Focused on My Own Way

[Joshua Davis]

He blocked the punch with his hand, feeling the power behind the small fist sending ripples through his arm and shaking his bones.

"You are getting better," he commented, blocking the second attack with his other palm. He got an absent hum in response but the spar continued without much conversation. There was no need for much talking though, really. He could pick up enough through Life Sense, which was something he was trying to put special emphasis on.

That and Life Strengthening.

Joshua had decided that it had been enough of him ignoring his Senjutsu skills. Might as well use what little time he used for personal training to work on those, really. Dagger Mastery and other such skills took forever to get a single level anyway. Not only that, but getting better with Life Sense could come in handy to get information and he imagined getting better at using life energy skills would help with that.

Helped that he was sparring with Koneko, who had insisted on it after she got tired of Kuroka's lessons on the art.

Idly, breaking him from his musings, he felt the nekoshou growing frustrated. Probably because he was sticking to defense only for the most part, which worked perfectly fine for him. However, he guessed it was fair for her to "complain" about it. They were supposed to be sparring, not just training Senjutsu.

Thus, he started actually fighting back.

Annoyance was replaced with some pain, but it wasn't like Koneko was some kind of fragile girl. She was a very talented nekoshou and she was also a Rook, which meant that her Life Strengthening and overall resistance were both pretty high. Joshua was probably the one receiving the most damage from their fighting, quite honestly.

Which also suited him just fine, but that was something for later.

The spar continued, with them trading blows, for quite a while. Between the fact that they were using life energy to power themselves and that they were using the time to practice more than all out fighting, they could go on for a while, nevermind the fact that his stats were fairly high – if he did say so himself – and that Koneko herself was a great fighter too.

"I think that's enough~" Kuroka called and Joshua stopped where he stood, which prompted Koneko to follow suit. Evidently, the younger nekoshou wasn't all that pleased with this development, judging by the clicking of her tongue and the slight frown on her face. "She looks so adorable, doesn't she~?" the older sister cooed, drawing even more annoyance from the white-haired girl.

Not that it was easy to see, considering how impassive she was most of the time. Alas, Joshua had Life Sense going full power and a bunch of spells around for when he had doubts. He was trying not to rely on those too much though, since the whole point of the training session was to get better at using and sensing life energy.

Back to the present though, he had a feeling that it was better if he defused the situation.

"She is," he said, not at all doing what he was setting out to do. Him planting his hand on top of Koneko's head and ruffling her white hair didn't help either. However, he could afford to do all that because he had a fool-proof plan. "On a different note, snacks?"

He'd barely finished the question when the girl hummed her agreement.

Joshua had to hold back a chuckle. She was a glutton like that, evidently. Not that it was new information, but it was always amusing to notice it when that side of hers was shown. She was already plenty adorable, as Kuroka said, but she got even more so when her more childish side shone through.

"Let's go then," he decided, starting to walk out of the training facility. "You want anything in particular?" he asked, idly going over a list of things he had already made and ready to eat in personalized storage spells. Everything there was kept in stasis, at the best temperature and state.

Joshua might be basic because of it, but the things he enjoyed the most about magic was quality of life like that.

"Salty snacks?" Koneko suggested, making him hum.

"That's new," he replied, eyebrows slightly raised. Usually the nekoshou was more of a sweets kind of girl, but oh well. Maybe she felt like changing things up? "Anything else?"

"Tea? Cards?" the girl answered hesitantly as usual. She wasn't one to be very decisive when it came to that kind of stuff for whatever reason. He was pretty sure it had something to do with her not being used to asking for stuff. Rias probably threw things at her before she got to that point and she didn't interact with many people other than her peerage, really.

"Sure thing," Joshua readily agreed.

As he walked, he looked at his hand and flexed his numb fingers. Idly, he circulated his life energy through it, healing the damage his sparring might have done to his muscles, bones and so on. It was slow, since he'd just gotten started but…

[Life Regeneration has gone up a level.]

'Neat.'

[Life Regeneration - 13/100

Determines the user's ability to heal their body with life energy.

Increases the efficacy of Life Regeneration by 13%.]

With his eyes scanning through the screen as he walked, Joshua wondered if he was making good progress. Thirteen levels sounded like a lot, but the healing effect of the skill wasn't all that great. 'Then again, maybe I've been spoiled by having great healing spells… and the Phoenix Spell.'

Speaking of, maybe he could improve on that once he got better at Life Regeneration and eventually got started on the outright healing aspect of life energy usage. As it was, he was just boosting his own body's healing power, but there was an aspect of senjutsu that would actually use life energy to heal oneself and others… but he hadn't gotten to that point yet.

Something for some other time.

As it was, he had enough stuff on his plate.

"And now the Black Cats got a few new cards."

"The normal cats did too," Koneko mumbled, eyes narrowed.

"And I've added a bunch of spells," Joshua joined in, smiling a little wider when they flinched.

"You cheat," the younger one accused.

"Wanna switch decks?"

"... No, thanks."

"Then just get your snacks and say thank you."

"... Thank you."

Kuroka to the side giggled behind her hand while Joshua grinned a little wider.

[}-o-{]

"She's doing great," Joshua commented, sitting beside Serafall while they both watched Sona go about her second match in the Young Devil Tournament or whatever they were calling it. He still wasn't too sure how the entire thing was organized, let alone called or anything else. All that he cared about was the little snippets that Sona and Serafall shared with him at times and that involved the younger Sitri.

Everything else was kind of meh.

"She sure is~" Serafall readily agreed, shaking on her seat as she leaned forward, all but standing up. Not that it made much of a difference considering Sona's match against Glasya-Labolas was being streamed directly to them. They weren't watching an arena or anything.

He wasn't too sure how the magic worked, but they could watch whatever they wanted from whatever angle they wanted. It was an interesting piece of spellwork that he was sure had Ajuka written all over it. Maybe whenever Joshua had time to kill, he would work on something like that for some storytelling time with Kunou. Something for future Joshua to consider though.

'Why can't I stop coming up with new projects? Damn it,' he cursed with an outward weary sigh.

"Something the matter?" Serafall asked, turning to look at him intently, which made him smile weakly. "Oh, thinking too much again, huh? You know, a girl could feel ignored with you getting lost in thought so much," she commented with a mock pout.

"And I'd apologize," he replied with a slight smile as he leaned in and gave her a peck on the lips. "But you knew what you were getting into," he added, to which it was her time to sigh, but she had a grin of her own plastered on her face.

"I guess I did," she mumbled, sitting back down on the loveseat that they were at to watch the Rating Game. Then she leaned against his side, resting her head on his shoulder. With a humph, she grabbed his arm and wrapped it around her. "Much better."

"Indeed," Joshua agreed, dropping his head on top of hers as they both watched the stream that she was controlling for both of them. That way, they could watch the same thing and he didn't miss any of Sona's "great moments", Serafall's words. "She really is putting on a great performance," he added, once more turning his attention to the match.

It was true that Sona didn't need to impress the higher ups to set up her Rating Game school, since she had a lot of backing in him and Serafall alone, let alone other people willing to do so. However, another thing entirely were the other people she'd need to convince about the fact that her project was a good idea and those were the people that'd actually go to the school. Low Class and Mid Class devils had to have a reason to believe in her goals other than the fact that it was their only option for such.

Otherwise, would it really be worth their time and potentially antagonizing high class devils and up?

Not that Joshua imagined Sona would let her students be intimidated and such, but they didn't know that. The same way that they wouldn't know the school was good even if Sona didn't win Rating Games herself. He'd discussed that with the girl and it seemed to be a bit of an oversight in her plan.

She thought she only needed to set the place up and they'd flock there, considering it was the only place offering them a chance.

However, there would be people that would look at her and see how she hadn't done great in her own Rating Games. Then they'd decide that they were better off on their own. After all, if she couldn't make her own group win the games, then how could she help them win theirs?

Nevermind the fact that Sona was obviously much more of an academic than a practical performer.

The ability to teach how to do something and actually being able to do it did not always go hand in hand, after all. Sometimes it did, but not always. Masters of their craft could be terrible teachers and great teachers could suck at their subject. Joshua needed only to look at his own Stars, with Levi in particular. He was a terrible caster but had great theory work, to the point that he was always giving others pointers, despite the fact that he struggled a great deal with all his spellcasting work.

The point was that if Sona could get some wins in her Rating Game record, solid ones against decent opponents, then it'd give her credibility. She probably would need to enlist some powerful, reputable people for her school, but much of it would fall on her anyway. So, having some success to back herself up would be great.

'Although, maybe I can help with that too…' he thought, an idea popping in his mind. Alas, it was a bit complicated and it required him to go out of his way to help her… Which he probably would leave for later. Much as he loved Serafall and wanted to help make her little sister happy, Joshua was a very busy person. Khaos Brigade and his immediate family were already keeping him very busy, nevermind a handful of other duties he'd accepted for himself.

Maybe once he cleared his schedule some more, he could set aside some time to help Sona.

As it was, there were more pressing matters to deal with.

"You have something in mind, but you are watching Sona. You aren't thinking of adding her to our relationship, are you?" Serafall asked, to which he rolled his eyes and took the soda by his side to drink some. "What's with that lack of reaction? She not good enough for you, mister?"

"Too young," he commented, citing the same reason he'd rejected Rias with. Not that it was the only reason, but still. "Besides, I think I'm being greedy enough as is, thank you."

"Hmmm," Serafall hummed doubtfully, eyes narrowed.

"I was thinking I could do a little something to help her with her school thing. Let me make a call, yeah?" he admitted, waiting until Serafall beamed and nodded to do so. Joshua remembered his mother always being annoyed when his father made work calls when he was supposed to be out of work hours or even on vacations, so… yeah. He'd endeavor to avoid that. "Thanks."

"No, thank you for caring about her," Serafall told him with a warm, soft smile that was very different from her usual childish and playful one.

"You care, so I do," he replied with a grin of his own, kissing her nose before pulling back to make his call. If he'd turned, he might have noticed the slight blush on her face and how cute it made her look. "Hey, Ravel, do you have a minute? I just want you to note something down for me so I don't forget. Something for the future…"

[}-o-{]

Standing in the huge yet mostly unoccupied room once more, Joshua couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

He didn't have the best of memories from his previous visits, after all, plagued by failures. Sure, he'd made things work somewhat as of late, but it didn't take away from the fact that he was failing. Somehow, falling just short made it all the worse. Watching his friend desperately cling to those moments he could afford him left Joshua feeling like he'd almost rather have failed completely.

Almost, of course.

"All ready?" Sairaorg asked him and Joshua glanced once more at the arrays he'd just finished setting up. All the wards, hexes and boons had been cast and the entirety of them was waiting for him to pull the metaphorical trigger. He was mostly double checking that he hadn't forgotten a spell somewhere. He didn't, of course, but he couldn't help but worry at times.

"All ready," he confirmed with a nod, taking a deep breath in.

Then he got the spells started.

Immediately, Misla's Sleep Disease was targeted and pushed back. The boons helped her recover, boosting her natural capabilities as if it were Senjutsu's strengthening and regeneration effects but through magic, as best as Joshua could manage. The hexes, for their part, viciously attacked at the illness' connection to the woman, trying to weaken its hold and make it disappear. The wards, for their part, filled the gaps, helping the boons and the hexes at the same time.

"Sai," he heard, but Joshua focused on his duty instead of the touching reunion of mother and son. It shouldn't have been as moving as the first one, especially since he'd woken her up a handful of times already. However, that was hardly the case in reality.

Sairaorg was always just as moved, with his voice and hands shaking, as that first time.

Misla's eyes filled with the same amount of emotion as they had back then.

One of the reasons why he didn't want to focus on them was because it felt like he was intruding in their moment. He was just a friend of Sairaorg's, nothing more, nothing less. Misla barely knew he existed, since they had better things to talk about, like all the things the woman had missed while she slept. He understood that and he was fine with that, which was why he wanted to give them all the time they might need.

Another reason was because he had something to focus on at that moment and he'd made sure to tell Sairaorg about it. After all, his friend was the kind of guy that might try to pull him into the conversation despite it being better to focus on themselves. Joshua had work to do for the sake of his friend, and he'd be damned if he half-assed it.

So, he kept himself intently reading the feedback of his spells, noticing all the new little things that his changes to the array threw his way. It was then that Joshua finally got information that he wanted to get instead of something that pointed him in yet another new direction. Something finally went as planned, with the previous information leading not to a dead end but to an actual good spot.

'Finally,' he thought, a grin forming on his face.

Turns out that he was right. The Sleep Disease did indeed have something to do with the soul, which was why it was so difficult to get rid of once it settled fully. However, it wasn't as bad as he'd thought either, which was a very big relief. He'd thought the thing intertwined itself with the soul of the victim, making itself part of it, part of them.

However, that wasn't the case, fortunately.

He'd dreaded what he'd have had to do if that was, indeed, what was going on.

Instead, what Joshua figured from the new information coming in was that the disease didn't make itself a part of the person's soul like that. Instead, it was more like an… octopus-like parasyte, metaphorically speaking. It wrapped around the soul of the patient, grabbing onto anything it could and very determinedly refusing to let go. Its hold was strong, to the point that pulling it off was actually quite dangerous…

Which made it very fortunate that it was so difficult to do.

What Joshua had been doing while waking up Misla before was, more than taking away the disease momentarily, offering a moment of strength to the woman to push through the illness' effects. The disease had always been there, he'd just gotten rid of the effects momentarily while the illness fought to bring them back in a battle that it was always going to win. After all, while he treated symptoms, the illness had been securely in place.

Now though, that was about to change.

Because he could see the main "body" of the Sleep Disease. Furthermore, he had the right spells to sever the connection it held with Misla. He didn't go for it immediately though, but that was because the soul was a fragile thing, or so he imagined. He didn't want to inadvertently harm Misla, so he needed to be careful.

"Misla, Sairaorg, I can start proper, actual treatment right now," he said, his focus still mostly on what he was "seeing". He didn't want to rush the process, he really didn't bit… "It's going to get more difficult the more we push it off," he added, wanting them to get the whole picture as best as he could manage to explain it in a constrained amount of time.

With every session, with every time Joshua prodded the disease, it reacted differently, which was why he tried to cover as many bases as he could every single time. He couldn't afford to waste time.

And now…

"We can probably push it off some more sessions, fi you want me to be more sure, but…"

"Do it," Misla said, her voice more firm and strong than he'd ever heard it. Joshua wondered if that was the improvement on his spells or how serious she was. Maybe both? "I've been a prisoner in my own body for long enough. I want to be free."

"... Sairaorg?"

"... She decides," his friend replied and Joshua took a moment to breathe in deeply and then let the air out.

Then he nodded.

So, slowly, carefully, he started prodding the disease as best he could. Continuing with the octopus metaphor, Joshua pulled it off one sucker at a time. It was a nerve wracking process, considering that he expected the disease would lash out much like it did whenever he tried to tone down its effects, but he wanted to get his foot in the door properly before moving onto the next phase. So, one step at a time, he managed to get the hold the illness had on Misla to loosen up the smallest bit.

Pausing at that, Joshua had to wonder if to keep going or trying to make do with the progress he had made.

It felt like taking a gamble, every little bit of progress he'd made so far and going for more. Every single thing he did could cause the disease to go berserk on him and that had great chances of being bad, now that soul stuff was on the line. However, not securing his own hold on things more had the same chances, so Joshua was left standing between a rock and a hard place.

'I can work with this,' he decided, taking a deep breath in and glancing at Misla and Sairaorg. They were talking between themselves once more and he barely caught a few words about the Young Devil Rating Games before nodding and turning back to what he was doing. 'Wish I could be as nonchalant as them,' he mused, but then again. Maybe they were trying to distract themselves from what was going on. 'Better to get started on the next phase.'

Sure, pushing the foot a little further in the door was great, but it was better to have everything ready for the big push rather than be surprised by a lash out. The disease was a dangerous piece of work and Joshua didn't want to give it a chance to catch him with his guard down. If he had to struggle a bit more, it was better than risking it all to make things a little easier. That's why Joshua started preparing for the next step in the process.

Searching for the spots to pull from with all his sensing capabilities, he focused the spells he'd already cast in the right areas, making some minor adaptations and re-castings after adapting to a few new pieces of information. 'Thank God you finally decided to play ball,' he thought with a slight grin. After running into so many complications, he had stopped expecting to finally have the right information and assumptions.

It was bound to happen though, that he'd reach the end of the line.

And now he had.

"You might feel this," he said out loud, drawing the two devils' attention towards him once more. "This might be unpleasant, even painful."

"... Are you confident?" Misla asked, her expression clear of the fond smile she had while talking with Sairaorg. Joshua looked at her and weighed the situation in his mind. Was he confident? Yes. However, it was also true that he was rushing things a little. Then again, there was no telling if things would be easier if he put it off. For all he knew, they could even be harder.

"As confident as I can be," he replied honestly, a grimace of a smile on his face.

Misla stared at him for a long moment before simply nodding, as if she had gotten what she wanted from him.

"Go ahead," she told him and Joshua looked at Sairaorg, who looked about as grim as he felt. Well, it seemed that they were going for it. So, with a deep breath in, he nodded back at the woman, who smiled at him. "You've been a good friend of my son's, it seems. I can't wait to get to know you."

"... Same, Ma'am," he replied and she smiled wider. Nothing else was said, so he decided to take that as his cue. Hesitating for a single second, he triggered the many spells he needed to and got to it. It was going to be a long, difficult process, but Joshua was going to do his best.

It took less than a second for the Sleep Disease to react to what he did, lashing out much like it had before, except this time it also tried to strengthen whatever hold on Misla's soul it still had. Joshua had done a good enough job getting it away though, it seemed, because what he'd managed to do so, had stayed that way. Furthermore, his sudden attack had managed to pull even more of the illness away from her soul too.

Narrowing his eyes, he tried to see if it was enough. He couldn't risk being wrong, not with Misla's soul right there in between his array and the Sleep Disease. So, he looked at everything as quickly as he could, adjusting what he could without needing to spend much time and continuing his assault.

Slowly, he peeled the disease off of her as carefully as possible, trying not to be too slow else he gave the illness time to latch back on.

And, in the end, after what felt like hours and a single second at the same time, he breathed out a weary sigh.

"Did it work?" Sairaorg asked, unknowingly voicing his own question as he desperately tried to read all the information he was getting. Ultimately, there was only one way to know for sure if something had gone wrong and that was checking on Misla herself, no spells and no senses. Considering he was relatively new to souls, he might miss something in that regard, after all.

So, both Joshua and his friend stared at the woman, now laying back on her bed with her eyes closed.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Well, mostly a chill chapter…

Except that maybe we are witnessing a fairly big magical step for Joshua. In a way, I think it falls just short of giving an angel more wings. Arguably on par with that, considering the Sleep Disease has been known to affect devils no matter who they are, how strong they are or literally anything at all. An incurable, inescapable disease, as far as Devil society is concerned.

Either way, certainly a big step for our boy, regardless.

Let's hope it goes, well, yeah?

Speaking of hopes, 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: What do you think Joshua came up with to help Sona? A little disconnected from the main point of this chapter, but this is supposed to be a random question.

See you.