One day, soon after the defeat of the Demon King…
Kazuma rubbed his hands together. Everything was… perfect.
While Kazuma would readily admit to not being much of a romantic – and everyone around him would laugh loudly if someone was deluded enough to call him that – for today, he had planned everything down to a tee enough that someone unfamiliar with his personality might think he was a romantic.
Aqua would probably be out until noon with how much booze he'd given her last night, and Darkness was meeting with some nobles to discuss easing wartime restrictions and quotas now that the Demon King was gone…
Though, if Kazuma were honest, he expected them to be back within a few months, considering the Demon King's daughter had gotten away and the Crimson Demons and Axis Cult were just as grating and conflict-prone with her as with her father – if not more so in the case of the former, considering their 'Observation Tower.'
Regardless, with those two out of the way, the way was mostly clear… though he had taken extra steps just in case. He'd made a deal with Vanir – he had made sure Kazuma remembered the exact wording Megumin had used over a year ago, and he wouldn't interfere – he'd given Luna a small percentage of the money he'd earned for killing the Demon King and told her that drinks for everyone would be on him for today. He'd even given Eris a prayer.
Kazuma wasn't going to raise flags by declaring that he had everything covered and there was nothing to worry about, but he'd fixed the odds so they favored him as much as he could. He'd even thought about what Megumin might do or say, so he (probably) wouldn't be caught off guard by anything.
If his Luck held, he might be able to seem like slightly more than a complete hikiNEET.
Kazuma smirked. With all this, his surprise for Megumin was complete. Now, he simply had to initiate the plan.
-OxOxO-
As they continued their trek, Megumin began to think. She couldn't recall this day being particularly significant for any reason, so why…
Well, Kazuma would tell her eventually, and if her patience didn't hold, she'd wring the answer out of him one way or another. For now…
"Do you think, now that the Demon King is dead, we'll be able to take on a Giant Frog?" he asked, apparently searching for idle conversation.
Megumin stopped in her tracks, for a moment, and then she sped forward. "I don't know what you're talking about. As the adventurers who slayed the Demon King, a single Giant Frog-"
"And what happens after you use all of your mana and there are more than one?"
"We'd lose."
He sighed tiredly at that, muttering under his breath about useless teammates, but not only did Megumin know he didn't really think they were useless, his muttering didn't even have any of the bite that he'd usually fake.
A breeze blew past them, and Kazuma looked up at the surroundings. "It's nice out today, isn't it? I'm glad I dragged myself out of bed for this."
Megumin raised her eyebrow at the back of his head. 'Dragged' was an understatement – considering this NEET usually slept until, at least, noon, the fact that he'd managed to get up before 10 o'clock was incomprehensible.
The fact that he'd wanted to immediately go out with her to see her cast Explosion was equally strange. She'd been having a blast having Yunyun use Teleport to put them next to the Demon King's abandoned castle so she could cast Explosion at it – not that Kazuma knew or needed to know where she had been going – so what was so important about today that he wanted to see her use Explosion?
Soon, even the legendary patience of a Crimson Demon like herself could wear thin, so she dragged the NEET out of his comfortable internal musing about the autumn weather and asked why he'd wanted to do this.
He blinked in surprise and turned to her, smirking. "Uh… why, to show you how I killed the Demon King, of course."
Megumin smiled with him and nodded absently. After everyone had rested and recovered following their retreat from the Demon King's castle, Kazuma had gathered them – along with that Magic Sword Guy, Wiz, and Vanir – to try and Teleport to the bottom floor of the largest dungeon in Belzerg. He wanted to make sure that the Demon King was dead, even if the weakening of monsters and the retreat of the Demon King's daughter from the capital suggested such.
When he had failed, they'd all breathed a sigh of relief. That meant that the entire area was likely destroyed by… whatever spell Kazuma had used to finish the Demon King off.
Indeed, in all the stories he'd told – to that prosecutor Sena, who had been assigned to him once more to go over the defeat of the Demon King; to the entire Guild during the nights and days of partying that had followed the defense of Axel; to the three of them during a quiet night alone – he'd never once mentioned exactly how he'd defeated the Demon King.
As she remembered the story of how he'd managed to pull that off, she scowled. When he'd talked about using that 'Die-Na-Might' to wound the Demon King and take down that Earth Golem… well, if he hadn't made those, he'd probably have failed to take down the Demon King… or he might have even-
Her scowl deepened. The anger that his possible permanent death conjured within her Crimson Demon soul felt…
Well, even if she wanted to deny it, she couldn't: She liked Kazuma. Unfortunately, she didn't exactly have anyone to consult on how a romantic relationship was supposed to work – Darkness was a noble and had strange ideas, and she also liked Kazuma; her mother would undoubtedly tell her to 'get on' with things so they could be further tied to someone who didn't waste their money making faulty magical products; Yunyun and her other Crimson Demon friends were obviously no where near as mature as Megumin was; Aqua was Aqua…
She looked over to her side to find that Kazuma had been staring down at her making that face again, though he looked away and hid it quickly enough…
Her scowl softened as he flinched at her raised eyebrow. If he made such suggestive faces and acted like a pervert so much, just why did she love him again?
Well, he was dependable, and despite his insults, he cared. He knew when to be serious and when to let loose – for the most part.
Despite how rare it was for her to ask for it, he gave her pretty good advice, and he understood her and accepted her for who she was instead of trying to change her, no matter how much easier it might have made things.
Smiling, she remembered him dumping her points into Explosion instead of becoming a 'proper' mage… as if she needed anything but the power of Explosions!
At that memory, she glanced at him again – he was pointedly staring ahead at the dusty road instead of at her. She smiled impishly and struck out-
Her hand now grasping his, she smirked, expecting him to…
She blinked. He… was not stuttering. His steps hadn't faltered, and his face was only the slightest bit red, and-
She felt her own face start to burn up. That… had to be one of the happiest smiles he'd ever shown. It was almost as innocent and carefree as Aqua's smiles could get, when she wasn't acting like a nuisance.
Had he been planning this? He'd seemed to be more pensive than usual for the past two days, but…
She didn't clear out her throat or give off any more signs of embarrassment that he could – viciously – mock her with. "Of course! While I'm sure… whatever you used must have been impressive to take out the Demon King, it couldn't possibly compare to the power of my Explosion!"
"I dunno, Iris's 'Sacred Explode' might compare… but regardless, I think it'll surprise you," he said.
She turned to him, chuckling. Where was his usual venom? "Heh, that's the best you can do? I think that you've gone soft-"
"Please. Considering how much you've been tormenting me, I'm anything but 'soft.'"
"H- Hey, I offered to-"
"Don't! I just know that the Demon King's… dog, or something, is going to show up and ruin anything we try to do, so don't start!" he shouted broodingly.
"Hey, Aqua's already-"
And they quibbled and quarreled, and it was fun, to do as they had been doing for well over a year now.
-OxOxO-
When they arrived, Megumin nodded. As expected of the road they had been travelling along, Kazuma had taken them to that Dullahan's old castle. She turned to him as he began to set up…
Oh yeah, that was another question she hadn't yet voiced. "Why did you decide to bring those fold-out chairs?" she asked. Did it have to do with the spell-
As he set them up, he simply shot an enigmatic smile over his shoulder. "I thought that we could relax a bit after using Explosion," he replied.
This seems odd… but Megumin wouldn't complain… although, was this just one of his perverted ploys? She had promised to do anything with him if they killed the Demon King…
She shrugged. She honestly expected him to chicken out like always… though, considering they'd kissed – with tongue! – before leaving to fight, maybe he'd actually go through with it…
She scoffed. Of course he wouldn't. Kazuma was Kazuma.
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
She snapped out of her musings to find that he had already taken a seat. She shook her head and raised her staff, ready to-
"Hey, I know this is sudden, but… uh, do you think you could go through your chant? For old times' sake?"
She shot him a disbelieving look – she knew that he thought some of her more… emblematic chanting was superfluous – but when his questioning look faded into a 'I'll steal your panties if you don't' look, she spun around again with a contented sigh.
"Oh… why not!" With her anticipation of the spell Kazuma had used to kill the Demon King growing, as well as the anticipation for whatever he would ask her to do – as if there was a question – she let out a single bark of laughter.
"Of course! While using Explosion on the defeated Demon King's Castle is fun-"
"Hey, you just said something somewhat important." Whoops.
"-Something like this paltry castle is trivial!" she smirked, gathering her power around her. Her blood rushed behind her ears as she gathered all of her mana, readying it, molding it. Since she'd unleashed so many explosions on the Demon King's castle, her control of the spell had grown tenfold.
Not even Wiz, with the outrageous amount of mana that becoming a Lich granted her, could match her mastery of the spell now.
"O harbinger of destruction, O creator of ash; I call upon the powers that have brought even the mightiest to their knees. Manifest my will: rend stone, shake earth, tear down foundations, and turn that which slights your very being to naught… but… dust!"
Her smile split her face as she cried out, "EXPLOSION!"
As she fell to the ground, she saw the top of the center and largest of the towers that had once constituted a magnificent castle crumbling. This was…
And then a sound reached her ears. Not the chittering of animals and birds, long used to her spell, or the collapse of a few trees that had gotten too close to the castle.
Clapping.
She blinked in surprise. Kazuma didn't often clap. She heard him rise from his chair. "Magnificent! Your chant was good – it wasn't too long, and I think it had just the right amount of… uh, gravitas. It was exceptionally bright today as well, and the destruction was even concentrated on that single tower… 100 points today! A perfect score!"
Somehow, her smile was even larger. He picked her up and set her down on the chair next to his. As he set her down, though, she frowned. "Hey, give me a bit of mana. If you're going to cast some complicated piece of magic, I want to stand and witness it in full," she complained.
"Sorry, but I think I'll need everything I have for this."
Megumin rolled her eyes. "Oh please. It'll just be some overpowered Lightning, right? Or… did Wiz teach you Advanced Magic after all? I thought you said you couldn't learn it?"
He didn't respond, his back facing her as he… did something. She scowled; was he hiding something from her that she might get angry about?
"Did… Yunyun teach you Light of Saber?" she asked. It wouldn't surprise her; had she not declared herself that if she had been a proper Archmage, she could have gotten to Aqua and the Magic Sword Guy and Yunyun before they entered the barrier?
She wouldn't blame him if he had. She had just thought…
Then, he spun around, and before she could get a good look at his face, he-
"Hey! What are you-"
But he didn't answer as he took her hat from her head. He picked up her discarded staff, and…
Was… was that an eyepatch?
She gawked at the black and white eyepatch – undoubtedly patterned after his copy of Vanir's mask – over his right eye, but he didn't comment on it as he set her hat on top of his head and raised her staff into the air.
Then… he scoffed. She wasn't sure what at – or if it was even at something specifically. Before she could think anymore-
"How insulting! My name is Kazuma Satou! I'm an unrepentant pervert who can never go all the way; Even though my Luck is high and all I want is to live easily, I always end up in dangerous situations anyway." As he spoke, he could see something… familiar building up in her staff.
"Despite having to clean up for my useless teammates, I'd fight even the Demon King for their sakes! Don't you underestimate the power of my strongest spell!"
Her eyes widened, tears pricking at the corners. Her smile had long been replaced by other expressions, but for now, it was wonder; elation; joy.
"Darkness blacker than black and darker than dark, I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson."
Mana began to pool in the gem at the top of her staff, shining like fire, glittering in the sunlight.
He'd remembered the first chant she'd done in front of him?
"The time of awakening cometh. Justice, fallen upon the infallible boundary, appear now as an intangible distortion!"
Now, the light of his gathering mana faded as a bright circle began to manifest atop the castle in the distance.
After all this time?
"I desire for my torrent of power a destructive force: a destructive force without equal! Return all creation to cinders, and come from the abyss!"
"Kazuma…"
"EXPLOSION!"
Megumin was breathless.
And then, as she felt the light breeze created by the Explosion – his Explosion – and she saw him give her a sidelong smirk that made her heart flutter…
He fell face first onto the ground.
She couldn't help herself.
"Hehehe… Hahaha!"
She laughed, long and hard and deep as Kazuma just laid there, facedown, her hat and staff clashing with his crappy green mantle and pants and boots and that ridiculous eyepatch!
"…Hey, I know it wasn't anything like your Explosions, but that doesn't mean-" he tried to say as he began to drag himself towards her.
Truthfully, it wasn't anything like her Explosions. It was better than when she had first cast it, but only barely. He just didn't have enough mana, no matter how much skill he'd managed to glean from being at her side.
But she didn't care.
"Kazuma, I love you."
She expected, again, to hear him stutter and trip over his words. To some degree, he did. His face was burning up like the first time she'd said it however long ago. This time, though…
"I- I love you too… Megumin."
And Megumin found that they were both on the backfoot, and she was glad that, of all the people she could have fallen for, it was him.
He managed to get himself into the chair and watch the last wisps of his Explosion spell fade away, and they sat there, comfortably silent, for a moment, as they digested what the other had said.
Then, she began to speak again. "Well, of course you do! I am Megumin, wielder of enough power to demolish even the barrier eight of the Demon King's Generals can summon! Who doesn't love me?"
"I distinctly remember you saying that you would need 20 Explosions to break that barrier. How did you cast that many again? I just want a reminder."
And as they looked out across the treeline, and as they bickered over the finer points of the battle and who had done the most and who deserved credit for the win, and as they regained their strength and sat there, talking, anyway…
Well, if either of them were blushing the entire time, neither of them decided to say anything about it.
-OxOxO-
A/N 1: I whipped up this incredibly fluffy piece of writing after finally finishing Volume 17 of the Konosuba Light Novels. It's been a while now since I first read it, so I don't recall if he actually told anyone he used Explosion to beat the Demon King. Regardless, I'm happy with how the story has ended.
Who knows? I hope that, one day, all of the loose ends get tied up, but for now, I am content. I hoped you enjoyed!