Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.
When a Part Felt Too Hopeless
Joshua sat outside of his house, looking towards the backyard as Rias' peerage trained against his familiars and the Fallen trio. The latter group was much less cohesive than the former, but that was expected, all things considered. They were still putting up a decent fight, to the point where the spar was just about even.
It was actually a little surprising, considering that he'd been training Rias' group for longer than the Fallen and even before all that, in canon they'd basically slapped Raynare's group like they were a particularly annoying fly. Was that another AU aspect or had his harsher, more constant training made a difference? Were his familiars making up for the difference? That didn't seem to be the case, especially since… Well, he'd had to give each of his familiars a handful of restrictions to make things more even.
He wasn't too focused on any of that, however, not really.
No, Joshua was more interested in what he was reading from the Fallen trio, through his spells and his senses. Nothing there was new to him, nothing there had changed overly much, but it still frustrated him to no end. There was fear there, a lot of that. Fear of him, fear of messing up, fear of making things worse, fear of the threat of experimentation.
It was almost all there was to them. Raynare's annoyance would bleed through sometimes when he gave orders or made his position over them more evident. Mittelt's hope would shine through sometimes, when he was at his "kindest", if one could call it that. Kalawarna's duplicity would stand out, when she thought he wasn't paying attention.
The bulk of it was their fear, however, and it was wearing on him.
"Am I making a mistake?" he asked Margalo, who was perched on his shoulder, overlooking the spar with him. The bird, in response, produced a few notes of her Gentle Song that helped him calm down. "That's not an answer," he commented with a slight smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Margalo trilled something that sounded suspiciously like a giggle.
"I just… I don't think this is me, girl," he said then, looking at the Fallen trio fighting.
It had felt great, to get some revenge after the mess that had happened with his family. He'd lost his family that day, with all three of them being "officially" dead as far as the supernatural was concerned. Joshua didn't know much more besides that, other than the fact that Serafall was pulling strings so that anybody trying to find them through the mundane would fail miserably.
They might not have died that day, but they as good as did, as far as Joshua was concerned. Knowing that they were living their lives happily and as if nothing had happened was a reassurance, for sure, but… He missed them. He missed thinking he had some of his original family loving him out there.
So, he'd taken the anger that generated in him out on the Fallen. It was their fault, after all. They'd been following orders, but that didn't mean they had to be as gleeful as they had been that day. That didn't mean they had to look down on humans as if they were barely bugs on the ground. Kalawarna had even known what was really going on and what she was helping cause and she'd been unrepentant…
Joshua had cared little about scaring and probably scarring the latter for life. As far as he was concerned, Khaos Brigade deserved anything they got. Mittelt and Raynare might have been in a marginally better situation too, but he'd enjoyed smacking them around and showing them that a human could very well stand over them.
With the pass of time, however, Joshua's anger and bitterness subsided. The fire wasn't a raging inferno anymore and with every day that went by, it grew smaller. The Fallen's fear no longer filled him with a sense of vindication. Instead, it just made him feel like a monster.
In his mind and through the Charm, he could feel Set scoffing and Shed supporting him. Joshua wasn't sure how to feel about that, but he could at least appreciate the cold beer that Nephthys sent him. It didn't help, but the cold, bitter drink pulled him away from his thoughts for a moment, which was actually helpful.
'Trying to make me an alcoholic?' he asked the goddess in his mind. In response, he only got amusement and some reassurance. That was good enough for him. He wasn't sure how good it was to have the support of those gods, but it still was nice to know there were people on his side. Hell, nobody he knew that knew about the Fallen had told him anything about what he did being wrong, nor shown any signs of thinking it was.
He imagined it might either be a world culture difference or a supernatural culture difference. Maybe it was even both. He knew the supernatural world was pretty dark once you really looked into it, but still… Well, he guessed it made some sense. Folklore, myths and stories were usually pretty dark if one really thought about it, especially old ones. So… Yeah, he guessed the world around him might be different from what he imagined.
Joshua wasn't sure what to make of that, so he took another sip of his drink and wondered what he thought of things instead of what others thought of them. He didn't get an answer, but mulling it over, he decided that maybe he should change his approach. Maybe the Fallen deserved what they got and more. Maybe they didn't.
Ultimately, however, Joshua didn't want the weight of his actions on his shoulders anymore. He'd punished them, and while he wasn't sure if that punishment was appropriate or not, he decided that it was good enough for him… For the most part.
There were some things left to do, but he guessed he could at the very least tone down the terrorizing.
[}-o-{]
[Sairaorg Bael]
He could only watch, as was usual when it came to his mother.
However, this time wasn't like usual. He didn't feel the crushing knowledge that he was useless. He didn't feel like all his strength meant nothing in the face of something he couldn't beat by punching really hard. He didn't feel just as weak as he had when he'd been denied his place as heir of House of Bael.
Instead, Sairaorg felt hopeful.
He watched Joshua work, sitting at his mother's side with a notebook in his hands and a frown on his face. Despite this, however, his human friend had nothing but good things to say in regards to his information gathering. As Joshua told it, it was a matter of time before he cured Sairaorg's mother.
Empty promises and hollow reassurances, some might have said, but Sairaorg believed them.
After all, he knew Joshua Davis. The magician had a real talent for surpassing and completely shattering expectations. As far as Sairaorg was concerned, the man might as well be the next Merlin. Just like the aforementioned magician had cracked the Devil's magic system into something other humans could utilize, Joshua was cracking a Devil bloodline like they were a particularly hard equation and not something impossible to copy.
If there was someone that could make Sairaorg's mother wake up, he believed that could certainly be Joshua.
So, he waited expectantly, just like the other times when the magician had visited his mother to check on her. To hear Joshua talk about it, he seemed to have found a string to follow in his search for a cure, but he didn't have anything solid yet. That was more than Sairaorg had heard anyone remotely trustworthy say, and that was good enough for him.
Joshua sighed, leaning back on his seat and setting down his notebook on his lap. Then, he proceeded to massage his eyelids wearily. Sairaorg desperately wanted to ask him how it had gone, but he imagined that might be rather annoying and he didn't want to distract the man in case he was going over something. Joshua was doing him a great favor, after all. The last thing he wanted to do was make things harder for his friend.
"I didn't find anything in the files you gave me," Joshua started all of a sudden, giving him a weary look. "Did your mother have trouble with magic like you do?"
"Not as far as I'm aware. They even said she was good," Sairaorg answered honestly, a bitter smile trying to make its way to his face. "Not great, mind you, but certainly nothing like me," he added. He would know, he'd been told often enough that nobody knew where his "problem" came from.
"Ok, that's interesting," Joshua told him, taking a deep breath in as he regarded Sairaorg's mother with a side-glance. "I'm picking up some… interesting readings from her magic. I'll have to look deeper to know what they mean and what causes them, but if this isn't something that was there before, then that means it could be related to the Sleeping Disease."
"Anything I can do to help?" Sairaorg asked then, wanting more than anything to do something other than standing there. Maybe there really was hope, after all. Maybe his mother could be saved, helped.
"Having more solid information about the state of her magic and her magic… talent, for lack of a better word, through her life and before the disease could be useful," Joshua told him, noting something down on a page of his notebook that he ripped off before continuing. "I also need to know if there are any other diseases that cause anomalies with a devil's magic-"
"There are some," Sairaorg replied. He knew quite a bit about those, considering that he'd repeatedly been taken to get checked for those. "I can get you the information on them though."
"Good, that'd help a lot," Joshua told him, bringing a hand up to run his fingers through his hair. "I'm sure I can find some more information from other places, just in case," he added then. His eyes seemed to focus again as his mind got to working once more. It was slightly unnerving, to know that Joshua's mind was working once more, almost like he wasn't there at all, really. "Yeah, I'll probably have to pull some strings to make sure I have all the information," he added then, cracking his neck as he stood up. "I think that's all I'll be able to pick up with my new spells."
"Same time next week?" Sairaorg asked, mostly joking. He did want to know when his friend would visit again, but he knew he couldn't just rush this. He dearly wanted to, but he knew it'd take time.
"I don't know about that, but I'll come back as soon as I can," Joshua replied, giving him a sad, understanding smile. "I think I can help her, Sairaorg, and I can promise you that I'll do my best."
"I know," he said then, not realizing a knot had formed in his throat until he went to speak again. "I just… Thank you."
"Nothing to thank me for. That's what friends are for, right?" Joshua asked, but there was a tinge of awkwardness in his tone. A sense of… insecurity.
Sairaorg couldn't have that.
"Indeed," he answered firmly. "But that doesn't mean I can't try to repay you for what you are doing for me. This means the world to me, Joshua, and I'll make sure you know that."
"I do, but I won't stop you if you are determined," the magician told him then, giving him a somewhat amused smile. "I don't think I could anyway."
"You'd be right about that," Sairaorg confirmed with a nod and a grin of his own.
"Well, I have work to do, on several fronts," the human said then, running his fingers through his hair once more as he stood up. "Take care of yourself, yeah? Don't train too hard."
"No promises," he replied with a chuckle.
Having hope… it felt great.
[}-o-{]
[Issei Hyoudou]
"Issei, calm down," Aika told him, but how could he, considering what they'd just been told? That… How…? What…? Why…? When…? Where…? He had a lot of questions, basically, and he didn't even know where to begin.
"Buddy, maybe you should think about evening out your breathing, yeah? I don't think that's healthy," Joshua suggested, sitting across from him, which actually got through his muddled thoughts. "Issei, you seem to be thinking really hard about something and I don't think that's good for your health either."
"Very funny, Joshua," he grumbled breathlessly. He couldn't even muster actual annoyance though, instead sounding more like a terrified kid. "Joshua…"
"Yeah? Wanna tell me why you stormed in here like you've seen a ghost?" the man asked, pushing a cup of tea towards both Issei and Aika. They took them gratefully, almost like he'd offered them a lifeline. That was when Issei noticed that his girlfriend seemed to be about as freaked out as he felt, even if she was better at masking it. She was smarter than him though, so that made sense, he supposed.
"More like a devil," Aika said, and Issei swallowed the too hot drink too fast, feeling it burn his throat as he coughed. "Someone just came to us today telling us that there's devils, and magic, and monsters, and legends… That they are real," the girl explained. "Can you believe that?"
"I mean, that sounds crazy, yeah," Joshua replied, and Issei couldn't, for the life of him, figure out how he managed to say that like they were commenting on the weather instead of telling him… That.
"They had proof though," Issei took over then, slightly manic. "They showed us magic and all. I… We aren't making this up, I swear!"
"I know you aren't, Issei," Joshua told him calmly.
"I swear! I… You what?" he stuttered then, after realizing that his boss and… sort of brother figure wasn't actually calling them crazy or anything of the sort.
"You know about it too?" Aika asked then, narrowing her eyes.
"I do," Joshua admitted, giving them a smile that seemed sort of… tired and sad, but also happy. "I'm a magician myself."
"You can do magic?" Issei asked, his eyes wide.
"That's what a magician does, yeah. It's kind of in the name, right?" the man said, his grin widening.
"But… Why didn't you tell me?" Issei couldn't help but feel a little hurt about that. He'd thought they were close. They were no strangers to each other, for sure. So why…
"There's no easy way to explain that kind of thing to someone, is there?" Joshua asked, leaning back on his chair. "Hey Issei, myths are real and I can do magic, neat right?" he said then, acting as if he were actually telling him that before. "You get what I mean?"
"Sort of…" Issei mumbled. "Still though…"
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry for keeping it a secret but… I like having a mundane side to my life, even if it's small. I guess that included you. I didn't want to ruin that… Or change that, more like," Joshua explained then, sounding like he really meant his apology.
"Did you know?" Aika asked then, eyes narrowed. "About Issei's… gear thing?"
"Sacred Gear," Joshua corrected goodheartedly. "And yes, I knew."
"I think we could use a second opinion on this," Issei's girlfriend commented, eyes thoughtful behind her glasses. "We just got offered the "opportunity" to become devils and such but… It sort of came out of nowhere," Aika explained, carefully using the same words Gremory had used when she'd given them her speech.
Issei still couldn't believe that had happened.
Or that some of the prettiest girls at school seemed to all be devils.
That'd been a bit of a shock.
"Sure thing, I'll answer any question you have and tell you as much as you want," Joshua agreed easily. "I'm surprised they approached you though. Did they know about your magic talents or was that just because you are Issei's girlfriend?"
"Magic talents?" Aika asked then, while Issei was too busy blinking, shocked at the new piece of information.
"I mean, you are no great magician, of course, but you have more magic than the average person, that's for sure," Joshua explained then, looking between them for a moment. "Your magic energy also seems to be more… stable, for lack of a better word, than the average."
"Does that mean I can learn magic?" his girlfriend asked, very obviously getting pulled into a new topic by sheer force of curiosity. Issei was fine with that, he wanted to know more about her and he trusted Joshua. Just because he'd hidden the fact that he knew the supernatural, it didn't mean he was a completely different person, right?
Issei certainly hoped so.
"Sure you can," Joshua confirmed with a nod.
"What types of magic are there?"
"There's magic for just about everything you can think of, really," the man answered, shrugging. "If you are curious about something, I have an in with a magician association. I can get you some books and maybe a teacher or ten."
"Magician association?"
"A group of magicians that band together to keep themselves safe and teach each other, more or less," Joshua explained. "Humans are mostly… bottom of the barrel, really, so most of them join a faction of some kind."
"Like the devils," Aika finished then, narrowing her eyes as her mind got back on track.
"Yeah."
"What about you?"
"I've managed to stay mostly independent. I still depend on other factions, but I'm sort of disconnected from all of them."
"So, you might be our best bet for an unbiased opinion, is what you are saying?"
"Not really, but I guess you could be right."
All the while, Issei could do little else other than following his girlfriend and his friend's conversation like one would a tennis match.
"Wait, they weren't lying about harems being common in devil society?" he asked then, the words spilling out of his mouth before he could stop them. Both Joshua and Aika turned towards him then and raised an eyebrow.
"That's what you focused on?" both of them asked him as he drew into himself. If magic was real, maybe he could make the ground swallow him?
[}-o-{]
[Joshua Davis]
"I said I was sorry, already," he protested, rolling his eyes at the two women in front of him. "We've done a handful of test runs already too. Can you two stop glaring at me whenever we do this?"
"We would, but we need to get our point across," Serafall told him, adding narrowed eyes and pouting to her glare. Next to her, Yasaka gave him a supremely unimpressed look, as if he shouldn't even be asking that.
"For the who knows how many times, I'm sorry, okay? I'm an idiot, I get it," he said, but didn't seem to help much. "What do you want from me?" he asked, all but admitting defeat… again.
"For you not to be an idiot like that again," Yasaka told him, adding a touch of hurt into her voice that really was just mean. "Joshua, testing something like this by yourself? And so shortly after your extreme magical exhaustion?"
"I won't do it again, ok? I promise," he replied softly, all but deflating on his seat.
"We'll hold you to that, mister," Serafall declared, pointing at him for emphasis.
"We care about you, Joshua," Yasaka told him in a way that made his inside twist almost painfully. "And we aren't the only ones. So… Do remember that, ok? Being reckless like that…"
"I get it," he said in a whisper. "I'm sorry. I really am."
"You should be," Serafall muttered, huffing and turning away from him for a moment. "Meanie."
"With that said, I do believe we came here for something," Yasaka reminded them, to which Joshua gave her his most grateful look. The two of them had mostly forgiven him for testing the Phoenix Spell for the first time by himself without anyone there to make sure things went well and everything, but every time since then that he called them when he needed further attempts… Well, they let him know their annoyance very thoroughly.
"Right… So, I've made a few more tweaks to this circle," Joshua explained, turning his attention to the drawing set down on the table and the wardstone on top of it. "For one, I've finished making it so that it'll work on any fully human person, not just me or designated people. It still won't work on anything not 100% human, but I'm getting there. I've also managed to tone down how taxing it is on the wardstone a bit, so it'll hopefully not blow up this time."
"Like the other three times you said that?" Serafall asked, trying and failing to act innocent while doing that.
"Yes," he grumbled. "Exactly like that. It almost worked last time though, so it should work now," he added, bringing a hand to his locket and rubbing his thumb over it as he considered the new circle for a moment, as if that would somehow shine new information on him.
"What about the magical drain?" was Yasaka's question then.
"I'm… Not quite focusing on that just yet," Joshua admitted, cringing a little under the return of the harsh glares. "The spell works fine in that regard. Sure, I would love to reduce how much it exhausts me, but it doesn't have any real negative aspects to it. I can leave that problem for last as it is."
"If you would just let one of us power the spell-" Serafall went to say, not for the first time.
"I know you have larger reserves than me, but I need to have as good a read of this as possible and that means feeling the magic drain too. I don't want to miss anything," Joshau explained once more, drawing a pout from the magical girl. "I'm fine, really. It tires me out, but it's not even proper magical exhaustion."
"We know that," Yasaka replied, sighing. Why did they have to make him feel guilty? It wasn't even that bad!
"I fixed a number of other little things, but that's the gist of it, really," Joshua said then, taking a moment to prepare himself for the test. He needed to be really focused on it, after all. For the same reason he'd just explained, really, to get every little detail down.
"Like the one thing that broke the magic of your dye job?" Serafall asked, now more amused than anything as he grimaced. That hadn't been a fun moment, especially because Kunou had seen him before he could reapply the spell. Poor girl hadn't taken that well until they explained to her what happened and that no he wasn't taking that back.
"Yeah, that shouldn't happen again…" he mumbled.
"Hopefully?" the woman asked, once more trying to act innocent. He just gave her an unimpressed expression.
"Now who's the meanie?" he shot back, drawing a dramatic gasp from the magical girl.
"Joshua, Serafall?" Yasaka called then, bringing them back to the present.
"Right, let's get to it, yeah?" he said, finally casting the spell. In front of him, Serafall gave a wave of her staff to put a magical barrier between them and the wardstone just in case it exploded, again. Joshua couldn't even really bring himself to be annoyed by that, considering how many times he'd thought he had that down and didn't.
With everything set up, he brought out a knife and once more cut into his arm. Immediately, the spell's flames appeared over the wound and he looked expectantly at the wardstone. It shone, and he felt the heat rolling off of it even without his other spells telling him that, but it didn't so much as crack, which was awesome.
"Success!" Serafall cheered then while Joshua grinned.
"Congratulations," Yasaka told him, smiling widely. "Now what?" she added then, knowing him well enough to know that his mind immediately moved to the next step.
"Well, I have to check it over to make sure that the range of targets actually went to all humans. From there, I just have to continue expanding the filter until it works on anyone. I have to continue working on lessening the tax on the wardstone and then work on lessening the magic cost of the spell. That's the least important part though, since I might be able to tie it down to a magic draining array like the ones I use to power my other spells," Joshua explained, grinning down at the warstone sitting innocently on the table. "Overall, progress is being made."
And oh was he happy with it.
[} 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/)
[}Status
[Joshua Davis
Title: The Professor
Race: Human
Rank: B-
Strength: 89
Speed: 82
Dexterity: 82
Vitality: 96
Perception: 80
Magic: 126
Life: 50]
Skills
[Language
English - Lvl 48/50
Japanese - Lvl 46/50
Ancient Egyptian - Lvl 33/50]
[Meditation - Lvl 62/100]
[Cooking - Lvl 43/50]
[Appraisal - Lvl 42/100]
[Parkour – Lvl 50/150]
[Physical Conditioning - Lvl 48/50]
[Unarmed Combat Mastery - Lvl 31/100]
[Physical Resistance – Lvl 41/100]
[Poison Resistance – Lvl 46/100]
[Mind Resistance – Lvl 49/100]
[Cold Resistance – Lvl 19/100]
[Heat Resistance - Lvl 16/100]
[Electric Resistance - Lvl 26/100]
[Light Resistance - Lvl 14/100]
[Treatment – Lvl 4/50]
[Healing Magic - Lvl 30/125]
[Spatial Magic – Lvl 47/125]
[Ward Magic – Lvl 78/125]
[Neutral Magic – Lvl 38/125]
[Illusion Magic – Lvl 36/125]
[Hex Magic – Lvl 30/125]
[Communication Magic – Lvl 24/125]
[Bond
Cheshire - 38/50
Nagini - 38/50
Morag - 38/50
Margalo - 38/50]
[Drawing – Lvl 48/50]
[Crafting – Lvl 26/50]
[Throwing Weapon Mastery – Lvl 67/150]
[Bloodlust – Lvl 18/50]
[Dagger Mastery – Lvl 86/100]
[Piloting
Car - Lvl 39/50]
[Spell Modification - Lvl 57/75]
[Revolver Mastery – Lvl 26/150]
[Magic Sense - Lvl 68/150]
[Life Sense - Lvl 52/150]
[Life Concentration - Lvl 20/50]
[Life Strengthening - 6/50]
Titles
[Novice Magician
Increases the growth speed of Magic by 10%.
Increases the growth speed of all Magical Masteries and Spells by 15%.]
[Magician
Increases the growth speed of Magic, Spells and magic related Skills by 20%.
Increases the efficacy and efficiency of Spells by 15%.]
[Ward Specialist
Increases the growth speed of Magic, Spells and magic related Skills by 20%.
Increases the efficacy and efficiency of Spells by 15%.
Increases the growth speed of Ward Magic and Ward Spells by 35%.
Increases the efficacy and efficiency of Wards by 30%.]
[The Professor
Increases the growth speed of Magic, Spells and magic related Skills by 50%.
Increases the efficacy and efficiency of Spells by 40%.
Increases the growth speed of Skills and Spells you teach by 100%.
Spell level is removed. All spells are averaged to the level of their branch.]
Perks
[Human
Increases the growth speed of all stats and skills by 20%.]
[Bane of Legends
Increases stats when facing a Legend by 25%.
Increases skill efficacy when facing a Legend by 25%.]
[Holy Element
Allows the use of Holy Artifacts.]
[Demonic Element
Allows the use of Demonic Artifacts with reduced side-effects.]
[Blessing of Shed
Increases the potential of the user to connect with Animals.
Increases the potential of the user to Hunt.]
[Minor Blessing of Nephthys
Increases the potential of the user to connect with Magics.
Increases the ability of the user to learn skills related to Magics.]
[Minor Blessing of Set
The user can change their body into sand.]{]