Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.
A Deal That Seems Worth Taking
For a moment, both Joshua and Jeanne stared a the new arrival, Kuisha, in silence. The first of them, only slightly so, however, since he was also looking at the result of Appraisal in front of him. A result that was… not what he would have wanted.
[Kuisha Abaddon
Rank: ?]
'Because God forbid I can actually see something on these screens when it matters, right?' Joshau thought, withholding a grimace. He should have seen that one coming, after all if he couldn't see Jeanne's- 'I haven't actually checked that in a while, right? I should,' He decided with a mental note before focusing back on the present. The Devil seemed more amused than annoyed at their continued silence, so that was a plus. Maybe this was a common occurrence? Joshua supposed it probably was.
"You are not familiar with Devils," She voiced, maybe to fill the silence or break the ice or maybe for some other reason. Regardless, the man squared his shoulders and prepared himself. For what, he didn't know, but that was half the reason he was nervous to begin with.
"We aren't," He answered, even if that hadn't actually been a question. "Until a while ago, we didn't even know Devils existed."
That got a tilted head from Kuisha as if that bit of information puzzled her for some reason. Joshua, meanwhile, hoped that their ignorance would play in their favor. That she would think them less of a threat if they knew less and so she would underestimate them. The Hunter and the Khaos members had taught him that an enemy that underestimated you was the best kind of enemy, except maybe one weaker than oneself, that is.
"How did you get your hands on a flier then?" Kuisha asked, properly this time. To Joshua's relief, she didn't sound angry that they had, but curious.
"I don't know, some woman approached us and gave it to me some time ago, that's all I know," Joshua answered again, nervous and unsure if refusing to answer would end badly for them. Not that there was reason for them to do so, for the moment at least.
"Hm, our familiars are instructed to pass fliers only to magicians. That's why I'm confused," The woman explained, something that the man very much appreciated.
"Well, I am a magician," He commented, feeling a little proud of that. Maybe he wasn't the strongest or the most offensive magician, but he thought he deserved to feel like that with how much he'd advanced with his Wards in so little time. "I'm self taught though. I've gotten my hands on magic books here and there."
"Oh, interesting," Kuisha said, blinking and looking genuinely surprised.
"But, where are my manners. I'm Joshua and she's Jeanne," He introduced, purposely leaving out last names. His because he didn't want to reveal too much information and Jeanne's because he still didn't know it. It was a shame that he didn't dare outright lie to the devil, just in case. "You can take a seat if you want to," He added, waving towards the chair on her side of the table and forcing as natural a smile as he could manage.
"Thank you," She replied, nodding gracefully and then taking the offered seat. Meanwhile, Joshua took a deep breath in. An effort to calm his nerves that was, unfortunately, only partly successful.
"So, about that wish," He started, making an effort not to react at the way Kuisha seemed to turn all business in an instant. "We've been having trouble with a group of… supernatural people." He decided to go with that, since he didn't know if Khaos Brigade was a magician group or something else. "And we wanted to know if you could help us out."
"Help you how?" Kuisha asked. "This place seemed pretty well protected with the Wards placed here."
'She can sense the Wards?' Joshua thought, internally panicking. 'Can she sense the ones that would target her or is she only sensing the active Concealing and Detecting Wards?' He pushed thoughts questions aside though, since he couldn't very well ask the devil.
"We aren't as safe outside the Wards I've set up," He answered, taking another calming breath in. "I was hoping that you could help either place similar protections through the city or..."
"Or deal with this group for you?" Kuisha asked, raising an eyebrow. To Joshua's chagrin, she didn't seem too inclined to agree with that option. "What'd you do to get them to go after you?"
"Nothing," He replied instantly, his hands balling into fists. "They just attacked us one day because we "were in their territory". Is that something I should have known and don't because I'm self taught?" He asked back.
At that, Kuisha frowned. Joshua, for his part, didn't know if that was a good or a bad response. Had he said something to annoy her or was that directed towards the group he was explaining about? He really hoped for the latter.
"No group that I know of reacts like that… unless… Do you know what they are called?" She asked then, her entire expression turning from almost indifferent to serious in an instant. She demanded an answer more than she asked for one this time.
"They called themselves Khaos Brigade," Joshua replied quickly, afraid that he'd screwed them over somehow. Next to him, Jeanne tensed up and he was sure she was gripping the card with her sword under the table.
This was only made worse when Kuisha's face twisted, almost snarling at the name. The air around them grew thick and, soon, Joshua could see small pitch-black dots forming in the air behind the devil. He was acutely aware of the card between his fingers and the Wards ready to be activated at a moment's notice.
"Tell me everything," She demanded this time and he complied instantly.
"We met them in the forest nearby. They just… There were three of them, a warrior, an archer and a magician. They just approached us and immediately told us the territory thing before this guy, the magician, attacked us. We barely survived that encounter."
"How did you survive?" Kuisha asked, for a moment letting go of her anger, making the hostility in the room recede a little.
"I killed them," Joshua replied, trying to make it clear that it had been him. At least, if there was trouble because of that, it would only be on him. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be one, since Kuisha simply blinked and tilted her head.
"Huh. Self taught magicians usually don't… achieve much by themselves," She said, clearly confused and surprised by Joshua's apparent skill. "No offense."
"None taken," He replied, easily shrugging off the comment. After all, from what he knew, it was no surprise that she thought that. Besides... "I survived mostly on luck anyway."
"Hmm," Kuisha hummed, looking at him as if she was doing so for the first time. He didn't know if changing how she saw him was good or bad. "Anyway, you were saying that there are more around this city?" She asked and Joshua allowed himself to hope that she would help them.
"Yes."
"Great," She nodded, smiling a smile that made him almost pity Khaos Brigade. Almost. He certainly didn't envy their position, not one bit. "We'll deal with them for you. For free, even."
Joshua opened his mouth to ask why before closing. Maybe it was better that he didn't know about that. It was none of his business, really. However, on the other hand…
"You don't like them, I take it?"
"No, we don't," She confirmed for him and his mind started racing even as she continued speaking. "My group doesn't have the best of relationships with them. My King, the Devil I serve, left it clear that we were to look into any lead on Khaos Brigade. So, if you have any more information about them, we will trade for it, actually."
That had been exactly what he had been thinking, actually. He'd been ready to pay them to deal with the group, but if they were so eager maybe he could get the opposite. It was, for all intents and purposes, a great thing for him. However…
"Why are you telling me that?" Joshua asked, feeling foolish. Regardless, he didn't want to walk into a trap of some kind. She could have asked for the information and he'd have given it to her for free. He wanted Khaos Brigade out of his life anyway, so why tell him that they would pay for it?
Kuisha's smile told him that he'd asked the right question.
"There's an easy answer for that. Because I want to keep in contact with you, both of you," She admitted, addressing Jeanne for the first time. "There's a reason why Devils trade with Humans. One is for the riches, treasures and such that we can obtain through the deals, sometimes even favors."
"I'm sensing a but here," Joshua pointed out with a wry smile.
"But," Kuisha confirmed with a smile of her own, looking quite pleased instead. "There's other reasons for them. Devils obtain power through the deals, more power depending on how big the deal is."
"Is this a big deal?" Joshua asked, frowning. He couldn't say the deal was small but still… Was she trying to say that it benefitted her to make it a bigger deal than it actually was? Because that didn't sound right in his mind.
"No, I'm not doing this because of that," Kuisha shook her head. "Another reason is because deals are a good way to make contacts with the human world. My group, for example, looks specifically for magicians. Devils usually make specialized long term contracts with magicians."
"And you look for magicians to make these contracts with, so you are offering me a deal which is entirely leaning in my favor to earn some goodwill," Joshua pieced together then with narrowed eyes. The Devil across from him beamed at him. 'My life keeps getting weirder and weirder.' "How do these long term contracts work anyway?"
"I think we can have that conversation at another time. Back to Khaos Brigade?" Kuisha asked with a raised eyebrow. At that, Joshua nodded, deflating a little. He'd let himself get carried away, he realized. However, with how little he knew of Devils, he wanted to know more. Especially seeing as they seemed rather… human like, from what he was seeing. Then again, this could all be a set up to ultimately steal his soul. How would he be able to tell?
"Right..." He replied before pausing and eyeing Kuisha, who stared back. Flipping the card in his hand, he activated the Storage Circle on it and brought out the map he'd put inside. It was the only thing that he had stored there that wasn't a Sacred Holy Dagger. "Everything marked with a black circle is a Khaos Brigade base, or at least a spot that involves them, as far as I'm aware. I got this information from another magician… one that wasn't all that friendly, to be honest."
Kuisha, with her eyebrows raised, looked over it and Joshua saw as a grin slowly spread over her face. Then, the Devil turned towards them.
"Perfect," Was all she said, looking between them and the map for a moment. "You have preparations in place for this meeting, am I right?" She asked and both Joshua and Jeanne tensed, which unfortunately revealed the truth of her statement. "That's fine, but I want to know what they were."
"I set up a Ward array," He replied, trying not to show that it wasn't the complete truth. She already knew there were Wards in place, and he didn't know how much she knew about that, so it seemed like a better alternative than revealing the Holy weapons. "A bunch of Draining Wards with a Weakening Ward and a Weighing Ward."
"Oh," Kuisha blinked, tilting her head. "Would you activate them?"
"What?" Joshua blurted out instantly at the question. 'Did she really just say-'
"Activate them. I want to see how good the Wards are," She said and it was his turn to blink. For a moment, the man considered just doing that and being done with it. After all, surely a Devil could withstand his Wards without dying, right? Especially when she sounded so sure of herself, at least.
However, the fact was that he didn't know how strong the arrays were, or dangerous for that matter. That meant that he couldn't know if Kuisha would be alright. And while he wasn't that concerned with her life - she was a Devil, after all -, he was worried about what her people would do if something happened to her.
"I don't know how effective they will be. I haven't tested them," Joshua explained hesitantly. "They were a contingency, in case you were… well, like the Devils I imagined."
"Hmm… I must insist. I want to see how strong a magician you are."
"For this... contract thing?" He asked with a grimace. Joshua didn't want to know what would happen if he insisted on not doing as she said and he also didn't fancy his chances if something did happen to her because of him. 'Between a rock and a hard place...'
"Indeed," Kuisha nodded. "Go ahead," She urged, straightening her posture.
With a deep breath in, Joshua concentrated on the connection he'd made with his Wards so that he could activate them at will. He'd set them as a chain reaction with the first Draining Ward of the array so that he didn't have to switch all of them on separately. It probably wouldn't take more time either way, but it was easier for him to focus on just one for each array than to focus on all Wards.
"3… 2… 1… Go," He said softly before triggering his "trap".
At first, nothing happened besides Kuisha's eyes narrowing ever so slightly. Then, both Joshua and Jeanne could see the change slowly grow. After a second, her brows furrowed. After another, her body tensed.
By the third, she was slouching on her seat. 'Not as effective as I hoped, but certainly more than I expected,' Joshua noted, trying to discern if Kuisha wanted him to stop or if she had changed her mind about them. He would openly admit that he was waiting for the other shoe to drop at any moment. This meeting had gone entirely too smoothly in his opinion.
"That's enough," She said and he instantly turned the Wards off.
He'd definitely be doing all Devil dealings in the Hunter's House from then on. Now that all the Wards had been charged like that, they would only be more effective next time and only grow stronger. There was the problem of them getting too strong for the Wardstones he'd used though. He'd have to check that so that he could disable the Draining Wards before the Weakening and Weighing Wards overloaded.
"I don't believe you told me how long you've been a magician," Kuisha asked without actually doing so.
"Four months," He answered truthfully. Of all the questions she'd made, it sounded like one that he shouldn't have worried too much about. Evidently, he was wrong, since instantly her eyes flew wide open.
"Four months, are you certain?" She said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.
"Maybe a week less or so," Joshua replied, uncertain. He was keeping count of the time since he'd woken up in this new world more than anything else and he'd found magic pretty quick, all things considered so he was confident that number couldn't be too wrong. 'It hasn't been that long for me to start forgetting, right?'
"If that's the truth, then it's impressive progress. You must be very talented," The Devil commented and the man wasn't sure how to react to a compliment for her. It did make him proud, of course, but he was still wary of anything that Kuisha said or did. "We'd definitely like to keep in touch with you, Joshua."
Once more, he didn't know what to feel about that. On one hand, it would be nice to have someone on his corner besides his familiars and Jeanne. Someone that seemed to have more information than he had. One the other, how could he possibly know if a Devil was really on his side or he was just being played? He hated the situation he was in, that was for sure.
"I'm fine with that," Joshua voiced, trying to keep his apprehension in check. "I'm interested in those contracts you mentioned before."
He was being truthful on that too. At first, it worried him, after all the deal with the devil phrase was on the forefront of his mind throughout the last few weeks. However, he could reserve judgement until he had more information on the matter. Maybe it wouldn't be for him, maybe it would. He'd definitely take a look though.
He had a feeling he would need as much help as he could get if he wanted to survive.
"Now, regarding your payment?" Kuisha asked, after nodding at his words and Joshua blinked for a moment.
'Oh, right, she said they would pay for the info, right?' He mused as his mind immediately started thinking on what he could ask for. He could think of lots of things, that was for sure.
First of all was the obvious choice, money. With money, he wouldn't need to work and he could keep himself and those he cared about in the Hunter's House and put up so many Wards that he probably wouldn't ever need to worry. However, he wanted to enjoy his life and being trapped inside his home was certainly not the way to do that.
That also ruled out most material things too, he guessed.
No, what he needed was a way to better protect himself, which was the same as saying he needed more magic. Combat spells were the first thing that came to mind, of problem with that was that he'd have to start from zero. He'd have to study a new type of magic, probably fine tune a lot of the spells he would use and level a whole new magic branch and the spells in it.
The safe bet would be to get even more books about Wards, maybe ask for high quality Wardstones while he was at it. He could make his defenses nigh impenetrable, so that he would never have to worry about anyone passing through or going unnoticed. He really wanted to do that. Joshua wasn't a fighter and he knew it. He didn't enjoy fights, he didn't want to fight, he wanted to stay far, far away from fights of any kind.
That wasn't a possibility though.
"Could you provide me with books about battle magic? Something to get me started in that field, you know?" Joshua asked, still hesitant. He wasn't sure if the information he was giving was that important, he didn't know how much it was worth. Honestly, he hadn't known how much he could be charged for dealing with Khaos Brigade when he called either.
He lacked a lot of information.
For a second, he was tempted to ask for that. Information regarding the supernatural world he was now a part of. However, increasing his fighting capabilities was more important than that. He could, possibly, do another deal altogether to get information, it should probably not be all that expensive. He didn't think it would be, at least.
"That's doable," Kuisha agreed with a nod. "Any particular type of combat magic that you'd prefer?"
'Just like that?' Joshua thought, trying to hide his surprise. It was getting a little annoying, the number of times his paranoia told him that something would go South only for the Devil to destroy that notion. Was he really in a world where something like a Devil could be reasonable?
"Is there something like… neutral magic? Does it have a disadvantage over other types or something?" He asked, his mind racing in order to not waste any time. Jeanne could cover most elements with her swords, after all, so they didn't need an element. Maybe demonic combat magic or something. However, Joshua didn't want to risk that magic having a side-effect or something like that.
"As good a choice as any," Kuisha mused with another nod. "Neutral Magic can do just about anything elemental magic can do, besides the obvious elemental benefits and such," She explained. "It actually can do more with less, since it doesn't need to apply any type of "effect" as it were."
Joshua took that in and processed it as fast as he could. It made sense, he supposed. Since he wouldn't need to apply, say, fire to the magic, he could just focus on what he was doing, be it fire a beam or creating a barrier. He nodded slowly, trying not to get his hopes up. 'She doesn't need to lie about this, right?...'
'Is this what being Batman feels like?' He wondered for a split second. 'Because it sucks...'
"Then I'd like some books about neutral combat magic, if possible," Joshua agreed, keeping his thoughts to himself.
"Anything else?" Kuisha asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I wouldn't say no to more Wardstones," He added then. 'Because if she's offering I won't say no. But I'm getting serious "too good to be true" vibes from this,' He thought, wary. 'Something's going on here and I really don't like not knowing.'
"We'll see what we can do," Kuisha agreed easily before standing up. "Keep the flier. We'll contact you through it once we've confirmed the information you provided." 'And deal with Khaos Brigade, I'm guessing,' Joshua added in his mind. "When that happens, we'll message you and then uphold our end of the deal."
He nodded slowly at that.
"I also hope I can prove that we aren't what you think we are, Joshua," Kuisha continued, an understanding smile appearing on her face even if it looked a little strained. Joshua himself wasn't sure how to take that. Of course he couldn't act well enough to hide how suspicious he was of her, it had been almost a given, really, even if he'd still tried. "As it is, I think this is the start of a relationship that will greatly benefit both our sides."
"I hope so," He replied with a nod, taking a deep breath in as he stood up. He made a show of letting go of the card in his hand and placing it on the table. Then, he looked straight into her blue eyes. "I really want to trust that you are reasonable and all," He voiced, forcing the words even though his mind screamed at him that it was a bad idea. "But I just can't."
"Don't worry," Kuisha waved off. "We deal with this often. If you give us a chance, you won't regret it." Joshua stared at her then before turning to look intently at Jeanne. Catching on to what he was asking of her, the younger girl looked back at him and nodded.
"Cheshire, could you come, please?" He called then, earning a tilt of the Devil's head. "Just… have to do a little something. Could go a long way to making this a lot more… easy on both of us," Joshua explained as the cat strutted inside the room and made her way to the top of the table. "What do you think, girl?" He asked his familiar, who walked on the piece of furniture, not taking her eyes off the Devil.
Kuisha herself simply looked on, interested and curious.
Then, Cheshire approached her and meowed, turning back and nodding to Joshua.
"Great," He said, sighing in relief, finally feeling able to relax. "Pleasure doing business with you, Kuisha," He added, extending his arm forward and earning a more honest smile from the woman.
Joshua and Kuisha shook hands then and he made a deal with a Devil.
Somehow, he didn't feel like it was a mistake.
[} Chapter End {]