67 Chapter 67-A Little Time To Ourselves

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.

A Little Time to Ourselves

"They don't sound that smart," Kunou said, sounding amused as she continued working through a paper he'd given her with exercises. She'd drilled him about how his first class had gone and she had no mercy for his students, it seemed.

"I think it's more that I'm an… unorthodox teacher. Or maybe an outright bad one," Joshua commented, tinkering with his own stuff. He'd been tweaking Hex spells more and more now that he was actually casting the things. He also wanted to add them to his research attempts for the Phoenix Ward. Hell, maybe he'd end up making a Phoenix Hex.

Who knew? Because he certainly didn't.

"You are a great teacher though," Kunou protested, looking up and frowning at him. He smiled softly at her and chuckled. "You are! Look at all you taught me and it hasn't even been that long!"

"Yes, but it might just be that my strange method worked well for you," Joshua commented, twirling the pencil he held between his fingers. "I'm not too worried. It's not like I'm super into teaching or anything. I enjoy teaching you, and I sort of liked the first class at House of Water, but my life won't end if I'm not an apt teacher."

"Still, I think you are good," Kunou mumbled, pouting and resolutely looking down at her work.

"And I appreciate it," Joshua told her, grinning and placing a hand on her head. Ruffling her hair, he idly glanced at what she was doing. From what he could see, it looked good enough. Some things could be improved, but that was what his teaching was for. There'd always be room for improvement. "You are really liking Project Duel, huh?"

"Yeah!" she exclaimed, looking up and forgetting all about his teaching and his classes. She grinned excitedly at him before continuing. "There's so many different things we can do here. Plants, animals, golems, undead, insects, monsters and so many more things. Everything could work here and it's awesome!"

"Well, glad to see you so enthusiastic. What are you working on right now?" Joshua asked and she suddenly grew shy. Taking a deeper look into the circles she was working on, he grinned. "Kitsune people, huh? What a shock."

"Shut up, dad," she mumbled, looking away from him and fidgeting with her fingers. "Don't you have stuff to work on too?" she asked, clearly trying to distract him. Still, he allowed it, turning away while he chuckled.

"I guess that's true," he agreed, drawing a relieved sigh from her. "Ah, Fuyuko," he greeted the yuuki-onna as she entered the room. "Right on time, could you… get me a cup of tea?" he said weakly, deflating a little when he saw that the servant already had the drink in her hands. She was getting better and better at predicting him, it seemed.

Not that he was complaining, but still.

[}-o-{]

Joshua remained silent for a long moment, looking around with a raised eyebrow. There were some "hidden" giggles that weren't all that stealthy at all, not that the girls were even trying very hard to begin with. Then he looked at his sister, who was determinedly not looking at him.

"I thought you said you wouldn't join the kendo club," he commented, making her chuckle nervously as she rubbed her arm with one hand. "And now you bring the whole team over here?"

"Well, you see… they were very convincing?" she replied, although it sounded more like a question than a statement. Regardless, Joshua just sighed. Considering the handful the next few minutes were going to be, he brought his hands up and tied his hair back.

"Well, I guess I can give you all a discount. Officially, because you are a whole lot. Unofficially, just keep Jeanne from getting herself in trouble, yeah?" Joshua told the rest of the club, drawing even more giggles as he sighed again. Then he pulled out a notepad from his pocket. He'd gotten good at waiting tables but he wasn't about to take all their orders and try to memorize them. He didn't hate himself quite that much. Ignoring his sister's protests, he continued. "So, what will it be, girls?"

And so he started taking note of what everyone wanted. He also supposed he would have to get used to it. If Jeanne was going to go about the kendo club like she did her devil friends, then they would come around a whole lot. At least she wouldn't try to get him to put up illusion shows for them or invite them for dinner. The first for obvious reasons and the second because… Well, they didn't really live in Kuoh, after all.

It was a very tired Joshua that sat down at an empty table some time later. He'd personally made all the orders for Jeanne's table, leaving everything else to the staff that Sona had procured. Those were good people, from what he'd seen. They didn't seem to care at all about his strange behavior as a boss too, which was a plus. Although, as normal humans aware of the supernatural and that dealt with devils, he supposed it shouldn't be all that surprising.

If his intelligence gathering regarding where they came from – read, asking them – wasn't wrong, then they had all been directed at him by their own devil deals. Apparently, most of them had asked for a job, because their situations had been bad. As such, Sona and Rias had gathered them and thrown them at him after some screening to make sure they were at least somewhat competent. That worked well for Joshua, since it meant they were all eager to work and grateful for it. He was also sure that the generous pay he gave them had something to do with that too. Sometimes he'd have to make time to teach them something, but that was happening less and less as time went by and he was happy with their work so far.

'Wonder if there are more people in need of a job. I could do something about that, I guess. Money stopped being a problem a long time ago,' he mused, although it was mostly an idle thought. Something to think about later though, he supposed.

Joshua was snapped from his thoughts then as someone took a seat in front of him on the empty chair. It took him a single glance to know who the new arrival was and his already weary mood plummeted even further, this time towards annoyance. Some of that must have leaked to his face, because the guy promptly stiffed on his seat and gulped.

"Ah, good afternoon, Davis-san," the boy greeted him, already sweating bullets under his glare.

"First of all, call me Joshua, it ruins my mood to be called by my surname. You don't want to do that more than you already do," he replied, maybe harsher than he needed to. Being tired wasn't helping his mood. Taking a deep breath in, he did his best to calm himself a little. "Second of all… What do you want?"

"Well, ah, Joshua-san, you see, I was thinking," he stuttered out and Joshua just waited as he stumbled on his own words. "Could I work here?"

Joshua took another deep breath in.

"Why would I hire you, Plain-kun?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy.

"Ah, my name is Hyoudou Issei," the protagonist of the world Joshua now lived in mumbled weakly. He remained silent, unimpressed. "I… Well, I just wanted to have some extra money and I thought working here would be nice," he said, and Joshua would give him credit, it almost sounded- "And there are a lot of beautiful girls that come here often, so I'd like to work here because of that too."

There it was…

"You realize that doesn't really help your case here, right?" he asked. Although, he'd admit that at least the guy was honest. That was one of the reasons he guessed the whole harem thing had worked for him. He was a fool, but a kind one. And he was a pervert, but an honest one. 'I guess this place has a fucked up logic too, but let's leave that topic aside for now,' Joshua thought to himself.

"I promise I'll be on my best behavior, Joshua-san!" Hyoudou exclaimed, bowing and resting his head on the table. "I promise I won't disturb the people in the cafe if you let me work here. I'll do my best too. I'll be the best employee you'll have."

"And I believe you," Joshua told him. It was even the truth, mostly because he knew about the guy's character. As he'd said before, if there was one thing that Hyoudou Issei was, it was honest. Still… There had to be something going on. His canon self hadn't gotten a job. And even if he seemed to be in some kind of alternative universe of DxD, that was still a little suspicious. "And those are all your reasons for wanting to work here?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at the guy.

For a long moment, Hyoudou sweated nervously, fidgeting with his hands over the table. Eventually, he mumbled something that Joshua couldn't even understand. When he raised an eyebrow at him, Issei then took a deep breath in and spoke again, more clearly.

"Girls like you, a lot," he grumbled, like he was personally offended by this fact or something. "And a lot of them come here. I want to see if I can make them like me too."

Taking yet another deep breath in, Joshua tried to think of a way to deal with this new… issue.

"It's not that they like me," he denied, rolling his eyes at Hyoudou's incredulous look. "They are just comfortable here, because I'm not making them uncomfortable by constantly looking at them like they are just good looking bodies without a soul or something," he explained. "You know that's why they don't like you and your friends, right? You don't care about them as people, you just like their bodies."

"Excuse me?! That's not it at all!" He protested, actually looking rather insulted and hurt by his words. "Sure, we appreciate that they are sexy, but that's not all. We know they are also beautiful on the inside, the hell are you saying, man?!"

"You do know that your behavior doesn't really support your claims, right?" Joshua asked and he was witness to Hyoudou opening his mouth to protest again and then closing it. Silently, the guy frowned and Joshua could almost see the gears turning inside his head. He seemed to grow more and more annoyed by the second.

"That's what everyone thinks?" Issei asked then, his eyes darting towards the kendo club, who were doing their best to ignore his presence. "That's really what everyone thinks," he muttered as if just realizing.

"I mean, if all you do is shout about their boobs and what not, what are they supposed to think?" Joshua asked him, making him slump on his seat. "Well, now you know and you can try and fix the problem. Good luck," he told him, waving him off and resting his head tiredly on his hand. Absently, he took his cup of tea and brought it to his lips. When he went to set it down though, he realized that Hyoudou hadn't left. "What are you waiting for?"

"About that job?" the guy asked nervously.

"..." Joshua stared at him for a long moment before sighing. "Girls! How have the trio behaved as of late?!"

"They've stopped trying to spy on us, at least!" someone shouted back. And Joshua was fairly sure he caught the guy mumbling something that sounded like "not a sexual harrasser", which… good for him, he supposed. It shouldn't have taken Joshua pointing that out for them to get that, but he'd take what he could.

"They are still creepy though!" someone else added.

"Here's what's going to happen," Joshua started then, staring down at Hyoudou, who straightened his back once more. "You are going to do your absolute best to stop making girls uncomfortable. I'll have Jeanne tell you if you do something wrong and you'll make sure to try and not do it again. If you fail too much, you are fired."

Hyoudou nodded quickly.

"You'll make sure your friends act like normal, well adjusted people too. If you can't, then you'll stop hanging out with them. Otherwise you are fired," Joshua continued, and he glared harder when Hyoudou opened his mouth to protest. "I won't have you enabling their behavior. Just being friends with them if they keep like that is a point against you."

Reluctantly, Hyoudou nodded again.

"And you will do your best as a worker here," Joshua added, narrowing his eyes. "I don't expect you to be great at it, but I expect you to try. If you slack off or don't take it seriously, you are fired. Was I clear?"

Hyoudou couldn't nod fast enough.

"Good, talk with her," Joshua said, pointing at a member of his staff. "She organizes the staff. Now, go away, I'm tired."

"Yes, thank you," the boy exclaimed, sounding like he meant it. "I won't let you down, Joshua-sensei."

Joshua blinked then, before bringing a hand up and massaging the bridge of his nose. 'What did I just get myself into?' he thought. Maybe he was too nice for his own good. The amusement he got from his familiars and Shed's Charm was entirely too mean, honestly.

[}-o-{]

"You know you don't have to buy so much from here, right?" Phil asked, somewhat nervously. From where Joshua stood, he just rolled his eyes at the man. His uncle had been walking on eggshells ever since he met him after… Well, after everything. It was already getting kind of old.

"Phil, relax," he reassured with a wave of his hand. "I actually want to buy all this stuff. I need it for a project I'm working on," he explained, signaling his purchase. Not that he could blame the man overly much for being a little skeptical. After all, his purchase involved a whole lot of cards from games. To make things even worse, Joshua was buying from a bunch of different games, not just the one. "You could say I'm working on making a game of my own, that's why I need them. I want to check them and see if they give me ideas."

"I guess that makes sense?..." Phil replied, not sounding very certain of that. "What do you do again?"

"I mostly work on developing software," Joshua lied smoothly. Still, while he didn't know the first thing about that, he liked to think it couldn't be that different from spell crafting.

"You making your own game? You were always very into that stuff," his uncle commented and he smiled. He had been a bit too into videogames, he supposed. "Work going well, I suppose?"

"Really well, don't worry. I can afford all this with no worries," Joshua reassured again, making the man smile nervously. It wasn't that unwarranted. He was spending a whole lot on the cards. "How about you?"

"Well, I'll definitely be doing better after this sale, so thank you for that," Phil commented, his grin turning wry. "But things have been a little troublesome as of late. The twins are at an age where they need more money, which doesn't help, but… Well, it is what it is."

"Hm, I'm sure things will go better in the future, Phil. You are a good man, and good things happen to people like you," Joshua told him, giving the man a soft smile. He would make sure his uncle did well. Out of all his family, the guy was the one that probably deserved some luck thrown his way the most. What did it say about them all, when he wasn't even blood related to Joshua and he was the best of the lot? The remaining ones, at least.

Regardless, it seemed that Joshua would have to talk with some of his devil contacts. Sona was probably the way to go, since he wanted things to be done more subtly. He'd still check with Rias and Sairaorg, no need to unknowingly insult them or something.

"What are the twins into anyway? Maybe I can get them a present. I was kinda on my own world during Christmas," Joshua added, looking around the shop. Not that he'd get them something from there. If they really wanted something from there, he doubted Phil wouldn't have given it to them already.

"Boys," the man said with a smile that spoke much more than that single word did.

"Oh, you poor, poor bastard," Joshua replied with a chuckle. "Well, I'm gonna take a wild guess and go for clothes then. A whole lot of them. I'll have to get a second opinion, but I know just who to ask."

"Oh, finally got a girlfriend?" Phil asked, leaning forward, resting his elbows on the counter. "Do tell."

"Nothing like that," he denied almost instantly with a wry smile. "As if I'd be that lucky," he added with a roll of his eyes. "I kinda… adopted a sister, if you will. She'll help me with that. She's a little older than the twins, but she should be good enough to help me out here. If not, her friends surely will."

"Huh… Your life sure changed in this last year, Josh," his uncle commented, seemingly taken aback. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you are a different person altogether."

'You are more right than you know, Phil,' Joshua thought to himself.

"Some things can change a person," he said instead, drawing a sympathetic look from his uncle.

"Well, you are clearly doing well, but if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask, yeah?" Phil told him, patting his arm reassuringly. Maybe the man didn't think it was all that important, but it sure was for Joshua. Despite everything, all the friends he now had and how well things had been going, it felt more meaningful to know that a family member had his back, even if Phil wouldn't be able to do anything regarding any supernatural problems.

"Thanks, Phil. Same goes for you, if you need anything, just call," Joshua told him with a grin.

[}-o-{]

Joshua relished the feeling of the cool water against his face. It was a little too cool, but that was no problem for him, really. It wasn't like he'd stay wet or something. It was the middle of the winter and Cold Resistance was still too low level. With a weary sigh, tired from all the training, he ran his wet fingers through his hair before pulling it back and tying it.

Taking a towel, he dried himself a little. Once done, he took a deep breath in, as if he were trying to pull energy from the very air. Nothing of the sort happened, but the cool winter air in his lungs was nice enough. 'I haven't fallen ill so far, so I guess that confirms that Vitality works against diseases and such. It'd be weird for me not to catch something with what I'm doing,' he mused idly as he threw the towel over his shoulders and moved to look outside. His familiars were still training, after all, and Jeanne was now meditating and preparing to work on her Sacred Gear a bit more.

For his part, Joshua would likely rest for a bit and go back to spell crafting and modification. Maybe he'd spend some time going over ideas for his classes, if he needed a break. As it was, he'd be taking a true break for a bit and watch everyone else work on their stuff. Besides…

"Hope you are not too bored?" he asked, sitting down on the little platform that faced towards the backyard. Next to him, swinging her feet back and forth was Serafall Leviathan herself. "Sorry for making you wait."

"It's fine~" the Satan waved off cheerfully, watching with interest as his familiars worked on their skills. "They are so cool~" she added. Although, to be honest, he wondered how sincere that was. His familiars were awesome, at least to him, but to a faction leader? They probably weren't all that impressive.

"They are," he agreed, regardless of his thoughts on the matter.

"And you aren't bad either, I gotta say, Joshua," Serafall commented, turning her attention towards him.

"Well, yeah, I've gotten better with my daggers. So has Jeanne with her swords. We kinda push each other to get better," he said with a shrug and a somewhat shy smile. He wasn't good with direct compliments like that. He knew he was good with magic, somewhat, but he still felt uncomfortable with that being pointed out blatantly, nevermind anything else. Strangely, the only thing he could take compliments for was his cooking.

"Sure, that's what I was talking about~" Serafall told him with a grin, in that way that screamed she hadn't actually been talking about that. Which confused Joshua to no end. What else could she be referring to then? His mind found no answer as he blinked repeatedly.

"Anyway, I take it you had some free time? Or are you using me as an excuse to make people wait again?" he asked, deciding to change the subject else he got even more confused. He was too tired to try to make sense of Serafall overly much.

"A bit of both," she replied cheerfully, turning back towards the backyard. "I like coming here, you know? It's nice, it's calm, and nobody cares who I am… much."

"I mean, I think I've gotten over the fear of being smitten at any comment by this point," Joshua said, only half-joking. "You are entirely too friendly to latch onto that, really. So, I just do what I do best and roll with it. Seems to have worked out great for me so far."

"That's one way of looking at it," she told him, giggling behind her hand. "You know one of the best things about being Levia-tan?" she asked then, her grinning expression turning softer. "It's that the children don't look at me like I'm the big bad Satan that controls their lives. They only see a magical girl, a hero that'll protect them from evil. Even if they know it's mostly a show, they still look at me like a star instead of a faction leader."

"Sounds nice," Joshua commented, wondering to himself if that felt anything like how some of Kunou's looks made him feel.

"Does that mean you'll join the show?!" Serafall asked all of a sudden, her eyes almost literally turning to stars. She had kinda jumped on that a little too quickly, but Joshua couldn't bring himself to care. "Because we could have so much fun together, you could be-"

"At risk of being pestered to no end," he interrupted with a grin. "I could be convinced about it."

"That's amazing!" she exclaimed, completely uncaring about him cutting into her speech. "You could be a villain with all your familiars and such! It'd be great, each of them could get an arc, or a huge, badass fight! Maybe you could get a whole redemption arc and then you'd be part of Levia-tan's adventures. Or maybe you'd turn into an ally and help out in moments of need!"

"Sounds like fun," he commented and it really did. He didn't know how good he'd be as an actor, even one for a supernatural show. Hell, he didn't even know how different that was from a mundane show. However, it was fun to think about, if nothing else.

"It sure is, you'll see. We'll have lots of fun. I'm sure you can come up with great ideas for the show too," Serafall continued. Her excitement wasn't going anywhere, it seemed, but that was fine. It was nice to have someone so… freely enthusiastic around. It always brought the mood up, which made him think that might be part of the reason why she was like that.

"You are talking like I've already agreed to join," he pointed out with a smile.

"You have. It's just that you haven't realized it yet," she told him and he almost agreed with her on that. Time would tell, he guessed.

[} 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/)