Game of Monsters - 127 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

Do You Think That I’m an Animal?

[Cheshire]

She watched Joshua come down from his room and she missed the times when she’d sleep on top of him. He was warm and their connection was at its best when they were calm, close. Cheshire missed those days, but what she didn’t miss was Joshua before Kunou, Yasaka and Serafall. She didn’t miss his worrying, his fear, his doubts.

So, when Joshua came down the stairs with a smile on his face, followed by Yasaka, Cheshire only greeted him with positive feelings through their bond.

She walked up to him, rubbing against his leg and only just twitching when she smelt Yasaka all over him. He noticed, chuckling as he started preparing her favorite snacks in apology. There was no need, but Cheshire didn’t dissuade him from that notion anyway.

She was happy for him, she was, but she did miss spending more time with him. Times changed, however. Joshua wasn’t the man that had only Jeanne, Cheshire’s sisters and her. He had much more now and they were all glad for it. They just had to adapt to how things were at the moment.

“Hello, Cheshire,” Yasaka greeted her with a smile, the kindness of her energies washing over her pleasantly. The woman didn’t need to do that, of course, but she always did, with Cheshire and with her sisters. They liked her because of that, because she treated them with the same care that she did Jeanne or Asia. They were their own girls, not an extension of Joshua just because they were his familiars.

Nagini especially liked that, but they were all appreciative all the same.

“Everything ok?” Yasaka asked curiously, smiling widely and warmly at her from where she sat behind the counter, waiting for Joshua to cook. Cheshire hopped on a seat of her own, calling to her sisters through their bond. She was careful not to sit too close to the woman though, because she didn’t feel like smelling her either at the moment.

She meowed her response.

“I’m glad. I’m feeling pretty good myself,” the woman replied, making Cheshire roll her eyes. As if she couldn’t tell, honestly. Yasaka giggled at that, clearly not quite gathering herself just yet, or maybe she wasn’t quite awake? Maybe both. “Kunou behaved?” she asked then.

Cheshire meowed, feeling through their bond how Morag woke up the little one. Granted, they were all actually younger than the girl, but she felt like a little sister to them regardless. She was Joshua’s daughter, after all, so it was their duty to take care of her as they would Joshua himself, as Joshua would take care of her or them.

“I appreciate the help,” Yasaka told her, meaning every word, something that showed in her energy. She looked like she was going to say something else, but then they heard the steps on the stairs again, this time courtesy of Jeanne and Asia. Kunou was still getting out of bed, after all.

Margalo beat them both to the table, however, perching herself on the backrest of Joshua’s chair. The rest of the family followed after that. Jeanne, Asia, Kunou and Morag. Poor Nagini would have to wait since she was on Shining Flame duty and the fallen didn’t really count, getting their meal after everyone else was done, like they did every time someone came for a meal at the house.

“Slept well, Kunou?” Yasaka asked, running her fingers through her daughter’s hair. The little one hummed, rubbing her weary eye while still half asleep. She was adorable like that. No wonder Joshua hadn’t stood a chance. “Did you have a good time with Auntie Jeanne?”

Said aunt groaned, letting her head fall on the table in annoyance.

“Why won’t you guys stop calling me that?” she whined into the wood. Margalo thought that was hilarious. Cheshire just thought she should quit it already. She wasn’t going to win that fight, after all.

“We had fun. We played games and we watched Auntie Serafall and Dad’s show a bunch. It was great!” Kunou replied, at first with a sleepy smile but quickly growing excited. “Can I spend the night with Auntie Jeanne and Auntie Asia again soon?”

That was new. Since when did the little one call Asia her aunt? Then again, she was growing quite close with everyone, so it wasn’t quite that much of a stretch, but still. Joshua hadn’t said anything on the matter still and the girl was more connected with the shining ones than she was with them, she was pretty sure…

Tilting her head, Cheshire checked through the energies and her senses…

And realized it was just a matter of time.

Maybe Joshua was taking his time second-guessing himself again? Asia wasn’t making things easy herself either. Yes, it looked like it might take some time to get that going. No matter. They were family already and if the little one said Asia was her aunt, then that was that. Joshua wouldn’t say no to that, Cheshire knew.

“Auntie Asia, huh?” Case in point, when the man said that, he did so without a hint of annoyance or anything negative. He even had a smile on his face as he moved towards the table and started setting the plates for everyone, the food already served. “Enjoy, everyone,” Joshua told them, grinning as he took his seat on the other side of Kunou from Yasaka. Once he did, stretched his back and yawned.

“You didn’t sleep well, dad?” Kunou asked, blinking innocently at the man. Everyone then turned their gazes towards Joshua, even sweet innocent Asia, who didn’t look all that innocent at that moment.

“I slept great, Kunou,” the man reassured her, sending an unimpressed look around the table that made Morag, Margalo and Asia look down sheepishly. Everyone else kept their staring though. “I just woke up feeling lazy. Didn’t want to get up.”

“Ah, I felt the same,” Kunou commented, none the wiser.

“It wasn’t quite the same,” Jeanne muttered under her breath. Joshua caught that, however, along with most everyone except, fortunately, Kunou. It’d have been a shame to have to kill Jeanne. Cheshire liked her, after all.

Judging by the way the girl paled under Joshua’s glare, she realized the error of her ways.

So, everything was good.

[}-o-{]

[Morag]

She’d gotten bored.

She couldn’t make webs while Joshua was teaching the younglings, after all. For some reason, the people that were in charge of the building didn’t like when she did. So, Joshua had asked her not to make webs, which was an awful thing to do, but she’d agreed, because it was Joshua.

Also because everytime she felt bad about not making webs, he’d flood their bond with good feelings and Morag liked that.

So, with nothing to do but still wanting to stick around, Morag had started roaming around the room. At first, it had been mostly on Joshua’s corner of it, but then she started crawling on the ceiling. It was fun, to see how some of the younglings and old-younglings got a little twitchy when they saw her do that. Some even did it when they saw her at all.

That had inspired her to push things a little further. So, she started roaming the space between desks, making the younglings pull their feet away from her as much as they could. One of them had even let out a hilarious screech when Morag touched her leg without even meaning to.

It was that incident that pushed her further. She started crawling on the youngling’s desks and chairs, careful not to interfere with Joshua’s teaching, which meant not actually touching any of the younglings, getting in the way of their sight forward or touching their paper thingies. It was an entertaining game, especially because of the reactions.

She was very grateful to Joshua for allowing her to do that too. He mainly seemed amused by it all, but he had had to scold her a few times when they were setting up the rules for the whole game. Now though, he seemed to mostly leave her to her fun.

Joshua was the best, after all.

“Hey there,” one of the younglings said kindly to her. That was new. Even those that didn’t react mostly just ignored her. This one reminded her of Joshua, or Jeanne, or Asia, or Kunou…. She looked… happy to see her, kind and relaxed. She even extended a hand to touch one of her legs carefully.

Morag decided that she liked that youngling.

So, she stuck around a little. After all, Morag knew that the particular group of younglings her new favorite was part of were ones that Joshua liked too. Everyone was happy, then, she concluded. She crawled to position herself behind her favorite youngling and peeked over her shoulder like she’d done a bunch of times with Joshua.

She didn’t understand the funny circles and messy drawings all that much, but Morag didn’t really need to. It was just fun to watch them work at it. At one point, she might have wanted to emulate their work with her webs and she thought she could if she really tried… but she had her own magic, she decided. Her webs and her poison were enough.

Maybe she’d change her mind in the future though.

As it was, Morag was happy to train with what she had and make pretty webs whenever she had free time. Speaking of though, maybe she could make a pretty web for her favorite youngling? Now, that was an idea, she decided. So, as Joshua continued teaching, Morag got to work.

Maybe she could make a game out of it too. Could she make a pretty web without letting the younglings know that she was doing it? That’d limit the number of legs she could use for it and the range of her movement… but that just made it more fun.

Yes, Morag liked that idea.

So, that’s what she did, basking in the amusement Joshua sent her way when she got started. He approved, it seemed. Good. Slowly, she started weaving, carefully. She was taking her time in a way she never had, she realized. She had always been good at weaving, after all, so, more often than not, she could do whatever she wanted without too much issue…

Until that moment, when she limited herself. The struggle was kind of interesting. Frustrating, but very rewarding when she got it right. She wondered, then, if that was how things were for the younglings. If that was the case, then she kind of understood.

The seconds turned to minutes and Morag watched Joshua teach, the younglings learn. She weaved her pretty web and even managed to have some playful interactions with her favorite youngling when she didn’t have to pay close attention. All in all, it was probably the best teaching session she’d accompanied Joshua to and she was glad she’d come this time. It was usually Cheshire or Margalo and they tended to have a better time, since they didn’t have to hold themselves back like Nagini or Morag herself did. Well, Nagini tended to have fun too, if only because she enjoyed the effect her unpowered stare had on the younglings. Her serpentine sister could be mean like that, after all.

Now though, maybe she could join them on that.

“Well, that’s all. See you next time, everyone,” Joshua told the younglings and Morag poked her favorite with one of her legs.

“You need something?” the girl asked kindly and Morag shifted to get a hold of the pretty web carefully and moved it to present it to the youngling. Her eyes widened and she extended a hand towards it, not quite touching it. “That’s for me?” she asked in a breath, and Morag extended it closer to her in confirmation.

“I can get that on a frame for you, if you want,” Joshua offered the student, while some others stayed behind to watch instead of leaving. As well they should. They should be envious of this girl for having one of her pretty webs. “Morag likes you, it seems.”

“Thank you, Morag,” the youngling said kindly. She had a nice voice. Not as nice as Margalo’s, but still nice. “I’m Karin and I like you too.”

Karin, Morag though.

A good enough name for her favorite youngling.

[}-o-{]

[Nagini]

The fallen were fun.

Especially Eager, she was the best. Scared and Dull weren’t bad but… Well, fear got old at some point and Dull was just… dull. So, Eager was easily Nagini’s favorite, if she were honest.

Which she was, because what did she care about lying, really?

Joshua’s was the only opinion that mattered and he didn’t care how she felt about the fallen so long as she didn’t help them betray him – as if she’d ever – or killed them… yet. Because there were some very serious plans regarding getting rid of them that Nagini could very well get behind. There were some other, more boring plans, but she didn’t care for those.

Back to the matter at hand, the fallen were fun.

Especially during training when Joshua allowed them – read, Nagini – to have more access to their abilities while keeping them firmly under the training area’s effects. Because yeah, even Nagini in all her powerful glory would struggle, but she was doing so by herself, perfectly able to smack the fallen with her tail, squeeze them with her body, subdue them with her glare. There was no struggle on that front, her abilities were almost in full force and it was certainly a feeling she could get used to.

Like at that very moment, when she took the opportunity to use training as a way to let loose after spending hours guarding the Shining Flame. Nothing like beating the fallen into the ground to feel a little less cramped. Not that Nagini didn’t like spending time with the Shining Flame though, because she did. The Shining Flame’s room made for a spectacular nap spot, considering how warm she was. The shiny part of it made Nagini a little uncomfortable but that only lasted until she hissed something at the Flame.

Since then, everything had been good.

A light spear hitting the side of her head told Nagini that maybe she was letting her thoughts wander a little too much. In her defense, she was a snake. She wasn’t made to think so much. She blamed Joshua’s influence for that, honestly. That man thought entirely too much.

Alas, she couldn’t let the fallen get too cocky in their practice fight. No way she’d let that happen. So, she returned Eager’s hit with one of her own, using her tail like a whip. Nagini followed that with a fast slither that always seemed to take people off guard. She might be big and heavy but that didn’t mean she was slow… Even though she couldn’t be fast for very long. The quick attack allowed her to coil around Dull.

Then there was only one fallen left, which meant that Scared was pinned to where she was by Nagini’s glare.

Oh did she like to see her targets unable to fight once her glorious eyes. They were her best feature, obviously, and she loved them. Joshua and the Crystal Presence clearly knew what they were doing when they helped her develop. Or maybe it was all on her awesome self? It could be, but she’d give them credit anyway.

She was generous like that.

Eager wasn’t done yet though, obviously. That was why Nagini liked her. She had fight in her. Scared and Dull went down with a good hit or a particularly harsh glare. Eager though? She was only out when she could barely stand… if she couldn’t stand at all.

Eager was great like that.

So, Nagini kept the fight going, just because of Eager. That meant that she had to somehow bring the other two back into things though, because if she fought just Eager then things wouldn’t be any fun. That’s why she took Dull, who was wrapped in Nagini’s body, and threw her straight at Scared to snap her out of it. Then she engaged Eager in the meantime.

It was a good deal of time later when their practice fight was interrupted by Joshua after his own training fight with Jeanne was over. Nagini still had plenty of fight in her, but she nodded anyway. Plenty of fight notwithstanding, she did feel like taking another nap. Maybe she could go keep Margalo company with the Shining Flame.

“Can I have a one on one with her next time?” she heard Eager ask, pushing herself to a shaky standing position and continuing to prove that she was the best of the three fallen. Not that it was a difficult thing or that it meant much, but still.

Nagini perked up at that, something that Joshua definitely noticed.

“Sure thing. I guess I can spar with Mittelt and Kalawarna in the meantime and Cheshire and Morag can keep Jeanne entertained,” Joshua mused, running his fingers through his hair.

She’d get a one on one with Eager while Joshua smacked the boring ones around and her sisters kicked Jeanne’s ass? The next training session couldn’t come fast enough, Nagini decided. Thus, she hissed at Joshua.

“No, we won’t be doing that right now, girl,” he replied with an amused smile as he scratched the underside of her jaw like he only knew how. Jeanne and Asia tried, but they never got it right. Little Kunou came pretty close though, Nagini would admit. “So, how about we go hunting instead? You seem to have some energy left over and I asked Agnes for a small favor. There’s a nice forest full of things you can hunt if you feel like it and they shouldn’t be too easy.”

Oh, Joshua was just the best.

[}-o-{]

[Margalo]

She sang and the Flame danced.

They made a good duo, Margalo decided. Sure, Flame wasn’t very talkative… or at all, but they understood each other. She provided the music and Flame the movement. What they achieved together was beautiful and she was enjoying herself, if she were honest.

Maybe she could ask Joshua to let her spend more time with Flame.

Now they only needed to wait for him to drop by so she could do that… and so he could deliver some snacks like he promised. It should happen any minute, she was sure. For the moment, Margalo kept enjoying her new friend. Things were going great, actually.

That’s when she saw the Flame shift differently. It wasn’t dancing anymore, even though Margalo was singing. So, she stopped and watched as the fire moved away from where Joshua had set it. She was almost about to call for Joshua when she noticed something else…

The Flame was reaching towards her…

And as the first wave of heat hit her ever so slightly, Margalo paused.

Suddenly, there was another bond next to Joshua’s. There was something else in her mind that wasn’t Joshua or her sisters. It whispered to her, but it was difficult to understand. It seemed to her more like a baby’s babble than speech. She almost didn’t get what it was saying, but in the end…

She got it.

The Flame was offering her power. It was offering her its fires, the same fires she’d seen Joshua fight. It was offering her the fires that could burn everything. It was offering her the same impressive strength that she’d seen the bad woman have as she fought Joshua.

And Margalo was tempted, so very tempted…

For the longest time, she’d wanted to be like her sisters. She wanted to be fast, like Cheshire. She wanted to be skilled, like Morag. She wanted to be strong, like Nagini. Instead, all Margalo had been was… weak. All she could do was fly around singing for other, better fighters to take care of the battles.

So, yes, she was tempted…

However, Margalo wasn’t like that anymore. So what if she was weak? She could sing and her singing helped. Maybe she couldn’t take out enemies like her sisters, but she could help them take out more difficult enemies more easily. She couldn’t fight for herself, but she could still be useful. Her sisters were powerful, much more powerful than her, but she could make them even stronger.

And that was who Margalo was. She wasn’t her sisters. She didn’t need more speed, or skill, or strength, or power. No, she just needed to keep doing what she was doing. She needed to keep getting better with her songs.

Because that was who Margalo was.

So, she didn’t need the power. She didn’t need the Flame. Joshua was looking for someone to take it, someone that could use it and someone that could use it well. Margalo wasn’t that someone. She’d much rather sing, so the fire wouldn’t be used all that much.

She’d much rather Joshua found someone else to take the Flame. After all, if she were it, then Margalo would have rather sang all the time like she did instead of only singing sometimes when someone felt like it. That was basically how it would go for the Flame if she took it, so she didn’t.

Having gotten an answer, the Flame pulled back to where it had been before. It was disappointed, but not angry, which Margalo thought was a relief. She didn’t want to insult her new friend, just… help. She supposed being trapped in that room all the time must be dull. Maybe she could get Josh to take Flame out?

Ultimately, it was better for it to wait for the right person than to settle for Margalo, she decided.

So, to cheer things up a little, she started singing again. The Flame didn’t take long to start dancing, even if it did so slowly. It wasn’t quite as alive as it had been before, but maybe it was just feeling a little bad. Maybe one of Joshua’s snacks would make her happy? They always made Margalo happy, at least. Did fire even eat things? Maybe some nice piece of wood would be better? Coal? Fuel?

Margalo was pretty sure those tasted horrible, but then again, Joshua also ate some terrible tasting stuff that they loved so… Maybe it’d work, she supposed. She wasn’t one to judge. Nagini would have thought her silly for rejecting more power, after all, but that’s what she wanted. This was more or less the same.

“Are you two behaving yourselves?” Joshua asked, sending warm feelings through the bond at Margalo but mainly gratitude. As if it were some kind of favor to spend time with her new friend, honestly. She wasted no time letting him know that, making him chuckle. “I see you are getting along,” he commented as she flew and perched herself on his shoulder. It was, after all, the best place to be. “Here. Your favorite,” he said, bringing the bowl with food up for her to eat.

It was, indeed, her favorite.

Because Joshua was just the best like that.

“So, anything I need to know? You were a bit all over the place there for a bit,” he asked curiously, looking around and trying to see if there were any problems. As best she could, Margalo let him know what had happened. The bond was a little strange to communicate through at times, but she usually managed well enough. “I see…” he mused, idly scratching her feathers with his finger, something that she very much enjoyed. “Yes, Margalo, I can take your… friend out for a walk and things like that, don’t worry,” he reassured with a chuckle when she sent him a questioning thought.

Then he remained silent, staring at her for a long moment. It made her stare back at him after a moment. He wasn’t thinking about the Flame, from what she could gather. He was thinking about her, her resolution not to take the power. Because she was who she was, what she wanted.

She wanted to sing.

She wanted to help.

“You are incredible, Margalo,” Joshua told her, a smile on his face and warm feelings on their bond. “Never forget that.”

And she knew that very well, confirming it with a cry. However, that cry lengthened as she felt it once more, the rush of energy, Joshua and the Crystal Presence. She reveled in them once more, basking in the feeling of her getting better.

She just wished she could continue to sing and help afterwards.

Because that’s how things were.

Margalo was the Song.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Why did I feel the need to write an entire chapter focusing on the familiars? Well, for one, I don’t think they’ve gotten much time to shine for a while, definitely not all of them. For another… I don’t know, I just realized that my chapters are usually divided into four parts that are 1k words each and I thought “Hey, there’s four familiars too, what about doing this?”

So, I did.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Which one is your favorite familiar and your favorite part of this chapter? I guess someone could have different answers for each side of the question. Personally, I have a weak spot for Cheshire because she was the first. I liked Nagini’s part of the chapter better, I think. It flowed more easily than the rest, for one.

See you.