Game of Monsters - 108 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

I’ll Rise Like the Break of Dawn

“So, remember,” he said, turning to look at the class after finishing writing some things on the blackboard. “Sometimes, it’s necessary to make changes to your design that might carry over further work through the entire thing. It’s frustrating and you’ll want to avoid it, but doing so will only delay you and get you nowhere. If you find a simple solution that doesn’t imply changes anywhere else, then chances are that it's wrong. If it’s not, good for you, but don’t let that tempt you into believing a flawed design is good. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Professor Davis,” the class replied, noting down what he was saying and what he’d written for them along with the graphics.

Normally, he’d be sort of frustrated to have to cut into his spell crafting time for a class at House of Water. Especially after he’d had a breakthrough and was making some great progress on the Phoenix Spell like he hadn’t at any other point in all the time he’d poured into that project. However, this time, it was sort of necessary to take a break.

This was more or less part of the process, after all. Not the class per se, but showing up to it. Besides, it was a nice moment to take a break, considering he could afford to relax a bit now that there was light at the end of the tunnel. On top of that there was the fact that Joshua learned about as much as he taught his students in class, just by picking at their circles, their attempts at magic and such. All of it was a well of information that he fully intended to take advantage of.

“With all that in mind,” Joshua continued, reaching the end of his lecture. “I want you all to bring an example of a very simple spell that is turned into a really complicated one due to modification,” he said, causing mutterings to start sounding through the classroom. “From your main magics,” he added, drawing a few groans from the crowd. He knew nobody shared a main magic with another student, so that would work to stop them from cheating and picking the same spell, like the Magic Signal Spell.

He really wouldn’t put it past some of his students. They could be little shits like that, even if they’d slowly stopped being as obnoxious as they once were. It might have slowly been pounded into their heads that he wouldn’t hesitate to kick them out or otherwise affect their lives, Joshua supposed. It had been hard, but he seemed to have finally managed, thankfully.

“I’m sure you’ll have lots of fun,” he commented, drawing a few angry glares that simply made him smile. “That’s all, you can go,” he said then, simply waving towards the exit. Immediately, the students started gathering their things and leaving. “Miss Ordinton, stay behind, please,” he said, making the star group look towards the girl for a moment. Likely because this was the second time that he did that seemingly without reason.

Maybe it was good that he’d gone through something similar with George when he’d been gathering information regarding Recovery Magic. He’d actually done something similar with Levi too, and the whole star group at least once. That was probably why him having Meredith stay back only really drew some curious looks and nothing else.

Well, there was some annoyance from the rest of the normal students, but if one of them so much as thought about causing trouble…. Joshua was fairly sure that they knew what would happen and that was deterrent enough. If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t hesitate to do something about it. He was way beyond caring about any of them. He had much more scary people to deal with than them or their families and he was fairly sure that magician associations didn’t want to mess with him, judging by some of the things he’d picked up through his time working for House of Water.

He stood in front of his desk, leaning on it as he looked at Meredith and waited. There was really no need for him to even ask. The girl had to know what he was getting at. So, he just tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at her.

“W-… Did you need something, sir?” she asked him, making him sigh.

“Miss Ordinton, is there some way I can help?” he shot back instead of answering. He could tell that the bluntness caught her off guard, even without the extra information of his wards and senses. “Please, do tell me if I can, because I’d like to. You are a great student, and I guess I’ve grown fond of you, just like I have the rest of your group.”

“I…” she started, and he was sure that she was going to try and deny everything or at least avoid talking about it. However, Meredith seemed to pause for a moment and close her mouth. Eventually, after a long few seconds, she spoke again. “... My family got in contact with me.”

“Ok,” he replied, making it very obvious that he expected a little more than that. Wasn’t like he could do much with just that, right? He wasn’t going to press her on it though. She seemed to be struggling a lot to talk, so he didn’t want to make things worse.

“They… They didn’t want anything to do with me,” Meredith told him, looking down and gripping her skirt tightly. “They’d been denying that I existed for this long and then… Then they heard about your classes and that I was one of your best students and… And they heard that you had a lot of political power, presence.”

‘I think I know where this is going,’ Joshua thought, holding back a grimace as he looked at the clearly upset girl. ‘What do I do about this though?’

“There’s rumors about you, some more real than others, I’m sure but… Well, if half of them are true, like my… family thinks, then they wanted me to… get close to you, see if I could sway you to their side,” Meredith admitted, keeping her eyes firmly on the ground.

“Well, I can tell you that I won’t do that,” he told her simply, watching her deflate as he walked towards her. He stood next to her, eventually, feeling her eyes darting towards him. Crossing his arms, and tilting his head to look at her, he continued. “You weren’t really trying though. You’ve been participating less in my classes than before.”

“You’ve helped me a lot. You making me stand out from the rest of the students has been great for me,” Meredith told him softly. “You are a great teacher. I didn’t… I’d have felt bad, if I tried to manipulate you like that. And… And my family doesn’t care. I want them to, but… I know they don’t care and it hurts and… And I don’t know what to do.”

“My sister had a terrible family before I adopted her,” Joshua told her, for the first time drawing her gaze towards him. “Family can be terrible and trying to ignore that isn’t going to help you at all. I can’t make decisions for you, Miss Ordinton, but I think you should ignore them. You’ve built your life. If they wanted to ignore a talented girl like you, that’s their problem. You don’t owe them anything… Of course, this is just my opinion,” he added in the end, shrugging a little.

“Golden Dawn is… they want me to follow through with what my family wants. Both could benefit from… Well, from you,” she told him and Joshua felt like she was talking more to finally let things out more than because she thought it was a good idea.

“If they cause you trouble, any of those, just tell me, and I’ll deal with it. This is sort of my fault, after all, and like I said, I’ve grown fond of you,” Joshua reassured her. He was sure he could get Agnes to poach the girl. He probably wouldn’t even need to phrase it like a deal. “You know what, I’ll talk to Director Agnes. I’m sure she can do me a favor and keep an eye out for you. Let Golden Dawn and whoever give me half a reason and I’ll pull a few strings. I have plenty anyway,” he commented casually.

It’d be nice to have something to actually use some of the favors he’d earned. He was sure Agnes would appreciate the chance to do something other than attacking Hexennacht. Maybe he could go further and involve other magician associations. Or maybe Azazel? He did have a bunch of different Sacred Gear related spells he could trade for, really.

One might think it was exaggerated, to do so much for who was just one more student in his class but… Meredith and his “group of stars” were different. They didn’t just make him feel good about himself as a teacher, but they also helped keep things moving, keep things active. That helped the class, but it also helped Joshua. If people asked questions, participated and all, it allowed him to think more, maybe look at something from a new perspective, give ideas.

The classes at House of Water were useful for him and half the reason for that was his group of stars. It was why he felt like sending them in Yasaka’s direction. It was why he tried to be good with them. It was his way of repaying them.

‘Maybe Yasaka was right and there is something about the Supernatural and favors,’ he considered idly.

“You… You would do that?” Meredith asked, looking up at him with wide, hopeful blue eyes.

“Sure would,” he replied, planting his hand on top of her auburn hair and messing it up a little like he would have Kunou or Asia. Poor girl looked even younger than she already was with the way she was drawing into herself. “So, if you need help in any way, let me know. You are under my wing now, so, do take advantage of that, yeah? But not too much. I think you are smart. I’d hate to be proven wrong.”

“I… I won’t let you down, sir,” Meredith said, a sort of steel appeared in her eyes. It made him smile to see it. That was more the student that he’d come to know. “I… I have a Sacred Gear,” she admitted, making a golden crown appear on her head, a band with several jewels embedded on it. “Alpheca Tyrant, it lets me attack with holy nails and… and I can rewrite beings that I hit with them, change them.”

“Sounds powerful… and dangerous,” Joshua pointed out, looking at the thing and feeling it out with his wards. He’d known she had a Sacred Gear and could even pick up several facts about it, but he hadn’t known exactly what it was. It was good to know that his spells were good though, since his information had been pretty good.

“It is… Nobody knows I have it though, or if they do, they don’t know what it does,” Meredith told him. “I wanted… I wanted you to know… for trusting me.”

“There was no need for that, but I appreciated it nonetheless,” he told her softly. “Do be responsible with that though, will you? I think I’ve taught you enough that you will, but it’s never too many warnings with that kind of stuff.”

“I know, Professor Davis,” Meredith said, a smile forming on her face. “I… think I should go now. Sorry for taking your time, sir.”

“I’m sure you do and don’t worry about it. You are a star student, after all,” he told her with a grin in return. “Margalo, do you mind keeping Miss Ordinton company for a bit? She’s great, I’m sure you’ll see why in a bit,” he asked over his shoulder before turning to regard his student once more.

Expectedly, the bird was all to happy to comply.

“Do take care, Miss Ordinton.”

“I will. Thank you, Professor Davis,” the girl told him, smiling and waving as she moved out of the classroom. A moment later, he turned to look at a previously unoccupied seat in his classroom.

“That was cute,” a voice said, and Joshua’s hand snapped to the side to catch the object that materialized by his side. Idly, he opened the can of beer as a half smile formed on his face.

“Nephthys, sorry for the wait.”

[}-o-{]

“Things are going well, then?” Yasaka asked as they ate at a restaurant, sitting across from each other with Kunou to their side. They were under illusions, obviously, and with some heavy warding over the place since they’d gone there a bunch of times. Repeating the same place meant that he could work on the already existing defenses instead of having to set up new ones somewhere else. Besides, there were only so many places they could go to in Kyoto.

“Things are going great,” he replied enthusiastically, grinning widely. “I had a great breakthrough and it’s been going really well with every little change I’ve applied to the spell design from then on. I think I might be done with the entire thing instead of having a fake finished product. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before, honestly. Why was I so intent on copying the original thing when I’d already taken bits and pieces from a bunch of different sources?”

“You know what they say about hindsight,” the youkai leader pointed out and he laughed, nodding to acknowledge the point. “You are looking much more relaxed now, I noticed.”

“I feel like the weight of the world was taken off my shoulders,” he commented, leaning back for a moment and running his fingers through his hair. “I was really stressed out because of that wall I kept hitting my head against. Now I’m feeling great. I’ll feel even better once the thing is at least mostly done, but I think I have time.”

“It’s good to see you feeling better,” Yasaka commented, smiling in a way that really wasn’t fair at all.

“Well, I could say the same about you, really,” he shot back, making her blink as if he’d caught her off guard. “Things are going better on your side too, I’m guessing? Because if I need to call more favors-”

“That won’t be necessary,” she interrupted quickly. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have said she sounded flustered. “Really. I have been doing my job for a while, Joshua, in case you didn’t notice.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t help,” he replied with a grin. “Nor does it mean you can’t ask for help, you know? It doesn’t mean you aren’t capable or anything. There’s no need to take the hard road if there’s an easier option.”

“I know that, but I like doing things on my own. It’s what I’m used to doing,” the woman replied to which he shook his head.

“Please don’t be this stubborn when you grow up, ok?” Joshua asked Kunou, turning towards her and giving her an exaggerated pleading look.

“I won’t, dad,” she replied happily. For some reason, she looked even happier than usual, but Joshua wasn’t complaining. “Does this mean you’ll have more time to visit and go out like this?”

“I haven’t been visiting less, as far as I know,” he commented, blinking and tilting his head.

“I mean, yeah,” Kunou mumbled, suddenly drawing into herself. “But you always had to work and we didn’t get to play or tinker or anything like that,” she said, finishing with a pout that had him smiling apologetically.

“I’m sorry about that. Yes, we can continue adding cards to Project Duel, I promise. And I’ll come up with a few stories I can show you too,” he told her. And by that last one he meant ripping off more stories from back in his world. They’d worked well for him so far, even if sometimes he liked to change a few or a lot of things. He’d had to heavily alter the Naruto version he’d shown her, after all, so that he could make the Nine-Tails a little more… friendly for her, as it were. “And yeah, we can go on more outings like this, sure. At least, once I’m actually done working, but I should be a lot more free now.”

“That’s great,” she commented, going back to looking like a happy camper. “I can’t wait.”

“Have I told you that you spoil her too much?” Yasaka asked, giving him an amused look.

“Mom!”

“Only like a hundred times,” Joshua replied with a chuckle. “I can’t help it. She’s too adorable to tell her no.”

“I’m not adorable,” Kunou protested, pouting again in a totally adorable way.

“Way too adorable.”

“Dad!” she whined. “You are supposed to be on my side!”

“I am,” he agreed with a nod. “Doesn’t mean I will lie though.”

To that, the little girl gave up, huffed and turned back to her meal.

“Hm, she’s not talking to me anymore,” Joshua noted, looking at the girl and then turning to look at Yasaka. If anything, the woman looked even more amused than before. “I guess she won’t want to help us pick a place to go next, such a shame, right?”

“Wait, what?”

“Truly, a tragedy,” Yasaka said, shaking her head. Contradicting her words though, the smile stayed on her face. “But I guess we can pick up a few good places to visit by ourselves. Something she’d think is boring. Might be our only chance.”

“Mom!”

“I think you are right, now, where to go, where to go?” he wondered out loud, making a show of looking thoughtful. “Tough one, I gotta say, but I do have some ideas.”

“Dad, come on!” Kunou whined loudly and he’d have been worried because of the volume… if it weren’t for the illusions he’d weaved around them that he kept adapting. “You both suck,” she grumbled.

“What did you just say, young lady?” Yasaka asked sharply, her tone shifting.

“Uh, er, um… Sorry?”

“Oh, you’ll be. No card games tonight.”

“Mom!”

[}-o-{]

“Levi, I swear, if you smacked me with your staff again,” Joshua said, inflicting an exasperated tinge to his voice as he turned and saw Serafall and her villain of the moment. A woman, with a dark dress and just as dark hair and accessories on her person. “Well, who’s the pretty lady?”

“The one that smacked you with her staff,” Serafall answered, sounding just as exasperated and adding annoyance to the mix. “In a manner of speaking, at least.”

“The thief wakes up… If you think that he will change anything, Levi, you are mistaken,” the villain said, her voice filled with smugness that would surely inspire many Underworld children to smack her if they ever got the chance.

“Ex-cuse me?” Joshua asked then, frowning and placing a hand on his chest. “I’m the only one that gets to call her Levi, lady. And it’s not very nice to smack people, I’ll have you know?”

“And what will you do about it, thief?” the villain asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Your friend here is on her last legs. You’ve been unconscious for long too. You were weak and are now even weaker. Meanwhile, here I am, at my best, stronger than I’ve ever been.”

Wow, she was good. She’d definitely have a return arc, Joshua could bet. Serafall must love her. Who knows? He wasn’t quite updated in public opinion, but he could see it if she’d managed to make up for the loss of his character for a while… If Domino not being there had been as much of a loss as Serafall said, that is, which he doubted.

“Well, Lady Ebony Dark’ness,” Joshua started, running his hand through his hair and pulling out the mask that gave his character his name and placing it in front of his eyes.

“My name is-”

“I’ll do what I do best,” he interrupted, extending a hand towards the side. “And you know what that is?”

“Being a nuisance and a waste of space?” the woman asked, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

“That’d be-”

“-stealing,” Serafall finished before him, grinning even in her “tired” state.

“Stealing,” Joshua agreed with a nod and a smirk.

“And what will you be stealing, young man? My time with your stupidity?”

“I mean, that too,” Joshua replied with a nod and a chuckle. “But, Lady Dementia-”

“That’s not my-” the woman started saying, clearly very “annoyed” and “angry”.

“-you can’t leave fancy stuff near a thief, you know?” he finished as a rock fell on his extended hand. “And this looks plenty fancy,” he said, looking at the apple-sized item.

“When did you-?”

“Have you met my lil’ friend? Her name’s Luna,” he introduced with a grin as Margalo landed on his shoulder and gave the villain a very smug look, puffed chest and all. “And I do believe this is one of the Eternity Orbs. I’d almost say this is the Space Orb even,” he commented, before teleporting next to Serafall. “Wouldn’t you? Levi?”

“I’ve never been happier that you are a crafty piece of work, Domino.”

“Why, I can almost feel the love,” he said with a grin. “I do believe we have somewhere else to be. Preferably far away from Miss Raven Way.”

“When did you-?” Miss Villain didn’t finish that question, with her eyes wide and her face pale. Instead, he teleported both himself, Margalo and Serafall away from the set.

“And cut!” the director called, and Joshua ran his fingers through his hair.

“I liked that. Man, did I miss that. How did you make me like this?” he asked Serafall and saw her beaming at him. “How, you crafty devil?”

“You say the sweetest things, Joshua, truly,” she replied, exaggeratedly batting her eyes at him. “And isn’t it great?!” she added, switching back to excited child mode. “I’m so happy you like it, and that you are back! You sure you don’t need more time?”

“No, this is great. And I’m doing great with the spell so I honestly can afford a few breaks now without feeling like everything will crumble to pieces if I don’t,” he said, cracking his neck. “I really ought to do something nice for Kiba, honestly.”

“And maybe I’ll have to too,” Serafall commented. “For now though, that was the last scene to work on, at least, if the director is happy, which I think he’ll be.”

“And you gotta approve of it too,” he pointed out. “But after that we are free.”

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Serafall asked him, grinning.

“Cafe?”

“Cafe,” she confirmed with a nod. “Now, come on, we have to check that the scene is perfect and then we are free. Free as a bird, ain’t we, Margalo?” the woman commented, receiving a cheerful chirp from the bird on his shoulder. That is, before said bird jumped off, batted her wings and landed on the Satan’s shoulder.

“Ah, I see how it is. I’m not your favorite person anymore, huh?” Joshua asked, following them with a smile that contradicted his words. “I see, I see.”

His words didn’t have the desired result, considering Margalo only let out her version of a giggle. Disappointingly, he followed after them and he was definitely not pouting. He’d show the little meanie. See how she likes it when he doesn’t let her play with him.

Now that got a reaction from Margalo, as the bird read him through their bond and turned to give him a look.

“So, feel like trying out anything new or are you going for that drink that looks like it’d melt teeth again?” Joshua asked as he caught up and started walking besides Serafall. In response, the woman just turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I figured.”

“If anything, you are the weird one, Joshua. Who goes to a cafe and orders tea, honestly.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that!” he protested, receiving only a sarcastic hum in response. “There’s not!”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

It’s genuinely great to be able to write Joshua being more relaxed and all again. Granted, I feel like my own burn out might have bled into the character a bit, but I’m not out of the woods myself so… Regardless, at least it was a genuine delight to write this chapter with a much more positive vibe.

I’m not sure where Meredith’s part is going with the two recent scenes she got, but they are going somewhere alright.

And then there’s a Yasaka scene (with some Kunou because we all know there’s no good chapter without the adorable little thing) and a Serafall scene that’s half from her show. It’s actually kind of fun to write that, honestly. Maybe I can recycle that idea for another character and story and have it much more Serafall/Show oriented or something. Sounds like it’d be interesting, if nothing else.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Favorite part of the chapter?

See you.