Kazuma

The stench of chemicals and exhaust blend in the air with the stench of trash and rot that the rain from two days ago touched, the houses around us are made of metal or wood but they are either rusted or falling apart from the lack of maintenance.

Even though we are standing in an open area I can still see the city and the mega buildings that might as well be called office buildings that barely have any windows.

"Okay, if we're going to do this, then we can't afford to go into any kind of work blind, so for today or right now at least let's just try and see what we can do." I said to Aqua and Sasha who are looking at me, the two of them nod before looking at me with confused expressions.

"Umm, Kazuma what exactly are we supposed to do?" Sasha asks me.

I look at the two of them and I was kind of hoping that they might just start doing things before I had to tell them anything.

"Hold on." I answer Sasha before I walk up to Aqua.

'Hey, why don't you pretend to use one of your attack spells, but after you make your computer screen change?" I say to Aqua who just looks at me as if I said something dumb.

'Kazuma I know that already." she says to me, as she turns on her wrist computer and uses the create water skill.

I watch as she waits for the screen to change color and she switches to changing her voice and making it seem like it was coming from somewhere else by using her ventriloquist skill.

The screen changes again and she begins to perform her party tricks, switching from one to another each time her screen changes.

So far so good, Aquas Attack skills are usually overpowered because she is a goddess and as a result, they ended up causing more problems for us.

'Okay, that's enough" I say to Aqua before I turn to look at Sasha.

'Why don't you try doing anything, it doesn't matter what just try something." I say to her.

I watch as Sasha's eyes begin to glow and turn purple before they return to their normal blue color, she lets out a breath and it seems as if she just discovered something that she wasn't aware of before.

I watch as she starts to run, does cartwheels, summersaults, and starts to do all sorts of what I can only call ninja moves before she stops to catch her breath.

I watch as her fingernails grow slightly before she runs towards the shell of an abandoned car and cuts through it, she jumps back before detaching her and uses a wire that's hidden inside it to whip the hand down intending to cut the car.

Unfortunately, she misses while at the same time missing her landing, resulting in her falling face down on the ground.

'Okay, my turn." I say to them as I hand Aqua my tablet before I turn it on and make its screen change colors.

Unlike Aqua I don't have an unlimited amount of magic to rely on so I have no choice but to try to use the skills that I grew to rely on.

I activate my farsight, and I'm able to see farther than any person that doesn't have mechanical eyes ever could, I mark a teleporting spot and teleport behind Sasha before I quickly use my bind skill to tie her using the wires the store owner gave me.

I smile our combined skills aren't the best but at least we will be able to defend ourselves, so I start to undo the binding spell and let Sasha free, but as I'm doing it, I begin to feel the world around me move and the images of the goddesses appear before me again.

The wind blows and it's as if something that wasn't a part of the world before now is.

I can feel Sasha's hands on my chest, while Aqua has hers on my back. "Breath, they're here now but its going to take a while." Aqua says to me, sounding more like a goddess than the girl I've grown to know.

"Is he okay?" I hear Gloria say to us as she joins us and as I look toward her I find that she doesn't have her son with her.

'I'm fine, but shouldn't you be with your son?" I ask her.

"No, so what's everyone doing?" she asks us.

'Learning what we can do." Sasha answers Gloria, Gloria doesn't say anything and starts to think about what she knows.

"I know how to use a gun, it's not much but everyone in my old job is taught to use one."

" I can also use my hands in a fist fight, it's basic training." She says to us.

"Don't say show me." I answer her as I look at both Aqua and Sasha as I wordlessly tell them that I'm okay.

"Try to hit me." I say to Gloria, and we both look at each other before preparing to fight.

We ignore the crowd of people that started gathering ever since we started to practice our skills. "Fight!" Aqua yells as we both charge at each other.

Gloria uses her left hand to throw a punch at my chin, but it's a trick and she uses her right to hit my stomach, but because of my dodge and evade skills I'm able to avoid her attacks.

She kicks my feet trying to make me lose my footing, but I place my hand on her head and jump over her.

She quickly turns around and tries to tackle me to the ground, but I just move to the side, and I just barely manage to dodge her right hand as it lights up with electricity.

"Sasha go!" Aqua yells and for some reason, my enemy detection skill activates, and I'm forced to jump, when I land I notice both Sasha and Gloria standing together.

Both of their fighting styles are now being displayed, Sasha is standing up straight, while Gloria has her guard up, and again the people around us cheer.

Both women charge at me at first the two bump into each other, but as their blood pumps, they begin to understand how to work together.

Sashas is fast but she lacks experience, while Gloria is precise but she isn't willing to put any bloodlust behind her attacks, meaning that she doesn't want to kill anyone.

Regardless I'm able to avoid their attacks, but I know that the only reason that I'm able to do this is because of my experience, if this was me a year ago, I would have already lost.

"Okay, that's enough for today," I said to them before we all let out a breath and as we look around we find that there weas a large crowd of people now.

As we walk back to where Aqua is standing, I notice that some gang member are walking into the circle and I hear everyone cheer as they start to fight.

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Timeline change.

Gloria joins Kazuma and his team on what she believes to be their first job together.

During their search for a missing girl, she begins to realize that the three people with her are more capable than she ever knew, but she knows that she doesn't know enough to be of any real help.

Fortunately, the mission was quickly resolved, and so she returns home. The next day after waiting for her son to come home and when she is about to join her new team, David finally returns.

And Gloria asks her son why he implanted the sandevistan. [ This will become important later so I won't write this here.} David then tells her everything.

Unbeknownst to her, both Aqua and Kazuma who found their client and the missing girl dead came to a decision.

Due to how broken the world they are in, Aqua has been slowly healing it behind the scenes, by helping the environment and plant life recover.

But seeing one of the few moments of joy stolen from their client and his nice, that she helped create, she decides that she was done hiding and offers Kazuma a chance to leave her and continue living his life in peace.

Kazuma reveals that he hasn't gotten over being separated from the rest of his party and is terrified that something will happen to Aqua, but in the end, he decides to stay with her, knowing that in doing so they will make the entire world his enemy.

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