Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.
I will seek, I will find
"A swift, huh?" Joshua mused, looking at Margalo, who was chirping something animatedly at Jeanne. The girl obviously had no idea what the avian was trying to tell her, but the beaming smile on her face told everybody that she was happy regardless. "Guess that evens out the group, huh? There's the deadly group with Morag and Nagini and the nice team with Cheshire and Margalo," He mused out loud, earning a tilt of the feline's head. "Fair enough, you aren't very nice," He corrected, holding back a smile as the cat hissed indignantly at him.
"She's adorable, isn't she?" Jeanne commented, seemingly unable to contain her smile even the smallest bit. Although, he was sure she wasn't trying very hard, or at all. "I love how it seems like she doesn't even have feet."
"She certainly is," Joshua agreed, his hand moving to rub the back of his index finger against the bird's side. Margalo seemed to be a fan of that, judging by the way she always leaned against his digit everytime he did that. "She should be ready for flight soon, from what I read."
"Can't wait to see her flying. Are you excited, Margalo? Looking forward to taking off to the skies?" The teenager asked the small bird, who chirped something at her as she hopped on the table. "I'll take that as a yes."
Apparently, someone was getting annoyed at all the attention their little 'sister' was getting, because Joshua found himself feeling a bunch of legs walking on his neck towards his shoulder. When he tilted his head, he saw Morag standing there, poking at him. He couldn't help but picture a kid pulling on his father's clothes to get their attention.
"Oh, come on, Morag," He said with a smile. "You know I still love you, right? Margalo isn't replacing you or anything. She's just younger and requires more attention. Tell you what, I think we are done with this little bit of bird research. How about you and I do some art together, yeah? I'm sure Jeanne doesn't mind entertaining little Margalo."
"I sure don't," The blond replied with a grin that spoke nothing good for Joshua, he realized instantly. "dad," She added then, her smile widening with barely contained laughter. He rolled his eyes at her.
"Does that make you their aunt? Or are you my daughter too instead of my sister?" He asked, with an unimpressed eyebrow raised.
"Definitely the aunt," She answered, completely serious. "The cool aunt, to be exact. Aren't I, Margalo?" She received a happy chirp in response.
"Whatever you say, Jeanne. What do you say, Nagini, cool aunt?" Joshua shot back, turning towards his snake familiar. Now that she was much bigger, she usually wrapped around his legs. It wasn't that he couldn't carry her on his shoulders anymore though. She might be heavier than before, but all his training had made him more than strong enough to carry her anyway. No, the problem was the size itself, since it made walking with the gigantic serpent on him quite cumbersome.
The reptile regarded him for a moment, then looked at Jeanne's hopeful expression. After a moment, she hissed something dismissively and rested her head on his lap again. Joshua's poor sister looked absolutely devastated by that response.
"Cheshire?" She tried then only for the feline to decide that she'd much rather curl up on the table than deign that question with an answer. When she turned towards Morag, the girl saw the spider not even looking at her. That made poor Jeanne slump on her seat. "And that's why you are my favorite, Margalo," She said before huffing. "Come on, let's go play outside, yeah?" Jeanne said as they moved out of the Hunter's House, where they were basically living permanently now.
With Nagini and Morag so much bigger than before, they couldn't very well keep them in an apartment in the middle of the city. Thus, his hand was forced and they moved into that place. Although, if he was honest, he didn't much care for that anymore, really. So, he'd had a short talk with Sairaorg and the place had been arranged so that anyone that looked into it would only find that the place had always been theirs at the same time that anything regarding the Hunter disappeared. Joshua had made sure that Sairaorg knew he didn't want to know anything about the man too.
"Now, do any of you want to join Morag and I?" Joshua asked then, grinning as he saw the now not-so-small spider restlessly walking around on his shoulder. Then he looked as Nagini got off his legs and went to curl up on an armchair off to the side. When Cheshire didn't even open her eyes, he took that as a no. "What do you think that is though, a yes?" He asked Morag pointing at the serpent.
The small arachnid thought over that question for a moment before boldly jumping from his shoulder. It took him less than a second to realize that she was moving towards Nagini. 'Guess I have my answer,' He thought amusedly as he pulled out his sketchbook and pencil from a card. It seemed his next drawing would be another of Morag and Nagini.
[}-o-{]
"I just want you to know that I hate you, Sairaorg," Joshua grumbled as he started preparing for another set of wards. The last one, actually. 'That makes it five. Five whole cities and towns under his watch. I don't know if that's too little or too much,' He mused to himself as he concentrated back on what he was doing. 'Well, it was six wards, I guess, if one counts the training one.'
"I know it's not ideal, but Rias is my cousin. Sona is a good friend also. They needed help improving their defenses and you are the best warder I know," The Devil defended himself, apparently already knowing what he was on about before he even had to explain. No doubt the other Kings had informed him of how the meeting had gone. "I promise you that no trouble will come your way for this. They've spoken with their siblings-"
'God, that didn't make things worse, did it?' Joshua thought then, pausing in his ward setting. It definitely sounded like something that would make things worse. Honestly, if they could keep his name away from the two Satans' ears, that would have been better. If only Sairaorg hadn't babbled to Leviathan already…
"They've agreed not to blame you for whatever happened. From what they've told me, Satan Lucifer and Leviathan were quite happy that their siblings were allowing someone to place some more defenses around them, even if you aren't what they would have preferred," Sairaorg explained. Joshua's eye twitched at the unintentional insult. He knew it was true, and he even accepted it. However, it did irk him to hear it being pointed out like that.
"I'm still not sure how much I can trust their word on that," He grumbled to himself as he finished setting another ward, immediately starting with the next. He wanted to trust Sairaorg on what he said, he really did. However, he didn't know how much he believed that people literally called Satans could be reasonable.
"I promise you, that if anything happens, I'll have your back, Joshua," Sairaorg said then, with the most serious tone the man had ever heard coming from the Devil. The sentiment was nice, and he believed that at least, but he didn't know how well Sairaorg could match not one but two leaders of his faction.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that…" He mumbled as he continued working. He appreciated what the Devil was doing, but there was literally nothing that would reassure him in this issue. Not unless what he feared did come to pass and the Satans didn't act as he expected they would.
'Really hope it won't come to that,' Joshua mused with a frown. Rias and Sona seemed nice enough when they met. He'd hate for his wards to fail and for something to happen to them.
"Hm, Josh?" He heard Jeanne call, making him blink. She usually spent the time talking with Kuisha whenever they went out to set wards. Rarely did she speak with him or Sairaorg. Him, because they already spent most of the day together and the Devil because he spent the time with Joshua in those instances.
"Yeah?" He replied with a nod, encouraging her to talk. Even stranger than her speaking with him at that moment was the tone she'd used. It had been a while since he'd heard her nervous, hesitant side. He thought they'd gotten past that already. 'Kuisha didn't do anything, did she?' He thought then, his eyes narrowing.
"You see, Kuisha and I were talking," She mumbled and he could almost picture her fidgeting with her hands. "And she was telling me that she and Coriana were going to go shopping. You know, to get away from the boys in their peerage," She continued then and Joshua blinked again.
'Oh, that's what it is about,' He realized with a tilt of his head. Evidently, his adopted sister took that to mean that he wanted her to keep talking.
"And she invited me along," Jeanne kept on going, not that Joshua minded, since it gave him time to consider her request. "She said they usually just visit one of the cities inside their territory. That it helps them know more about them and she was telling me that they are going to where we live next time and-"
"Sure, you can go," He interrupted her with a soft smile on his face and a nod of his head. She was starting to ramble a bit there and he didn't want her to keep being so nervous. He much preferred the side of Jeanne that he'd gotten to know as of late, that was for sure.
Also, Joshua didn't need to think about it much either. They were already trusting Sairaorg with much more serious things, really, and this was his peerage that was involved. Granted, there was a part of him that was reluctant to let Jeanne go, but that was the overprotective brother in him, he supposed. It wasn't really because he didn't trust Kuisha and Coriana, even if he barely knew the latter from his visit to the Underworld. 'On that note, Jeanne spoke about her with familiarity… Guess they've talked about her with Kuisha. Must be that.'
Another reason to let her go was because he'd been getting worried about Jeanne as of late. Not because she seemed unhappy or anything, but he was pretty sure it wasn't very healthy for a teenager to spend all the time with her 'family', as it were. He'd done that and he knew very well that he wasn't an example of sociability. He didn't want that for Jeanne, especially if he could help her out.
"Really?" She asked, and he could hear the incredulous expression on her face. Even if it wasn't obvious from her voice, it would have been because of the long pause between his agreement and her question.
"Of course," He replied as he started setting up another ward. "Just the three of you?"
"Yeah," Jeanne, and his smile grew wider when he noticed that she seemed to have relaxed. "Yeah. She said they meet up with other peerage's members, friends of theirs, sometimes. But she said she wanted it to be the three of us. We've talked about Coriana and she said she's talked about me with the rest of the peerage. So… Well, she thought I'd be more comfortable with someone I know and someone I know of."
Joshua hummed as she finished her short rant.
"Ok then, do you need anything? I know you don't spend much of your money, but-"
"It's fine, I have enough, don't worry," She interrupted him quickly. He thought he heard some of that nervousness from before in her voice but he didn't press the issue. He'd just have to talk with Kuisha, he guessed. Last thing he wanted was for Jeanne to have a bad time with her friends because she had too little money. They weren't rich or even well off, but he hadn't discussed the matter of payment with Sona and Rias yet. He was sure he could get a considerable amount of money just for that job.
"If you say so," He replied , trying to keep his doubts to himself. For the moment, he had wards to finish. He could worry about that later. Before he could focus back on his wards, however, he felt Jeanne's arms wrap around him and her head rest against his.
"Thank you, Josh," She mumbled against his hair and smiled softly to himself.
"Don't mention it," He told her. "What are brothers for, right?"
"Thank you," She repeated. "I'm gonna… go and tell Kuisha," She mumbled, suddenly embarrassed and he chuckled to himself. Just as he did, he heard Sairaorg do the same. When Joshua looked at him, the Devil shot him a wide grin.
"I don't have any siblings, but I feel like I get how that works," Sairaorg said then. "Sometimes it gets like that with my peerage."
"Not Kuisha, I'm guessing. I mean, that kind of thing could get weird with your girlfriend," Joshua commented, making the man sputter.
"W-What? We are not dating?" He denied, although it sounded more like a question to the human's ears.
"Sure you aren't. She's your Queen, isn't she? I remember you tell me that," Joshua pointed out with a wide grin.
"I already explained to you how that works," Now his voice sounded almost whiny. 'Man, this is fun. Now I know why mom was so taken with teasing,' He thought to himself. "Why do I put up with you again?" Sairaorg grumbled then.
"Because I'm the best warder you know? Or the cheapest, I guess," Joshua guessed, still smiling from ear to ear.
"Right," The Devil replied, neither denying nor confirming either of those statements.
[}-o-{]
"So, they are still not talking about why they want to meet me?" Joshua asked, doing his best to remain calm. It was a challenge, however, since he really, really, wasn't feeling it. 'Isn't it hilarious?' He wondered to himself. 'I feel more comfortable hanging out with a Devil than I do meeting Church representatives.'
"They didn't tell me, that's for sure," Sairaorg replied as they walked through the street towards the place the Church had chosen for their meeting. "They probably just want to have some more information about someone with Holy Element, is our guess," He continued. "They are rare enough that the Church can't afford to not know about them."
"Do you think they'll try anything?" Joshua asked then, his Magic Sense picking up on a spell that had been cast over the meeting place, a normal, everyday restaurant. The place had been a surprise, but he supposed they wanted to come across as friendly, picking a place that was neutral. At least according to Sairaorg it was, it was in a city that was underneath the Devils nor the Church.
From what the Devil had told him, the place was actually overlooked by Golden Dawn, a magician association. Joshua had read about them and he was curious, but he had no plans to join them, really. Being part of such a group came with responsibilities and while they sounded reasonable enough, he couldn't be bothered. He liked how his life was going, even if he could do without the Satan Sisters and the Church trying to get him in trouble.
"They might try to get you to join them. They also might be annoying about it, at least from what I know about you," The Devil answered, looking thoughtful. "They might want to know how you got the Holy weapons, if they don't know about Jeanne's Sacred Gear."
"Hm, I don't know if she showed it much during our fight, did you see?" Joshua asked then, carefully analyzing what he could get about the magic around the place with his Magic Sense. As far as he could tell, it didn't feel like his Offensive wards. It did feel like his Special ones thought. 'Probably something to keep us from being noticed or something like that then,' He guessed, but he kept looking into it.
He didn't want to be caught off guard and he wouldn't.
"Hm, I think they should have picked up on it. They didn't ask for her to be here though, so maybe they didn't," The man pondered out loud and Joshua let out a sigh in relief before squaring his shoulders.
"There's a spell over the place, starts right in front of us," He informed Sairaorg who glanced ahead, as if trying to see the magic. Then he nodded appreciatively.
"So, last chance to turn away, huh?" He said, but both knew they wouldn't do that. They'd come this far. Insulting the Church by not showing up wasn't a good idea.
"We probably shouldn't discuss anything once we enter the spell," Joshua commented. "They could have something to listen in on our conversation."
"Hm, it's a possibility, I'll give you that," Sairaorg agreed with a nod. "By the way, how do you want to present yourself and our… unconventional deal?"
"I thought we could just say we made that contract you were trying to get me to do with you some time ago, remember? Even if it's not really the truth," Joshua explained, glad that he'd brought that up. He was unsure of how Sairaorg would take the idea though. "I don't know if that could be a problem on your end though."
"That's fine with me," The Devil easily agreed, to which he almost sighed. If he had a direct connection with him, or seemed to at least, then it was less likely that the Church would press too much in their recruitment attempts. If that happened, that is.
"Let's get this over with," Joshua grumbled. "Here's hoping they'll insult you so we can get the hell away from there."
"Think they'll be nice enough to do that?" Sairaorg asked him with a grin that he returned as they continued walking.
"One can dream, right?" He shot back as he felt the spell around him once they entered the range. One of his hands went inside his pocket, feeling the two cards inside. One had the modified Storage Spell that shot out knives and the other had a normal one with more blades and Setan Kober as his last resort. He had come ready for a fight, yes, but he didn't like his chances if things went south.
After all, he'd let the Church set this up. They could have easily set up a trap, even if they were in someone else's territory. 'Maybe I'm being a bit too paranoid,' Joshua considered wryly. 'Constant Vigilance, I guess,' He added, almost chuckling. Better to worry too much than too little though.
'So, it's these two, huh?' Joshua thought once they stepped inside the place. The Church people couldn't have been more obvious if they tried, to him at least. After all, both of them had been there that day, which he supposed made some sense. 'Still, they don't know that if they are here to recruit me, they chose the worst people for the job,' He added with a wry smile as he looked at both Griselda and Xenovia Quarta.
[Griselda Quarta
Rank - ?]
Then his eyes widened once he turned his appraisal to the younger one.
[Xenovia Quarta
Title: Wielder of Excalibur Destruction
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Rank: C
Strength: B
Speed: C
Dexterity: C
Vitality: B
Perception: C
Magic: E]
'That's… new,' He thought as he continued walking, trying not to show how that had taken him off guard. Blinking, he read through the screen before dismissing it and calling for another.
[Appraisal - Lvl 25/100
Determines the user's ability to appraise objects, creatures and people according to level.
Has 25% chances of finding a weakness.]
'Nothing new… Was it because of the twenty-fifth level?' He wondered. Regardless, it was a nice and welcome addition. 'Now, if only the other woman didn't have so little information though…'
Still, he now knew where the girl's strengths lay and what her 'weaknesses' were. He also knew that Griselda wasn't 100% battle ready yet from Appraisal's weakness detection. Apparently, she was still recovering from whatever Sellzen had done to her during his… whatever that had been. 'What did he even do? It's been more than a month and we have magic, surely she should be fine already?' Sadly, that question was likely to go unanswered.
"Thanks for coming," The woman started when they reached the table. "I'm Griselda Quarta and this is my ward, Xenovia."
'Ward, huh?'
"I'm, as you know, Sairaorg Bael," The Devil replied before signaling towards Joshua. "And this is Joshua Davis, my contracted magician."
'When's the last time I had an introduction that short?' The man wondered as he nodded towards both Exorcists. After all, he'd always had at least one familiar or Jeanne with him. However, the former had stayed back to keep little Margalo company and the latter had gone out with Kuisha and Coriana.
He pushed down the part of his mind that was sad they couldn't accompany him there. It was better that way, after all. He was ready for a fight, yes, but he fully expected to lose if it came to that. Thus, he'd much prefered to leave them out of it, just in case. None of them had liked that decision, but Sairaorg had come through for him, reassuring all of them that the chances of things ending in a fight were low. After all, they would risk much attacking someone as high profile as him.
"So, I was told you wanted to talk with me," Joshua started, trying to keep his tone from revealing how nervous he was as he took a seat at the table, opposite the two women. Sairaorg, for his part, sat next to him and seemed perfectly content to just hear unless he was spoken too. Joshua guessed he'd said all that he needed to by introducing them as being in a contract.
"We did," Griselda replied with a nod. "We couldn't help but notice that you and your companion were carrying Holy weapons during our encounter. We only wanted to know how that came to be, if you'd indulge our curiosity," She explained calmly.
Joshua, for his part, simply raised an eyebrow at her, his lips tugging into a small smile. Did the woman really expect him to believe that was all? All that trouble, just to ask a single question?
"My sister has Blade Blacksmith," He replied shortly but not curtly. It was a good enough answer, even if they probably wanted him to give a much more elaborate one. He had no intention of giving these people more than he strictly needed to. He already lamented the fact that Sairaorg had deemed it necessary to give them their names.
Still, even if they probably already knew who Jeanne was, he wasn't going to be the one to reveal that to them.
"I see, and you've always been able to use those weapons?" She asked, apparently unfazed by his attitude. The girl though, was a much worse actress. She'd barely been able to keep a neutral expression before that, after? Well, she already had a scowl on her face, even if she wasn't directing it at him.
"As far as I know," Joshua answered with a shrug. It wasn't even a lie, really. He hadn't tried to use a Holy weapon before Jeanne unlocked her Sacred Gear. Moreover, he'd gotten Holy Element right afterwards so, he didn't really know what could have happened if he tried before that.
"You seem… hostile," Griselda pointed out with a tilt of her head. "Is there a reason for that?" She asked, sounding genuinely curious. Joshua would give her credit, she didn't even mention Sairaorg when referring to that. He'd half expected a remark regarding the Devils. Her ward seemed to swallow something that she wanted to say though, and he was sure it was along those lines.
"Well, excuse me if I'm not comfortable talking casually with the woman that wanted to kill my familiar," He replied, using more words than he had with any of his other statements put together. As it was, he already was using more self-control than he expected. He thought he was over that, but, evidently, he was.
Joshua just couldn't help but picture the woman stomping on little Morag before she had changed.
At that, Griselda's eyes widened.
"That was-" She started before stopping and visibly calming herself down. "I apologize, sincerely. The situation we were in had me on edge, I'm sure you'll understand."
"I do," He nodded, reluctantly. "I apologize if I'm not being very… friendly. I'm trying my best to ignore that. Doesn't help that we had to even do this in the first place."
"Can I ask why that is? Is there a reason why you were reluctant to meet with us?" She asked then.
"Because I want to be left alone and live my life in peace," He replied simply with a shrug. "Nothing against you, really."
"And I'm sure it's nothing to do with the Devils?" That came from the girl. For a split second, Joshua saw a dark look pass through Griselda's expression. One that he was sure was mimicked by himself. Sairaorg himself looked almost amused, however.
"Indeed it isn't, because I was equally reluctant to deal with them," He pointed out. "And I get along perfectly well with the Devils. They haven't called for me to interrogate me, that's for sure."
"I apologize on her behalf. I've been trying to teach her not to be so antagonistic," Griselda said immediately, probably trying to defuse the situation as best she could.
Joshua couldn't hold back a chuckle at her words though. She made it sound like Xenovia was like that with everyone, when he was very sure it would be mostly, if not solely against Devils. He supposed he couldn't hold that against her… much.
"I'm sure," He replied with a half-smile. "Anyway, can we get to what we really are doing here? Because while the questions I'm sure are important, I'm also sure there's more to this than that."
Griselda regarded him for a moment, likely realizing that any attempt at recruiting wouldn't be well received.
"Am I wrong to assume that you are the one that has been setting the wards around Bael's territory?" She asked instead, briefly looking towards the Devil as she formulated her question. Joshua considered that with slightly widened eyes. He hadn't expected that to come up. Certainly not so out of the blue.
"... I am," He admitted after a long moment.
"I see… and would you be open to working with us too?" She asked then. 'Ah, so that's her angle here, huh?' He realized.
He could tell her 'no' and be done with it, he supposed. He couldn't see how that could bring much trouble for him. After all, he was under Sairaorg's protection, as it were. Any attack against him, would be an attack against the Bael. And an attack against the Devil would be an attack against all Devils. That may be a bit of a stretch, but he didn't think the Church would risk that anyway. Surely he wasn't that important, right?
On the other hand, having allies on both sides was an appealing idea. Being a neutral party between both factions sounded risky, but really, if everyone knew about it, surely it wasn't that dangerous. Sairaorg was sitting right there and he didn't seem to particularly care for his decision.
"I'd consider it," He answered in the end and the woman smiled, pleased. Immediately, Joshua wondered if he'd made the wrong decision.
"I'm glad to hear that," She said, standing up and pulling out a card from a pocket that she quickly passed to him. It had a number on it. 'Huh, a normal business card? Didn't expect that, but I guess they don't do the flier thing,' He thought as he looked at the small thing. According to Appraisal, there was nothing out of the ordinary with it, which was a relief. "Please call if you need help with anything."
He raised an eyebrow at that. It was unlikely that he'd call, but he didn't say as much. Joshua didn't want to burn that bridge just yet. Not when the only reason he'd accepted to maybe make wards for them was so that the bridge existed.
"I'll keep it in mind," He replied.
"Please do," Griselda said with a nod and a smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me. It seems I have to educate my ward. It was good meeting you."
The look on young Xenovia's face was enough that Joshua almost pitied her. Almost. Instead, he let them make their exit with a few more words exchanged between all of them. Then, he just stayed there with Sairaorg until he felt the spells around the place lifting.
"Why can't my life be simple, man?"
"Because you became a magician?" The Devil asked back with a grin.
At that, Joshua just let his head fall and hit the table.
[} Chapter End {]
(AN:Please remember that this story is not mine and will never be mine. Make sure to give thanks to the original author on fanfiction.net https://m.fanfiction.net/u/11459794/)