A/N: This is the first fanfiction that I have written so far, I've been heavily inspired from a certain story that ended rather abruptly and as such, I've decided to grab the base and lead it into a more fitting ending.. In my opinion at least.

This story is within a different timeline, where Kazuma has never suffered another death since his first one, so the rest of the girls do not know that Aqua is able to revive people. The story also takes place a bit after the movie, or rather Volume 5 so please be aware that there may be some spoilers.

(Italics = Character Thoughts)

Again, this is my first fanfiction and as such I am open to any and all suggestions/criticism,

Without further ado, bon appetit.

Kazuma POV

It had been a while since returning from the village from where our crazy explosion-loving Archmage was born, it wasn't too interesting to say the least.. aside from Sylvia shudders ..but I really can't get that third night with Megumin out of my head.. Anyways, ever since we got back from the village, that damned useless goddess had landed us into another debt, she had been hanging out at the guild far more often than normal, performing her party tricks as usual and drinking herself to sleep. She ended up going overboard on one of her tricks, in the process ended up destroying some of the tables, drenching a bunch of the employees in water and flooding the entire guild hall.

In the end, while it was my fault that I let her out too many times, couldn't that damned woman restrain herself a bit sometimes?! Whatever, we now have a debt of 125,000 Eris, it certainly would be an easy problem to get by if Vanir had finally paid me the 3 million Eris for my wonderful inventions that I gave him, but after confronting him about it he only told me that it'd still be a while until he could get up to that much money, a month or two he said, damnit. I was sincerely hoping that we could chill out for a bit and relax without questing for a bit but I guess not everything can go the way I want it to can it?

"Did you guys find anything interesting?" I asked, peering over to the other three

"Kazuma-san, Kazuma-san! Take a look at this one!"

Aqua was pointing to a quest to recover lost supplies that have been left behind after the Merchant was ambushed by dire wolves. While it seemed simple, I was left shaking a bit from hearing the word dire wolves.. Weren't these types of wolves much, much bigger than regular wolves, and even deadlier too? There wasn't any other quest easier than this one and it paid thirty-five thousand Eris, guess it can't be helped.. We decided to take it and head on out to find the location.

"Kazuma! Pwease help mee!"

Unluckily enough, we ended up getting attacked by those same exact dire wolves, and to my luck, they weren't as big as I thought they'd be.

"Why is it that I always have to do everything for you!"

I shouted at Aqua who was uncontrollably sobbing, while pulling out my bow and readying the string, taking a shot and sniping two wolves behind her.

"T-Thank you, Kazuma.. Thank you so much for saving me."

"Please let go of me."

After forcing Aqua off my shoulders, I turned over and shouted towards the other two to see how they were doing.

"No matter how many of them are pitted against me.. I will not falter!"

"Aqua, stop crying and please go help Darkness before she kills herself, Megumin how are you- NO DON'T CAST THAT-"

"EXPLOSION!"

"NOOO!"

In the next second, a large smoldering crater was in place right in front of what used to be the wolves, as well as my senses telling me that the ear-deafening noise of that Explosion probably had attracted some unwanted guests.

"I apologize, I should've thought this through, and now I am about to be eaten alive by wolves.. I would appreciate some assistance, Kazuma."

I took out Chun- I mean my sword out of its scabbard and charged at the incoming pack of wolves, these weren't dire wolves luckily and far smaller, but they were still dangerous. Surprisingly enough, the sword was quite capable, much more than I thought it would be.. maybe I should cut it some slack. After the wolves were dealt with, I quickly hauled up Megumin onto my back and ran, yelling at Aqua and Darkness.

"We need to get out of here, there's too many of them for us to handle!"

"Kazuma! Look out!" Darkness shouted back at me.

I turned around as fast as I could, just to see a frenzied wolf jumping right into my face, luckily enough, I nearly dodged but wasn't fast enough, the wolf's claw almost landed into my face, but ended up missing so it had only scratched my cheek. Regardless, with the force of the pounce, me and Megumin ended up falling backwards to roll down a large steep hill.

By the time we hit rock bottom- literally, We were both in bad condition.

"If it wasn't for that stupid backwater goddess getting us into debt like usual, we wouldn't be in this predicament." mumbling to myself.

I trotted over to where Megumin was laying and transferred some mana into her so she could run,

"I didn't think it'd get this bad, so unfortunately I didn't nab any mana from Aqua, here i'll give you some of mine. Thanks to your Explosion, we attracted many unwanted guests, we need to get out of here as soon as possible." I told Megumin,

Megumin quickly got up and asked, "But what about the others, don't we need to help them too?"

"Just listen to me, I doubt we'd be able to climb back up with that steep of a hill, all we can really do is hope that they escaped."

To be fairly honest, I wouldn't hesitate to abandon Aqua considering she got us into this mess, I quickly scanned the area to see a possible exit route to get out of the forest when I heard Aqua's voice down from the top of the hill.

"Kazuma! Megumin! Are you two okay down there? I'm not really sure why, but the wolves just ran off."

"We're.." staring at my aching leg "We're fine, just find a way to get out of the forest, we'll meet up with you two!" I shouted.

"If you say so, don't die Kazuma." Aqua replied, before getting out of view.

"Alright, Kazuma so how are we gonna get out of here?" Megumin asked me,

"I'm not really sure.. I've never been to this side of the forest ever before."

"Great, so we're lost then."

We ended up choosing a random direction, going primarily straight until we eventually came across a road, so we followed it in hopes of it leading us out of the forest easily, regardless I couldn't let my guard down so I was on high alert and had Enemy Detect on at all times to make sure we weren't gonna get sneaked on by another wolf.

"Kazuma..? Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine, why?"

"You look like you're limping, is your leg okay?"

"I'll be fine, though, why do you care so much?"

Megumin looked at me with a slightly shocked expression, before saying, "I just care about everyone in our party, I hate to see you guys hurt."

"I see," I replied, albeit a little confused still.

Megumin averted my gaze and began fidgeting a tiny bit before looking at me in the eye to say, "Kazuma, if you wouldn't mind.. Um.. can I come by later tonight to tell you something that's been on my mind lately?"

My heart began picking up in pace, I scrambled for something to say and finally said, "O-oh, yeah sure I don't mind."

"Right then, lets keep going" she replied,

As we continued down the straight path of the road, I detected something but I had little to no idea where it was coming from. I looked around quickly various times to see if I could trace it back.

"Kazuma, is something wrong?"

"I'm detecting a few enemies, I can't spot them though."

As soon as I said that, a bunch of wolves had started walking out of the bushes with their teeth out to see, they surrounded us both, and we were both not really in the best condition for fighting. It was pretty clear they were pissed at me for killing off their pack members as well.

"This is really bad.." I said as I pulled out my blade, "Think think think.. What are we gonna do?"

Damnit, is this really how it's all gonna end? Dying to a pack of wolves, all because of that stupid goddess' fault. If I were to go out, I'd honestly rather die fighting than becoming a feast for these damned dogs.

With the few seconds I had, I looked over at Megumin who was visibly scared, the most I could do was to at least save her and get her out of this.

"Kazuma..? I'm really scared.. what are we going to do?" Megumin asked, frightfully.

"I'm going to see if I can find an opening and distract a majority of them, you need to make a run for it."

She quickly turned around, and revolted "What?! No- There's no way I'm just gonna leave you, that's just insane, even for you!"

"Listen to me, please, I don't like the idea of you joining me in the afterlife, and I atleast want to die fighting."

Megumin began tearing up just a bit, saying "I'm not gonna leave you Kazuma, there has to be another wa-

I snapped, "DO IT!"

She quickly gasped and jumped back from my outburst, as crappy as I felt, it had to be done.

A wolf had already quickly pounced over towards Megumin, so I quickly rammed into it before it landed on her, and stabbed into its chest, but before dying it clawed into my shoulder, feeling the claws dig into my shoulder I winced as I saw crimson liquid burst out of the wound but now was no time to care about it. Seeing as my plan worked, all the wolves turned their attention to me, readying up to pounce at me, I took the few seconds I had to scream out to Megumin.

"Now, go! Run!"

She hesitated, with tears beading on the corners of her eyes but hesitantly nodded

"Y-you better get out of this alive, Kazuma, I won't forgive you ever if you don't." I heard her say as she ran,

I quickly turned back to the problem at hand, six wolves all staring at me ready to make me their next meal but this wasn't the time to feel any regrets now. I felt the adrenaline pumping my body up and the pain on my shoulder quickly faded away.

"Bring it on! I'll kill you all!" I provoked the wolves, raising my sword ready for the next attack. I have to admit, the adrenaline rush was quite addicting, feeling it surge through my veins, through my blood as wolves took their turns leaping towards me and managing to dodge swiftly, and efficiently. Even with this amount of efficiency, I couldn't always dodge as much as I wanted to, and I ended up earning a few more wounds with blood gushing out of them. Seeing as I couldn't run, there was no other choice than to fight to the death.

Megumin's POV

I ran. I ran as far as the little strength in my body let me.

Kazuma.. that idiot, why would he sacrifice himself for me? At this time too.. This is all my fault, I used Explosion and attracted even more wolves. I only made the situation worse, I could've- no, I should've just learned Advanced Magic, I should've learned it, but thinking back to when I even proposed the idea to Kazuma, he only called me a dummy and ended up buffing my explosions even more. I was confused, I didn't understand at all why he did that. Even then, that doesn't help my case right now. I couldn't do anything, I was as weak as a regular person in this situation.

I ran out of strength to run, this is all my fault, all mine.. and he decides to just blame it on Aqua instead. Maybe.. maybe there's still a chance, he has to still be there.. alive. I quickly got up and went to run back in the direction where I came from, I ran, and ran until I saw rustling in the bushes.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" I knew being confident was a bad idea, but there's nothing else I can really do. The most I could do is try to scare off whatevers behind there.

I saw a head lean out from behind a tree, a girl with two ribbons in her hair. I recognize that face.

"Yunyun? Is that you? Did you follow me here?"

"Um…I-"

I quickly ran towards Yunyun, gripping her arm, shouting "We've got to go back! Kazuma could be dying this very moment!"

"Wha- What happened?!" Yunyun asked nervously,

"We're running out of time, I'll explain later, We need to go now!"

Kazuma's POV

After a long battle which felt like forever, I glanced over at the dead bodies of the wolves, my vision began getting blurry.

I seriously do not know how in the hell I managed to overpower six wolves with such great strength, but that didn't matter to me now. What mattered most is that I was hurt. Bad, real bad. I coughed blood, falling to my knees, then I crawled over weakly towards a nearby tree with what little strength I had left and leaned to it. I gazed over at my body to see a plethora of gashes, wounds, cuts and my body was bleeding all over profusely, an overwhelming, mind-numbing pain was washing over my body and it was probably the worst feeling I've ever had in my two lifetimes. I honestly would've preferred the sweet release of death over this horrible feeling. I couldn't scream, or make any noise at all due to the fact that I was slowly losing my consciousness from blood loss. I wanted this unbearable pain to leave, I wondered whether Heaven wouldn't be as bad after all.. My thoughts were beginning to become sluggish as I heard footsteps.. wonderful.. this was going to be the end after all. This was how I was going to die, I was prepared, and ready for it to take me.

"Kazuma! Kazuma!, please, please don't die on me! Yunyun don't just stand there, help me! Use some healing magic or something, please just help me save Kazuma!"

Was that, Megumin? I heard her voice, I could tell she was crying, damnit, why did she come back for me?

"Kazuma, please don't die on me, I swear I'll get you out of this."

Those were the final words I heard before I finally let the darkness consume me, and passed out.

Part 2

Megumin's POV

I was so glad, so relieved to find Kazuma when I did. He did something that I thought he wouldn't ever be capable of doing, he had nearly sacrificed his life for mine. Had I arrived any later, he most likely would've been dead. The thought really scared me, what would I do if he died? The party needed him the most, and without him our party would certainly dissolve as if it was nothing, it'd just collapse instantly and we would lose what we called our home, the mansion.

Everything Kazuma has done, it was all for us, even though he isn't the best person at times, he can really turn our heads around and help us in times of need. He helped all of us, he saved me. He accepted me into his party, albeit almost abandoning me at first and having to resort to some… not-noble methods to make him change his mind, even then he could've still just waited until I used my Explosion and ditch me, but he didn't. He could've ditched Aqua while she slept when they lived in the stables, but he didn't. I could still remember the days before I met them both, normally I wouldn't really have anyone to help me with my Explosion magic training, sometimes a random group would just accept me to see what I could do only to kick me out because of my handicap. I remembered how there weren't a lot of quests I could do by myself, and my funds ran quickly dry because of that alone, it was.. a really difficult experience to be alone, the feeling of loneliness was never something that I considered to be a threat to my well-being but those first few weeks of being there.. It was truly a nightmare. Of course, there were rare occasions when Yunyun would follow me but as I said before, it was rare because she too, was trying to find a party, and even though she never did, she ended up having more lighter situations than me.

Being part of Kazuma's party is something that I can definitely say were the happiest moments of my life, and it was of course all thanks to him. I felt tears slowly trickling down my cheek as the thought of Kazuma dying started growing in the back of my head like a dark cloud. Regardless, I couldn't let my thoughts slow me down, I had to get him to Aqua so she could heal him, I had the man that I adored, on my shoulders slowly dying a horrid, painful death.

We reached the town of Axel, and rushed back to the mansion, ignoring the surprised reactions of citizens passing by, most of them being his friends. By the time we reached the front door of the mansion, Yunyun frantically knocked on the door as I held Kazuma in my hands.

Darkness opened the door, to see Kazuma all battered, with blood trickling down to the stone floor below.

"Huh?! Megumin? Kazuma?! What happened!"

"It's a long story, I'll explain later, we need to get Kazuma healed! He's about to die!" I yelled,

As we stepped foot into the mansion and went to Kazuma's room to put him down, I heard the door behind me fly open with Aqua running inside

"What happened to Kazuma?!" Aqua asked,

"He was attacked by the wolves from earlier, Look, I'll explain everything later, please just heal him!"

She was surprised at my response, but just ended up sighing and trotted over to the bed where Kazuma lied, a pained expression painting his face, I felt horrible.

Aqua began using her healing magic for a few minutes to suddenly come to a stop.

"Oh? This is bad, his wounds aren't properly healing. I can heal a majority of them, but the damage is too severe and too complex for me to fully heal. He has a few broken ribs, broken bones. He'll live, but he's definitely not gonna be able to take any quests for weeks,.. maybe even months."

I was shocked at the news, if Kazuma's not fully healed, we can't get this debt off our shoulders, we're in trouble.

Aqua sighed, "I suppose this means we're back to square one, we gotta take some jobs to get paid. We can't just go questing with Kazuma in this state, Megumin you're gonna be in charge of taking care of him, but I also want you to explain everything that just happened."

I inhaled deeply, and explained all that happened just an hour ago to Aqua.

Kazuma's Perspective

Did I die..? I'm back in the afterlife.

I looked up from where I was sitting to see a lady sitting there with a worried expression on her face, no doubt, she was another goddess probably set in place for this world specifically, sitting in where Aqua used to sit.

"So.. I'm assuming I died?" I sighed,

"No, you're not dead, you're simply unconscious from the attack earlier. You've been brought here to the heavenly realm because I need to deliver a message to you."

"I'm not dead?" I was relieved, "Can you tell me what happened to Megumin after I fell unconscious?"

"Of course, after you got rid of the wolves, she and her friend Yunyun dragged you back to safety in Axel and Aqua healed your wounds, you were in bad condition, but you were quite lucky to survive."

I cupped my face in my hands and sighed, "What a relief, well.. What is it that you were going to tell me?"

"Right, so, what I wanted to tell you is that you should probably be more careful from now on, you haven't died yet, so obviously you shouldn't know this yet, but normally people that get transported to another world would usually fly off into Heaven after their first death, but in your case, it's a bit more different. You have Aqua-senpai in your possession, so therefore, you can be resurrected from death, but I considerably doubt you can be resurrected an infinite amount of times. In short, you can only die two times before permanently leaving for Heaven should you die a third time, Please, use these lives carefully, you live the life of an adventurer so it'll be quite a difficult and dangerous journey for you.

"Thank you for telling me, I think I understand, in a sense it's like a video game after all. Is there anything I should know perhaps?"

"No, fortunately, that's all that I need to tell you, for now I'll be sending you off."

"Wait, uh, if you don't mind me asking, what's your name?"

The lady smiled before stating,

"Eris, just call me Eris."

"Thank you so much, Eris."

"It's fine, it's just my job as a goddess, you should be waking up soon, and please don't end up here again okay? I'll be praying for you."

"I'll try! Thank you again, Eris!"

She snapped her fingers, to reveal a pristine white door and I got up, opened the door and glanced back at her for a second before walking inside.

That goddess… she was so perfect, so kind, and she was so pretty as well. She even prayed for me! If I had the option to switch Aqua for her, I would've done it in a heartbeat.

I slowly woke up to hear someone sleeping in my room, turning to my right, I quickly noticed that Megumin had sat down on a chair and was sleeping soundly with her arms crossed near the bed. It had turned morning recently, so the sunlight was trickling into the room which had begun accenting her features.. I couldn't help but notice how pretty Megumin looked when she was sleeping soundly, I felt a slight blush begin creeping up on my face before I looked down at my body to see a bunch of bandages wrapped around my chest, I had my tracksuit on, but it was opened up, exposing my bare chest.

I tried sitting up from my bed when I felt a sharp, stabbing pain "Gruh..!" I groaned at the sudden pain and instantly fell back down. I rolled up my sleeve to show the many scars littered on my body, seemingly bite marks from the wolves that attacked me last night.

So Aqua didn't even heal me completely, how incompetent could she get?!

I fought through the pain and managed to sit up from the bed, wincing at the horrible pain being stacked on me, all the groaning managed to wake Megumin up as well.

"Hm? Kazuma? Kazuma!"

Megumin suddenly pounced onto me, forcing me to fall back down on my bed as she straddled me, and I felt her head leaning on my chest, swear I could also feel tears hitting my battle-scarred skin.

"Kazuma! You reckless idiot, why would you do something like that?! You made me feel so worried!"

I noticed her eyes were already overflowing with tears, I'm sure she was relieved to see me alive, the thought of that made me feel a slight warmth in my chest. But even then, I felt the pain suddenly surge through my body because of Megumin being right on top of me.

"Megumin I get that you're worried about me and all but can we please put that on hold, you're hurting me!"

"S-sorry! I lost myself for a second, I-I was just relieved that you were alive." She stated, as she sat up still straddling me,

"It's fine, completely fine."

I heard the door open and turned to see Aqua, "Hey Megumin, Darkness and I are going to find some jobs...?" Her voice trailed off "What are you doing?"

I was about to say something when Megumin spoke up before I did, saying, " It-it isn't what it looks like! I was just relieved that Kazuma was fine and I got carried away!"

"Is that so..? Very well, but even then.. to me it seems you two were enjoying yourselves."

Again, I was about to say something but Megumin quickly put her hand over my mouth

"Mmhmph?"

"It isn't like that Aqua! Just go away!"

"I was just kidding Megumin, anyway don't do anything sketchy, you know how Kazuma is, Darkness and I are going to find some jobs."

"Good, maybe you two can finally be of use for once!" I said, as I took Megumin's hand away from my mouth.

"Guh! For once?! Grr, you're lucky I'm busy, I'll get you back sooner or later!" She angrily closed the door and left.

Tch, dumb goddess.

I turned back to Megumin, "Soo…"

"I know you're a pervert and all, but please don't get the wrong idea." Megumin quickly stated,

It's.. a bit too late for that anyway.

She helped me off the bed, and I wrapped my arms around her shoulder, one step at a time we went down the stairs and she set me down on the sofa to relax.

"Anyway, Kazuma, are you hungry?"

"Yep, I haven't eaten anything since last night."

"Alright, I'll go make some lunch!" She happily said as she ran off.

Wait, lunch time already..? How long was I out for? Maybe my sense of time is wavering as well, and how did Megumin know how to cook?

I started to get comfortable on the sofa and waited while Megumin cooked something up, she came back with two plates containing some eggs, potatoes and a slice of ham. It wasn't a big meal, but it was better than nothing especially considering our debt.. It'll have to do for now. I tried reaching for the fork only for a sudden surge of pain to shoot out in my arm and I instantly jolted back.

Megumin giggled, and she sat next to me,

"Would you like it if I fed you?" She said, as she beamed a smile towards me.

"I definitely wouldn't mind if a cute girl fed me, of course."

Megumin slightly blushed and picked up the plate and fork,

"A bit confident today I can see."

She began feeding me slowly, to be honest the food was actually… really good? It was delicious to be honest, It was a simple meal, but it was absolutely delicious.

"Megumin, you made this?"

She happily nodded, "Darkness went to go buy some ingredients with her own money but wasn't able to properly cook something because she and Aqua went to go find jobs, so she made me prepare it."

"I still can't believe you made this, I never seen you cook before."

Megumin started to blush again, "Hey, just because you never seen me cook doesn't mean I never did!"

"We've known each other for nearly a year now, I guess it's just that I've never seen you cook before, but thank you for the meal, it was really delicious!" I sniffed myself and cringed a little, " I think I need a good bath too."

"Alright, but after you take a bath you have to help me with my daily routine." She said, with a devious grin.

My eyes widened, "Y-you're kidding right? I can't even walk!"

Megumin's expression softened and then she giggled, "Relax, I'm just kidding, I already had Aqua help me earlier today. I'm not that cruel."

This girl...

"I hope so."

Megumin helped me up and we headed on over to the bath, "Are you sure you'll do fine in the bath alone?" She worriedly asked,

"If you put it that way, it's almost as if you want to join me,"

"It's not like I want to bathe with you, It's just that you might need some help considering the injuries."

"Thanks for the offer, but I think that I'll be fine."

"Considering you Kazuma, I'm pretty surprised that you would turn down such an opportunity."

I furrowed my brow, and walked into the bathroom alone, I had to lean against the wall because I couldn't walk straight at all, it hurt to even walk. I couldn't even take off my shirt, and didn't have the strength to do that either. I felt pain blasting through my body each time I tried taking it off.

Hearing my groans, Megumin asked, "Kazuma, are you sure you don't need help? I can hear you struggling."

I sighed, "I would appreciate some help."

Megumin walked in and helped me take off my clothing, I noticed from the corner of my eye as she stared at my chest with a slight blush, which has been rather looking defined and a bit muscly from our recent adventures, though she had faced away when I put on a towel.

"Thanks for your help Megumin, I think I'll be fine in the bath though."

"Seeing as how that just happened I doubt that, I'll be joining you."

I already had the bathroom door open and was about to enter when I froze as she said that,

"That's.. quite strange considering you would hesitate when I offer you to join me the other times."

"I'm only doing this because you wouldn't be able to do it with your injuries."

"Alright, fine, I'll go in first."

Even then, walking towards the bath was a hard task to complete, I leaned again onto the walls to make it there. I prepared the water to a steaming and relaxing warmth as I poured my mana into the heater. I slowly dipped in and winced a tiny bit feeling the warm water go over my wounds but the small ticklish feelings of pain were drowned out by the sudden comfort and relaxation from the hot water.

"Alright Kazuma, I'm coming in." I was too busy relaxing in the tub to mutter a response,

Megumin came in covered in a towel as usual, but unlike the first time we bathed together, her hair wasn't tied in a bun, she sat in the bath next to me and I couldn't help but think,

I should really give her more credit for her looks, if anything she trumps the other two in beauty.

"You doing okay, Kazuma?"

I suddenly snapped out of my trance and said, "Yeah, I just needed this bath, it really eased my pain."

A few minutes passed with pure silence while we washed ourselves without saying a word, I broke the silence when I tried reaching for the soap, only to feel a sharp pain ram into my chest, "Urk!" I groaned and started panting a bit.

Megumin quickly snapped her head over to look at me and shouted, "K-Kazuma?! Are you okay?!"

"Ah- I'm okay, just tried to reach the soap and it hurt alot."

"Here, let me help you," Megumin said as she waddled over in the tub to grab the soap bar, "I'll wash your back for you, turn around."

I turned around so my back was visible to Megumin so she could wash it.

Megumin's POV

Kazuma must be thinking that my behavior has been weird lately or something, I'm pretty sure he's aware of my change in personality. The fact I gladly volunteered to hop into the bath with him and cared for him when he is hurt.. He must find me strange now.

I'm not sure if he really knows my true feelings for him, I told him that I liked him back in my village, but I could tell he was a bit confused and perplexed on what I meant. I wonder.. how would he even react? Does he share the same feelings, does he… like me?

When Kazuma turned his back around, I quickly took notice of the various scars imprinted onto his back, Bite marks, scratches, cuts that were healed improperly. I couldn't help but start to tear up quite a bit when I saw them, knowing that all these marks were pretty much all my doing, my fault.

"Oi.. Megumin, are you crying? You know, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm not forcing you."

I was really surprised to hear that he actually noticed me crying, if he found out I was crying I know he wouldn't stop seeing me as a child, so I attempted to cover it up with an excuse, "H-huh, oh um.. No, that's not it! I was just- I caught something in my eye is all!"

Kazuma peeked over his shoulder and looked at me with a serene smile, before turning back around and saying, "Don't worry, I can understand, I'll ignore it."

Huh..? I was dumbfounded at Kazuma when he chose to ignore it, but maybe it was for the best after all.

After some time, we both had decided that it was time to leave the bath. So, I helped Kazuma out of the bath, and we both dried off ourselves. I noticed that the sun was already down and it was beginning to turn into night, so it was already late. I helped Kazuma to his room and we said our goodnights to each other. It was at this time that Darkness and Aqua had come back with visibly tired expressions, I greeted them and they both just waved as they went to their rooms. I went to my room afterwards and then laid on my bed.

That was an hour ago, and here I am, still wide awake unable to sleep.

All that I can really think about is Kazuma, he may not realize it but.. I care so much about him. He can be cruel, perverted and a bit of a hard headed man. But we have all our shortcomings, we all have our faults and yet he accepts us and cares for us despite it all. I always preferred him to take me to do my daily routine, and to have him carry me back home to the mansión. I was aware that possibly that my explosions didn't really interest him much, but he cared enough to rate them for me and even relay the finer details if I wasn't able to see them, it made me feel so happy, so joyful to just have him be by my side, to feel his presence and his warmth while piggybacking him was probably the most comforting experiences ever in my life. It could be a bad idea, trusting him with my paralyzed body but regardless I was still so grateful, there's just something that makes me choose him over anyone else, I always felt so much more satisfied, so much warmer with him.

And then, the dark thought dawned upon me, What if I was too late? What if I had gotten there to see Kazuma's lifeless body lay down there before me? I couldn't imagine a world without him there to lead us to a greater life, without him our entire party would fall apart, we would end up losing our home.. I didn't want to be alone, I hated being alone.. Perhaps that was the reason I ran back without hesitation to try and save him, could it be the true reason? It didn't matter anymore, I was glad that I came back just in the nick of time to rescue him.

I wanted to think that it was because of Kazuma, but I grew drowsy and my eyes were beginning to close

I wonder, if he even feels the same about me..?

I felt a small, but cold tear slide across my cheek as that was my last thought before I succumbed to the clutches of sleep.

Part 3

Kazuma's Perspective

I can't sleep at all, the pain all over my body didn't let me sleep at all. Everytime I tried to sleep i'd only jolt back awake because of my body screaming at me to wake back up, this injury pisses me off, I wondered when it'd finally begin to heal, if it healed that is. This feeling is far worse than when I fell from the tree back during the Lizard Runners quest and broke an arm, or when the Winter Shogun sliced off my arm, it nearly got my head but I dodged in time.. Just barely. Regardless if these injuries were healed, they still felt off, when Aqua healed my broken arm it still felt sore, and when my arm was reattached I didnt feel anything in that arm until an hour or two later.

I sighed as I stared at my ceiling in the dark, not moving a muscle at all hoping that it'd silence the pain for the time being. Thinking back now, I'll definitely have to thank Megumin for helping me so many times, I felt she was going overboard but still I appreciate her help either way, better than not getting help at least.

My mind began to wander off and I began thinking, How would our lives be without Megumin? If Megumin wasn't in our party, a lot of things would change. We wouldn't be able to handle all of those Demon King Generals in one-fell swoop and we most likely would've died very early on. I remembered when I tried making her learn Advanced Magic during the first few months of our adventuring and to think that I'd end up denying that when we were coming back from her village. I'm not sure what came over me at that point, but I'm glad that I didn't deny her dreams. I know she didn't want to give up her dreams but Explosion magic is what defines her.. I couldn't bring myself to do that even if she said she was being a burden. I wouldn't forgive myself, ever. With her Explosion magic she comes out to be far more capable than what Aqua or Darkness can possibly ever be, I honestly think i'd much more prefer a loli mage that can 1-shot anything that comes in her path than a loli mage that only slowly whittles down her opponent with some lightning strikes and fireballs.

Even then, I care for my party members regardless of their shortcomings.. Well.. except Aqua perhaps, but I care more than I show. So I can see how surprised Megumin really was when I decided to attempt and step on the threshold of death's door for her safety alone. I can admit it was quite out of character for me, she probably thinks I'm awkward and that I tried to make her fall for me with that reckless heroic act, probably thinking about it right now in her own bed if anything. I'm not really sure if I like Megumin in that way though, yeah she's pretty and can be cute a lot of the times that I'm with her but is it really love? I felt that my ability to love was shattered all those years ago when I saw my childhood sweetheart run off with your typical highschool bad boy, after all that's what drove me to live a lifestyle away from school. But.. maybe she was different, I knew I couldn't really just judge a book by its cover, and the time that I've spent with her really does show how sweet she can be, even under that explosion-loving facade, I can see she hides a sweet and tender heart. Ahh, I don't know.. Perhaps I'm really falling for her?

I sighed once more, feeling drowsy. I closed my eyes, letting the warm embrace of sleep grip me.

I awoke, and lazily scanned the room as sunlight was beginning to pour into my room, seems like I got some type of sleep.

I looked over to my right to see Megumin sitting in a chair, smiling at me as I came to wake. I smiled back,

"Had a good night's rest?" Megumin said,

"It took me a while, still feeling some sort of pain around my body but I think I'm feeling better."

"That's good to hear, normally I would let you just laze around considering your condition but today we sort of have something on our hands, do you think you could at least stand up on your own?"

"I can try."

I got up from my bed slowly, nearly getting up on my own until I felt a quick and sharp jolt of pain course through my legs and chest and I quickly fell back down onto my bed.

"Ungh, I guess it'll still be a while.."

Megumin shot a bittersweet smile at me, I could tell she cared alot for me and seeing me in pain probably tore her apart, the thought of that comforted me somewhat.

She helped me downstairs to the sofa one uneven step at a time and set me down to the sofa near the kitchen.

"Alright, well, what's on our plate today?" I shot a quizzical look at Megumin,

"Eggs and bacon, but also a quest" She handed me a plate and sat down next to me, showing me a quest paper of handling undead in a town. I took a few quick glances at it while munching down on breakfast, as expected it was quite delicious.

"It's a quest that can pay well, and considering we just have to clear some undead it should be pretty easy." Megumin continued,

I was relieved, perhaps this is to pay off all the hard work I've done in the past, and now we don't have to deal with future debts with the pay this gives.

"Sena came by earlier in the morning for our help with it, You were still sleeping so I decided to have her come by later to give the quest paper and so she did, I also wanted to get your approval since you're still quite injured and I wouldn't mind postponing the quest until you're all healed up." Megumin finished,

"The quest doesn't seem that risky at all, so there's no other choice but to take it."

"So.. what's the plan then?"

"We'll use Aqua to bait out all the undead from the town since she's an expert at that, and you can use your Explosion to clear out the entire group, to make sure they're all down I'll be a safe distance from harm and snipe out any stragglers that wind up surviving your nuke. As for Darkness, if any get close she can hold them off so I can snipe them."

"That.. was a really quick and well-thought out plan, I'm sure if it's a plan from Kazuma it'll work just fine!" Megumin seemed excited and in high spirits, but then her expression slowly faded into a more sad one, "But.. please make sure to take care of yourself, don't fall off a tree like last time, in your current condition I'm not even sure if Aqua can heal you again.."

"I'll be fine, promise." I said with a cheeky smirk, we both got up as she took me back to my room to get some more rest, as I was about to fall asleep, I noticed she was sitting down near my nightstand reading a book, I could barely make out the words on the front which said something like.. "All Types of Explosions"

Kazuma's POV

A quick recap of what happened in the morning, we're currently heading out to the abandoned town filled with undead, and after hoping the other two would digest the plan as easily as I wanted them to, it seems one of my members wouldn't let me soar through this quest as I wanted to..

"You can't be serious! I'm NOT gonna be used as bait!" Aqua growled at me once hearing out my plan that I discussed with the group as we were heading on over towards the town. With my injuries still at an all-time high, Darkness and Megumin held me up by each arm.

"Oh? So do you have a better plan?" I replied sharply.

"U-umm… w-well... "

"Exactly, so it's agreed then, thanks for volunteering!"

"W-wait! You didn't let me finish! I didn't agree to this at all!"

I purposely ignored any whining from Aqua for the rest of the trip towards the town in the distance, geez, what bad timing to get into such a great quest at a time like this. If all goes well, we should be merrily on our way without any undead injuring me even further than I already am, Eris, please bless me with the luck to get through this quest unscathed, I thought.

"The thought of the undead surrounding me and clawing at me.. Eek!" Darkness squirmed in pleasure as she huffed and puffed.

So her fetish even goes to undead… what the hell..

"Darkness, please consider the time and place" I sharply glanced over at her.

By the time we reached over to the next slope, the town came into full view in the distance, looked somewhat like an old west town but all the houses had visible scratch marks and some of the houses were even torn down.

"There's the town." Megumin pointed,

I noticed the amount of undead in the town, sure enough there were at least 35-40 undead roaming around, considering the miniature size of the town it made sense for how the undead took over the town in such a short time.

We trotted over closer and got into the plains as we had Aqua go bait out the group of undead, so we rested and set up near a tree, with the help of Darkness and Megumins staff poking me up, I got onto a sturdy branch and got comfortable with bow in hand. I took out an arrow from my quiver and prepped the bow, ready to snipe,

"Megumin, wait until Aqua gets closer so you can cast your Explosion." I murmured over,

"Mhm!" Megumin excitedly stated, twirling her staff around.

As Megumin readied her staff in anticipation, I shot out a flurry of 5 arrows, taking down 5 at the same exact time. As I was about to shoot out another couple of arrows, my Enemy Detect picked something up rather faintly.

Crap, what is it now?

I readied my bow and scanned the area around but I saw nothing, "Darkness, stay on high alert, I think I detect an undead nearby." I told her from above,

Aqua was still running at full-speed towards us but as of right now, we have a much larger problem on our hands as of right now. But the thing is, we're in plains so there can't be anything hiding near us because we'd see in clear view.

After scouting a third time, I noticed that something white had materialized, and it had spawned right behind Darkness.

"Behind you! Darkness look behind you!" I quickly shouted as I shot two arrows towards the ghost but they just permeated through it, as if nothing happened. Darkness attempted to tackle it but she too had phased through it and ate the dirt.

Seeing as the ghost seemingly didn't care, it passed by both me and Darkness, as if it was locked onto someone else. Megumin, this was bad, really bad. With the few seconds I had to spare, I shouted over to Megumin as I could only warn her,

"Look out behind you, Megumin!" Megumin turned around in shock as she was about to cast her spell, only to see a large ghost walking towards her, which made her topple over and she shot her Explosion in the wrong direction. There was no time to spare, I only heard the Explosion come from the town's direction but I didn't bother looking over.

I quickly got a hold of 4 arrows and shot them out towards the undead which successfully took down 4 more but there were too many of them to handle and I was running out of arrows. I cautiously slid down the tree, scraping my elbow a bit but I ignored the pain, I felt adrenaline pumping up in my body again.

Due to Megumin's sudden explosion, the ghost was scared off and dematerialized away, so I shouted towards Darkness to pick Megumin up and so she did, but even after attempting to run away we tripped and my leg gave out instantly, all 3 of us falling to the ground. I winced at the pain coursing through my legs,

"We're done for." Megumin said,

I shifted around to see Darkness standing up with a blush on her face as she had her arms spread out to face the incoming tsunami of undead.

We're so dead we're so dead!

I quickly heard footsteps and turned to look behind me, it was Yunyun.

"Light of Saber!" I heard as I witnessed the group of undead disappear from the sudden flash of light.

I sighed, "What a relief, you saved our lives again." I said, as Aqua ran up towards us, tripped and thumped her head from exhaustion

"You followed us again, didn't you? Why else would you be here?" I heard Megumin say, with a slight tint of spite.

Yunyun began panicking "U-um…"

"It's fine, doesn't matter, she saved our lives anyway."

I reached over to transfer some mana into Megumin by using Aqua as a conduit as usual.

"Kazuma, look at the town!" I heard Darkness shout, I snapped my view over to the town to see a horrifying sight, Megumin's Explosion had hit the town instead of the undead, it was in shambles. I layed there in the ground and sighed,

I figured as much..

Megumin sighed as well, "Here, gimme your arm." She said as she got up.

Luckily enough, the explosion didn't exactly land in the middle of the town rather it landed on the outskirts, but even then it was a large smoldering carter that had taken out at least 3 buildings. I could only grimace at the fact that our debt would possibly just double or even triple, I sighed once more,

"See Kazuma? The plan didn't work." Aqua said to me,

"It didn't work because something unexpected came on us, I didn't expect a ghost to pop up next to us, and I'm pretty sure you couldn't have thought up of an even better plan with that pitiful INT stat of yours."

"..." Aqua rolled her eyes with a pouty face and turned her head away, "What's wrong with her?"

Megumin was on her knees, "Oi, Megumin, what's wrong?" I asked,

"Don't act like nothing happened, look at this! I caused all this! This was all my fault, I only made the debt bigger. What will Sena think?! She's gonna say that we're terrorists again.." I was surprised at Megumin's anger, but I could tell there was a tint of sadness in it.

"Don't blame yourself completely, It's not your all your fault, rather you should putting most of the blame on me and Darkness since we let that ghost get to you" I replied as I pat her head,

"S-so what are we going to do now?" I heard Yunyun meekly say,

"Please don't get involved, you weren't a part of this at all, this is our problem just stay out of it, there's no reason for you to get tangled in it."

"But.. I want to help you guys! You're my friends, right?" Yunyun quickly retaliated,

"Your only friends." Megumin whispered,

I rubbed my temples, "I suppose so, but it's best that you don't get involved in it either way, unless we ask you, but thanks for trying." I gave her an affirming smile,

"Okay," Yunyun nodded.

"It'd probably be the best idea to try and explain everything to Sena, if we tell her about it being accidental she might just add up to our debt, I suppose that's the least she can do."

I looked over at the four and they nodded, by the time we got back to Axel, Sena was already there with her arms crossed and an unhappy expression,

"Seeing the expressions on your face, I assume it did not go well?" she said,

"Unfortunately, it didn't go well, but please listen to what we have to say." I said,

"Regardless, I already know what happened, but you need to come with me since I'll have to ask you questions as part of guidelines. I hoped we wouldn't have to come to this again." she replied,

An hour passed, the interview session was over, we all did as I planned and told the absolute truth with the magic lie detector bell not ringing a single time during the session. Once Sena found out that it was 100% the truth and that it was purely accidental, she let us off but stacked an extra debt of 150 thousand Eris, totaling to a newer debt of 275 thousand Eris. Painful, right? At least we didn't get branded as terrorists or wanted criminals like last time.

We went on our way back to the mansion. As expected, none of us said a word. Megumin went to her room the second we got inside and the others did the same as well. Yunyun decided to spend the day here too, so we let her sleep in one of our spare rooms. I decided to wait a bit before sleeping to think back on what we possibly could've done to make that quest not go to complete shit, but in the end nothing could've been done.

"Mrrow…" I looked over to see Chomusuke laying on my bed, with the situation in my head I had completely forgotten about the cat. I grabbed him and laid him on my stomach as I laid down and began petting it.

I sighed, "Must be great, lounging around all day and not having to worry about anything huh?"

"Meow?"

I chuckled, even with all this pain today from an extra debt, Chomusuke always pulled through in comforting me during dark times.

Until, I heard a knock on the door, "Hey, Kazuma? Are you awake?" It was Megumin.

"Mhm, I'm wide awake unfortunately, so you're awake too huh? Come in, the doors open." She came in and closed the door behind her, and then walked over to sit down beside me on the bed, Chomusuke jumped off from my chest and hopped off the bed.

"Is something wrong?"

"Yes.. I came to talk to you about something rather important."

"Well, go ahead, I'm here."

"It's about the quest from earlier."

"Ah, I see, well what about it?" I wondered,

Megumin started tearing up as she looked into my eyes

"I'm sorry.. I'm sorry for getting you back into another debt! I'm so stupid.. I shouldn't have even bothered casting Explosion, it's all my fault!"

Okay.. well that escalated instantly.

"I-I mean, it wasn't completely your fault at all, it was just the dumb ghost that caught you off-guard, right? You should be blaming me and Darkness for even letting it near you and failing our job to protect you."

"You know.. You've really been acting strange lately, you're not one to blame yourself for anything and even then you tried putting your life on the line for mine."

"While that is true, I haven't been acting myself lately, I'm not sure myself either really, I think I was just under pressure in that scenario. I suppose that was the first thing that came to mind when it happened."

"Is that so? But, thank you either way." She sighed, saying in a depressed voice, drooping her head down low.

"Is something wrong..?"

"It's just.. in a situation like that, I couldn't do anything at all to help you, I didn't know what to do, I'm sure that we were both going to die because of me having already exhausted my mana and attracting much more wolves. I was powerless like a normal civilian, I couldn't help you when you were surrounded by those wolves and look, you ended up getting hurt badly. Perhaps if I learned Advanced Magic instead, that would be much more appropriate and the best thing to do in this case. If i had learned Advanced Magic we would've been out of this debt already, but thanks to me our debt only grew even bigger.

I was shocked, didn't know what to say, didn't know what to do. I for one was completely unaware how she felt during all of this because there are the rare occasions that she comes to my room to tell me about her feelings and each time she leaves me dumbfounded. I was afraid that I could mess something up so I didn't say anything.

Megumin seemed hesitant on saying something after that spill of emotions and her lips were quivering before she said,

"Which is why, I… I have decided to learn Advanced Magic."

My heart went doki-doki.

Those words that came out of Megumin echoed various times in my head.

"Wh..- What did you say?"

Megumin had her adventurer card in her hand when she said that, eyeing it down for a moment.

"I plan on learning Advanced Magic, surprising isn't it?" she let out a nervous chuckle,

"It's something that I would've never done especially considering what you did for me back when we were coming back from my village, but the dark times we're going through now.. it made me reconsider."

"Megumin…" I was still dumbfounded and wasn't exactly sure what to do.. But I think I was getting a grasp on the next step.

Megumin smiled, looking at her card once more, then she closed her eyes and a single tear trickled down her cheek. I know she didn't want this, she was just doing this for me. I can't do this. I can't do away with her dreams. I would never forgive myself if I did that.

Megumin let out a deep breath and opened her eyes again.

Her shoulders were shaking, they were trembling.

"Sorry, um.. Kazuma, but do you think you can do it for me?" She said embarrassingly as she handed the card over to me.

I noticed that she had four skills selected to learn already; Light of Saber, Inferno, Lightning Strike and Teleport.

I took one last look at it. I… I cant- I cant do this. My hand began trembling and my chest began feeling tight, then.. I felt the warm and soft sensation of Megumin's hand on my own.

"Kazuma, I know it's hard for people to change, please know that I too am hesitant to do this as well. But it's to secure us a better future, this is for you and me."

"I-I know that but I just can't, Megumin, I can't do it." I looked at her and felt a few tears begin forming, Why am I crying?

"W-what do you mean, Kazuma?"

I decided it was time to relay the thoughts I had on that fateful day, it was time.. Wasn't it?

I smiled at her, "We went through this already, Megumin, Do I really need a talented mage? I've got one who can toy with and defeat any Devil King's General that comes in our way, and with only a single explosion. If you know a mage that can do better than that, I'd like to meet them personally. I know that no one can best my little crimson mage! After all, you are Megumin right? The one who will one day master explosion magic, there's no way I can let those dreams down, not after all that we've been through. Who cares if we got a huge debt? I certainly don't, as long as I have you and the others with me, I feel that we can overcome anything." Did I really just say that? My heart was thrashing wildly in my chest, I was so nervous after saying that… I'm hoping that I didn't mess this up.

Megumin wore a shocked expression, with her mouth open before she burst into tears, and charging into me for a warm embrace, I was caught off guard at first and I felt a slight surge of pain in my chest but I embraced her too. It hurt to hug her, but I felt the pain suddenly go away with Megumin in my arms.

"A-ah! I'm sorry, I-I got carried away, does it still hurt?" Megumin quickly jumped away but still held by closely,

"Y-yeah, just a bit, but I think uh.. the pain went away when I hugged you back."

Megumin blushed but then beamed a smile reaching from ear to ear, "I'm just being silly, you're right after all.. I'm the archmage that wants to master explosion magic one day."

We both chuckled before staring into eachothers eyes for a few seconds until I broke the silence, "Say.. weren't you reading a book about different types of explosions?"

"Huh? Oh.. right! Yeah it said there were ways of applying the elements to explosions and being able to tone them down and release them in small bursts.. It was a bit confusing but I guess I kinda completely forgot about it.."

"Looks like we have something to work on tomorrow then, don't we?" We both smiled at each other and she yawned rather loudly,

"Ah right, you should probably go back to your room, it's really late now isn't it?"

"A-ah yes! You're right.." Megumin hopped off my bed and started walking towards the door before looking back at me to say,

"Thank you for everything, Kazuma.. I really appreciate it." She wore a serene smile, making my heart skip a beat once more.

"Anything for my party members." I gave her a thumbs up, before jumping into the warm covers of my bed.

"Good night, Kazuma." Megumin said before leaving,

"You too, Sweet dreams." I replied,

Part 4

Megumin's POV

I stirred awake, seeing the sun just beginning to creep over the sky, sunlight rays beaming and coating my room in golden, I rubbed my eyes and jumped right out of bed opening the door and began walking down the hall corridor before stopping next to Kazuma's door, I stared at it for at least a good minute as my face began growing hot, I smiled and walked off downstairs to the kitchen to begin preparing food for the rest of us.

I heard footsteps behind me as a drowsy voice called out to me, I turned around to see Darkness, scratching her head and rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning, Megumin." She said,

"Moorning~" I gleefully said,

"Well, you seem pretty happy today? I wonder why?" She shot me a quizzical glance,

I blushed a tiny bit and my mind scrambled for something to reply with, "A-ah! It's just that I feel today might be my day, it-it doesn't hurt to be in high spirits after all, haha!"

"You're right, considering the situation at hand right now we should always keep a good state of mind, Kazuma needs us as much as we do right now." She replied,

"Umu, also if you don't mind, I'll be taking over cooking duty today." I stated, as I cracked a few eggs.

"Oh? Megumin cooking.. I don't think I've ever seen you cook at all."

"It's something I had to learn when I had to take care of Komekko during my school days."

"Ah, makes sense, I'll cut you some slack if it tastes bad." Darkness teased,

"Fufu, Darkness you shouldn't underestimate me, my expertise stretches out to more than just explosions!"

"I hope so," Darkness giggled,

I went back to finishing breakfast and made 3 plates of scrambled eggs and bacon, one of the plates just had a bit more than the others. I feel like I was forgetting someone.. but I couldn't put my finger on it, I shrugged it off and set down the plates.

"W-woaah, Megumin, this- this is really delicious!" Darkness stared at me intensely with stars in her eyes,

I smirked confidently, "Of course! After all I am the best cook in the world!" I struck a slightly menacing pose as I said that, before heading out to get the newspaper for the day, coming back in to settle down on the couch to read the newest comic.

Kazuma's POV

I awoke to noises of laughter in the living room, I'm assuming that Megumin had already gone out to make breakfast again. Well! Can't keep them waiting, I rubbed my eyes and sat up expecting a sudden surge of pain to jolt me back down but I only felt a slight minor one. Finally.. after so long my injuries were beginning to heal off. Although I did have to lean just a tiny bit on the walls since my left leg was still a bit hurt from falling on it on the previous quest.

"Good morning" I lazily said, stretching and yawning,

Megumin looked up from her newspaper and went from a regular expression to a cheerful and joyous expression with a wide smile.

"Oh, Kazuma! Good morning ❤︎."

I swear I could see hearts in Megumin's eyes like in those anime shows I watched way back, I didn't think too much of it though and looked over to the table and saw breakfast still steaming hot.

"Good morning Megumin, eggs and bacon huh? I'm expecting it to be as delicious as the other dishes from before."

"Of course Kazuma, I made sure to make it as delicious as always!"

"Did the other two leave already?" I questioned,

"Mhm, they had already left a few minutes ago," then she whispered "I think Yunyun is still asleep."

"I see, thank you for the meal!" I said, before settling down on the chair to begin eating.

I figured the plate with the extra 2 pieces of bacon and the extra pile of eggs was for me so I ended up shoveling it into my mouth, What a delightful taste, I thought.

"Thank you for breakfast! It was great!" I gave Megumin a thumbs up, which fueled her chuuni vibes even more as she smirked confidently.

After breakfast was dealt with, I went up to my room to retrieve the book Megumin was reading a few nights before, bringing it back downstairs and claiming a spot next to her as she looked over,

"Ah, I was about to ask you to bring it down here," She said as she put down the newspaper next to her and huddled close to me to read with me.

Page One

This is a personal recollection of my experiences with 'Explosion' magic, I've only seen one case of someone using it before, and it was some busty hooded mage who had an odd gem on her forehead, I wasn't able to find out who she was.

Regardless, I was able to learn the magic for myself.. only to find out that it was utterly useless and that I'd topple over after just using it… just who in the right mind is gonna use this?!

Guess I'm stuck with it either way.

I realized that this was most likely a sort of diary where the guy who wrote this experimented with the magic, though it was surprising to me to see that another person was insane enough to try using explosion magic. I kept reading but I couldn't help the question lingering in my head,

"Say, where did you find this book?" I glanced over,

"My mother gave it to me before we departed on our trip back home, she said she found it near one of our historic landmarks. She said it might be of interest to me but it was a bit confusing after the first few pages, you'll see." she replied,

"I see, let's skip some pages then, considering this is a diary it'll be a while before we get to the goods." I skipped from page one, skimming through the text

Useless- Explosive Power- Busty Mage- Elemental-

"Here." I stopped right at the word, "Elemental Explosions" before I realized that it had all become Japanese, instead of the world's regular language

"I see what you mean, looks like he gave up writing in this world's language and went to mine, I guess it'd be inevitable for people from my world to try writing in this world's language only to give up after a while." I scoffed,

"I'll read it out to you now, this might be interesting." I continued,

Page 52

"It's been a while since I've learned explosion magic, and I've been able to blow up a bunch of monsters and gain a couple of levels but even this dumb divine relic can't do jack to help me, all it does is relocate stat points, might aswell relocate my points into more mana. Thinking back now, that busty mage told me there was something more with Explosion magic, when I first saw her I jumped back in surprise but surprisingly enough she wasn't going to harm me. She could only tell me that you could imbue the elements into Explosions, and told me that she never bothered to try it because it takes up a bit more mana and also because she preferred the regular spell aswell. I wanted to press her for more questions but she said that she was running away from something and teleported away, what an odd lady."

I was shocked, while reading that considering there was someone who was genuinely, a regular person even for someone who was reincarnated here. I thought to myself, I guess I'm just not used to seeing regular people considering even the reincarnated wear this cheesy isekai protagonist facade, It's refreshing to see someone with some sanity that was reincarnated here. I kept reading,

"So I've decided to take it into my own hands and learned a few extra spells to try it out, hopefully this doesn't kill me.."

Page 53

"Waah! How interesting! I imbued the explosion with fire magic and instead of nuking the entire area it seemingly doubled the explosive power of the spell! It's also worth noting that it set everything in its radius aflame burning everything to ash and cinder. Ah.. crap.. I forgot I wasn't supposed to unleash it into a forest.. I see guards running out, time to run!"

"W-woah.. that sounds really cool!" Megumin squeaked with an amazed expression plastered all over her face

I looked over at Megumin and couldn't help but think how cute she looked when she was amazed at something, I chuckled and kept reading,

"Thankfully, I didn't imbue that much fire magic into it, so it didn't fully douse everything in flames, I had enough mana to just barely walk far enough away but my body went limp, guess I'll sleep on this tree."

I heard footsteps nearby, looking up to see Yunyun rubbing her eyes, she was still wearing her day clothes.

"Good morning, Yunyun" I marked the page on the book and closed it, I heard Megumin slightly grumble as I stood up tossing my mantle on

"Good morning, Kazuma, how are you feeling?" She replied, while bowing a little.

"I'm feeling alot better now, I'm pretty sure I can walk on my own now"

"That's good to hear!" She happily remarked,

"We're gonna go out for Megumin's daily explosion, care to come?" I glanced back towards Megumin with a devious smile of my own.

Megumin put on a pouty face and crossed her arms.

"Oh.. yes of course! Just let me get ready." Yunyun happily replied,

"Please take your time, I can smell the stench from here" Megumin held her nose with her fingers and wore a disgusted expression.

This girl can be so cold sometimes..

"Y-you're so mean, Megumin!" Yunyun ran away towards the bath while crying

"D-do you really have to be that mean to her, Megumin?" I looked back at her where she had a proud smirk, "Another victory."

After some time waiting in the house for Yunyun, we headed out towards Megumin's usual explosion spot, thankfully I was able to walk on my own without any help from Megumin or Yunyun. I was still carrying the book with me because the guy began saying something about multi-explosions, to me it seemed like something Megumin would absolutely love to do, so beforehand I made sure to mark that page.

"Is right here fine, Kazuma?" Megumin questioned,

"Yeah, I think about.. right here should be okay." I shifted over a few steps to the right and Megumin repositioned.

"Alright, so which one are we gonna do?"

"Y'see, before we went out the guy was beginning to talk about multi explo-"

Megumin suddenly jumped towards me with stars in her eyes and she got extremely up close and personal to my face,

"MULTI EXPLOSIONS?! HOW DO I DO IT?!" Her face is too close..

Yunyun mumbled in the background, "U-Um… I'm getting a bad feeling from this.."

I leaned back a bit and readjusted myself, "Ahem, let me read it at least before you give me a cardiac arrest."

"What's a kattiyak awwest?"

Megumin asked that rather confusedly, but I ignored her and began reading aloud.

Page 60 - The Final Page

"So it seems a majority of the elements are applicable to this spell, though what I haven't tried is seeing whether I can split the power of the spell and cast it more than once on something. I've realized that with visualizing the spell in your head it becomes just a tiny bit more potent. So, I imagined a large river, splitting into three and.."

There was dirt stains on this next part, it was very hard to read but I skipped over to the last part,

"It really worked! It worked, there were 3 small explosions but as I'm writing this I already fell over due to mana exhaustion, even with a majority of my points put into my mana I still manage to fall over from this spell, ahh I'm feeling drowsy.."

"And that's how it ends. Are you sure you wanna do this? You might pass out instantly before even channeling it." I said,

"Of course Kazuma! I will stop at nothing to learn more about Explosion magic, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity! You're not doubting me.. are you?" She stared rather menacingly,

"Not at all, well whenever you're ready, go for it" I crossed my arms.

"Right, so he visualized a river splitting into three huh? Seems easy enough."

Megumin closed her eyes beginning to chant, and I watched as a gigantic magical ring appeared under her, before it grew outward with an amaranthine color, showing various unknown runes. Crap… this was a bad idea.

She deeply exhaled before yelling out,

"W-wait, Megumin, let us get a bit farther awa-" I heard Yunyun cry out,

"EXPLOOOSIONN!"

One ring appeared in the sky, then two, then three, all equally growing gigantic rings around them of their own. I could see Megumin was struggling as the rings tried merging back within themselves, but she managed to force them away from each other. Then in the next second, all I could see was a blinding bright light, before seeing three gargantuan mushroom clouds sporting colors of orange and crimson blaze. I felt my bones rattle as my skin shaked intensely from the shockwave. We were all blown back by the shockwave, luckily enough I grabbed onto both Megumin and Yunyun before anything else happened.

After the smoke cleared, there was a gigantic smoldering crater with some magic particles still floating around it.

"M-Megumin I don't think that's how it was supposed to work in the book, what the hell did you do?" I looked down at her, only to realize that she was sleeping soundly with a large smile plastered on her face.

I sighed, before chuckling to myself Gotta protect that smile.

I picked Megumin up and put her on my back, it seems almost by instinct that she threw her arms around my neck, and placed her head on my shoulders.

"Yunyun, you okay?"

"That was.. Wow.." Yunyun was still gawking at the amount of sheer power that came from Megumin's small frame.

I transferred some mana into Megumin, which slowly stirred her awake and her grip tightened on me,

"W-wha… what happened?" she drowsily said,

"You used too much mana, and you ended up passing out."

"R-really? Was I that powerful?"

"Seems so."

Megumin looked back towards the large crater she left on the barren field just moments ago, and shot back towards me

"Wait! It really worked?! I-I mean, of course it worked! I am the mightiest archmage afterall." She proudly stated,

"So what's your rating on that multi explosion?"

"Hmm," I rubbed my chin in thought, "It wasn't too shabby, considering it was a new type of explosion and the feeling of the shockwave on my body, I'll rate it… 95 points! Nice Explosion!" I felt Megumin's grip tighten once more,

As we were heading back towards Axel, Yunyun said she had some errands to run at Wiz's store, so we said our goodbyes and parted ways. By the time we were reaching the mansion, I heard Megumin mumble,

"Oh, how I missed this so much…"

I felt a light blush creep up on my face, Did she really enjoy piggybacking me? I never knew..

"What was that, Megumin?" I asked,

"Huh? O-oh! Nothing.." I could feel her heat up instantly as she fidgeted on my back.

I chuckled, "If you say so."

"Are you able to walk now?"

Megumin began to sway her legs back and forth and wiggle her arms, "Mhm, I can." Then I let her off my back. I opened the door for her in an out of character fashion, "Ladies first."

"Oh? How noble of you. If my memory serves me correctly, you were the one preaching about gender equality and such."

My brow twitched, then I stepped in and closed the door on her.

"W-wait hey! Kazuma, I was kidding please don't leave me out here!"

I opened the door again, "And so was I."

"You're a lot more playful than I remembered," She sighed as she stepped back into the mansion.

After settling down in the mansion, I sat down on the couch and let out a deep exhale, "Home sweet home, feels great to be back. That trip took quite a lot out of me."

"We've only been gone for 4 hours."

"I know, but with all the walking back over to here, my legs got pretty sore and I'm tired. Didn't we end up sleeping late yesterday?"

"I suppose you're right, I'm tired as well." Megumin stated as she sat down beside me on the couch."

I heard her say something else, but I was far too tired to make out what she said, I yawned and quickly fell asleep.

"Uhm?! M-Megumin..? Kazuma?! What are you two doing!" I heard Darkness yell, I tried ignoring her and falling back to sleep but then Megumin yelled aswell,

"Huh, Darkness? Back alread- WAH!? What was I doing?!"

"That's what I was saying! Kazuma! Get up!" Darkness yelled at me once more, which got me even more upset.

"Ugh.. fine. I'm up, what's going on?" I rubbed my eyes and I got up lazily,

"Don't "whats going on?" me! You know exactly what you did! Why did you force me onto your shoulder when I fell asleep and was defenseless?!" Megumin yelled,

"Wha- what are you talking about? I was the first one to fall asleep, I was asleep the entire time, you expect me to do whatever you claim I did while sleeping? Why do you always blame me for everything! There's times where I am innocent you know, it hurts to be accused of crap that I didn't even do! It's always accuse and accuse left and right, I can't take it anymore." I yelled rather pissed off.

"U-um.. w-well you're not wrong.." Megumin said in an apologetic manner, her tone going from aggressive to one of pure regret.

"Whatever. I'm gonna go to my bed where it's peaceful and more quiet." I got up from the couch and walked upstairs, out of view waving goodbye to the other two without bothering to look back

"Wait, Kazuma I didn't mean-" Megumin said,

"Goodbye." I said in a cruel tone.

Part 5

Kazuma's POV

I was done with everything, I walked up to my room.. but I decided that right now probably wouldn't have been the best time to sleep, I didn't feel sleepy at all and rather I just wanted to take a break.

I left my room, closed the door and walked over to the room that let us access the rooftops, opening the hatch I climbed out and sat down on the roof, pulling my legs close to my chest

Even in an entirely new world, a world so far away from the old one. I'm still subject to being name called, and being accused of things I didn't do. I guess it was just my fate to be ridiculed like this huh?

I couldn't help but feel a few tears brimming my cheek but I felt that tonight wasn't the time to get depressed and moody over it, perhaps I shouldn't overthink it that much.

I looked up at the sky, how beautiful, I thought. I squinted my eyes to try and spot how many stars as they shined ever so brightly from above. The little dots and pinpricks of light starkly contrasting with the hues of dark blue, black and yellow with orange bouncing off of it. Rest assured, the night sky in this world was far more beautiful and captivating than the one back in my world.

I should probably come up here much often, it's rather relaxing.

I kept staring off into the sky, until I heard the hatch begin unlocking. I already knew who it was, so I just kept looking into the stars, not bothering to look back.

"Kazuma..?" Megumin frightfully asked,

"Yes, thats me." I replied,

"Y-you don't mind If I come up there with you?"

I sighed, before looking back towards Megumin and nodding, I could tell she looked rather nervous, as she hesitantly walked over to me clad in her pajamas and her pink slippers. She took a seat right next to me and assumed the same position as me. I looked back towards the sky, taking in once more the sight of the stars hanging above.

"Well, is something wrong?" I asked,

"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what happened just a while ago, I didn't mean to do that and I regret it deeply.. I hope you can forgive me." Megumin said,

Ah, so it's about that.

Thinking back to all the events that had gotten me pissed off at my party members in the past, I realized I couldn't really get myself to hate any of them truly, besides Aqua for obvious reasons. Especially in the case of Megumin, it was very difficult to be upset at her for long, it was just impossible.

"It's fine, I got a bit too carried away as well. I should be apologizing as well for hurting your feelings, I was out of line. Don't worry, I won't hate you for it." I replied,

For some odd reason, something sparked in my mind, I remembered that Megumin had told me a few days ago, during that attack of the wolves that she wanted to tell me something that's been on her mind. I was still rather curious about that.

"Also.. I remember back during the attack of the wolves, you said you wanted to tell me something. What was it?" I tore away my gaze from the stars to look into her eyes, somehow, they were able to give me just a bit more comfort and warmth than the starry sky.

Megumin's eyes had widened and a small blush had formed on her rosy cheeks, tinting it a reasonably darker shade of red, though it clashed in brightness with her eyes, which too had begun glaring crimson.

She quickly averted my gaze, to look up at the sky and she deeply inhaled, closing her eyes and swallowing deeply before speaking out,

"Kazuma, when you first accepted me into your party, I was holding onto the last sliver of hope I had left, it wasn't long until I was about to decide to give up on my dream of being an adventurer, my dream of being the strongest archmage, my dream of mastering the strongest spell to have ever existed. I was about to give up on that all, until I met you."

I was in shock, hearing her spill out all these emotions, I could only stare at her as she closed the distance between us, our faces being only a few inches away from each other. We both looked into our own eyes, mine holding anticipation, while hers definitely held something more than a simple 'like'

My eyes had widened already, and a small blush was forming on my cheeks, Megumin grabbed my hand with her own two small, but soft hands as she teared up before saying,

"Thank you so much, for saving my village, and my family and most importantly, for accepting this archmage into your party. You saved me from what could've been a miserable life, and I feel like the past few months that I've spent with you and the others have been the happiest moments of my life."

She quickly took me into a loving embrace, I couldn't help but feel tears forming and slowly cascading down my cheeks, was this how it felt to be valued? How it felt to be appreciated? Maybe… even loved?

Oh.. how I longed for something like this to happen.

For what felt like an eternity, we finally drew away from each other, my eyes were a little bloodshot due to my sheer burst of happiness. Megumin saw this, and giggled.

"I suppose it was a bit overwhelming?" She had a serene smile, wiping away what remained of her tears from just before.

She cleared her throat,

"It's getting pretty late now, we should probably head back inside." Megumin stood up, patting down her pajamas before giving me a hand to pull me upward.

"You're right, I suppose it does feel pretty late, after what just happened I'm feeling like taking a nice dive into my bed right about now." I replied,

Megumin began to giggle, "You can be funny sometimes, Kazuma."

We climbed down from the rooftops and headed back to our rooms.

I came into my room, to see Chomusuke sitting rather patiently on my bed.

"Oh? Little thief broke into my room, huh?" I chuckled,

I laid down on the bed and Chomusuke trotted over and climbed onto my chest, poking me with its nose.

"That tickles."

A few minutes had passed since I began rubbing its fur as it released a purring noise, then I heard a knock on my door.

"Kazuma, are you awake? Have you seen Chomusuke?"

I looked down at the black kitten only to see that it had already fallen asleep and curled up on my chest, not wanting to disturb its peaceful rest, I had no choice but to lay here.

Then the door twisted open.

"So.. Chomusuke was here, I was looking for him."

As she walked into the room, she smiled at the sight of Chomusuke sleeping peacefully on my chest.

She closed the door, and then walked over and sat on my bed.

"Well, he's right here, but I'm not sure if you really wanna disturb his sleep right now."

"I didn't come to take him away, I just thought he had run away from the mansion. But seeing Chomusuke with Kazuma like this is a really pleasant sight to see."

Megumin laid down on the bed beside me, rubbing Chomusuke as she slowly began to inch closer to me. Chomusuke suddenly woke up as if it read the situation, and hopped off my chest, laying down to continue its rest on the floor.

I'll buy that cat as much food as it wants later.

"Do you think I can sleep with you tonight?"

I started panicking and got nervous, "C-can you what..? What did you say?"

"Don't act like you didn't hear it, you know what I said" She looked at me with a mixed expression of being slightly upset but deviously smirking.

"M-Megumin, you know if you say these kinds of things, men like m- ah- No, men will misunderstand. It's very e-easy for a man to fall in love with a girl even if they only shake their hand."

In the nervous, near panic-attack state of mine those were the only words I could muster while trying to put on a confident and stern facade. But then she stretched her arms behind my back, hugging me tightly as I felt that all melt away instantly.

"I told you before.. don't you remember?"

I could only stare at her shining carmine eyes as they ever so slightly increased in intensity.

"-I love you."

"Wha-"

My voice got cut out as I was pulled suddenly towards her lips, feeling warmth spreading throughout my mouth.

My heart was pounding so heavily against my chest, my mind was racing with a thousand thoughts pounding inside my head but the feeling swept me away and I relaxed while easing into the kiss.

I wrapped my arms around Megumin's cute, petite frame, taking it into a warm tight embrace. I let my hand travel to her hair, feeling it cascade through my fingers. I felt a response from Megumin through her mouth, which sounded pleasant and she made zero effort to stop so I continued stroking it, it was so soft.. like running my fingers through the finest black silk ever made.

My other hand began sneaking its way over, my right hand landing on her cheek as I caressed her soft and warm skin, using my thumb and circling around it, a good way to describe it was like swishing an analog stick around.. To think that was the best way for me to describe it was a bit embarrassing even for my NEET-self.

I rode the feeling for what felt like an eternity until our lips finally separated with a wet pop.

We were both staring into eachothers eyes, blushing furiously while taking in each other's breaths while panting to get air. Megumin's eyes were ever so brightly shining in the darkness of my room, acting like headlights.

"Y-you know for my first kiss, that wasn't so bad." I began feeling drowsy, seemingly that whole romantic session had given me energy to last just enough for it.

Megumin could only nod in agreement as she drew closer, curling up under my arm and laying her head on my chest, her hair fitting nicely under my chin like a perfect fit. The scent of her hair was overpowering as well, filling my lungs and providing me just the exact amount of comfort needed to drift off to sleep.

It was a scene that reminded me of my NEET days, reminded me of the anime dating sims I used to play back then. I had always played games like that because I would feel lonely at times, who knew that what I secretly longed for in life was finding my true love? I was one to always desire being the guys in those games with various girls head over heels for them, I always thought that with more girls who loved you, the happier you could be. But looking at the girl below me breathing with a slow pace on my chest, I realized something that my past self would never come to find out. Who cares for a harem, when in the end all you need is the one, the one for life.

Quality over quantity, y'know..

I looked down at Megumin to finally state, "Megumin, I love you."

"I love you too, Kazuma" Megumin brought up her head one last time and our lips met for a goodnight kiss.

That was the best sleep I've ever had in my two lifetimes.

A/N: And so it comes to a close, I had a lot of fun writing this small one-shot, I had more ideas but unfortunately I had to scrap them since it was a bit difficult to write it into the story without having it look out of place.

This story was sort of a test to brush up on my writing skills that have been collecting the dust over the years (3-4 years?)

I apologize for the slight OOCness in certain parts, it was a bit difficult having the interactions, especially the romantic ones feel as normal as possible and not as forced but then again this is a story in an AU where Kazuma never died once, and they had just come from the village so this is a Megumin where her feelings were just beginning to sprout.

I have a large plan to make a full on storyline that stretches out beyond what Natsume had done but I think it'd be best to put all my effort into it after Volume 17 is translated. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the story and please know that there is more to come soon. Thanks for reading!