Chapter 19-When Everything's Alright

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.

When Everything's Alright

"That went better than expected," Jeanne commented, deflating on her seat as Kuisha teleported away. Joshua found himself agreeing completely, sighing in relief. For the moment, he ignored the screen that floated next to his head.

Despite all that he'd gathered from books and Jeanne's voices, he couldn't help but expect an eldritch abomination of some kind to appear from the flier. That, or someone that would manipulate the both of them into giving up their souls. A master of deception that would play them like toys on the palm of their hands and ruin their whole lives.

Instead, he'd gotten a young woman that had been professional and agreeable, even friendly.

'The world keeps on getting weirder and weirder,' Joshau mused as he slumped on his seat, suddenly feeling like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. 'Still...'

"Let's hope this ended as well as we think it did," He voiced. Maybe it was the paranoid side that he'd started showing as of late, but Joshua was pretty sure that a deal with a Devil wasn't supposed to be as simple as the one they'd just made. Especially with as serious as dealing with a whole magical group was.

"The voices say it's likely the case, unless she was a really good actress," Jeanne told him reassuringly. 'The problem is that we don't know about that last part,' He thought to himself before feeling Cheshire rubbing her head against his hand on the table. 'Right, everything's fine.' "What now?" The girl added then, looking unsure.

Joshua understood. What were they supposed to do now? Khaos Brigade's threat would probably hang over their heads for a while still, but after that? He didn't know. He'd been preparing for something to go wrong ever since the Hunter, so...

"Keep training and relax, I guess," He decided, a soft smile spreading over his face. They wouldn't be able to stop training, probably ever, because they both knew that Khaos Brigade wasn't the only bad thing in the world. However, without a direct, immediate threat to deal with, they could afford a measure of calm.

"I can get behind the relax part," Jeanne agreed with a sigh and a tired smile. "Does that mean no more resistance training?" She asked hopefully. After a moment, she got her answer in the form of a silence and an apologetic half-smile.

"We don't know when we'll need it. It's best to be prepared. Especially against poison, since we don't know when it could be used against us without us knowing a thing," He explained apologetically. Seeing her deflate, resigned, made him feel bad, it really did, but their situation was as it was. There were no guarantees of any kind and they had to act accordingly.

With a sigh, he started petting Cheshire and finally turned towards the screen floating on the side of his vision, pulling it back in front of himself.

[Quest Complete: Make your first deal with a Devil

Rewards:

+3 Magic Levels

+3 Random Magic Levels]

'So, three more for my Magic stat? That's neat, I guess. What does it mean with Random Magic?' Joshua wondered before he started pulling up some skills, having a hunch of what it was referring to.

Sure enough, Healing Magic had gained three levels. Of all three Magic skills he had, he just had to gain some for the one he didn't even have spells for. Just his luck, he supposed.

'Maybe I can make another deal to get some spells from that branch?' He wondered. He had barely even considered the idea, really. After all, they had Jeanne's sword for healing. One could argue that they could need to heal mid-battle at some point, but if they needed that, chances were that a healing spell wouldn't make that much of a difference. It would be nice to have another option besides relying on Jeanne though, just in case.

"Can you go and tell the others that we are done here, that they can come now?" Joshua asked Cheshire, feeling so drained that he didn't even want to stand up from his chair. With that simple command, the cat ran up the stairs to the room where he'd set Morag and Nagini to wait. He'd chosen a different room from the one he'd found their glass cages that fateful day though.

"Do you want a cup of tea?" Joshua heard Jeanne ask and he turned towards her. How bad did he look when she offered that while showing so much concern in her expression? Pretty bad, he supposed. He just felt so tired all of a sudden.

"Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks, Jeanne," He accepted tiredly.

"Don't mention it," She waved off, a small smile appearing on her face telling him that he'd made the right choice.

As she left, Joshua looked around the house for a moment. Through all the work, and even the months prior, he'd often considered just moving to live in that place. After all, it was way bigger than any apartment he could get for them, at least with the income they had. It was also so out of the way that he could probably make it invisible to mundane people. He had to wonder how that would go though and that brought some doubts.

The biggest deterrent, however, were his experiences on his first… visit to the house, that was for sure.

'Maybe I can get a place through a deal?' He wondered.

Then he paused.

'Why am I even thinking about making more deals? Now I'm planning for deals for everything. What the hell?' Joshua thought to himself. His eyes then moved towards the flier sitting on the table. 'Does it have a compulsion of some kind? Or am I just realizing how convenient this could be if there are really no problems with the deals?' He hoped it was just the latter, but if it was the former… 'If there's something to counter mind magic, which is surely a thing here, I really need to get my hands on that.'

He was snapped from his thoughts as Cheshire jumped on the table once more. On top of her head stood Morag, evidently having decided that riding the cat was much faster than coming by herself. A moment later, he felt Nagini start to slither her way up his leg.

With a content smile, he leaned back on his chair, allowed himself to relax and waited for Jeanne.

After what felt like ages, they had no imminent threat to their lives, better to enjoy it while it lasted.

[}-o-{]

[Sairaorg Bael]

"Kuisha?" He asked, blinking as his Queen placed a map on his desk. Looking it over, he recognized it as one of the cities in his territory they'd had their familiars look for magicians to make deals with and hopefully contract. The Bael had little interest in the first part, but a contract with magicians had the potential to help the magic users in his peerage get stronger and Sairaorg would be damned if he didn't give them all the tools to improve.

"These are locations where I suspect Khaos Brigade is at," Kuisha replied, looking intently at him. He sat up straight and looked at the map once more, this time actually studying it.

"How certain are you?" He asked, frowning at the piece of paper.

"Pretty certain, since the man I made a deal with called on us to help him deal with Khaos Brigade. He didn't even know we were after them," Kuisha explained.

"That so?" Sairaorg asked, his eyes still locked on the map, his mind running through ways to deal with these people.

"Indeed. And he seems like a remarkable magician too, self-taught, which is rarer," His Queen continued informing him.

That was interesting enough to get his focus back on her instead of the paper on his desk. Self-taught magicians rarely reached far before either dying or being taken into one of the Associations. After all, theirs was a dangerous world to live in when one was involved in the supernatural, even more so when one barely knew what they were doing. That Kuisha said he was "remarkable" only added to this individual's potential, since his Queen wasn't exactly easy to impress.

"Tell me more about him," Sairaorg urged with a wave of his hand.

"Seems like he's got his hands on Ward Magic and, more specifically, wardstones to go with that," She started.

That was surprising in its own right. Wardstones weren't exactly cheap. Nothing for a Devil such as himself, disgraced as he was for his lack of the family Trait, but for a normal human? Even if said human was rich, even finding someone to buy them from would be hard if they didn't have connections of some kind, which self-taught magicians usually didn't have.

"He'd made a ward array specifically tied to Devils for the meeting, apparently," Kuisha continued. "On top of some other wards that I guess are to either hide or protect the location, maybe some monitoring wards too. I asked him to activate them on me to see how good he was."

In any other situation, Sairaorg would have been worried. Good as his Queen was, there was no telling when they would meet someone stronger, since he knew they were far from being the strongest people in the world. The last thing he wanted was for one of his peerage members to be in danger, at least while alone.

The Bael had to remind himself that this was a self-taught magician. Remarkable or not, it was unlikely that the human would have enough power to threaten Kuisha of all people.

"At first they weren't much, but it didn't take long for the Draining wards to power up the Weighing and Weakening wards to considerable levels." That made Sairaorg's eyebrows raise. "Considerable" for Kuisha would be quite something in human equivalents.

However, that wasn't all. Weighing and Weakening wards… 'Hmm, there's an idea,' He mused, his mind racing as a thought formed. After all, he'd already been considering similar plans when he found out about one of his peerage member's Sacred Gear, but it had proved to have limitations that made such a method less than ideal.

"So, you think he's a good option for a contract with someone?" The Bael asked after taking in that information.

"I believe so, yes," Kuisha nodded. "That's why I offered to pay for the information on Khaos Brigade instead of just taking it as part of the deal to take care of them for him."

"Hm, and what shall we give him?"

"He asked for books on neutral battle magic and wardstones," Kuisha answered and he felt a grin form on his face. He had a feeling that he would like this human. Judging by his Queen's amused expression, she agreed with him.

An enemy of Khaos Brigade and someone that wanted to improve themselves. Yes, this human was sounding better and better as he heard about him. His wards only added to that, really.

"Sounds like your deal went better than expected," He mused. "I don't believe you've said the name of this human though," He added, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"That's an understatement and no, I haven't," Kuisha nodded. "He said his name was Joshua. He had someone with him too, a girl named Jeanne. A relative, is my guess. She didn't speak at all though. Either she is learning under him and was there to watch, or she was more of a battler and was there as back up in case a fight started."

That was amusing and somewhat annoying. Amusing because humans would be hard pressed to stand in the way of his Queen, especially ones that seemed to be somewhat disconnected from the supernatural, despite being inhabitants of it. Annoying because each time they had to go make a deal only to be met with suspicion and fear got more tiresome.

He understood, really he did. After all, they had good reason to act that way, what with their culture and Devilkind's old way of dealing, but even people that dealt with him more than once continued to act that way for Satan's sake. It had been one of the reasons that had made him decide to just make deals to search for a magician to contract and leave it at that.

As much as deals made him stronger, they weren't good enough to deal with that bother.

He got more out of simple training anyway.

"That's enough of that, I suppose. For now though, we have something else to focus on," Sairaorg said, his eyes turning back to the map and his expression turning to apathy.

Khaos Brigade had made an enemy of him when they attacked one of his prospects for peerage members. They killed a friend of his. Fortunately, at least Regulus had survived them, but Sairaorg wouldn't let such a thing stand.

No, he might not have the Power of Destruction but they would be destroyed anyway.

Khaos Brigade would learn not to mess in Sairaorg Bael's territory. How they had gotten inside said territory in the first place, more than once at that, he didn't know. He would find out though.

No one would get in his way.

[}-o-{]

A week passed after their deal and Joshua had yet to hear from Kuisha or any other Devil. That was to be expected, he supposed, since he didn't think they'd be able to make Khaos Brigade disappear in just a day or anything like that. The only problem he had with the delay was that Jeanne and him had a few more close calls with people looking for them.

It was fortunate that his growing Warding skill and spells meant that his wards covered more and more ground as time passed. It wasn't enough to think they could elude Khaos forever, else he wouldn't even have made the deal to begin with, but it was enough for their hiding zones to fool their persuers for the time being. That and changing the paths they followed often were the only thing they had going for themselves, which wasn't enough for Joshua, that was for sure.

Fortunately, they hadn't heard or felt anyone besides themselves for a few days now. That was Joshua's only clue that his deal was actually working. Still, he didn't want to let his guard down until the Devils contacted him and told him that they had dealt with the problem. Even then, he doubted he would fully relax for a while, just in case.

As it was, Jeanne and he had decided to forgo training for a day. Not only would it help them get some rest but it would also mess with whoever was looking for them, if they were still out there. Thus, they had taken a small trip around the city, gone shopping around places that were under his Concealing Wards and then stopped at a cafe, other than the one they worked in, that is.

It had been a nice change of pace, one that Jeanne had demanded happened more often. Joshua would have been hard pressed to say no to her, even if he had wanted to. He hadn't, however, since he wanted to find some more joy out of life. It was something he was becoming aware of ever since he'd taken a moment to just draw a few weeks back.

From there, they had gone back to the apartment, where Jeanne was continuing to work on her Storage Spell. She had reached the point where she could draw a sword from one of her circles, but she wanted to have some more space for things that could be needed. She didn't want to rely on Joshua to store everything in case he wasn't around if needed. He fully agreed with that sentiment and, thus, tried to help her out as much as possible.

For the most part though, Jeanne worked on her own after she had gotten the spell to work, and he was fine with that. That meant he had more time to work on his own skills and spells, which he did. In hopes of keeping with the relaxing theme of that day, he settled for just studying and meditating for the rest of the day instead of doing something more strenuous.

As it was, he was sitting at the table with his eyes closed. While he meditated though, he kept using Magic Sense. Joshua tried to use that skill as much as possible and it was becoming increasingly easier to keep it up. He hoped at some point it would become second nature to have it activated and he wouldn't even need to think about it to be aware of magic around him.

As it was, he could now easily feel his familiars… which wasn't much of a feat, since they were all literally on him. Cheshire was curled up on his lap, Nagini was coiled around his neck, resting on his shoulders, and Morag roamed on his head, occasionally pulling his hair. A bit more challenging, but not much, was sensing Jeanne, who was currently in the study by herself.

He'd also started to feel the wardstones, which made him wonder if that's how Kuisha had known there were wards around the Hunter's house. That was unlikely though, since he could also sense the creations of Jeanne's Sacred Gear, the revolver and even the still mysterious charm. This discovery and subsequent questions though, made Joshua wonder if maybe he would be able to feel Wards later on.

With a sigh, he opened his eyes, interrupting his mediation and trying to keep his sensing going even if he wasn't very successful. He blinked at the screen before him before his eyes widened. The first surprise was that there were three of them. Two of them could happen, if not often. After all, sometimes he would level both skills roughly at the same time and only notice after opening his eyes, but... it wasn't about both Meditation and Magic Sense leveling at the same time.

[Meditation has gone up a level.]

[Skill Unlocked: Mind Resistance]

[Skill Updated: Mind Resistance]

'Mind Resistance,' He called instantly, making the screens disappear and a new one flash in front of his face.

[Mind Resistance – Lvl 10/100

Determines the user's ability to withstand attacks to the mind.

Decreases the effectiveness of attacks to the mind by 10%.]

A disbelieving chuckle escaped his mouth as he looked at the skill. 'It instantly gained ten levels? Is that because Meditation reached level 25?' Joshua wondered, before pulling up that skill screen too.

[Meditation - Lvl 25/100

Determines the user's ability to connect with his inner energies.

Increases stamina, health and magic regeneration by 25% while actively meditating.

Increases stamina, health and magic regeneration by 2.5% passively.]

'I guess it's likely that's the reason,' He mused thoughtfully as he looked between them. 'Regardless, it's an amazing skill to have, especially if it comes already leveled like this, since I don't even know how I would go about training tha-' Then he blinked before almost smacking himself in the head.

'Jeanne,' He realized exasperatedly. 'Jeanne could make a sword that affects the mind and I could train this. It sounds like something much more important than even Poison Resistance.'

He'd definitely be talking with the girl about that later.

"For now," He started out loud, dismissing the screens and reaching with one hand to pet Cheshire. "Who wants to pose for a bit?" He got his answer in the shape of Morag pulling at his hair.

Of all three of his familiars, she was the one that liked posing for his drawings the most. Nagini would do it, but she mostly just prefered to rest coiled onto something more than actually posing. Cheshire would occasionally agree too, but she didn't like staying still for long periods very much if she wasn't resting, really.

Morag though, she reveled on that. She would actively look to put on an artistic view for him. Sometimes she would make a web specially for a drawing in this or that way. The little spider would even gladly look for a location and all. Thus, Morag had become his favorite model.

He blinked when Nagini hissed something at him and gave his neck a light squeeze.

"Huh..." He turned to her, scratching under the snake's jaw. "You want to join too? Well, I'm sure we can find something that makes you both stand out."

And so, the search for a place and a pose started and the training was momentarily pushed to the side.

Or, that was the plan, at least.

[Perk Acquired: Minor Blessing of ####]

The screen made him pause. At this point in his life, Joshua was quite used to the pop ups, really. However, this one had no reason to be there whatsoever, and that was the first reason for his surprise. The second, however, was the most important.

This one was different from the usual, much like the shiny one he'd received with Jeanne's Quest and the Holy Element Perk. This time though, it was a tan color, much like the slabs of stone from ancient Egypt. There was a reason why he made that specific comparison too.

There was a symbol in the background of the screen. He didn't remember the exact name of it, but he knew it was Egyptian. A cross of some kind with a teardrop shape on the top part.

Blinking at it for a moment, he called for that Perk's information, hoping for some more detailed information about this strange being that had apparently blessed him. With that censored bit though, Joshua had to wonder if it was the same that had given him the lotus Charm.

[Minor Blessing of ####

Increases the capability of the user to connect with Animals.]

'Well, that's not the information I wanted, but-' Joshua's thoughts paused then, as he stared at that description. 'Animals? Why is that written with capital A? What does it mean with "potential to connect with-"... Wait… That's not what I think it is… is it?... Bonds?' He called after a moment, both nervous and eager.

[Bond

Cheshire - 10/25

Determines the user's bond closeness with Cheshire.

Nagini - 10/25

Determines the user's bond closeness with Nagini.

Morag - 10/25

Determines the user's bond closeness with Morag.]

'Those numbers can change?' He asked himself, eyes wide in disbelief.

[}-o-{]

[Deity]

Yes, that should be enough of a reward.

That's what he thought, at least. Joshua Davis was proving to be very entertaining to watch, after all. And the energies that surrounded him, they weren't diminishing. Stranger still, they seemed to be growing. Especially the one regarding the Animals, which made some sense, he supposed. Saving wasn't left behind though, which was strange. He hadn't saved anyone for a while so… where did that massive amount of Salvation energy come from?

The Deity didn't know, but he was very curious.

Joshua Davis was proving to be an interesting human. Especially now though. That deal he'd made with the Devils was very intriguing. Especially how it made his Hunt energy spike, which wasn't surprising but was impressive. After all, hunting wasn't just chasing prey, no. It could be everything, from that, to fishing, to setting up traps.

Or, in this case, making someone else do the hunting for one.

The fact that he had gone against Khaos Brigade was a plus, that was for sure. Every pantheon was hearing whispers about the organization here and there, few of them good, if any at all. The problem was that gods weren't supposed to interfere unless they or their pantheons were directly attacked, otherwise there would be chaos on Earth. They could actually do very little when unprovoked…

Now, if someone - say, someone named Joshua, for example - decided to target them, and some deity just so happened to decide to give a little blessing to them. Well, that was just a fortunate coincidence, wasn't it? Not that it would make things different, really, since the job was basically done already.

That Bael kid had a stupidly strong group, it seemed.

The Deity's prefered human seemed to have made a rather powerful ally without even trying. Joshua kept getting more and more interesting as time passed. The Deity could hardly wait to see what he would do next. Although, maybe he could push things here and there…

Something to think about.

[} Chapter End {]