Chapter 33-I'll Face The Weather Before Me

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.

I'll Face The Weather Before Me

"Man, why did I think this was a good idea?" Joshua grumbled as he sat at a stone bench on the side of an open field. From a card, he pulled out a bottle of water. 'Thank God they stay cool,' He thought as he gulped down the cold drink.

"Because you are a training enthusiast like me?" Sairaorg asked from next to him, looking just as exhausted.

"More like training maniac," Joshua corrected with a wry smile. Joining the Bael's peerage training had been both a great and a terrible idea. They were clearly very good at fighting and knew what they were doing. However, they were also very obviously far out of his league.

Even after placing several Weighting, Weakening and Draining wards around the training area, Joshua hardly stood a chance. Mostly because he didn't want to power them down too much, of course. They wouldn't have benefited nearly as much if he restrained them like that. Furthermore, it was a good way to practice against someone that was better than him too, even if it sucked.

"You can't tell me you didn't enjoy yourself," The Devil pointed out with a smirk that was entirely too smug. "Can't say the same about Beluga though," He added, turning to his Knight, who was sprawled on the ground.

The poor guy had been set up against Joshua's familiars, with the exception of Margalo. He'd thought it'd be an easy fight, the unlucky bastard. Evidently, he hadn't known what he was getting himself into.

He had an interesting ability though. He could make copies of things like his spears and himself. That was a neat trick, yes. However, it didn't do Beluga any favors, really.

Morag had jumped around and made it basically rain poison on the copies with her Poison Shot and Poison Web. Moreover, Sairaorg's peerage clearly wasn't used to fighting smaller enemies, because Beluga had some real trouble trying to nail the spider down. That alone would have caused him trouble, yes, but Nagini wasn't far behind her fellow poisonous familiar.

The snake had wasted absolutely no time slithering around and hitting every Beluga copy that she could with Leer and Disable. There were still some that were frozen on the ground. She'd even taken out some of those, wrapping around them and just squeezing them until they gave up.

Cheshire had been the meanest of the bunch though, because she'd charged in her lynx form through the small army of knights. Joshua's first familiar had gone straight towards the original Beluga, likely through liberal use of Extrasensory. Agility had made sure that neither the guy nor his copies could touch her. From there, she'd basically danced around him using her claws again and again, leaving Beluga's armor looking like it would crumble under a small breeze.

"I mean, he was quite powered down though," Joshua pointed out, even as he all but preened, proud of his familiar's work.

"I know, but it's still quite impressive. I think I'll set them up against my other members, if you don't mind," Sairaorg commented, earning panicked looks from his peerage behind him. Immediately, they started shaking their heads, pleading silently to Joshua.

However, unfortunately for them, the human was fresh out of mercy after the beating he'd received from practically everyone else.

"Sure," He replied with a wide grin as Sairaorg's group paled. The King, for his part, simply laughed, sounding quite pleased. "We are not doing this too often though. I'm beat," He added then, with a groan.

"Well, whenever you feel like joining, give me a call," Sairaorg replied what a wave of his hand. "We are almost always training anyway."

"Sounds like a plan, Sairaorg," Joshua said, wearily running his fingers through his hair and sighing. "Well, I better get going before Jeanne comes back home. Gotta shower and get started with dinner."

"It was good having you, Joshua," Sairaorg told him, grinning all the while. "Truly. Don't hesitate to ask if you feel like coming again. Having people other than ourselves to fight against will be good for us," He commented as they started walking towards the teleportation circle for Joshua to go back.

"Yeah, same. Jeanne's sword dummies are good and all, but having real opponents is different," Joshua replied, imagining that they had much the same problem with Beluga's duplication. "Do you think the girls will stay for dinner today?" He asked then, as they approached their destination.

"Hm, Kuisha said something about not wanting to cook today and Coriana is never too eager for that," Sairaorg answered, his smile turning into a grimace. "So, I'd guess that's likely," He lamented.

"Well, it is what it is," Joshua commented, grinning at the man. "Maybe I can invite the lot of you for a meal sometime soon," He added, thoughtful. "You are paying though."

"Sure," Sairairg agreed instantly. "If the girls' comments are anything to go by, it'll be money well spent."

"I might have to charge you for the food altogether," Joshua pointed out then. "These outings between the girls are draining my wallet, man," He grumbled to himself before cracking his neck. 'Can't wait to get home. Might just pass out.' The fact that Nagini stopped him to slither her way up to wrap around his chest wasn't helping, really.

"Well, ask for money next time you set a ward and you probably won't have to worry about money… ever," Sairaorg pointed out and it was a fair enough argument. It was just that… he preferred getting books instead. He didn't need money, really. 'At least I didn't before,' He mused with a wry smile.

Not that Joshua really cared about that. He'd much prefer to be short on money than Jeanne not having friends. He knew that she'd give that up in a second if he told her anything, but he didn't want to do that. It was a problem easily solved anyway.

"Yeah, I guess I'll do that. See you around, Sairaorg."

"See you later, Joshua."

A moment later, the circle over him vanished and he found himself in his living room. 'Wonder if Sona and Rias would mind if I add some money to the price for their wards? I doubt it but… Eh, it should be fine so long as I don't ask for much. Don't think what we earn will survive many of these outings of Jeanne,' He thought, letting himself fall on the couch and petting Cheshire when she jumped on his lap.

Still, he found himself smiling. He had friends, Jeanne had friends, his new family was going alright. He could almost forget about the Satans and the Church. Almost, but not quite.

Even then, he was content.

[}-o-{]

"Hm, yes, this'll work," Joshua mused as he looked around the room he'd been given to start setting down wards. Next to him, Sona and Rias accompanied him as he checked every small detail he could think of that could mess up the process. This wasn't a ward like the ones he'd set at the beginning. Doing it on top of a table or something like that just wouldn't do.

These wards needed to be perfect.

The room had been made exactly as he specified, which he was pleased about. It was a small empty place under Kuoh Academy, the school Rias and Sona were attending with their peerages. Why was that? Joshua had no idea and, frankly, he also didn't much care.

"This'll work just fine," Joshua repeated, nodding to himself as he took a deep breath in and let it out. "I can get started at any moment."

"That's great," Sona replied, pushing her glasses up. "We can leave, if you need us to," She added, giving him what he thought was supposed to be a supporting expression. The girl wasn't very expressive, so he couldn't be sure.

"You can stay, just stay out of the circles I'll draw," He told them as he pulled out a card and used the Storage Spell drawn on it to get his supplies. Then he closed his eyes, mentally going over the wards he was going to set up that day. He'd made the array in such an extensive way that he'd have to do it through several visits.

It was one of the many things that he'd do differently for that job.

"Are you looking, girl?" He whispered then, as he turned his head down. He felt Morag pull on the hairs of his head. "Let's get started then," He added, his eyes narrowing and his hands moving to start drawing the circles.

There'd be many layers to the wards, but first of all he was going to set up the groundwork for the Illusion that would keep track of everything. That was necessary for Rias, Sona and whoever else they added to that list, to be able to check the wards' information. After all, the work would be next to useless if they couldn't access it until the very end.

With that done, he wiped his forehead with his sleeve. He was just getting started, but he was so tense he might as well have been at it for hours. 'I really should smack Sairaorg around for setting this whole mess up,' He mused idly as he started drawing again.

The next thing to do was the set of wards for their Pantheon. First one of those was the basic one that would detect Holy and Demonic energies. Then there was one that targeted Devils, Fallen Angels and Angels. From there came the wards that would point out half-bloods of those. It became trickier after that, because he had to make sure he covered every possibility, like someone being a three quarter Fallen Angel or someone being a descendant of a Devil by a few generations.

He also made sure that he could catch the disturbed energies of a Stray Devil too. Same with an Angel that was flickering between falling and not. Apparently, those had different readings than normal Devils and Angels too, so that had to be covered. It became more complicated when one had to take mixed blood into that equation too.

Lots of little variables, that was the summary for wards, really.

Now, the next thing on the list was supposed to be Sacred Gears, which was a pain in the ass too. Especially since most of them had very specific readings to find and there were a shit ton of the things around. Low Tier, Mid Tier, High Tier, Longinus, subspecies of all of those. Sacred Gears were a nightmare. If God truly had made them, Joshua would have a few words with the guy, because goddamnit were they difficult to ward for.

[Detection Ward has gone up a level.]

By the time he was done with all that, he was sweaty, his hands were cramped and his mind all but dead. It made sense and it was expected, really. He'd set similar wards around his home, yes, but he'd done that over the span of months not hours.

"You two doing alright?" He asked the two Devils. He was fairly sure he'd set the Draining Wards that would power the rest of the array well. He'd made them weak, calculating to have to cut the effect the next time he had to come to continue the set up. However, there was always the chance of something going awry, so it was best to check.

"We are fine, Joshua, thanks for asking," Rias replied with a smile. A look from his part and an amused nod from Sona told him that she was the same. 'Ok, good, but…'

"Just give me a call if the Draining Wards become too much," He told them. "I think I did a good job, but mistakes can be made. No need to put up with it, yeah?"

"We'll keep that in mind, Joshua, thank you," Sona reassured him this time and he nodded.

Then, he took a deep breath in and stood up, stretching both his back and his hands. Morag, in the meantime, jumped on his shoulder and walked down his arm. He smiled wearily at her.

"Had fun, girl?" He asked with an indulgent smile as the spider excitedly danced around and in between his fingers. It was kind of hypnotic, how she would move flawlessly even when he moved his hand. "I'll take that as a yes. Well," He started then turning to the two girls, who were smiling at the two of them. "We are done for now. I'll come within the next week to set up the Youkai set of wards. Make sure you study the manual for the illusion display, yes? I've already linked you two and your Queens. If you want anyone else with an in on that, let me know next time, yeah?"

Both of them, and him a second later, nodded.

"President?" Joshua heard someone say as they stepped out of the ward room. He turned to see Akeno - 'That was her name, right?' - with a tray in her hands and a few cups on it. 'Man, I could really use some of that,' He thought, almost cheering when the girl stiffly offered him one. He could do without that attitude, but the tea smelled good so he'd ignore that.

"This is great tea," He said, smiling down at the cup in his hands. It really was. Even him, with his Cooking skill's boost, probably couldn't have made one as good.

"Thank you, Mr. Davis," The girl told him, his grin turning strained at the address. 'I did tell them to call me Joshua, right?' He thought withholding a grimace. Evidently, she still held a grudge for revealing what she was, for whatever reason.

Then he turned and…

Stared.

Jeanne was there, sitting with… 'Rias's Knight, was it? The one with a Mid-Tier Sacred Gear?' He tried to remember. He knew that much at least, because he'd had to in order to set up the wards. 'His name was…' He thought about it for a long moment but nothing came to mind. 'Man, I'm terrible at this,' He lamented before sighing.

"You finished?" Asked the white haired girl that was, at the moment, simply sitting on a couch and eating snacks. Joshua almost laughed as he saw Cheshire walking around her and pressing her head against her every so often. It seemed that she had a favorite.

'Not that surprising, considering she's a Nekoshou,' Joshua thought. Rias had told him that for the wards too, but she'd made him swear he wouldn't mention that or Akeno's condition. Nor the existence of her Bishop either. 'That girl has some serious trouble going on if she has that many secrets,' Joshua couldn't help but think.

"We are," Sona confirmed, earning a nod from the people that were present from her peerage. A white haired girl too, with a somewhat normal background. A girl that came from a magical home. And a girl that had been cursed by a Youkai.

Man, had that last one been an interesting one to take into account for the wards. It did provide some insight on Youkai related wards. It was a shame that Rias wouldn't allow him to work with the Nekoshou to help with that.

"Joshua, can you stop thinking about wards for five minutes?" Jeanne asked, exasperated, snapping him from his thoughts. "Honestly."

"Well, should I think about giving him a shovel talk then?" He asked, nodding towards the blond Knight and making his sister develop quite the blush, if he said so himself. Chuckling, he shook his head. He did notice that the boy remained silent though, even if he schooled his features quite well.

"Isn't she heavy?" He heard a quiet voice ask and he turned to see the Nekoshou. Her name was… something with Neko, if he remembered correctly. He wasn't sure if having a name like that was funny or insulting, really, so he'd refrained from commenting.

He'd never been one to be good at remembering names, but it was worse with these people, for whatever reason. It was also much more annoying when it happened. He should remember…

'It's probably nothing,' He thought.

"She isn't," He replied with a shrug, gently running his fingers on Nagini. He'd barely noticed when the snake had slither her way up his body as they came out of the ward room. "A bit too big to be carried, I gotta admit. But she likes it and I like carrying her. I got used to it when she was smaller," He explained with a small smile on his face.

The girl then simply hummed in response. She wasn't one to talk much, Joshua had been quick to realize. That was fine with him, he wasn't the most sociable anyway.

"The cat likes you a lot," She said then, out of nowhere. 'Maybe I got the doesn't-talk-much part wrong,' He considered, amused.

"She'd have to," Joshua said then. "She was the first one I met of this bunch of misfits," He told her, grinning as he waved a hand at the offended 'bunch of misfits'. All except Cheshire, who looked at him intently. "Hey, I said 'meet', I never said anything about not being one myself."

The cat huffed and turned away.

The Nekoshou girl hummed again.

"Say, what's your name?" He asked, giving her a nervous smile. "I'm really bad at remembering names sometimes."

"Koneko Toujou," She replied quietly.

"Hmm, so it would be… Toujou-san?" Joshua asked hesitantly, summoning knowledge from his years of watching anime and reading manga and light novels. 'They'd probably find that insulting,' He mused to himself.

[Skill Unlocked: Language: Japanese]

He blinked at that. 'Huh, maybe I can work on this in my free time,' He thought curiously. He didn't have much time to dwell on that, because the girl spoke again.

"Koneko is fine, Mr. Davis," She told him, her eyes locked on Cheshire as she spoke. 'Is that translated for me?' He wondered then, catching the way she called him and wondering if the Devil's trait to speak all languages was involved there.

"Call me Joshua then," He replied, his smile turning slightly sad. "Mr. Davis was my father."

"... Joshua," She corrected after a pause and he gave her a nod.

He never noticed the way Rias's peerage was looking at the two of them.

[}-o-{]

"Have you thought about leaving the job, Joshua?" Jeanne asked him about an hour after they got back from Kuoh. He looked up from the papers laid in front of him on the table and gave her a confused expression.

"No, why?" He asked back, unsure of what had brought that on. He liked making wards, regardless of how troublesome making them had made his situation. "I know things got a little messy with Rias and Sona and the Church but-"

"I mean the coffee shop," Jeanne clarified with a slight grin. "I wouldn't dream of stopping you from wardcrafting, Josh."

"Oh, um," He said intelligently before the gears in his head shifted. "I mean… I like it there. It's like a nice break from all the magic, you know. It's time consuming, yes, but it is what it is. I enjoy working there to get away from it all sometimes."

"Hm, I think I get it," She mused out loud, her eyes drifting towards the notebook in her hands. "But still, don't you have too much stuff in your hands? A few hours of getting away would be fine, but so much… don't you think it's too much?"

"I guess you have a point, but what could we do?" He asked then, with a shrug as he distractedly read over some notes.

"I mean, Kuisha said you could make a lot of money with some wards if you wanted to," Jeanne started hesitantly, making him look up. She looked nervous. He had to wonder why though. 'Is it because she's trying to make a suggestion about what I do as a job and how to spend my money?' He supposed that was a good guess. New things to deal with meant that nervous Jeanne made an appearance once more.

"Yes?" He encouraged with a soft smile as he set the papers down and pushed them away slightly. She gave him a shy grin at the gesture before visibly steeling her resolve.

"So, I was thinking… Maybe you could get the money and open your own place. Being your own boss would mean that you can work whenever you need a break and just have employees for the rest of the time," Jeanne explained and he gave that idea some thought.

It was… not that bad, really. He'd checked with Sairaorg how much he could make in terms of money if he really wanted to. He probably wouldn't ever need to actually work if he went that route. Opening a cafe would be laughably easy, really.

"I mean, do you think I should?" Joshua asked curiously. "I mean, I could… we could do that," He corrected. "This isn't because you want more time to hang out with the girls, right?" He asked, teasing.

"No!" Jeanne protested the accusation instantly before drawing back into herself. "I just…" She hesitated then, fidgeting with the notebook in her hands and pretending to read it. "I just think you overwork yourself. Your wards already need a lot of your focus. Having a job that takes you away from that and needs so much time without really being necessary…"

"Yeah, I get it," He admitted with a smile. "I guess I've been trying to do too much."

"Also, I know I've been spending a lot of money when I go out. I'll try to only use my money, don't-"

"Jeanne," Joshua interrupted her, putting the slightest bit of force in his tone. Her mouth clicked shut. "It's fine," He continued then, softly. "I don't mind. If I did, I would have told you before. I want you to be happy, give you the freedom that you haven't had so far. Enjoy yourself and I'll worry about the rest, yeah? I'm the big brother here."

"I'm not a little kid, you know," She protested. Although the pout on her face kind of worked against her there.

"Sure you aren't," Joshua replied indulgently, making her frown. "I'll keep that in mind, by the way. Sounds like a fun project, really."

"Why do you have to make it sound like that," Jeanne lamented then. "Now I'm gonna regret giving you the idea."

"Because it's my job as a big brother to make your life difficult," He told her cheerfully, his grin widening at the withering look she sent his way. "Anyway, should I really worry about that Knight, because I can-"

"Josh!" The girl all but screeched.

"Ok ok," Joshua said with a chuckle, raising a hand placatingly. "I'm just joking. Seriously though, I'd like to know, at the very least."

"You would know anyway," She muttered under her breath. "But it's nothing like that. Our Sacred Gears are similar, so we were discussing ideas and such."

"That's how it starts," He mused out loud, holding back a grin. "Next thing you know, he's using his sword to-"

"Joshua Davis!" Jeanne interrupted firmly, eyes narrowed and he could swear she was using Bloodlust or something of the sort. The effect was somewhat ruined by the way her face was almost shining red. "Are you gonna finish that sentence?"

He grinned unrepentantly at her. Jeanne just sighed tiredly, as she deflated on her seat. However, what kind of brother would he be if he let her have the last word?

"But really, just remember that I'm not ready to be an uncle-"

"Joshua!"

[} 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/)