Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.
Just Keep Diving Down The Hole
It was one week from that day that Joshua received word from the Devils something that he'd started to doubt would happen. Not that he had any problems with that outcome, really. He'd been ready to pay for their service, so he wasn't overly concerned with losing his payment, honestly.
Regardless of his expectations, it happened. The flier lit up one day, and he'd almost missed it, if not for Nagini squeezing his neck and pointing with her tail. Picking up the piece of paper, he noticed that the text in it had changed. Instead of the 'We will grant your wish' he knew had been there before, there was a message for him, a time, to be exact.
"Well, good thing I was already upping the security in the Hunter's house," He mused, his eyes locked on the flier. Nagini, on his shoulders, hissed softly in what he was sure was her version of a noncommittal hum. She was probably not looking forward to that, Joshua guessed. After all, she'd have to stay away from them while they were at the meeting, much like they'd had during the first. She wasn't a fan of that, he knew. Neither was Morag, for that matter.
"Do you think it'll go well?" Jeanne asked, apparently having joined him in the room at some point.
"I don't know. Last time went well enough though, I have hopes that it'll go the same way this time," He replied with a shrug. "Do the voices have anything to say?"
"Not much," She answered, her lips twitching in a smile, like they always did when he casually mentioned the voices to her. Joshua guessed having such a part of her be easily accepted was a big deal for the girl, so he made an effort to try and bring it up often. "Just to stay on our guard. We know that you've put up even better protections this time. It should be fine, or so they say."
"That's a relief," Joshua nodded. It really was, at that. He was kind of on the fence about the Devils himself. After all, they were Devils but Kuisha had seemed perfectly reasonable. That left the man not knowing how to take her existence. Having something else, something that had proved to be reliable like the voices and Cheshire, making that decision for him was a small comfort. He'd have his doubts, but at least he had something to help him keep his paranoia under control.
"Will you try to make more deals with them though?" Jeanne asked this time and he grimaced. "Kuisha mentioned something about a contract with magicians. Contracts that were long term… You seemed pretty interested in them too, and said as much."
She was worried, Joshua realized almost instantly. He couldn't even blame her. He was too, if he was honest with himself. Making one deal with them had been nerve wracking. Now, thinking about making more was even worse, let alone singing a long term contract.
And yet… Joshua couldn't help but be curious. First, because he wanted to learn more about the Devils as a whole and second, because he'd, as he read through his books, realized that he was the smallest of small fries in the supernatural. Everything was stronger than he was, and while his Wards offered him an edge in his own territory, a place that he had no intention of leaving anytime soon, they didn't reassure him nearly as much as he would have liked.
The Devils could be his ticket to gaining enough power to protect himself, Jeane and his familiars. If not that, then they could certainly provide the ridiculously high number of Wardstones he wanted instead. With that, he'd put so many Wards over his city and around his place, that if someone, anyone, so much as tried to harm him and his, they would be dealt with swiftly and without mercy.
This was his second chance at life and nobody would disturb it if he had any say in it. He'd achieve a peaceful, happy life, that he vowed to himself and to Jeanne.
"I probably will make more deals. Although, I still don't know what I could offer them specifically," Joshua admitted, snapping himself from his thoughts. "I don't know about that contract thing. I'll look into it, probably ask lots of questions but… I don't think I'll do that. I'm curious but I won't be betting my life on something I don't know about. Less even if my only source of information is from the people on the other side of the contract."
"Good," Jeanne sighed, clearly relieved. A second later, she bit her lip nervously. "The voices agree too. They say you should be very careful, even if they seem trustworthy," She added, rubbing her left arm and looking to the side.
"I know," Joshua nodded. "This is our only connection to the supernatural that hasn't instantly been hostile though. We need that. Otherwise, we'll be stumbling around without knowing what we are doing. Sooner or later, that could lead to our deaths if we come across something dangerous that we know nothing about."
"That's… wise," Jeanne replied, sounding like she wanted to say something completely different. The man wondered then if that was something the voices had told her or if it was something that she admitted reluctantly. Maybe both?
"Is there something you'd like to make a deal for?" Joshua asked then, curious. After all, they hadn't talked much about things like that. It was always him that brought up the topic, saying how it would be good to have more information and such. Jeanne always commented on his ideas but never on things she'd like to get herself. Now that the topic had come back, he grew curious.
"Well, hm… I don't have much that I want, really," The girl answered, but the way she went back to looking away from him and rubbing her arm gave away the lie. Joshua shared a look with Nagini.
"Jeanne," He called, making her look at him and giving her a reassuring smile. "It's ok if there's something you want. It's been more than two months since we met each other and I think we've grown quite close. Just tell me. I'm sure it can't be that bad."
"I'd just… like to change my name," The girl said, slowly moving to take a seat at the table, her head stubbornly facing down at the wood. "There's been no trouble with my… past life," She continued and Joshua had to stop himself from flinching at those last two words. "But I don't want to risk it. I want to be free from that."
"I'm sure they can do that," Joshua offered with a smile that she couldn't see as he sat in front of her. "We'll just have to pay the price, but we can make that happen."
"Thanks," Jeanne replied with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"Is there something you aren't telling me?" Joshua prodded again, keeping his tone soft and sympathetic.
"I just… I don't like them, but they were my family," She said, her voice barely more than a whisper. Her shoulders hunched and she drew into herself, as if trying to make herself as small as possible. The sight made Joshua's insides twist painfully. "If I take that part of me away I'll be… alone."
"You'll never be alone, Jeanne," Joshua reassured, extending a hand and taking hers. "You have us," He added, Nagini offering a soft hiss of her own that was obviously an agreement.
"I know, it's just..." Jeanne struggled, as if looking for a way to explain herself. Joshua thought he had a pretty good idea of what she wanted to get at. After all, he felt alone sometimes too, even with his familiars and Jeanne. It happened every time he remembered the family that he had lost.
"Remember back when we met?" He asked, clearly taking the girl off guard with the random question. He smiled at her, his mind focusing more on the memories of that day. "You asked if people would think you were my sister."
At that, Jeanne's breath hitched and she went still.
"It's fine if that's not what you want," He continued speaking, smile still in place. "I just… I feel closer to you than I ever did with any of my other relatives. I care about you, Jeanne, my familiars care about you. You are already part of the family, to us at least."
His smile turned sad as he heard her sob and saw a tear draw a line downwards on her face.
"I wanted… You have no idea how much I wanted to hear that," Jeanne said, looking up. Her eyes bright and gleaming, a wide smile on her face. It took off a weight that Joshua hadn't realized had been resting on his shoulders. "I… I'd like to make that official, if that's what you are saying."
"It is," He confirmed, grinning back at her. 'You got that daughter that you wanted in the end, huh, mum, dad?' The young man thought to himself. 'Wonder what you'd think of all this.' He shook his head then, pushing away those thoughts before they ruined his good mood. "So, guess I'll bring this up with Kuisha when we have our meeting."
"Hm," The girl hummed, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand still smiling from ear to ear. "Thank you."
"You have nothing to thank me for, Jeanne," He waved off. "So, I'm feeling in a good mood. What do you say we eat out today, huh?"
"I… Actually, I want to eat here. Would that be ok?" She asked shyly and he raised an eyebrow at her. "I just… I want to be with you, all of you. Cheshire, Nagini and Morag included."
He smiled at her, in a way that he assumed was very similar to how she smiled when he spoke of the voices.
"That sounds great to me," He nodded and the snake on his shoulders hissed her agreement. "Guess I'll have to see what I prepare to celebrate then."
[}-o-{]
"Well, everything's ready and it's almost time," Joshua mused, as he sat once more at the table of the Hunter's house. Jeanne sat at his side and Cheshire, who had joined them this time, had laid herself on the table. They had already revealed the cat's presence to Kuisha before the end of the last meeting and so, they had decided it was better to have her with them for the meeting. Cheshire could be one more pair of eyes to keep eyes on Kuisha, just in case.
That would have been it but Nagini and Morag had both vehemently refused to be left back once more. Thus, the snake was, as usual, wrapped around the man's neck. Morag, on the other hand, had decided to change things up and was now standing on the back of Jeanne's right hand instead of his.
"Are you sure we shouldn't ask about something else?" Jeanne asked, suddenly worried and trying to play it off by scratching the spider's body with one finger. Joshua held back a roll of his eyes at the question. The girl had started to get progressively more unsure about asking for her identity change as time passed.
"Did you change your mind?" He asked, only being half serious. Joshua was pretty sure that she hadn't, but he just had to get the answer right then and there.
"No," Jeanne replied instantly, palling slightly and turning to look at him. "No, it's just. It's a bit of a waste, isn't it? To make a deal for something like that?"
"I don't think it's a waste. Do you?" He questioned this time and the girl's mouth immediately closed shut. "We are just asking, Jeanne," He continued, this time with a much softer tone. "If we can pay the price, we will and that'll be that. If we can't, then we'll just look for another way to do it. Ok?"
For a second, Jeanne looked like she was about to reply, but all she let out was a watery sob. Then, halfway between smiling and crying, she nodded. Joshua simply returned the grin and squeezed her shoulder. There was a moment of silence, as the girl composed herself and the man simply waited for both her and the Devils that were about to appear.
Sure enough, barely a minute after Jeanne recomposed herself, the flier on the table lit up and the circle that symbolized the Devil's teleporting flashed into existence. Joshua could only look wide-eyed, not because that was an unexpected development, but because instead of one Devil, two appeared in the room. One of them was, of course, Kuisha. The other, however, was a tall, muscular man.
Joshua instantly narrowed his eyes at him, not because he disliked him for any reason, but because the last thing he wanted at the moment was a surprise. He stood over a head taller than the woman next to him and likely would be a few inches taller than Joshua himself. His hair seemed to be kept short and not very well cared for. Not that Joshua himself was anyone to talk about that, what with how long his hair was getting just because he was too lazy to go and get it cut.
"Joshua, Jeanne, it's good to see you in good health," Kuisha greeted them with a professional smile. "I know it's a surprise, but let me introduce you to Sairaorg Bael, the King I serve and part of Bael House."
'King, but only "part" of Bael House? What's up with that?' Joshua noted instantly. Then he frowned as he continued staring at the man for a moment. 'Why do I feel like… I should know this guy? Sairaorg isn't a common name, why do I feel like I heard that somewhere?' He racked his brain for a little, trying to find out where he had heard such a name and why this guy felt familiar. 'It's almost like-'
[Mem0r& 8!.#+!]
'What the he-' Then he paused, blinked and shook his head. 'That was nothing,' Joshua decided. 'Yes, probably nothing.'
"I'm Joshua Davis, pleasure to meet you," He replied, putting on the same smile he would use at the cafe. "These are Jeanne, Cheshire, Nagini and Morag," He added, waving at each of them. The man was pleasantly surprised that neither seemed to bat an eye at the animals' introductions, let alone mock him for that. "Please, feel free to take a seat," He also offered, signaling the chairs on the other side of the table, suddenly thankful that they had left all of them in place.
"A pleasure," The man, Sairaorg said with a smile that was less professional and more true joy, taking the humans by surprise. "Kuisha has said good things about you two, especially you, Joshua. I have to say, if how useful your information proved to be is anything to go by, then I'm tempted to believe her too."
"Hopefully I can prove her right," Joshua replied, unsure of what else to say.
"Well, to get business out of the way," Sairaorg continued, seemingly not noticing how uncomfortable the two humans were with his unexpected appearance. "Kuisha, if you would?"
The woman simply waved her hand at the question. At the gesture, two pitch black circles appeared in the room, one on an empty corner and the other over the table. From them came out a few things. A few books stacked themselves in front of them and a wooden crate on the one that was apart. Joshua could only blink before he snapped himself out of his surprise. He'd expected to see something similar to his Storage circles. Evidently, that assumption had been wrong.
'Wait, if the books are the magic I asked for then that crate...' Joshua's eyes widened as he realized what that meant. 'What the actual fuck?' If that box was actually full of wardstones then that'd mean that he had just about tripled his stock of them, at the least.
"You weren't very specific with your payment requirements, so we decided to just bring equal quantities of all three types of Wardstones and from various qualities," Sairaorg started speaking, even with Joshua seemingly hypnotized by the crate. "Hopefully it's enough for the information you provided."
Even Kuisha was looking at the guy weird. Granted, she was probably doing that because Joshua's expression should be enough to go by, but still. 'I get the impression that he might be a bit… dense,' The human man thought to himself.
"It's more than enough, don't worry," Joshua replied, coughing behind his fist as he tried to gather himself. "It was a pleasure doing business with you," He added, unable to stop himself from eyeing the crate and the books on the table. 'Method of Neutrality,' He read on the one that was on top.
"That's great to hear," Sairaorg said, sounding genuinely happy as he grinned at him. "Now, I wanted to say that we are very interested in doing more business with you, Mr. Davis."
"Please call me Joshua," The man replied instantly, almost in reflex before his mind could even process what had been said. Then, his back straightened. That hadn't been expected either, but he could work with that. He had a deal he wanted to make himself, after all. "And what can I do for you?" He asked curiously.
"You see, ward-focused Magicians aren't common. Most people learn to make a few wards to monitor over their territories, but that's about it in most cases. True Warders are rare and from what I've heard from Kuisha, despite being self-taught, you are not only one but you are also good," Sairaorg explained, making Joshua blink.
'Warders aren't common?'
"That said, I'd prefer to test how good you are. I trust Kuisha's opinion, but I'd like to see what you can do for myself," The male Devil continued with an easy smile. "So, if you would activate your Wards on us, please?"
Joshua stared at him for a moment before sighing. He didn't even feel like having the same argument he'd had with Kuisha before. It was a good thing that he'd checked the Wardstones beforehand. If he'd pulled the same trick as before, those would have blown up for overcharging with the Draining Wards. As it was, he'd disconnected the latters and left the Weakening and Weighing Wards on their own.
Which isn't to say that he'd left it at that. He'd set up new arrays just like before. Which, in turn, meant that the Hunter's House was even more protected against Devils than it was before. And, with the new amounts of Wardstones he was receiving, he'd make it even more so. If he had any say in it, there wouldn't be a Devil in the world that would be able to do anything to him… or that was the plan, at least.
'Let's see how this goes, yeah?' Joshua thought to himself as he triggered his Wards. He saw Kuisha tense up instantly, which was expected. She'd looked like she was struggling already back when they'd tested the Wards on her and this time it was at the peak of back then plus the new arrays. That made it unsurprising the fact that she was fighting with what seemed to be all her being to remain upright.
Then, his eyes moved to Sairaorg. To his credit, Joshua could barely see the Wards having any effect on him. At first, he could see the other man's muscles tensing, but it was much less visible than with Kuisha. That fact remained unchanged. 'The Wards aren't enough for this one, it seems,' Joshua mused as he stopped the wards before the new arrays' Wardstones blew themselves up.
"Yes, I definitely want you to make Wards for us," Sairaorg proclaimed after a moment, looking very excited. "We'd love it if you could-"
He was interrupted by Kuisha clearing her throat. The woman sent the other Devil a look that Joshua recognized from when Jeanne had to remind him that he was getting a little too carried away when training or babbling about magic. The human could only sympathise with the other man for that. It was a terrible thing to experience, truly.
"Right, em," The man coughed on his hand with a nervous smile. "I don't know if Kuisha mentioned this in her last visit but this city is in our territory, mainly. Magicians and other people can come in but if anyone causes trouble then it's our responsibility."
That was news to him, but Joshua wondered what the Devils got out of that. If anyone could come in and do whatever so long as they behaved, what was there for them to gain? Maybe it was just that they decided what was acceptable inside their territory? And that they could really do whatever they wanted. Maybe there was something else he was unaware of too.
"It's why we really appreciate you bringing the information about Khaos Brigade. They caused trouble for our people and we'd been wanting to deal with them for a while now," Sairaorg explained with a slight grimace, as if he didn't want to admit what he was saying. "Regardless, we'd like to avoid that happening again. That's where you come in. We'd like you to set up Wards around the cities inside our territories."
As soon as he heard that, Joshua's mind raced to try and see how difficult that would be. The first and more important problem was the one regarding the range. His skills were nowhere near the point of letting him cast something like that. He could probably achieve that with careful design of the circle so that it would cover whatever he wanted. The problem with that was that he'd be sacrificing a lot of power to extend the Ward like that, power that would have made the spell more effective.
"Does it sound like something within your capabilities, Joshua?" Sairaorg asked, leaning back against his chair, obviously seeing that he was already thinking about it. The man didn't immediately reply though, as he went over his options to make such a request possible.
"I definitely can craft a ward circle that would be able to do what you want. I can probably draw some redundant circles in case anyone tries to hide from the first one and other such contingencies… The problem is that I'm not powerful enough to cast wards that big and have them be as good as you surely want them to be," Joshua replied, grimacing at having to admit as much. It was a shame, since it would have given him something to negotiate with. Unfortunately, lying would have been worse, especially since he wouldn't be able to get good enough for that soon.
"That is unfortunate," Sairaorg mused, his excitement receding, making the human man deflate a bit. He just wasn't powerful enough though.
"Maybe there's a way though," Joshua started again, instantly making both Devils' eyes lock onto him. Resisting the urge to squirm under their stares, he continued. "I'm not powerful enough to power such wards, but you are. I can draw the ward circles and set them, after that, I can set up Draining Wards to feed them with your power until they are as strong as you want them."
Not the ideal bargaining chip that he wanted, but it was something he supposed. He wouldn't be able to ask for as much as he would have been if he did all the work, but Joshua supposed it was better than having nothing to trade with. He'd just have to get better so that something like this didn't happen again.
"Oh, I like the sound of that," Sairaorg's grin immediately returned as he said that. "Now, we can provide you with all the details you'll need later. I have several cities such as this one under my territory and I want them all to be Warded. I'm curious now though, what would you want for such a service?"
That was, fortunately, something that he'd already been thinking too, as soon as Sairaorg started talking.
"First of all," Joshua started, a smile tugging at his lips. "Jeanne ran away from home some time ago and has since been living with me. I'd like to have her be part of my family. We could do it through mundane means, of course but..."
"But that approach can be too troublesome sometimes," Kuisha finished for him with a nod. "We can certainly do that. It wouldn't even be that hard, really."
"That's great," Joshua nodded, thankful for their honesty. Although, he had already had suspicions regarding that being too easy for them, he would have been fine overpaying for something that important. "Other than that, I'd like more magic books such as these ones for each city that I cover."
"Oh?" Sairaorg leaned forward. "More Neutral Magic books?"
"No, I'd prefer other types of magic. I'm interested in Healing Magic and Spatial Magic, if you can find books about them," Joshua replied. It was time to finally put all those levels he had in Healing to use, and use Spatial Magic for more than just Storage Spells.
"I think I like you, Joshua. If you are interested, I'd like to discuss a long term contract with you in the future," Sairaorg said, grinning from ear to ear. Joshua was sure he should have been worried about having a Devil sound and look so interested in him. For the moment though, that was good. It meant he had a sort-of ally in the supernatural, and that reassured him a fair deal.
'Let's hope I'm not making a mistake getting involved with these two.'
[} Chapter End {]