The door opened. Kazuma stood on the front step for what seemed like ages, as moths fluttered around the yellow porch light. Megumin couldn't read his expression.
He closed the door and walked into the garden. She followed him. Silently. She wasn't sure why.
Kazuma walked past well-trimmed bushes and sandstone sculptures. The pond burbled cheerfully.
It was near the pond that Kazuma stopped, and laid out a porcelain dish. He sat cross-legged.
Megumin heard a mewl. A cat emerged from the bushes.
She recognized it: a black, ragged creature that appeared to get food from time to time. A stray that had befriended Chomusuke.
Kazuma clicked his tongue, beckoning with one hand while he held out the bowl of fish with the other. The cat sniffed the air. It patted over to him.
"Mreooow?"
Before Megumin could blink, Kazuma's hands shot out and grabbed the cat. She hadn't known he could move that fast.
The cat screamed. It squirmed and wriggled in his grip.
Kazuma calmly walked to the pond, and shoved the cat underwater.
The creature screamed even more loudly at first. It clawed and bit at his wrist. It yowled. Megumin could hear its claws scrabbling against the hard plastic sides. It even tried to hiss – though this last came out more as a gurgle than anything. It flopped first to one side, and then the other as it twisted its body around, seeking an escape. Water splashed. The struggling grew fainter.
Kazuma pulled it out. The cat gagged and vomited up water. Its struggles had subsided somewhat, but it was still alive. Its body was shaking. Shivering. Kazuma shared a long moment with the animal, looking into its eyes as it retched. He smoothed the strands of hair along its muzzle, ignoring its halfhearted bite in reply.
And then, Kazuma dunked it again.
It took another minute or two for the thing to die. At last, it was over. The creature's body bobbed in the pond like a bulbous, hairy cork.
Kazuma was panting, eyes closed. He smiled more widely than Megumin had ever seen him smile.
The moment passed. Kazuma blinked. He looked over his shoulder, eyes roving from one end of the garden to the other. Megumin did not move.
Kazuma's shoulders sagged.
Even as a shudder passed through his body, the life seemed to drain out of him. He just sort of slumped to his knees in front of the pond. His fingers tightened, clawing twin handholds into the ground. Blood dripped down a shredded sleeve.
Kazuma stood up, picked up the body and walked away
Megumin exhaled. She fiddled with her hair, and realized that her hands were shaking. She forced them still.
What-?
This was…Megumin didn't even know what this was. Was it just an isolated incident? Do Aqua and Darkness know? Kazuma had always been a little…She doubted it, somehow. That look on his face.
No.
She'd fix this. Quietly. Secretly. It was just another problem. Like with spells: you just had to do your research first. Apply your mana properly. Memorise the incantation. Direct the execution. It had to work. Kazuma was a…friend.
She could do this, right?
.
.
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AN: A snippet from the life of an alternate Kazuma who appears in chapter 19 of 'A Kaleidoscope's Blessing'.
