*Note: I did not create the image above, nor do I know the creator. I include it only because it inspired the following story.
"Now this… this is what fun looks like!" Kazuma exclaimed and clapped his hands together in front of his chest. He rubbed them together and enjoyed the feeling of warmth generated by the friction. A criminal smile formed on his face that his party couldn't see, but were sure was there. 'Oh boy! With my maxed out luck stat, I'm going to make a killing here!' He thought as he looked ahead of them.
Days on the road with nothing to look at but empty desert and the occasional group of runners or easily killed small monsters that… if he was being honest, were pretty well cooked by Darkness. He suppressed a shudder when he recalled the way she behaved every… single… night.
"A crusader… reduced to being a mere cook in service to a lecher who licks me with his eyes… Kazuma… you mustn't hit me with that spoon or I will…"
He killed the memory and suppressed a groan of annoyance yet again, choosing to focus on the moment instead.
All that time in the wagon led them here, to the city of Hol'din. A desert town built on top of one large underground water supply fed by a river that went underground a hundred miles away from where it sat.
The buildings were what one would expect out of a 'fantasy world', they were made from bricks and stones taken from locally harvested materials… but then elaborately painted with bright colors inviting people to come and join the games.
"They say this is a city of sin and debauchery, that only horrendous and dreadful wretches stay there for long, and that even the purest hearts are ruined, despoiled, and lose their virtue and innocence to rough souls that care for nothing but their own pleasure…" Darkness hugged her body and shivered, "Let us hurry within!" She exclaimed and stopped when Kazuma put a hand on her shoulder.
Before he could say anything, Aqua crossed her arms in front of her chest and snorted, she turned up her nose and looked away from the bright city with closed eyes. "They won't let the Axis church open up a house of worship here, they don't even let that useless goddess Eris open one up, it's absurd. I have no idea why you thought this was a good idea, Kazuma."
Without thinking, Kazuma clenched the hand holding Darkness back and gritted his teeth. He spoke through the clenched jaw and shook with frustration while looking back at the useless goddess with a glare. "Because 'somebody' lost all our money on a 'find the ball in the cup' scam… leaving us with 'nothing' to buy food or supplies with on our quest! And in case you forgot Miss Useless Goddess of Bad Luck, that was you!"
Aqua's jaw opened and no words came out, a nervous laugh passed her lips and she rubbed her cheek with a steady, slow motion. "Yeah, ahhhh… I didn't know it was a scam, it seemed like an easy win…"
"I did tell you it was a scam…" Megumin said and grinned a cocky grin, "One should always trust the wisdom of the Crimson Demon's greatest mage!"
Kazuma's head very slowly, with tiny jerking motions, turned to the preening mage who held her staff aloft as if in triumph.
"You also used your explosion spell, destroyed his stall, four shops, six carts, the city street, and dug a hole fifty feet deep… oh and also destroyed our money!" Kazuma snapped.
Megumin flushed a little red and balled up her free hand into a fist, she pumped her arms with vigor as she protested, "He was stealing from us! I had to do something!"
"Like make us flee with nothing but an empty wagon?! If it weren't for my 'create water' spell and the fact that there are monsters out here to kill for food, we'd have died of thirst or starvation! We're lucky they probably assumed we died in the desert, and even luckier we weren't caught and thrown in a dungeon till we die!" Kazuma yelled, and Megumin resorted to an unhappy pout, but was at least silent.
Kazuma turned his attention back to Darkness, whose shoulder he still held, "And Darkness… you know what kind of city this is… you can't go getting into fights, we need money, and I am not going to spend any of it bailing you out of prison… again."
"Ah… yes, yes of course, Kazuma… of course I must do my duty but- but if there are local authorities present I will defer to them…" She replied, albeit with reluctance.
Kazuma let go, then cracked the reins on the donkey pulling their cart and they rode toward the city itself.
The dirt road became cobblestone a few minutes later and the noise of the city surrounded by sand, hit them like a wall. Hawkers stood outside every building, and the buildings were, up close, much larger than he thought, ringing bells, whistlers and criers all vied for the attention of passersby. Employees were dressed in bright, vibrant colors, and ran the gamut from humans to… 'Bunny and catgirls! The best part of this world!' Kazuma grinned and caught the eye of some scantily clad catgirls that twitched their ears and smiled toward him, they snapped their hands toward him at the wrist as if to make a tiny scratch, and licked their full, ruby lips. They arched their backs, all of them, putting their barely confined chests on display, their tails danced about and they pointed toward a building with a large red lantern hanging over the door.
Kazuma began to pant, unable to help himself. "Pay attention, Kazuma!" Aqua shouted and snapped him back to reality. She pointed past his head toward a large statue of gold coins, big painted stones was all they were, but it was promising.
"Listen, just win some money and get us out of here, okay! This place has absolutely nothing to offer whatsoever and I don't like it! You can chase girls on your own time! After you get me home!" Aqua yelled and sat back in the cart before crossing her arms again.
'Damn her….' Kazuma mentally cursed.
"Free drinks for the first fifteen through the door! Grand opening of the One Armed Bandit right here, right now!" An one armed man shouted from the sidewalk and rang a large brass bell overhead.
'Free booze! On the other hand, this place isn't so bad!' Aqua grinned and glanced at her companions. They were gazing around wide eyed at the sights, a minstrel show was taking place on a corner with performers doing flips in colorful striped clothing, tossing each other back and forth, catching coins in their teeth in midair and spitting them into a wooden bowl that sat between them on the ground.
"Really impressive…" Megumin said with childish awe.
"It is…" Darkness said, and Aqua missed the rest.
She hopped off the back and pranced over to the One Armed Bandit and asked the man outside, "Am I one of the first fifteen?"
"You betcha, little lady." The big, bearded man said with a charming twinkle in his eyes. He reached into a brown leather pouch at his side and took out a golden ticket. "Here, take this, it entitles you to free drinks and a few coins to start with."
"Yay!" She said with a little hop before prancing up the stairs and into the double doors.
Kazuma parked their wagon in front of the steps leading up to a great wide open entrance.
"Alright, you all go find something to do, I'm going to get us some money." He hopped down without looking behind him, excitement boiled in his blood like he hadn't felt since coming to this world. The small steps vanished under his rapidly moving feet as he finally got to really put his high luck stat to use. "Alrighhhhhht!" He shouted and jumped through the double doors with one leg out and one leg back. The handful of copper coins they managed to find along the way, jingled in his pocket. It was only three, just three little coppers found lying by the road a day after they fled the last place, 'But with my luck it's all I need!' He told himself and took a look around. The many tables were full of people dressed in all manner of wild getups, from broad hats to tiny hats, from adventurers with swords 'tied' down to their sheaths to keep them from being drawn, to people in formal suits like Vanir or robes like Wiz.
He went to the nearest table that had a picture of a single copper coin on a sign and slapped it down. "Deal me in!" Kazuma said, and began to play.
Darkness saw the building right next to the sign, a number of musicians were playing outside, it too had a wide double door and appeared to be connected to the same place Kazuma went into, if only by a long covered and walled 'hall' dividing them for some reason. But something about the place appealed to her.
There were statues of scantily clad women in the throws of erotic bliss, each one in cages like birds, the music being played, it sang to her blood, it made her body boil with energy. 'I must go in… I must!' She cried out in her heart and rushed for the door.
"Darkness!" Megumin said as the crusader charged toward the doors.
Darkness however, never saw the small girl reach for her, nor even heard her voice. Nor, when Darkness found herself laughing and running down the red carpeted floor, did she hear the bouncer telling Megumin she could not enter, all Darkness heard was the call of her soul that said, 'Go inside!'
She burst through the doors, breathing hard and looking around, women danced in barely anything at all, naked flesh exposed for all to see, hips thrusting, bodies undulating, tails venturing between bars to caress the faces of men who threw coins within and looked at dancers with lust, she was frozen, unable to move. Sensory overload hit her with the sweet smell of incense, oils, and perfumes in the air, she felt a presence fall in beside her.
"Oh, you must be the new girl, I thought you were a patron, come along, this way, I'll show you where you can get dressed." He was a great big bear of a man, but his touch on Darkness' back was exceptional in its gentleness, but also as inexorable as a glacier, unstoppable and unyielding, and Darkness was lost in a fog, barely hearing his words.
'What manner of place is this… what debaucheries occur here… how can this… heaven exist in this world… but I am a crusader…' She argued with herself in her head, barely realizing what he was doing or where she was until the door opened and he gave her a gentle push inside a room where several other women were in various states of undress.
"Zelia, get this one ready, looks like she came in costume, but it's just a little too real, do the usual with that and give her what she'll really need." The bear of a man at Darkness' back said.
"But I-" She began to protest.
"No backtalk! Just get to it, you're already late and there's no time to waste, understand me girlie?!" His kind demeanor was gone, and his brutish tone made Darkness quiver so much that she had no will to resist as a blonde catgirl pulled off the armor.
"I… must…" Darkness tried to talk, but her limbs would not even obey her properly, let alone her tongue.
Zelia at least, was talkative, "Don't worry boss, I got her, I'll have her ready lickty split!" She laughed as Darkness tried to imagine the meaning of the joke.
"She's here to dance, no licking or splitting, just hurry up!" He groused and closed the door.
Darkness's face turned beet red as the reason the joke was funny was suddenly obvious.
Still too flustered to resist, she watched as her armor, sword, and other clothing were tossed off into a corner to clang together in a pile. "Wow, first time, huh?" Zelia asked.
"What oh, ah… I-" Darkness stammered and shivered as she felt a cold gel applied to her nipples.
The catgirl laughed, "Yeah, it's cold, but it'll hold this in place," she said and Darkness looked down as two round nipple shaped cups were put over her chest, from them dangled small tassels which bounced around as she moved, "don't worry." Zelia said with a laugh, "You've got a body they'll drool over, just shake this little butt and you'll be rolling in gold!" The catgirl laughed and slapped Darkness on the ass, the crusader shivered at the near violation and the crude description of her body.
"Now slip this on…" Zelia put a thin dark fabric around Darkness' waist and tied it off.
"What is…" Darkness began, it had a low hanging front and back that was a mockery of clothing, if she moved at all, it would expose her flesh, 'what is this… what is happening… I can't muster the strength to resist…'
The catgirl got up and took Darkness' hands, she pulled, bringing the crusader to her feet.
"Come on, come on, hurry up…" Zelia insisted and taking Darkness' hand, she led the woman out of the room and forced the crusader to jog after her down the long red carpeted hall.
Taken out into public, Darkness wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Eyes went to her, whistles filled the air, men began to hoot at her, 'Rough… uncouth men… they want me… my purity… my crusader's innocence… what will they do to me… how will they force me to submit…'
She had her eyes closed as her imagination ran wild until Zelia pushed her into a cage and closed the door. It locked behind her with a click, and with that click…
Darkness howled like a cat in heat as bliss overtook her, she lost control of her body, the cage, the music, the incense, she clutched at the bars and shouted down at the customers…
"I am a crusader! I am a noble's daughter! You can't… you can't make me… but… but I must… as a knight… I cannot let you have anyone else in my place… my virtue… my…" She lost control of herself as she felt coins strike her body and bounce past her tassels until she fell to her knees, breathing hard and arching her back. "Oh my! What else will happen in this caged bird play… What else can they do to me! For a crusader to be treated so…!"
She bit her thumb to fight against her own sense of bliss, the pain shot through her and it only made the coins rain down harder as she tried and failed to rise to her feet.
She had no idea how long she was trapped there, writhing and trying to cover herself and exhilarating in the degradation of her failure to be completely successful…
Until the big bear of a man came back. There was another large breasted blonde woman at his side. "Alright, who are you?" He demanded.
The stark question briefly snapped her out of her haze, his crossed arms were mirrored by those of the busty blonde woman who might have been Darkness's little sister by looks alone.
"Ah… D-Darkness… I am an adventurer… there was-" She bit her lip and pulled herself up to her feet, he shoved the key into the lock, opened the door, and jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
"You can take half the coins for doing a good job, but you don't work here and you can't just barge in and take other people's spots that way, this is her shift, if you really want to work here, apply properly. We have rules in this town, you know!" He snapped.
"Ah… yes…" Darkness looked down at the coins around her feet, he tossed a brown sack to her and she quickly swept up roughly half the pile before darting out of the door. "I'm… I'm sorry…" She stammered and rushed back the way she'd come. 'I'm out of the cage… they could… they could just take me now… oh deprived of the safety of my confinement…' She moaned and 'stumbled' several times toward reaching hands, only to barely restrain a whimper when bouncers yanked back hard against those who tried to reach for her.
Finally, she was back to the dressing room, and there she found Zelia.
"You had fun." The buxom catgirl said with a laugh, "I guessed you weren't really one of ours, bossman doesn't hire virgins."
"I-" Darkness's mouth opened, but her eyes went to where her pile of armor and other clothing should have been, and found them absent. "Where are my things?"
"Oh, your costume?" Zelia asked with a shrug, "I sold it to one of your fans, the ones who creep back here, it's best to let 'em get somethin', or they'll take somethin else. Here's your cut." She said and reached to the counter where a small pouch sat, she picked it up and tossed it to Darkness, who tried and failed to catch it.
"Sure was realistic." Zelia said while Darkness crouched and blushing, picked up the little pouch.
"It was real!" Darkness insisted.
Zelia laughed and shook her head, "No way, you'd have to be a real adventurer to have an authentic set, and from that catch just now, you're a scullery maid or somethin, relax, I won't tell, but you'd better get going, boss won't want you around for long if you're not s'posed to be here."
Darkness looked up and down the shapely catwoman and at herself and asked, "Ah, if you sold my… ah… costume… what am I going to wear when I leave?"
"You're wearing it now, want something else, you earned enough, go buy it." Zelia shrugged.
'I… ah… a crusader, running, walking… over this city of lustful… uncouth… wicked and lustful… lustful men who might do… in public… oh…but… I must… endure…' Darkness thought, then shivered and ran out of the room cackling, leaving the catgirl shrugging behind her as she took off into the city streets.
Kazuma was thoroughly enjoying himself. When he won up to silvers, he upgraded tables until he won enough for gold, and when he began to win at gold… he savored the feel of soft hands from women who sidled up to him and blew into his ears. "Keep at it… big winner… don't stop now… do it… do it…"
He knew enough from his world to know that he was disrupting the Casino's business model, they wanted him to keep playing so he'd start losing… but it didn't happen.
'Ha! This is great! Maybe I can…' His thought was interrupted by a beefy hand on his shoulder.
"Excuse me… you Kazuma?" Someone asked, Kazuma looked up over his shoulder.
"Yeah… why?" Kazuma asked and looked at the big bald headed behemoth who towered over him, the steel look in his eyes suggested a violent past, but for the present Kazuma was at ease. 'I didn't do anything wrong.' He told himself, and hoped that mattered.
"We gots someone… says they know you, that you'll pay their debt… come with us, please, she's got to settle up." The big thug replied, his muscles tense as if to dare Kazuma to argue.
"Fine… I'll just deposit my winnings here for now, then we'll go." Kazuma groaned, wondering which one did it this time.
Minutes later, Kazuma found himself standing in front of Aqua, who could not really look at him, and behind her stood two very large, broad, shirtless men, each with a hand on her shoulder.
"Aqua…?" Kazuma hissed.
"What happened was…" Aqua bit her lower lip and suppressed her tears…
"I went inside and it was really bright and big, there was a big cage room where I went with my ticket, they gave me some money, and I figured...well… that…" She began to tap her forefingers together and looked down, "well, that I could make some money too, now that I had some, that is. They gave me a bottle of booze, and I figured… I'd just try some of the coins and if it didn't work? Well all I'd lose was that, and then I'd get free drinks until we were done and I could catch up with you later… but…"
She trailed off.
"But what?" Kazuma grimaced.
"Ah, well I finished off the bottle, and I found all these machines with one lever, put a coin in, pulled the lever, and these little spinning wheels would go around and match shapes, it was neat. So I ordered some drinks and sat down and put a coin in and did that… and I won!" Aqua's eyes lit up, "I won a whole lot of gold and silver coins! So I spent some of it on more drinks and figured if it was that easy… well I'd just do it again. And I kept missing… before I knew it, I'd lost most of my money, I was really drunk, and ah… well… I had to get it back! So… I kept playing. Then after that…"
Aqua trailed off again.
"Then… what?" Kazuma demanded again, his body already shaking with frustration.
"Ah… they told me about something called credit, so it was like free money, I could use it to play with… so I went to the ones where you could put in numbers to try to increase the chance of winning… and… I guess I put in numbers that were too high, more than the coins I actually had… I was trying to get it back… you know… and… I… lost."
"There's more… isn't there?" He asked, a sinking feeling in his guts.
"Ah… yeah, I told them I was with you, and you had a lot of money, so they let me borrow more and… could you…?" Aqua eeped out.
"How much?" Kazuma asked.
"Four million eris." The thug standing behind her said.
"You idiot!" Kazuma shouted and began to breathe hard, he hunched forward. "You useless, airheaded bimbo… four million?! No… no way! For four million eris I can hire a dozen eris priests and you can just sit in debtor's prison!"
Aqua began to bawl uncontrollably and dove at him, she wrapped her arms around his waist and howled. "Please Kazuma, pleeeeeeeease! You have to do it! I don't wanna stay here! I don't wanna go to prison! I'm sorry! I'll never gamble again!"
Kazuma leaned back and pushed off her shoulders, struggling to disengage from her. "Fine! Fine, I'll pay for it! I'll pay for it! I'll pay for it!"
Aqua's tears vanished immediately and popped up to her feet while the thug handed over the bill for Kazuma to sign.
"Deduct that from my winnings at the Gold Coin Casino… there's enough to cover it…" He sighed. 'At least there's four million left…' He thought with annoyance.
"Hey, you Kazuma?!" A big, deep voice said from behind his back, he looked over his shoulder.
"Yeah… why?"
Minutes later… he and Aqua were standing in front of a jail cell.
"Megumin… what exactly did you do?" Kazuma asked and pinched the bridge of his nose while he looked down at her.
"Don't look at me that way!" She said as she gripped the bars from… down on the floor. She at least had enough energy to shout, but… not much else. "It's not my fault!"
"What's not?" Kazuma asked, acutely aware of the knights at the door with hands on the hilts of their swords.
"Ah… well… what happened was…" She blushed a little.
"After you ran off and left me and Darkness behind, she ran off to another building and when I tried to follow after her, they wouldn't let me in! They said I had to go somewhere else, so… I tried." She chewed on her lower lip for a moment.
"Ah, well, you know how there's all these buildings, turns out I'm not allowed to go into any of 'em… so, I figured I'd just watch some shows, nothing else I could do…" She looked away, and Kazuma felt a flash of guilt.
'Right, she's underage for pretty much everything… she must have been really lonely with us all abandoning her like that…' Kazuma felt a knot form in his stomach.
It did not last long.
"So… the show, they had fire users, they twirled and danced, and some even had an act where they breathed it! So, yeah, uh, one guy was named the 'Great Sploder' and he…" Megumin frowned, "He said he could make amazing explosions… the best… I am Megumin! I can't let someone else be called 'the best' with explosions!"
"Oh no." Kazuma said, and a weak smile formed on Megumin's face, with agonizing slowness she stuck her hand through the bars and gave him a thumbs up.
"I didn't use it in town… but ah… I didn't know that there was a construction site on the other side of the sand hill I aimed for… and… I… I kinda buried it." She admitted.
Kazuma saw in his mind as if he'd been there.
'You dare claim the title of strongest mage! My name is Megumin! Finest of the Crimson Demons! You can never know the depths of the abyss into which you look, but I can, for though thou lookest within… I… I was born there, and look back at thee from it's deepest depths! Look at this and I will show you true explosion magic!' A dramatic flourish, a reckless aiming at the outskirts, the thunderous noise and bright lights…
Even in his head, he could see her falling forward as people screamed in alarm at the noise and chaos she would have created.
'That's her to a T alright…' Kazuma thought, and the noise of the sliding sand burying the site and 'hopefully' only burying it and not people, rang in his ears with such an echo that he barely noticed for several seconds until he heard Aqua shouting his name.
"Hey! He's talking to you, idiot!" Aqua shouted, "Pay him what he asks and you can get Megumin out of jail! It's just a fine since she's a foreigner so hurry up!"
Kazuma moved like a zombie, a low and weary… "Mhhhhh" noise passed his lips as he signed the document placed in front of him when he turned around and put Megumin at his back.
He looked down at the document the knight held out in front of him. "Two million eris?!" Kazuma exclaimed.
"A million in damages and the rest in fines for causing a public disturbance, lost income for the licensed performer she disrupted… injuries from people who stampeded away from the noise, various charges pertaining to that under the legal definition of assault and for which they are entitled to damages, and of course the cost of housing her in the jail until you could get her, plus administrative fees…" The knight droned on and on, until Kazuma groaned.
"Fine… I'll… look just stop, I'll sign, take it out of my winnings." He moaned and when a young woman of slender build in a tight blue dress approached with a quill and ink, he took the feather, signed the paper, and put the quill back into the ink.
"She's free to go." The knight said and approached the cell.
"Great… thanks to you two, I'm down to nothing… great job, that costs literally everything…" Kazuma growled as they left the building, Aqua hung her head, while Megumin just held onto his back with her legs and arms wrapped around him.
"Sorry… but he was claiming to be the best, I couldn't let that stand…" Megumin replied.
"And… and they cheated… they tricked me… it isn't fair! It isn't fair! It isn't fair!" Aqua began to bawl and shout, "I was only trying to help and they tricked me!"
Kazuma felt his anger slowly melting away, a single copper coin and he could try again.
Or so he was thinking when heard a voice he knew. A voice that was shouting his name.
"Kazuma!"
He followed the noise until his mouth dropped open. "Darkness!" He shouted in shock, she was rushing over to him, her tits bouncing wildly and the tassels with them as she charged like a sprinter to where he stood, agog.
"Darkness what the-" He stopped as she came close and covered herself, one arm over her chest and the other over her crotch.
"I love this town… I want to live here…" Darkness whimpered, but blushed and looked away.
"Your armor… and…" He saw the sack hanging in the hand that covered her below the waist, the cloth that hung behind her hand did a better job of covering her than her hand by itself, but she seemed to like the posture.
"I… things happened… dancing, it was an accident… but my clothes, my armor… gone… ah… here." She said and held out the brown sack with one hand.
Kazuma accepted it, and then grunted as the weight she held out so easily, plummeted straight to the stone sidewalk.
He grunted, barely kept from dropping Megumin, he opened the top and looked inside.
"I… earned this… ah, I guess for my-our-your… ah, for the party." She finally finished the sentence, she was breathing hard again.
"Oh… to hand over money to you while you and… this whole city… looks at me so…" She mewed and shivered, shutting her eyes while the quivering went on.
Kazuma ignored her as he saw the contents of the sack, he wanted to address the lost armor and lost sword and lost everything… he wanted to address her… everything that was going on with her at that moment.
But the money within the sack made up more or less for what the two idiots did. 'Marvelous, with this, we can make everything right and not a complete waste…' Kazuma told himself and with a weary sigh he said, "Back to the wagon, this city never sleeps, we can replace the things Darkness lost and then I'll go back to the casino and make up for it… but you'll all wait inside the cart this time."
"I would not mind…" Darkness replied as she thought of being so illicitly displayed and commanded not to move… 'What horrible things might I, with no sword or armor, have to do or sacrifice to protect Aqua and Megumin while our leader sits inside gambling like a degenerate!'
Kazuma, however, did not let the dream linger long. "You're getting dressed as soon as we've replaced your stuff." He said, jabbing a finger toward her.
"Ah… as you say, yes, of course!" Darkness tried to draw herself up with regal dignity.
"You look like a stripper." He said and snapped his jaw shut while she blushed… all the way back to the wagon.
She was still blushing when he went into an all night equipment shop, and the three sat sullen and frustrated when he emerged and tossed a replacement set of armor, and clothing, up into the wagon.
"Th-This is all mine?!" Darkness exclaimed… "How…"
"I got lucky, he was the one who got it… somehow… and he was willing to sell it back on one condition." Kazuma said with a smile on his face.
"What condition?" Megumin prompted.
"After it's put on." Kazuma said and shook one finger in front of himself while holding his other hand on his hip.
"Wall of water!" Aqua said and spun in a circle in the center of the wagon. And true to her spell, a wall of opaque water rose up from below and surrounded the wagon, it sprayed outward as it flowed up several feet over their heads, leaving Kazuma drenched as he spat it out and tried to get out of the way far, far too late to be anything but soaked.
He could hear the sound of Darkness getting dressed, and as he expected, when the spell vanished, she was, and the water vanished. "Was the water necessary?" He demanded.
"Pervert." Aqua and Megumin answered at once with glares that told him they thought it was.
"Ah… the condition?" Darkness asked at last as she clinched her armor tight.
"He said he licked the inside of it… among other things… but I'm not allowed to tell you what else it was he did in there."
Darkness shivered while Aqua and Megumin cracked their knuckles and glared down at Kazuma.
He raised his hands up, "Hey don't look at me! He did it! I had to stay quiet to get it back or he was going to keep it!"
"It is- Alright… I caused the problem… it is resolved. How much is left now, Kazuma?" Darkness asked, breathing hard while he held up two copper coins.
"Just this much, enough for me to start over." He said and got back into the wagon. Despite everything, his spirits, while frustrated, were not broken. 'This is a minor setback. I'll just go win some more, everything will be fine.' He told himself as he pulled the cart back up to the casino again.
Kazuma hopped out of the wagon and began to walk up the steps and approached the double door, only for the big ape of a man who guarded the door to hold up a hand. "Nope, not you. You're Kazuma, right?"
Kazuma froze and looked up at the big bald oaf. "Uh, yeah… what's wrong?"
"You. You win too much, hang out with trouble makers, we had two big fines come here for you… boss left this for you." The guard reached into a pouch and drew out a scroll, he handed it to Kazuma, who broke the seal and unrolled it.
"Read it if'n you want, but it says you can't be in the city no more. Emergency banishment, trouble makers and them what win suspiciously too often, you got both of them things going for you… so you gotta leave the city… ain't nobody gonna let you stay here… get gone, now."
Kazuma looked down at the two coppers to his name… they were dirty… they were filthy… they were dinged in the same places.
They were… 'The same ones I started with…'
"Get. Now." The thug said as he felt Kazuma's temper rising.
"Damn it all!" Kazuma shouted.
He withdrew down the steps, back to the wagon, still shouting.
He shouted as he spurred the donkey on.
And he did not stop shouting "Damn it!" Until the city was a dot at his back… while the other three, Darkness, Megumin, and Aqua stared back at it with longing.
"Let us come back here again, when Megumin is old enough to participate." Darkness suggested.
"Sure, no temples, but the booze is good and the games are fun!" Aqua said offhandedly and reclined in her seat.
"You mean it?!" Megumin cried out and clapped her hands together, rubbing them with excitement.
"You've got to be kidding meeeeeee!" Kazuma shouted in fury, then he whirled on them all, thrust out his arm and shouted…
[Steeeeeeeal]!
"Give those back!" At least two of the three shouted… while Darkness only blushed and shifted with a smile on her face that did not vanish even when they all fell asleep that night.