Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.
Take A Long Look Around
"Your magic's gotten better," Sairaorg commented, drinking from a water bottle. Meanwhile, the rest of his peerage laid on the ground around the training area with Jeanne and Joshua included. "You've been slacking off on your physical training though."
"I mean," Joshua breathed out, trying to recover. "I didn't exactly have the time for that. Between the job and teaching. I've started working out again lately though."
"Eh, all I'm hearing are excuses," The Bael pointed out, earning a chuckle from the human. Meanwhile, Joshua groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. "So, you aren't sticking around?"
"Not really. But if you want a job done, I could make some time," The human answered, cracking his neck and taking a water bottle from his storage spell. "The youkai job is as done as it'll be for the foreseeable future, at least."
"Hm, well, if you have anything to update the spells you've set down, it'd be nice," Sairaorg commented, to which Joshua nodded. That made sense. They'd already talked about that back in the day, after all.
"I can do that, yeah. I might need to do it on different days and such, but I'm getting better. Should take less time than it did before. Besides, most of the work is already laid there. I can just add new stuff," Joshua mused out loud as he considered that.
"Coming up with something to pay you with will be hard," Sairaorg commented, getting a wry smile from the human.
"Actually, I have something, for once," He said, taking the devil off guard. "Say, you haven't seen anything regarding Khaos Brigade, right?"
"A few incidents here and there since we cleaned house and you set the wards. Minor things though, and it's been a while. I can have a report given to you about that, if you want. It's really not that much," The devil told him, a slight frown forming on his face as he turned serious.
"Hm, that'd be nice. Depending on what I see on that, I might have a few things to ask of you," Joshua said, deep in thought.
"Well, considering how good you are at your job, I'm underpaying you. Anything you want, just say the word," Sairaorg commented with a grin, hitting the human's back with his open hand. Joshua almost fell to the ground just with that, considering how tired he was from the training. The devil was really in his own league when it came to working out.
"Well, that's nice to know," Joshua mused before making his way to a bench on the side. Meanwhile, the rest of the people seemed to be getting back their energy enough to start standing up. "So, you guys want to have dinner at our place? It'll probably be a while before we come back to the house in a while so…" He trailed off. He guessed he could invite them to the house at Kyoto, after asking Yasaka of course, but that sounded like a good excuse to have friends over.
"Of course," Corianna called, almost seeming to get her energy back through pure enthusiasm. "A meal prepared by the one and only Joshua Davis? Sign me up. How many souls do I have to pay for that? Ladora doesn't use his, you can take it!"
"Wait, what?"
"No souls necessary, but if you could take care of buying the ingredients, I'll cook," Joshua offered, amused by her antics.
"We could help too, you know?" Kuisha offered, dragging her feet to take the seat next to him. "We aren't as good as you, but I'm sure we can do something. It can't be easy to cook for so many people."
"Well, I wouldn't say no to having a few more hands around, I guess," Joshua agreed, because he knew by then that the devil would be insisting for a good while before giving up. He didn't feel like dealing with all that. Besides, by the way she beamed at him, he guessed it was better to just let them help out.
"Great," Kuisha replied, grinning at him and bringing a hand up to push aside a lock of hair that fell in front of her face. "So, what do we need to buy?"
"Hm, I'll think over what I want to prepare and I'll give you guys a list before we go home," Joshua told her. "So, what did we miss? I know Jeanne's been talking with you girls, but I haven't heard much since we went to that job in Kyoto."
"Well," Sairaorg started, joining the conversation again. "As I told you, we've been dealing with anything your wards pick up. Mostly Khaos Brigade, but there were a couple of Stray Devils too and a handful of other monsters. Nothing too bad, mostly annoyances."
"Oh, oh! One of the monsters gave Misteeta a scar in-"
"We-" The mage interrupted loudly, shooting his fellow bishop a withering glare. "-agreed not to talk about that," He finished, eyebrow twitching.
Both Corianna and Jeanne broke out in giggles, which made Joshua think that his sister already knew about that. Judging by Misteeta's defeated look, he realized the same thing too. Joshua could only give him a commiserating look.
"If it makes you feel better, man," The human started giving him a wry smile before looking towards the pair of blonds. "I'm sure they gossip about me too."
"And everyone else," Corianna added shamelessly. "Like Kuisha, who-"
"Cori," Was the only thing the Queen said, making the woman's mouth click shut instantly.
"Well, resident gossiper aside, anything else?" Joshua asked, rolling with things as he'd grown used to doing.
"Nothing much. We've been training a little harder than normal," Sairaorg told him, making Joshua wonder how that was even possible. As it was, he'd already been surprised by how much the group worked out, even compared to his own training. Then again, knowing what he did about them now that he had his memories unlocked… He guessed it made some sense. "Gotta prepare for something. Other than that, nothing, really. What about you?"
He was probably talking about the Young Devil Meeting, or whatever it was called.
"Well, I can tell you more about my cute little student, I guess," Joshua mused, grinning at the devils.
[}-o-{]
"You didn't have to leave Kyoto to come here, Joshua," Sona said, for what seemed like the hundredth time. He could only roll his eyes as he went about finishing the current set of wards he was placing down. The Sitri had been saying similar things ever since he'd arrived, despite the fact that he'd sent word ahead of time and all.
"Sona, it's fine," Joshua reassured once again. "Kyoto's job is taking longer than usual, so I thought I'd come here and at least finish setting some basic wards. I'll do the complete thing once I'm finished over there," He explained as he set yet another ward. "Also, I could add some shields and such if you want me to."
"Joshua," Rias started, sounding amused and annoyed at the same time. "We have trouble coming up with something to pay you with as it is. What would we do if you do even more?"
"Well, I don't know how much it would be worth, but Jeanne and I were thinking about setting up a cafe somewhere. I liked working in one, even if I would have preferred having less hours," Joshua told them. This was an idea that had been in the making since before he regained his memories. That change, though, had made him consider doing so in Kuoh instead of in Kyoto or anywhere else even more.
Kuoh was a dangerous place plotwise, yes, but with all the changes he'd caused he could have doomed the two devils. If anything happened to them… it could end badly for everyone. Besides, he'd have felt responsible for that too, so there was that too, of course.
"Oh?" Rias voiced as his comment seemed to pick up both of their interests.
"That could be arranged," Sona said, and he could practically see the gears turning in her head. "We could set the whole thing up, even get employees so that you can have less working hours than normal. You'd have the final say in everything, of course."
"Well, I'd certainly appreciate that. Would that be a good enough payment?" He asked, aware that it was very amusing the fact that he was the one offering his services having no idea how much they were worth. Honestly, he knew he could live comfortably setting up wards for people and that was as much as he needed to know. He didn't need to be filthy rich or anything, just comfortable which he was.
"It wouldn't be for most people," Sona admitted, giving him a wry smile that looked mildly uncomfortable. "But if that's as much as we can do at the moment, we'll just be in your debt."
"We can just scratch the rest of it. Honestly, we all know I didn't take this job for the pay," Joshua commented, getting grimaces from both of them. "Don't worry too much about that either. It's what it is," He reassured them.
One good thing about his memories coming back was that he knew that Serafall and Sirzechs most probably wouldn't have reacted badly to him not accepting the job for Rias and Sona. It didn't mean much when he'd already agreed, but it did make the whole situation less tense and uncomfortable. That was good enough for Joshua, really.
"Still, we want to do things on our own merit," Rias insisted, getting an agreeing nod from her fellow King. "So, we'd like to avoid having our families' influence affecting what we do."
"Hm, well, I can't say they were completely out of my mind when I accepted this," Joshua admitted, getting a grimace from both girls. "But I can tell you that they aren't the reason I'm settling for what seems to be a lower than expected price," He added. Now that seemed to really get their attention. "I just don't care for riches or anything of the sort. I don't have anything that I want that much either. I just… I like doing my job, and I get enough from it to apparently never need to actually work ever again. So… yeah, I don't mind settling for a lower payment."
There was silence after that, as he continued working. Occasionally stopping or slowing down when Morag tugged at his hair. The spider was, apparently, another student of his. She was very interested in wards, and he suspected that the arachnid wanted to set up some of her own using her webs as circles. It was an interesting idea and definitely something that he wanted to discuss with her.
It was also, however, something that would probably take a long time. More time than he had for the foreseeable future, that was for sure. Thus, he'd leave her to watch while he worked. They could do some actual studying and such once he had more free time.
"You are a weird human, Joshua Davis," Sona commented and he chuckled to himself.
"Yeah, I guess I am," He agreed easily. Honestly, what ground did he have to stand on if he tried to deny it? However he looked at it, he was far from normal, it seemed.
"I'm suddenly understanding why my sister says that dealing with you is annoyingly difficult," Sona told him, which made him laugh again. He didn't know why people thought it was so troublesome. He'd have expected it to be a good thing for others that he usually settled for lower prices. Apparently, he'd been wrong.
Then again, the supernatural world was pretty weird too.
'Guess I fit right in with this crazy bunch, huh?' Joshua thought to himself, grinning as he continued working. There were many wards to set yet and he wanted to make some time to visit Kyoto again. He was missing his adorable little student already.
[}-o-{]
"You missed me, right?" Kunou asked, bouncing on her feet next to him as they walked through the halls. "You missed me. Accept it!" She demanded pointing at him with her little finger and grinning widely.
"Of course I did, little one," He replied, smiling contently. Being back in Kyoto was nice. It almost felt like home, realized. Not quite yet, but then again, nothing had really, truly felt like home since… Well, nothing had felt like home in quite a while. Things were looking up though, of that he was sure.
"I'm not little," Kunou protested, in a mini-tantrum that didn't help her at all.
"Of course you aren't," He agreed easily again, almost laughing at the way her pout got worse instead of better. His adorable little student was just too much sometimes.
"Stop being mean, Joshua!" She whined, pouting as she looked away from him. "I missed you, you know?" She mumbled, and he almost didn't catch it. Next to him, Cheshire gave him a chiding meow, to which he rolled his eyes.
"Come on," Joshua said, planting a hand on the girl's head and ruffling her hair. For once, the action didn't elicit a complaint. "Let's go do something fun. How about we play a game? Or we can make a story with the cards, or I can show you another story. How does that sound?"
"Fine," She accepted, as if she were just humoring him. "But you have to make snacks," She demanded then, pointing her little finger at him and making him laugh.
"Sure, that works for me," He agreed easily. "I guess we have to go over your homework later, right? And I should work a little, so the week isn't a complete vacation," He continued. Vacation from the Kyoto job, that is, since he'd already been working with the devils on other projects.
"Ah… we could leave that for when you come back for real, right?" Kunou tried, he'd give her that. Joshua was no fool though and simply raised an eyebrow at her. "I… may have gotten a little distracted working on my circles," She admitted then, poking her fingers together shyly.
"Honestly, why'd you have to go and pick up my bad habits," Joshua lamented with a shake of his head. "Ok, you can work on that while I work on my stuff, I guess. I wanna see what you've been doing though. That wasn't another lie though, was it? Have you been lazy while I was away?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
"No! I was really working on those, I'll show you," She denied almost instantly, shaking her hands for emphasis.
"Hmm, we'll have to see."
"Welcome back, Joshua-sama," Fuyuko greeted them once they entered what was probably their own personal classroom. Now that the rest of the magicians were gone, it'd probably remain just a thing for the two of them, Joshua supposed.
"Fuyuko, it's nice to see you," He greeted back with a smile.
"I'll have some tea ready for you and Kunou-sama soon. If you'd excuse me?" The yuki-onna said then, bowing a little.
"Don't bow, Fuyuko. And yeah, I'd appreciate that."
"I'll be right back, Joshua-sama."
"I'm never gonna get used to that," Joshua mumbled to himself when the attendant was gone.
"It's stupid," Kunou grumbled next to him.
"It is," He agreed easily with a nod. "But that's how things are, I guess."
When they took their seats at the table though, Kunou remained silent. She didn't call for a servant to fetch her books and circles and such. She didn't ask Joshua any questions about where he'd been or what he'd done. She didn't even demand they get started with something from their list of games or stories.
"I really missed you," Kunou mumbled again then.
"I know," Joshua replied, sighing as he let his head fall back a little and considered what to say. Except, his little student beat him to that, apparently.
"You said you wouldn't be leaving," She said, barely above a whisper. "You said you'd only leave for a day or so," She added. Joshua remembered that conversation, and while he was pretty sure he hadn't said it'd be only one day, he wasn't about to point that out. It wasn't really the problem in the first place.
"I know, but you do know that Jeanne and I will be traveling a whole lot, right?" Joshua told her in turn. "I thought you were speaking about Christmas. The two of us will be visiting places and such. I'd invite you but… I doubt your mother would agree to that. It's not really safe out there, especially for you and especially now."
"I hate it," Kunou grumbled under her breath, not once looking up from her lap. Her little hands clenched into fists out of frustration as she glared at them.
"I know you do," Joshua replied, smiling sadly at the child. He could take a guess at how it felt, being inside all the time and not being allowed to leave. She could barely move around Kyoto as it was. For a child, that must be hard. "You know how Jeanne and I will be traveling in the future?" He asked then, an idea forming in his mind. Although, he was unsure if it would be a good one.
"Yes," Kunou answered, sniffing sadly and Joshua could only hope she wouldn't start crying. He didn't know what he'd do if she did.
"Well, how about this? Whenever we travel, I'll show you everything we see with illusions. How does that sound?" He suggested, and he was glad to see the interest that appeared on the child's face.
"I'll be able to see it all?" Kunou asked, more curious than angry or sad. "And you'll bring presents?"
He chuckled.
"Of course I'll bring presents. What do you take me for?" He asked with a grin, placing his hand on her head and ruffling her hair. This time, she at least gave a token resistance, if nothing else.
"And you'll get me a Christmas present?" She asked then, but he saw what she did there, the little sly thing.
"I don't know, will I?"
"Joshuaaaaaaa!"
[}-o-{]
"To think there'd come a day when I'd miss this place," Joshua mused, sitting against a tree facing the Hunter's House. His hand slowly moved, his finger tracing the scales on top of Nagini's head. On one shoulder was Margalo while on the other sat Morag. Cheshire, meanwhile, was sitting next to him, idly licking one of her legs.
Jeanne wasn't present at the moment, too busy going over the stuff she wanted to leave there and the stuff she definitely, totally needed to take to Kyoto. She'd been at that all week though, so Joshua had decided to just leave her to it. It was much better for his mental health than getting involved in that madness.
Cheshire meowed something at him and he chuckled.
"Yeah, well, you gotta admit that I have a set of rather… unhappy memories of this place, even if it is where we found Nagini and Morag," He said with a grin as the serpent hisses something half-heartedly, too busy enjoying the feeling of his fingers on her head. Morag did give his hair an affectionate pull, to which he leaned his head against her in response. "I guess this counts as the place where we found Margalo too, huh?" He mused, almost distractedly. The little bird gave a happy chirp at that, rubbing her head against the side of his neck.
Then, as it usually would happen lately, Joshua's mind drifted. This time not to wards, or spells, or his family, or his friends. Instead, he found himself thinking of the future. He didn't have the clearest picture of the DxD plot, really, and that was without a whole year to muddle his memories even more. It was difficult to focus on plot when the story made it so fucking annoying to read with stupidity being thrown around like it was nobody's business…
Joshua sighed.
He knew one thing though. There was danger in the future. In the near future if his guess was right. Canon timeline was bound to start in a few months and he was far from ready for that. Hiding away in his wards wouldn't help protect him if Trihexa rampaged through the world. Or the dragons that would be brought back to life. Or any of the other crazy shit that happened in DxD.
He might not know what the future awaited him in detail, but he could prepare. He was a warder, after all, preparing was what he was good for. At that moment, his thoughts were interrupted by Cheshire pressing her head against his side.
Joshua smiled down at her.
"Guess we'll have to work harder in the future, huh?" He mused, receiving some positive affirmations from his familiars. "We'll make it through in this crazy world, I'm sure."
[Skill Maxed: Bond: Cheshire]
[Skill Maxed: Bond: Nagini]
He blinked at the sudden screens. He only had a split second to notice that before he felt his magic energy being pulled in three directions in a very familiar manner. This time though, he was better prepared. Mustering as much focus as he could, he activated a specific Draining Ward he'd set in case of another evolution. Last thing he wanted was for his own familiars to kill him by absorbing all the energy he had in him.
After that was done, he was free to focus on his two currently growing familiars and the pull of the Charm. Cheshire had already shifted from her cat form to lynx and was now growing bigger and bigger with no sign of stopping. Nagini did much the same, growing to a ridiculous size.
There was much more than that though, from both of them.
He'd always likened magic energy with electricity inside the body, but that was nothing compared to what he felt as his magic flooded towards Cheshire. The feline's mana snapped all around inside her body, bouncing within the confines of her form, unable to stay even remotely still. It only seemed to grow faster and stronger as the evolution happened. Joshua would have felt worried if he weren't able to feel that his familiar was better than alright with what was happening.
On his other side, Nagini coiled around herself, her head remaining firmly in place on his lap. Her energy was almost the opposite of Cheshires, he noticed. It mimicked her body, seemingly gathering and tightening on itself. He got a vague feeling from it, just like the electric feel of Cheshire's, this one felt menacing. As if it were readying an attack against him- No, against anything, anything but him. It waited, ready to snap at the first target that it could.
Joshua's mind struggled to remain aware, the only things that it could process being Cheshire, Nagini and all their energies. He could barely see how their bodies changed, but as the process started slowing down, reaching an end, he could focus more.
And he was in awe.
Nagini now looked like a proper monster, as if she had come straight out of a Anaconda movie. Her skin the blackest of colors and her eyes already very entrancing before became even more enchantingly yellow. He almost felt like he couldn't look away from them.
Cheshire, his first familiar, wasn't far behind. She looked positively majestic. She preened at the thought, proud and- 'And I can feel their thoughts,' Joshua realized, both of theirs. Their contentment and their pride. 'That's gonna be weird.'
"You look beautiful, girl, both of you do," He mumbled, his left hand brought up to his feline familiar who looked like she'd tower over him if she were to stand. Her white fur now showing black stripes all over. Grinning from ear to ear, he cast Appraisal on her.
[Cheshire
Title: Familiar of Joshua Davis
Race: Thunder Tiger
Gender: Female
Strength: C
Speed: C+
Dexterity: C+
Vitality: C
Perception: C+
Magic: C
Perks: 5
Skills: 7]
He dismissed the screen quickly though, he'd much prefer to look at his familiars than screens. Curiosity got the best of him though, because he quickly searched for a little detail he'd noticed besides the racial change. She seemed to have an extra Perk, after all.
He noticed two changes instead of one though.
[Lesser Shapeshifting
The user can change their body within restricted forms.
List of Shapes:
-Cat
-Lynx
-Tiger]
'Huh, that'll come in even more handy now, I guess,' He mused, before focusing on the true change.
[Thunder Affinity
The user has an easier time manipulating energies related to thunder.]
'Guess we know what to work on, huh, girl?' He thought and he was pretty sure that she understood him, without even needing words. It was weird, how the new… Bond, worked, but it was incredibly awing all the same.
His eyes trailed off towards Nagini then.
[Nagini
Title: Familiar of Joshua Davis
Race: Hex Snake
Gender: Female
Strength: C+
Speed: C
Dexterity: C
Vitality: C
Perception: C
Magic: C
Perks: 4
Skills: 7]
'Hex, huh? I doubt that has anything to do with the magic branch though…' Once again, he didn't dwell on the screen too much. He noticed that there was no added Perk though, which in itself was suspicious, he supposed. He was no expert on evolution, of course, but he was curious nevertheless.
Indeed, there was one change to note.
[Eyes of Disarray
The user can disrupt the energies of targets with their gaze.]
'The description is the same, but I'm guessing it's much more effective or something,' Joshua mused, sending the screen away.
"I can't leave you alone for two minutes, can I?" Jeanne's voice reached him then and he gave his sister a tired smile. Ward and all, his familiars had still managed to drain him of all his magic energy. He'd overlooked the possibility of two of them hitting him at once. 'I'll cover even in case all four of them do it for next time,' He decided, receiving an apologetic wave from both familiars.
"I guess we like to keep you on your toes," Joshua commented with a smirk, amusement reaching him from his two now evolved familiars. 'Definitely gonna need some getting used to.'
[} 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/)