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Game of Monsters - 169
🕑 Added 2024-12-03 17:56:56 +0000 UTCThis Is My Life
Joshua’s lips twitched up as he contained both a smile and a chuckle.
Why? Well, the reason for that was rather simple really. Kunou had, by some miracle against the laws of the universe, decided to become even more adorable than she usually was. It was baffling and Joshua almost wanted to tinker some spells to check if there were some supernatural shenanigans going on to cause that. He really did think Kunou was quite possibly the most adorable thing on the face of the planet, but there had to be a limit, right?
Apparently, the answer was no, there was not.
What was she doing to cause such reality bending incident? She was… sitting on his lap and happily humming a song of her own making, swaying her body this and that way along the tune. She was also occasionally giggling to herself and finding other ways to express her all around happiness, which only added to Joshua’s incredibly good mood, really.
Cheshire walked on the table, looked at his daughter and meowed something.
“Of course I’m happy!” Kunou exclaimed, not at all bothered by the questioning. If anything, she seemed to get even happier. “Dad and you all moved in!” she said, as if that were the greatest thing in the world for her.
“That we did,” Jeanne agreed, sitting across the table. “I have to say, this place is a lot more fancy than our last place. It’ll take some getting used to,” his sister commented, taking in the room.
She wasn’t wrong about that though.
It had taken them some time to get everything sorted out to move to Yasaka’s place, on both sides of things. After all, Yasaka was still recovering from Khaos Brigade’s attack. Although, to be fair, that made things both easier and harder, so Joshua guessed it evened out in the end. Regardless, they’d had to prepare everything and he’d had to have some talks with his partners to make sure he wouldn’t do or say something that’d make things harder for everyone involved. After all, he was a faction’s champion while she was a faction leader herself. They might be in a relationship already, but living together was a different matter entirely, even if he’d been living in a house in her territory before.
Joshua couldn’t begin to understand all that political mess and he didn’t really care to, quite honestly. He’d just make sure he learned what he could and couldn’t do and call it a day. Everyone else could deal with that if they wanted to, but he’d stay as far away as he could get away with.
Something that was getting increasingly harder, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try.
“Shouldn’t you be working on that, Jeanne?” Asia asked, playing her best innocent act, even though Joshua was sure she was teasing their sister. She was good at that, he’d found. Even he, with all his extra sensing power, couldn’t be absolutely sure at any point if she was genuine or not when she did stuff like that.
“Asia, don’t remind me,” Jeanne whined, deflating on top of her homework. “This is hard,” she added, poking the book in front of her like it was a disgusting creature. “Math is evil.”
“Well, I guess Asia will inherit the cafe,” Joshua commented.
“I’ll do my best,” the nun said, a very cute determined look on her face.
“Hey!”
“I might need some help with it though.”
“I’ll talk with Sona. She owes me and she’ll owe me more eventually,” Joshua waved off her worries. After all, the Sitri heiress was going to get plenty of help from him to really start off on the right foot with her school, whenever that got off. If he could have her help him manage a simple business, then what good was all that favor, right?
It’d be fun to see her face when he asked her to do that after all the debt she’d likely feel she owed him.
Which was already fun, considering he’d do it anyway, since she was Serafall’s sister and somewhat of a friend.
“You two suck,” Jeanne grumbled. “Not like I need to study much anyway. I pass anyway.”
“And that’s how you end up with a terrible work ethic. God knows that happened to me,” Joshua said, receiving a bunch of flat stares from all three girls in the room with him and even his familiars. It made him roll his eyes. “Sure, I work a lot, but that’s because I found something that barely feels like work and nobody tests me on this shit other than myself. School was the bane of my existence.”
“And now you make others suffer,” Jeanne pointed out, amused.
“I try to spare them from as much of my suffering as I can. It’s why I don’t do written exams, just practical ones. If they know enough to make things work, that’s all I need,” Joshua told her with a roll of his eyes. “And there’s no useless trivia like history bits and such. I did so hate those.”
“Tell me about it,” Jeanne grumbled, glancing at another notebook to the side in a way that made Joshua think she would be dealing with just that kind of situation after she was done with Math. Sucked for her, but he was grateful that he was done with that part of his life.
“Better you than me,” Joshua said. “Your sacrifice will be forgotten,” he added with a mock salute.
“You suck, Josh.”
All he did was turn towards his work and hum to her, getting a huff in response. Not like he could do much of anything, with Kunou wiggling on his lap like the happy lil’ fox that she was. He could do something though, and he’d filled his quota of bullying Jeanne for the day… Even if he might take it up again later. For some reason though, Asia joined in on his daughter’s giggling, but that was just a plus. A happy family was a happy Joshua, after all.
“Less complaining and more doing homework,” he chided. Although, his voice was rather even as he did so, sounding like he was making an idle observation more than scolding her. “You’ll set a bad example for Kunou.”
“If she doesn’t-”
“No,” he denied before his daughter could even finish her sentence.
“But-”
“If you don’t do your homework, there won’t be any ice cream,” he told her flatly. Maybe he was getting better at not spoiling her? He wondered that for the whole second it took Kunou to turn her kit fox eyes at him. Immediately, he felt his resolve crumbling.
“Joshua-sama,” a voice said and he decided then and there to tell Yasaka that Fuyuko deserved a raise, if only for saving him from that. Maybe they could get the yuki-onna to intervene whenever he was about to fold like a cheap suit? That sounded like a good idea to him.
“Thanks, Fuyuko,” he replied. For once though, he wasn’t grateful for the tea she brought him… Not entirely, at least. “Back to working, you two,” he said, raising an eyebrow at Jeanne and Kunou, both of whom audibly complained.
They did as they were told though and this time there was no pleading look.
Yeah, he was definitely bringing the idea up with Yasaka.
Speaking of…
“Good to see you are all having fun,” the aforementioned Youkai leader said eventually, once she was finally done with all her work and was able to join them. Kunou had finished her homework already, thankfully. Joshua didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Yasaka’s disappointment for failing to have their daughter do that. Jeanne, however, was a different matter, but she was almost done.
And if she didn’t finish, she didn’t have the benefit of being cute enough to make him cave, unfortunately.
“We are,” Asia replied, backed up by Kunou, both of them engaged in a Project Duel match to pass the time. Asia was, predictably, using Church cards. He was surprised that she refused to use Angel cards, but he guessed it’d feel wrong for her?
She wasn’t great at the game, but what she lacked in terms of strategy, she made up for with enthusiasm. For lack of a better way to explain it, Joshua guessed she was kind of role playing the game. Everyone liked to play personalized decks and the cards he’d made kind of encouraged that, since that was something he’d always liked in card games. However, Asia seemed to take it a step further and played every card like it was all some kind of story in her head.
Thus, why she’d become Kunou’s favorite person to play against other than Joshua.
“Some more than others,” Joshua added, grinning at Jeanne, who groaned. In the corner of the room, Nagini hissed a laugh while Margalon sang a comforting trill flying above them, almost touching the ceiling. “So, we leaving already? The kids were getting a little out of hand.”
“Not a kid,” Kunou grumbled immediately, elbowing him.
“I need to prepare, but we can leave as soon as I’m done,” Yasaka said. ‘So, a good hour to go then,’ Joshua translated in his mind, not that it was unexpected. He wasn’t ready himself, but he knew the answer he’d get before he asked. If she had been ready, by some miracle the likes of which he couldn’t fathom how to cause even with his best spells, it would have been a matter of minutes for him to be ready himself.
“Got it,” he replied with a smile, turning to everyone else in the room. “Remember, kids, behave yourselves and don’t cause trouble for Kunou, Asia, Cheshire, Nagini, Morag or Margalo.”
“... Wait- You piece of-!” Jeanne started only to freeze under both Yasaka’s and Joshua’s raised eyebrows. Through his sensing, he even picked up on Kunou giving the girl her best innocent little kid eyes, knowing full well that she was just adding fuel to the fire. “You’re all so mean to me. What’d I do to you?”
“Be a great target?” Joshua asked.
“Behave poorly?” Asia tilted her head.
“Set a bad example,” Yasaka stated.
Cheshire meowed.
Nagini hissed.
Morag turned away.
Margalo perched on her shoulder and sang a comforting tune again.
“You all suck,” Jeanne mumbled, turning her gaze down to her still unfinished homework before groaning. The bird on her shoulder wouldn’t take that lying down, offended by the fact that she was included even though she’d been on her side… sort of. Thus… “Hey!” Jeanne squeaked when the bird pecked her.
“Overgrown kid aside,” Joshua started, ignoring his sister’s grumbling. “I’ll just finish this thing and then we can go, I guess,” he commented and Yasaka raised an eyebrow as a smile formed on her face. She obviously knew that he had to get ready himself. Even he wouldn’t go on a date with the clothes he was wearing. Well, he would, honestly, but he thought his partners deserved better than seeing him in clothes he’d wear any day.
Personally, he’d rather be comfortable, but oh well.
It was worth a few hours of wearing that if his partners were happy.
“I won’t take long,” Yasaka said, but she didn’t leave. Which made sense, since… “Someone’s happy,” she noticed, her smile widening as she looked at Kunou, understandably. “I take it you all moving here went well?”
“Everything’s ready, pretty sure. Unless we managed to forget something. I’ve set up all the spells we need and Asia’s already been checking your garden,” he replied. Poor nun was embarrassed… for some reason. He was still working on her being more confident and relaxed.
Progress was being made, of course, but sometimes she’d get all weird about things. Baby steps, he supposed, but it still made him sigh. They’d get there eventually or so he hoped.
“I hope you found it to your liking,” Yasaka commented and the nun immediately brightened up, which in turn made Joshua happy. From there, the blonde started rambling on about what she liked about the garden and Yasaka, to her credit, dutifully listened, even asking questions of what the nun thought would be a good idea for the future.
And then there was Joshua, who took advantage of the extra time to go back to tinkering, soon joined by Kunou, since her card partner was taken away by the plant conversation.
[}-o-{]
“You told me to remind you that this class shouldn’t get too long,” Ravel told him, walking by his side through the halls of House of Water. “Something about spending more time with the family?”
“Right,” he acknowledged with a nod. It’d suck to cut the class short, since that meant he’d have to rush things – and his students – a little. However, he didn’t want to neglect his family in favor of his students. Did that make him selfish? Probably, but he was fine with that. “Anything else I should know?”
“I’ll be talking to House of Water about the matter regarding Sitri’s school,” Ravel continued, checking on the notepad she had in her hands. “She said she’d talk with other association leaders and tell me how it went today. I’m sure it must have gone well,” the devil informed him, sounding completely sure of what she was saying. Joshua was kind of scared of what she’d do if Agnes failed, but he rather doubted that would happen.
The Director worked well, as far as he knew, so if something did happen, then she probably had her reasons. If that was the case, then Joshua would either deal with it, have someone else do so or switch plans. It wasn’t like this was a part that he was particularly attached to, in regards to helping Sona. He had much better ideas for how to help her that didn’t involve the magicians.
“Tell me how that goes when I’m done with the class, yeah?” he told Ravel, who quickly nodded. “And maybe you can start working on the other side of this little project if you have free time.”
“Yes?” the Phenex girl asked, perking up and looking at him like Kunou would when he said she they were going to get ice cream. He might have to watch out for her a little. She was entirely too young to be a workaholic… not that it was fine at any age, really.
“So, as I understand it, I have plenty of pull in the Rating Game side of devil society now,” he commented, leaving it at that. There was no need to try and voice his many, probably wrong thoughts on the matter. After all…
“Indeed. You're the one supplying the Phoenix Spells to help make the entire sport smoother,” Ravel replied, going into tutorial mode like she usually did when she thought he might not be aware of something. Entirely appreciated, Joshua wasn’t going to lie, since more often than not her assumption was right. “Most of the Rating Game community, or at least those that organize and play, are in your debt in some measure, if only because your creation has made things easier for them and improved the quality of the sport. After all, they have less to worry about with such a spell behind them and that means the Rating Games are much more… exciting for them and for the audience. This last point translates into more profit for the industry too.”
It was a little odd to hear her talk about the matter with such ease though. After all, the entire Phoenix Spell situation had involved a lot of strong-arming her family and basically stealing their schtick for profit. Yet, somehow, Ravel seemed completely fine with that. Now, Joshua wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but he was still allowed to make that observation and admit that it was weird.
“Right,” he repeated instead with a nod. “So, what I wanted was for you to pull on those strings to get Raters – go for the best ones you can get – to help out Sona with her school. Maybe she won’t have the best reputation regarding Rating Games even if she does well in the tournament she’s participating it, I forget the name-”
“Young Devil Rating Game Tournament,” she supplied.
“That’s a mouthful,” he commented flatly. It did get the point across, he supposed, but one would have thought… Eh, it didn’t matter. “Anyway, even if she does well, it can’t hurt to have actually reputable names in the scene backing her up and even helping her, right?”
“Are you… sure you want to do that, sir?” Ravel asked hesitantly, and he was surprised she even asked. He usually had to get the questions out of her when she didn’t agree with him. Thus, he raised his eyebrow and the Phenex took that as her cue to explain. “Raters are important people in devil society, especially the top ones. You could ask for a lot from them if you wanted to, or use this favor for something else.”
“I could,” he agreed with a nod. “But I don’t really see the point. I’m not very involved in devil matters beyond my friends,” he commented, shrugging. What did he care for the Raters? They might as well have been football players for all that he cared. The only thing he could think of to ask them for help with was Khaos Brigade and he didn’t have that kind of pull on them. His creation was great and all, but with all the limitations he’d put on their use, it wasn’t great enough.
Not that he regretted it, since he’d had to share credit with the Phenex and as great as Ravel was, he’d rather not give them that kind of power either.
“Do so anyway. I mean, Sona’s going to be Lady Sitri eventually, right?” he commented, not really caring, but he knew Ravel would accept easier if he pointed out things that she could agree with.
“That’s true, but still…”
“And her school, if it succeeds, will provide a lot of people that’ll owe me, as a backer of the institution. That’s Mid Class and High Class devils in the long run,” he added and this bit gave her pause. Devils liked to think long term, after all. Probably something to do with the fact that they were biologically immortal.
“That is true,” Ravel said then, and he could almost see her doing the mental math to see if it was a profitable endeavor. Maybe the Phenex would get involved too? He’d have to make sure they didn’t do so in a bad way, because he’d be damned if he was the reason Sona’s dream fell apart.
She’d be sad, after all.
Furthermore, Serafall would be sad.
Neither could happen.
[}-o-{]
Joshua smiled softly as he brought his beer up to his lips and took a gulp. The room felt very… cozy, homely, at that very moment. It was warm, his daughter was happy, Yasaka wasn’t working too hard, Jeanne and Asia talking and his familiars were… being little shits.
Morag thought she was being sneaky with the web she was weaving above him, but she was a sweetheart, so Joshua rather doubted that she’d do something dumb or mean. It was adorable that she thought she could get away with it being a secret though, considering their bond. Maybe she’d hyperfocused on her little piece and forgot to check on that? That just made it all the cuter.
Nagini, for her part, was trying to scare Raynare by staring at her without so much as twitching or blinking. The fallen was valiantly standing her ground… or sitting her ground? Either way, she wasn’t budging, but that was a lost battle already. Joshua could feel her mounting unease. Maybe he’d interfere? He was still kind of thinking it over.
His bird familiar was, for the moment, the reason Kunou was in a happy mood. The two of them were sharing ideas for songs that the little fox could try to turn into illusions. That could only end well, as far as Joshua was concerned.
And then there was his first familiar, Cheshire, sitting on his lap and peeking over the edge of the kitchen island and his notebook… and batting away Kuroka’s hand when the nekoshou tried to pet her. Because of course she was. His feline familiar didn’t like being away from him when she could stay around, which was most of the time, even if she had to deal with annoyances. She also apparently felt like her sisters and her didn’t spend enough time with him.
It made him feel bad, it really did, but his days were packed to the brim with things and his life was now full of people. He honestly didn’t know how his mother did it, being friends with half the town they lived in. He felt overwhelmed with all the people he knew and they weren’t that many… Although, he guessed having entirely too many projects to work on didn’t really help.
He was working on clearing his schedule of that though.
“What’s going on in that poor overworked head of yours’” Serafall asked and he turned to look at her. She had her head tilted and a curious expression directed his way, spatula in hand and a frilly, pink apron almost hiding her magical girl outfit. She looked…
“You look very cute,” he commented, the words coming out of his mouth before he could fully process them. Then again, at that point, he didn’t think about that kind of stuff much. After all, if just blurting his thoughts got expressions like the beaming, slightly flushed face that Serafall made then, then Joshua would continue to do so.
“That’s cheating,” she said, pointing at him with her spatula. “Answer the question, mister.”
“I was just thinking that the atmosphere is nice,” he replied with a soft smile on his face as his free hand started petting Cheshire. “Feels like home,” he added, his expression turning a little sad. Surprisingly though, he was only feeling the slightest bit nostalgic. It hurt, to remember his old home, but only a little, which wasn’t something he expected. “I love it,” he finished simply, looking around the room once more, because he didn’t think he had enough words to describe how he felt well, really.
He really had come a long way from that man, alone in a hotel room.
“You keep saying things like that,” Serafall mumbled and when he turned towards her, his eyebrows shot up at the coy look on her face. “What?” she asked with narrowed eyes. The effect was kind of ruined considering her face was all red.
“Nothing,” he answered, smiling widely. Obviously, she wasn’t happy with that response, but he wasn’t too concerned. He probably should have been, of course, considering she was cooking their meal, but she looked entirely too cute to really be scared of her. To think Serafall was one of the most feared women in the Underworld, maybe the world outright…
Joshua really had a skewed perception of the world.
So much so that even he noticed.
“Can’t wait for the food to be ready, by the way,” he continued, realizing that maybe he was pushing his luck too much. It was time to double down on the compliments, he decided. Sounded like the best course of action. “You’re really good, have I told you that?”
Serafall huffed then, turning away and going to check on the food.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, Josh,” she mumbled, and he could almost hear the pout on her face. Of course he knew she realized. That didn’t mean his plan wouldn’t work though, and they both knew it.
“Auntie Sera, do I have time for-?”
“No magic tinkering,” Serafall interrupted, turning and pointing her spatula at Kunou this time. Joshua empathized with his daughter though, he’d been on the receiving end of that for the same reason some time before. “You two do enough of that as it is,” the Satan added, and Joshua could only shrug when the little fox turned a pleading look his way.
‘... Maybe we can invite Gabriel next-’ he started thinking, only to get interrupted by a dark screen popping up.
[Quest Complete: Cure the Sleep Disease
Rewards:
20 levels to Healing Magic
20 levels to Bloodlust
Perk Updated: Demonic Element
New Perk: Greater Demonic Element
? ? ?]
‘Game… It’d be nice to get more screens without confusing shit, you know?’
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How’s it going?
Well, that happened. I had a somewhat different plan for this chapter, but we all know that doesn’t really matter. Surprisingly though, while things deviated quite a bit, they did so somewhat aligning with what I wanted, just kind of longer than I expected. And I didn’t expect that screen at the end, really.
But hey! A little bit going according to plan is better than nothing going according to plan, right? I’ll keep telling myself that.
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter though.
And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for you all, of course.
Important: I’m going on a vacation at the end of this week, as I announced some time ago in the place of patrons. Thus, I won’t be updating anything for a whole month. Wish me luck, guys, because pre-vacation times have not been kind to me.
Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ
Random Question: What are you gonna do after reading this? I just finished editing, so I’ll take a nap and then start writing the next chapter. I woke up entirely too early.
See you.
Comments
Francesco Paolacci
Random answer: I'm going to read other fan-fictions. The reading never ends :)
