This chapter feels a bit more... musical than the others.

Chapter: 11

You know… I shouldn't be surprised this happened.

Kazuma really should have known this would happen eventually. Nothing ever really did go his way in this world. At the time though, he had thought the Destroyer potentially demolishing his home would have been the cause, but it hadn't. Of all things that could have happened, no one – absolutely no one – would have predicted that the town for beginners would have been able to not only stop that mobile fortress from doing what it did best, but also defeat it entirely with no loss of life whatsoever.

Word had spread fast across the land about the brave warriors who took it upon themselves to face the Destroyer to protect their town, only to surprise everyone – including themselves – by emerging as the victors.

However, that wasn't the only bit of news spreading quickly.

The Destroyer's core had landed on a very powerful nobleman's home, obliterating it and everything within a half-mile radius. Luckily no one had been around the point of impact, Kazuma firmly believed that his high luck was the cause of that. Unfortunately for the Adventurer, that explosion had been considered an attack, now they were investigating to determine if he was in fact a spy for the Demon Lord – it didn't help once they found out Verdia Dullahan was with him.

Speaking of whom, Kazuma glanced at the only other occupant of his cell. The former General had made himself comfortable on one of the pillows they had been provided with and was currently playing the harmonica of all things. It was weird, but hilarious at the same time. Sensing his gaze, Verdia stopped playing and looked up at him.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," Kazuma said, feeling his lips twitch up at how absurd the situation was, "just didn't know you played the harmonica is all."

"It has been a few decades since I last practiced." Verdia admitted, levitating the object to the side to focus on the conversation. "It felt rather appropriate to start again, given our current circumstances. Would you like to learn how to play?"

Kazuma frowned as he considered the offer. "I've never played an instrument before…"

"Then this can be the first one you practice with," the undead had the object float towards the boy, watching with interest as his companion caught the object and looked it over. "Now," Verdia conjured another harmonica for himself, "the first thing to do is know which port produces which sounds and to learn how to isolate each one…"

It was hours later that Sena found herself leaving the comfortable office space and heading over towards the only cell occupied in the building, having just finished writing her initial report while coming up with a list of questions to maximize the amount of information they could gain from the spy. Despite her professional demeanor the woman was giddy at the thought of being the one to gather so much information. Someone with such a close connection to one of the eight Generals had to know more than any regular informant would.

Her musings slowed down the closer she got to the cell as her ears began to pick up the sound of music echoing throughout the hallways. The music stopped briefly and what sounded like a conversation lasted for another brief moment before the music started once. Sena frowned and quickened her strides. Rounding the last corner, the prosecutor was met with a strange sight.

Her two prisoners were playing a song with their harmonica's. Verdia was clearly leading as his parts were far more complicated while Kazuma's part seemed to consist of supporting notes that made sure there was always at least a single note playing. Stunned by what she was seeing, Sena merely stood there, listening to their song while slowly relaxing to it. The former General finished a rather impressive string of notes and the two prisoners ended the song by playing the same note together, allowing it to fade away into silence soon after.

"Impressive work, child, we will continue this later." Verdia said as his instrument disappeared from view. He then turned towards the prosecutor, drawing the Adventurer's attention to her as well.

Sena's demeanor immediately switched to that of a professional. "Satou Kazuma and Verdia Dullahan it is time for your first session of questioning." She then nodded towards the two guards standing on either side of the cell where they quickly unlocked the door, moving in to cuff Kazuma and place a mana seal on Verdia.

The undead grumbled at having to be carried around once again.

"Is this really necessary?" Kazuma asked, deciding to voice his own complaint.

Sena ignored them, focusing instead on leading the small entourage towards a small room that held two small tables – one in the center and another in the corner – along with a small stand with a magical lie detector on it. The guards forced the prisoners to sit down on one side of the center table while Sena herself sat on the opposite side, she waited just long enough for the recorder to get himself situated before starting.

"We will start with a simple test and confirmation. You are Satou Kazuma and Verdia Dullahan, correct?"

The two confirmed this, and after checking to make sure the bell didn't ring, Sena began in earnest.

"What if we-?"

"No."

"But if they were distracted-!"

"Still no."

"I've got it! We can-"

"Absolutely not!" Clemea finally yelled, grabbing Aqua's shoulders and forcing the woman to sit down on the couch. Fixing the Arch-Priest with a stern look, she told her exactly what they were going to do. "Nothing. We are going to do nothing, because doing anything will only make him look guilty. Do you understand, Aqua?"

The Goddess sat there, staring at her green-haired friend.

"Aqua?" the warrior questioned when her friend didn't respond for a good amount of time.

Stare…

"She's right, you know." Kyouya piped in, his eyes focused squarely on the chessboard between him and Darkness. Finally deciding on a move, the Sword Master picked up one of his pieces and moved it to the desired location, he frowned when Darkness performed her next move without hesitation. "It would be better just to let them sort it out with the authorities, we know he's not working with the Demon Lord, so all we need to do is wait for them to prove themselves innocent."

"It won't be that easy, actually." Darkness crossed her arms and leaned further back with a pensive frown. "This trial isn't truly about discovering if Kazuma is a spy or not – despite what everyone else may believe – it is focused more on Aldarp punishing the person responsible for destroying his mansion."

The other three group members sat in silence as they processed that information, each of them silently grateful that Fio had taken Megumin out shopping a little while ago.

Clemea was the first to speak up, horrified realization flashing across her face. "If this becomes an actual trial, that bastard will rig it to make Kazuma guilty no matter how much evidence is presented."

"Exactly." Darkness agreed, though, she had a few solutions in mind should things escalate that far.

"But that doesn't change the fact a trial won't occur so long that Kazuma proves he's not associated with the Demon Lord without a shadow of a doubt." Kyouya argued, focusing entirely on the conversation. Placing a hand on his chin, the Sword Master's frown deepened as he finally realized something. "Which will be a lot harder since Verdia is with him all the time."

"Not to mention the amount of time he spends visiting Wiz at her shop."

Aqua huffed. "He has horrible taste when it comes to the company he keeps."

Clemea smirked at the Arch-Priest. "Is someone jealous that Kazuma would rather hangout with undead rather than them?"

"I'm not jealous!" the Goddess angrily cried out, pouting like a child as she made her way towards the door. "I'll go hangout with that… lich…" she shuddered violently, "just to prove to you how not jealous I am!"

Aqua left with one final huff, slamming the door on her way out.

"Is there a reason Aqua hates the undead so much?" Clemea asked, looking between Darkness and Kyouya, hoping one of them had the answer. "She's borderline psychotic when some one even mentions them – let alone actually seeing one."

The Crusader shrugged in response and while the Sword Master had a pretty good idea, he simply shook his head, deciding it wasn't a subject for him to bring up.

"The only person who could possibly answer that is Kazuma, he's known her longer than any of us." Darkness replied while clearing the board when it became apparent neither she nor Kyouya were too invested in the game anymore.

Clemea narrowed her eyes as she examined the Crusader. Something was… off. "You're far too calm right now," the warrior noted.

"I may have asked a friend to help out." Darkness answered her, the woman's eyes were positively glowing with mischief.

Kazuma yawned as he tried to make himself comfortable on the bedroll he had been given. The interrogation had taken several hours to complete with half of it simply involving the Adventurer denying any tie to the Demon Lord these people accused him of having. Verdia's presence had made things somewhat easier since they focused more on him during the ordeal. Speaking of whom, Kazuma turned onto his other side to see the undead resting comfortably on the second pillow they had been provided with.

"Something bothering you, child?" the former General asked, his one eye remaining closed.

"A lot of things if I'm being honest." Kazuma rolled onto his back to stare up at the ceiling. "The biggest one being this trial itself."

Verdia remained silent as he waited for his cellmate to specify what he meant.

"A beginner's town stopped a monstrosity that had wiped out an entire civilization, did so without any casualties or damage to the town itself, and now we're on trial because the only option we had left to prevent the destruction of our home was to use a teleport spell to randomly send away an explosive core. A core which, and there is no way for me to stress this enough, destroyed an empty mansion that I guarantee that stupid noble has more than one of!"

"He actually has seven extra ones actually, not including the various summer homes he has scattered around." A familiar voice informed.

The two prisoners looked towards the cell door where they saw Chris as she deactivated her invisibility spell, she leaned forward, grinning at the them with that infamous smirk of hers.

"Hey Chris, how's it going." Kazuma greeted while sitting up to look at his soon-to-be partner in crime. He made a mental note to tell her his decision before she left.

The Master Thief shrugged in response, juggling a few coin pouches the Adventurer knew didn't belong to her. "Pretty good, most of these guards seem to be well paid, and pretty lazy from what I can tell."

"How so?"

"No one's come back to guard your cell," she gestured towards either side of the cell where Kazuma finally realized that there was in fact no one around. "Guess they don't consider either of you a threat."

Her teasing earned an annoyed huff from the former General.

"Okay… so besides making some easy money, what exactly are you doing here?"

"Helping you two out," Chris replied honestly, pocketing the money. "Switching out some of the testimonies, getting rid of some false evidence, that sort of thing." The woman shrugged as if it was no big deal.

Kazuma was a little surprised. "Seriously?"

Looping her arms through the bars and then crossing them to make herself comfortable, Chris raised an eyebrow at the Adventurer. "What, didn't think I could do something like that?"

"No, no, it's not that, just surprised you did is all."

"Honestly, I probably wouldn't have if Darkness hadn't asked me too." Chris looked down one of the hallways, alerting both Kazuma and Verdia to the approaching footsteps. She turned back to her friends and held a finger to her lips before disappearing from view.

A guard passed through the area, briefly glancing at the prisoners before continuing his patrol.

"Just make sure you don't do or say anything stupid, and you should be good to go." Chris whispered, keeping her spell active in case any more guards came.

"I guess I owe you and Darkness when we get out of here then." Kazuma lowered his voice as well. "Tell you what, you can keep most of the loot when we go on that heist together."

The teen heard his friend snort in amusement. "I guess that's one way to tell me your coming, and another reason to help you out as well. Just give me a few weeks to get everything ready, I promise you won't regret it."

Kazuma nodded his head in response, and although neither of them could hear it, they knew Chris had silently left, probably getting out of the area before she ran out of mana.

"This certainly makes things easier for us." Verdia muttered, more to himself than anything. He suddenly sighed, catching the Adventurer's attention, and glanced up towards the narrow window above them. "I was wondering when you would show up…"

Floating through the iron bars was the familiar form of the snow sprite, chirping with glee as it settled itself next to the undead.

"I'm honestly starting to wonder if that thing thinks your its dad with how happy it is around you." Kazuma's teasing comment earned another sigh from Verdia.

"I'm worried you might be more on point with that remark than you intended."

Deciding to just simply enjoy the opportunity given to him, Kazuma allowed himself to let loose a round of laughter that echoed through the hallways.

Two days later saw the trio of captives leaving their less than cozy cell and stepping outside with a particularly large smile on the Adventurer's face.

"Ah… sweet freedom!" The interrogation sessions after Chris' visit went by quickly as Sena slowly came to accept the fact that Kazuma was, in fact, not a spy along with the embarrassing fact that she was holding the teen prisoner with no substantial evidence whatsoever. Her face turned a bright shade of red when both her captives pointed this out. Being able to do nothing else about it, Sena released the three of them – the snow sprite refused to leave the General's side throughout the whole thing – on the condition that they continue to be monitored, by herself of course, on the off chance any incriminating evidence should turn up.

Verdia found himself reevaluating his opinion of the prosecutor upon hearing that. Sena not only managed to let them off scot free but did so in a way that would satisfy her higher ups, the citizens and guild members who would have caused a ruckus if Kazuma had been given a serious sentence, and on top of all of that, she gave herself a mini vacation while getting paid to do so.

That smirk on her face while giving them their punishment had confirmed it for the undead.

"Glad to see you two are finally out!" A booming voice greeted the trio, startling the snow sprite so bad it hid behind Verdia in fear.

"Arakuremono?" Kazuma questioned, seeing the brute walking towards them with his usual grin. The teen's gut told him this wasn't going a to end well for him. "Wasn't expecting you to be the first one to greet us."

The giant of a man lost his grin and began to stretch the back of his head, unknowingly confirming Kazuma's fears. "Yeah, well…"

"What's did my friends do this time?" Kazuma's voice shook with barely contained annoyance, because of course nothing would work out in his favor. "They didn't burn down the mansion, did they?"

Arakuremono chuckled at that. "No, but you'll probably want to see what's going on yourself."

KO-NO-SU-BA!

There came a point in time in everyone's lives where they come to realize how far they're willing to go for the people they care about. Whether it be friends, family, and everything in-between. Would they watch from the sidelines, stand beside them to face anything and everything that came their way, or would they simply abandon them to preserve themselves? Everyone thinks they'll react a certain way, so sure of it that it wouldn't even occur to them that they would react another way entirely.

Today was the day Kyouya realized just how far he was willing to go as he stood – steadfast – against a large group of soldiers who were ready to break into his home to confiscate anything of value. They even had the gall to order him to stand aside, claiming they were under orders from Aldarp himself to raid the mansion so Kazuma could begin paying off the damages done to the noble's own home.

The Sword Master was having none of it.

All of the commotion caused from their exchange had attracted the attention of the Guild, and once the situation had been explained to them, a task that had ended in a shouting matching between one of the lead soldiers and Kyouya, the guild members were quick to join the Sword Master's side in defending the mansion – they would not let the savior of their town be punished.

Tensions were high as the two groups stared each other down. Weapons had been drawn, glares were being exchanged, and any wrong move would cause a massive fight to break out.

A high pitch whistle then interpreted the stand off – the noise was so loud some of the nearby people had to cover their ears while everyone else winced in mild discomfort. Both factions turned towards the noise where they saw Arakuremono, Kazuma, and surprising everyone was Sena as well. The latter of whom was gazing at her respective group with a look that made them feel like children about to be lectured by their parents.

Sena stepped forward, obviously intending to deal with her side first, her voice as strong as steel. "What do you all think you are doing?!"

"Ma'am, we have orders from Aldarp to-"

The prosecutor didn't allow the now nervous soldier to finish. "And is Aldarp your commanding officer?"

Unable to come up with a proper answer, the man merely stuttered while Sena continued her questioning.

"Have you been ordered to follow his command?"

"…No…"

"Then understand this," Sena made damn sure to look the man in the eyes so he could see how furious she was, "Satou Kazuma's interrogation was handled by me, his punishment was given by me, it will be handled BY ME!" her voice held such power the entire group of soldiers took a collective step back in fear.

"Aldarp's word is not law in this land, mine is! This is a grave misuse of his power, so much so that I am launching an immediate investigation to find out if there have been any other instances like this. Until then, you are hereby ordered to return to your posts and resume your regular duties. Am I clear?"

The soldiers gave a collective salute. "YES MA'AM!"

As one, they all turned around and began marching out of the area.

All those who had witnessed the woman verbally tear apart the group shuddered while having a single unanimous thought.

Scary!

"Now then…" Sena readjusted her glasses and turned her piercing gaze to Kazuma, who subconsciously stood a little straighter in response. "I trust you can handle everything else on your own."

He merely nodded in reply, too afraid to say anything in reply.

"Good, then I shall be on my way. Expect me to return tomorrow so you can begin serving your sentence."

There was a long stretch of silence that followed that declaration as everyone watched Sena leave the area. Arakuremono was the first one brave enough to speak, his face far more serious than ever before.

"I'm going to marry that woman."

The reactions that followed varied from surprised yells all the way to one guy actually choking on his own spit from the coughing the Brute's words had caused.

"Now then," focusing his attention on the other guild members, Arakuremono crossed his powerful arms and frowned at the group, "the rest of you head back to the guild now. We're going to be having a nice, long chat about how you should and should not act towards the Imperial Guards."

Everyone groaned in response but did as they were told.

Arakuremono nodded with satisfaction and turned towards the young party leader to grab his shoulder. "Don't worry," he laughed having just stopped the boy before he could head towards the guild himself, "you can stay home and get some proper rest, I know those disease infested rags they call beds can be extremely uncomfortable."

"They were diseased!" Kazuma cried out in alarm, his voice rising a few pitches by the end.

Laughing once more, the man managed to get the Adventurer to relax after explaining to him it was just a joke. "But enough talk about boring shit like that!" The feral grin returned in full, and the man cracked his neck as he made his way towards the guild. "Get some sleep, kid. If you need me, I'll be dealing with our knuckle-headed guild!"

Kazuma simply waved in goodbye, finding himself too exhausted to say anything in response.

"Why is it there never seems to be a dull day whenever you're involved in something?" Verdia wondered aloud, his gaze taking on a faraway look as if he were trying to figure out a lifelong mystery. The Snow Sprite copied the look.

"I don't know!" The teen gave an exaggerated shout while his body language conveyed an equal amount of annoyance.

"Regardless," Verdia continued, "let's head inside and grab something to eat."

"Yeah, some good food sounds nice right about now."

"Ok, I know we can do this." Fio once again paused her work in repairing the small tear in Megumin's dress to give the girl in question an encouraging smile. "We just need you to keep a steady tempo. Just do that and we can handle the rest."

The Arch-Wizard nodded her head while bringing the flute up to her lips. With a single breath to fill her lungs, Megumin began to play a calming tune that seemed to travel all around them.

Closing her eyes and allowing the music to envelop her, Fio began to sing with a voice as beautiful and dazzling as a starry night. Clemea sat just opposite of the pinkette, her head bobbing in tune to the music as she waited for her part to come up, and when it did, she took over with a voice as passionate as a raging fire. When her part came to an end the two of them joined together to sing the chorus, their voices coming together with spectacular results.

As the two of them finished the first chorus, Megumin sped up the tempo allowing the two women to start their next parts with increased energy until they repeated the chorus once more to que Megumin to speed up one more time. When the they finished the final line of the song, the young girl beside them allowed the final note to linger a little while before lowering the instrument from her lips.

Breathing a little heavier than normal, Megumin gave the two of them a thumbs up.

Neither Clemea or Fio had time to congratulate their friend before Aqua, who had shown up at some point during the song, started clapping and cheering excitedly. Her applause was joined by a much more subdued Wiz. The Lich's appearance mildly surprised the group.

"That was amazing!" Aqua gushed as she ran forward to clasp Clemea's hands in her own. The Arch-Priest looked at the Warrior with stars in her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me you could sing? We could have been performing musical numbers at the guild!"

"Because we only sing the one song." The green-haired warrior replied, relaxing her arms so Aqua's excited bounces didn't make them sore. "Besides, it's the first time we've done it in months."

"It was very nice to do it again, though." Fio was smiling as she turned to greet Wiz, who stepped closer to join their circle.

"It was a very lovely song." The busty lich complimented as she clasped her hands together. "I've never heard it before…"

Clemea answered the unasked question even as Aqua continued to ramble next to her. "It's a song from our village actually. Personally, I think it sounds much better when a large group performs it with the appropriate instruments."

Fio wholeheartedly agreed.

"By the way, not to sound rude, but why are you here Wiz?"

"Ah, Aqua was kind enough to invite me to join you all for lunch today." The woman's explanation caused the mentioned Arch-Priest to freeze in place.

Clemea kept her head pointed in the shop owner's direction while moving her eyes to glance at the stunned Goddess. "Oh, is that so?"

Wiz nodded to confirm it. "She has been visiting my shop more often recently. It makes the day go by much quicker with her company, Aqua has even helped me clean up before closing."

"Really now?" the warrior didn't bother hiding her amusement as she watched the embarrassed blush cover more and more of the Arch-Priest's face until it conflicted quite nicely with the bright blue hair.

Megumin used their loud conversation to slip away back into the mansion, deciding she should probably get dinner started if she wanted to finish in time. The girl frowned hearing the sound of someone eating in the kitchen, everyone should know she didn't like it when people did that. Walking through the doorway, Megumin froze on the spot when she saw a familiar green mantle and a head of brown hair facing away from her.

Obviously hearing her entrance, Kazuma turned around, a half-eaten sandwich in his hands, and looked at his friend. Neither of the two said anything right away, one was surprised while the other didn't know what to say, but Megumin's shock disappeared first as she let out a quiet exhale.

"I was going to make dinner soon."

Kazuma swallowed before speaking. "Sorry, I didn't know what time it was."

The girl made a noise of displeasure, quickly covering it up by grabbing an apron from a nearby hook and tossing it to her party leader. "Then you can make up for it by helping me out, we can make a big meal to celebrate your release."

"You know I would have helped you regardless, right?" He caught the article of clothing and began to put it on.

Megumin turned around to hide her blush while putting on the other apron herself. "I know."

KONOSUBA!

The nights in Axel were always spectacular: all the stars shining as bright as a torch, the moon sometimes filling the sky with its radiant glory, and almost no noise to distract someone from its beauty.

Kyouya took his sweet time walking back to the mansion, after being able to finally leave the guild after a ridiculously long lecture from Arakuremono, simply breathing in the cool, night air. A small smile decorated his face as the teen watched a shooting star streak across the sky. There was a small part of him that wanted to make a wish, a notion that seemed a tad childish to the Sword Master, but he figured there wasn't anything meaningful to ask for.

His casual stroll eventually came to an end as he reached the gate of the mansion, taking another short moment to fully appreciate how fortunate they all were to end up in a place like this, pointedly ignoring the circumstances that caused him and his party to end up here as well. Kyouya quietly opened the gate and then the door in the off chance everyone was already in bed having no real idea how late it was. He took off his boots and placed them next to the others before heading further into the mansion.

Passing by one of the main rooms, Kyouya frowned as he saw a few lanterns still lit, providing just enough light to illuminate half of the room, allowing the Sword Master to see Darkness – clad in her nightgown – as the woman carefully examined the chest board in-front of her.

"Darkness?" Kyouya's voice startled the Crusader who looked up to stare at her friend.

"I was wondering how long it would take for you to get home." She smiled at him and rearranged the board, so everything was back in place. "Arakuremono wasn't too harsh on all of you, was he?"

Taking the seat across from her, Kyouya shook his head and offered Darkness a smile of his own. "Not really – all things considering. Just took a long time for him to finish is all. I'm almost certain the man could have lectured us for another hour without pausing." He chuckled a little, being joined by Darkness as she also laughed at the idea, their laughter mixing pleasantly together in his opinion.

"Well I'm glad he didn't, I don't think I could have stayed up that much longer." The Crusader admitted, intending it to be a joke only to receive a frown from her companion instead.

"You didn't have to stay up to wait for me." Kyouya said quietly, his voice still strong enough to reach Darkness who's smile became far gentler in response.

"I would have done it for any of you." Darkness' demeanor momentarily sagged as memories and nightmares weighed on her conscious. The moment passed in an instant and a smile returned to her face. "Although, there probably wasn't any real point knowing you were simply down at the guild."

Kyouya had noticed her moment of sadness but decided not to comment on it. "Wanna play a quick game?" he gestured towards the board, hoping a friendly game would cheer her up a little more.

The excited gleam he saw in her eyes told him it worked.

"Chomusuke. Its name is Chomusuke."

Kazuma sucked in an irritated breath of air through his nose as he stared at the strange looking cat Megumin held out towards him. This… was not something the Adventurer wanted to deal with right now. Having just found out they were out of coffee beans for some stupid reason, Kazuma had already been in a bad mood, then he found Darkness and Kyouya asleep in separate chairs with a half-finished chess game between the two of them, annoying him further somehow, and now Megumin decided to bring in a new pet. The one they had was already bad enough.

Verdia's snow sprite – while incredibly adorable – caused several problems around the place from either cooling down the bath water, annoying whoever was cleaning up at the time, all the way to freezing the pipes outright. The Undead promised that he would either teach the spirit to control its freezing presence or implement a simple barrier that would limit its range greatly.

Now there would be a second creature running around the place, but Kazuma was more worried that if he allowed his friend to keep this one then the others would want to get a pet of their own. This place was already chaotic enough without small animals running about.

"Where did you get this cat exactly?"

"I found it." Megumin replied as she brought the creature back to her chest, clutching it with one arm while petting it with the other.

"It's so cute!" Fio gushed as she reached out to pet the small animal.

"Whatever," Kazuma sighed, knowing there was no way for him to convince the small Arch-Wizard to leave that thing where she found it. "I'm going to go get some coffee beans." He left immediately, slamming the door in the process. The loud noise startled Kyouya awake.

"Wha…?"

"We're under attack!" Darkness cried out, somehow still asleep. Leaping forward, the Crusader slammed into the Sword Master, knocking over the chair in the process while the two of them slid across the floor. They landed in a compromising position with Darkness on top, straddling Kyouya's waist while she pinned the teen's hands above his head.

Kuruseidā had taught her several restraining maneuvers that would allow her or a teammate to capture a target. Unfortunately for Darkness, some of the techniques were a little… erotic when used outside of battle. Like now for example.

Opening her eyes slowly, Darkness let out a big yawn as her mind began to properly wake itself up with the first thing the woman's brain processing was the warm sensation underneath her hands. The second, once Darkness fully woke up and opened her eyes, was Kyouya's beat red face as he opened and closed his mouth several times without uttering a word each time.

"What the hell is going on down – whoa!"

A voice to her side captured Darkness' attention where she saw Clemea looking at her with wide, startled eyes, Fio covering Megumin's eyes with a blush clearly present on her face, and the mentioned Arch-Wizard trying to remove her friend's hand off her face.

"Why is everyone making so much noise." Aqua complained as she appeared next to Clemea, wiping the sleep out of her eyes and looking at Darkness soon after, her face quickly mirrored Clemea's. "Oh my! I didn't realize you two were so intimate!"

Darkness blinked. "What do you…?"

"Damn it Darkness, couldn't you two do this somewhere else?!" the warrior demanded, her shock giving way to embarrassed anger.

Fio, knowing the situation wasn't what it looked like, tried to explain what was going on. "Clemea, they aren't actually-"

"I need to go tell everyone." Aqua interrupted, her body moving shakily towards the door as if she were short circuiting.

"Aqua, wait!" Fio let go of Megumin to chase after the Goddess.

"Darkness…"

The timid voice brought her attention back to Kyouya who had finally found his voice.

"Could you please get off me?"

As far as requests went, that one was simple enough to understand, but not knowing the situation prevented the Crusader from understanding it completely. Taking a few seconds to figure out the position she was in, Darkness quickly regretted waking up at all.

From the position he was in, Kyouya was able to watch blood creep up Darkness' neck all the way up her face as a strangled gasp escaped her lips.

"It's not what it looks like!" the woman shouted, first to the Sword Master and then to the group still watching them, before jumping to her feet to stand as far away from Kyouya as possible. Covering her face with both hands, Darkness couldn't help but mumble, "I want to die," as she tried to think of a way to properly explain the situation. One thing was certain though.

This was not the kind of humiliation she wanted to wake up too.

Poor Darkness, she just doesn't get the same abuse she use to. Nothing else to say, really, but I do want to thank everyone who's patiently waited for this chapter to come out. See you all next time, and have a great day!