An eerie ring filled the boy's ears as his blurred, dizzy vision came into view.

Where was he?

His mind floated in and out of consciousness for the following few hours, each and every time leaving him questioning his whereabouts, past, and even identity.

"Wake up, sleepy head!" an annoyed voice he was vaguely aware of called out to him.

... No response.

"I said, WAKE UP, SLEEPY HEAD!" the same voice screamed. Bolting up in some morning fight or flight instinct, he took time to take in his surroundings.

He was on a chair in a room that looked like it was floating in outer space. Above his head was the likely the owner of the voice who had interrupted his sleep, a blue haired chick with a coy expression on her face.

"Did you have a nice nap?" questioned the girl, now obviously toying with him.

"Huh? What do you mean? And who are you?" the still half-asleep teenager yawned.

"Kazuma, don't play dumb like that. Especially when you're on my lap," she said, adjusting her thighs slightly to make notice of his pillow.

Suddenly, everything came rushing back to him.

Flashback

With five of the Devil King's generals down, Kazuma and his party were feeling quite confident about their abilities. Their battle at the crimson demon village becoming a success for their upcoming war had motivated them far more than was probably safe or recommended.

Megumin, a self-proclaimed master of explosion magic and a member of the crimson demon clan, had grown even more into her chunibyo daydreams, affectively devolving her state of mind. Aqua, a former goddess and arch priest, had spent the majority of their reward money on alcohol, all the while still tipsy and mentioning how "Important decisions must be made". Much to Kazuma's disbelief, they had lost over half of their reward money that night alone.

Darkness, a crusader from a notable family, took on multiple hard quests from the quest board and was abandoned for the time being by her teammates as her motivation towards these quests was out of masochistic desire.

Kazuma, an adventurer and the party leader, was more excited by his upcoming meeting with Vanir. The meeting in question meant to discuss intellectual property rights and shares in a company. His decision was more or less set on selling the rights to his ideas for a grand total of 300,000,000 eris.

Collectively, the four friends were set on the future. If only they had known what fate had in store.

—-

That was a bit short for a chapter I'd normally make, but this is still the first chapter and I'm working on my method as well as the plot line. It is mostly just to set the scene. If you have any suggestions, please let me know, they are well appreciated. I like to know how I can improve, as this is not only my first fanfiction, it is also the first time I've ever written anything that isn't an english essay.

Thanks for reading :)