

Then she heard through her sources in the less than stellar side of the magic community that the Hexennacht had lost one of their bases. Not even that long afterwards, a second fell. Now, she’d just heard of the third.

It couldn’t be a coincidence, but she so sorely wanted it to be one. Elizabeth was no fool, however. There was no way something else entirely had caused that to happen. Especially considering that the first base to fall was, to her knowledge, the one that she’d given him the most information about.

Terrifying, that might be.

But it was also something else.

An opportunity.

Unfortunately for Elizabeth she couldn’t take that opportunity on her own. No, she needed help to be able to truly exploit the chance that had presented itself in front of her. She also would need the help of someone she’d rather avoid, but needs must.

Such was the thought process that found her walking towards a particular destination. A familiar corridor around her and an equally as familiar door presented itself in front of her. Determinedly, she knocked on it, waiting for a response she knew would come. At that moment though, she wondered if it would really be worth it.

It was a fleeting moment, however. The Báthory family had been battling against fate and death for all their lives. Way back to the first time one of them noticed that their family was dying too young by magical human standards, all the way to present times. Elizabeth knew the whole story like the back of her hand.

A story of obsession and madness that would likely continue way into the future.

“Come in,” the voice from inside called and Elizabeth walked inside. “Báthory.”

“Waterhouse,” she greeted neutrally, because much as she despised the woman, Elizabeth needed her now. ‘Beggars can’t be choosers,’ she thought to herself despondently.

“To what do I owe the… pleasure?” the Director of House of Water asked, making it clear that her visit was anything but.

“You are struggling to find something to use as payment for Davis,” Elizabeth said, going straight to the point in a way that caught Waterhouse visibly off guard. She took some pleasure in being able to do that sometimes. “Don’t deny it, I know you are,” she cut off, before the other woman could try and lie.

“... Let’s say this hypothetical situation of yours is right,” Waterhouse started, making Elizabeth roll her eyes. “You are bringing this up… Why, exactly?”

“Because I found a way for us both to benefit. A way for you to get at least some of your debt paid off and for me to earn some favor for myself,” she said, making the Director tilt her head, confused. She couldn’t really blame the woman. Elizabeth and Waterhouse had practically hated each other since forever ago, all the way back to when they were both students at their association.

“Only some?”

“Waterhouse, don’t be stupid. You are less smart than me, but you are no idiot,” Elizabeth told her, narrowing her eyes. “Do you honestly think there’s a way you could pay him back that wouldn’t involve something absolutely ridiculous? Considering how much his classes have helped and earned you? Your best bet is finding as many chances to do small favors for him as you can and go from there.”

In a rare moment of weakness, Elizabeth saw Waterhouse grimace ever so slightly.

“Davis is hunting down Hexennacht.”

At that, the Director’s eyes widened. For a second, at least, before they narrowed. Elizabeth saw then, as her fellow magician’s mind worked, almost hearing the gears turning. And then, she saw the exact moment in which Waterhouse realized what she was telling her.

“I see.” That simple answer was all Elizabeth needed to hear. With a wide grin and a very much not friendly look in her eyes, she posed a question to her rival.

“So… is your bureaucratic ass stuck in that chair or are you fit enough to go after some strays?”

[}-o-{]

[Kunou]

She sat contently in the backyard of her dad’s house. Joshua sat with her mother back right outside said building while Kunou herself was in the middle of the green grass, her back resting against Nagini. She’d decided to spend some time with her dad’s familiars, since her mother and him were talking about business, it seemed.

Apparently, they were discussing, once more, about how Joshua could help Yasaka with her struggles without anyone noticing. A shame, really, since Kunou thought other people assuming her dad was courting her mother might push the two to actually get on with it. Maybe it’d happen anyway? She could only hope.

As it was, she was content to see them interacting more and she’d occasionally get promising glimpses, which was great. A smile from her dad here, a blush from her mother there, a comment, a gesture… There were lots of things that gave Kunou hope. It was a matter of time, she was sure.

She’d have to be patient… Which she didn’t much like, but she’d take what she could.

A meow made Kunou turn to look at Cheshire, in her small, normal cat form, walking up to her and rubbing against her. Absently, she started petting the cat before the familiar’s amber eyes stared up at her. She didn’t quite get what the feline was trying to tell her, but she got the gist of it.

Reassurance.

“I know,” she mumbled, not sure how much Cheshire knew. “I just… Waiting isn’t my strong suit,” she added, deflating a little bit.

Margalo joined then, singing a song of softness, of warmth, of goodness. It made her relax and smile as she fully leaned against Nagini’s body. The snake in question, for her part, hissed something that Kunou thought sounded suspiciously like a giggle.

“Where’s Morag?” Kunou asked, blinking curiously as she realized that she hadn’t seen the spider for a bit. Cheshire replied to that, meowed and pointing towards one side. “Did she go away?” That was answered with a shake of the feline’s head. “Hm, I guess we can wait for her to play something?”

Margalo answered that one with an affirmative, and very enthusiastic, chirp.

“Guess that’s what we are doing,” Kunou mumbled, still petting Cheshire. Deciding to get comfortable, she rested her head on the scaled back of Nagini. She closed her eyes too, but she wasn’t feeling sleepy, really.

She just… liked the peaceful atmosphere and the company. It was nice to know that she had company, that she wasn’t alone while surrounded by people anymore. It was nice to know that not only was her mother right there, ready to answer any question or just talk with her if she needed to. It was nice to know that she had a dad at all now too.

“I wonder what you’d say, about some of the things I think,” Kunou said softly. She had never quite told the familiars about her hopes, her wishes. Nor anyone else other than her own mother, really, she supposed. She knew they shared a connection with Joshua and she didn’t know how deep that went. She didn’t want to risk things getting back to Joshua. What if that didn’t go well? She didn’t want to ruin everything by pushing her luck.

Cheshire meowed, rubbing her head against her side once more. It made Kunou smile. She liked to think that meant the feline was on board with her dream, even if she likely didn’t even know what she was talking about. She could at least fool herself into thinking that.

“Do you think we are family too?” Kunou asked and the three familiars with her stopped for a moment. A moment that made her wonder if she’d made a mistake. That is, until then all three of them reacted.

Nagini let out one of her hissing giggles. Even Cheshire seemed amused, although it was more difficult to tell that when she did what she’d done a number of times already, meow and rub herself against Kunou. Somehow, she managed to convey different things through those gestures. As for Margalo, the poor bird looked more confused than anything, chirping at her as if she didn’t understand something.

The gigantic snake then moved, her tail raising up and revealing Morag, who had apparently weaved a web on her. Kunou looked at it curiously, noticing a pattern, not unlike the drawings the spider would make somet-

Kunou paused then, blinking as her eyes started watering.

“I see,” she mumbled, trying not to sob. “Thank you,” she added, as all four familiars gathered more closely, leaning on her. Kunou couldn’t quite look away from the web, however, as she read the single word on it.

‘Sister.’

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

You know, I might just stop writing chapter notes altogether. Most of the time I don’t have much to say regarding a chapter except expressing my doubts, which I’m sure you are all tired of reading about. So… Yeah, maybe I should just drop the occasional random question and be done with it, right?

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

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Random Question: Only one Season Project to go, make your guesses, people!

See you.