Chapter 4
It did not take long for Shego and the others to find the Charlotte Hornets team, once exiting out of the world of KonoSuba and headed to where this particular NBA team is currently at. Turns out that the Charlotte Hornets were in their away game in San Francisco, California, and five points ahead of Golden State Warriors. Once arriving in that area, Mokuba had cloaked their ship before hovering it over the Chase Center and prevented any unwanted attention. Next, the five all turned to the center of their ship as soon as Kale had turned on the hologram screen to the live showing of the game. The five watched a good game as the Hornets are leading the game with the score '115-105' in the second quarter. The five watched carefully to see how well the five players were playing and truly earned the title of being the greatest NBA players of all time.
"Alright, guys, which of the five players that you want to take their talent from?.", Shippo summoned one of Kikyo's soul collectors with his magical small flute.
"Wait.", Masane raised her brow, "Isn't that one of Kikyo's soul collectors?."
"Uhh, yeah, what's the problem here?." said Shippo, looking at his best friend with concern.
"Well, we are here to get their talents and not their souls, Shippo.", Kale pointed out in her shy voice.
Shippo rolled his eyes in hearing what his demon fox ears have picked up, "Look, I talked with my old friend, Lady Kaede back in my era about these soul collectors. She told me that not only do these soul-collecting demons steal someone's soul by force but they also steal people's talents as well. Cool huh?."
"If you can call it that," said Shego, before resuming her sights back to the game.
Upon watching the Hornets and Golden State going back and forth with the ball and none of them haven't scored a point within five minutes of the twelve-minute quarter. The pale woman set her eyes on the player that is leading four players of the Hornets on the basketball court. Shego had her strong sights on Phillip Colson. Phillip is a six-feet-six-inch tall, light-skinned man with a wavelength haircut and has an ecto-mesomorph body. She watched Phillip steal the ball out of the Golden State player's hands with the quickness and leaving the player slow to react to it. After watching where the ball is going and not watching the player, (all thanks to John's defense tip), Phillip ran back to the other side of the court and slam dunk the ball in the net.
Shego grinned and said, "I want him. 'The-Ball-Stealer'.", remembering the man's well-known basketball nickname.
"Very well, Shego. Just tell this soul collector demon who's your target and it will take care of the rest," said Shippo, informing his best friend before letting the snake-like six-legged demon float its way towards her.
Shego looked at the thing for self caution in case it might purposely bite or take her soul before reminding herself on why they are doing this, "Get me Phillip Colson's talent asap."
With zero hesitation the soul collecting demon phased through the ship and slither flew invincibly inside of the Chase Center. The demon snake saw its target as Phillip was taking a quick water break on the sidelines and is about to get back in the game with his best friends until the invisible snake-like demon forcibly forced its way in his mouth, and wiggled its way into his body to collect his god-gifted basketball talent. Phillip started to twitch and shack uncontrollably before beginning to walk and felt dizzily towards his team. At that moment the demon flew out of his body through his mouth carrying a glowing red energy orb and then float its way back to the ship.
"Hey, amigo, get on D!.", Josè spoke in his hispanic accent while pulling on his friend's number twenty jersey, "Come on dude, double-time!."
At that moment, everyone from the bleachers, the sidelines, on the court, and anyone in the Chase Center or watching the game at home is noticing something completely wrong with Phillip. For one is that he was running to the wrong side of the court without realizing that his team has the ball, and then got swapped by the opposite team and ran back to where Phillip was. Instead of stealing the ball from the current holder of the ball, the man rounded up blocking one of his teammates and accidentally let the opposite player score three points.
"What the hell, Phillip?!.", yelled the redheaded Hornets coach by the name of Sheamus with a Scottish accent.
Phillip tried to stay focus on the task at hand when getting the ball and started running towards the goal until somehow he accidentally pushed the basketball back and not forward. Thus, giving the player who was on defense against Phillip had taken the opportunity to take the free ball and make another three-point shot. Coach Sheamus had the last straw when seeing Phillip having his arms raised and waving to have his turn on having the ball, right in the center of the court as the Hornets and Golden State players were playing right past him.
"Time out!. Time out!.", Coach Sheamus yelled as soon as the referee had blown the whistle.
Meanwhile back on the spaceship, the soul collecting demon returned and transfer Phillip's talent inside of the basketball that Shego has in her hands. The basketball that Shego had in her possession had started glowing black and saw some type of red orb floating inside of the ball.
Shego shamelessly chuckled, "I got it. I got his talent."
The four admired the work of the snake-like demon as it is a clean steal without a trace. This gave Kale an evil untrustworthy smirk when eyeing her sights on the eight-foot-tall muscular built endomorph man that is none other than Big Mike, who was currently fussing at Phillip before guiding him back to the sidelines to be replaced by one of the benches players, while the team's doctor go check on Philips health status. Kale motioned the soul collecting demon to come her way and pointed at the only big black guy with a bald head and a half-full beard on the Hornets team.
"Bring me Big Mike's talent. Based on the fun facts about the Charlotte Hornets players, Big Mike is extremely confident in both his size and skills," said Kale, informing the demon before it took off once again.
Back at the game, Big Mike accidentally knocked his opponent to the floor and made a three-pointer for his team, before hearing the referee blow the whistle. Just then the invisible demon entered Big Mike through his mouth, causing him to jump up in shock and start to shake as if he shook someone's hand who had on a joy buzzer. The demon flew out of a now lost and confused Big Mike who looked around as if he completely forgot what he is supposedly be doing at this moment.
"Heads up, Big Mike." said one of the Golden State players, before passing the ball to him and being in a good spot.
However, instead of catching the ball, Big Mike fumbled the basketball and accidentally tripped backward. This caused the players who are positioned in the free-throw line to look in concern for the big fella as he is not clumsy when it comes to basketball. Big Mike managed to grab the ball before bouncing it two times and then made a shot. A shot that touched the backboard and then bounced back, and literally hit Big Mike straight in his face causing him to hit the cold floor with a thud. This made the crowd of not only the Hornets fans but also the fans of Golden State gasped in shock and disbelief.
"Well, damn, that almost knocked out my front teeth," said Big Mike, shaking his head before getting off the cold floor.
"Hey, come on, Big Mike, everyone has spent their hard-earned money to watch you boys play tonight." the white referee picked up the ball, "Don't disappoint your fans."
Big Mike managed to catch the ball after requesting the referee to roll the ball to him. The big man put on his famous confidence smirk while bouncing the ball, "This one is the bank shot right here, boys."
With that being said, he stepped back and thrown the ball which instead went over the entire basketball ball. All the players, referees, the crowds, and Big Mike himself followed where the ball is going to land. And unfortunately, it was not a good sight. In the section of the bleachers where it has the back of the goal facing them, a seven-year-old asian Hornets fan girl looked up to notice herself being shown on the jumbotron and instantly had her face lit up with excitement, and started getting out of her seat and begin jumping up and down.
"Mommy. Daddy. Look!. I'm on the jumbotron!. I'm on the jumbotron!. I'm on the..."
SMACK!!!!!!!
Big Mike's ball had made contact with the girl's face first and knocked her out cold as the smacking noise echoed throughout the whole Chase Center. Making everyone including the little girl's parents gasp in great shock.
"DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.", Shego, Masane, Mokuba, Shippo, and Kale all said at the same time, having the same shocked facial expression as everyone inside that stadium.
Later in the next day in the morning at the King's household, John and his family were seated together on the living room couch with their breakfast on their tv trays and eating well while watching a classic Godzilla marathon. John and Gwen had prepared an awesome breakfast for their kids such as tons of pancakes, waffles, french toasts, bacon, hash browns, sausage patties, and finally freshly squeezed orange juice and a bottle of apple juice. Still, in their random pajamas, the King family was having an excellent family time together as this is one of the most lovable and memorable things they do. John leaned back into the couch with Gwen laying on his chest smiling happily and thanking God for blessing her with an awesome husband and great kids, while their three kids were having their eyes glued to the tv. They were currently watching Godzilla Final Wars in the part where they just awaken Godzilla and having him kill off Gigan right after killing those two men before the channel hit commercial breaks.
"Hey, Huey, can you do mommy a favor and turn the channel to Channel 9 Eyewitness News for me?. I gotta see what is the big buzz around our city," said Gwen, right before taking a few bites of her waffles and then given some of her sausage patties to Lola, who was laying down beside the couch watching tv with them.
Huey put his glass of apple juice down and pick up the remote that was on his tv tray, "Sure thing, Mom."
Pressing the buttons on the remote the channel changed from the Godzilla marathon to Channel 9 as the current news was about the city's NBA team. Instead of discussing how well they did against Golden State Warriors without John's leadership, the whole King family got the complete freaking opposite. John watched the screen that said, 'Basketball Illness', as it both concerned John for his teammates and now misunderstanding on what they were talking about.
CHANNEL 9 NEWS
"In the last couple of hours from last night, The Charlotte Hornets has suffered their first loss ever in last fourteen years against The Golden State Warriors. The score was '122-205'. Let alone this is Charlotte Hornets' first season without their team leader and last year's NBA Hall of Fame inductee, John King." said white News anchorwoman Rachael.
Rachael turned to her dark black news anchorman/husband Koran, as he turns to face the camera and said, "It is a shocking and frightening development to be sure. We have official reports that all five main players of the NBA Hornets have come down with what the team's doctor is calling a new strain virus. Claiming that this virus causes devastating and maybe long-lasting affects on only people who play basketball. No matter what organization you play. We have some clips of last night's game that we are about to show you."
"Warning for those who have sensitive eye sights, please look away from the screen.", said Rachael, before looking away from her own self.
The screen showed all five men showing the signs of the so-called new basketball virus. It first showed Josè who is a five-feet-eight-inch tall man with a low fade blowout haircut and a landing strip goatee, who had the ball and was quickly dribbling with his legendary fast hands let alone getting ready to make his opponent eat his dust with his incredible fast speed. That is until suddenly he shooked up and started shaking as it looked like he has a sudden stroke, thus causing him to let go of the ball and gave the Golden State player the chance to take the ball and ran his side of the goal leaving Josè the way he is. The next clip, showed a seven-foot-eight-inch tall white man with a short ponytail by the name of Tyson was walking stiffly as if he has osteoarthritis in his ankles and not running to catch up with his team. Tyson is most famous for his legendary signature blocking and him not at his A-game isn't a good sign.
And finally, as for Rick who is a brown skin toned six-foot-tall man, can not stay focus or remember what he is doing knowing that he has an unequal reputation of having a strong focus and memory. Last night the man accidentally shooting baskets in the opponent's goal and help them gain more points, and was instantly got himself completely benched throughout the whole game with Phillip, Josè, Tyson, and Big Mike. The screen then showed Coach Sheamus fussing at the five in the fourth quarter when seeing this win is going to Golden State Warriors and them taking the first loss ever.
"What in the name of Jesus Christ is wrong with you guys?!. Where are your heads at tonight?!.", Coach Sheamus spoke with his hands up.
"Man, sorry Coach, I don't know what is the issue with us," spoke Phillip, taking responsibility.
"Si, amigo. Man, I was doing great up until...THAT!.", Josè could not explain the situation and had to cuss.
"But I tell you one thing tho, John wouldn't want us to seat on our ass and give up. Hey, Sheamus, put me back in there man, I'll bring home that W. For sure!.", Big Mike spoke in confidence when getting up from his and then stepped on his shoelace and fell down.
"Dude, seat your big ass down, Big Mike.", Rick spoke with an upset attitude when grabbing his bottle of Gatorade, "You need to focus like me, dog."
After saying that to his friend, Rick had lost focus as he spilled half of his blue Gatorade on Josè and had him cussing him out in spanish.
The screen turned back to Rachael and Koran who had a disappointed look on their faces.
"As of now, those five players are now immediately out for the mid-early season and on medical risk. So far it is extremely questionable if those five will return to play.", said Koran.
"Indeed. We will have more information about the players, the new basketball ball virus, and anything related to basketball.", said Rachael, before switching it over to the weather newsman.
"Oh, my God.", Gwen gasped in shock and worry for her and her husband's friends, "John, do you have any idea on what this means?."
Gwen looked at John who grabbed his cup of ice-cold orange juice and said, "Yes, I do, Gwen. It means that my black ass has retired just in the nick of time."
Gwen instantly roughly slapped her husband's big biceps and received an ouch, "No swearing, John. But seriously, this sounds serious."
"Like the coronavirus, Mommy?." asked Jazmine, with a scared look on her face.
"What?. No, Sis. No one is dying from this so-called new sickness. Don't trip.", said Huey, putting his right arm around his baby sister to calm down.
Jazmine relaxed a little bit before Riley said, "Yeah, except for your playing skills in basketball."
"What?!.", Jazmine looked at Riley in utter shock.
"Riley!.", Huey spoke through his teeth.
Gwen wack the back of her son's head hard, "Boy, you know better than say something like that to your baby sister."
"Riley, how many times do I have to tell you?. Think before you speak.", said John, before hearing the doorbell rang and got up to go answer it.
Once checking the peephole, John opened the door to find Betty in her all-white gym jumpsuit with a grin on her cute face. John looked at his smartwatch and then looked back at Betty who he let in, and offer to help herself with the bunch of breakfast leftovers.
"Um, Betty?. Do you know what time it is?.", John grabbed a piece of pancake and took a bite of it.
"Yes, I do, Mr. King. Starting this morning and throughout next week we will be working on her performance. And since next week is the Panther's bye week, we have every morning to get you ready for the next game against the New England Patriots. So let's get cracking, amigo!." said Betty, with enthusiasm as she made herself a plate full of food and then headed outside.
John sighed, "Si, Si, Betty. Man, if I knew I was going to train in the morning for football, I would make myself a pot of hot coffee."
It did not take long for John to get dress and exit out of the house and offered to drive his black cadillac to the Panthers training camp, which Betty did not mind a bit as she parked her car in the driveway. As soon as they were on the road, the music on the radio was turned off by the people in the station to inform the people of the latest update surrounding basketball itself. As of now, the game between the Suns and Bucks were being on hold due to the players on both teams refusing to get dressed and ready for this morning's game. Down at Fiserv Forum stadium, reporters and fans were gathering around the Bucks players in concern after what happened last night with the Hornets players. All the Bucks players had their gym bags on their shoulders and refusing to go inside the locker room to go change. This caused the Bucks coach to walk on over after done talking with the Suns' coach.
"Boys, come on, your loyal fans have paid good money to come to see you guys defend our home turf against the Suns. So go in the locker room and get changed.", said Coach Bon, politely asking his players to change.
"Sorry, Coach Bon, no can do." said one of the players, shaking his head.
"Did you forget what had happened to the guys last night?. I heard that a few doctors are now saying that this new basketball virus is the new Covid-19.", said another Bucks player.
"Wait, seriously?.", Coach Bon stepped back.
"Yes. Except this virus kills your basketball playing skills. Face it, Coach Bon, we're at risk of catching it.", said the other Bucks player.
Coach Bon sighed as he is responsible for his players, "Fine. You guys dress in the hallway. Six feet apart."
After hearing this the players put on their masks and started passing the hand sanitizer while socially distancing themselves from each other when changing.
Meanwhile back in the world of KonoSuba, Kazuma had managed to get the manual laborers to build him two actual basketball courts. One for outside near the Adventurer Guild and the second one is inside his mansion on the first level. On top of that, he managed to form a somewhat roster with not only his party but also with Wiz, Vanir, Yunyun, Chris, Kyouya, Keith, Dust, and last but not least Megumin's little sister Komekko. The only reason why Komekko is on the team is that she did help Kazuma and his party to complete their difficult mission a few years back, and Komekko did volunteer to join the none challenged basketball game.
"This has got to be the easiest quest that we ever took.", Kazuma talked to himself when making a few close up shots at the goal with the perfectly made basketball that he made, "And the best part about it is that even Aqua can't even screw this one up!. Oh, thank you, Eris!."
Once making one more shot at the goal, Kazuma smiled cheerfully before coming over to his basketball team while dribbling the ball back and forth.
"Alright, you guys before we can begin, I wanted to ask ya this question.", Kazuma looked at everyone while presenting the basketball, "Now does anyone have an idea on what basketball is?."
And in response, Darkness, Megumin, Chris, Yunyun, Wiz, Vanir, Keith, Dust, and Komekko had confused looks on their faces. For once in their lives, they have zero knowledge as to what basketball is. All accept for Aqua and Kyouya.
"Well, I did play basketball back in Japan. In fact, I won at least two finals back in high school," said Kyouya.
"Huh, I never heard of a place called Japan nor high school before. But since you know so much about basketball then why not show us a few things, Kyouya.", suggested Megumin.
Just before Kyouya could speak again, Aqua jumped off the bench and said with high confidence, "I too know a thing or two about basketball, Kazuma!."
Kazuma sighed with a 'not interested to hear it', facial expression but remembered that he did ask, "Please, by all means, Aqua."
Aqua put on her cocky facial expression while turning her attention to her friends and pulled out her fans, "The most important thing about playing basketball is to always have a great entrance to strike your opponent's attention. Observe. Nature's Beauty!."
Aqua created multiple water fountain shots from her hands, mouth, head, and surprisingly her armpits. Kazuma looked unimpressed while watching his useless goddess waste the time of training with her silly party trick.
"Hey, Kazuma?.", Wiz grabbed the teen's attention before commenting on Aqua's excellent party trick move.
"Kazuma here," said Kazuma, using his signature quotes.
"Um, I hate to interrupt lady Aqua's impressive technique but...", Wiz looked over to the other side of the court to where Shego and her crew were as they were doing some stretching, "But I think our challengers want to have their turn on the court."
Kazuma looked over to see the five doing some struggling push-ups, sit-ups, and even jumping jacks. Based upon what he is seeing, Kazuma did not see why not to let them have the whole court since winning this basketball game really does not need them to train or take it seriously.
Shrugging his shoulders, Kazuma then said, "By all means let them have the whole court to themselves."
With that, they all got their things like sweat towels, water buckets, and food before making their way out of the court.
"Pfft, too bad you five can't train on getting some mad skills.", Aqua spoke with a cocky attitude and caused the others to laugh at them.
Shego and the others heard Aqua's smart comment. Instead of saying anything back to the goddess the five were going to do something even better. Which is making her eat her own words. With that in mind, Mokuba and Kale lifted the ball bag that contained their special basketball with evil smirks on their faces. At that very moment, the skies have become completely dark with grey nimbus clouds circling around with lightning being heard and seen.
"Hmm, that's strange. A storm has shown up all of a sudden.", noticed Darkness when looking up at the sky.
"You're right, that is sudden," added Chris, when feeling the strong wind hitting them.
"Uh, guys?.", Vanir caught everyone's attention as he pointed at the five who were circling around something.
On the other side of the court, Shego, Masane, Shippo, Mokuba, and Kale placed their hand on the black glowing basketball and felt the red glowing talents that they stole from the NBA players had entered through their bodies. They all gasped in pleasure as the talent energy had tingled its way through their bodies and caused their mouths to drool heavy saliva.
"What on earth are they doing?.", Yunyun looked at them with uneasiness.
"Don't know but one thing for sure.", Megumin did her crimson demon hand-style with her face.
Komekko copied her sister and said, "It spells bad news."
Those two crimson demon sisters were not wrong on this one. Just as the enjoyable tingling feeling was over, the five felt their bodies transforming from the inside before feeling it on the outside as the talent energy shined inside of them. The next thing that anyone knew, Kale started to grow big and muscular while her hair stood up and changed color from black to blonde. Shippo watched his friend turning into a giant in awe before feeling his fox feet get big and started to grow taller with a mighty roar. Shego started to laugh crazily as her new muscular biceps have torn her whole long sleeve and then her skin tone started to go from pale to green. Mokuba started turning into a human-like muscular creature that looked extremely identical to one of Gozer's terror dog minions except for keeping his long hair. And finally, as for Masane, all of her clothes and shoes were ripped and got replaced with metal armor and high heels, let alone her hair turned red (Original-Witchblade form). She opened her eyes which were now red demon-like eyes before breathing through her mouth before grinning a short second and letting out a mighty roar.
Kazuma and the rest all hunched up together with a deep fear as to what they were seeing. Shego and her crew came over to them while having an evil smirk on their faces.
"Why, hey there my three little crimson demons.", Shippo who was tall had leaned down to face a terrified Megumin, Yunyun, and Komekko, "Boo!."
All three of them screamed at once and felt something wet from behind. Megumin and Yunyun started to check their behinds and looked at each other in total shock.
"So, Crimson Demons can pee after all!.", they both said.
"Ewww.", Komekko blushed when feeling her underwear socked.
"See, I told you that Crimson Demons can pee, Dust. You owe me all of your succubus coupons!.," said Keith, remembering that few years bet.
"Ah, Damn it!." said an upset Dust, who was about to reach into his shirt and hand the coupons over until he stopped dead when seeing Shego move towards them and stood very still with fear alongside his best friend.
"Oh, look you guys.", Shego grabbed the basketball that Kazuma had before tossing it up and down with one hand and looked at her crew with an evil grin, "Time to play our little Ultimate Game."
Shego's hands started glowing green and then slammed the ball down hard with a yell. With so much incredible force the concrete itself both cracked and potholed all around Kazuma and his friends, leaving them in great terror. It was so scary that Komekko had to jump on Kyouya's arms for protection.
"My lady what on earth has happened to them?!." asked Kyouya, trembling in fear.
Aqua gasped wide before saying what is on her mind, "It looked like they made a deal with the Devil King and got turned into some freaking full evil superstar generals!."
"No, more like superstar monsters!." said a frightened Wiz, who was shaking from head to toe.
Chris shook her head before pointing at their challengers, "In the name of the Goddess Eris, those are Monstars!."
Masane who had the ball in her hand had pressed her metal claws into the ball and deflated it before tossing it to the side, "Hehe, bye-bye losers."
At the end of that conversation, Shego and her crew turned their backs on their opponents and then jogged their way out of the court leaving behind constant destruction at their step. Going out to test their new stolen talent and transformation on the innocent townsfolk and the world of KonoSuba itself. Once out of sight, Kazuma's right eye started to twitch uncontrollably without nowhere near stopping. Just a few moments ago, they were going to have the absolute easiest quest that they have ever gotten in years, and now it went from easy to extremely difficult. And it always happens when someone from his party has to raise the jinx flag.
"Damn It!!!!!!!!!!!!.", Kazuma yelled high with full lung capacity.
Then all of a sudden he stopped by force. All those years of being in this fantasy world he gained a serious hold built-up stress from his deadly adventurers and useless party members, Kazuma has finally got himself a freaking heart attack. Clutching hard onto his chest, Kazuma had dropped on his knees and clasped dead on sight.
"Kazuma!.", said Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin ran to their dead party leader in worry., "Ah, shit!."
(A/N): And there you have it!. Kazuma is going to meet Eris once again and also now, going to have to deal with a now called Monstars. Any idea of Eris's solution for Kazuma and the fantasy world's problem?. Ya, find out in the next chapter. And this is ya last chance to tell me which girl should Kazuma end up with within this story. If I don't get any answers on this chapter's review about my question then, I'll make the decision myself. Until then, Excelsior!.