A heavy silence set in between the three of us, but after a moment Aqua began to walk in front of us, she moved her hips side to side so both her skirt and hair moved together.

It's at times like these when I can't afford or dare to look at anything or anyone else that I can see her beauty.

"Remember back then, how one day we would brink with someone or an entire party and they would go do a quest, and sometimes they never came back." She says to me and before she can say anything else I immediately say.

"No."

"Do you remember when we first arrived here and how we couldn't even find normal work because we didn't have anything." she says to me as she begins to hum to herself, but she doesn't bother to turn and look at me.

'It's kind of like back then, how we were forced to sleep on the streets and then in the barn, with all of the animals and everything that they dropped." she says to m and I can't stand to hear the pain in her voice.

I begin to walk faster and as I grab her hand before I force her to turn around and I can't help but stare at her when I see that she's crying.

"Kazuma I'm a Goddes, but this world is so broken that I can't fix it alone." she says to me as she puts her head on my chest.

"It's okay." I say to her as I see Sasha staring at us.

"It's okay" I say to her as I try to convince both myself and her.

"No it's not, Kazuma you're the hero I sent and I'm the goddess." she says to me as she tightens her grip on my shirt.

"No." I say to her, we can't afford to...if we do what we did before, it's going to end with us versus the entire world.

"Hey get off the road you idiots!" a woman yells at us, as she honks her horn.

Kazuma"

"No"

"Kazuma!"

"No!"

"Kazuma!"

"I said no!"

"We already lost Darkness and Meguming, there in that other world safe from this place and now you want me to risk you!" I yell at her.

Aqua doesn't say anything but her blue eyes are now red from crying and even as her tears continue to fall, I can see the determination in her eyes growing.

I notice that Sasha is covering her eyes and for whatever reason, she's crying too.

"But if the hero and the Goddess don't do anything then what hope do these people have?" Aqua asks me, and somehow I can feel the pain in her voice.

"But if I lose you too, what hope will I have?" I ask her, as I start to cry.

We look at each other and I watch as she lets go of me and walks back toward Sasha who is standing by the sidewalk.

I start to walk towards her and as a crowd of people that are no doubt recording our little spectacle she begins to repeat the same set of words that she said to me so long ago.

'Sato Kazuma, I'm the Goddess Aqua."

"Congratulations you have defeated the Demon King and have won your chance at starting over in another world."

No this is completely different.

"I as your Goddess and your friend have come with you instead of returning to Heaven."

"Shut up!" I yell at her, hoping that she stops her speech.

"So it's up to you, you can join me in one more journey or you can."

I start to run towards her as I try to cover her mouth before she can finish.

"Or you can leave me and live your life peacefully." she finishes as I knock her onto the ground with my hands over her mouth, I was too late.

I can see my tears falling on her face and join her own as they roll down her cheeks.

I slowly move my hands away from her mouth as I ignore all of the murmurs from the people around us.

"One more time." I say to her.

"One more time." she answers me.

I suddenly feel a shock of electricity flow through me as the images of the goddesses that I've met flash before my eyes, there's no going back now.

I stand up and I help Aqua to her feet, I turn to look at Sasha who is still looking at us and I signal to her to come closer before I help Aqua stand up.

I can feel the hairs on my head stand and I can't help but shake the feeling that something familiar is in the air, it's almost as if something important has changed.

"Come one, we're going to celebrate the good times we can remember and those we can't." I say to the two of them as the street light changes and we start to walk again.

[][][][]

Gloria

I can't help but look at the bracelet, the money I earned isn't near enough to pay for everything that the school is charging us, but I'm not worried about that right now.

I know that I should be, but what if things had gone bad yesterday?

And now I'm in even bigger debt than I was before, Kazuma said that it was a gift, but there's no reason for him to give me anything.

It's starting to get late and I can't wait any longer.

I know where Kazuma's team will be celebrating, so I'll ask them to come with me to the place where I usually meet Maine.

If he has David Ill pay him back everything he paid me, and hopefully, he will let David go.

I grab my jacket and head to the door and then I watch it open.

"Mom" David says to me, his eyes are filled with shock and before he can say anything else, I throw myself at him and hug him as tightly as I can.

Yet as I hug him, I can feel it in his back and as I slowly let go of him I look him in the eyes.

"Why?" I ask him, but I'm afraid of the answer.