Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.

Told You That I'm Here to Stay

"Kunou, I'm trying to be patient here," he said, taking a deep breath in, rubbing his eyelids wearily. "But I'm really not getting why you dislike Ravel this much. So, please explain it to me or stop, because she's being a great help."

"I just… She's…" his daughter struggled for a moment and he had to hold back a grimace as he saw her grow distressed. Joshua wanted nothing else than to reassure her and let the matter go. Ravel wasn't even around that day, since things had more or less calmed down and he was very unlikely to need her help while tutoring Kunou, nevermind the fact that it was obvious that the little girl didn't like the Phenex.

"Kunou, relax," he told her then, doing his best to not fold like a house of cards. It was much harder than one would expect. He'd always had a weakness for upset children, unless they were acting spoiled. Kunou was acting spoiled, but he guessed the fact that she was his daughter let her bypass that, pretty much. "How does it go?"

"Close your eyes," she mumbled, doing exactly that. "Take a deep breath in and then let it out, relaxing your muscles," she continued, going a little fast, but she did seem to relax, which was the important part. "I'm sorry," she said then, looking down and fidgeting with her clothes.

"It's fine," he told her softly. "I do want to know what's going on, Kunou. This is not like you. You are usually much cuter."

"I'm always cute," she protested jokingly, if weakly.

"You are," he agreed with a smile. "So, what's going on?"

"I just… I don't want you to work more," she answered, making him blink. "You already work a lot, but now you have that devil to help you work more," she mumbled, looking down at her lap. "And I don't like her. She likes you too much."

Well… that certainly explained a few things. For one, she was worried that he'd end up doing as her mother had before, being too busy to spend enough time with her. For another, she was a little jealous of Ravel. Which made sense. She'd been jealous of Asia too, but the nun was too nice for anyone to be upset with her. Ravel was cute, but she wasn't quite at Asia's level, unfortunately.

Fortunately, Joshua didn't think this would be too much of a problem.

"... Ok, first of all," he started, picking the girl up and setting her on his lap. "She's not helping me so I can work more. It's so I can have a more organized schedule and work less," he explained, hugging her to his chest. "I'm trying to do too many things and I need someone to help me keep track of things," he continued while resting his chin on Kunou's head. "And even if I do work on a lot of things, I like to think I have been managing to make enough time for you in between everything. Am I wrong?"

"I would like to spend more time with you," Kunou mumbled, her voice barely above a whisper. "But it's fine. I know you are busy and you do make time for me everyday," she added. "I know I'm being greedy."

"Nothing wrong with that," he reassured with a smile, even if she couldn't see it. "I want to spend more time with you too. I think I can try to make more time."

Training wasn't getting as much results anymore, really. It was a rare day when he got a level in anything and the difference every level made wasn't quite as noticeable. Maybe he should focus on his many projects. At least those had a chance of leading to Quest rewards, which were much better at raising his stats.

'Might be because I'm well beyond what normal can ever dream to achieve,' he thought to himself. That wasn't to say that he was the best human in the world, of course. Vasco Strada would always be there to remind everyone what humans could achieve and to remind humans that there was always someone much higher up the hill. However, besides the man that could barely be called human anymore, Joshua didn't think there were many base humans or even Sacred Gear users that could say they were on the same level as him, let alone above.

"You can?" Kunou asked, trying and failing miserably at hiding how much she hoped that was the case. "It's fine if you can't-"

"Is that what you actually feel or is that you making excuses for me?" he asked, giving her pause. "I'm honest here. Do you think that? Because I'm sure you said it was fine when your mother wasn't making enough time for you and you were sad."

"... I think, um, the former?" she replied hesitantly.

"Hm, I'll make more time anyway. I think I can, and you are my daughter. Nothing is more important than you," he told her, seriously but softly. "So, if you ever feel like spending time, don't be shy, ok? Say the word and I'll drop anything that I can get away with."

"Ok," she mumbled.

"And as for this jealousy of yours," he commented with a smile. "Don't be silly, yeah? You are a smart kid. You have to know that nobody is going to be taking me away from you. You are my one and only priority."

"What about mom and Serafall?" she asked, but he could hear the slight smile on her face.

"They know that even they can't get in between you and me," he answered, smiling as Kunou pushed back against his chest as if trying to bury herself there. "If you ever wonder about or doubt that, remember what I told you," he said, pulling off his locket and showing it to her, opening it to show her picture in it. "You are my daughter, my family and there's nothing more important to me than my family. Alright?"

"Alright," she mumbled, getting a hold of the locket and starting to cycle through the pictures. "I'm sorry for being a brat."

"You are a kid, you are allowed to be a brat from time to time," he reassured, relaxing now that the issue was dealt with and just enjoying hugging Kunou. "If you are a brat too much I'll have to be a responsible parent and punish you though, so let's avoid that, alright?"

Kunou hummed an agreement, and that was that.

She was a smart cookie like that.

[}-o-{]

Looking over his notebook, Joshua saw Raynare fighting Issei and it was… very ironic, he supposed. Both of them were so dramatically different from what he knew them to have been in another reality or whatever, that it wasn't even strange to see them sparring. At the same time, a corner of his mind couldn't help but bring up the difference and wonder how, exactly, things had gotten to that point.

He didn't dwell on those thoughts too much though. That way laid madness, after all. He didn't understand most people on a good day, even with all his sensing capabilities. He could pick up on how they felt in a determined moment, but understanding their minds, their thought processes? Yeah, no, that was way beyond him.

So, instead, he turned his attention back to his notes as he continued working.

He was taking a break from Project Awakening to clear his thoughts a bit. He was making progress there, but sometimes he needed to stop for a bit when he started getting nowhere due to frustration. That was one such instance, as he went over his notes on Project Intelligence instead.

That one set of spells aimed to make a magical Artificial Intelligence of sorts. He was fairly sure he could make it without too much trouble and what work he'd put into it seemed to confirm that. However, Joshua's main problem was avoiding a Skynet or Ultron situation. Magic was random enough that it could both help and work against him on that front at the same time.

Magic was a much more living thing than the "inert" sciences. It worked on whims and randomness, feelings and symbolism, as if it were a living being. Joshua would never forget what Nephthys had told him about magic loving him and how he'd felt what she meant about that when he channeled her. That was a little encouraging, but one never knew.

Intent was important, and theoretically Joshua's intent should stop whatever spell he ended up creating from backfiring on him. However, he wanted to make sure to cover his bases as best he could without limiting the thing in the process. It was hard, but it wasn't like he needed to get the Project done. It was why he was using it as a break instead of stressing over it like he did with Project Awakening.

There was also the fact that it was just an idea, like many of his other less pressing projects. Just because he'd thought of it didn't mean he had to pull it off, or that it was a good idea. If it came to it, Joshua supposed he could just put the project on the shelf until he felt like tackling it again or forever. It'd be cool to pull it off, for sure, but there was no need to take the risk that it meant, at least for the moment.

Idly looking up once more, he checked on the other spar going on, which was the other two fallen and his familiars. Or Nagini, more like, because his snake just loved bullying people in practice battles. The others did it because it was training, but they liked it about as much as Joshua himself did. Not Nagini though, she genuinely enjoyed fighting, for whatever reason.

Fortunately, Cheshire, Morag or Margalo seemed to be enough to keep her under control. His feline familiar was the one that did so the most, but the other two had to step in on occasion, usually when Cheshire wasn't around. Not that his other familiars needed to step in that much, but it was known to happen. He worried about what would happen when or if she evolved again, since she seemed to grow more and more like that with every instance.

"Can't focus?" Aika asked from his side, making Joshua turn towards her. "I know what that's like."

"I'm kind of relaxing here. Focusing isn't really a priority right now, so my mind kind of drifts off," he answered with a shrug. "How's that going? Still taking a break from magic studying?"

"Yes. There's a lot I need to know about being a magician, it seems," she mumbled, frowning as she went over the notebook Levi had given her. Apparently, there weren't that many books that explained common knowledge of the magician side of the world, so his Star student had written a quick "textbook" for Aika to study. The guy went above and beyond things, it seemed. Joshua took that as further proof that taking him as his "teaching representative" of sorts was a good idea.

Even Ravel seemed to be a fan of the idea, although not for the same reasons. She seemed to love the concept of passively earning influence through someone else without even having to spend favors or anything. After all, what he was doing was also considered as a favor to Levi too. It was an exhausting line of thought for Joshua, who didn't really even like to think like that.

He couldn't gather the influence necessary soon enough, if he was honest.

Fortunately, soon, the deal with the Phenex would be announced and then Joshua would have more than enough for what he needed. Then he could go back to being a semi-normal guy, even if people were bound to come looking for him more and more. With any luck, between Yasaka, Serafall and Ravel, the amount of work he'd have to do on that front would be little.

"Drifting indeed," Aika commented, to which he chuckled.

[}-o-{]

He never thought it'd happen, but Joshua found himself very grateful for racism.

Why?

Because it meant that he barely had to say anything during the announcement of the Phoenix Spell to devil society. As it was, he'd barely had to participate when they'd been explaining the story that Serafall and Sirzechs had come up with some input from the Phenex as to how the spell came to be without saying that Joshua had made it from scratch and that he'd strong armed the Pillar House into submission. Well, Joshua was supposed to have participated, as far as the Phenex family was concerned, but he'd just let Serafall do that part for him, since she was the expert.

Officially, he'd worked together with the Pillar House on the spell to bring a much better service to devils everywhere and yet another resource for the House and devil society as a whole. They'd worked side by side almost since Joshua had joined the supernatural world, being introduced by Sairaorg. They'd also used fictional notes that other fictional magicians had worked on with the Phenex for a while before in a secret project of sorts.

That was the short of it, but there was a lot of narrative going on to make sure that the Phenex came out smelling… Well, not like roses, really, since there was no way to soften the hit of something that was basically a bloodline power of theirs getting cracked by a magician, even if they'd "helped". However, the whole thing basically made it so that they didn't come out smelling like shit either.

They wouldn't be looked down on, at least, which was a lot more than they could say for themselves otherwise, that was for sure. Basically, their perfect reputation as a very strong House would get a slight blemish, but it wasn't like they were becoming a mockery. There'd just be some whispering behind their backs, but that was almost nothing.

After all, nobody would want to antagonize them for the same reasons as before. They'd still be one of the richest families, if not the richest. Everyone would still need to go through them to get access to the very much coveted Phoenix Tears. It was just that to those latter ones there'd be the addition of the Phoenix Spells.

If anything, people would have less reasons to antagonize them. All for the slight price of people thinking a little less of them for giving up some of their bloodline privileges. As far as Joshua was concerned, it shouldn't even have been that big a deal, but the Phenex obviously disagreed. Ultimately, other people had different priorities and that was just how the world worked.

Joshua didn't really care.

He just wanted the event to be over. He was getting a little anxious standing there on the stage with the audience of devils very much not liking him. The good thing was that what he had to say was pretty much scripted and other than that he just had to stand there and let the devils talk. Others might have taken that as insulting or something of the sort, but he was just glad not to have to talk more in front of an audience. He didn't have stage fright per se but his socially awkward ass couldn't handle talking in front of that many people for long periods of time.

His social battery had been depleted almost as soon as he stepped on the thing.

Thus, Joshua was doing his best to keep his mind distracted while also being mindful of the setting. His mind continued going over projects whenever he started getting anxious or restless. It didn't really help him calm down, but it helped channel that energy into something else instead of messing up. Like getting angry and going to punch stuff, he supposed.

Eventually, the main event was finished and what followed was some sort of… He wasn't even sure what the name was. Party? Dinner? Gala? Ball? Whatever it was, there were tables to one side, open space to another and there was staff going around with snacks and drinks. Party fit it well enough, he supposed, but that sounded too… peasant for what was going on around him.

Joshua wasn't a party person by any means, as one could very easily guess.

With that in mind, he stuck to appearing to be busy, like he had at any social event that he hadn't been able to weasel himself out of with his relatives and such. He talked with Sairaorg, the Phenex – mainly Ravel –, Sona, Rias, Sirzechs and Serafall. Unfortunately for those latter two were on demand that night, which meant that he couldn't do that much.

"Josh," Serafall's voice called to him, making him blink. After all, she was across the room from him talking with a family of devils that he didn't even know. Turning with a tilt of his head, he saw Sona there, which made him blink again. Mainly because she was giving him a very non-Sona smile.

With a frown, he turned to look at where Serafall was and… she had a very non-Serafall expression too.

"Neat trick," he commented to "Sona".

"I know, right? I pulled a small favor," she commented, settling next to him. Her voice had changed to match her appearance now. "Sona practically jumped at the chance to be professional in my stead," she added, making him smile.

"I bet she did."

"So, that went well," she said happily. "Better than I expected, at least. The whole thing, I mean. The Phenex played ball well enough, the audience reacted as well as could be reasonably expected and nobody seems to be quietly plotting your murder."

"I feel like that last one might be a little wishful thinking," he commented wryly. "But yeah, gotta love when plans go smoothly. I'd have been kind of annoyed if we went through all that just for everything to go to shit."

"Mhm, I told you to trust me. I didn't get this job by improvising once things went badly… Well, not completely because of that."

"Very reassuring," he said flatly, getting a giggle from the "girl" beside him. It was kind of awkward to be talking to Sona like he did Serafall, admittedly. However, he almost couldn't see her as Sona, really. She was acting nothing like her at all, so… yeah. He was stuck in a strange in-between spot, he supposed. "Is this gonna take long?"

"Probably a bit, yeah," Serafall answered, making him sigh. She patted his arm comfortingly at that. "I'll keep you company, ok? At least as much as I can without making things awkward for So-tan. I'll switch back to being myself when that happens and I'll come back to you then."

"You'll literally be my lifeline here, I want you to know," he mumbled, taking a sip from the champagne that he'd been offered. It tasted better than any other he might have tried before, which he supposed was due to it either being a super expensive batch or magical in nature. Probably both, if he had to bet. He wasn't a fan of champagne, really, but he'd have felt even worse if he didn't have something in his hand to fidget with. "I hate social settings."

"I know," she said with a sad smile. "I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about. I got myself into this mess by trying to be nice. I'll just be extra whiny until this is over," he replied, waving off her apology. He wasn't even sure why she was apologizing. Maybe he was rubbing off on her and so she felt guilty for things that weren't her fault? It could be the case, he guessed. "Just don't leave me alone for too long, ok? I'm liable to feel like shit. Especially if someone I don't know approaches me."

"Good, because I don't like the look on some of these devils' eyes," Serafall commented and he could almost hear the pout on her face when she said that. It made him frown, not understanding what she was talking about. That is, until his eyes scanned the room and he caught some female devils looking his way with… particular expressions.

"Surely they don't-"

"Oh, but they do," Serafall confirmed, her voice still the same as before. Joshua, for his part, just sighed. "Poor Josh, too popular for his own good."

"I should have stayed a normal magician and holed up in my place forever," he mumbled, taking another sip from his drink. "This bullshit almost isn't worth it."

"Almost?"

"Well, I did get to meet you because of all this," he answered with a slight smile, even if it felt a little weary because of the toll the whole thing was taking on him. "I met a lot of people that I really appreciate, so it's not all bad. Too much socializing for my awkward ass though."

"You say the sweetest things, Josh," she gushed and if that were a normal situation, he was sure she'd have hugged him… and maybe done some other things. Alas, it was not to be.

Instead, they remained where they were, talking, drinking, picking up a snack here and there. It was probably the best time Joshua had ever had when surrounded by so many people. Granted, Serafall had to leave a few times, without even being able to come back as herself or Sona again for a bit, but at those times Sairaorg was there to help him out like the absolute bro he was. Joshua would have to do something nice for him… other than continuing to help his mother, that is.

"Thanks, man," he mumbled, getting a chuckle from the Bael.

"Don't mention it, Joshua. This is basically nothing," the devil waved off, grinning. "If anything, I appreciate the chance to slip away from the rest of this lot, honestly. Most of them would have spit in my direction before I got as strong as I did, since I didn't inherit the Power of Destruction."

"That's because they are idiots."

"You won't find me complaining, Joshua. I can tell you that," his friend replied with a smile. "I guess we are similar that way. Just that you are just now proving to everyone who you are. In some time, they'll be too scared to say anything even behind your back, probably."

"Well, I'll help you make sure that happens for you too, if I have any say in the matter," Joshua said.

"And I appreciate that… Unfortunately for me-"

"You do have to talk with some of these people. Yes, I heard you the other two times, man," Joshua finished for him. "Thanks again."

"I'll come back as soon as I can… if I see you alone that is."

"And I'll be forever thankful for that," Joshua replied, waving him off. As it was, he was already feeling guilty for bothering others to keep him company. If they started feeling guilty for leaving him, then that just made everything worse.

Funny how that worked.

"Joshua Davis," a voice said, and he almost tensed up because it was one that he didn't recognize. Turning, he had to hold back that reaction again for completely different reasons. After all, there was no way he wouldn't recognize the person in front of him, with his black hair and purple eyes.

Especially considering the fact that he looked very similar to the person that had just left his side.

The man nodded, looking to the world like nothing was wrong or weird as he picked a glass of champagne himself and took the last few steps so they stood close enough that nobody would have any doubts they were talking to each other. Joshua was really wishing that he could have gone back home already. Dealing with this person in particular was about the last thing he wanted to do that night… or ever, really.

"Zekram Bael," he greeted with a nod, doing his best to sound calm.

"I think the two of us have much to talk about, don't you?"

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Well well well, just when you think things go smoothly… I know I say this a lot, but I have to keep doing it, otherwise people might misunderstand. When I started writing this last scene, Zekram was nowhere in the plans. Somehow, my characters have thrown another curve ball my way, because of course they have.

I'm not even surprised anymore.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:

P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Any idea what Zekram might want with our boy, Joshua?

See you.