Chapter 7-Back to Life

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.

Back to Life

"I don't think I can do this, girl," Joshua mumbled as he sat stiffly on the driver's seat of the Hunter's car. Cheshire, meanwhile, had taken her place on the passenger's seat because the young man knew he wouldn't be able to drive without a calming presence. Evidently, he was right, since he couldn't bring himself to drive with one.

With a groan, he leaned forward, resting his forehead against the steering wheel. 'And I don't even have my phone to try and excuse my absence with Peter,' Joshua thought annoyed. It was surreal, in a way. To be worried about something as normal as a job in a cafe when barely hours ago his life had been in danger. 'Maybe I'm focusing on the mundane things to avoid everything else.'

The Hunter.

The Spider.

The Snake.

The Items.

The Charm.

'Yeah… lots of things to try and ignore,' He thought wryly. Not all of them were bad, really. The items and books he had found were great. They would help him a long way with his plans to improve his magic and maybe his chances of survival should someone like the Hunter come for him.

The animals weren't all that bad either, really. Despite the spider almost becoming his executor, it wasn't like the arachnid had been in more control of the situation than he had been. 'I still can't believe a Bond formed with a fucking spider of all things though,' Joshua mused with another groan. A cat made some sense, in his mind at least. A snake… was a bit of a stretch, but not too much… maybe. But a spider? That was pushing it a little too much. Still, the Bond was there, and it had started to be a reassurance, just like it had been with Cheshire.

The Charm… Joshua didn't even want to think about it, if he was honest with himself. He didn't even know what to think about it either. It could be a bad thing or a good thing, but he wouldn't know, since Appraisal didn't tell him anything besides it being a Charm. The young man didn't even have the slightest clue what the 'of ####' could be. The censored part could be someone or something or even someplace. It was more confusing than anything else. Even Cheshire didn't know what to do with the thing, when he asked for her opinion. So he left the thing lying on the center of the table where it had appeared and resolved to not touch it until he had more information. And even that could be dangerous, for all he knew.

"Fuck. This is why I didn't want to think about these," Joshua groaned for the third time. Cheshire apparently decided, at that moment, that if he wasn't going to actually drive, she would sit on his lap. And he was, if he was honest with himself, quite glad that she did. Her mere presence was calming, but when she rubbed herself against him or when she sat on him she was even more so. 'Kind of like a security blanket,' He thought with a grin as he started petting the cat.

Deciding to push supernatural things out of his mind again, Joshua focused on his more immediate and mundane problem. His job. He might be unable to go, even if he wanted to. He also couldn't call either. The Hunter had a phone, obviously, but Joshua didn't have Peter's number memorized which made that phone useless. There was also the chance that he could bullshit his way through the absence for a day, but that was only if he could get back to the city the day after, which wasn't a guarantee.

"Damn, I liked that job," Joshua complained lightly with a bitter smile, his eyes looking down at Cheshire's. "It was… calm… and not as stressful as I thought dealing with people would be."

His familiar let out a soft purr as he continued petting her.

"And it was… normal… but I guess that word hasn't applied to me for a while, has it?" He continued his musings. "But… I can't just… leave, can it? I have to work somewhere, to get money for food and such. I need to… right?"

Cheshire decided then to put her paws on his chest and rub her head against his chin. Joshua, for his part, smiled weakly.

"I… Am I just… clinging to my normal life?" He asked then. This time, the meow he received almost had meaning in his ears. 'Yes, but that's fine,' He could almost hear. And while it would have been nice to have so good an understanding with his familiar, he was sure it was his own mind telling him that.

"What should I do then?" He asked and, this time, neither his familiar nor his mind had an answer. Then followed the silence. And with the silence came the voice. The Hunter, whispering things in his ear. He felt his hands dirty, even if he knew they were perfectly clean.

Joshua smacked his head against the steering wheel while Cheshire let out a surprised noise.

"Fuck it all," The young man growled as he tried to disperse the voice in his head. Then, he leaned back and looked at his hands, they were clean. He knew they were.

He took a deep breath in and closed his eyes.

"Fuck it all," Joshua repeated, not even sure why he was even saying that. "He tried to kill me," He said then, and nodded, as if he was making a point and conceding it himself. "The accident wasn't my fault. It wasn't anyone's fault as far as I'm aware," He continued with another nod. "It was bad luck. Just that."

"Cheshire," He said then, looking down at his familiar, who was staring at him with her amber eyes. "Stay on my lap, would you, girl?" He asked, pleading to her. She gave a meow that he knew was affirmative and he nodded again.

One of his hands moved to the wheel and the other towards the car keys he had found hanging next to the front door. Steeling himself, he kept his breathing long and steady. His mind conjured the memories of his parent's lessons and he followed, as if they had been there with him, whispering the instructions.

Then, Joshua turned the car on.

[}-o-{]

"I can't believe I managed to get here," Joshua said as he sat in a park near the cafe. He still had a few minutes before he had to get to work since he had left very early and the Hunter's house wasn't quite as far as it would seem. It was just outside the city, actually. Something that Joshua was quite grateful for since it allowed him to get to his apartment, shower and change clothes.

He still felt faint though, after having to drive. Joshua was in awe of the fact that he had managed to drive at all, let alone drive well. But he wouldn't look into that too much and so he had spent the last half an hour or so calming himself and also psyching himself for a day of work were he would have to try and act as normal as possible, all while remembering what had gone on through the night and the memories brought up by the trip in the car. Not to mention the thing that had almost given him a heart attack.

[Piloting

Car - Lvl 1/50

Determines the user's ability to pilot a car.]

'I really would have preferred it if this appeared after stopping the car, and not in the middle of the road,' He grumbled to himself before turning to his companion.

"How I wish you could come with me, girl," He told Cheshire, who probably would have to stay outside the cafe until he was done with work. Steeling his resolve for what seemed the hundredth time that day, Joshua made his way to the cafe.

"You look like shit," Was the first thing Peter told him once he walked through the doors.

"I feel like shit," Joshua admitted easily with a grimace. "I… didn't have a good night," 'Understatement of the century,' He added in his mind.

"Hmmm..." The owner hummed as he looked at the young man thoughtfully. Joshua felt himself grown worried under the man's stare. "You'll stick to the kitchen, we can't have you wait tables with that face."

"Thanks, Peter. I don't think I could have done that anyway."

"Just make sure the food is still good and we are fine, Joshua."

'I still have the job,' He thought with a small smile.

The rest of the day went… surprisingly well for the young man. He prepared orders and stayed out of people's sight. The first helped him keep his mind occupied while the second made it so that he didn't need to force a smile on his face.

Eventually, he found himself making his way back to the apartment.

"So, we make our way back and I'll check on those books I found," He told Cheshire as he walked, the slightest bit of cheer entering his voice. He blinked as the cat stopped and stared at him. "Something the matter, girl?" He received a meow in return that he couldn't quite understand. "Am I forgetting something?" He asked and blinked again as his familiar turned and made her way… somewhere.

In silence, Joshua followed, because there was no reason not to and because he trusted Cheshire. That is, until he saw where she went. Until he saw the cat come to a stop next to the Hunter's car. Then, he knew exactly what Cheshire wanted.

"Cheshire, please," He pleaded, but it was for naught. The feline stared back stubbornly. His blue eyes went to the car once more and he felt dread start building up inside him again. Then his gaze moved back to his familiar. They looked at one another until, eventually, one gave up. "I'm really going insane," Joshua muttered under his breath as he pulled the key that he had kept in his pocket. He smiled bitterly at the small object, his mind telling him that he had kept it because he had seen this coming. That he was just in denial.

It was probably right.

"Guess we are making a stop to buy a terrarium," He said with a deadpan expression. This time, the cat pointedly avoided making eye contact with him. It was a small victory, but he would take what he could.

[}-o-{]

Joshua almost suffered a heart attack when, opening the door to the Hunter's house, he almost stepped on the Snake. It had been lying right there, in front of the entrance and he had been understandably distracted by the fact that he was willingly coming into the house of his would-be murderer. His mind had been elsewhere. So much so, that he had forgotten that there was a snake slithering freely around the house, even if in his pocket he had a card with a terrarion stored in for that exact animal.

Stopping his walk right there and then, Joshua stared into the reptile's beady eyes for a second. He took a deep breath in, and made his way around the Snake, slowly and with no small amount of fear. His only reassurance was a Lvl 1 Bond, so he felt his fear was very much justified.

"We've got a new terrarium for you," He said, although he wasn't sure why he was talking with the Snake. Granted, he talked with Cheshire a lot, even before she became his familiar. But talking with a cat was less weird than talking with a snake...

Right?

'God, I need human friends,' Joshua thought to himself with a groan.

"How are you doing?" He asked, his tone resigned as he sat at the table and looked at the small glass box that held the Spider. Resting his elbow on the table, he put his forehead on his palm, fingers through his hair, and side-eyed the arachnid.

Distractedly, he pulled out his phone that he had picked up from his apartment when he changed clothes. Like he had done his research before to see if he could find what world he was in, he tried this time to find what particular spider this one was. It became, however, very obvious once he actually took a moment to look at it.

A Black Widow.

'Because of course it's a Black Widow, why wouldn't it be?' Joshua thought to himself. He then looked towards the Snake. That one he didn't recognize, although he didn't know the name of many snakes to begin with. It wasn't a cobra, he knew that much already. And it probably wasn't a constrictor type of snake, since he thought those were supposed to be big. 'Although, that might be wrong, I really don't know.'

And so the search continued. Joshua ignored the reptile creeping its way towards him as he continued reading through pages and pages of snake species. Out of curiosity, he looked up one of the few snakes he did know the name of, even if he thought it was hardly probable that it would be that one. His blood ran cold as he looked at the information before him. 'The mad bastard didn't... ' He trailed off then, since the man totally could have. 'What are the chances…?'

'Coffin-shaped head,' He read, his eyes moving from the phone to the animal in question. 'Length typically ranges from 2 to 3 m (6 ft 7 in to 9 ft 10 in),' He recalled then the length he had seen it have while it slithered on the floor. 'Color varies between olive, yellowish-brown, khaki and gunmetal, rarely black,' He looked at it again, noting the shade of gray that it was, with a bluish purple tinge. '...greyish-white underbellies...' Another check. '...eyes range between greyish-brown and shades of black.'

Everything fit. There was only one detail that he hadn't seen yet, and he wasn't keen on checking that. 'I don't even know if I want to confirm that,' Joshua thought to himself. 'What are the fucking chances…?'

"I really don't feel like dealing with this right now," Joshua groaned. His eyes moved towards the Black Widow. 'I found this by chance, you see.' He remembered the Hunter saying. "I'm sure you thought it was fucking hilarious, didn't you?" The young man asked, as if the dead man could hear him.

Almost grudgingly, he also searched how often he should feed his new… pets, or whatever. Joshua didn't even know what to call them. Then, he paused. 'On that note...'

"Your name will be Morag," He designed after a moment of thought, his eyes on the Spider. A small smile on his face at the reference. "And you'll be Nagini," He said to the Snake. Then, he hummed, pleased with himself. With that out of the way, he turned back to the phone to-

[Bond: Nagini has gone up a level.]

Joshua paused and then sighed, a tired expression taking over his face. 'Wonder why with the Snake and not the Spider though,' A corner of his mind mused. 'Maybe it's easier to bond with a snake over a spider? Will her progress be slower than Cheshires because it would be easier with a cat over a snake? Is it something completely different?' Ultimately, he didn't even know why he bothered making the questions, since he knew there wouldn't be an answer.

With another sigh, he continued what he was doing, actively pushing thoughts about the Bonds away. That way laid madness. 'Although,' Joshua thought, his eyes darting towards the snake that lay almost next to his feet. 'I'm not the picture of sanity anyway...'

[}-o-{]

Joshua's perception of time during the following week was weird.

While on his job, it seemed to fly. His mind disconnected as he went through now very familiar motions. After the first few days, Peter had him back to waiting tables too, which actually cheered him up more than he thought it would. If nothing else, it was good to be able to interact with actual people instead of the three animals he had back at home.

While at the Hunter's house, where he returned for the first few days to get everything he could possibly need or find a use for in his Storage notebook. The Charm, however, had been placed separately on its own card and then taken out on a shelf at his apartment. He had left it there to be checked at a later date with Appraisal.

Once that was done, Joshua did his best to clean the whole place so that there was as little evidence of his presence left there as possible. He was pretty sure nobody would be able to track him, through mundane ways, at least. He had even made sure to never leave the car anywhere near his place or the cafe, just in case. Magic means were another thing altogether, but he didn't know where to even begin to avoid those, so he left it as it was and prayed for the best.

In his apartment, time was… even more weird. Sometimes, time would fly as he read through the Hunter's books, reminding him of his time studying the Storage Spell. Sometimes, it would slow down to a crawl as his mind decided to relieve one of the two particularly unpleasant days of his life. The day he died and the day he almost died again. Others it would seem to stop as he tried to take in how much his life had changed.

Morag and Nagini were the two that most often got that last reaction from him. Moving the spider to the apartment had been easy. Moving the snake less so, but he had managed to get it into a bag and from there it had been much easier. The process of getting it in and out though, left Joshua wondering how many years of his life he had lost.

The new additions to his strange… family of sorts, had also accentuated his need to move to another apartment. After all, he had gotten the one he used at the moment with the thought of living alone, and now he had a cat, a spider and a snake to accommodate too. The latter two didn't occupy much space, especially Morag, but the terrariums they lived in did. So, he was in dire need of more space.

'Having a desk or something to study the books would help too,' Joshua mused as he checked only for places to live. He needed them to be relatively close to the area he was in too, since he wanted to keep his current job. It didn't help matters that his income wasn't… the best. But between a smaller place or trying to get a better job, he preferred the first. He had grown fond of the little cafe and he didn't want to leave it.

With a sigh, he turned off his phone and decided to do something else. 'Looking for a place is a pain in the ass,' He decided. It was something that he had thought he had been done with after getting the apartment he currently had. An annoyance that he thought he wouldn't have to go through until a good deal of time. As it was, he had only been spared a month.

Intent on distracting himself while also being productive. He took one of the Hunter's books and opened it. 'Another on Warding Magic, huh?' Joshua had found it slightly entertaining to not use Appraisal on the books before opening them. Not knowing what was inside was kind of amusing. So far, he had opened three that explained either theory or practice of Warding Magic. He hadn't gotten a skill yet, since he hadn't gone very far in any of them, but it was a matter of time. He wanted to have an idea of what his options were before choosing to focus on anything.

Another book he had opened seemed to be some sort of Greek Mythology encyclopedia. It had been an interesting read, not only because he was a fan of that, but also because it meant that Greek Mythology was, most probably, real. Not a great shocker, considering that he was in a world with magic, but interesting nonetheless. Joshua had to wonder what other myths were real in the world he now lived in.

He had also quickly skimmed over one which explained the magical qualities of plants, many of which were completely normal ones Joshua knew with a few that were clearly magical in nature. The book went in depth explaining the effects some could have in rituals, potions and other similar branches of magic. It even detailed their symbolic meaning and such things.

None of those things were things Joshua absolutely needed though. No, he would have much prefered something offensive that he could use if he got into trouble again… or when he got into trouble again. Preferably something that didn't have the risk of leaving him unconscious or worse, if at all possible.

Turning page after page, barely reading the titles and a word or two in each to see if something caught his eye, he raised the cup of coffee he had on his side to take a sip. Joshua almost choked on his drink as his eyes zeroed on a specific word in one of the pages. 'Concealing Ward,' He read and quickly gulped the beverage, set the cup back down and started reading from the beginning.

'Thank God that it's Friday night today,' Joshua thought to himself as he took in that particular Ward's information. A spell designed to hide a place from outside detection, apparently. Going over more and more of the book pages, he found that what it hid could be set by the caster at will. If one had enough knowledge in the branch to tweak the spell's circle, that is. From simply hiding magic presence, to hiding magic usage, to hiding everything if one was good enough.

"I think I found what I'm going to study now, girl," Joshua muttered, his eyes glued to the book while his fingers ran slowly over Cheshire's fur. The cat that sat on the table next to him purred something and a smile took shape on his face. He blinked when he felt the cat tense under his hand.

Looking at her, he saw Cheshire was staring straight at something. Following her gaze, he saw the bigger terrarium that held Nagini. He was almost afraid to ask, but he knew he had to.

"Something the matter… with Nagini?" Joshua asked, unsure if he actually wanted an answer.

He got one all the same, as his familiar stood up and made her way over to the terrarium. Once next to it, the cat pantomimed pushing the top off. Joshua simply looked at her with a grimace before sighing.

"So, Nagini wants to get out of there?" He asked, praying internally that he would receive a negative answer. His prayers, once more, went unanswered as the cat replied with a very clearly positive meow. 'I wish I had a harder time picking up on her meaning,' Joshua thought to himself as he walked over to the glass box.

"Don't bite me, please," He said as he took off and opened the top of the terrarium. He knew it was a useless effort to do so though. After all, what were the chances of the snake actually picking up on what he meant? Bond was too low level for him to think that it would work.

Quickly, he went back to the table to continue his reading. The last thing Joshua wanted to do was stand next to where the snake was. Once at the table, he caught sight of the grey serpent slithering her way out of the glass box with no small amount of unease, even if he knew he was relatively safe.

Relatively was the key word there, as far as he was concerned.

With another sigh, he turned his eyes back to the book. 'I really need to set one of these wards up here… although I'll probably have to move anyway. Someone else might have already picked up on this location,' He thought to himself as he continued his studies.

There were three requirements to setting up a Ward, he read. One was the knowledge and circle, just like with all other magic. The other was magical energy, which was also something it shared with the spell he already knew. The third though, was something that was probably more type-specific, a Wardstone.

Joshua had to stop and wonder if the stones were exclusively used for Ward Magic. It didn't make much sense to him that they would, but it was in their name so… 'With any luck, there will be a book specifically speaking about the Wardstones,' He thought while shaking his head and focusing on the task at hand. He could let his mind wonder once he was protected from outside dangers. 'There are different types of Wardstones?' He blinked at the passage that said the Concealing Ward needed a Special Type Wardstone, whatever that was supposed to be.

'Ok… I'll need to increase the level of Appraisal to distinguish one type from another...' He noted mentally, since the skill hadn't been able to pick up on anything about the Wardstones besides what they were. That was bad, since he had already been using the Skill on anything that he could excluding the books. After all, he needed the skill to get better.

With yet another sigh, he started his mental list of things to work on for the time being. 'Walk outside using Appraisal on everything and everyone,' He put in first place, since he couldn't do anything without knowing which of the stones he had was Special and which wasn't… 'Scratch that, search to see if there's a book that explains Wardstones,' He added before that. After all, even if his Skill couldn't tell the difference, he could learn it like a normal person… hopefully.

'After that,' He continued, taking a notebook that was laid on the table and deciding to have the list in physical form, just in case. 'learn the Concealing Ward and cast it on the apartment.'

'Step Three, look for a new place and have it magically hidden too,' He noted down. 'Step Four, look for other Wards that might be useful to cast at new locations and do so if there are any. Step Five, learn how to use the Magical Revolver, continue training, especially with Dagger Mastery and Weapon Throwing Mastery.'

Stopping there, he started tapping the paper with the tip of his pencil as he tried to think of anything else. His mind froze though, when he felt something wrap around his left ankle. Looking down, he found exactly what he didn't want to see.

Nagini, coiling around his leg and seemingly trying to creep up.

His eyes moved to the side and looked at his familiar. "Girl?" Joshua asked, unsure of exactly what he expected from the cat. Still, his familiar answered with a soft meow and pushed her head against his arm. Taking a deep breath in, the young man tried to keep his mind away from the snake that was now coiling around his abdomen under his shirt...

'This is your life now, Joshua. Better get used to it,' He thought to himself with a wry smile.

[} Chapter End {]