To Try to Change and to Search How

"I shouldn't even bother, should I?" Sairaorg asked him and Joshua just smiled at him. "Figures," his friend said, shaking his head. He might be a muscle brain, but even he knew a lost battle when he saw one. Joshua was only so lucky that his battle maniac tendencies didn't extend to arguing with him, or things might have gotten complicated very quickly and a long time ago.

Instead, Sairaorg just let the matter drop and stayed beside his mother, holding her hand.

"She's pretty," Kunou mumbled, peering at the sleeping woman from the opposite side from Joshua's devil friend. She seemed to have drawn every bit of politeness and tact that she had in her since she tagged along when Sairaorg offered for her to. Apparently, even his friends had a soft spot for his daughter.

Not that he blamed them.

"She is, isn't she?" Sairaorg replied with a sad smile.

Joshua, for his part, didn't quite know what to say. He wanted to apologize for her or say something about her. However, his friend had been the one to invite her. Maybe Sairaorg had wanted someone else there, some brightness in case things didn't go well. Kunou could bring anyone's mood up, after all, and Joshua could attest to that.

"Is she nice?" his daughter asked and he held back a smile. Yeah, she had things well enough in hand without even trying. She definitely didn't get that from him, he was sure.

"The nicest," Sairaorg answered with his own slight grin before the two started talking about the woman in question.

So, instead, Joshua patted her head and moved on to what he was there for. With a deep breath in, he pulled on Nephthys and Osiris to help him through the attempt against the Sleep Disease. From there, it was time to start casting spells and keep a close eye on Misla's energies. He'd had plenty of time to come up with an improved array and he could only hope that things would go better.

He didn't want to be too optimistic, but he was kind of failing at that.

Tuning out the voices of the other two people in the room, Joshua went through the order of spells for him to cast at the space on the corner of the room. It would never not be a little odd to be in such a huge empty room where Misla rested tucked in a corner. Alas, he kind of needed all that open area to lay down his boons, wards and hexes.

Eventually, the very last hex was laid down, which was the last on the order of three magic branches he used there. Boons were the kindest, so they went first, targeting Misla herself and readying to help her. Hexes were the mean ones, going last and attacking the Sleep Disease as best as Joshua could make them do so. Wards were the neutral ones, filling the voids between the two, both in the order and in functionality.

"Everything's ready," he said, mostly to Sairaorg, taking a deep breath in while his friend nodded grimly. Evidently, he was also doing his best not to get his hopes up.

"It'll be fine," Kunou reassured, moving to stand beside the devil and taking his hand. "Dad's awesome."

"... That he is," Sairaorg agreed with a nod, his expression relaxing. 'No pressure,' Joshua thought to himself with a wry smile that seemed to bring some amusement to his friend. Well, so long as he felt better… Now he just needed to not fail miserably.

'Easy,' he thought, gulping to push down his nervousness.

If he failed, at least he was pretty sure he'd get plenty of data for the next attempt. He needed to focus on that. So, that's what he did, triggering the spells into action. Some of them got to work right away, some others laid waiting for the right moment. Like when the energies fluctuated, signaling the condition shifting and the Sleep Disease reacting.

'So far so good,' Joshua thought, keeping his mind as focused as he could on how things were going. Now that he knew about it, he could feel the strain in his soul that channeling two gods was putting it through. However, it was also very minor, compared to what had likely gone on during the Khaos Attack. It was easily ignored, especially in the face of something much more important.

"Sairaorg," Misla said, waking up.

"Mom!"

"I'm awake… again?" the woman asked, apparently a little confused. From her comment the last time, Joshua wondered if she really had some kind of notion of what went on around her. Alas, his curiosity would have to wait until he fully got her out from under the disease's thumb.

"You are, mom," the son answered, evidently a little overwhelmed by his emotions. "You are," he repeated, as if trying to convince himself.

"It's so… good to see… you…" Misla told Sairaorg, mustering the smallest of smiles as she laid on her bed. The healthier devil wasn't deterred by her struggling speech or her weak body, moving forward and taking his mother's hand in his.

More words were exchanged, slowly and with effort, but Joshua focused on other things. Mainly keeping his eyes on the progress of his attempt. The Sleep Disease was still clinging to Misla, proving to be much more troublesome after it had fully taken hold than while it was growing, like with Soren. That was expected though, but no less frustrating.

"So… you and Kuisha… finally together?"

"Wha-No," Sairaorg answered with a teary chuckle. "No, this is Kunou. She's Joshua's daughter. He's the one that woke you up."

"I think… I remember," the woman said, managing to turn her head to follow her son's pointing finger. Joshua gave her a smile, hoping he didn't look too odd because of the deities' appearance influence. He probably did though. Between Nephthys' dark circles and pitch black hair and Osiris' death-like complexion, he probably looked like a goth… sans the clothing. "Thank you," the woman breathed out.

He looked at her with a sad smile.

"You can thank me when you are cured," he replied, feeling her slipping through his fingers once more. Except, there was a very, very important difference this time. It wasn't that she'd been awake longer, more strongly. No, it was that he'd picked up on something that he hadn't so far and something that he suspected hadn't even been there with Soren.

"Thank you, Joshua," Sairaorg told him, but he kept staring at Misla. "Picked something up?"

"Yes," Joshua replied with a firm nod.

"Then…"

"This is huge," he continued at his friend's prodding. "I need to write this down, but-"

"Then go," Sairaog told him, smiling and waving him away. "You've done a lot for me, Joshua. It was… It was overwhelming last time, but this… This is already huge. I couldn't ask for more, truly. I'm a devil though, so I hope you don't mind if I'm greedy."

"I don't, at all."

"Great," his friend replied, beaming before the grin dimmed when he turned to look at his mother. "With that being said, don't push yourself too hard, Joshua. As I said, this is already a lot. I can be patient, so take your time, alright? You can't cure my mother by running yourself ragged."

Joshua had an argument for that at the tip of his tongue, but there was just something in the intent look Sairaorg was giving him that stopped them from being spoken. Instead, he just pursed his lips and nodded stiffly. It wasn't even that he was wrong, really. He was completely right. Joshua just… wanted to push for it. He wanted to get that out of the way, finish helping his friend get his mother back. Alas…

It'd take more time than that and he needed to accept it.

"Thank you," Sairaorg told him and Joshua wasn't even sure what he was being thanked for at that very moment. A number of things came to mind, after all. "Can you go by yourself? I'd like to stay here for a bit longer."

"Sure thing," he replied with a nod, moving to take Kunou's hand.

"Bye, Sairaorg," his daughter called, getting a sad smile and a wave from the devil. "Your mom was nice."

"Bye, Kunou, and thank you," his friend replied with a weak smile and a wave of his hand. "Keep your dad out of trouble, alright?"

"I will!"

With that… sort of cheerful note, Joshua and Kunou left Sairaorg to spend some time with his mother. 'Maybe I should visit my own parents,' he thought to himself. He'd been planning on waiting for the next year anniversary, because there was no need to torture himself by visiting more often.

But then again… it didn't need to be all pain, he supposed.

"Thank you," a new voice said, making Kunou stiffen and hide herself a little behind him. Joshua, for his part, schooled his features and turned to regard the man. He was probably the last person he expected to see, quite honestly.

"Don't mention it," he replied simply, planting his hand on top of Kunou's head and walking past Zekram Bael.

[}-o-{]

"They are starting~!" Serafall all but squealed, shaking on her seat.

"They are," Joshua replied calmly, smiling at her antics. She'd been a little on edge since the attack herself, despite the fact that – or likely because – she wasn't involved in it. It was nice to see her be fully herself once again, if only temporarily. "I won't even bother asking for predictions."

"So-tan will win!" the woman exclaimed all the same.

"Never would have seen that answer coming," he replied, amused. On the other side of Serafall, Soren and his wife seemed even more entertained, probably both by their daughter and him. "Rias has worked hard though."

"It'll be sad, but she won't stand a chance," Serafall lamented, to which he raised an eyebrow. There was about as much chance of that not being biased as there was of him saying Kunou wasn't cute. Then again, there was a reason why he didn't think it was worth asking her to begin with.

"Rias did get her bishop unsealed," he pointed out, even though he knew it would change nothing for Serafall. If Sona had been pitted against Great Red, the woman would still think her sister would win.

Still, Gasper being out was surprising. Joshua hadn't quite found a good way to approach that, to be honest. Then again, it was also true that he might not have tried as hard as he probably could have.

However, it wasn't his problem to solve all the issues everyone had. He had his hands full balancing enough plates for a restaurant to use. Gasper's situation was sad and all, and he emphasized a lot with the agoraphobic dhampir, but still. He had people looking out for him. Someone else could deal with that.

And they had, evidently.

He didn't know what ripple had caused it and how directly it connected to him, if at all. However, Joshua was pleasantly surprised to see that even without Issei, Gasper had still managed to get out. 'Wonder how well he'll do.'

Perhaps even more surprisingly, the dhampir didn't look as bad as he'd have expected. He actually looked pretty calm. 'Maybe Rias has been able to work with him more?' Joshua wondered. Sirzechs' sister hadn't had to deal with any of the issues that canon had brought her, so maybe that'd allowed her to do things she wouldn't have otherwise?

'Now that I think about it, I've basically messed with all the plots that'd have popped up so far, haven't I?' he thought then, blinking. Raynare, Riser, Kokabiel, the Peace Meeting. 'I've wrecked more canon than I thought…'

Oh well, he wasn't overly fond of canon to begin with and it was all the fault of whoever had decided it was a good idea to take away his memories for so long.

"So what? So-tan has trained a lot and she's super smart!" Serafall argued strongly. She wasn't wrong about that, of course. Her sister had been working tirelessly to improve herself and her peerage, whether during training sessions at his place or on their own time. She also had a mind to behold, really. Playing chess and cards against her was a nightmare… a fun one, but a nightmare all the same.

Still, Joshua refrained from telling his partner that Rias had worked just as hard if not harder and she wasn't necessarily stupid. It was true, of course, that Sona could run circles around the Gremory when it came to strategy. It was also true, however, the Rias' peerage had a lot more power than Sona's, even without Issei, Asia and Xenovia.

Being honest, Joshua thought the Rating Game could go either way.

"We'll see, I guess," he replied noncommittally. Predictably, Serafall poked his side with her finger, punishment for not fervently supporting her little sister. One way or another though, he didn't really care. Sure, he knew the Young Devil Gathering – Now turned Tournament? He wasn't too clear on the specifics, really. – was important for Sona and Rias, but for him? For him, it was almost irrelevant.

He was there because it was important to Serafall – because it was important to Sona – and he thought they might as well use it as an excuse to spend time together. He had more important things to be actually invested on than that, since he wasn't particularly close to either of the devil teenagers. To be honest, the one he cared about the most in that match was Koneko, really. And maybe Kiba, sort of, as Jeanne's boyfriend. Then there was Sona, as the sister of his partner.

Everyone else was a step or two below in the friend scale.

"Sona will be hurt if you don't cheer for her," Serafall told him with a pout, to which he raised an eyebrow at her. "She will!" she added, clearly indignant that he didn't believe her. Behind her, Lady Sitri giggled behind her hand.

"Somehow, I doubt that," he replied flatly, drawing a snort from Soren.

Sona didn't really care for the tournament thing either, he knew. She cared about her dream. Tangentially, it'd help her with that to make a good showing, but she didn't really need to win the thing. Which was good, because there was no way she would. Sairaorg was going to win it, of that Joshua had no doubt. Rias, Seekvaira and Zephyrdor were well within the realm of possibility though. Hell, the latter was an almost guaranteed win.

Ultimately, she didn't need to do well here. It'd help, but it wasn't a necessity. Between Serafall and Joshua, the girl would have all the support and backing she could need, especially once he finally managed to heal the Sleep Disease. Joshua might not be an official part of devil society in any way other than being in a relationship with Serafall, but as "part" of the Phoenix Spell creation and soon to be healer of the Sleep Disease, he'd have a lot of pull. And that was without taking into account all the external power he represented as Egyptian Pharaoh and having close ties with the Youkai, the Church, Heaven and House of Water.

If he decided to throw his weight around, Sona would have no issues setting up her school. The devils might just help her with that, just to avoid what Joshua could do to them. Being a public figure and politics were both a pain in the ass, but he had to admit that they could come in handy at times. And that was without taking into account that he had Ravel to take care of part of the load and Serafall and Yasaka to ask for advice so he wouldn't mess up.

"So-tan's so smart~!" Serafall said enthusiastically as the Rating Game got started. Obviously, there wasn't much going on right off the bat, but what did happen was both Kings getting started with their strategies and commanding their peerages. "Isn't she?"

"She sure is," Joshua agreed, without even having to lie or exaggerate. Sona was smart, and it showed in the way she predicted every move Rias would make. His memories of this match weren't all that clear, but he did remember her having Rias in the palm of her hand through most of it.

However, unfortunately, Sona had the problem of underestimating things when they got a little crazy. That was a fatal mistake in that world. DxD was hardly known for making sense. Maybe he was in some kind of tamer AU or something, but the supernatural world still had its eccentricities. As such, Sona tended not to miscalculate in regards to things that didn't quite fit in her "rational" world.

"Maybe too smart," he commented with a wry smile.

"Maybe," Serafall agreed, surprisingly, as she pursed her lips. Joshua had already found a hole in the Sitri's strategy. Alas, even though he'd tried to help her with that during their training sessions, he couldn't quite get rid of years and years of her doing things her way in such a short amount of time. Just like he hadn't quite managed to make Rias be less… lazy. "Be honest. What do you think?" she asked, her childish, playful persona been left aside the smallest bit.

"... forty-sixty," he answered, hazarding a guess. To be honest, those chances were fairly good to Sona, all things considered. Her peerage was laughably weaker than Rias' even without the members that he'd butterflied away from her. Kiba, Akeno and Koneko were just too strong compared to Sona's mostly normal-ish group. At least Sona had managed to take out Gaster fairly quickly.

"Hm, not bad at all," Serafall mumbled, before slowly putting her mask back on her face. Idly, Joshua noticed that her parents were trying and somewhat failing at hiding their curiosity. Evidently, it was a rare sight even for them to see the woman let up her act even a little. "I'm sure she'll pull through! So-tan is a magical girl at heart, after all!"

Joshua refrained from pointing out the truth, which was that the girl would have rather lost miserably instead of attributing her win to being a "magical girl".

Ultimately, the match went about as well as Joshua would have expected. Sona's plan held itself together very well… right up until one of Rias' group became less rational and more emotional. That's when things started unraveling around the Sitri girl. To her credit, even when her initial plans failed, she pulled pretty solid back up plans.

Alas, it was not enough.

Ultimately, Rias had too much power. The only reason they hadn't won in two seconds flat was because they weren't allowed to cause too much destruction in the Rating Game stage. Joshua suspected that either Serafall or someone else in favor of Sona or against Rias had set up that limitation. It was a bit… specific, after all.

Thus, Sona Sitri lost against Rias Gremory.

"You did great, So-tan! You'll get her next time!" Serafall told her sister once they met after the Rating Game. Unsurprisingly, those words of encouragement weren't really all that helpful. Joshua didn't blame her for that. Even as someone that knew the woman, sometimes it was difficult to take her seriously and Sona was probably not in the right state of mind.

"You did well," he joined in, trying to see if he could get the message across better. "Your strategy was sound and you adapted well when things didn't go as planned," he added, and he saw that he was getting through the girl.

"But?" she asked, shoulders slumping.

"But you lack power," he answered bluntly. There was no way she didn't know that though. So… "Your sister and I can help you with that though."

"We sure can!" Serafall readily agreed, hugging his arm and beaming at her sister.

Both of them took the slight smile on Sona's face as a win.

Especially Joshua though, considering the thank-you he got afterwards courtesy of Serafall.

[}-o-{]

[Agnes Waterhouse]

"So, this is your other apprentice?" Elizabeth asked as they both looked at the girl besides Joshua.

One Aika Kiryuu, that was who the man had brought. She didn't feel all that much power to her, but then again, this was Joshua they were talking about. The man had gone from nobody to… whatever it was that one wanted to call him those days. Agnes would be hard-pressed to underestimate anything concerning the man. His enemies might consider themselves superior, but she had no such delusions.

"She is," Joshua answered simply with a nod. Agnes wondered if he was deliberately ignoring how nervous the girl looked or if he was just that oblivious. It could be either or, really.

"And you want to learn… divination?" Agnes asked. It wasn't that she was looking down on it but… divination wasn't quite what she'd have expected. She didn't know why though, but she hadn't.

"That's a… tricky branch," Elizabeth commented, with what was probably the least insulting of the thoughts that crossed her mind then and there. Divination was unreliable at best in most cases. Any prediction of the future should be taken with not a grain but a mountain of salt. Any readings of the present were blurry and often up to interpretation. Looking into the past was the most useful thing they could do, which wasn't something to underestimate, but still…

"That's right," Joshua was the one to answer, as the girl drew into herself. She likely realized what they were thinking, even if the man didn't. Agnes wondered if Levi had informed her of what her choice meant for her and her future. "So, can you help her?"

"... We do have some diviners in the association," Agnes answered slowly, taking some time to process that. Maybe she should have dug deeper when she'd heard about Levi's classes with the girl, but she hadn't wanted to stick her nose in business that had nothing to do with her. Surely Joshua had a reason for asking for a private room for that, after all.

This posed a problem now though, because while she wasn't lying, the diviners at her association weren't quite up to the standards she'd have liked to have them teach. Least of all teaching someone that Joshua brought. No, they needed to give this girl the best education they could find her. That, however, couldn't be found in House of Water.

"If you want something up to your standards, however, we'll need to look elsewhere," Elizabeth finished for her and Agnes nodded reluctantly. Joshua regarded both of them for a long moment before nodding himself, slowly.

"That sounds fine, so long as you can guarantee that they'll be good teachers and nothing will happen," the man replied and there was the smallest bit more pressure put on both of them as he spoke. Evidently, he was much more on edge after the attack than they were. That was… to be expected though, she supposed. "I don't care how much of your debt you want to cover with this, but make sure there are no mistakes, alright?"

"Of course," Agnes replied, not even offended. She knew he wasn't trying to doubt her or insult her abilities. He was paranoid and she could understand that, even if it stung her pride.

"You shouldn't say things like that, Mr. Davis," the other girl beside Joshua told him and Agnes almost grimaced. Yeah, negotiating with the Phenex brat around would be a pain.

Not that she planned to scam Joshua, obviously. That'd require her to be a special kind of suicidal that she very much wasn't. However, the devil would make sure to squeeze all the value she could out of her. She might be young and inexperienced, but considering the crippling amounts of debt Agnes was buried in, she'd have welcomed any progress she could have made.

Alas, Phenex was there to ruin that for her.

"I don't mind giving them some incentive," Joshua said, waving off the counsel of the devil. "Just make sure that it's worth it, yeah?"

"Of course, Mr. Davis. Leave that to me."

'Fuck,' Agnes thought, paling a little bit. It seemed that negotiations would be troublesome. Then again, this was Joshua she was talking about, so…

She should have known better, really.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Nobody cares, but I rolled a d20 to see how the Sona-Rias match went and poor Sona rolled a 6. She'd have needed more than 12 to get a win, thus… Well, you saw how it went. Unlucky.

Other than that, we've made some more progress with the Sleep Disease, which is being particularly slippery. I've been thinking we are close to finishing it like three attempts ago. Alas, it just doesn't want to play nice, the meanie.

There's also progress with Aika, which… Let's be honest, I didn't see her being around a lot when I introduced her. Alas, she is, for whatever reason. Characters being characters, people, what can I say?

Anyway, I hope you guys 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: How are you doing? Is everything fine? I hope so, and if not, I hope things get better. I've been doing… mostly fine, just not with a lot of energy, quite honestly, but that's almost nothing.

See you.