AdrianKing
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Game of Monsters - 161
🕑 Added 2024-10-08 17:52:59 +0000 UTC‘Cause You Are Halfway In
“Really taking your time, eh, Josh?” Serafall asked and he leveled her with a weary stare as he continued drinking from his cup of tea.
She wasn’t wrong. After they’d dropped the – in their words rather obvious – bomb on him, Joshua had more or less just… shut down for a bit. He’d taken his cup of tea and remained silent, processing those news. Meanwhile, Yasaka and Serafall seemed happy to give him the time he needed up to that point, which he greatly appreciated.
Alas, it seemed that the Satan had decided enough was enough.
“Can you blame me?” he asked, setting down his cup and holding back a sigh. He’d sighed and groaned enough about the whole mess as it was. Time to actually start dealing with it, he supposed. “Don’t answer that,” he followed with when the devil seemed to be going to reply. “What does this even mean?”
“Well, when a man and a woman love each other very much-”
“What Serafall is trying to say,” Yasaka interrupted, rolling her eyes fondly while Joshua gave the devil an unimpressed look. “Is that it’s fairly obvious, despite Gabriel’s nature as an angel.”
‘That’s not the only concern here,’ Joshua wanted to say, but he was pretty sure anything he might want to say about adding someone else to their already rather odd relationship would be ignored. Still though, after pondering that for a moment, he decided to go for it anyway. Call him stupid, but he couldn’t wrap his mind around that and he needed to if he wanted to get his mind to let go of it.
“I don’t get it. How are you fine with… any of this. As I said, I’m happy with how things are, but it’s… odd, or am I the only one that thinks that?” he said, against his better judgment. It wasn’t that he wanted to ruin things for himself, but it was all so very… odd. It sounded too good to be true, so he wanted to make sure that it wasn’t.
So far, things had seemed mostly fine, but with that?
Something was going on…
Something had to be going on.
“You are the only one,” Yasaka answered with no hesitation nor problem whatsoever. “The mundane world works differently from ours, Joshua. Strong people, men and women alike, are coveted, especially those that don’t have enough powerful figures by their side. You are a free piece on the board and, as such, factions will want you. No, factions already want you. It’s only your rather isolationist nature that’s protected you from that.”
“You’re becoming more and more of a public figure though, so you should start noticing eventually,” Serafall followed up with. ‘Is this an unexpected side effect of throwing my weight around? Fuck,’ Joshua cursed in his mind. Not that he regretted it, considering it’d been kind of necessary so that people would take him seriously and not be problematic about his relationship with Yasaka and Serafall… but he wished someone would have told him he was going overboard, by the sound of things. “So, we have to stake our claim and as strongly as we can.”
“Much as it pains us, we aren’t enough. Not to fend off the attention of everyone that you will attract,” Yasaka continued, her shoulders dropping a bit and as she glanced down towards the cup of tea in her hands. She didn’t seem too down about that though, which was honestly baffling. Maybe they were hiding things? “I’m one of two leaders from a lower faction.”
“And I’m, admittedly, the second weakest of the four Satans. Arguments are made that I’m the weakest,” Serafall added, some bitterness bleeding through her voice. That wasn’t a very good comparison to make about her though, when her competition were Sirzechs Gremory and Ajuka Astaroth, both of which were Super Devils.
“That has been good enough for now, but it’s quickly not being the case anymore. Especially now that you’ve publicly displayed your power in an area that’s not even your specialty, such as is combat,” Yasaka took over once more and Joshua wondered if they’d rehearsed the whole thing. That brought up an… interesting thought. “People are already circling around you like sharks. I imagine if you so much as step out of our areas of influence, someone will approach you.”
“We are expecting someone to all but ambush you at House of Water at some point, actually, although Agnes might be trying her best to keep them out. She’s a mere association director though, she doesn’t have that much pull,” Serafall admitted to him.
“... The Egyptians are backing her up,” he replied, receiving the message through his connection with those deities. “I’m sure they can back me up, if it comes to that, right?”
“They probably would,” Yasaka agreed and Joshua almost relaxed. It was especially reassuring when he received a confirmation from the gods and goddesses peeking through their link. Alas, things weren’t that easy, apparently. “But is it worth it to strain your relationship with them? They’ve remained detached from the world’s affairs for a reason, I imagine.”
Directing his metaphorical gaze towards the Egyptian Pantheon, Joshua found himself disappointed and slightly betrayed when few deities even tried to deny what she was saying.
What was up with these faction?
“So… no options, huh?” he mumbled, leaning back and feeling defeated.
“Don’t act like having several beautiful women that love you in your life is a chore,” Serafall told him, poking his side with her magic staff and rolling her eyes. “We know you are worried, but we aren’t going anywhere. We are plenty happy with things as they are too, just to let you know,” she added, more affectionately.
“Indeed,” Yasaka agreed, giving him a soft smile. “We love you, Joshua. And Gabriel might too. She’s, at the very least, interested. We also… get along fairly well from what we gather as of late.” He wondered about that, Serafall in particular didn’t look overly pleased. And yet, she nodded all the same. “So, we talked and decided it wouldn’t hurt to give her a chance.”
Joshua narrowed his eyes at that, which both of them seemed to catch.
“If you agree, of course,” Serafall clarified quickly. “This doesn’t affect us nearly as much as you, so you have the final call. We just thought it’d be worth going over beforehand, since you… Well, this isn’t something you are comfortable with. We didn’t want to bring it up only to be for nothing,” she explained, sounding genuinely conflicted about the whole thing. “We might have… meddled more than we should though.”
It wasn’t often that Joshua got to see not one but both of them look so unsure as they did at that moment. Serafall and Yasaka usually looked in control of any situation. Even in moments when they were caught off guard, they always seemed at least confident, even when they weren’t. So, for them to be so open about it…
Joshua sighed.
“Ok, so… anything else I should know?” he asked, making both women share yet another look. Beside him, Cheshire jumped on the table and he promptly started petting her for some comfort… or maybe it was better to say that it was for some stability. No matter what, he knew Cheshire would be his rock, just like she had been since the very beginning.
“Hmm, I think we about summed it up? At least, from our side of things,” Serafall answered with a shrug. “You aren’t mad, are you?” she added, that uncertain expression returning.
“I don’t even know how I’m feeling,” he replied truthfully. He really didn’t know. He was kind of just… working on autopilot until he had time to go over things. As it was, he barely understood what was going on, really. All that he could feel was weary and confused. “How’d this whole thing even go with Gabriel… an angel?” he asked, running his fingers through his hair.
“We don’t know that much more than you on that front, to be honest,” Yasaka answered him this time. “Something to talk about with Gabriel, I imagine.”
“What we do know is that falling isn’t as simple as people think,” Serafall told him, which he already knew. Thinking about it, he might know more than the two of them, which was kind of new in regards to anything not related to defenses.
He had studied angels and fallen in depth for Project Ascension, after all.
There wasn’t all that much in regards to the actual transition from pure angel to fallen angel, but Joshua gathered that it was probably something angels didn’t share with… Well, anyone, really. From what he could piece together, it was all bound to the Seven Sins. However, it wasn’t what people thought, in the sense that they could experience the Sins. He had a hard time imagining a sapient being without those, to be honest, especially one that was able to feel them but had to hold them back entirely.
No, what angels had to avoid was being consumed by the Sins. They could experience them, but they couldn’t let them affect them. Their battle wasn’t to not feel them, but to not succumb to them. Feel them, but remain strong, that was what they needed to do through their lives.
“Jo~sh~” Serafall called, making him blink and looking at him, amusement clear on her expression. “Welcome back. Where did we lose you now?”
“Just thinking over what I know about angels,” he answered truthfully.
“So, you are considering it?” Yasaka asked and the only thing he could pick up from her was curiosity. However, it wasn’t like he was confident in reading either of them correctly. He wasn’t skilled enough to read a normal person with any accuracy, let alone those two.
Which is why the reassurance he got from Cheshire was so relieving.
“For a definition of considering,” Joshua answered, still unsure. “I think there’s a lot to talk about,” he mumbled, deflating where he sat.
[}-o-{]
“Suffering from success, huh?” Jeanne asked him, clearly very amused by his predicament.
He wondered if it had been a good idea to share what was going on with her but… Well, as annoying as she could be, she was still his sister. She was adopted though. Couldn’t she spare him with the infuriating parts of being siblings?
Apparently, no.
“I mean- That is- This must be- I- Lady Gabriel-”
“Calm down, Asia,” Joshua said, patting the nun’s head. She was probably a little caught off guard by the situation. He’d considered not telling her either, but he’d have felt bad for excluding her. Besides… with the world they lived in, it was probably better to have her informed of how things worked.
After all, ignorance was bliss, right up until it screwed you over.
“I’m just as confused as you,” he commented with tired amusement. “Things on this side of the world aren’t quite as I expected them to be,” he added, bringing his cup of tea to his lips. He was pretty sure he was drinking way more than usual. ‘Maybe I should switch to beer,’ he thought to himself, mentally shaking his head at Nephthys when the goddess offered him one such drink.
Maybe later though.
“... And over all these virtues put on love, which binds everyone together in perfect unity,” Asia mumbled after visibly gathering her wits, very obviously quoting something. That something being the bible, he supposed, or maybe some other teaching she’d received. “Maybe that’s what you are doing?” the girl asked him, big innocent eyes firmly on him.
It shone a light on him that left him feeling uncomfortable, not unlike Gabriel’s presence often did, if a little differently.
“You make it sound way nicer than it is,” Joshua answered. It sucked that he had to reject the compliment, but it was what it was. “I just like Serafall and Yasaka, and I’ve been lucky enough that they like me too… and that culture seems to agree with… whatever this is. Same with Gabriel, I guess, if things work out.”
“That makes it all the better, doesn’t it?” Asia argued, rather firmly at that, which was surprising. The nun was often too soft, but it seemed he’d finally found a point she was passionate about. “Love isn’t convenient, it just is,” she told him and that gave him pause.
“... I think you might be the smartest person in this room, Asia,” Joshua commented, making the young nun blush deeply, even if her lips pulled up into a pleased smile. “I can probably learn plenty from you.”
“I’m not nearly as smart as you, Joshua,” she replied bashfully, fidgeting with her hands. It was quite the adorable sight, to see her try and fail to act like she wasn’t happy with the compliment. It just made him want to double down.
“Certainly are in regards to some matters,” he settled for.
“You guys remember that I’m here, right?” Jeanne asked them, pouting like a little child.
“And we love you just the way you are, Jeanne,” he replied with, plastering a soft, kind smile on his face. It was on purpose that he didn’t mention anything in regards to her smarts.
“Very much,” Asia added, unaware of the critical damage she delivered, which only made it all the more hilarious, really. It was especially amusing to see Jeanne trying to come up with a response that wasn’t either an angry retort or pointing out the issue with their response to the nun.
He was pretty sure that Asia was just still a little distracted by what she’d been told, but that was masterful.
“Why are you being mean to me all of a sudden?” Jeanne whined.
“Because it’s fun,” Joshua answered instantly. He was very happy to be able to give Jeanne a taste of her own medicine. See how she likes dealing with the annoying sibling, huh?
Poor Asia just tilted her head, uncomprehending.
“See if I care about your love life, Josh,” Jeanne huffed, pouting and glaring at him. “That’s what you get for being stupid powerful. Thank goodness I’m not.”
“And that Yuuto’s not either, huh?” Joshua replied, getting a nod. “Then again, you did fight Arthur and Le Fay Pendragon. I think that counts for something, don’t you? And Yuuto’s showing off in that Young Devil tournament, isn’t he? Interesting times ahead…”
“Don’t even joke about it,” the girl hissed at him. “You can have all the love troubles, Josh.”
“You make it sound like I do it on purpose…”
“Jeanne is very strong though, that’s true. And so is Mr. Kiba,” Asia chimed in innocently, making Jeanne groan. The nun was on fire with the unknowing jabs and Joshua was there for it.
“Maybe it’s just a question of time,” Joshua commented idly. “You should prepare yourself.”
“Shut up,” Jeanne grumbled. “We were talking about you? How’d it end up like this?”
“No idea, but I’m glad for it,” he replied with a grin that turned wry. “I really don’t know what I’m gonna do, honestly.”
“Well, things seem to be working out by themselves,” Jeanne said, still looking a little miffed, but letting it go momentarily. “So… My advice as a person with no idea on the matter is to stop overthinking it. You might just make it worse. They know what they are doing, so trust them to take care of their side of things and you focus on yours.”
“That sounds like… surprisingly good advice.”
“What do you mean surprising?” she asked, her glare coming back with a vengeance. “You know what, I think I’ve been made fun of enough,” she decided with a huff, standing straight and going to leave.
“But we didn’t make fun of you,” Asia said, all innocence and confusion, which took some of the wind out of Jeanne’s sails. Alas, the swordswoman seemed to have decided to leave while she was… not as behind as she could be.
“I’m meeting with my friends in a bit anyway. We are gonna spend some time at the cafe,” she explained, trying to soften the punch for the nun. “I might go out with Yuuto later.”
“Sure. Don’t cause trouble for the staff,” he told her with a wave of his hand. “And be careful with your boyfriend, yeah? Asia and I aren’t ready for nieces or nephe-” he started calling as Jeanne went to leave before getting interrupted.
“Shut up!” she shouted, power walking out of the room… with her grumbling reaching them even after she was gone.
“Never gets old,” Joshua commented, an amused grin on his face.
“It’s a little funny, yes,” Asia said, making him blink and turn towards her. The nun, for her part, gave him a shy smile, her head a little down as she fidgeted with her hands. “I hope we didn’t upset Jeanne too much though. Maybe I should apologize.”
“You did that on purpose?” he asked, eyes wide. No way. Innocent little Asia, who felt bad when she watered a plant the smallest bit more than another had teased Jeanne on purpose? The world was going to end, but... “I’m so proud,” he said, wiping an imaginary tear before patting her head, drawing a pleased giggle from the nun.
“I heard that siblings do this kind of thing a lot,” Asia mumbled, as if trying to justify herself. “So, I thought I’d try.”
“It’s more about being more open and confident with one another, I think,” Joshua explained, not quite sure himself, since he’d been an only child for much of his life. “You are family, so, even if you annoy each other, nothing will change that. You’re always gonna be part of each other’s life, even if you end up being in bad terms. Few things can break a family apart, so there’s less worries… or something like that. I’m not sure, honestly. I could be entirely wrong.”
“I like that,” Asia replied to his little bout of rambling with. “Maybe also because we do it fondly? It’s a way to express closeness and also care, if indirectly.”
“That could be it too,” Joshua commented with a nod that the nun copied.
“Let all that you do be done in love,” she said with a beaming smile.
“Can you quote the entire bible?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Just the parts I like,” she answered, but Joshua had a feeling that meant either most of it or actually all of it.
[}-o-{]
[George Pickingill]
“Of course, sir,” he replied, softly but not nervously as he would once have spoken to clients. “I’ll look over the information you’ve sent me. After that, I’ll have to see if I have access to a spell that can work on this. Shouldn’t take me more than a week unless this turns out to be more complicated than I expect it to be,” he explained calmly, taking a deep breath in and silencing the voice at the back of his mind telling him that he was screwing up.
Recovery Magic wasn’t known for being fast, so asking for more time before even getting started wasn’t ideal. It was hard enough to get any jobs, let alone keeping them when people were too impatient to give him a chance. Especially when they could just reach for a normal Healing Magic user and get most jobs done faster.
He understood though, he truly did. George imagined it wasn’t easy to have a health problem or have a family member with a health problem and being told to wait. Alas, sometimes it was necessary, especially when Recovery Magic was about the only thing with access to a solution.
That didn’t stop people from asking for a lower price and generally being obnoxious about everything. The perils of a less popular magic branch, but George had grown up with those around him. He knew how to put up with it all, but that didn’t make them any less hurtful and frustrating.
“O-Of course,” he heard his client say and he could see, through the visual and auditory communication spell, how the man wanted to say something much less friendly. Instead, the noble forced a smile on his fat head and nodded to what George said. “Take all the time you need, Mr. Pickingill.”
Maybe it shouldn’t have been, but it felt like a victory that the guy even got his surname right, nevermind the polite “Mr.” being added first. When had been the last time someone had addressed him like he was someone when out on a job? Well, not that far in the past, but that was a very recent change in his life.
Yet another novelty brought to his life by Joshua Davis.
“If that’s all, sir,” George replied, years of having to be very polite pulling through despite things being much different then. It was difficult to get a big head when he was regularly met with a monster that made him look like an ant though… And being in a friend group with the likes of Meredith Ordinton didn’t help either. “I have an appointment in a few minutes, so I should be going.”
“Surely you can spare more time for me and my family, can’t you, Mr. Pickingill?” the man asked him and George had to hold back a much wider and much less kind smile. That was more like what he was used to, entitlement and impatience. It was almost nostalgic.
“I’m afraid not. This is important,” George said, not even trying to be subtle about the fact that this was much more important than the job he was discussing. Once upon a time, this would have been crazy, considering he cherished any and all opportunities to do something, anything at all, with his magic to try and make a name for himself. Now though… “I have classes.”
“C-Classes…” the noble repeated after him, whatever courage he’d managed quickly leaving him as his face paled and George almost could see him sweating. “Right. Of course. Nothing but the best for my family, after all, so keep improving yourself, Mr. Pickingill.”
‘Nice save,’ George thought sarcastically.
“I’ll contact you once I’ve cleared everything, sir. Until then…”
“Of course, Mr. Pickingill. I’ll await your call,” the noble said, in yet another change from what used to be the routine. Because George would have been the one having to adapt to the other’s timetable. If they said the next day, the next day it was, or he’d risk losing the job.
Well, dictating anything was still new, really.
So, with that call ended, George stood and stretched, looking around the communication room at House of Water. There were people around, if not many, probably doing more or less the same as him, at least some of them. Idly, from the corner of his eyes, he saw many of them glancing his way.
That’s right, George Pickingill was someone now.
He had no doubt that, soon, he’d have a reputation as strong as his namesake.
His family was on the map now, with even his relatives getting more attention. Jobs flowed towards them just like money and resources did. House Pickingill was on the up and up, and it was all because of him. Because it was George that had been in the right place, at the right time and with the right performance.
So, it was with his head up high that he moved through the halls of House of Water towards his class now that business was taken care of. The last thing he wanted was to be late to the one thing that had made everything go right for him. Besides, he was fairly proud of how well he’d done with the homework Davis had assigned them during the last class and he wanted to show off a little.
He might even do better than Levi, pipe dream as that was most of the time.
“George, I hope things are going well?” was the greeting he got once he walked into the classroom, his favorite teacher smiling at him. “You’re the first one here.”
“Everything’s been good, Professor Davis, and you?”
“Complicated, but such is life,” the man answered, not letting go of his rather relaxed grin despite his words. “You can take a seat if you want. I’ll finish here in a second,” Davis added from where he sat behind his deck going over something on a notebook.
“Pickingill,” was the second greeting he got and at that one George stiffened a little.
“Miss Phenex,” he replied with a nod. “I actually have something to report.”
“Oh?”
It was good that he’d managed to extor-haggle some nice pay from that noble from before, on top of some sweet, sweet favors. It’d go well into his debt pay funds… Even if he was unlikely to pay those in a lifetime. At least his descendants might have a chance of paying it off though… probably.
A man could dream.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
Well… I’m very nervous about that first part.
I’m trying something dangerous in the shape of trying to make sense of the harem culture that DxD has going for it. I know I probably shouldn’t, but I don’t like to make my characters act oddly for the sake of story and just saying “it’s the way it works here” doesn’t feel right. So I’m trying to go a little deeper in this rabbit hole without getting in over my dumb head.
Hopefully I didn’t mess things up.
Other than that, I feel like the chapter is fine, thankfully.
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: Anything in particular that you found neat or interesting in this story? (Is this me fishing for compliments? Yes, yes it is.)
See you.
Comments
desropter
That would be a realy interesting perspective =). Perhabs in combination with a flashback to the meeting with him? That was a very mean cliff hanger to end it on.
Joseph
I'm definitely a fan of adding the bubbly Angel to the mix. Plus if Josh gets with Gabriel then we definitely need a scene from Azazel's POV about it. The sheer SALT from that man would be enough to turn every lake into an ocean by sodium content alone haha
kksssss
Other stuff too, feeling a mix of not sure what exactly and also not fully certain about how to say it in words
