Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.
And Can We Call It Fair?
The House of Water place that Joshua was teleported to was… oddly normal, all things considered. He'd come by himself with only Cheshire, since most of his familiars were… Well, they were a bit on the big side. And Margalo had been having a good time with Jeanne watching old episodes of Serafall's show, so there was that.
Speaking of, the Satan had offered to send someone with him, but he'd waved her off. Yasaka too, for that matter. He'd told the two of them and that was enough for him, really. Yasaka's people had to have checked the person that had arranged the whole thing, so that meant that this whole thing was really from the House of Water. It would be really dumb to call for him like this and do something stupid.
"And this is the entrance to the wing in which we study and grow magical plants," his guide for the day told him. It seemed that before they talked about the class, they'd decided to give him a tour around the whole place. Which… reminded him a lot of Sona, amusingly enough. The guy was really proud of the place, that was for sure.
The man kept talking after that, of course, but Joshua only half paid attention. He was entirely too awed by the sight of the several greenhouses and such, all of them containing different weather conditions for the supernatural plants to grow. It was all done with engraved spells powered with wardstones, he guessed. Like how he'd made the necklaces. Still…
'Wonder if I can do that with wards,' Joshua considered with a tilt of his head. 'Then again, I already lack the time. Gardening might be out of my possibilities. Something to take note of though, I guess.'
There were other parts of the place that he quite liked. Like the library, which made him wonder what kinds of knowledge was there that he might not be able to find anywhere else. Or the open area where students and members of the association practiced spells. He so wanted to see what data he could gather with wards in that place.
Over everything else, Joshua was surprised about the college vibes the whole place gave off. Magical college, of course, but still. He'd admit that it gave him a slight feeling of dread too. Fortunately, he was confident in his capabilities with the magic he used. Especially considering that he'd been asked to come and teach about it. He rather doubted they would have done that if he was bad.
"Now, I'm sure you are curious about the class we want you to give and have questions about it," the man, who Joshua had already regrettably forgotten the name of, said.
"I was told that I'd give a class about wards with focus on spell modification," Joshua replied, giving the man his full attention for the first time in the day. "Not the most detailed explanation, I have to say."
"Yes, we are sorry," the man apologized. Although, he looked more nervous than apologetic, weirdly enough. "Spell modification isn't something that most magicians can do. We were told that it was your specialization."
Joshua would have said his specialization was wards, really. Then again, everything he'd seen and read made it seem like modifying spells was supposed to be hard. Maybe he was the weird one out, once more, but it was something that he was starting to understand.
"Since you are here in a temporary course, as you know, we thought it better to allow you a range of freedom. You won't be expected to give marks to the students or anything of the sort and you can work through the classes as you see fit," the man continued explaining. Joshua was kind of surprised by that, really.
"That's a lot of freedom, actually."
"Yes, well, Director Agnes believes you can be trusted with such. On top of that, from what I heard, you've got powerful people vouching for you, Mr. Davis," the man told him, and Joshua had the slight feeling that he was nervous. A quick check with Life Sensing confirmed as much.
"Call me Joshua," he said, looking around again. "Is there a classroom already assigned for this that you can show me?"
"Of course, of course, please follow me," the man answered instantly, gulping and starting to walk down the hall. It was rather suspicious, really, that he was so affected by… Joshua didn't even know what. Maybe he could ask someone. Surely he wasn't intimidating him, right? Even if he was important for the faculty to get him to go and teach a class, surely he hadn't done something that could make the guy afraid, right? "This is where your classes will be held, unless you'd prefer something different, of course," his guide said, signaling with his hands as he opened the door. The last part though came out rather quickly.
Ignoring the nearly panicking man, Joshua looked around. There were rows and rows of desks, with each row being a staircase step lower than the one behind it. He had to look up to see the seat at the further back, but he supposed it helped make everyone be able to see him more clearly. There was also a blackboard in front of everything and a bigger desk for himself. Everything else was pretty bare, which made sense, he guessed.
"Good enough, I guess," Joshua said in the end, nodding before walking a little. Mostly to check the desk and see if there was anything on the drawers or something. He wanted to see if he needed to bring something. It'd be rather embarrassing if he had a class and suddenly realized that he didn't have something to write on the board or some such… Although, he guessed he could use illusions for that, but the point stood.
"I'm glad," the guy replied, although he said it almost like it was a question.
"Anything I should know about the students?" Joshua asked, pulling a notebook and a pencil from his Storage Spell and readying to take some notes. "What level of knowledge can I expect from them? What sort of progress am I expected to make?"
"Courses and temporary classes aren't usually expected to reach certain levels of progress. Much less those such as yours, since you won't even be expected to check on it at all," the man answered, sounding a little more certain. Maybe he knew that answer better, Joshua supposed. "As for the knowledge of the students. The class was advertised to more advanced people and it was made clear that you are mainly a Ward Magic user. However, word surely has gotten around, so we wouldn't be surprised if more inexperienced people or people out of that branch show up for the class."
"Mixed bag, basically," Joshua picked up, reading between the lines. It should have been annoying, but he was more curious about how he could teach a class like that and have everyone benefit from it. It sounded like a challenge, and he could take one of those.
"Mr. Davis?"
"Call me Joshua, please," he repeated, this time more firmly, which drove the guy firmly into panic once more. This time Joshua didn't feel too bad about it. What was it with people refusing to call him by his name? Surely it wasn't that much of a problem.
"Of course, Mr- I mean, of course, Joshua," the guy stammered. Joshua just sighed and rolled his eyes. It seemed that it'd be a little more taxing than he'd expected to get through the whole thing. He could only hope the actual classes would go easier or he'd have to have words with Shed.
The amused feeling that Cheshire sent him as she jumped on the desk of the classroom didn't help at all.
[}-o-{]
Teleporting back home, Joshua took a deep breath in as he sat down at the table. The house was silent, which meant that Jeanne was probably out with her friends. Morag was probably already making her way down the stairs towards them and Nagini was still curled up in the corner she'd been in when they left. Margalo had probably either gone with Jeanne or decided to go flying outside somewhere. His hand found its way to Cheshire's head when she joined him, laying in front of him on the table.
His other hand held the notebook he'd taken his notes on and he considered how to best tackle this job. 'This better be worth it,' he thought to himself with a sigh. The Charm gave him a reassuring and encouraging feeling but it wasn't very effective, really.
Then he and Cheshire both tilted their heads towards the house's door. A second later, they heard someone knock. His wards by that point made it so that he could just know if someone was at his door. Nothing could be anywhere near his property without him knowing, for that matter. Or that was the goal, at least. He wasn't too worried though. After all, the person had teleported inside his wards, which meant that they were someone he'd allowed in.
Less than a second after the fact, he already knew who it was and he chuckled to himself. Standing up, he moved towards the door with Cheshire walking next to him. Thinking about classes would have to wait, it seemed.
"Hey there, Serafall," he greeted with a smile. "We didn't have anything arranged for today, did we?"
"Nah, you said you were going to see House of Water today," the Satan replied, skipping in before he closed the door behind her. "I gotta make someone wait for a bit and thought I'd visit. I'd like for them to think by themselves for a bit, you know, make them sweat."
"Makes sense. You want anything to drink or eat?" Joshua asked as they moved towards the dining room. Once there, he waved his hand and the notebook with the information regarding House of Water disappeared in a Storage Spell. After that, he started making his way to the kitchen, because he'd prepare himself a cup of tea regardless, but also because-
"Of course, anything you prepare is great, Joshua!" Serafall answered enthusiastically. "How was the magic association?"
"Is that a question by Levia-tan or by Satan Leviathan?" Joshua shot back instead of replying to the question. It was something he wondered often when talking to Serafall, or Yasaka for that matter. Sometimes it was hard to tell if they were going to use something he said for something more… job related, as it were. He didn't much care, really, but it was something to keep in mind, he supposed.
Then again, he continued carrying Shed's Charm everywhere and that was probably worse, on that front. After all, he'd never even had a single conversation with the god and the guy seemed to be listening in on everything that went on around Joshua. The feeling of slight guilt and reassurance wasn't very… reassuring, really.
"Joshuaaaa~ I'm a good friend, how can you accuse me of something like that~?!" the Satan protested childishly and he rolled his eyes. That wasn't a no, he noticed, but he didn't dwell on that too much. Serafall hadn't given him any reason to doubt her so far, so he'd trust her for now. The devils did have some suspicious things going on, but he'd focus on what actually mattered to him. No need to overthink stuff.
"Right, sorry," he apologized as he worked. "So, anything new to tell?"
"Nah, same old same old. Politics are boring," she replied and he could easily imagine the childish pout on her face. "The show's been going nicely though. And we've brainstormed to see if we can add Mar-chan there too!"
'Speaking of, I should check…' he mused then. The bird was usually with one of them, but since Jeanne wasn't at the house… 'Ah,' he nodded to himself, noticing that she was just flying around in the forest outside, still within his wards as she knew to do when she was by herself.
"I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that. Although, I think she's gonna change soonish," Joshua commented, drawing a humming sound from the Satan as he moved with a tray to the table and sat opposite to her. It was sort of relaxing, to have a friendly face and something to drink and eat. It was basically how their last outing had gone, despite Jeanne's insistence that it was a date. They'd just gone to a cafe, ordered something and spent some time talking about nothing of importance.
A nice break from all the worries and stress that came from constant work and such, that was for sure.
"You made an impression on Sona, it seems," Serafall said then, out of nowhere. Joshua, for his part, simply blinked as he tried to catch up with that shift. "You aren't trying to charm my cute little sister, are you?" she asked then, narrowing her eyes.
"Ah, no? Don't even know what could have made that happen," he answered bluntly. "I mean, just last week I had to threaten to leave Kuoh if she and Rias didn't deal with some… annoyances around town. If anything, I thought she'd, you know, dislike me."
"Hmm," she hummed, keeping her suspicious stare for a long moment. "I don't believe you. You aren't a player, are you? You are, aren't you?! You are surrounded by beautiful women, Josh!" she exclaimed, getting more dramatic with each sentence. She did so in a very familiar fake tone though, which made him roll his eyes.
"As if I didn't know that," he shot back. Honestly, some of the women he'd met were outrageously gorgeous. As expected of an ecchi world, he supposed. It was very distracting at times, but he managed. "But no, I'm not making a move on your sister. Don't worry."
"Huh… Well, that's reassuring," Serafall replied, back to her peppy personality. "So, she's not your type?"
"I don't have a type," Joshua answered with another roll of his eyes. Seriously, this was starting to sound like one of his "chats" – read, interrogations – with Jeanne. It would be double as awkward when it was with a friend instead of his sister, he just knew it.
"I don't believe you~" she said with a sing-song tone before he almost saw the random shift coming. "Any projects you are working on? Besides the Phoenix Ward, that is," Serafall asked and he blinked, processing the question.
"Eh, a bunch of wards mixed up with some spatial spells. I'm trying to see if I can make something… Well, I'll leave it as a surprise. I'm sure it'll be cool if I can manage it," Joshua answered with a grin. He was quite excited with his new project. The cleaning ward had been useful for things outside of just saving time in chores, as it had demonstrated during the raid.
"You are not gonna tell me? That's mean," she complained, pouting at him. "You suck, Joshua!"
"More than the politicians you have to deal with?"
"Wowowow! Let's not go overboard, yeah?" she shot back, giggling.
"I'll take that as a win, then," Joshua commented with a chuckle.
[}-o-{]
"Thanks, guys."
"Don't mention it, Josh," Ladora told him with a smile as he and Gandoma helped him move trays with food to the table. He could have put them in Storage Spells, but he'd been training not so long before and he didn't feel like using magic. The two of them had been kind enough to lend him a hand, which he was grateful for.
"And… there we go," Joshua announced, as they set the things on the table and he took his seat.
"Looks amazing as usual," Corianna praised, looking at the dishes like a person that hadn't eaten in weeks.
"It does," Kuisha agreed, somewhat less enthusiastically. Looking at her, Joshua noticed that there was a prominent blush on her face. Next to her, Jeanne was looking at her with an unimpressed expression.
"What'd you do now, Jeanne?" he asked, giving his sister much the same look she was giving her friend.
"What? I did nothing!" she protested, but he didn't believe a word she said. "I really didn't!" she insisted, offense showing in her face. "Why are you looking at me like that?!"
"Sorry for her," Joshua told Kuisha and, if anything, she became even more red. That was as much as he could do though. He could narrow his eyes at Jeanne though and let her worry about if he'd do anything. If the look on her face was anything to go by, he succeeded. "She can be a bit much."
"I-There's nothing to be sorry for!" Kuisha told him quickly. So much so that her words kind of blended together in a mumble that had Coriana and Jeanne snickering. Joshua gave his sister a look that shut her up and he gave Kuisha an apologetic smile but didn't say anything else.
"I think we can get started now, right?" Sairaorg called at that moment with an amused grin on his face. Joshua looked at him for a long moment though. The man had been acting strange as of late. He was mostly the same, but the Bael devil would sometimes get distracted, his gaze getting lost on something that nobody could see. Joshua wondered if that was how he looked when his mind got away from him with ward ideas and such.
He'd even asked a few times, but nothing had come out of it. Whatever it was, Sairaorg didn't feel like sharing that with him. Joshua could understand and respect that, of course, but that didn't mean he wouldn't worry for his friend.
'Maybe I'll have to talk with him soon,' Joshua considered as he started eating with the rest of the group. Sometimes it felt like he had many things in his "to do" list. And any time he felt like he could scrap one of those things, two more appeared. 'The Hydra List, I guess it could be called,' he thought amusedly.
Almost absently, he looked around the table and he felt a chill run down his spine at the look Jeanne was sending his way.
'That can't mean anything good for me.'
[}-o-{]
Absently, Joshua juggled his knives as he considered what to do next with his Phoenix Ward project. Brainstorming new ideas of how to gather information was getting more and more complicated. Finding new approaches that he might not have thought of before wasn't an easy thing, that was for sure. Even just thinking up something that he had already tried and giving it a little different spin was harder and harder as time went by.
He wasn't about to give up though.
Not only had he already told Rias, Serafall and Sirzechs about it, which meant quite a bit of pressure. He knew they likely didn't even really expect him to succeed, but just the idea of telling the girl that he'd failed was heartwrenching. Joshua would do his best to avoid that, he'd decided long ago.
Besides that, he knew it was possible, but it was like trying to fill a pool but only being able to gather water with his hands. So very slow that it seemed impossible, and yet he was still reasonably sure that he could make it in time. He felt like a gambler in a casino, thinking that maybe the next session would give him the clues he needed to finally start really piecing the puzzle together. Victory was so very close, but it escaped through his fingers every single time.
His eyes followed the daggers as they flew up and down, up and down. His mind, though, went over what he had so far come up with for the next time Serafall visited with Phoenix Tears. 'Maybe I can try looking further into what the fire aspect does. It can't be a coincidence that there's a fire effect there when you use them, right? Even if it might be just because the Phenex have an affinity for fire for the most part, surely there's more to it. I could-'
"Can I try doing that too, dad?" a voice asked, interrupting his thoughts. Blinking, he turned to the side, the knives dancing in the air unperturbed. He'd gotten good enough to do that while blindfolded and distracted. That was nothing, really.
"Yeah, can she do that, Joshua?" a second voice asked afterwards and Joshua's back straightened and he stopped juggling the daggers. Gulping, he looked at the two people that had arrived while he was lost in thought.
"Ah… Yasaka, Kunou," he greeted weakly, his eyes fixed on the former's cool gaze. 'I might have made… a slight miscalculation,' he thought to himself, dread building up in him. Then he processed their questions and frowned. "No," he told the girl firmly. "Not until you are older."
"But I'm not a child!" Kunou protested, pouting in a way that ruined her "argument" more than anything he could tell her. Still, Joshua had to deal with that problem before it even became a thing. No way he'd have Kunou juggling knives.
"You are not," he agreed, clearly taking her off guard. "But you need more patience and awareness to do this safely, so I won't let you."
"Awareness?" Kunou asked, eyes narrowed. She was likely trying to see if he was "insulting" her by calling her a child indirectly. They loved to think they were ready for things they weren't. Or, more like, they didn't like to be told they couldn't do something. Or so he guessed the thought process went. He hadn't been a child in a while, he might not have the clearest of ideas on how their minds worked.
"Yes, you need to be aware that these aren't toys," he explained, showing her one of his daggers. "A single mistake and I could have a knife through my hand, or who knows what else." Immediately after saying that, he saw her start to understand the danger. "You get how dangerous this is just yet, and even if you do, you can get easily distracted by the "trick" so I don't feel like you are ready for it."
"... Fine," she mumbled, and Joshua thanked his lucky stars that Kunou was a smart kid. He knew any other might have fought more or thrown a tantrum or something. He didn't think he had it in him to deal with that kind of thing.
"Good, now, come here," he told her, signaling the seat next to him. "Did you finish your homework? Had any trouble, questions?"
"Hm, I did," she mumbled, somewhat subdued, which was strange. "I marked some parts I had some doubts about. I… Hm… Can I… skip this for a bit? Look at Project Duel?"
"Sure, is something… the matter?" Joshua started asking, but Kunou had already left. Nervous and afraid, he turned to Yasaka, an apology ready at the tip of his tongue. He didn't get a chance to voice it though.
"You don't have to apologize," she said, her eyes trailing her daughter as she sat down. "Can you set up a privacy ward?" Without a second's hesitation, he did so. "That was well handled," she praised, but the smile she gave him with those words didn't reach her eyes. "It seems she's been having a rather bad day, although there doesn't seem to be a reason for that."
"I can try to ask her. Not sure she'll tell me if she isn't telling you though," he offered hesitantly.
"I appreciate that, but I suspect it's just a bad day, one without reason," Yasaka told him. "She's been trying to be me for years now," she added then, a little out of nowhere. Used to such things by then, what with several, repeated interactions with Serafall, he blinked and rolled with that. "I believe she did that to have a better connection with a parent that was mostly absent," she explained, guilt clear in her voice.
He ignored that for a second, focusing on Kunou as he knew Yasaka wanted. She was telling him that for a reason, after all. Now, he just needed to think about it and find out what. It didn't take him long to do so.
"She wants to be me now," Joshua realized, turning to look at the girl too. "She asked me about what other things I did and could share with her. I didn't think much of it at the time…"
"And that's fine. You connected with her a lot in a short time. There are many things that you haven't come to know about her just yet," Yasaka said understandingly. He still felt like a failure though.
"So, I just made a bad day worse by denying her that," he mumbled, an ice cold hand gripping at his heart. "Maybe I could-"
"You are not teaching my daughter how to juggle knives, Joshua."
"I mean, Jeanne could make blunt, harmless kni-"
"No."
"Fine," he mumbled, much like Kunou had done before, a slight smile on his face that Yasaka soon shared. "I guess I'll see what I can do to curb that approach of hers. She has to be her own person and she'll have to learn how to."
"Thank you," Yasaka told him and he shook his head, going through the pages that Kunou had set on the table before going to look at their current shared project. Her homework was fine, it seemed, her doubts were good too.
"No need to thank me. I'm her dad, aren't I?" he asked, only half joking. Maybe it was weird, it felt weird to him, but it was how he felt. That girl was his daughter now. Making her happy and helping her grow the best she could be was important to him in a way he imagined his parents felt about him.
"You are," Yasaka answered and he could hear the smile on her face. If he could alleviate some of the stress of being a single mother from her, that was a nice plus too, he supposed.
He paused and narrowed his eyes.
Then he pulled down the wards around them.
"Kunou?" he called, looking at the girl as she turned around. "There's an exercise missing here," he said simply and she stiffened. "Anything to say?"
"I, uh, you see…" she mumbled, looking away from him and smiling nervously. Then she slumped a little and gave him her best kit fox eyes. "I got distracted with a project. Sorry, dad."
"Your daughter indeed," Yasaka said next to him, sounding very amused.
Joshua just groaned. Of all things Kunou could copy from him, why did it have to be that?
[} 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/)