Chapter 6-Broken Glass

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.

Broken Glass

The discovery of the map stuck to Joshua's mind as the young man stared at it for a long while, his eyes darting between the black marked places. He wasn't sure if his hunch that it was something he remembered was right, but it was worth keeping in mind. 'I need to keep this… Wish I had my phone with me,' He thought with a grimace, absently placing his hands over his pockets, as if expecting his phone to be there.

Gulping, his grimace became even worse as he realized what he had to do if he wanted to take the map. But he couldn't leave something that could actually be useful here, no matter how much he didn't want to touch the thing. 'I wouldn't want something like this to remain here… and the killer has been already dealt with anyway,' Joshua told himself. 'And... ,' He continued, trying to convince himself. 'It's not like I can come back for it later. I really don't want to-' His train of thought paused when his eyes went to the window on the side and looked outside.

There wasn't a city there. Instead, what greeted him on the other side of the glass was a forest. 'How didn't I see that?' Blinking, he turned to the map once more, searching for just where the house could be located. Unfortunately for him, there was no mark. 'Of course there isn't,' He thought, annoyed. 'I don't have to mark where I live on a map do I?'

"Still… this is good," He spoke out loud in a whisper. "I can… I can come back with this… as much as I don't want to. Nobody should notice he is missing nor me coming and going if he lives- lived out here… unless he didn't live by himself, which doesn't seem to be the case. I should have a day or two at least..."

His eyes then moved back to the map, and the victim's pictures.

"I'll take this down," Joshua muttered, not sure who he was even talking to. "I promise… I just want to take a picture first, just in case." For what he wanted that picture, he wasn't quite sure. But it was better to have the information and not need it than to need it and not have it. He would need to have it safely hidden though. If he was caught with that in his phone… yeah, it wouldn't be good.

Turning around, wanting to put the map out of his mind for the moment, he blinked at Cheshire.

The cat was sitting facing the basket that trapped the snake in the room. She also seemed to be engrossed in a staring contest of some kind, although he couldn't get a good enough look at the reptile to confirm this. In any case, the feline's amber eyes seemed determined to stare a hole on the through the plastic and probably the animal inside too.

"Everything ok, girl?" Joshua asked curiously, momentarily pushing away all thoughts of looting the room. "Cheshire?" He tried again, but the cat continued glaring right at the snake. The young man noted though, that the reptile wasn't hissing anymore. Both animals seemed to be in a staring contest of some kind.

As he started to get worried though, he got a response in the shape of a drawn out meow. His heart almost stopped as the cat put her paw on the basket and started trying to… push it? Joshua took a step forward, intent on telling his companion to leave the animal alone before she got bitten.

Instead, he paused, blinking as he saw Cheshire put her other paw on the thing and tried harder. The snake inside, meanwhile, seemed to be trying to push the thing off too. Joshua couldn't help but stop moving and simply stare as the pair worked together futilely to try and take the basket off. Or, at least, that's what it looked like to him.

"Cheshire, what… are you doing?" He asked, a frown on his face as he tried to make sense of the scene in front of him. Why would his cat try to… free the snake?

The feline's response was to snarl at the basket before she gave up and moved towards the man. With one of her paws, Cheshire clawed at his jeans, as if trying to pull him- 'Towards the snake?' He thought, growing increasingly more confused.

"You want me to… free the snake?" Joshua asked, not believing that he was saying that in the first place. He almost whimpered when he heard the cat let out a short meow that could only be an affirmation. "Cheshire… why?" He voiced, even if he knew there was no possible way for the cat to explain herself.

As an answer, the feline let out a long, low meow that sounded more like a plea.

'No… I'm not doing this,' Joshua told himself, even as he felt his resolution crumble before it could even build. 'Why am I even considering this?' He asked himself, horrified. But he knew the answer.

He owed Cheshire.

She was just a cat, yes. But she was a cat that had somehow found him in a house who knew where and saved him from certain, slow and painful death by spider bite at the hands of a madman. A cat that had been his only friend and company since he arrived in this alternative world. A cat that he shared a bond with if the game was to be believed.

His wide eyes returned to normal and his expression calmed as he remembered something. His eyes turned towards Cheshire. 'Appraisal.'

[Cheshire

Title: Familiar of Joshua Davis

Race: Familiar Cat

Gender: Female

Strength: E

Speed: E+

Dexterity: E+

Vitality: E

Perception: E+

Magic: F

Perks: 3

Skills: 4]

There were lots of things to note on the screen, Joshua knew. But he pushed most of those aside and focused on the Title and Race change. 'Familiar of Joshua Davis and Familiar Cat, huh?' He thought as he deflated and turned his blue eyes towards Cheshire's amber ones.

"If I do this, I don't owe you anything, are we clear?" He asked, because damn it, if he was going to risk his life with this stunt, then he wasn't going to still owe her for saving him. The stupid cat looked entirely too proud of herself at that moment, if anybody asked the man.

"And you," He said to the snake, ignoring the fact that there was no way for the animal to understand him. It didn't even have the benefit of Bond, which would have somewhat explained Cheshire at least. Joshua was pretty sure he was losing it, if at least a bit. "you better not bite me. I'm helping you out here."

The way the snake coiled around itself, as if rearing to attack, didn't reassure him at all.

Slowly, he pulled the books from the basket and paused.

"Couldn't you… you know, push it off now?" Joshua asked, hoping for a way to avoid being close enough to the reptile to be injected with venom. 'I thought I didn't have to worry about stupid venom anymore today,' I whimpered in his mind.

Sure enough, the thing pushed the thing up a bit with its head. He wasn't even surprised that the animal did as he said anymore. Although, maybe it wasn't that it had understood and it had just tried again. Unfortunately, the snake couldn't quite get it off from over it. Instead, it ended up just pushing it to a side on the floor. With a sigh, Joshua moved again, gulping down his fear as he saw the reptile wrap into a bundle again. With his eyes darting back to his cat for a second, he sighed and pushed the thing off in one go before all but jumping back.

Joshua almost called for Cheshire when the cat approached the snake, but ultimately remained silent. Then… they did nothing. The reptile remained coiled on the ground, beady black eyes staring right at the man. The feline, sitting right next to the serpent and he could have sworn she was puffing out her chest.

"Happy now?" Joshua asked, not taking his eyes away from the snake. "Because, if it bites me, so help me I'll-"

[Bond Unlocked: Snake]

'Are you for real?!' He asked in his mind, his eyes growing wide as he processed the screen in front of him. 'I'm… I'm not dealing with this right now,' Joshua decided, finally taking his eyes off the snake as he walked to the desk and took a seat on the chair. He needed a moment to gather his thoughts a bit. The night was proving to be… eventful, that was for sure.

When he lost the battle to keep his eyes away from the animals, he met the amber eyes of his… familiar. The cat then proceeded to turn to look at the snake and then at the man again. Joshua paused for a second before he came to a conclusion.

A very crazy conclusion.

"I'm… I'm not taking it with me, no way. Nope," He muttered to himself, unable to look away from Cheshire and his new bond. Both animals stared right back at him, as his mind tried to regain a semblance of order. The hiss that Cheshire sent his way as a response certainly didn't help. "I'm not," he denied, putting his foot down for once. "We are not taking a possibly very venomous snake with us. Next you'll tell me to take the spider that was about to kill me with us."

He grew concerned when he didn't receive a response besides a steady glare.

"No, Cheshire. No," He shook his head vehemently. "Not just no, but hell no. I love you, girl, I really do. But I'm not going to bring home not one but two very dangerous pets. I don't want to die, you know."

The cat had the gall to whine.

"What's gotten into you?" Joshua asked, resting his elbow on his leg and his forehead on his palm. His fingers grasped at his hair as he let out a shuddering breath.

'Familiar of Joshua Davis,' The words seemed to almost materialize in front of him, even if there was no screen. 'Familiar Cat.'

'Why am I thinking about this at all?' He asked himself, almost whining. 'I… Just…' His eyes moved to the snake, who- which was just there, lying on the floor and looking at him. 'Bond,' His mind pointed out to him. He had trusted Cheshire when the strange things started happening because of Bond.

But a snake? A spider? The spider? 'At least the spider didn't bond with me. That would just be… I don't even know,' Joshua thought to himself with a grimace.

'Might as well check everything, right?' Joshua thought, searching desperately for a reason to deny the cat's request. 'Appraisal. Skills.'

And there it was. The answer to his doubts until that point, plain for him to see. 'I should have checked this as soon as I saw the changes,' Joshua told himself, taking a deep breath in.

[Extrasensory - Lvl 1

Defines the user's ability to sense things outside their Perception.

Consumption - F]

'It's horribly vague though,' He complained with a grimace. It did, however, give an answer to Cheshire's strange behavior. He paused for a second as he turned his eyes to the serpent, still coiled on itself and just… lying there on the floor.

"I went insane," Joshua mumbled. "This whole night's driven me insane," He almost snapped as Cheshire sent a questioning meow his way. "Yes!" He exclaimed. "We are taking the snake with us, so-" He was interrupted with another mew. "And the spider… happy now?"

He didn't have the first idea about how he would do that, but that was something for future Joshua to deal with. At the moment, his head was starting to ache and he wanted to be done with the whole night already. While he busied himself thinking about everything and nothing, Cheshire seemed to have made her way over to him and started rubbing herself against one of his legs.

"I hope someday you'll be able to actually explain to me what the hell you saw or felt to… decided to bring these two with us," He told the cat wearily. "Because I would really like an answer, girl," He added before sighing and leaning down to pet his familiar. "And also," Joshua mused, his eyes going to the broken terrarium where the snake probably had lived until that night. "you shouldn't have broken that if you wanted to bring it with us."

He almost laughed when Cheshire turned her head away from him, his mind taking it as the cat being embarrassed. He couldn't quite manage that though, with his mind as scattered as it felt. The night's events had taken its toll once again as his eyes unfocused.

Joshua remembered then, peaceful times. His mind flashing to before… his death, to memories of himself just reading or playing something. After that, it was moments such as his days at the cafe or just sitting in his apartment with Cheshire. 'How did everything become such a mess in just one night?' He asked himself.

He almost jumped when his familiar decided to press her head against his shin. Looking down at her, he sighed and leaned forward to start petting her. 'I really need to stop losing myself like that.'

Standing, Joshua focused his mind on anything but the deal he had just done with his… cat while also avoiding thinking about his near-death experience. Instead, he looked at the books on top of the desk. They were, to his annoyance, normal books. Or, at least, they seemed to be, since after opening them, he found that they were anything but normal. 'Wonder if all the books on the shelves also had fake covers,' He thought with his eyes almost sparkling at the idea.

His good mood soon vanished though, when he remembered what was to come.

"I guess I just need to check on the basement now," Joshua said out loud, hoping it would compel him to ignore the uneasiness that brought him. He didn't want to be there. Didn't want to see the pool of blood that was surely drying on the steps. Didn't want to stand in the room where he had almost died.

A meow snapped him out of it once again and he sighed.

"Let's get this over with," He mumbled under his breath.

Not long afterwards, he stood on the stairs, just above the pool of now drying blood left by the Hunter. Avoiding it wasn't easy. The red liquid seemed to have covered some more space since he had last seen it, leaving barely enough space for him to walk down without touching it. Maybe he was being stupid, contorting his body just to not step on the puddle. But he really didn't want to touch it.

Joshua grimaced through his inspection of the… tools the Hunter kept down there, pushing aside images of just what the madman could have used them for besides their mundane, intended application.

'Now, this… this is what I was looking for,' Joshua thought with a grin that threatened to split his face.

[Magic Revolver

Rank - E]

[Appraisal has gone up a level.]

'Wonder if I can see Rank E due to Appraisal being level 10 or if it's something else...' The young man thought as he dismissed the level up screen and focused on Appraisal's result. 'Some more information would be nice too...'

Setting it on the table, a good distance away from the spider's box, Joshua turned to continue searching, his mind barely able to stay away from his new weapon. 'An actual magical item,' He thought somewhat giddily. It was, at the very least, a nice distraction from what he had found so far in the house. It was also, however, not the last surprise for him.

[Wardstone

Rank - ?]

'Something to look into,' Joshua decided, blinking at the gem-like stones that he had found in a drawer. They varied in colors and sizes, but they were all roughly about the size of an apple. His mind was plagued with thoughts about what they could be used for and, probably more prominently, the new magical things that he would be able to do with them if he could actually find something in the Hunter's books. Those bright thoughts regarding fantasy-like spellcasting came crashing down quickly though. After all…

'I am in this situation because I jumped into casting magic,' A voice chided him in his head and he cringed and grimaced. The phantom feeling of rope and metal binding his flesh flashing through his brain. 'I'll be more careful this time...' He thought to himself.

Once he checked everything though, he stood there, in the middle of the basement. His hands resting on the edge of the table as his eyes stared at the revolver and the wardstones. He wasn't really looking at them though. Instead, he was in his head, his conscious being pulled from all directions.

The Hunter.

The Spider.

Cheshire.

The Kill.

The Snake.

The Magic.

The Items.

Everytime his mind seemed to be about to focus on something, one of the other thoughts pulled it away. Even his familiar couldn't snap him out of it this time, instead choosing to curl up on the table next to his hand. Absently, his finger started softly tracing her fur as his brain warred with everything that had happened in the last few hours.

"What… what am I supposed to do now?" He asked out loud, unsure. He had almost died and now… should he just go back to his normal routine? Go to work at the cafe like nothing had happened? That sounded all kinds of wrong in his head. Especially since he had killed someone. "I can't possibly just… go back… can I?"

Cheshire let out a drawn out meow and Joshua sighed. Not for the first time, he wished he could understand his pe- familiar. Still, he got the faintest idea that she was trying to just… be supportive. A corner of his mind wondered if that was the familiar bond or his half-insane mind making up stuff.

As his eyes drifted off her, the feline stubbornly pressed her head against his forearm, bringing his attention back to her. Another meow was added once she noticed that he was actually listening and he let out a small, weak smile. 'At least I'm not alone,' He thought and, for a split second, he remembered the days after he had woken up in that bathroom, with his family dead, no friends and no connection with the rest of his relatives. Alone.

Shaking his head, Joshua brought himself back to the present.

"One step at a time… sounds about right, doesn't it?" He mumbled, expecting some kind of reassurance from his companion. It was promptly given in the shape of yet another rubbing of the cat's head against his skin. His smile widened the smallest bit. "Ok… Guess I have to find out if time passed since I was… captured," He mused, forcing the last word out. "I can't just… vanish. I don't… want to, either, if I'm honest. Going back to work seems like something I should do even if… it feels weird… wrong."

Joshua thought back to the stories he had often read in his old life. Tales about normal people thrown into crazy situations. About heroes that, despite how unprepared they were to face the odds against them, rose to the occasion. Warriors that, one way or another, would always find in themselves the strength to keep going. Characters that would just go on with their lives no matter what.

He didn't feel like that.

Joshua was deathly afraid of the same happening again. He felt awfully unprepared to go out into the world now that he knew what could lay there waiting for him. He had no strength to speak of, even if he had a Gamer System, even if he had a weapon now. He had no doubt that an actual fighter that wasn't underestimating him or caught off guard would kill him with no problem whatsoever. And most importantly, he couldn't just shrug off what happened. He probably wouldn't in the future either.

'Yeah, no protagonist here,' He thought to himself wryly.

"Let's just… go upstairs, yeah? I don't want to be here right now… We can check on the… snake… too. Maybe eat something," The last thing he wanted was to eat though, he didn't know if he would be able to keep it down. "Maybe just tea," He decided. "And then we can-"

He was interrupted with a meow that drew his eyes back to Cheshire. The cat then tapped something with her paw. Joshua sighed, his attention brought to the small box on the table. The box that contained a very small but very dangerous spider. His blue eyes met with Cheshire's amber ones and he promptly sighed again.

"Fine," He agreed reluctantly. "Happy now?" He asked as his hand held onto the box. Without replying, his familiar jumped down from the table and walked in front of him towards the table. "Why do I put up with you?" He muttered under his breath, but he couldn't keep his lips from quirking up.

[}-o-{]

"This is the kind of situation that one never thinks they'll be in, that one doesn't even consider, you know?" And it was a testament to how true it was that the question was aimed at a cat of all things. Joshua sat at a table in the house of a man that had tried to literally kill him with a spider. In front of him was a small glass cube with said spider inside, the webs were a mess, probably by the Hunter when he had taken the arachnid out. On his lap sat Cheshire, the cat herself, and on a corner of the room was the snake that he had seemingly created a bond with.

"I can't stop wondering," Joshua continued speaking to himself and to his familiar. 'And to my new pets too, I suppose,' He thought wryly. "When did my life come to this? I really can't stop asking myself that."

"And now I have to get back to the city. Peter is cool but I don't think he'll be too happy if I just… don't go to work," He thought his voice touched with disbelief, mostly at the fact that he could still be even slightly concerned at such a mundane thing. But the point stood, even with what had happened, and even with the knowledge that there was indeed crazy stuff that could happen in the world he now lived in, even with all that… he still needed money to live.

"What I wouldn't give for one of the Hunter's books to have a spell or something to get free food or something of the sort," Joshua mused out loud and Cheshire let out a meow that he took as a sort of 'yeah, that'd be nice'. He was past the point of being worried for his own sanity.

Then a thought struck him.

"How am I gonna get back to the city?"

Almost without thinking, he stood up from the chair and went to look outside. Maybe there would be a bike at least? The Hunter couldn't have just… walked around, could he? Or maybe he had moved through magic? That would suck since Joshua himself didn't know that magic yet and it probably would need circles to even be used without needing lots of energy.

Reaching the window, he saw only one thing outside. An old looking, tan colored car was the only thing outside, stationed in front of a shed-like building that looked like it had seen better days. That's not what his mind focused on though. No, his thoughts were, once again, sent into disarray as they strayed away from what he had been focused on.

Crash. Metal. Blood. Pale Faces.

Joshua knew how to drive a car. It had taken a painfully long time, but he did learn eventually. But… that was before he had been in the accident that changed his life, completely and irrevocably. The sight of the automovil was enough to make him feel faint and his blood ran cold.

He heard Cheshire meow, calling for his attention, but it sounded distant. Instead, he heard his mother and father speaking their last words to him once again. He felt something being pressed against him. His body was moved. He could almost feel the silence that followed.

Something pressing against his leg snapped him out of it and he looked down at his familiar once again. He didn't say anything, but he crouched and then rested his back against the wall, sitting on the ground and letting Cheshire curl up on his lap. He took a deep breath in and started petting her. He pushed away the thoughts that told him he needed to get to the city, urged by the light that was starting to show. The sunrise signaling that the night was over already.

Instead, he focused on calming down before thinking about any of that.

His eyes darted around, looking at everything and nothing in an effort to take his mind away from memories that were better left behind. And find something he did, although…

"I forgot you were there," Joshua said softly, his blue eyes locking with the snake's. The reptile just… lying there next to him, close enough that he could have reached with his arm and touched it, if barely. Definitely close enough that it could have extended its long neck and bitten him. "Guess you were right, eh, girl?" He told Cheshire, feeling like he should have been afraid or confused. But he had so much of both of those emotions that they were starting to become… muted.

He received only the normal meow in response.

"Anyway… Anyway, I should probably eat something… right?" Joshua asked, feeling more than a bit out of it. "Yeah. I… I didn't sleep much last night, if I skip breakfast… I'll faint on the work or something. Yeah..."

And with that, he set Cheshire on his side and stood up, his eyes unconsciously locking on the serpent next to him, which didn't even twitch at his movement. Shaking that out of his mind he went into the Hunter's kitchen and looked around. 'I don't really feel like eating though,' He thought with a grimace, getting flashed of the Hunter's bloody remains everytime he even considered anything to eat.

"Just some tea..." Joshua whispered, praying internally that the beverage would have the usual effect and help him calm down.

In the end, even as he drank the overly sweet drink just as he liked it… It didn't help much. Although, if he was being honest, he was just happy that he hadn't immediately thrown up after the first few sips. He didn't even feel like he would at all, which was a very big win in his book. His eyes then moved to the side.

"I don't know why I'm not more disgusted by this," Joshua mused out loud, looking at that plastic container filled with dead crickets. It hadn't taken long for him to guess for what they were. Next to it sat another one, that held a solitary, very dead rat. With a grimace, he took another sip from his half-empty cup. "The things I do for you, Cheshire."

His familiar let out a soft purring sound as she rubbed herself against his leg.

Joshua let out a long sigh before he took his tea and quickly drank what was left of it. Then, visibly gathering his courage, he opened both plastic containers, picking up the rat by its tail, he steadied his breathing as he walked towards the other side of the room and placed the dead rodent on the floor, close to the snake.

"Enjoy," He muttered, his voice shaky, just like his hands. Walking back to the table, he took one of the crickets and quickly threw it inside the glass cage of the spider before closing it again. Sighing again, he sat back down and looked, half curious and half disturbed as the arachnid slowly approached its… food. "Enjoy you too, I guess," He whispered, more to himself than to the deadly creature.

His eyes moved again, and caught the sight of the snake that was half-way through… gulping the rat that he had given it. Joshua then remembered seeing snakes feeding on documentals and such. It was quite a bit different to watch it with his own two eyes instead of on the TV.

[Bond Unlocked: Spider]

'Of fucking course,' Joshua thought as he looked at the new screen. 'Because why the fucking hell wouldn't this happen, right?'

That wasn't, however, the biggest surprise in store for him at that moment. No, that dubious honor went to the bright light that appeared right in the middle of the table, then and there. It slowly, very slowly dimmed until there was only one thing left. A small, crystal-like lotus right where the light had appeared. When Joshua leaned closer to take a look with a disturbed expression, he noticed that it had a small chain attached to it.

"What the actual fuck?" He asked out loud, and Cheshire, this time, responded with an equally confused meow. Even the snake, still in its corner, had drawn up threateningly and hissed. It looked at the… thing, instead of at him, Joshua noticed with some interest.

It took the young man a second to remember that he had a skill just for a moment like this.

[Charm of ####

Rank - ?]

[} Chapter End {]