Kazuma hastily ducked into an alley, crouching down behind a stack of nearby crates and desperately trying to keep from having a heart attack as the sound of numerous footsteps thundered past his hiding spot. His head was spinning at this point, utterly baffled by just how quickly things had escalated once he'd woken up that morning.

It had started out…harmless enough, he supposed. When Kazuma had woken up, the first thing he was greeted with was a spontaneous bed 'n' breakfast prepared by his teammates. Still reeling back from the confusing, internal debate he had with himself last night regarding the girls' hypothetical feelings for him, the party leader complied and ate the admittedly well-prepared food, much to their visible delight. Weird but, again, harmless enough.

However, things got more hectic as the morning continued. At first, the girls just tried to stick to him like glue, but once he asked them if they needed something they dispersed pretty quickly...while still trailing from a distance. Needless to say, it creeped him out a bit, but he was determined to have a decently normal day, so he carried on regardless, though he did end up skipping the morning bath since...yeah.

But the decisive moment when things officially started to spiral out of control was when the group had been hanging out in the living, everyone being unnaturally quiet, and Darkness suddenly standing up and announcing that she was going to take her morning bath…followed by asking Kazuma if he he'd like to "help her".

"Ah...hard pass on that one, Dark. I don't think that's a good idea." He'd nervously chuckled in reply, rising to his feet quickly and retreating towards the main hall. "You know, I just remembered, I had a thing...with a guy...I'm gonna go now."

The last thing he had expected of the big, strong crusader lady was for her to suddenly tear up, fall to her knees, and sob uncontrollably while muttering "I can't take this anymore!' Even more unexpected was for both Aqua and Megumin to glare daggers his way as though he had just done something wrong in their eyes.

"W-woah, Darkness! What the hell?!" He sputtered, dumbfounded by the woman's response and honestly fumbling while trying to figure out how to rectify the situation. "It's, uh...not personal, if that helps! J-just with the whole potion business, I wouldn't wanna risk anything dramatic happening, right?"

"Y'know, for a smart guy, you sure are dense as hell, know that?" Megumin suddenly said, ominously creeping forward along with Aqua as Darkness struggled to pull herself together. "We have done nothing but extend invitations and each and every time you slap them away without a second thought. Well…what gives you the right to play with our hearts like that, huh!?"

"...Huh?!" Kazuma managed as he backpedaled further towards the hall, a distinct and unnatural fear rising in him as the three girls grew closer and closer. "L-look, you guys aren't thinking straight right now! That potion is messing with your heads, that's all! I'm just gonna give you some space!"

"We don't WANT space, damnit!" Aqua cried out in frustration, lunging forward and gripping the frightened Kazuma by the shoulders, her pupils shaped like, like…love hearts. "We want you…and we want you now."

That was around the point when Kazuma realized how badly he was screwed.

Luckily, he was still more than capable of thinking on his feet, even when scared and just a tiny bit turned on. Making use of his lurk skill, he slipped out of the goddess' grip and proceeded to sprint for the front door, a distinct trio of footsteps following after him all the way. When he made it to the front door, he wrenched it open and practically threw himself out, nearly colliding with the silver haired thief that was standing there, who looked just as surprised as him.

"Chris!?" he squawked before shaking his head and moving past her, choosing willful ignorance over the fact he may have just seen the girl holding onto his underwear of all things. "Listen, we'll hang out later, right now the girls are- -"

Before he could even finish his sentence, Kazuma found himself bound with rope and falling to the ground heavily. He rolled over to glare at the thief and ask just what the hell she was doing when he noticed the dangerous gleam in her eyes, and the same hearts that he'd seen in Aqua's.

"Not so fast, Lover Boy, you aren't leaving just yet," Chris tutted in a sickeningly playful manner, crouching down beside him and dangling his missing pair of boxers in front of him. "You know, I think I see the appeal in stealing undies now, and I have you to thank for opening my eyes like that. Only problem is these ones lost their scent hours ago…how's about we trade~"

Kazuma managed a terrified shriek at the notion before Chris was knocked off her feet by the trio, who obviously hadn't stopped to think once they opened the door. While the four girls were left in a tangled mess, Kazuma used his Tinder skill to free himself from his restraints and continued to book it down the main path into town.

And so, that brought everything full circle, as he was left crouching behind that stack of crates in an alley, waiting for the girls to leave.

I have got to get to Wiz, Kazuma reaffirmed to himself as he remained hidden. Even if she doesn't have anything that'll reverse the effects, at least she'll protect me from these nymphos. Damnit – when will this stupid love potion wear off already!?

After another minute or so of waiting, Kazuma worked up the nerve to finally peek out from his hiding spot, glancing around the alley and the adjoining street before stumbling to his feet and starting for Wiz's shop. It took another minute or two to arrive, but as soon as he did so he practically lurched through the front door, slamming it shut behind him.

"Oh, hello! Welcome to Wiz's magic shop, how may I – Kazuma!?" The lich nearly shrieked mid-sentence, spooking the living daylights out of Yunyun who was hiding behind a shelf (likely waiting for her "rival" to drop by). "W-w-what are you doing back so soon?"

"Oh, I'll tell you what! My friends have gone fucking nuts thanks to this potion, and now it's got its hooks in Chris too!" Kazuma hissed desperately, still trying to calm his raging heartbeat and not noticing how flustered the shopkeep looked. "You gotta have some kind of antidote or something! A reversing agent, some...some fucking repellent! This is freaking me out!"

"I…I'm so sorry, Kazuma, I don't have anything of the sort. I wish I did," Wiz admittedly in shame, obscuring most of her face in her hair while clutching her chest. "Um, K-Kazuma? I don't mean to be rude but…I-I think you should go somewhere else to wait out the potion's effects…preferably now?"

Kazuma balked at the lich for a moment before her words sank in, whatever angry retort he was preparing dying on his lips as he realized what she was implying. Taking a step back with a nervous chuckle, he turned to do just as she requested...only to be blocked by a blushing Yunyun, who was standing in front of his only way out with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face.

"Wait, please don't go!" she pleaded, a flicker of her usual bashfulness shining through as she glanced down at the floor. "I…I wanna be with you. I-it gets lonely waiting for Megumin, even with Wiz's company, so…screw it – HUG ME!"

And just like that, Kazuma found himself ensnared in Yunyun's embrace, releasing a less-than-manly squeak upon contact. Honestly, he was a bit thankful that this was all she had in mind for the moment, but he also recognized that things would likely escalate if he just left her there, so he had to think of something, fast.

"Kazuma, this is all my fault, I'm so sorry!" Wiz suddenly cried, temporarily distracting Kazuma with the tears streaming down her visible, heart shaped eye. "Please…let me make it up to you."

That's when the lich tore off a part of her purple cloak, revealing a lacy black bra that just barely contained her tits. Kazuma's higher brain functions had officially left the building at that point.

This is bad, the pinnacle of bad! He thought to himself with what coherency he had left, shaking his head as he desperately tried to find a way out of this without things getting any worse...and then he glanced at the window, and released a small sigh. Oh, man. This is gonna suck.

Breaking free from Yunyun's embrace (which did make him feel slightly bad when she saw the hurt look in her heart-eyes), Kazuma threw himself out of the window with no fucks given, save for the cut or two he sustained from the broken glass once he landed outside. Still, he sucked it up, brushed his clothes off, and looked up only to find the quartet of girls who'd been chasing him just down the street. Time to run again!

"God, this is such bullshit!" He hissed to himself before promptly breaking into a sprint down the opposite road, dodging bewildered civilians all the while as he tried to come up with some semblance of a plan. Was it safe to go anywhere? Would he just keep accumulating more girls wherever he went? And what nutcase thought this potion was a good idea?!

Meanwhile, at the Crimson Demon village, Megumin's father sneezed.

"Bless you, Dear!" chimed his wife, Yuiyui, from the adjacent hall in their meager home. "Allergies acting up again?"

"I don't think so," Hyoizaburoo murmured suspiciously, going back to work on another product for Wiz, one of his very few customers who actually appreciated his wares. "I have a strange feeling somebody's bad-mouthing me again. Somebody that we know…"

"It wouldn't be the first time, Honey!"

Kazuma released another horrid shriek as he glanced back for a moment and realized that the hoard had grown from four to six, and that said six were still gaining on him. He needed help, someone to at least hold the girls off long enough for the spell to wear off...and that's when he spotted a familiar face, clad in her royal blue skirt suit and flanked by armored guards.

"Sena! Sena, hey! Over here!"

His cry for help was successful in gaining the royal prosecutor's attention, along with her armed escorts who immediately assumed the mad man running towards them was a threat and drew their blades in preparation. Kazuma skid to a halt.

"Woah, easy fellas! I'm not the threat here!"

Right on que, a blast of ice shot overhead, forming a semi circle all around Kazuma and his supposed saviors, and cutting off yet another avenue for escape. Turning around, the young man released a semi-delirious laugh of terror as the girls crept closer, each making use of their respective magic and weapons at this point.

"ENOUGH!" Sena shouted with all the command that came with being a royal prosecutor, and even while heavily under the influence of a love potion, it was actually enough to make the thirsty women falter momentarily. Sena turned to Kazuma. "Mr. Satou, explain. Now."

"M-my party mate splashed me with a love potion the other day, they're all under the effects of it!" Kazuma sputtered, thanking whatever gods were smiling upon him at this moment. As much as he expected this to set him a few steps back in the social sphere, it was a small price to pay over not getting assaulted by his horny friends. "I know what you're thinking, but I wanna be exceptionally clear here: this one really isn't my fault!"

What Kazuma had failed to realize during his frantic rant was that Sena's hard glare had gradually melted away into a mildly intrigued expression. Once the young man noticed this, said expression was now accompanied by a light blush and…oh, fucking hell.

"Really…?" Kazuma asked in a hopeless attempt to gain some sense of clarity. "The others I can kinda/sorta understand, but what could you possibly see in me!?"

Sena's escorts glanced at their boss in question, expressions masked by their helmets, though Kazuma had to imagine that they looked just as confused as he felt. However, a moment later their armored heads collided, and both guards fell to the ground out cold as a triumphant Chris dusted herself off, smirking viciously.

"Now then…" whispered the thief, holding out her hand and exposing a pair of white panties Kazuma was more than familiar with. "About that trade offer~"

Kazuma had nothing left to say, no words in that moment to express the hurricane raging within him as he backed away, flinching against the cold ice wall he made contact with as his heart kicked up the tempo once more. This was it. They'd finally cornered him, and they were moving in closer, eyes still practically glowing with lust.

It was at that moment that an unfortunately recent memory came flooding back into his mind, one that he had been trying his damnedest to repress during this whole ordeal. Flashbacks to the run-in with those ruthless lady orcs, chasing him down the plains and tackling him to the ground, licking and touching him while proclaiming all the nasty things they were going to do to him without his consent. Kazuma's breathing hitched, and try as he might, he couldn't prevent the tears from streaming down his cheeks as he was reminded of that traumatizing experience.

His knees gave out at that point, and he slumped against the wall with teary eyes and desperate, muted pleas slipping past his lips as his hands-hell, his whole body started to shake. He'd never felt like this before, not really, but it was the worst hell he could imagine at that moment. Everything was too bright, too loud, just...too much. He barely noticed that the girls had stopped moving since it was taking so much focus to even breathe anymore.

"Kazuma…?" he heard Aqua question from within the ball he curled himself up into out of fear. Funny, she almost sounded level-headed there, and perhaps even a touch confused. "O-oh no, what have we done…? KAZUMA!"

He flinched slightly when someone squeezed his shoulder, but when nothing else followed the action, he managed a shaky glance. Aqua was kneeling next to him, with the rest of the girls holding their huddle, though there was much more space now as they allowed him some breathing room. After a few seconds, he noticed something that nearly made him cry for an entirely different reason: relief.

The heart-eyes were gone.

"O-oh thank gods!" Kazuma laughed-cried while leaning his head back against the icy wall. "You're not in fake love with me anymore! I'm n-not gonna get r-raped by my friends!"

Aqua flinched back at his words, a horrified grimace falling on her face as she covered her mouth, tears shining in her own eyes. Kazuma was stuck in that moment, as the panic gradually wore off and he was able to take in the girls better, that they all looked genuinely horrified over their actions. It was nice to be safe, to know he wasn't at risk anymore, but even after the hell he'd just gone through, a spike of sympathy wracked him.

"I…I'm sorry, I shouldn't have used that word," Kazuma mumbled with fresh hot embarrassment, hardly able to bring himself to look at them. "It's just the thing with the orcs happened and…well, I-I guess I haven't fully gotten over it."

"I...I know, I just...I'm sorry. I'm sorry that we almost…" Aqua trailed off, shame and fear radiating off her features as she shook her head, obviously just as shaken as he felt. "I can't imagine what you think of us right now...how much you must hate us…"

"Hate you?" Kazuma parroted, having mostly come off of his moment of intense emotional distress to try and dispel any misconceptions. "Aqua, you and the rest may drive me crazy, but I don't hate you; I never will. That love potion was just making you think you were madly in love with me just because we're close. I can't fault you for something that was out of your control and artificial to begin with."

And then the silence came, as Aqua couldn't quite meet his eyes. He glanced up, and suddenly the rest of the girls were desperate to look anywhere else, anywhere that wasn't where he was. For half a second, he considered that it could be residing effects of the potion, or a general awkwardness considering none of them likely wanted to have this conversation anyway.

"Yeah, um, about that…" Aqua started with a sigh before working up the nerve to face Kazuma with what had to be the most honest and serious expression he'd ever seen on the ditzy goddess' face. "We need to have a talk."

"Alright, so...I'm gonna need a moment to really talk through this." Kazuma admitted, sitting in the living room and scratching Chomps in his lap while the girls, along with Chris, Yunyun, Wiz, and Sena sat around him, all looking spectacularly uncomfortable. "Somehow...you seven managed to develop feelings for me...me? Like, for real? No cruel pranks, no-no cosmic, fuck-you love potion? You guys actually like me?"

"Of course we like you, you jackass!" Megumin couldn't help but exclaim, secretly disturbed along with the rest that the concept was seemingly THAT out of the realm of plausibility for him. "You took us in, gave us a home, and actually give a shit about us even though we obviously annoy you! How could we not develop feelings after all that we've been through?"

She then cast a glance at Wiz, Yunyun, Chris, and Sena before adding. "Though I'm not really sure what their deal is. Aqua, Darkness, and I already had this discussion and came to a mutual understanding. I wasn't even aware we had…others like us."

"First of all, thanks for making us sound like mutants or something." Chris retorted with a playful eyeroll, shaking her head while the rest of her company fidgeted a bit over the comment. "Look, we can go over the reason one by one if that's really what you're looking for, but the honest truth is Kaz has been there for us too, in his own dorky, lovable way."

"It's true!" Wiz added adamantly, thankfully having replaced her exposed robe for an undamaged one before settling down for this impromptu meeting. "Kazuma, you may not realize it, but you've done so much for not only us, but the community as a whole. You may have your faults, but we know that you're a kind-hearted individual, and I'm going to be honest…I don't think you give yourself nearly enough credit for that."

Kazuma shifted a bit in his seat, unsure of just how to respond to such praise. Normally, he'd brush it off as idle lies or platitude, just another way of keeping him in line. However, as he looked around the room at the faces of the girls, taking in the warmth, the adoration...the love...well, it became a helluva lot harder to ignore as his own cheeks flushed a bright crimson.

"Oh," he said lamely, accidently scratching Chomps just a little too hard as he did his best to steady his rapidly racing heart. "I, uh, never knew. Truth be told, I always assumed you all tolerated me at best. Didn't think it ran this deep."

"Kazuma! I had no idea you thought that we cared so little for you!" Darkness interjected with a horrified look, walking forward and dropping to a knee in front of him, taking his free hand into hers. "We've adored you for quite some time now, and...perhaps it was cowardly of us to not make it clear sooner. I'm sure you can imagine why we were scared to come forward with our feelings."

"Normally, Crimson Demons don't know fear, but…" Megumin reluctantly started before sighing to herself and moving over to sit by Kazuma and wrapping him in a side hug. "This one was admittedly a little scared. I don't know why but the thought of confessing to you terrified me on the inside. I mean, we were planning on telling you at some point! I just wish it were under better circumstances…"

"The truth is, Kazuma, we've been holding off on this for a while because we didn't want to risk ruining our relationship with you." Aqua chimed in, looking uncharacteristically bashful as she joined her party mates by his side. "Now that we've put it out there, though...I have to ask the one thing we've all been avoiding: d-do you feel the same way?"

Like a deer caught in the headlights, Kazuma's eyes widened as he stared at them all in silence, making each of the girls more antsy and nervous. The harsh reality for him was that, despite the big talk and boasts he'd make over at the guild, the young man didn't feel deserving of their love. Or anyone's love for that matter. His parents, he may have loved and missed them, but they obviously didn't, not after what Aqua had told him after his death in Japan. His twisted reasoning was if his own mother and father couldn't be bothered to love him, then why should anyone?

And yet, here he was, surrounded by not one but seven girls who more or less professed their love to him. That filled his heart with equal amounts of unadulterated happiness and crippling fear.

"...I like you guys. All of you, a lot. I'd be unfathomably lucky to have even one of you by my side." He muttered quietly, bowing his head slightly as he managed his next words, hushed as they were, almost traitorous in tone. "But...are you sure you want me of all people?"

"Wha – ? Yes! Kazuma, yes, of course we want you," Aqua insisted, for once not oblivious to his closed-off body language and lightly placing her hand on his shoulder. "Why would you even ask a question like that? We love you..."

"But why am I worth loving, Aqua?! What do any of you see in me?!" He insisted, almost helpless as he glanced around at the girls, his expression desperate. "I mean, guys, look at me! You know me! How on earth do any of you look at me with more than passive irritation? I just...I just don't get what there is to love…"

The near heartbroken faces on the girls only made Kazuma hate himself further. Soon enough, he was breathing heavy, tears stinging, heart racing so fast it started to hurt his chest. Shit, no, he never intended for them to see this side of him, the side he kept hidden from the world. But then again, things would never truly go back to being normal again anyway, so who cares now if they saw him for what he truly was? What he hated the most about himself? Everything about the dynamic was already ruined beyond repair as far as he was concerned, so might as well let the waterworks flow for all to see.

"Kazuma...could you look at me? Please?" Aqua requested quietly, resulting in Kazuma raising his head after a moment, with two warm and soft hands cupping his face as he did so, forcing him to stare into those gorgeous baby blue eyes of the goddess before him. "We love you because you're you. You are crafty, and funny, and kind, and you have done so much for all of us. You mean the world to us, and we will always adore you, no requirements necessary. I swear on my godly powers."

Kazuma's vision became blurry with the silent tears leaking out after hearing such a heartfelt confession. Even so, he still felt the need to ask, no, whisper, "You really mean that…?"

"Without a shadow of a doubt." Darkness supplied from his side, gently wiping away his tears and allowing him to see them all. All seven girls, resolute and certain but also compassionate and warm. Kazuma didn't quite get how or why they loved him, but he didn't have any doubt about if they truly did. Not anymore.

The young man from another laughed quietly laughed to himself in an almost unbelieving, semi-delirious fashion. Said laughter devolved into an overjoyed sob, which still prompted all present within the room to huddle up and hug the troubled Kazuma. Though he may have his crosses to bear and the girls would have to learn how to assist after seeing this new side to him, there was still a lingering sense of relief in the air for all. Everything was finally out in the open, a new, beautiful road was opening up for everybody.

And it was all thanks to one of Wiz's defective store products. Oh, the irony.