Game of Monsters - 117 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

Would You Say We Are Doing Alright?

“That was hot,” Serafall told him once the meeting with the Phenex was done and they were alone, walking through the halls of Yasaka’s place towards the room they usually stayed at. With a sigh, Joshua brought the can of beer in his hand to his mouth. “What’s with that reaction?!” the Satan exclaimed, scandalized and pouting.

“You say that because you know it makes things awkward for me, don’t you?” he asked, with a wry smile.

“And because it’s true,” Serafall replied with a nod and a smile on her face. Joshua only sighed again. “Come on~!” she told him, grabbing his arm and wrapping her arms around him, pressing it against her… “Don’t be like that, Josh! You have to accept your hotness.”

“I think I’ll just accept that I’ll be socially awkward forever instead,” he mumbled, taking another gulp from his beer. At moments like that one, he wished he could actually get drunk. Unfortunately, either because of his stats or his Poison Resistance skill, he just couldn’t. ‘Never thought I’d wish to get drunk,’ he thought to himself. “Sounds more likely.”

He grimaced when Serafall bonked him over the head with her staff.

“Bad Josh, that’s not hot,” she told him, as one would chiding a child. To that, he just gave her flat look.

“You do realize that I’m not trying to look… hot, right?” he asked, the word feeling weird in his mouth. Especially since this was talking about himself instead of someone else.

“Still!” she said, stomping her foot on the ground.

Joshua sighed.

“At least you look adorable when you do that,” he commented, turning and continuing to walk.

“I’m not adorable, Josh! I’m hot too!” she protested childishly as she started walking until she was ahead of him. She wasn’t wrong about that, admittedly. Especially in her magical girl outfit and especially when she skipped like that which made the skirt- “Aha! That’s an admission if I ever saw one!” she said, turning and pointing at him with her staff, victorious.

“Never denied that,” Joshua replied with a slight smile. “You are hot, very much so. And that outfit certainly helps, even if it’s childish.”

“Oh?” she mumbled, blinking at him.

He just chuckled.

“Childish it might be, but when you make a pose or are going around skipping? Good thing they edit most stuff out,” he commented, shaking his head. Very good thing, yeah, because for one he didn’t want to be on that kind of show, thank you very much. For another, he wasn’t about to let Kunou watch that if they didn’t edit it, that was for sure.

“You can’t just say that, Josh!” Serafall explained, placing her hands on her (not) blushing cheeks. “I wasn’t mentally prepared for that! Be still, my beating heart!”

“See if I compliment you again,” he mumbled, continuing to walk as the woman giggled behind him and then caught up. ‘As if it weren’t awkward enough for me,’ he added in his mind, grimacing a little now that he was ahead of Serafall and she couldn’t see.

Not that he blamed her, she was just like that. Getting angry at her for being playful and joking would be about the same as her getting angry if he was spellcrafting. It was what they were, they had to either enjoy it, live with it or just give up. It was usually the former for him, in this instance, but he guessed he’d have to put up with it in regards to his… romantic ineptitude, or however one wanted to call it.

Maybe he’d get better at it.

…

Yeah, nah.

“Don’t be sad, Josh~” Serafall told him, sounding really clos- ‘Oh,’ he thought simply as the woman wrapped her arms around one of his once more. He was suddenly a very lucky guy, he supposed, considering his limb was now in a very… comfortable place. “I appreciate it, really,” she added, sounding actually serious. Or as serious as she could be without it being… well, a lot less happy all around.

“I’m being stupid again, I know,” he muttered, running the fingers of his free hand through his hair. Idly, he noticed that they passed next to a youkai servant of the place, but they barely got a greeting nod. ‘Thank God for illusions,’ Joshua thought to himself. “I’m just not… very confident, I guess.”

“You are plenty confident,” Serafall disagreed… And he really didn’t like that smile on her face. “I would know, it’s when you are at your hottest,” she relayed with a sagely nod. Joshua could only grimace… and envy her being able to say stuff like that so freely. ‘Admittedly, it does feel nice,’ a corner of his mind whispered.

He’d never thought much about himself, but then again, his physique had changed a lot since he’d started training and all that.

“I’ll take your word for it,” he mumbled, getting a smug hum from the woman as she continued to cling to him. “Are you busy today? I don’t remember if you said you had anything other than the meeting with the Phenex.”

“I’m free today. Well, I’m supposed to discuss Phenex business with you, but I think we have that covered,” she commented, looking perfectly pleased with herself. “I do have to spend some time going over some things. There’s still a mess left after Ajuka’s brother, even when he’s been dealt with already. It ruffled a lot of feathers and now I have to deal with that, at least on the front with the Church. Fortunately, Gabriel and I are already working together on some things so…”

“Anything I can help with? That whole thing started with Asia, right?” he asked, already more than aware of the answer. “I feel involved, and I am working for the Church and Heaven too.”

“I can deal with it, but thanks,” she told him, pulling him down slightly to kiss his cheek. “You don’t have to help us with everything, you know? We know how to do our jobs.”

“And I know that. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to make things easier for you two,” he replied, feeling like he’d had that conversation already with Yasaka.

“And I’ll keep that in mind, Josh~” she said, looking like a happy camper. He was a little taken aback by that, even if it was nice to see. Surely she couldn’t be that happy just holding onto his arm and walking with him, right? “I’ll hold you to that once I come across something actually troublesome.”

“I’ll do my best,” he replied with a smile on his face. That was much better than being told no and leaving it at that. “Well, not to demand anything, but maybe you can get that done while we visit Yasaka and Kunou and then we can go on a date-”

“Sure!” she agreed, before he could even finish and he resisted the urge to do something out of nerves, like scratching the back of his head. Instead, he managed not to do any of that… Not that it stopped him from walking around rather stiffly because of how awkward he felt. “Where did you have in mind?” Serafall asked curiously, eyes all but shining.

“Well, there’s this magical girl movie coming out-” Some of his nervousness dissipated as he watched her expression all but lit up. “And then there’s a nice restaurant nearby that I think would be nice. I already have spells cast all around both places.”

“One of your dating spots with Yasaka?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him playfully.

“Prospective one,” he admitted, back to feeling nervous. “I have a bunch of those set up that we haven’t gone to yet. So, I thought I could go to some of them with you instead.”

“And not with Yasaka later?”

“I mean, I didn’t think that’d be a goo-”

“Josh, Josh, Josh,” she said, shaking her head and acting exaggeratedly disappointed. “You can’t find new places to take us all the time, you know? And Yasaka can’t leave Kyoto, so that kind of makes things difficult, right?”

“I mean-”

“So, don’t be silly and worry about that, yeah?” Serafall reassured him with a pat on his arm that she was still holding onto. “We want to spend time with you. A nice place is fine, but it doesn’t need to be special or whatever.”

“I… Yeah, ok…” he replied, feeling at a loss for words for a moment. This was doubly the case when Serafall pulled him down again, this time to kiss him on the lips.

“It’s nice that your brilliant brain seems to turn to mush when I do that,” she commented, and he felt his cheeks suddenly heating up a little. He was blushing, he knew, especially because of Serafall’s following giggle.

In the end, he just sighed.

Fortunately for him, they had reached their destination. ‘Finally,’ he thought dramatically to himself as he pushed the door open and they walked through. Yasaka and Kunou were already there, the latter showing the former something on her notebook. It was a familiar scene. Their daughter was probably showing her some illusion idea, he’d bet.

As they entered the room though, he saw them share a look before turning towards them.

“Welcome back,” they said at the same time.

“Good to be back,” Joshua replied with a smile. Then his amusement grew as he continued. “That was the brat’s idea, I bet.”

“Stop calling me brat,” Kunou whined then, deflating where she sat. Beside her, Yasaka giggled behind her hand.

“You aren’t wrong though,” the woman confessed, looking about as amused as he felt. “That goes for you too, Serafall.”

“Good to be back~” the Satan said, letting go of Joshua’s arm and then skipping to a seat. “It’s nice to be received like that, isn’t it, Josh?”

“Certainly can see the appeal,” he answered with a shake of his head and then walking to sit beside Kunou. Idly, he glanced at her homework, which seemed to be all – or at least mostly – done. “Someone didn’t get distracted crafting illusions? Will wonders never cease?”

“Daaad,” Kunou whined, poking at his side with her finger. “Stop being mean.”

“I’m not mean,” he protested, leaning back and frowning at her. Then he turned towards Yasaka and Serafall. “Am I mean?”

“Not at all,” the Satan answered instantly, beaming.

“I wouldn’t say so, no,” Yasaka replied, before turning to look at her daughter. “Stop being mean to your father, Kunou,” she added, making his insides turn a little. Somehow, whatever progress he’d made into adapting to being called that had vanished into thin air now. He guessed it was very different when he was just filling a role, more or less, compared to now that he was actually together with Yasaka.

“Auntie Sera, they are ganging up on me!” Kunou called, turning to the only other person in the room left for her to go for help. Joshua’s eyes widened a little as he looked between Kunou and Serafall. He wasn’t the only one, because the aforementioned Satan looked even more caught off guard, eyes darting towards Yasaka.

As for the youkai leader? She looked… She didn’t look unhappy, at least, but Joshua had a hard time reading her at that moment. Because when he wanted to get a read was when it was the hardest. Why wouldn’t it be?

“... If I can call you that?” Kunou asked then, clearly having noticed that she’d caused a bit of a scene, even if it hadn’t even been more than a second or two. “Sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize,” Serafall told her then, speaking softly. “You just caught me- us, off guard, that’s all. You can call me that, little one,” she added then, nothing like the usually playful woman that she was. She looked… touched, Joshua would say.

“I don’t have to call you mom?” Kunou asked, uncertain.

“No, no, you don’t have to,” Serafall answered with a warm smile on her face as she regarded the girl. Then Joshua saw some of her playfulness come through once more. “But who knows, right? Maybe you’ll call me that in the future, if you want to.” He didn’t miss the way she glanced towards Yasaka, nor the nod the other woman gave in turn. That was when he saw Serafall relax a little.

He hadn’t even noticed she was tense before.

‘Reading them is fucking hard,’ he grumbled internally.

“Hm, ok then,” Kunou mumbled, looking thoughtful and a little subdued. “But what do you like being called?”

“I like Auntie Serafall, do you?” the Satan asked with a beaming smile that seemed to widen as the girl nodded. “Then it’s settled, right?”

“Is Fuyuko going to take much longer? I think I know why dad likes tea so much now,” Kunou muttered where she sat. Both women in the room giggled then while Joshua grinned and planted his hand on top of the girl’s head. “I feel tired.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” he told her. ‘God knows social interactions exhaust me too,’ he added in his mind. “She’s coming our way, so there’s that.”

“Nice,” Kunou mumbled with a smile.

[}-o-{]

“It makes sense,” Joshua mumbled to himself, looking at his theories in his notebook. “At least, I think it makes sense,” he added, a little less sure as he went over the ideas again and again. “What do you think?”

As an answer, Morag pulled on his hair from where she was, crawling over and behind him on Nagini’s body. The serpent, for her part, hissed something noncommittal. Fair enough. He was the spell expert here, not them.

“I think it makes sense,” he repeated with a sigh as he noted down his latest theory on Sleep Disease. After getting some… tests ran with his Project Winter and Project Summer, and some more scans on Lord Sitri, who hadn’t fallen into the deepest sleep yet, on top of the check ups he still did on Sairaorg’s mother from time to time…

Joshua was fairly sure he was getting somewhere.

His current idea was that the disease affected the speed of the magic flow inside devils, sort of like Project Winter but a lot less evident. It made their magic efficiency go down dramatically. Every bit of energy they used would double or triple depending on how advanced the disease was. Even when they weren’t using magic, they’d feel lethargic, the lower speed making it feel like they had less magic than they did, creating a pseudo-magic exhaustion.

If he was right, which wasn’t a certainty just yet, then he could try to heal that with a variant of Project Summer, making up for the slow with a boost in speed.

It was finicky though, so Joshua wasn’t eager to get to testing. Last thing he wanted was to blow up Serafall’s father or Sairaorg’s mother… or anyone else, really. The fact that the Sleep Disease wasn’t a constant slow but an increasing and decreasing one made it all the more difficult. ‘Maybe I can make an adaptive magic speed up spell of some kind,’ he considered then, but that’d be a pain in the ass.

A combination of Project Summer, Project Everchanging and Project Intelligence, sort of. Although the last one might be pushing too much. He did have sort of adaptive spells in his current training array, but it wasn’t quite as detailed as this needed to be. He wouldn’t die if the weighing wards were a little too strong or weak, after all.

‘If I’m right, this is going to be fucking tricky,’ he thought, leaning back on his seat (read, Nagini) and looking over his desk (read, Nagini again) towards where the Fallen and Kuroka were fighting each other. Fortunately, the Nekoshou seemed to have gotten it into her head to leave him alone, which was fine. He couldn’t say he was a fan of the spikes of fear and nerves that he could feel from her at times, but it was better than her constant flirting, at least.

His eyes slid towards his wrists for a moment before dismissing that.

It hadn’t been him.

He hadn’t done that.

He resolutely ignored the little voice at the back of his head that told him he very well could have been and would have.

Margalo chose that moment to land next to him and start singing. He felt the sooth of her voice on him and his previously downtrodden expression turned into a smile. ‘Thanks, girl,’ he thought out loud to his familiar, receiving affection in turn. ‘You are great. All of you,’ he added with a chuckle as Nagini wrapped a little tighter around him and Morag pulled on his hair.

Then he sighed, pushing the notebook away and rubbing his eyelids tiredly. ‘Okay, time for a break from that,’ he thought, storing the notebook in a spell before taking out a few others. As he did, he took out another, together with a few books too. ‘Might as well visit one of my other projects, right?’ he decided, glancing towards the Fallen.

Their progress had officially stagnated. Still going, as always, but it was so slow it might as well be nothing. They kept pushing because there was nothing else for them to do and he demanded that. Well, Mittelt and Kalawarna did it for that reason. Raynare really wanted to get stronger, and he was giving her all the tools, even if she was being held back by her own physiology.

So, putting some work into Project Ascension would be worth it, at least to give his mind a break from Project Awakening.

Khaos Brigade would make a move at some point, despite being concerningly quiet as of late. Kokabiel would show his face to the public at some point, and when he did… When he did, Joshua would be ready, either with the Fallen at the point they needed to be, or himself.

Because sure, the idea was nice, but he wasn’t about to let the bastard walk away if the opportunity presented itself.

One way or another, as soon as he got his hands on Kokabiel…

Joshua was going to kill him, and that’d be that.

[}-o-{]

[Meredith Ordinton]

Another day, another Davis class to partake in. Before, when it had been only one class, it hadn’t quite been like that. Now though? It was a class almost every day, really, with only weekends and one other day free.

None of them were complaining though.

The classes were quiet, except when Professor Davis asked a question. Everyone had learned that if you wanted to be anyone in the class, you had to participate. If you didn’t, then the professor wouldn’t care about you. He was more likely to judge more harshly if you didn’t ever ask a question. After all, if you didn’t ask questions, then it meant you understood everything and had it well in hand, right?

And Professor Davis always remembered. He always knew if you had asked a question or not. He always knew if you had stayed silent at the back of the classroom. He might not know your name, or who you were, or where you came from, but he always knew how you behaved in his class.

Meredith was broken from her thoughts as she, together with everyone else in the class, shuddered. It was always very unnerving whenever Professor Davis used his spells to completely vanish a failed spell. His wards and hexes simply devoured whatever magic had gone wrong there before it could explode or do anything at all. It was very scary and very impressive at the same time.

“It’s fine,” the Professor said, waving off the worried expression on his student. “You have trouble with the energy adjustments, after all,” he added, drawing a slightly wide-eyed look from the poor bastard. He’d probably thought he’d get a piece of the man’s mind or something. It was always like that, even after repeated showings to the contrary. It was what they were taught to expect from failure. It was how things just were.

And then there was Professor Davis, who seemed unable to know someone’s name unless he really tried, but kept tab on anything and everything you asked or talked about in his class. He knew what you struggled with and what came easy to you. If you failed at something you were bad at, it was fine, he’d just give advice, maybe a small lesson on that specifically. If you failed at something you were good at…

Then you clearly weren’t trying and you deserved nothing.

“I guess we can cover some of that next class. I’m sorry everyone, but we’ll finish this testing round at a later date, ok? As it is, we’ve run out of time,” the Professor announced. Meredith groaned then, and she wasn’t the only one. There were few things more productive than being in that class, after all.

On top of that, she had her own personal problems with not being there. Her higher ups in Golden Dawn were getting antsy about her “lack of progress” and her family wasn’t much better. They were starting to get impatient and make “suggestions” that made her sick.

She wanted to leave, so much, but she couldn’t. She’d carved her path there. It was what Meredith had built for herself. She couldn’t just abandon all that, throw away the work of years and years of her life. What little she’d gotten for herself through blood, sweat and tears.

She refused.

… And yet…

“Something the matter?” Professor Davis asked when she was the only one that hadn’t left already. She hadn’t so much as gathered her things. Karin and Fortune were standing by the door, waiting for her and probably expecting to have a study session after class like they sometimes did. She waved them off though. She wasn’t feeling like it.

“I’m fine just… tired,” she answered, deflating where she sat. “I’m sorry, I’ll leave. I just-”

“Don’t worry about it. Sometimes you need a moment of quiet to gather your thoughts and your strength,” Professor Davis told her with a smile. “Take your time, yeah? I’ll just do some work in the meantime,” he told her, moving to sit at his desk, which he rarely used. He then took out some things from Storage Spell and started doing exactly what he said he would.

Meredith was curious, so very curious, but she held back on asking.

She was already bothering the man, there was no need to do so even more. So, instead, she took the moment Professor Davis was offering and just sat down there in silence. Beside her, she saw Cheshire climb on top of the desk by her side. According to their teacher, she seemed to have taken a liking to the star group. Her in particular, Professor Davis had told Meredith in private once. Apparently, she’d really made an impression by being the first one.

She suspected that might also be a reflection of their teacher’s opinion, but she saved that opinion to herself. She expected many would refuse to believe her and many of those that didn’t would be annoyed. As it was, Meredith didn’t feel the need to voice that anyway.

As she sat there though, she couldn’t help but remember what the man had told her some time ago.

“If they cause you trouble, any of those, just tell me, and I'll deal with it.”

“So, if you need help in any way, let me know.”

“Professor Davis?” she called, her voice barely a whisper. He couldn’t have heard her, but she still expected him to do so. Surprisingly, the man looked up from his notebook at her. With her eyes widening, she felt put on the spot. How had he-?

Cheshire meowed next to her, patting her with her paw.

Of course…

‘Come on, just do it,’ Meredith told herself as she gulped. She just needed to gather her courage and trust this man that had already done wonders for her without even really trying. She just needed to take a leap of faith… It was the only path she had left.

“I… I need help,” she said.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I keep suffering writing the interactions between Joshua, Serafall and Yasaka, but that’ll be a common thing, pretty sure. I’ll just have to get used to it… Ugh.

Anyway, there’s also progress with the Sleep Disease and the Meredith lines, which is interesting. I wasn’t expecting that so quick. Especially the latter, but then again, I don’t know why I try to predict stuff to begin with. I should know better by now.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Announcement: I started another story in FFN that won’t make it to Patreon. The reason for this is because I’m working on it with Arclight from the Discord server. It’s also a “story” where we’ll post several different projects, just to get them out there and try to get opinions on them, so even if you don’t like what’s there, chances are that a new project will pop up later and you might like that one better than the others. So, please, give it a try and tell us what you think.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: How do you do in social settings? I suck. I had to attend a relative’s party the other day and it sucked. I had to sit there and be uncomfortable for like 8 hours while everyone danced and shit. Ugh. (Yes, I asked this question just to have a reason to complain about that.)

See you.