As the light faded from his eyes, Kazuma blinked and realized…

He groaned for what felt like the millionth time that day. "No! Take me back! I want to go back to that place! Even if I couldn't just be a NEET, an easy school life is preferable to this!"

As far as the eye – or, his eyes, anyway – could see, they were surrounded by wilderness. Nothing but cold, half-dead looking trees, a few animals chittering around them, and the sun beaming down on them…

And he didn't even have any of his equipment-

His eyes widened, and he turned towards the others, stretching out a hand. "Steal!"

They all looked at him, but Kazuma simply deflated as nothing appeared in his hand. "Damn it! I worked hard on getting all of those skills-"

"Considering your work ethic in school, I highly doubt that," the blonde loli remarked. He opened his mouth to retort, but she continued on, ignoring him.

"I assume you three are also lacking whatever skills you picked up in your worlds?" she asked semi-rhetorically.

Ainz held up a hand towards a nearby tree. "Acid Arrow."

When nothing happened for a few seconds, the skeleton – no longer clad in his disgustingly OP equipment – turned towards an empty section of the clearing they had appeared in and gestured again. "Create Middle Tier Undead: Death Knight."

When again nothing happened, he simply shook his head. "Neither my spells nor my skills appear to work," and turned towards Naofumi, whose own expression was not nearly as unreadable as Ainz's.

Stormily, he muttered, "Zweite Guard," and shook his head.

Now everyone looked to Subaru…

"Hey dude. You still with us?" Kazuma asked. He seemed… surprisingly spaced out. Kazuma could get that sort of feeling… but this was everyone's second time, so shouldn't he be used to this sort of thing?

His head snapped up, and he nodded stiffly. "Er… yeah. I… I don't have anything."

He seemed like he wanted to say more, but the loli didn't seem to care. "Being X…"

She began to mutter to herself. "You piece of shit. Reincarnating me again? I'll murder you. You're not even fit for use as slop for pigs. Maggots… even that's too high an honor for you. I swear, if I get a chance…"

"Uhh… now what?" asked Subaru, looking around for the first time.

Kazuma looked around again, already wishing he had his Farsight back. There really didn't seem to be anything interesting about their surroundings. No people, no roads, just an endless sea of forests.

"Assuming we were not placed in a world that lacks civilization, finding some semblance of it is our first priority," Ainz said.

"We don't know that he hasn't placed us in a world like that. Make us fight against wild animals, hoping we turn against each other-"

Kazuma interrupted her. "Are you sure we shouldn't just give up-"

She'd seemed angry at being interrupted, but he shortly found out that she was even more incensed by his suggestion, if the twitching eyes and snarled "WE ARE NOT!" shouted Tanya was anything to go by…

Kazuma let his hands fall to the ground as she started to rant about sticking to her ideals or something, and he looked her up and down again.

She didn't have anything more than he did – a threadbare shirt and threadbare pants that looked too well-worn for even the farmers around Axel to wear – which meant…

He grinned. She was like, at least a foot shorter than him, and she also didn't have any magic to shoot at him.

He rested an elbow on her head and leaned against her as he held a hand up to examine his fingernails. "Well, why shouldn't we just give up? I wanna go home, and he even said something about getting to rule-"

WHAM!

The world around him spun as he collapsed to the ground, hands cupped around his-

Somewhere above him, he heard her saying something he didn't really care about.

He grunted, still curled up on the ground. "I'm a man of true gender equality. I'm going to send my foot so far up your-"

Still curled up on the ground – and desperately wishing that Aqua were here – she heard Tanya start to monologue again, her voice moving about the clearing.

"While Ainz's idea about finding civilization if it exists has merit, we don't currently have any method of doing so besides picking a direction and walking. Until then, we need to survive in the wilderness, which means…"

She stopped moving. "Barring the obvious, do any of you have to eat anything out of the ordinary?"

No one said anything, and Kazuma began to try and stand again – which wasn't really going well.

"Right. Next question: any of you know how to catch an animal?"

"I do, you loli bi-"

"Call me that again, and I swear I'll."

"Both of you, silence."

They turned to find Ainz standing above him. Even if his voice sounded completely different than it had before – it wasn't reedy or high-pitched, but it sure as hell wasn't deep or intimidating – his height helped him seem authoritative.

Kazuma's gaze flicked back to the girl who stormed off, and Kazuma just grumbled under his breath-

Only for his insults to be much more loudly vocalized when she began ordering them around – they'd just been reincarnated! Couldn't they have a break for just a little?!

-OxOxO-

Kazuma was getting the distinct impression none of the people he'd been reincarnated with were taking their situation as well as he was…

Which felt shocking, considering he was a bonafide NEET, and being well-adjusted was probably one of the farthest things from what a NEET was supposed to be.

Still.

They'd all had their tasks: Kazuma was to try and catch some animals for them to eat along with Naofumi, who'd also apparently had some experience…

Which was good, because Kazuma had relied on his skills in those extremely rare occasions when his party had taken a quest that required them to do some foraging instead of just eating supplies they'd packed…

Not unlike their last major quest before they'd been spirited away to that school.

Regardless, he had not been at all amused by any of Kazuma's attempts at cracking humor.

When they'd gotten back to that clearing – after several hours of nothing happening, which had seemed to only enrage Naofumi further – Subaru had gestured to a small pile of berries he'd apparently managed to forage.

Ainz and Tanya had been setting up their clearing into a proper camp for them to sleep in – hopefully not for long. He'd always disliked having to do this stuff.

But back to his original thought. Degurechaff had seemed just as angry as Naofumi, only she was much more vocal about it, and listening to her talk, at length, about what she was going to do to Being X was tiring…

But not tiring enough for him to try and stop her beyond telling her to can it every once in a while. His nuts were still fucking sore.

Regardless, while those two seemed angry at their situation, he was having a much harder time getting a read on Ainz and Subaru.

With Ainz, it was obvious. He didn't exactly have a face for Kazuma to try and read, but he was also keeping his bony mouth shut…

Though, having him watch them all eat the scrawny rabbit Kazuma had caught and the berries Subaru had foraged had been… unnerving.

And speaking of Subaru, Kazuma wasn't sure what was up with him. He was the one he'd grown to know the most at that school, but he seemed to be acting very… different. For one, he'd almost been as quiet as Ainz had, and Kazuma's wisecracks, besides earning the ire of shorty, only got a few halfhearted chuckles out of him before he was back to staring into space.

Kazuma had stopped trying to make jokes when 'dinner' had been finished and they all started to dig into what little they had.

It really wasn't much, and he really did want to go home.

He opened his mouth to broach that subject when something entirely unexpected happened.

Ainz leaned forward towards the fire sitting in the center of their circle and grabbed one of the burning logs-

Only for him to jerk back, staring at his skeletal hand. "…That actually hurt."

Kazuma opened his mouth to ask his question when he was, again, cut off. "What is our long term plan going forward?" asked Naofumi.

Kazuma nodded. "Yeah. I for one am completely against living another day in yet another world. I'd even take my original life over this," he groused.

The short girl glared at him. "Well, if you recall, he said that all of us had to praise him. Considering I've already spent well over a decade not doing that…"

She grinned dangerously. "Well, try at your own leisure. I'd suggest not wasting our time or your breath."

Ainz cleared his throat, rubbing the hand he'd thrust into the fire. "Can we hope for rescue from our allies?" he asked, looking around.

Degurechaff shook her head immediately. "I'm not worried about being rescued. Whether or not our allies can get to us is of no consequence if Being X can just keep resetting things. So they'd need some way to stop him."

She shrugged again. "As far as I'm aware, there isn't anything in my world that can stand up to him. I doubt he'd hand out stuff that could hurt him within reach of those that might wish him harm, no matter how remote the possibility."

She looked to her left, to Ainz, and he too shrugged. "I am… doubtful. I do not know where he would have gained the knowledge that I am a…"

He cleared his throat. "Well, that Being X character cleared out my inventory, along with taking all of my equipment."

The flames in his eyes dimmed for a moment. "Hmm… perhaps there are magics or items from the world I was sent to that may harm him… but the Tomb of Nazarick would have to look far and wide to find such things," he concluded with a nod of his head as the light in his eyes brightened once more.

He looked to his left, to Naofumi, who merely shook his head. He looked to Kazuma…

He tried to wrack his brain. "Eh… well, Vanir is said to be one of the 'Seven Dukes of Hell," so…"

They all looked at him as if he'd grown a second head. "And… how did you grow to know such a person?"

"Long story," he said, about to brush past it…

When he decided that this would probably be one of his only chances to relax. So, he told the story.

Of how they had cleared a dungeon. Of how he'd been under investigation. Of how his party had been sent in to deal with the problem. Of the ensuing battle. And of Vanir's return.

Degurechaff sighed. "So he's not that powerful if he lost to you four."

"Hey, what's that supposed to-"

"I think she's calling you weak, NEET."

"Take that back! If you don't-"

"Bah, enough of your threats. We all know you're a spineless fool."

"Oh? I'll drop kick you."

"I'll dodge."

The bickering reminded him, for a moment, of his own party members, and he felt pain in his chest as he reminisced.

He shook his head. "Anyway. I don't know how many lives Vanir has, but if he's 'Duke of Hell,' surely he could fight against him… or even get some help from the other Dukes?" Kazuma ventured.

No one else looked especially enthused, so Kazuma shook his head. "Anyway, if it's stuff to fight him with, then Aqua apparently reincarnated a lot of people to fight the Demon King and gave them all super OP abilities or items. Some of those might help."

He looked to his own left to find Subaru looking…

Well, Kazuma wasn't one for dramatics, so he'd just say the dude looked tired and move on.

"I… if Reinhard couldn't even touch him, then I think the only people who might be able to hurt him would be the Witch's Cult, and… I don't think they'd be willing to help me. Ever."

His words hung over them for a moment as the realization sunk into Kazuma's head.

They were screwed, and not in the normal way he was against opponents that were stronger than he was.

Degurechaff sighed. "Well, that's that then. Unless he drops dead, your subordinates find some probably-nonexistent superweapon, a 'Duke of Hell' with questionable morality gets his friends together to save us, or a group of religious fanatics opposed to you decide to help you for some reason, our best option is just to resist him. With that in mind, I suggest we get a full night's sleep and start looking for civilization tomorrow."

On that dismal note, their first day ended. Kazuma was cold and hungry and wondering why he hadn't just lied through his goddamn teeth and gone back home!

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: Man, keeping track of five different fandoms while making up my own world for these five to mess around in is hard, especially because I don't really know Subaru and Naofumi's characters that well.

I think I'll rewatch their shows before I try to write anything else for this story, since my lack of knowledge about them is what led to me having them not talk nearly as much as the other three.

A/N 2: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily, gain access to the monthly poll, and gain access to my (very long) summary of the KonoSuba Light Novels, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.

A/N 3: Many thanks to lekille, Afforess, and Twin for being Super Patrons,

And a big thank you to WarmasterOku for being an Ultra Patron.