Chapter 69-Looking Up To Where I Soar

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.

Looking Up to Where I Soar

"Thanks for coming with me," Joshua said as they walked towards the meeting point. He'd asked if she wanted to teleport and make it quicker, but she seemed to be a fan of the scenic route. That suited him just fine. Despite being able to just appear wherever he needed to be, he still enjoyed a bit of a walk whenever he needed to go somewhere. Not too much, but a bit was always nice.

"No problem~" Serafall dismissed, skipping next to him as if she were hearing a song only her ears picked up. Nobody seemed to give the woman in a magical girl outfit a second glance, which he thought was weird in itself. He was fairly sure that Serafall would have left things as they were, since he remembered her liking the attention in the series. "It's always nice to show it to the meanies of the Church~" she added, to which he chuckled.

Maybe it was a bit of a mistake to pick Serafall, the Satan Leviathan, as the person that'd help him deal with the politics of a meeting with the Church. And "a bit" might be quite the understatement too. However, Joshua couldn't bring himself to care all that much. Besides, who else was he supposed to choose? Yasaka would have been better, but she couldn't leave Kyoto and Azazel… was Azazel. Shed seemed to still want to keep away from his stuff, which was appreciated and slightly frustrating at times. Besides, Joshua also wasn't sure how good the Egyptian god was with politics, so there was that.

The sheepish feeling he got from the Charm said it all, really.

When he was going to point out that he needed Serafall to be somewhat friendly as to not ruin the chance, something seemed to shift in the woman. The skipping, childish attitude vanished to be replaced with something… sharper. It wasn't quite a jarring change, but it was certainly noticeable. Her smile was what gave it away, really, it went from a cheerful thing to a mischievous thing. Joshua had to wonder if that spelled bad things about the meeting to come.

"Oh, Joshua~" the Satan started, grinning even wider then. "It seems that you've done me a favor without knowing. Ain't you lucky?"

"I'm afraid to ask," the man admitted with a wry smile. "This isn't gonna blow up in my face, is it?"

"Nothing of the sort," Serafall reassured, waving away his concerns even though it didn't really work out that well. It was difficult to take Serafall seriously regarding bad things, but it was equally as difficult to do so regarding good things too, it seemed. "I'm just gonna have so much fun. I'd have paid you to let me come if I'd known this would happen."

"I mean, I'm not against more payment, even if I don't even know what I would ask for," Joshua mused, deciding to see where things went. It was a little late to ask Serafall not to come, and that'd be quite the mistake, he was sure. With some luck, she wasn't lying and nothing bad would happen. "Maybe more on Hexes. I've started focusing a little more on that after I started to actually cast them and they are very interesting. I might just put it side to side with my wards in terms of focus."

".. I'm sure I'll think of something, Joshua~" Serafall replied with, although he was fairly sure that there was a bit of a stumble on her words. Weird, but she did weirder stuff on a regular basis, really.

"... Ah, I think I know what you meant," Joshua mumbled, finally picking up on something with his Magic Sense and Life Sense. There were the usual spells for privacy and concealment but under all that there were two people waiting for them. Griselda, which he could already all but recognize after several meetings and much better sensing capabilities and next to her… "That's an angel, isn't it?" he asked, because he could feel the Holy in that being with both of his skills.

It reminded him of Jeanne's swords, but much stronger, and thus… his guess.

"You are right, Joshua~" Serafall confirmed, making him grow nervous. So, they weren't going to meet just the Church, but also Heaven? Joshua wasn't very clear on how separate both organizations were, but he knew that they were somewhat so. "And not just any angel either~"

"Very reassuring," Joshua said wryly as they opened the door to the cafe Griselda and he had agreed to meet in. 'Is that…?' he wondered once he caught sight of who seemed to be Heaven's representation in the meeting. "Griselda," he greeted with a nod, before turning fully towards the blonde woman, getting a similar greeting back from her. "I don't think we've met, Joshua Davis," he introduced himself, extending his hand.

Maybe it was the wrong way to greet them and introduce himself to an angel, but really, he didn't know. He also didn't care enough to research that kind of stuff. He had better stuff to study when he had time, really, and he couldn't be bothered with politics anyway. If someone was offended, he'd apologize and if that wasn't enough, then… Well, that was that and he'd just rely on his allies. Serafall didn't seem too worried about what he'd done, so he took that as his actions not being too troublesome.

That is, until he saw her holding back a giggle.

"I'm Gabriel, nice to meet you, Joshua Davis," the blond woman replied with a kind smile that could have lit the place by itself. 'Of course it is,' Joshua thought to himself as he shook hands with a Seraph. He wasn't annoyed, per se, but he was kind of weary of things just always seeming to break his expectations. "I'd like to apologize for how the Church has interacted with you so far. Things… haven't been going quite as we'd have liked."

"Don't worry about it," he waved off, taking a seat in front of the two when the Seraph went to do the same. Ignorant he might be, but he could try, he supposed. If he failed… Well, at least he did his best, sort of. "I just want Khaos Brigade dealt with, and it seems I'll be getting what I want a little easier now."

With some luck, either this little alliance would come through or his traps would. Ideally both, of course, but he liked to keep his hopes down. At the end of the day, he only wanted to stop the terrorists, preferably before they unleashed Trihexa. Joshua's knowledge of that part of the series was spotty at best, but with some luck the changes he'd make along the way would be enough to stop any apocalyptic danger from coming through.

"And that's what we want too," Gabriel agreed with a nod, placid smile still in place. "There were some misunderstandings amongst our people, but those have been cleared."

"That's… nice," Joshua said, blinking as he tried to think up what that could mean. Considering the history of the Church, that could be a rather dark statement. But then again, this was Gabriel delivering it so… He was uncertain. Maybe it was better to leave things as they were.

"Joshua here was quite upset, you know?" Serafall said, deciding to talk for the first time. It wasn't lost on Joshua, and likely on the other two, that she hadn't greeted anyone at all, nor had she introduced herself. "Gabriel, your people all but slapped him in the face, you know?"

If Joshua hadn't known better, he'd have thought he saw Gabriel's eyebrow twitch.

"I'm aware and that's been something they have had to explain and later be punished for. There was no reason to act in such a way, even going as far as having Griselda here taking the fall for their short sightedness," the angel replied, still smiling. Joshua was sure that if it were anyone else, grinning so much would have been unnerving. Instead, with her, it came off as peaceful and warm. 'Maybe that's an angel power?'

It was such a shame that he couldn't have some wards of his own to look more closely at a completely new race he'd just met. 'Some other time, maybe,' he mused. Would they be wary if he invited them to one of his places for a talk next time? That was likely, unfortunately.

"But what about Joshua here, the wronged party? Surely you have something in mind to offer him, right? You weren't going to brush things aside, right?" Serafall pressed then, not even trying to hide how much she was enjoying doing what she was doing. To her credit, Gabriel didn't react at all. Griselda, next to her, however, was an entirely different matter. The poor woman seemed to be rather nervous, from what Joshua was picking up with Life Sense.

'Really wondering how good an idea this was,' Joshua lamented to himself.

"As a matter of fact, that was already in the plans. We were going to discuss that as soon as this talk was over, I'll have you know," Gabriel replied without- Was that a narrowing in her eyes? "We've heard tales about how difficult it is to reach an agreement with Mr. Davis here, so I thought it better to leave that for later."

To that, Seferall clicked her tongue in annoyance, before childishly huffing and turning to the side.

"Whatever you think is a good enough… compensation, would it be? Whatever you think is best works for me," Joshua said, shrugging. He really couldn't care less for that. He was still going through the books Serafall had given him and he doubted the Church would have much on Hexes, so he couldn't really think of something that he wanted to ask for.

Next to him, Serafall giggled behind her hand while Gabriel blinked at him and Griselda brought a hand up to massage the bridge of her nose.

'What?'

"So, about Khaos Brigade?" Joshua asked, when it seemed that nobody was going to talk.

"As I understand it, this agreement you want to reach between factions is to share information regarding this terrorist group?" Gabriel asked, seemingly jumping at the change of subject. Weird, but Joshua could work with that. It was what he wanted to focus on, after all.

"The thing is simple," he started, taking a tone he'd started using more and more, now that he was teaching classes. "If a faction comes across information regarding Khaos Brigade that they can't use because it involves another faction's territory, and that other faction is part of the agreement, they'll share it with the involved party. As simple as that. If, as I did before, the devils find information regarding a Khaos Brigade base in Church or Heaven territory, then they'll share it with you and if the opposite happens, then you'll share it with them. Simple enough, right?"

"It is," Gabriel agreed, nodding slowly. "And it would be just that, sharing this information and nothing else? No payments for the information, no exchanges or deals?"

"No," Joshua shook his head. "I think progress being made to stop these mad people is enough payment, don't you?" he asked, trying very hard not to sound accusatory. Was it too much to ask that people put aside their differences to deal with someone that wanted to bring the apocalypse, literally? Apparently, as he was coming to learn, it was.

"That's more than agreeable enough for us," Gabriel said and he could have cheered. "I'm guessing we'll have to discuss the specifics of how the information will be shared between factions?"

"I'll leave that to you and the people that know politics. I'm just here as… Honestly, I'm not sure why I have to be here, in all honesty," Joshua said, smiling wryly at them.

"Incentive, obviously, since anyone that's part of this agreement will be on good terms with you," Serafall offered sagely and Joshua wondered if that was truly the case. He knew he was considered good, but surely not that good, right? Well, if it worked, it worked, he supposed.

"That, I guess," he said, waving vaguely at the Satan. "Now, about this info you had?"

[}-o-{]

[Serafall Leviathan]

That meeting had gone… better than she expected. The Church and Heaven had been strangely cooperative, in Serafall's humble opinion. Going from outright rejecting Joshua's idea to just going with it instantly was quite the change. The way Gabriel talked about the Church's people was very telling though.

Joshua had likely missed it, but the angel had thrown the Church under the bus while leaving Heaven smelling like roses. Maybe it was really what had happened, but still, coming from two factions that were more often than not considered to be the same, it meant something. There was something going on in that side of the Three Factions and Serafall wanted to know what was up.

That meeting hadn't been the time for that though, since it was focused more on the agreement and Khaos Brigade. Joshua really wanted to deal with them, it seemed, and while Serafall got it to some extent, she also didn't. That might have been her skewed perception as someone that had lived for quite some time though. After all, the supernatural world always had threats like those, it knew them and it was used to them.

And maybe because of that, it dismissed them to some extent.

"That went well," Joshua said, sitting on his sofa as Serafall did the same on an armchair to the side. The Satan looked at him while the man lost himself on the papers that Gabriel had given them. What she wouldn't have given to take a peek into his mind to see what he was thinking. There was surely something interesting going on in his brain, Serafall was sure.

"What are you thinkin, Joshua~?" she asked, reveling in the fact that she could just ask that and actually expect an answer. With most other people, she'd be met with suspicion and wariness. After all, she was a Satan, and a politically inclined one to boot. People weren't very open when met with any of those two things, nevermind both.

"I'm thinking that I might have ready the new ward I was working on for this, unless you wanted to deal with it yourself?" Joshua answered, blinking as he turned to ask that question. Serafall, to that, gave him an amused expression.

"Silly Joshua, of course we'll take care of that ourselves. It's in our territory, after all," she told him, as if he were a particularly slow child. However, what she focused on was the "new ward" part of his statement. What had the man cooked up now and how did he even get the time while working on everything else he did too? If nothing else, she was in awe of the way he could just have a bunch of different projects on and not really neglect any of them.

"Guess I can work on that project some more before testing then," Joshua mumbled to himself but now he'd gotten her curious about that. It was strange, to see the usually calm and collected Joshua look so… eager and excited, almost bloodthirsty. 'So, even he can have a… less than friendly side, huh? Interesting,' she thought, looking at him.

That word certainly fit Joshua Davis, probably more than it did any other human. Maybe that was the reason they'd become friends, she supposed. One needed to be some sort of strange to casually befriend a Satan, after all. Nevermind the rest of Joshua's group of friends and acquaintances.

"If it's any consolation, Joshua~" Serafall started then, grinning widely. "We'll have to ask you to deal with things outside of the range of our little… alliance, as it were," she told him. And wasn't it strange, to think that her race, the Fallen, Heaven and the Church were working together. Maybe it was a little late to consider that, but still. The Youkai were there too, but that was almost minor compared to the others.

"On second thought, I don't know if I really want to be thrown into that kind of danger," Joshua replied with a wry grin. Apparently, that fire that had appeared before had been pushed back by the man's usual cold-headedness. Still, Serafall knew it was still there somewhere, just under control.

For the moment, she had other things to consider in regards to the man that were more important. After all, she knew that he was the key to the agreement they were working on. If not for him, the idea wouldn't even have been brought up. If not for him, none of them would have considered it.

It was certainly an exaggeration to say that he was the sole reason behind the whole thing, but he was the one that set the thing in motion. Joshua had been the one to nudge them in the direction they were going in now. 'Maybe you don't like politics, Joshua,' Serafall thought to herself. 'But you sure know how to work things to your advantage.'

If she hadn't known better, she'd have thought he manipulated the whole thing and all of them to get the result he got. Even knowing better, she was suspicious. At the end of the day, she'd been close enough to know that he wasn't some sort of mastermind.

Serafall had a hard time deciding though, if Joshua was just good at making friends or at making people see things his way. Maybe there was a politician somewhere in there. Now, if only he weren't so against the concept as a whole though.

A shame, really.

The kind of things the man could do, if he set his mind to it…

[}-o-{]

[Margalo]

She was a frustrated bird.

Cheshire, Nagini, Morag and Father could go on and on about how she'd get there and how she was the youngest and thus it made sense for her to be a little late to her evolution. None of that changed the fact that she felt so very… small and weak compared to everyone else. She was so far behind her sisters it wasn't even funny.

And then there was Margalo, who the most she could do was sing encouraging tunes for others to fight. That was… That wasn't what she wanted. She wanted to be useful. Maybe she didn't need to fight up close and personal like Cheshire did, or be mean like Nagini, or crafty like Morag, but… Margalo wanted something to do, something to really help with.

She knew more battles would come, and she didn't want to be left at home like she had with the last battle. So, Magalo had done her best, tried as hard as she could while following her feline sister's steps and tried to make something that she could use to fight with, or help with, or something. The song was as far as she had gotten, other than the ability to go faster she'd outright copied from Cheshire.

Margalo was immediately distracted from her inner grumblings when Father brought his hand up for her to rest on. She wasn't tired, but she wasn't stupid enough to pass up the chance to be close to Father and bask in his infinite warmth. She knew he wasn't her real father, of course. She might be incompetent battlewise but she wasn't dumb. However, he was the one that had raised her, that day after she was picked up by Cheshire, her sister.

Joshua had taken her in his family and everyone had done their best to look after her. It was the reason he was Father and it was the reason she wanted to be more useful. She had so much to repay them all for and she was still so frustratingly far from reaching any real kind of success on that front. She was still getting all that they gave her and had nothing to give back. It made her feel-

"Shh, it's fine, girl," Father whispered to her, rubbing his finger under her beak in a way that pushed to the side all her bad thoughts, as usual. "There's no need to get like that. It's fine. You'll get there."

She chirped at him, because she already knew that! It didn't make her feel any better though. If anything, his reassurance only made her feel worse. Was she placing another burden on Father's shoulders with her frustration? It would be just her luck…

"Come on, cheer up, Margalo," he told her, smiling kindly at her like he always did. Cheshire and Nagini seemed sure that Father doted on her because she was the youngest… And maybe they were right, but Margalo wasn't going to complain. "Sing something for me, girl. Your songs are always nice, especially when I'm tired."

Nothing else needed to be said for her to start singing. Maybe it was little, and maybe it wasn't that useful, but if she could help Father by singing, then she would. One day, she'd do more, but until then, she would sing with all that she had.

Margalo reached inside, for the energy that her sisters had taught her to use. For the same energy that she used to fly faster or encourage others with her song. Instead of doing that though, she used it for another tune. One more relaxed, more kind, one more… warm.

Like Father.

As she sang, Margalo felt the Shift coming once more, as she'd so hoped for so long. She embraced it instantly, just like she'd done before and just like her sisters did whenever they could. She welcomed the slight nudge from the god that Father called Shed. They'd yet to meet him, but Father seemed sure that was his name, so that must have been his name. Margalo didn't much care for that, instead focusing on how the being helped her and her sisters grow stronger, faster, better.

Maybe the deity would help her reach the heights she so craved.

Father's energy flooded her as their very beings were linked by Shed, seemingly wanting to empower her song. So, Margalo sang, even as she felt herself grow to be… more than she was. She didn't feel like she was getting bigger, but her energy felt more powerful nonetheless and the energy she poured into her tune grew accordingly.

Then, she felt something her sisters had already told her about. Their explanations felt so very lacking at that moment though, as the link between Father and her, became one of more than just energy. Instead, she felt his calm, his kindness and his warmth much better than Margalo ever had before. If only for that, she was thankful to Shed.

Through her new link to Father, Margalo also felt her sisters gather around to watch this eventful moment in her life. Cheshire, in her biggest form, walked up to them and gently nudged her with her nose once the process was over. Margalo didn't feel much different from before, but that wasn't important at the moment.

Nagini, much less expressive than the feline, simply hissed something that sounded vaguely congratulatory, which might as well have been a loud cheer coming from her. A very effusive being, Margalo's serpentine sister was not, but they all loved her nonetheless. Likely picking up on that, Nagini looked away.

As for Morag, her fellow youngster, in a way… She climbed on Father's back, as she'd taken to doing after she found out she couldn't sit on his head as she did before. Once there, her arachnid sister gingerly poked at her with her legs. Clicking her mandibles curiously, Morag wondered if Margalo was alright.

To answer that question, the bird sang once more, the song inspired by Joshua.

The Song of her Father.

[} 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/)