The guy was a close friend, even if he was too busy to really show it those days.
The bloodline projects weren't that important at the moment, anyway. They were more like a shot in the dark. They might give him ideas that were useful, but they could do nothing for him too, far as he knew. If worse came to worse, he'd just have to clash with Zekram. He didn't want to, and Serafall would not be happy about it, but he definitely could do it if he needed to down the line. Besides, the woman would likely appreciate the Bael being gone once everything was said and done. God knew he'd heard her complain about him enough already.
The man was strong in a number of ways, but Joshua was no longer that nobody magician he'd once been.
"You know what, I'll make him wait anyway," Joshua decided, drawing a surprised look from Sairaorg. He decided that after a few too many seconds of indecision from his friend. Obviously, he needed to sort his thoughts on the matter, and Joshua wasn't about to put pressure on him. "He sprung this on me out of nowhere. He can play to my tune a little bit if he wants to work with me," he said as an explanation.
Either Sairaorg was more perceptive than he thought or he was a worse actor than he thought, because the guy almost immediately gave him a grateful look.
"Take your time to think it over, yeah?" he asked, giving his friend a shrug and a smile to show that it was no bother. Then he took another gulp of his drink and turned towards the training group of devils plus his sister. "You're doing great for yourself though, I have to say."
"... Doing well in the tournament was good for us… for me. That's why he wants this, I gather," Sairaorg said with a wry smile of his own.
'So much for switching subjects,' Joshua thought to himself. Although, to be fair, his friend had probably circled back on purpose, he supposed. He could be stubborn like that sometimes. Not that Joshua was one to talk, but still.
"It's weird," the devil commented idly, looking as if he were half-speaking to himself. His eyes unfocused like they were seeing something else other than what was in front of him. "Once, I'd have given everything to have the Power of Destruction. Now though… it feels strange to have the possibility after I got over it, after I learned to live with myself. And yet… that part of me wants to say yes, even though…"
As Joshua expected, complicated feelings on the matter. He wondered if that was for Sairaorg anything like how he felt about some of his skills and perks. They were, after all, things that he was pretty sure he couldn't have had access to without the system. Some of them, like magic and such, he'd have gotten anyway, but there were others that he definitely wouldn't have. And sometimes he felt like it cheapened him, like he hadn't earned that stuff, like it wasn't him… if that made any sense.
"... Do it," Sairaorg seemed to decide and he seemed to see Joshua's next words coming, because he sat straighter, his eyes suddenly determined. "Do it," he repeated, much more sure than before. "Having the Power of Destruction won't take away from me all the strength I earned on my own. It'll just give me something that I'd have had, in an ideal world… and it'll make me better than I'd have been, either way."
"If you're sure," he commented idly. In the privacy of his mind, Joshua envied that certainty his friend had. He wished he were as sure about things in his side.
"In a way, it's not different from the strength I got under your spells, isn't it?" Sairaorg commented, but Joshua got the impression that he was trying to convince himself, or at least a part of himself. "A little more drastic, yes," he admitted a moment later. "But it's still the same… and this way, I'll have more say in many matters, and I can help a friend. It's all wins, far as I can see," Sairaorg commented and Joshua couldn't help but smile.
He really had lucked out finding that particular devil way back when.
"Remind me to do something nice for you."
"Don't," Sairaorg replied with a laugh. "I think this can count as me paying back some of what you've done for me. Really, don't," he added and Joshua shook his head and after a moment, he raised his can of beer, with Sairaorg mimicking the motion with his glass.
Joshua really had friends that were too good for him.
[}-o-{]
[Shalba Beelzebub]
"We can't continue like this," Katerea whispered to him.
He wanted to tell her not to be weak. He wanted to tell her to stand proud, as they should. They were descendants of the original Satans. The blood of those legendary devils flowed through their veins. They even had the bloodlines that had helped them be as great as they'd been. They were strong, resilient.
And yet, Shalba knew that she was right.
They couldn't continue as they were.
"What can we do?" he asked, and therein lied the issue, didn't it? Because as they heard Grendel, the Evil Dragon himself, wail inside his own cell, they knew that they stood no chance. No amount of pride would make them deny reality that hard. At least, not for as long as they'd been there.
Davis had made sure that reality was as clear for them as he could possibly make it.
Very painfully at that.
Once, Shalba might have considered that thought pathetic. He still kind of did. However, with Cao Cao living his days like a walking corpse right beside them, it put some things into perspective. Because the man might have survived the extraction of his Sacred Gear, and he even seemed to have done so intact… but his mind? His mind hadn't recovered and he rather doubted it ever would.
He'd lost all that spirit he'd displayed while they were in Khaos Brigade. Once, he'd been prouder than them. Once, he'd had a reason to be too, Shalba would reluctantly admit in the privacy of his own mind. However, that was no longer the case. Cao Cao was only but a pitiful husk, an empty shell, of his former self. Davis might not have taken his soul, but he'd taken something almost as important, his will.
And he'd done that accidentally, which only made it worse.
"We could…" Katerea said, trailing off as a particularly loud and painful roar escaped Grendel. "We could do what he wants…"
"Offer him our bloodlines?" he hissed and the woman flinched and looked away. She meant that, she really did. "What separates us from the rabble? You want to give away what we've been fighting to have others recognize?"
And damn it all to the nine hells, why did that sound tempting?
"... Yes," Katerea said pitifully. "If we don't do something, we'll die here, Shalba," she told him and it was his turn to flinch. Because what could he say to that? There was no lying to himself, no matter how much he wanted to. "Either way, our bloodlines are done for," she added and how the hell had things come to that? "Either we die and our bloodlines are done… or we live and our bloodlines are done."
"Potentially live," he pointed out, but that hardly seemed to matter for the woman.
"... I'll do it," she decided then and he saw the decision solidify in her eyes. She really would do it. And seeing that made the last dregs of his stubborn pride crumble all the more. Because then he'd be alone, wouldn't he? Alone with Davis and his mad experiments, maybe for the remainder of his nigh immortal life. Or maybe until the man finally killed him for the sake of data.
And Shalba, he didn't know what to do.
That is, until the minutes passed – or maybe it was an hour? – and Davis turned towards them. He seemed to be half considering whatever he might have picked up from his "session" with Grendel. Behind him, they couldn't see the dragon, but there were still pained groans and gasps coming from his cell. Credit where credit was due, Shalba would have been whimpering and he knew it.
He probably would too, shortly.
"So-" Davis started, but that was as far as he got.
"I'll do it," Katerea said immediately, as if afraid the man would get started before she could. Or maybe she was eager to get it over with, before she changed her mind. "I'll let you analyze my bloodline," she added, trying to appear at least somewhat dignified. She failed though, but Shalba would commend the attempt either way.
"Well, that's rather… helpful of you," Davis replied, almost sounding disinterested. He did wear the smallest of smiles, but it grated on Shalba that he wasn't more… That his reaction was so lackluster. Katerea was right there, throwing away her pride, whatever might be left of it, and the man was just… That was it?
That's what their power amounted to in his eyes?
"I'm happy to hear that." Not happy enough, not by a long shot, but Shalba wasn't dumb enough to say that. "We can get started right away then. I can't wait to see what the Sea Serpent of the End has to offer," he said, but there was a tinge of mockery there that made Katerea wince.
So he knew, he knew that her bloodline… It was faulty, incomplete. His fellow descendant had only inherited a partial version of the Sea Serpent of the End. The much more impressive control of waters, the true Power of Seas… It wasn't available to her.
"Whenever you're ready," Davis said then, walking until he was standing right in front of Katerea's cell. "Just use it for whatever, we can get more into detail once I've gotten a good look at it," he added and, after a second, Shalba saw whatever was left of Katerea's resistance finish giving in as she started using her Power.
And he was left in his cell, realizing that he was going to follow her. Maybe as soon as she and Davis were done with that bout of experimentation. Or maybe one of the following days. He'd be rather proud of himself if he held on for months, but he doubted he'd manage. No, Shalba knew…
He was going to crumble.
And that made it all the more painful to sit there, waiting for the inevitable.
[}-o-{]
[Serafall Leviathan]
"If you really can give people devil bloodlines by the end of this…" she said, trailing off as she tried to process the implications. As the devil in charge of Internal Affairs, Sirzechs was the one that'd have a true idea of the scope of that. Serafall was kind of looking forward to how the man would react if he was told they could get back the true Beelzebub and Leviathan bloodlines.
To make that even more unbelievable, she was kind of underplaying things by saying "if". With Joshua, anything he set his mind to do was a matter of "when" rather than "if". It was as frightening as it was awe-inspiring, she'd admit. Realizing that the concept of impossibility might not apply to the man she was in a relationship with was… something.
"I gotta get there first, but maybe you guys can start preparing for that, I guess," Joshua commented idly, as if it were of no consequence. Sometimes it seemed he was aware of what he did, sometimes, but sometimes he just seemed to think it was all normal. Like breaking the laws of magic and reality that they'd taken as absolute was just casual stuff. Either way, he hardly ever seemed to care.
Serafall kind of wanted to pull him away from his books and kiss him.
That'd come later though, when they went out on their date. He was working and he was doing important stuff and she was supposed to be doing the same. Her paperwork sat in front of her on the table, long forgotten and she knew Sirzechs would sigh and complain, but… She could get- 'Who was it again?' she mused, turning to look at the sheet of paper laid before her.
The Norse again.
They weren't happy just with Joshua's classes, apparently. Or maybe it was because of those classes that they had decided to escalate. Either way, they wanted to meet him… but they were wrapping it all very nicely by inviting Serafall instead. They were making it seem like they were reaching out to devilkind in general, but they were subtly including Joshua in the whole affair and Serafall could see it clear as day.
"How do you feel about meeting the Norse?"
"Am I not already doing that every week?" Joshua asked, looking up and blinking at her. "Oh, you mean, the actual pantheon?" he added as his brilliant mind stopped thinking about magic and focused on what she said. Well, for a definition of stopped. Yasaka and Gabriel agreed with her when she said that his mind seemed to use magic tinkering as a way to function, by that point. "Do I have to?" was his final reaction to her words, and she giggled at his almost whining.
"I mean, no, but-"
"That's basically a yes," he interrupted, groaning and leaning back. She didn't try to correct him though. He wasn't wrong. Instead, Serafall gave him a helpless shrug. It wasn't like she enjoyed bringing him to gatherings that he hated. Sure, it was useful to have him there, especially because he never complained in the events and helped her a lot just by being there and flexing his divine connections and his ridiculous magic reserves, but she'd rather he didn't have to.
She'd much rather not torture her partner, after all.
Serafall was weird like that.
"If Loki's there though, I won't be held responsible for my actions," he said and she paused.
Because that reminded him of something. Several somethings, actually. There was no denying, after all, that some of Joshua's "findings" were suspicious. He'd sometimes come in with knowledge regarding Khaos Brigade that didn't quite fit, didn't quite add up with what they knew and could find themselves.
And yet, it seemed to be correct.
He was right about Hexennacht. He was right about the vampires. And now… Loki. Was he right about that too? Serafall wondered, but a part of her was already sure that he was. She didn't know how he did it. Neither did Yasaka nor Gabriel, but they hadn't asked him. The same way he didn't ask about a lot of the things they couldn't tell him.
However, that didn't make her any less curious. Was it faction stuff with the Egyptians? She doubted it. He wasn't nearly as involved with those as one would expect considering his position in the pantheon. But if it wasn't that, then what could it be? She didn't know and she sorely wanted to ask, but…
"Hm, we can plan for that, just in case, I suppose," she decided, because curious – and almost suspicious, if she hadn't known the man as well as she did – as she was, she trusted Joshua. So, just like he had trusted her with a lot of things, both important and not, she would trust him with that. "First though, I think we have a date to-"
"Did you finish with that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and she slumped as dramatically as she could. And she could be really dramatic, if she did say so herself. "That's what I thought," he added, but he seemed more amused and fond than anything. It made something in her feel all soft and tangled up, like a loose yarn ball or something like that, if that made any sense. "Come on, I'm almost done myself. Then we can just spend the rest of the night together and forget about all this," he told her, waving his hand at his own notebook and her paperwork.
And damn if that didn't sound tempting.
Wasn't she supposed to be the devil giving deals too good to be true? When had they gone through a role reversal? Maybe she was losing her touch? No way. She'd have to up her game, she decided, narrowing her eyes.
Joshua didn't know what was coming his way.
[}-o-{]
[Joshua Davis]
He really hadn't known what was coming his way.
"Why are you drinking coffee instead of tea?" Kunou asked and he almost groaned instead of giving a proper answer. Holding that initial reaction back, Joshua yawned and gave his daughter a weary look. "You're really tired," she pointed out and he almost sighed.
"You can say that again, kid," he replied, dutifully ignoring Serafall's giggling.
That woman would be the death of him.
Or Yasaka would.
Or both of them would.
He could only hope Gabriel wouldn't be like that.
"So, any plans? What classes do you have?"
"Dad, it's Sunday," Kunou pointed out and he blinked at her. Across the table, Jeanne burst into laughter while Asia seemed to be unsure where to look as her face turned bright red. Yasaka just shook her head at him. Serafall was being absolutely useless too, so he was on his own, he supposed. Even Gabriel seemed to be acting like nothing was going on.
Where was Ravel when he needed her?
Actually, where was Ravel?
He blinked as Cheshire supplied the answer with a thought. Right, he'd allowed her to take the day off and stay home. Apparently, she had something to discuss with her parents and what not. She'd been a bit secretive though, which made him think it was family business or something of the sort. He wasn't too curious, but it was odd that she had that after so long just… sticking around.
That thought felt wrong, but that was how it was.
Ravel had just become an almost permanent addition to their weird little family, he supposed. Joshua wasn't too sure how to feel about that. Sure, he was all too happy to have her there, but she did have a family. One that… at least sort of cared about her, or so he assumed. She'd never told him anything about any trouble she might have had with them, at least…
'She hasn't told me anything at all about them, actually, now that I think about it,' he mused and that felt like an answer in itself. All the same, however, he found himself curious… but she'd tell him if something important needed his attention. She was a smart girl… and if she didn't, then he'd surely notice. Either he would, or Cheshire would, or one of his partners would.
"Dad?" Kunou asked and he blinked. "Wow, you're really tired," she pointed out rather obviously and he shrugged helplessly. It wasn't like it was his fault. "I guess I can show you my new illusions later," she added, rather casually at that, but Joshua's brain finally decided to kick into gear and he narrowed his eyes.
Right.
He'd planned with Kunou to have a day for themselves, or at least a few hours. For old times' sake, they'd sit together and work on spells. He'd teach her a thing or two and she'd show off some of the things she'd made. Maybe go for ice cream and some other things along the way too. No way he was cancelling that. Not only would Kunou be sad – no matter how much she was trying to act like she wasn't and wouldn't be –, but Joshua himself would be anyway.
"Are you kidding? I can't wait," he told her and he smiled at the tentatively hopeful look on her face. "I gotta check on a few things, but we can go somewhere for lunch just the two of us and go from there, what do you say?"
"Really?!" she asked, already getting excited. It gave him the energy he'd been lacking. "Where do you think we should go? There was that place we went with mom, what was its name? The one with the really good sushi!"
"I think I remember something about that," he commented, a little amused to see her go from zero to a hundred in three seconds flat. Sometimes, his daughter reminded him entirely too much of himself. Other times, she acted nothing at all like him. "So, how about you go and leave everything ready. It might be Sunday, but I'm sure you have homework to do and we don't want to have that interrupt our day, do we?"
"Right, of course!" she exclaimed, dashing away and leaving half of her breakfast behind. Because of course she did. She'd gotten his worst traits, somehow, it seemed. Like absentmindedness.
"Morag, would you mind-?"
"I got it!" the spider-girl answered before he could even finish, grabbing a hold of Kunou's breakfast and dashing away after her sister…
And she forgot half of her breakfast while at it.
Because of course.
"There's like, three good things they could have gotten from me and they've avoided those like the plague, haven't they?" he asked, getting giggles from most everyone around the table. Although, Yasaka was looking a little intense even as she laughed. Right. She loved it when he was being all paternal with Kunou – almost exactly her words on the matter, those – and Joshua felt something akin to danger at the realization.
Because he kind of needed a bit to fully wake up, now that his Kunou-induced energy was leaving him.
"So, does anyone else have plans for the day?" he asked, turning towards the rest of the family. Interestingly, it was Asia the one that spoke up. The nun usually stayed rather silent unless directly addressed, after all, and even then she tended to shy away when there were too many people around unless she forgot they were there.
It seemed she was excited enough to ignore all that though.
"Karin said she found a new plant she wanted to show me," the nun said excitedly. Joshua wasn't one to care overly much about plants, unless it was for foci for his spells, but Asia had enough excitement to pass some of it to him, apparently. "I've only seen pictures of it, but it seemed so beautiful. And it's rare, so I'm really excited to see it!" the girl said and he grinned.
Yeah, he was happy for her.
And it did look beautiful, once she showed him one of said pictures
He couldn't wait to see it in her garden, because no way it wouldn't be there eventually.
[} Chapter End {]
Hey guys! How's it going?
Things happened and there was a slice of life involved too. Far as I'm concerned, a pretty good chapter, just because of that. There's some little parts here and there that I'm unsure about, but over all fine. I've been fairly happy with my writing as of late, I'm noticing…
Not sure if that's a good thing or not.
Like, sure, it sounds like a good thing. But every time I start thinking that my writing is good enough, I start wondering if I've lowered the bar in my head, or if I'm settling rather than pushing. I've said it a few times, but I think having low self-esteem kind of has helped me write better, because it pushes me to improve on what I do.
With any luck, I'm just overthinking things as usual.
As it is, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.
As always, if you can't wait until next week for the next chapter, or if you just feel like supporting my writing, there's up to three new chapters in my Patreon (linked below).
Random Question: Which is your favorite DxD fanfiction? If it's GoM – crazy people, I see you –, then which is your second favorite? I feel like it's been a long time since I read any fanfiction in this fandom and that's kind of ironic, isn't it? I could use some recs, I guess.