Kazuma woke up first thing in the morning and found himself holding a pair of panties. "Red." He said, looking down at the pair from where he lay on his side, the thick blanket made him warm and comfortable, the thick pillow was vastly superior to the straw he used to rely on. 'So which one… I'll have to ask Darkness. If it is Komekko though… will Megumin believe it?' He rolled over onto his back and lifted the pair up high over head and tugged them open. "Pervert. Me? She's the pervert." He grumbled giving a light tug to the silky pair causing the elastic to stretch just a bit, unthinkingly making his statement at least partially a lie.
He let them fall from his fingers to land on his face, but took no real pleasure in it as his mind lay on the troubling question of what to do. 'Megumin won't believe it's Komekko even with this… so I need more.'
"She'll just accuse me of being the pervert and…" He took a deep breath through his nose, "for some reason Aqua will believe her. Maybe even Darkness, who should know better. The one smart member of the team other than me and she's blind. Of course if it is Megumin… what then? A good spanking?"
He laughed at himself for the thought, things hadn't changed as much as he expected after what happened before, and part of him asked, as his arms flopped out listlessly over the big empty space on either side of him, 'Isn't that for the best?'
Maybe it was. 'Yeah… after that thing with her mom, and what we almost did… slow is better. I have time. But if she thinks I did this, that'll set us back, and…' It hit Kazuma hard as a freight train in that moment, he didn't really want things to go back. A little progress at a time was fine, even 'none' for a while, but the idea of going back to the way things were before with her not quite contempt and begrudging acceptance of his leadership was more than unpalatable.
"Alright, so I have to search their room." Kazuma said to himself and rolled his eyes, his right arm flopped over to his face where the red pair of new panties still sat, he closed his fingers around them and brought them away, squeezing them into a tight ball in his hand. "If this doesn't work, I'll look worse, but the Crimson Demon clan seems to be… meticulous. I'll bet we find something." He said to the ceiling, whether he was talking himself into it, or just talking to himself, Kazuma wasn't sure. He fell quiet while the sun rose and cast its warming light into the room, he lay there and watched as the shadows on the floor began their retreat. The light hit him and he shut his eyes for a while, then turned away from the view to watch the shadows vanish into the whole room that was full of the morning and there was nothing left to watch.
The rustle of cloth was the only noise as he got up, put on his robe, and went to the baths. 'First one up.' He thought and lit the lantern then turned the sign around.
The heat of the water washed over his body and it wasn't until he slipped all the way within that he realized he was still holding the red pair of panties scrunched into a ball in his hand.
"Kaaazuma!" Aqua shouted from outside, "Did you have any luck!"
He froze. 'Naked in a bath holding a pair of women's panties?!' He realized how it would look and shouted, "I'm in the bath! I'll talk when I get out, go wait in my- no, in your room!" He finished his order with a little squeak of a voice.
"Okay!" She shouted, and retreated.
A sigh of relief came from Kazuma that was so strong it briefly made small ripples in the water. The steam rose up and engulfed his body in its comforting heat, 'Disaster avoided.' He thought, then finished his bath in short order and made to leave.
He exited the room, put on his robe after drying off, setting aside the pair of panties on top of the robe with great delicacy, like he was afraid they would run away, and that was when Aqua reentered the changing area. "Hey I didn't really want to wait," she said when she closed the door behind her, "so I thought I'd just ask you now."
Kazuma gasped, his eyes bulged as he looked from her to the pair of panties on his robe, and back to her. She naturally followed his look, and saw the red pair there. "Kazuma… what… explain... pervert pervert pervert pervert pervert pervert! You're a pervert! How did I get dragged to this world by a pervert?!" She exclaimed.
"Freeze!" Kazuma shouted and flung out his hand, he pumped every bit of mana he could manage into the spell, she had enough time to let out a tiny 'eep' before the massive block of ice began to lock her within itself. 'It's super effective!' Kasuma managed to smugly think as the crackling ice froze the accusing goddess into place.
He approached the blue haired idiotic useless goddess and actually tried to sound apologetic. "Sorry about that." He said to her. Aqua's eyes twitched behind the thick ice. "But you're wrong, and when you get going, you ruin things, sooo… yes, it was successful." He gave his shirt a gentle tug down to clear a stray wrinkle, "I brought the panties here without thinking about it, I wasn't doing anything with them. Understand?"
Aqua's still open mouth didn't move, but the twitch of her eye suggested she did.
"Good, now listen, I'm going to go to the kitchen and make breakfast. I'll ask Darkness which pair she used on which of them, but when Megumin and Komekko come to join us I want you to take them out into town for a little shopping." Kazuma explained, and from within the crystalline ice, Aqua made a noise.
"Ahm bwoke!"
"Not to worry, I'll give you a few thousand eris to spend, that's all you have to do, go out and have fun… but no gambling and no drinking. Got it?" He asked.
"Yawh huh!" Aqua tried to say.
"Good, now I need to thaw you out, huh?" Kazuma asked and shoved the red pair of panties into his pocket.
She didn't answer, it was obvious even to her.
Kazuma turned, opened the door, and then standing behind the block of ice, he began to push her into the bathroom.
"Nah! Naw! Nah!" She tried to say as he drew closer to the edge of the water.
"Sorry, but I don't know any strong fire spells, this will just have to do, you'll be fine." Kazuma said and reached the edge.
"Nah! Naw! M-m-mhmn!" She exclaimed from within the ice.
"It'll be fine, you're taking a bath anyway." Kazuma said, and the ice block containing Aqua tilted and fell with a splash that spattered water all over the stone.
She started to float, and the ice began to melt before Kazuma left her both behind.
Darkness found Kazuma in the kitchen scooping scrambled eggs into a pair of bowls just as she expected him to be doing. "Good morning Kazuma, how did it go?" She asked as she took her seat at the table, she briefly winced, and Kazuma cocked his head.
"Are you alright?" He asked as he set out a spoon for her.
"It's just the tacks that were placed in my only remaining bra, they sting when I move too quickly." She replied, Kazuma didn't miss a beat at this point and scooped the last of that helping into a second bowl for himself.
He set one down for her and another for himself while he pointed out, "You could just take them out."
"I consider it to be an improvement to the design." Darkness replied.
"Right… of course you do." He answered with a long suffering sigh. He then removed the pair of red panties from his pocket and slid them across the table. "Who?" He asked as bluntly as he could.
"Komekko." Darkness said with a narrow look in her eyes before she extended her hand and drew the stolen pair back to herself.
"Megumin won't believe it." Kazuma said immediately.
"Won't believe what?" Megumin asked when she entered the kitchen with A sweet, smiling, round faced Komekko dressed like a miniature Megumin held in one arm and resting on Megumin's hip.
"Your luck!" Kazuma seamlessly covered the almost exposure with a great big smile, "I'm going to treat you guys to a day out on the town, a little way to celebrate Komekko coming to live with us. I'm a bit busy, but I thought Aqua and you two could have some fun while Darkness and I do some work on some of my new products. I need her muscles for this, so I'm afraid neither of us can go."
"Oh..." Megumin's excited face was briefly crestfallen, but the prospect of the day of fun was too much for her to stay disappointed for long, she looked down at the little girl she held in one arm and asked, "What do you say, Komekko?"
"Thank you, Mr. Kazuma!" The little girl shouted as only little girls could, with bright and happy red eyes, she then added a happy, "Yay!" And flung up her arms in excitement.
Megumin set her down and then asked, "So… where is Aqua anyway? She's usually here for breakfast with us all."
"Oh ahhh…" Kazuma brought a hand up to his mouth and coughed a few times, "She'll be along shortly I'm sure, she was very cold, so I think she wanted to take a longer bath than usual today, to warm up a bit, you know."
Megumin shrugged it off, "It's fine, I wasn't expecting anything, so I can wait now that I know."
Pity welled up in Kazuma for the subtext of her words. 'I wasn't expecting anything' she'd said, 'I never got anything' was the reason. 'She's a crazy explosion perv… and her sister will probably turn out the same way if personality matches her looks. But she's my friend and I'm going to change those expectations.'
The rare serious thought was concealed from any physical expression while he quietly ate his eggs, achieved by closing his eyes so as not to show what he truly felt.
Komekko watched the handsome older boy eat, 'He liked my present! Ha ha! I knew it! Operation battle against the boob lady is making Mr. Kazuma happy, maybe he knows it's me and that's why he's giving us things today? He wants boob lady punished. And she must be, for hiding all that food from us! For wanting me to go! She's trying to get rid of me… I won't let her! I'm going to stay with my big sister and Mr. Kazuma and Miss Blue Bimbo forever! Nothing will stop me! The foremost little sister of the Crimson Demon clan, nothing! Nothing! Nothing!'
Her intended maniacal laughter at the table was interrupted when Megumin set a bowl of scrambled eggs in front of her, and that demanded her full attention.
AN: To see chapters about a week early, join the discord server. To give me more time to write chapters, support my patr eon: /tellingstories