Chapter 77-You Helped Me Be Who I Am Today

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.

You Helped Me Be Who I Am Today

[Issei Hyoudou]

He walked towards one of the cafe tables with his shoulders tense and feeling his insides tying themselves into knots. It wasn't a new feeling, however. Issei would freely admit that carrying plates and cups around on a tray made him feel incredibly nervous, even if he'd gotten better at it after some time.

He couldn't quite vanish the memory of the sound that the things made when they fell and broke. Joshua had brushed it all aside when it happened, simply remaking the orders and replacing everything. Issei still felt guilty about that though, maybe especially so because there hadn't been any punishment.

When he'd started working at the cafe – Hell, even before that. – he'd thought it would be a struggle. That Joshua would hover over him and criticize everything he did. That he'd mess up a whole lot and there'd be all sorts of repercussions. Maybe he'd get his pay reduced, or he'd be yelled at a lot, or he'd get fired or… something.

Instead, Joshua simply told him what he did wrong and what he should do to improve. When the things had fallen and broken, his boss had given him other things to do instead of delivering orders, like cleaning tables or helping at the kitchen. Later that day after closing though, Joshua had taken him aside and taught him how to carry everything in the tray. It'd been hard, but he was getting the hang of it.

When he got in trouble with a customer because of his… personality, Joshua dealt with it, placating whoever it was that he'd unknowingly insulted or made uncomfortable. After that, he explained to Issei where he'd messed up and how he could avoid it. Usually he'd even go the extra mile and add more onto that to better help him.

It was… nice, Issei decided. It wasn't the violent ways of his classmates in Kuoh and it wasn't the resigned way his parents used. It also wasn't the frustrated way that Jeanne used whenever it was her that tried to help him. He appreciated all of those a lot more after having realized that what he was doing was wrong, but he still much preferred Joshua's patient approach.

"Pretty good job," the man in question told him after he was done giving their orders to one table and made his way back to the counter. Joshua gave him a grin then as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Could use some practice to not make it seem like you have a stick up where the sun doesn't shine, but you are doing much better than at the start."

"You could word that differently, Joshua-sensei," Issei complained – Definitely not whining. – with a grimace. Still, he did stand straighter though, because he was pretty damn proud of how much progress he'd made. "But thanks," he added, meaning it, even if that failed completely at delivering what he really wanted to say.

"Come on, the Kendo girls should be here soonish," Joshua told him then, waving him towards the kitchen. "You up to help me prepare their stuff ahead of time?"

"Sure thing," he replied instantly. Issei wasn't very sure, but he was starting to like cooking more and more. It was… distracting, he supposed. It kept his mind occupied with things that weren't too important but which required just enough focus to keep him centered. When he was cooking he wasn't worrying about how others saw him and his brain wasn't making him think perverted stuff either.

So, he focused on doing what Joshua told him to while they prepared the orders for the Kendo club. It wasn't like they needed to wait for them to ask anymore. Most girls had already found what they liked and had started ordering pretty much the same thing over and over already. At most there would be one or two that decided to change their orders, which would mean that they'd only need to make that instead of a bunch of things.

Joshua also didn't seem too concerned about orders made wrong or anything like that. Issei supposed that was because the guy was loaded. It hadn't taken him long to realize that the man didn't have a cafe for the money. For one, because he never really cared for any loss he took for any reason. For another, because Joshua didn't always – or even often – work there.

He just came around sometimes, usually using most of his time to teach him or just generally keep an eye on him. Issei didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing, but it was how it usually went. It was better when he was there though, because the rest of the staff weren't really as good or as patient with him as Joshua.

A few minutes before the Kendo girls arrived, Issei didn't know how it had happened, but between one thing and the other Joshua had managed to con him into being the one to decorate the cake for them. The asshole just stood there, watching with a relaxed smile on his face as Issei frowned and sweated while working with the sleeve. He did his best to ignore the eyes on him and not to mess up and make an abomination out of the perfectly good cake. As he did, the younger man recalled the times when his mother had tried to teach him how to cook.

It had always ended up in disaster, and while Issei was fairly sure that it was mostly his fault, he also thought some of the blame laid on the woman too. It was difficult to concentrate on cooking when she continued telling him stuff that he already knew or things that were unnecessary but still were part of how she did things. It always ended up distracting him and making him do something wrong or forget something else.

Joshua didn't do that though. He told him what to do and then just left him to it. If he did something wrong or the like, he'd just tell him and they'd start over. If the failure wasn't too bad, they'd eat it themselves too, which almost tempted Issei to make mistakes more often.

He wouldn't do that though. No, that'd be like spitting on Joshua's kindness and teachings. There was no way Issei would dare insult the one person that was giving him a chance after all the times he'd been an absolute moron. This was his chance of improving himself, to go past being just a disgusting pervert and being a decent person.

With some luck, it'd help him get a girlfriend too, he hoped.

[}-o-{]

[Jeanne Davis]

She could honestly say that life was going better and better for her.

Jeanne almost couldn't remember what it had been before Joshua found her on the streets, really. Or maybe she just didn't want to remember, which was also a fair assessment she supposed. Regardless, the fact stood that things had gone much better since then. There was just no denying that.

"A good decision, born of fortune and daring," the voices whispered to her and she hummed. It had been mostly luck, she supposed. Luck that she'd met him in the first place. And the daring… Well, it had taken courage to take that chance with a literal stranger, even if the voices had somewhat spoken well of him. Courage or just stupidity, she supposed. Jeanne stood by her decision though. Back then… Well, it wasn't like she'd had many options to begin with.

"You are distracted," Kiba pointed out, sounding more amused and curious than annoyed, even though her mind had gotten away from her for a moment there in the middle of their date. "The voices again?"

"Sort of, but not really," she replied sheepishly as she fidgeted with the piece of cake that was next to her drink. They were at the cafe and fortunately Joshua wasn't around. Not that he made things too weird, but just knowing that she was on a date and her brother was right there made things awkward on its own. "I was just thinking how much better my life is now," she told him, smiling softly at him. A gesture that widened when she saw him look aside, his lips twitching up and his cheeks reddening the smallest bit.

His assumption wasn't wrong either. It was so very nice to have him in her life too. She dutifully ignored the giggling of some girls with their school's uniform sitting off to the side. That was basically a routine thing for whenever they interacted with each other and they had a "cute" moment. That or grumbling from boys, that is. Sometimes it was both.

Jeanne couldn't say she cared much for the whole "Prince and Princess of Kuoh" that the general school populace had come up for them. Well, for her and for them as a couple. He'd already had his moniker of "Prince of Kuoh" before she even arrived. It was honestly a bit annoying and uncomfortable to have that much attention, but she managed.

She'd certainly put up with it to be with Kiba, that much she was sure of.

Maybe some people would call her shallow for liking one of the most good-looking boys in the school, but that was honestly just a plus. A very nice plus, admittedly, but it was far from the only reason she was with him at the moment. However, there was much more to him than a pretty face.

She was pretty sure it had all started, funnily enough, when he and the rest of Rias's peerage had come to train at their place for the first time. Sure, she'd been attracted to him before that, but it'd been less important. It was then that she first thought they kind of clicked, as they bounced ideas for their Sacred Gears off of each other. Time had flown then and there, and they'd been engrossed in a conversation for quite a bit before someone broke them from their little world.

From there, they'd continued interacting with one another on and off through their continued visits for training. Soon, they became even closer when she joined Kuoh and they could now see each other more often and in an actual social environment. That had been by far the most important change in their relationship.

"Professional settings can only go so far," the voices whispered.

"What are they saying?" Kiba asked curiously before taking a sip from his own drink. Jeanne couldn't hold back a grin at the question. That was probably one of the things she liked the most about him.

"I was just thinking about how we got here… a bit silly, I know," she mumbled shyly as she looked down at her own meal. "The voices were saying that it was much better to meet out of training and such."

"Certainly better," he agreed with that kind smile that drove the girls at school crazy. Not that Jeanne was one to talk, but still. He was her boyfriend now, she thought she was entitled to some weakness to him.

"Have I told you how much I like that you don't care about the voices?" she asked, beaming as she felt her ears warm up a bit. "Because I really do."

"You might have mentioned it once or twice," Kiba replied with a very amused expression. "Honestly, in the world we live in, it's not that weird, I'd say. It's like you have another ability on top of your Sacred Gear. If anything, it's kind of neat."

She beamed at him, unable to find the words to reply to him. Strangely, she got the feeling that the voices were much the same, even if she had no way of knowing that. That was an unusual but overall interesting moment to learn something new about her "ability".

"Still, thanks, I… I really appreciate it," she said eventually. She'd already told him about how the voices had caused her trouble growing up and until recently. It didn't bear repeating, but she so very much wanted to. "Did you have any plans for after?" she asked, trying to change the subject and noticing that they were almost finished with their meals.

"I hope it doesn't sound too cliche, but I thought we could see a movie," Kiba suggested, looking strangely confident, despite his words. When she narrowed her eyes at him, he chuckled lightly. "I might have arranged a certain something with a certain someone," he added, pulling something from his own pocket dimension.

Devil magic was bullshit, she thought. He made the Storage Spell look so easy, and with all the troubles she had gone through to learn it.

Then she paused as she saw him take out a piece of paper with a circle drawn on it.

"That must have been an awkward conversation," she pointed out, realizing what it was.

"I had to make some promises, but otherwise, it was worth it," he told her, blushing slightly. Jeanne wondered what Joshua had made him promise… On second thought, however, maybe she didn't want to know.

[}-o-{]

[Philip Woods]

As he cooked, he heard his favorite nephew talk with his daughters about his trip to Kyoto in Japan and all the things he'd seen over there. It was difficult, quite honestly, to compare the Joshua he'd seen recently to the one he knew from years ago, before his parents died. It was a terrible thing, what had happened, but somehow, the man had pulled through with his head high and taken all that life had thrown at him to make himself better.

To say that Joshua had been a quiet child was a bit of an understatement. When most others would go out and play, running around to do a thousand different things and explore the world, Joshua had stayed at home, watching TV or movies or just reading. When most would start going out with friends and getting girlfriends, he seemed to draw into himself even more.

Seeing him in family meetings had been much the same. He was a good kid, Phil knew, but he'd still been a solitary one. Joshua would barely speak and only to answer questions or statements directed at him. He would do just about any chore or thing that people asked him, but Phil got the feeling that it was so that he'd be able to pull away and do his own thing while at it.

The one thing that Phil knew Joshua didn't mind doing was spending time with his little cousins. Not so much the grown up ones, but he had a sort of patience that most lacked when dealing with children. He was honestly surprised he seemed to be teaching adult courses instead of doing so for children from what Joshua had told him.

And now…

Now Joshua seemed like a completely different person. He was still a very private and placid person, but he now actively interacted with people. He honestly couldn't believe he'd adopted someone. And all the stories he told about clients and friends he'd made. If he didn't know that Joshua wouldn't lie about something like that, Phil would have doubted what his ears heard.

The fact that he'd started throwing money at Phil and his daughters though, that was much more believable. The boy's mother and father had been kind people, so kind that it was difficult to understand how they could be related to the people they were. Joshua himself had inherited only the best of his parents in that regard, a compassionate, generous child he'd always been.

It honestly made Phil a little uncomfortable though. How was he not supposed to feel bad when his nephew, who had taken a great loss not so long ago, was basically helping him make ends meet? Joshua could try to be sneaky about it, but Phil knew that's what he was doing, dropping by his store to buy all sorts of things that he couldn't possibly need. Some of those purchases could be real, but not all of them. There was no way.

"Food is almost ready!" Phil called, getting different responses from all three "children". He somehow doubted his daughters would be too happy with that designation but Joshua would probably laugh it off. Speaking of, he could only hope the younger man would be fine with the meal he'd prepared.

Joshua cooked for them once and it'd humbled Phil for the rest of his life, quite possibly.

"Dad," one of his daughters called, looking as happy as he'd ever seen her. "Josh was telling us that he might get us a trip to Kyoto, can you believe that?"

He was both incredibly happy to hear that, and incredibly uncomfortable. It was very nice of Joshua to offer them that, but it also reminded him that he'd failed in yet another thing. After all, how could he not know that his daughters wanted to travel and visit other countries?

However, money had always been an issue to begin with and after the divorce… Well, Sarah hadn't made things easy, that was for sure. If she were the person to do so though, they probably wouldn't have gone their separate ways. Joshua had been a boon that he couldn't be grateful enough for, but he had to draw the line at some point.

"Don't," Joshua told him, having followed his daughter and somehow distracting her so that she would leave the two of them alone. "I know you want to reject the idea, but don't do it. They'll love it and so will you. Let me do this, Phil."

"Josh, I can't let you do this forever, I have to stop you at some point," Phil told him bitterly. "You can't just provide for us like this. I'm a grown man, and I can take care of my problems. I know I've failed on a lot of things, but asking this of you-"

"You are not asking for anything, I'm just offering and giving… I'm not doing this just for you, Phil. It's not because I pity you or anything like that," Joshua told him, walking up to him and placing his hands on Phil's shoulders. "I want to do this, because you are the only actual family I have left that I can be happy with. You don't have any idea how much that and these visits mean to me. Let me do this, to repay some of what you do for me."

"... You should have been a lawyer or a politician. You certainly have a way with words," Phil told him, drawing a laugh from the man.

"I didn't know you hated me like that, man. Maybe I should take that offer back," Joshua told him, grinning from ear to ear as he looked at Phil and out of the room towards his daughters. A stark contrast with Phil's memory of a subdued child sitting alone in a corner. "Come on, let me help you get everything to the table, yeah?"

"Ok," Phil conceded, meaning much more than the hand he'd offered at that very moment.

'You've certainly done well for yourself, Josh,' he thought to himself, feeling incredibly proud of the man his nephew had become.

[}-o-{]

[Gabriel]

"Things seem to look worse the more I find out about what's going on in the Church," Michael told her and she gave him a weary smile in response. "How did it all become… this?"

"We were neglectful in our mourning and struggles," she answered, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath in. "Things changed rather… drastically with our father's passing. We could have done better than we did, and now…"

"Now we have to deal with what our actions, or rather our inaction, caused," Michael finished for her, looking up at the ceiling as if waiting for their father to answer, to give them advice. "We really should do something nice for Griselda. Without her, who knows how long it would have taken us to notice this, focused as we were on our own side of things…"

And hadn't that felt almost like a calling from their father? Just before things might have become irreparable, Griselda, an important but at the end of the day rather low member of the Church had pulled all the strings she could to get Gabriel's attention. Once she had it and was able to speak without being met with a wall of infinite red tape, she was unlikely to lose it, considering what she had to say.

Gabriel almost couldn't believe what she was told, but there she was then, met with the reality of things. A reality that she presented before her equally disbelieving brothers and sisters. They'd hurried to do some damage control but it was already too late for a lot of things. As it was, however, they could only vow to do their best.

It was fortunate that the world was much more… peaceful than it had been the last time they really looked outside of their own domain. Khaos Brigade's existence notwithstanding, that is. As it was, it almost seemed that their enemies, the Fallen and the Devils, had pulled back in much the same way they had. Everyone had suffered in the last war and now…

Now they were all just done with it, all of them. That was the impression Gabriel got from the interactions she'd had with both sides while working against the terrorist group that seemed intent on making enemies out of literally everyone. The same group that seemed to have infiltrated their ranks in the Church, leaving them a poisoned, rotten thing that they now had to put back together and heal.

Despite what they'd told Joshua Davis, they probably would end up owing him more than they had been able to pay. It had been true in the moment, but considering he had been the sole reason they were on… neutral terms with their previous enemies… Well, they had him to thank for that.

It meant much more than the man likely realized, Gabriel guessed. He thought he was helping them unite against a common enemy in Khaos Brigade, but it was much more than that. She didn't think her people and the other two factions had ever worked together as they were at that moment. They'd worked together against the Heavenly Dragons, for sure, but that had been more of a focused fight than it had been anything resembling an actual alliance.

Michael and her, they'd talked about the future since things had come to their attention. After being snapped out of their previous oblivious state, they'd had some time to consider where they stood in regards to lots of things. Their siblings didn't quite agree with some of their ideas, but they were open to them. Their situation was precarious enough for them to consider such things.

For now though, they needed to deal with the current issues.

"I'm almost considering asking Uriel for help," Michael admitted, making her pale. "It's that bad," her brother said, pursing his lips. "The corruption runs so deep that entire groups would rebel against us should we point out how they've failed our father and his teachings, his principles. We might have a Civil War in our hands."

The Church rising against them, when they'd once held them to the same esteem as they did their father. What had the world come to without them even realizing? How had things changed so much? Gabriel wouldn't have believed it all if she wasn't seeing it for herself.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that then," Gabriel replied grimly, very aware that it was just as likely that a fight would break out as it was that it wouldn't. Then their conversation was stopped by the arrival of one of their siblings.

"Gabriel, Michael," Raphael greeted them with an expression much like the one their leader wore and the one she guessed she herself carried. "I finished analyzing the files you gave me, Michael."

"I don't suppose you bring good news, do you?"

"Unfortunately," Raphael replied visibly somber before he continued speaking. "There are indeed people that are actively and knowingly working against us already within the ranks of the Church," he said, confirming their fears. "That's not even the worst part."

"Let's hear it then," Michael told him, straightening his back as he prepared himself for whatever bad news Raphael was about to give. To Gabriel, it seemed that was all that they'd been doing as of late. Soldier on through bad news after bad news. She hoped against hope that, maybe, they'd find themselves in better times soon.

"There are plans in place to isolate our Excalibur wielders, take them down and then steal the swords."

[} Chapter End {]

(AN:Please remember that this story is not mine and will never be mine. Make sure to give thanks to the original author on fanfiction.net https://m.fanfiction.net/u/11459794/)