It's Hard to Find Divinity-
[Aika Kiryuu]
Things had been… calm, for a definition of the word.
Her days had become a bit of a routine, but that was hardly new, really.
For quite a while, however, school had become a lot less important in her life. Difficult to be concerned about that much when she was learning magic. Her grades in school had slipped, but not enough to be concerning, and that was good enough for her. No, she was much more focused on magic.
And her boyfriend, who turned out to be a lot better than she'd initially expected when she asked him out. Aika was aware, after all, that she was a little perverted – read, a lot –, so she knew a normal guy wouldn't be for her… nevermind her chances, really. She was no "school beauty", after all, to make up for her eccentricities. The Perverted Trio, however, had been too much for a while… until Issei changed. Thus, she'd taken a chance, gone out on a limb.
That had worked wonders, really.
She felt like she'd lucked out. Not only had she gotten a great boyfriend that had somehow been disguised as a perverted idiot for years, but she'd also gotten an opportunity to be in a world of wonders. Her boyfriend was apparently all but a dragon that would be at the top of the world and she had talent for magic.
She was less enthused by the attention Issei was getting now that his dragon charm was starting to work – and his physical training too, which was great, but also not – and girls were realizing that no, he wasn't reverting to his more problematic ways. Although, admittedly, she was a little tempted by some ideas… But that was something for future Aika to decide. Issei was surprisingly loyal – and also dense as a rock –, so she didn't need to worry nearly as much as she'd have expected.
Back to magic though, Issei had brought her the Holy Grail – not literally, because apparently the thing really did exist – of magic contacts. She hadn't known for quite a while, but Joshua was the Magician. She'd heard more than once about how he was the second coming of Merlin to magical society, probably even better. It wasn't even just his Stars that said it either, which could be understandably biased, but almost everyone said something to that effect. Even those that barely had contact with the man couldn't refute the claim without sounding like conspiracy theorists.
He was just that good and his achievements spoke for themselves.
Aika was also aware that not all his achievements were known, which made the entire thing even more impressive.
"Studies going well?" the man in question asked her one day, when they met to discuss things and for her to get some one on one tutoring. Not only because she was now one of his Stars, his apprentices, but also because she was working on a project for him. "No pressure," he reassured her when she grimaced.
Except, there was pressure. You didn't get assigned something by the man that had changed your entire life, placed you at the top of a society you'd just entered and opened all the doors in the world for you and not do your best, not try to show something for it. She'd worked tirelessly once she was told what she could do to repay him a little and she'd even roped the other Stars to help her out – when they weren't working on stuff for Joshua themselves –, but she still had very little, had achieved very little.
"Aika," Joshua continued, an understanding smile on his face. "Believe me. I know soul stuff is hard, from experience. I'm not expecting you to crack this easily, or soon. Any progress is good progress, even if it's just you finding out only things that don't work." That was a little more reassuring, but she had to wonder how much of it was true. Because she didn't think anything could be hard for the man, not when it came to magic.
"I've…" she started, pushing her glasses up nervously. "I have dismissed a lot of things," she said and the eager, curious look she got helped her keep going with some more confidence. "And I've found some things that work… I think, but they are very minor. Barely something at all. Like, there's this spell that works to know if something has a soul at all, but it tells me nothing else," she said, flipping through her notes to the aforementioned spell. "And I can't cast it yet. There's another that can tell if there's souls around, and how many, but that's… I'm still studying it. It's even more complicated. Half of the stuff makes no sense at all to me and I've talked with Levi, but he's more or less in the same boat. We're looking into it, but other than that-" she started all but blurting out, trying to justify herself more than actually give a report.
That is, until a hand fell on her shoulder and squeezed, shutting her up.
"Breathe, would you?" Joshua asked, sounding amused. Still, she did just that, taking a deep breath in and trying to calm her nervous heart. "It makes perfect sense. I've been where you are before and I know how weird stuff related to souls is. It's like having to learn another magic entirely, but way worse." He was not wrong about that. Aika wholeheartedly agreed with that assessment. "Honestly, I think what you have is already plenty and I can help you get a little further. Part of my mentor duties, pretty sure, and I've been neglecting those with how busy I've been these days. I'll have to make it up to the others too. They helped a lot."
She did her best to hold back an empathetic grimace. Her fellow apprentices had done a lot, yes, scouring through books for Joshua's research on the Dimensional Gap. They'd even celebrated after they gave their report, thinking they had managed to make up at least some of their debt. Not a considerable amount, but enough of it to not be insignificant.
Little did they know, Joshua was a cruel, cruel man.
All the same, Aika could only do one thing in the face of that.
"I'd appreciate the help."
She could only smile and accept, even if she was just as indebted herself.
[}-o-{]
[Joshua Davis]
Looking at the two fallen sparring, Joshua thought over a project that he hadn't touched in a bit.
Project Ascension had been kind of put on pause after its partial success, but there was more to it than going from two wings to four. Ideally, he wanted to cover the whole spectrum, maybe even going further. Alas, it seemed to be more difficult than just saying that, like with everything in life. Between that and a bunch of other things pulling at his attention, Joshua wasn't too ashamed of having pushed the thing to the side. It worked well enough for Heaven and Grigori, really.
Still, he felt like he owed Raynare to work on it.
Funny how that worked, considering how things had started between them. Joshua would never not be a little taken aback by how different things were after a bit, but they had. The fallen woman had made herself an ally of his and that meant something. She'd protected his family, acted on his behalf and helped in a variety of ways. Ignoring her, ignoring their deal, left him feeling guilty.
"Yeah, I know you like her," he commented out loud, rubbing his left hand on top of Nagini's head as they watched the pair of fallen continue to trade blows. "You just want her stronger so that you can fight even more seriously," he pointed out, getting an easy agreeing hiss in response that had him rolling his eyes. Of course she'd just admit it.
He didn't say much after that, too busy "looking" at the fallen. Or, more accurately, examining them with his spell arrays and senses. He wanted to see what was different in their nature, in their souls. What made Kokabiel have ten wings? What was different now that Raynare had four from when she had two? He knew some of that, especially the latter question, but now that he had more idea what he was doing, he could find more information. He'd lucked out the first time, especially in regards to the soul aspect.
He couldn't count on that happening again.
Joshua would have to schedule a visit to Grigori, or bring a few fallen to his place. He'd already inspected some six-winged fallen, but he could stand to do so again. Besides, it'd be an excuse to talk with Penemue and see how things stood. He had ideas of what to do with her and Grigori, especially if Azazel continued to be a problem.
'Let's not dwell on that though. Ascension,' he reminded himself, switching tracks and getting back to what he was supposed to be thinking about. At least, what he wanted to think about at that moment. He'd go back to working on Ophis' Silence afterwards… or maybe Freedom… or maybe…
He had a lot of projects, as per usual.
Either way, he could probably ask Penemue for at least one eight-winged fallen, right? Because there was a little something something that he could work on besides Ascension without getting too off track. That'd be fun to have at hand, truly, even if it'd likely be a lot more difficult to pull off.
He had threatened Azazel with it though, so he might as well make true to his word and work on it a bit.
"Finding yourself inspired again, Davis?" Kokabiel asked, dropping by with Raynare shortly behind. Apparently, they had decided to take a break. If he knew the woman though, she'd demand they get back to it soon. She liked to train until she dropped, after all, and Kokabiel couldn't very well say no.
Not if he knew what was good for him.
"In a manner of speaking," he answered with a shrug. "How was the sparring? I was only half paying attention," he admitted. The grin on Raynare's face said she'd enjoyed herself, but that didn't say much. Any training made her happy, even if it was shit.
"I should have put her down," Kokabiel said flatly. "How such a monster was beneath me without my knowledge remains a mystery. Or did you create this?" he asked, waving his hand towards Raynare, who looked flattered rather than angry. Although, there was a bit of that, but it probably came from the reminder that she'd been the man's subordinate and he'd backstabbed her.
"She was like this already. I just gave her… incentive and a little push," Joshua answered with a grin. He was rather happy with Raynare. Sure, she was a maniac obsessed with getting more powerful, but she was a useful maniac obsessed with getting more powerful. That was good enough for him.
"Terrifying," Kokabiel said, looking the smallest bit disturbed. "Absolutely terrifying."
"Thanks," Raynare replied with a wide grin.
"That wasn't a compliment."
"Speaking of incentives. I'll be looking further into giving you another pair of wings, Raynare," he commented, making the woman perk up further, a hungry glint appearing in her eyes. "You haven't reached your plateau though, so we have some time anyway, but I want to keep my word."
"I'll look forward to it," she said. Joshua was surprised that she hadn't pressed or demanded more progress. He guessed she might be more happy with what he'd already done for her than he'd expected. He had given her a shiny new pair of wings and a Longinus, he supposed.
Yeah, that could be it.
"You speak of such things so casually," Kokabiel pointed out, looking like he didn't know what to make of it.
"Wait until you hear about how I wanna look into reducing the number of wings an angel has," Joshua pointed out, both because he wanted to threaten the guy – he was not forgiven, or "reformed" like Raynare, far from it – and because he wanted to see what expression he'd make. He was not disappointed.
Not at all.
[}-o-{]
He had gotten good at killing two birds with one stone, Joshua figured.
Sometimes it was even more than two.
The point was, however, that he tended to try and be more efficient with his time, what with the myriad of projects he had to juggle, on top of family and friends and hobbies and- He had a lot of shit to get done every day, so he tended to try and multitask when possible. Like at that moment, for example, when he was working on Project Silence, but also on a side-project of sorts involving the Egyptians.
He was channeling them for the sake of increasing his capabilities in regards to a lot of things, from sensing, to magic, to a bunch of other things. All the while though, he was studying their effects on his soul so that he could, potentially, decrease the drawbacks of too much divinity. He wasn't having much luck, admittedly, but that had never stopped him.
Being able to channel them more effectively and in tandem could only be good. Joshua didn't think ignoring the possibility would be very smart of him, even if it took him a while. There were plenty of projects he pushed aside because they required too much effort for what they could do, but that was not one of them.
"Should you be drinking while working?" Koneko asked, golden eyes wide as she looked at him. Joshua just raised an eyebrow as he took a gulp of the cold, wonderful beer. Nephthys was truly the best of the Egyptians, no matter how much the rest of them whined about it.
"I have way too many ways to not get drunk," Joshua answered and the nekoshou seemed to take his word for it with a nod almost immediately. Then she turned back to the snacks laid before her and picked one. Some of the other Egyptians weren't too bad, admittedly. Heset in particular, God of Foods and Drinks, could be very neat.
"The cards…?" the white-haired girl asked then and he chuckled.
"Don't you see Mr. Davis is trying to work?" Ravel asked from his other side, narrowing her eyes. "He'll work on your stupid cat cards later. Besides, he has to make the fire-"
"Cats first."
"Wh-? No! He promised he'd make the fire egg for the phoenix cards!" the Phenex protested vehemently, much to his amusement. This was turned even more funny when she turned to him, face filled with indignation. "Joshua! You promised!"
He just raised an eyebrow at her. So much for leaving him to his work, huh? Not that he was annoyed or anything. It was hilarious. And also kind of endearing. Ravel didn't often let her childish side get the better of her. Especially when she was in the middle of acting all grown up and mature and responsible.
He almost felt like rewarding Koneko for pulling that off so smoothly, but he had a feeling that Ravel would pout at him if he did.
"I mean… You did promise," the blond girl mumbled, turning her attention to her notepad and flipping a page on it. She was pouting too, but Joshua felt like it might be unsafe for him to point that out, so he didn't. Instead, he chuckled, making her blush. "That's for after you're done though."
"Child," Koneko snipped immediately.
"You're one to-!" Ravel snapped before realizing that she'd been masterfully baited once more. "-talk…" she finished with a grumble, back hunched and pout even stronger than before. Koneko looked like she was about to deliver another "attack", but Joshua decided that was enough teasing. Thus, he planted a hand on top of the nekoshou's head and ruffled her hair.
She narrowed her eyes threateningly at him, but he knew she was harmless.
"Behave," he told her with a smile. "I'll work on both of your cards once I'm done here," he reassured, and they drifted back to silence, each working on their own things. Well, Ravel and him were working. Koneko was mostly just doing some light senjutsu training while snacking. In her defense, she'd finished her homework a few minutes before, so he guessed she was allowed to do nothing for a bit.
Besides, he knew she'd never slack off too much, since that'd make her look bad when compared to Ravel. Joshua wasn't entirely sure where that rivalry came from, but he was grateful that it seemed to motivate them to do better… Even if sometimes it'd get out of hand and cause some issues. They seemed to behave well enough so long as they had supervision to stop them before reaching that point, so that was reassuring.
Not like they were often alone together anyway, which was good for the wellbeing of the world.
"I like the cat better," Koneko commented when he started channeling Set for a bit, which the God of Storms and Chaos didn't appreciate much, admittedly. And that was before Ravel opened her mouth to say something worse.
"I like the bird better."
Yeah, Bastet being more well-liked was one thing, but Horus? Not only did Set hate that, but Horus couldn't help himself. The King God of the Egyptians was not one to hold back when smug, apparently. 'Seriously, you're a Pantheon of gods, can you behave like adults?' Joshua thought to himself. 'I'm going to switch if you don't stop that,' he added when Set's annoyance got a little out of hand. Channeling gods when they were emotional was not a pleasant experience, after all.
'Thanks, Isis,' he commented, receiving a warm, "you're welcome" feeling from the goddess that had become a lot more "talkative" when he'd had to mediate one too many arguments between gods. Apparently, she appreciated having someone else help her out in that role. Still, sometimes neither of them felt like standing in the middle of those messes, so he channeled her and they ignored the fights together. Like then and there, when it became obvious that two little girls had started a spat between gods.
Truly, he'd become representative to a most respectable bundle of idiots, really. At least he got help… and free beer and snacks. The jury was out on if that was worth the ruckus when they felt like being immature, but oh well. He was stuck with them, he supposed.
[}-o-{]
"They'll like you."
Joshua only gave Gabriel a flat look. She said it with so much confidence too. How? He knew he wasn't the worst kind of partner she could have, but that didn't mean he was anywhere near the kind of boyfriend literal angels would approve of. Pushing aside all the terrible things he'd done, which they might or might not justify, considering they had a not-so-spotless history themselves, Joshua was dating a Youkai – which might stretch their capacity for understanding already, even with DxD logic added into the mix – and a Devil.
Nothing against Serafall, truly, but she did not make for a good addition to his case when going to visit angels in Heaven.
"They'll like you, Joshua. Stop worrying about it," Gabriel insisted when it became evident that he was not believing her one bit. He still didn't after that, but at least he tried to pretend he did. She saw right through it though, if the exasperated-fond look she gave him was any indication. Not like he expected differently, but still. She could have at least pretended for him like he was for her.
With a sigh, he ran his fingers through his hair.
"How are we even getting there?" he asked. Better to get it over with before he could grow even less sure about what they were going to do, or so he thought. Maybe Gabriel was of the same mind, because she shook her head with a smile on her face, hugged his arm to her chest – her considerable chest – and then teleported them… somewhere very bright.
Heaven was… very stereotypical, apparently. It was a place sitting on clouds, for once, full of marble-like white stone and gold. It seemed to hit the perfect range of "warm" without stepping a single toe into "hot", let alone "cold". The sun was right there, shining on the entire place, which should have meant the whole place was painfully bright, what with all the light colors and reflective surfaces… yet it was not.
Almost too nice, was how Joshua would describe it, which he thought fit exceedingly well.
"This place is beautiful," he commented as Gabriel led him through the golden gates that he tried not to think too much about. "How you can visit mortal places and not find them lacking is a wonder," he added and he got a giggle from his partner.
"Anything can get dull after a while, even Heaven," she admitted and he was surprised no to see the by then almost familiar flash of dark wash over her. "The mortal world might not be as beautiful, but it's different, so different. There's so much to see, it changes all the time, new things appear, old things vanish. I can neve