Kazuma hardly got any sleep that night.
The explosions kept going off at irregular intervals until almost 5 AM, where by that time Kazuma had already given up on sleeping and just decided to count the explosions instead- he had counted around a dozen or so, with about four of them happening at around 3 AM. The explosions would be anywhere from a slightly larger firecracker to what sounded like a truck tyre exploding. Aqua proved to be a deep sleeper through this and still managed to snore it out throughout the night.
'So the rent is cheap from the noise complaints…' Kazuma thought as he finally woke up. He had taken a power nap until about 9 AM, enough so that he could function coherently for the day. Aqua was still asleep, but Kazuma was more interested in letting the giant sleep rather than have her cause more trouble for the time being.
Immediately feeling hungry and remembering the cafeteria from yesterday, Kazuma wandered back towards the town hall to check it out for himself. He hoped that it would still be open as he wasn't interested in running around town looking for a quick fill, even if the town wasn't very large.
Luckily for him breakfast didn't end until 9:30, and it was just past 9:15 when he arrived. The cafeteria almost reminded Kazuma of his highschool, only there was less colors and the place was maybe only two thirds of the size. While there was a few options to pick from, Kazuma decided to go with the flow and pick the 'Breakfast Combo' advertised on the outside, as it looked the most familiar and was decently priced- Garlic eggs, buttered bread and coffee with a few sides of ham, coming up to no more than 50Ks.
With his hunger now gone Kazuma now remembered that he still needed to get a job and the aforementioned papers that he was given. On the way back he ran into Aqua, who was just headed out their apartment with a slip of paper in her hand.
"Good morning, Kazuma"
"Morning Aqua" Kazuma returned, not interested in starting trouble for the moment being.
"I'm just out to get some food before heading over to that employment office"
"Oh, alright," the boy acknowledged, "Want to meet up at the office or…?"
"I can manage, see ya around"
"You too"
Kazuma smiled. He wasn't sure if this was going to be a frequent occurrence, but seeing Aqua act like a normal human being was a welcome departure from her antics yesterday. Hopefully this isn't a one timer…
Fifteen minutes later he was back at the town square again, this time with the papers he needed to apply. The process was surprisingly anticlimactic compared to the 'basic competency test'- after a short wait in line he handed in his paper to the office lady at the desk, and a few technical questions later (which were similar to his high school science class) he was told he was now employed at a chemical plant in Chernogorsk. Granted it was a bit too close to danger with the armed conflict going on but the pay was 46,000Ks monthly (noticeably above average) for the aforementioned reasons and skilled labor shortages.
Leaving the office in a good mood, he noticed that Aqua was still missing from the office. He wondered what was taking her so long, given that his breakfast didn't take him that long to finish… only he realized that it was probably over after he left the cafeteria.
'She better not get into more trouble today…' Kazuma sighed, headed back towards the cafeteria. Even though breakfast was over, it seemed likely that Aqua was still going to be there if they still served food…
Surely enough he spotted the ever familiar blue hair belonging to the one and only useless goddess as he approached the cafeteria door, looking through the window. There was several empty bowls and plates on her table, including but not limited to a half eaten pan of frosted jam bread and several squeezed pop cans.
Noticing the door opening, Aqua immediately turned around and leaped towards Kazuma after realizing who he was.
"Kazuma-san, Kazuma-san!" she wailed, slipping onto her knees and grabbing his shirt, "I thought I still had my 500 from yesterday, so I bought myself a snack and now I can't pay it back! Please Kazuma, lend me some money again!"
Kazuma grumbled in disbelief. How could she literally forget that the registration yesterday rendered her broke and that she still had her change? Looks like his hope on a normal Aqua wasn't going to get him anywhere…
"Alright, fine…" Kazuma agreed as he was still in a good mood from the job situation, "But only because I'm in a good mood right now…"
"Thank you, Kazuma!"
"So… how much?" Kazuma inquired towards the Cashier.
"650"
Kazuma's eye twitched as he turned back to the goddess, "COCKROACH-SAMA! WHY DID YOU SPEND 650 EVEN KNOWING THAT YOU ONLY HAD 500?!"
"I-I'm sorry Kazuma! The Buchteln looked too good, and after having one for myself I couldn't help it!" Aqua cried, latching back onto him and rubbing her head into his shirt, "And please stop calling me that! I'm a goddess, not some house pest!"
"You're totally acting like one right now!"
"Kazumaaa!"
'This girl is hopeless…' Kazuma mentally groaned as he produced a 1000 from his pocket and taking the change.
Kazuma apologized to the cafeteria lady profusely, which she accepted bluntly. The young man waited for Aqua to leave the cafeteria so he can hold her breadpan, as she went off to the employment board as well. Seeing that there was still half a pan of the 'Buchteln' left he decided to take one piece and try it for himself.
'Huh, Aqua has a point, these are pretty good' Kazuma thought as he finished off the current piece and going for another.
Aqua came out a short while later, and needless to say she was not impressed at the young man for eating the prized bread out of her viewrange
"Kazuma! Don't be hogging my Buchteln behind my back!"
'This little…'
"Listen here you little Cockroach, you spend my money on food and then have the audacity to claim it for yourself?"
"Well of course, I am a goddess after all"
"Damn you then, I'm having this all to myself"
"Wait, Kazuma! I'm sorry!" Aqua pleaded quickly, "I'm sorry I got carried away!"
-break-
Kazuma has had enough of the noise after a few days of it.
He slept in on the first day of work, and ended up being late by three hours. Part of that was attributed to the convoluted bus schedules which happens to only arrive every hour and a half before proceeding to take half an hour to arrive at his stop. Luckily his employer was sympathetic as he knows of the situation in Kazuma's hometown, but reminded him not to be late in the future.
Kazuma was responsible for recycling acid from metal leach mixtures- he was to boil the solution off in a kettle and sample the solution every half hour to make sure nothing was going wrong(1). It wasn't glamorous, but it paid well enough for what it was- the main problem was the extensive commute times, and by the time he went home it was already 7 PM (Once again due to bus schedules) meaning that he had to go to sleep immediately so he can get enough sleep and not sleep in for the next day. This worked well enough to work life stable, but yielded little time for anything else.
Aqua was posted at a local fast food restaurant, and unsurprisingly to Kazuma there were a few scenes with the customers already, but even Kazuma had to admit that many of them aren't even her fault when he saw them for himself. The most prominent example to him was when a customer was demanding for a free ice cream as part of the promotional deal that was going on, but when Aqua pointed out that he had already did it four times within the past half hour (as the manager demanded her to enforce the store policy) he proceeded to squat in the middle of the dining area and proceeded to sling a torrent of insults at the goddess while slapping his arms on the floor. The manager finally stepped in after five minutes of this and gave him some more ice cream before proceeding to yell at Aqua for not listening to the customer… you just can't please some people.
'Damn it… this new world is basically like Japan, but with more problems!' Kazuma grumbled as he laid on the couch in the living room. It was around 1 AM, and he had just been awaken to the sound of an explosion and being followed up by Aqua snoring away. He honestly has no idea how she could sleep through all of this…
Deciding to take a view of the problem himself, Kazuma climbed up to the roof through the ladder hatch in the stairwell, which was surprisingly not locked. The seven story building proved to be the highest vantage point in the town, maybe except for the hotel down at the beach which was ten stories high- but that was out of view from most of the town.
Once again the explosions had gone off throughout the late night hours, only stopping when the sun was threatening to rise. While it was hard to distinguish where the explosions were coming from due to the lack of light (There aren't nearly as much road lamps and lights as compared to Japan), Kazuma did notice that all of the explosions were called out with a distinctive 'Explosion!' chant before it came, and based on the flashes of light that he saw all of them were still a good distance airborne. Doing a little intuition he figured out that they must have come from the taller buildings from the town, so he could narrow down the search to the few apartment blocks and buildings having more than three stories.
As much as he hated to admit it, Kazuma needed Aqua for this task. While the town wasn't very large, he still needed to get down from the building before chasing the perpetrator on foot, or at the very least making a clear identification of the individual to file a police report. Aqua actually agreed pretty quickly to the plan once Kazuma stated that he was willing to forgive her debt with him, as it recently grew by another 550Ks due to an unchecked snack time before payday.
The plan was quite simple: Once the chant 'Explosion!' was heard, Kazuma would fire his flare gun so he could attempt to spot the perpetrator closest to the explosion. Aqua, which would be waiting downstairs in the front yard of the apartment would be instructed by Kazuma through the two way radio as he would update her on the target's location and to keep eye of the situation so it wouldn't go sour as Aqua presses the chase. In all the preparations had set Kazuma back around 2600Ks, but that would be a small price to pay in comparison with having a good nights sleep at the end of the day.
After several rehearsals and rehashes of the plan, the two would be ready. Now they wait in stalk of their prey…
"Oi Aqua, are you still with me here?" Kazuma checked on the radio.
"Yes, yes Kazuma, you asked me that earlier," Aqua returned in an annoyed tone.
"Good, I need you to be awake, otherwise we can't carry out the mission at hand"
"You already told me that"
"Okay, I'm sorry for intruding too much," Kazuma sighed. He would have reprimanded the goddess otherwise but even he realized that he was being too intrusive, given how he last checked up on her merely five minutes ago to see if she was still awake.
'Only 12:38 AM, hope this will end soon,' Kazuma thought as he checked the clock on the two way radio set. Waiting sure was boring… was this how soldiers felt when they weren't fighting? He had remembered some cutscenes from war games back home where the protagonist would just be stooped around a campfire in the middle of the night, doing nothing…
The only thing to bring Kazuma out of his half daze was when he heard some faint muttering from across the building at around 1 AM. He had heard some hearty laughing off in the distance on his nighttime intelligence gathering before, but it was the first time that he heard chattering so close- his building didn't have that type of people, he assumed. Did they bring friends over?
"-let the collapse of thine origin manifest," the voice now said, now more audible than muttering.
'What in the world is this person talking about?' Kazuma thought to himself, bewildered.
"Summon before me the root of thy power hidden within the lands of the kingdom of demise!"
'Is this person under the influence of-'
"EXPLOSION!"
'!'
That was his cue, the ever familiar explosion call, and this one was the loudest he had heard, probably given how close he was to the source. Instinctively he grabbed the flare gun with an illumination round already loaded into it and fired it into the air.
When the flare started burning he finally caught a good glance of the perpetrator, which happened to be on the same roof as him. It was a short girl with brown hair, wearing a dark blue lab coat and goggles tossing out a small ball shaped object. She had noticed how it got brighter, and turned around to face Kazuma. Both of them were in shock at each other for a moment before she decided to make a run for it
"AQUA!" Kazuma yelled into the radio as he took off after the perpetrator, "I found the explosion maniac, she's on our building! Get ready to watch the back doors!"
There was no response, and unfortunately the girl was closer to the roof hatch and was able to get down quicker.
'Damn it all, looks like I overestimated her usefulness after all,' Kazuma grumbled as he approached the ladders, "Oi Aqua, the explosion maniac is coming for your Buchteln"
He knew that his tactic worked when he heard a shriek at the other end
"You can't let her get away! I was still saving the peach jam one for later! I'll be ruined if I can't have any of it for breakfast"
"Then watch the back doors, damn it!"
"Kazuma!"
'Maybe I should just let her sleep next time,' Kazuma thought as he slid down the ladder, and not three feet in front of him was the alleged explosion maniac, collapsed in a heap.
"I'm sorry sir, please don't hurt me," the girl stated in fear as she tried to get up, "I swear I'm not trying to kill anyone or anything, I'm just testing my batch in a safe location"
While Kazuma was out for revenge in shutting down whoever was making the noise, he didn't expect it to be a little girl. He paused, what should he do? Given that she wasn't posing a threat (nor was she being outright offensive), he couldn't bear with himself to lay down the classic knuckle sandwich. He was an advocate for gender equality, yet a ruthless beating felt wrong in this instance…
"Are you alright?"
"Not really, I haven't eaten in three days"
"…do you want some food?" Kazuma stated in autopilot.
The girl lit up at this statement instantly, "…thank you good sir!"
"…Kazuma! Please tell me the Buchteln alright! Answer me!"
And with that Kazuma muted his radio.
-break-
"Hey, we're closing soon. Please take what you need quickly."
Kazuma and Aqua carried the perpetrator to the nearby convenience store, which happens to close fairly late at night. Not sure what she wants, the explosion girl just let Kazuma pick out the food, which amounted to a can of instant sausages, chicken sandwich and a can of apple juice. As she was desperately hungry she insisted that they can just eat at the parking lot outside, while thanking them profusely.
"So," Kazuma started, watching in amazement as the little girl wolfed down the food at astonishing speed, "Who are you and what exactly are you doing…?"
"…my name is Megumin! An Arch Wizard who commands explosion magic upon this world!" she introduced dramatically, setting her foodstuffs down as she got to her gesturing.
'Even here, chunnis exist?'
Both Kazuma and Aqua were holding back a chuckle, "Don't you mean Megumi?"
"No! My name is Megumin!" she corrected, but not without a double take, "Say, what's your name? You almost sound like you're Japanese yourself."
"My name is Kazuma, and while my background is Japanese, I'm a Chernarussian citizen," Kazuma stated. He worried that if he gave away his old world identity he might cause more trouble than he intends.
"I'm the goddess of-" Aqua started, seeing the introductions kicking off.
"She's Aqua," Kazuma stated quickly, "Don't mind her, she gets carried away with her roleplaying delusions as it gives her a sense of greatness"
"Hey!"
"But anyways, Arch Wizard?" Kazuma continued, "Are you making explosives for a roleplay, a game or something else?"
"What? No!" Megumin quickly blurted, "I make explosives because that's my job!"
"So you're a terrorist?"
"No Kazuma, you've got it all wrong!" Megumin cried, "I'm a student at Novigrad(2) university developing explosives!"
"Wow, universities here have kid programs that let them off with explosives?"
"I'm not a kid! I skipped grades and got into university early!" she stated clearly upset, "Besides, I'm 16!"
Kazuma exhaled, trying to vent off his laughter, "I'm sorry Megumin, its just that the circumstances of your story almost comes off as trying to make a joke to us or something with the meme like backstory and weird name…"
"Hmmph," Megumin grumbled, "Is my name actually that funny? Because I get that a lot, and its not my fault my town names everyone in a weird way"
"What are your parents names anyways, if you don't mind?" Kazuma asked.
"My mother is Yuiyui! My father is Hyoizaburo!" Megumin chanted, her portion chunni back in action.
Both Kazuma and Aqua were trying not to laugh at this, so Kazuma decided to change the topic, "So, with the explosives thing, why are you detonating them around town like that? People need to sleep too you know"
"I'm sorry about that, but I needed to find some place where I could test my explosives while I'm away from the campus"
"Huh? Is there something wrong with the campus, even with your field of studies?" Kazuma asked.
"How do I say this… I actually had to sleep on the floor on the financial aid office because I can't afford the rent, and I got kicked out from there when the school year was over"
"Wait… why don't your parents send you rent money?"
"…I spent them on raw materials to make explosives"
'I swear to god, is everyone in this world that bad at financial decisions?' Kazuma thought before continuing, "Don't they provide that stuff in your program?"
"I thought they did too, but instead of making eco-friendly explosives and blowing things up, it turned out to be a hand grenade refurbishment program as they all went bad from being in storage"
'So even in this world college students get treated like slaves'
"Given that, why didn't you just apply to something like that in Japan?" Kazuma asked.
"I applied to the universities in Chernarus as they were the only ones that didn't need to do a whole bunch of paperwork every time you detonated something"
'She has a point there' Kazuma mentally agreed as she got back to finishing her food.
"Well, it's nice talking to you and knowing your deal with the explosions, but seriously detonate them where there are less people sleeping," Kazuma reminded sternly, remembering the whole point of their mission, "Now, where do you live? We'll walk you back."
"I'm fine, but…" Megumin started, before giving Kazuma the best puppy eyes she can manage, "My rent contract ends soon, and I don't have enough to renew it for the current location! If you don't mind, can I live over?"
"Huh?" Kazuma stated, perplexed, "You trust strangers like that?"
"Well you didn't threaten to instantly kill me and bought me food, so I figured it was safe enough to ask!" Megumin reasoned, "Besides, I can help around the house, and I can give you all a cut when the student loans come in, and when I get a job! So please consider my offer!"
"…I'll consider it," Kazuma stated, still a bit surprised, "If you want to meet up to discuss this again, you can find us at the town hall cafeteria in the mornin-"
"Thank you good sir!" Megumin exclaimed, pulling Kazuma into a hug, "I promise that I won't be a bad roommate! And that thing with the noise..."
(1): Basically, ores are mixed with highly concentrated acid (usually Hydrochloric) so metals can be extracted from them.
(2): The capital city of the country.
Notes: I actually revised the chapter, and decided that additional characters will be introduced later on (to avoid too many scene changes). As always, please review!