AdrianKing
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Game of Monsters - 175
🕑 Added 2025-02-11 17:52:39 +0000 UTC-To Share Moments Like This
It didn’t take a genius to notice that Joshua’s partners were difficult to read. It came with the territory of being with important politicians, he supposed. Yasaka had always held this unmovable aura around her, like nothing could ever disturb her calm. Serafall seemed similarly collected, if in an erratic, somewhat childish way. Gabriel, for her part, was also similar – he was starting to think he might have a bit of a type –, but in the sense that she always seemed at peace with things, content.
All the same though, he was also noticing that they were getting more and more expressive around him as time passed.
Why was he thinking about that?
Because Yasaka was brooding.
Joshua would almost go as far as saying she was pouting. She’d been sitting there, a slight wrinkle between her eyebrows as she frowned and her lips barely noticeably pursed. There was also a stiffness to her that showed even more when she moved her arm to reach for the cup of tea by her side. She also took much longer than usual to go through the paperwork arranged in front of her at the kitchen island.
It wasn’t a good thing for her to be like that, but Joshua would always be the smallest bit happy when he realized that his partners were more open with him. Because he couldn’t fathom another setting in which Yasaka would be so open with her emotions. So, he took it as a personal compliment.
Now, if only she weren’t upset. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand though, he did. It was probably part of the reason why he was struggling to find the words to comfort her. Not only was he not really feeling all that good himself, but he was also looking for the right words to say, which was proving to be a bit of a struggle.
‘Might need to get on with it though,’ he thought when Yasaka looked down and closed her eyes, her expression twisting even more.
“I’m really sorry, Joshua,” the woman told him, letting go of some of the tension in her body with a sigh. Then she opened her eyes again and looked up at him. She looked miserable and, despite feeling much the same himself – if for different reasons –, he couldn’t let that be.
“It’s not your fault,” he reassured, waving her off weakly. “I know you’d come if you could. That’s enough for me,” he told her, but he knew it wouldn’t help. After all…
“It’s not enough for me,” she said, clearly upset with herself. “Everyone else is going.”
“I can tell them to stay, we’ve talked about this. I wouldn’t have invited-”
“No. I’m not selfish enough to make everyone wait for me. Especially since…” Yasaka interrupted, letting out a frustrated breath that sounded like it wanted to be a whine or a groan. “I’m just… sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be,” he told her, softly but also firmly. “Yasaka,” he called, because she was doing her best to appear as if she were looking at him but not doing so. When she finally properly met his eyes, he smiled at her. “You’re probably the main reason I’m dealing as well with… this as I am. You’re the one that helped me get on the path to recovering.”
“... Thank you,” she said, smiling softly, and he almost laughed. How was it that she was the one thanking him for saying that? He was the one that should be grateful. He was, actually, and he’d told her as much several times already. It wasn’t the time to get into that discussion though. She was feeling better and that’s what mattered. “It’s just…”
“I know,” he replied before she even finished, reaching for her hand and giving it a slight squeeze. “I know, alright? And for what it’s worth, I’m really sad that you can’t come too.”
“That just makes me feel worse,” she told him, but she was smiling a wet smile and squeezing his fingers back, so he took that as a minor victory. “Tell them I’m sorry too, alright?”
“You got it,” he answered, grinning at her, even if there was still a touch of sadness to it. “Don’t sit here moping all day, alright?”
“I’m not moping!” she protested weakly, glaring at him in what almost looked like a pout to him. He didn’t point that out though. He had a feeling she wouldn't appreciate that. “Shut up.”
“I didn’t say anything,” he replied, holding back a chuckle.
“You were thinking something dumb,” she muttered under her breath. If there ever was a moment where she was just like Kunou, it was then. She looked so adorable he almost could forget what was going on. “I’ll be waiting here, Joshua,” she added then, her expression dropping once more and squeezing his hand a little extra. “I’ve cleared my schedule for the whole day.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” he told her, but he knew it was no use. He could almost hear what she’d say before the words left her lips. After all, he was sure she’d-
“I did.”
-say that.
“We’re not going to be here for a while. You could have done something else in that time, you know?” he said, smiling fondly at her all the same. “I wouldn’t have minded.”
“But I would have. You think I could just have a normal day while you’re there?” Yasaka asked him and the look on her face told him that he’d better not give the answer he’d been going to. Instead, he took a deep breath in and chuckled.
“You’re amazing, have I ever told you that?” was what came out of his mouth in the end.
“You could stand to say it more often,” she replied playfully.
“I know,” was his response, grinning widely, and being incredibly thankful to her yet again. He’d started off feeling just as bad as her and now… Well, he wasn’t feeling great, but he was feeling better. He wondered if he’d helped her the same way or if she’d just done that for herself. He hoped it was the former. It’d be nice if he could do that. All the same… “Next year, Yasaka,” he told her then and she squeezed his hand much harder this time, her eyes widening noticeably. “I promise.”
“... Thank you.”
“No, thank you.”
[}-o-{]
“Do you think she’ll be here again, Josh?” Jeanne asked as they walked. Interestingly, the teen was looking very awkward for some reason, as if she didn’t know what to do with herself. Maybe that’s why she wanted to talk about something, he supposed.
At her words though, there were a few reactions before he could answer. Cheshire shifted into a bigger form and growled. Nagini pulled back as if shocked and hissed. Morag clicked her mandibles to herself noticeably fast. Then there was Kunou and Gabriel, who seemed like they were trying to figure out what Jeanne was talking about that earned such responses.
“Aunt Sarah? Probably not,” he replied and Serafall, who had been hanging onto his arm, grabbed his hand in silent support. “It’s been two years now. She can get away with excuses by now, so I expect she won’t ever come here again.”
“Not a great loss,” Jeanne commented, to which he nodded in agreement. It wasn’t a cheerful thing to talk about, but there was no way to have a cheerful conversation then and there anyway, he supposed. “I almost want to pay her a visit.”
“She probably would close the door on your face,” he told her with a chuckle.
“I bet it’d annoy her though,” Jeanne grumbled. “How much did Sairaorg do to her, by the way?”
“Not that much. I was angry at the moment but… Well, I didn’t want that in my conscience. She’s not worth even that much,” he answered, before a smile that held no joy appeared on his face. “Although, the shit job that she has now is probably a lot worse than other things we could have done. She always loved lording her money over everyone else. I very much doubt that her friends are ever going to let her forget that.”
“Sounds like she didn’t have very good friends,” Jeanne pointed out.
“Birds of a feather…” he commented, drawing a snort from his sister.
“What are you talking about, dad? Aunt Sarah?” Kunou asked, clearly trying to understand what was going on and failing. He didn’t blame her. He probably had never mentioned the woman to her, with good reason too though. That was one relative he couldn’t care less about.
“My aunt, to be specific,” he said, taking a deep breath in. “We didn’t get along very well. Jeanne met her, somewhat, the last time we were here. It was… something.”
“That’s the polite way of saying she was a bitch,” Jeanne added, uncaring of her language in front of Kunou. He didn’t appreciate that much, but Joshua could see that his sister’s mind had gone off a tangent. She was angry. Perhaps understandably so, but it was a bad enough day already without adding anger to the mix.
“She was never very nice, no,” he agreed tentatively before deciding to shift the conversation topic. “Most of my family wasn’t very nice, admittedly. That’s why I don’t ever visit… or talk about them,” he confessed with a slight, bitter smile. ‘Except Phil and the twins,’ he thought, holding back a grimace.
“But you’re awesome!” Kunou said, as if that meant that his whole family should be “awesome” too. He chuckled a little, reaching for her and ruffling her hair. “Daaad!”
“You could say we were the white sheep in a family of black sheeps,” he replied, fixing her hair a little as he looked at her. His mind wasn’t quite on it though, even though he did his best. All he could think about was…
“We’re here,” Gabriel announced and he turned to look forward. Margalo had gotten ahead, it seemed, and she’d perched herself near their destination. The rest of his familiars – sans Friday, who was connected to and following him – separated from them a little to join her.
Slowing down, Joshua watched as Jeanne, Asia and Kunou continued walking at the same pace. The sight of them all, with Serafall on his arm and Gabriel taking the spot that Kunou had before at his other side, helped soothe the hurt inside him the smallest bit. No offense to his familiars and Jeanne, but it felt very different than how his last visit had.
He saw Gabriel step forward when they got closer, setting down the flowers she’d brought. He heard her whisper something too, but it was too low for him to understand the words. It might have been a greeting as well as it could have been a prayer or maybe even something else entirely. He didn’t feel like asking her though. If she’d wanted to tell him, she’d have spoken louder, he guessed. Not that he expected she would refuse to tell him, but he could respect that wish of hers.
Serafall, by his side, gave his arm a last squeeze before letting go and shuffling forward. With a deep breath in, he followed, trying to stand straight as his father always told him to. Then he smiled his best smile, for his mother.
“Hey mom, dad,” he greeted, stepping in between the gathering of his new family and sitting in front of the graves. “It’s been a bit, huh?” he added, looking at the engraved words like they were his parent’s faces. “A lot has happened, as you can probably tell,” he told them, chuckling weakly and glancing to look at everyone around and then back at the graves. He felt strength that he didn’t have at that moment course through him anyway at the sight of their faces, supportive, empathetic. “I have some people I want to introduce you to.”
He could almost picture his father blinking at him, glancing between him and the absolutely gorgeous women that he’d brought with him this time. Joshua wondered if the man would have commented something in regards to that or if he’d just congratulate him or both. Then there was his mother, who would have probably been giggling without control, or squealing, or talking a mile a minute… or all of the above, somehow.
“First of all,” he said and somehow joy overpowered sadness for a moment. His lips pulled up into a smile as he extended his arm to wave one of them closer. “This is Kunou,” he introduced, beaming at his parents as the girl stood beside him. “She’s my daughter.”
“It’s nice to meet you both,” the girl said, her voice soft and her expression serene… But Joshua wasn’t fooled. She was tense, uneasy and not because of where they were and why. At least, for the reasons one might expect.
“Do you want to sit here or on my lap?” he asked her, smile still in place as he patted the ground beside him. She didn’t move though, her body stiffening even further. “Kunou, they’d love you,” he reassured softly, reaching to take her hand and help her sit down. “I can see it. Mom would pull you into a hug and never let go if it wasn’t to spoil you. And dad… Dad would be more discreet, but you’d have him wrapped around your little finger even more than mom in no time.”
“Like you then?” she mumbled, a shy smile pulling at her lips.
“Isn’t she nice?” he asked sarcastically, turning towards the gravestones. Suddenly though, he wasn’t feeling quite so somber, so cold. It hurt, a small part inside him ached with the hole the loss of his parents had left in him, but… Somehow, he felt things were alright despite that. “I can let her talk your ears off later though-”
“Hey!”
“-, but for now, how about I introduce you to a few more people,” he continued, closing his eyes and communicating with Friday what was happening, what the gravestones symbolized and what it meant for him. It didn’t take more than a second or two, but it felt like an entire conversation all the same.
And then, strangely, the spell went silent. She was there and she was looking, but she didn’t seem to communicate much for some reason. He wondered about that, for a moment, before deciding that maybe it was better to leave her to it. If anything was wrong, he’d be right there and so would his other familiars.
“There’s Asia, the kindest girl in the world,” he said, ignoring Kunou’s “what about me?” and looking at the blushing nun. “Hope you didn’t want just the one daughter, because I kind of adopted her as a sister too,” he commented, but he knew they’d love her. It was impossible not to love Asia, after all.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Davis, Mrs. Davis,” the girl mumbled, her hands clasped together and she looked like she’d start praying any second. “Your son is a gift from the Lord, you should know that,” she added and Joshua’s expression softened, imagining his parents agreeing with her.
“It was like God himself had given you to us, to solve everything and make our lives brighter,” he remembered his mother saying once more. He pushed that to the side though. It brought thoughts to his mind that weren’t at all necessary at that moment.
“And then… it might be… unconventional, but these are Serafall and Gabriel,” he said then, feeling as awkward as he imagined he’d be if his parents were alive for him to talk to. “They are… I guess my girlfriends would be the simplest way to say it. Doesn’t feel right though. And there’s Yasaka too, but she can’t come, because… Well, she can’t come. She wishes she could though and she told me to tell you-”
“Josh,” Serafall told him, stepping behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder. She squeezed the smallest bit and he felt his muscles relax. “You’re rambling.”
“I… Yeah…” he mumbled, taking a deep breath in and smiling nervously. “I’m dating all three of them. Somehow, I managed to pull that off, believe it or not. Don’t ask me how,” he said half-joking. He could almost hear the two women behind him rolling their eyes, but he kept going.
Idly, he wondered if DxD logic would extend to the DxD version of his parents. It was a very odd thought to entertain. Everything he’d checked in regards to his alternate life had been exactly the same as he remembered up to the accident. But then again, would that kind of thing have appeared in his information gathering efforts?
“They… They make my life so much better, you should know,” he continued, smiling at the pieces of rock laid before him. “I’ve been doing great in general and… Yeah, things are going well.”
Idly, for a moment, he thought about how things might be going for his real parents. What had changed in those years? Were things different from how they’d been the last time he visited? He had no way of knowing, but he couldn’t help pondering that all the same. Maybe one day, he’d be able to tinker something about that.
It sounded like something incomprehensibly hard to do, even when compared to the things he’d already done, but maybe…
It was useless to dwell on that, he decided, at least at that moment.
“And yes, mom, before you ask,” he said, pretending once more that he was talking to his parents. “I did let them know. Followed dad’s example to the letter, just like you said,” he added with a wide smile. That was when he heard the rustling of clothes and then saw Gabriel sit primly beside him.
“If you’d let us in on this, Joshua?” she half-asked and half-urged.
“Someone is going to love you and they’ll change your life,” he said, paraphrasing a little to get the point across better as he looked at his mother’s gravestone. “You’re not the best with words or gestures, but let them know. Maybe you can do as your father did. He gave me iris flowers, red ones.”
“So, that’s where that came from, huh?” Serafall whispered behind him, still with her hand on his shoulder, squeezing a little. “Thank you.”
“Not sure what you’re thanking me for. I feel like I should thank you,” Joshua commented, not looking away from his parents.
“No, it’s definitely us that should be thanking you,” Gabriel disagreed.
[}-o-{]
Eventually, much like it had happened the previous year, he’d more or less been done talking. He had also needed a moment to get his shit together, so there was that. Thus, he’d stood up and walked away to gather his thoughts and get rid of the knot in his throat.
His familiars had accompanied him, together with Kunou. Jeanne, Asia, Gabriel and Serafall had stayed there though and he could see and hear them talking, much like he had before. He didn’t try to eavesdrop though, but he was tempted, he’d admit.
Instead, he focused his hearing on Margalo and the soft tune she was trilling. It wasn’t quite what he’d call sad or somber, but it was something close. It felt to him similarly to the rain that had hit them not so long before, or the sound of wind through leaves, or the coolness of an air conditioned room in the summer, or a nice cup of tea in the winter. It was soothing, for lack of better words, peaceful, and it allowed him to focus his mind in something other than memories of a life that was no more and what-ifs.
“Are you feeling better, dad?” Kunou – sweet, wonderful Kunou – asked him, looking up at him with her bright eyes. He could only smile down at her, not quite feeling great, but nevertheless comforted by the concern alone.
“I’m fine,” he told her, pushing a lock of blond hair off her face gingerly. “You don’t need to worry about me. I just needed a moment,” he reassured her, leaning down to kiss her forehead.
“Hm, I’m glad,” she mumbled, looking down. She shuffled on her feet and seemed to try and glance at him, failing to manage every time. She wanted to ask something and she was hesitating. He knew her too well not to pick up on it. “Do you mind if I…?” she started, trailing off as she glanced towards the graves. “I want to tell them… something.”
“Go for it. I’ll survive a few minutes with just this lot,” he told her, smiling a little wider as he looked around at his familiars. Idly, he noticed that Friday was fussing, trying to find a way to make him feel better, so he sent some reassuring thoughts her way too. The rest of his familiars though, didn’t appreciate being talked about like that.
“I’ll be right back then,” Kunou said quickly, pulling away and running off, as if trying to be quicker so she could get back to him as fast as possible. It was adorable.
Looking at her, he chuckled weakly to himself before turning and reaching to scratch Nagini under her jaw. That seemed to calm down the snake a little, at least. Morag, for her part, took the opening she was offered and jumped on his chest, but she didn’t stay still for long. Instead, she started crawling around him, poking his body as if she were trying to find something.
“You don’t have anything to tell them?” he asked none of them in particular. Through the bond though, the most vocal was Cheshire, who had simply sat, in her biggest form for some reason, in front of him and stared straight at him. All of them told him that they were there for him and everything else came second. It was… very moving, truly. Especially to him, who had had no one until he had them. Now, he had so much more, but if all else failed, he knew he could count on this group of four- five, he corrected, smiling as Friday did the magic equivalent of poking him and pouting. “You are all the best,” he commented, and both Cheshire and Nagini huffed, as if telling him that was obvious.
He guessed they weren’t wrong.
Their sort of one-sided conversation was interrupted when Cheshire turned sharply and she was flooded with fondness directed at Kunou. Evidently, his daughter had done something adorable and deserving of ice cream, he supposed. It’d be a terrible sacrifice to accompany her to get that, but Joshua had a feeling that he’d manage.
He resolutely ignored the way his familiars – with the exception of Friday – rolled their eyes at him.
‘You’re my new favorite, Friday,’ he thought to the living spell, smiling a little at the way she seemed to do the magic presence equivalent of a happy wiggle. She could be oddly expressive even though she didn’t even have a body. She was also getting even more so as time passed. Pondering that, he did his best to ignore the way his familiars were glaring at him.
“Something to share with the rest of us?” Gabriel asked and he turned to see that all five of the people that had accompanied him there were apparently done. The angel in question seemed a little happy for some reason, but he’d save the questions for later. “We said what we needed to,” she added, smiling a little wider at him, which caused him to smile right back at her.
“Okay,” he replied simply, glancing past them all towards the gravestones. “Do you guys mind if I-?”
“Go ahead,” Serafall interrupted, moving beside him and giving him the nudge he needed.
In a moment, he was already standing right there, reading his parent’s names as if the engravings were their faces. He didn’t say anything for a long few seconds though, instead just… thinking. He mused, like he did every so often, about what life could have been like if he were different before, or if the accident hadn’t happened.
Like it happened often those days though, he felt conflicted. Because he’d give almost anything to have his parents back, but… He also wouldn’t give up the family that he’d formed for himself in that world ever since waking up in that hotel. It was a difficult thought to have, really.
However, then and there…
“I miss you a lot,” he said, crouching and reaching to caress the top of the gravestones. “I hope you’re happy, wherever you are right now,” he mumbled, taking a deep breath in and smiling. “Because I’m happy over here too, even if I wish you were here to share all this with me,” he added, taking his hand back and pushing himself to a standing position again. “See you next year. I love you both.”
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
A bit of a sad chapter, even a bit of an angsty one, I guess, for some people. Personally, I don’t see it that way, but I could be wrong. For this reason, I can almost see some people complaining about the chapter. I think there was – very recently – a comment in FFN about how they couldn’t stand the angst over the parents and such.
I don’t agree, and I believe there’ll be people that are of the same opinion as much. However, I’m sure there’ll be more than just one person with this reviewer’s opinion. Alas, at this point you know I’ll just write whatever I – and the Muse, of course – feel like writing.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: Do you visit the cemetery often? I don’t. I don’t like doing it, I really don’t. But I do take time to myself often to mourn the death of my grandfather still. He was a second father for me growing up and, even almost two decades afterwards, I miss him a lot.
See you.
