Hiki-NEET's Heartbreak In This Love-Filled World!
(Considering this is my first fanfic, it may be terrible, rushed and include details of which are impossible according to canon of Konosuba, so I can definitely expect some criticism, but hey, it's Fanfiction, and I'm just writing what I want. Anyway, here's chapter 1!)
(Note: Konosuba was never mine)
Chapter 1 -
Everyone was surprised to see that Kazuma had entered the guild all by himself – and slightly concerned about the fake smile that anyone could see if they had looked closely at his visibly tear-drained eyes.
"Morning, Luna-sama," Kazuma asked Luna when he got to the desk. "Any good quests?"
But Luna was more concerned on what was wrong with Kazuma than for the multiple quests that fitted his group.
"There are, but Kazuma-kun," Luna asked. "Are you alright? You don't really look your usual bored and unenthusiastic self today."
Dust, who had entered the guild to get some breakfast around the same time as Kazuma, was watching intently, listening in to their conversation.
"Oh, it's nothing, Luna, don't worry," Kazuma insisted. "Anyway, what were the quests?"
Luna handed him a couple posters with quests asking to clear some giant toads in an area as it was disturbing a nearby village, track down and take down a gang of female thieves (Luna meant to give him this one today for a bit of humour, but when he looked at the quest his face ever so slightly dropped) and deliver an important package from one place to another – the usual.
And she was surprised to see that he had accepted to take them all today.
"B-but shouldn't you get gather up the others in your team?"
Kazuma froze, before saying that he'll be fine on his own.
"Kazuma." Luna grabbed his shoulder. "You will die on some of these quests if you don't go with your team. So gather them up."
She said it harsher than she intended to – and finally pushed Kazuma off the edge.
Tears started streaming down his face, and slowly his fake smile started to show how he was truly feeling.
"They abandoned me," he said.
Luna gasped in surprise.
The whole guild had their attention on him now, though tried not to stare.
"Turns out Megumin was cheating on me for Aqua this whole time, and the same day they told me this, Darkness had received a letter asking for three of our 'mighty' team to join their forces against the Demon King's army. They left when I fell asleep, and Darkness kindly wrote me a letter as to where they were going – without as much as letting me say goodbye. And behind that note? All the insults that Aqua had made for me and heard from around the guild and from my childhood, pointed at me and telling me how useless I am."
Luna was in absolute shock. In such quick time, Kazuma both had his heart shattered to bits and abandoned without being given as much as a wave goodbye – even insulted in extremely personal levels.
"What's happening, Dust?" Lean asked.
Dust started telling the group what had happened, but it didn't take long until the whole guild had started gossiping about what had happened.
"Alright, screw it, just listen to any of the gossip around," Dust said.
Meanwhile, Luna gave a now tear-filled Kazuma a tight hug. He was surprised at first, but then hugged back and tried to cry as least as he could – which, to his own surprise, worked.
"Oh, Kazuma," she whispered. "I'm so sorry I can't do much – heck, I can't even do anything myself."
"It's alright," Kazuma said. "It's already happened to me before, back in Japan. I just didn't expect it to happen again, and just as we were actually getting stronger and more functional as a group."
Luna's own heart broke as he had heard that Kazuma was not a stranger to feeling betrayed.
Dust was also in shock as he heard this, and his group could only indirectly sympathise Kazuma by talking about how sad It must be or him.
"Welp, guess I'll be taking the quests now," Kazuma said, finally sounding as sad as he should be. "Cya, Luna."
Before Luna herself could say goodbye, Kazuma had left already, not seeing Dust.
Luna could only sigh and worry for the teen. He must be having emotional PTSD from experiencing such terrible emotions.
Dust shook his head.
"Hope you'll be alright, buddy," he said.
Thankfully, Kazuma seemed slightly happier when he returned to the guild after a couple of hours to redeem the quest of which he had killed some giant toads, and asked for the item for the quest that he had to deliver said item to the person.
When he had come back 2 days later to get his reward of 750,000 Eris for delivering the package successfully, he looked even happier than he had.
That changed when Luna refused to give him the quest of tracking down the female thieves.
"You'll need a group – I'm not letting you do what's essentially suicide, Kazuma," Luna told him as worriedly as she could.
'So if it is?" Kazuma replied. "I may be smiling right now, but right now that's the only thing that's been on my mind. It takes a long time to recover from things like this, Luna – I don't just say, "Oh, it's been a day! I'm happy now! It's all sunshine and rainbows again!"'
He looked sad now.
"So why do you fake a smile whenever you enter the guild? Why do you keep your feelings to yourself? Why are you letting this situation influence how you act?"
Luna was basically shouting now. Once again, the whole guild stared.
Kazuma's face darkened, but then he gave her a smile.
A smile that chilled Luna's spine.
"Last time I showed my feelings to someone was in Japan. Right?"
Luna nodded.
"And remember that I had been betrayed by someone in Japan?"
Again, Luna nodded – she could think of no other response.
"Well, it all started in the morning when I was a teen. I was ready to give a bouquet of flowers to the girl who had sworn her own feelings for me, and I had always reciprocated those feelings for her, but never told them myself. We were best friends who would never betray each other no matter what. We would tell jokes to each other every day, we'd eat really good food together, listen to music together and read manga and watch anime – basically manga but animated. And what did I see her do?"
Luna was curious now, and nodded – despite knowing that it was wrong to want someone continue their onslaught of just plain misery.
"I see her passionately making out with an upper-classman on one of his bikes – and a group of said upper classmen just happened to be the people who torment me every single day."
Luna felt that she was going to have an emotional breakdown instead of Kazuma. This story – no matter how slightly hilarious it was – was just downright depressing.
"Then, she sees me, and tells the upper-classman, 'Oh, crap, there's my humourless, useless, hikkomori boyfriend. Looks like we'll tell him, then.', and gives me the most traitorous smile."
"When I ask her 'Why?', she said that she prefers him over me for all the things that we did together – in fact, everything we did together was simply a lie, made for this very day just to hurt me in levels I couldn't imagine, and that she always preferred him over me. Then, he whistles, and next thing I know I'm being beaten up on the floor, being called names that most of the girls in this guild already call me by, being bullied for having feelings and basically just existing in general."
Luna gave him a firmer hug, tears coming out of her own eyes. She didn't realise it was that bad.
But Kazuma wasn't done.
"I arrived at school, looking all battered up, but no one even bothers about my health. In fact, they start laughing at me. They chant the same names that the bullies had called me and gossiped about how useless I was. When I asked them to stop and told them how I felt, they laughed even more and called me a cry-baby and a coward who couldn't solve his own problems, before beating me up on a wall."
Everyone in the guild was also taking this in, their hearts being pulled by Kazuma's story.
Dust felt sadder than he ever had for his friend. He didn't know that underneath that slightly perverted, intelligent shell was a person who just felt weak in sharing their emotions.
He decided to go that he and his party should go to his house and have a little drink.
"Hey, Kazuma," Dust called him a couple minutes later. "Can we come over to your house later? We just wanna talk – it's been quite a long time since we have."
"Sure, why not," Kazuma said, who had managed to sneak out with the quest to track and take down the band of female thieves.
Dust had to admit that he was a good thief.
One down, Kazuma thought to himself as he knocked one of them out with a bash to the head with the handle of his short-sword.
"Behind you!" Yunyun shouted, who shot a powerful fireball – and Kazuma heard someone go 'Oomph' and fall to the floor.
It had taken him a week to track them down – he had first went to Crimsonia, the village that had put up the quest – and just where Megumin used to live before she met Kazuma.
"Where's Megumin?" Komekko asked when she saw Kazuma. Despite feeling hurt when he saw her, he managed to come up with a response, telling her that she went away for a little bit.
It only got harder when Komekko came back with Yuiyui and Hyoizaburoo.
"Oh, Kazuma-kun!" Yuiyui greeted him happily, if a little warily. "What brings you to Crimsonia, and without Megumin?"
"Oh! I know! I know! She went away for a bit!" Komekko proudly said. "And Kazuma-kun's here for a quest!"
Hyoizaburoo eyed him suspiciously, but took him to the guild at town without question.
He made notes about their travel patterns when Yunyun had also appeared out of nowhere. Thankfully, she didn't mention that he wasn't with his group, but offered to be in his team for the time being as she too also took the quest to take down the group.
Yunyun, being a former resident of Crimsonia herself, knew the areas around here better than Kazuma, and when he showed her what seemed to be their travel patterns, and went around other villages asking if they had seen anyone by the likes of the thieves.
When they were done, they found the perfect place to strike, and here they were now.
Kazuma, being the usual pacifist despite not minding to hit Aqua over the head if she was being annoying, tried to not kill any of them, either injuring them until they couldn't stand up and fight or just knocking them out.
Meanwhile, Yunyun was using magic that put them to sleep – some of them dreaming in ways that if Kazuma had looked upon he would be labelled a pervert. She'd occasionally use fire magic, but only if she saw Kazuma was in trouble.
"Steal!" Kazuma yelled, but his original target was blasted by Yunyun's firespell. However, he still heard the familiar yelp of surprise and embarrassment of a girl as she realised that it was getting a little drafty underneath her skirt, before looking for a girl who was blushing, found her and knocked out and throwing them in the very large carriage they were riding on.
"Kazuma-kun, stop being a perv toward girls with fox ears," Yunyun shouted over the fighting.
"Oh, come on, you took out my actual target, and she happened to be in the way." Kazuma whined.
Yunyun managed to give him a quick eye-roll before managing to roll backwards when someone tried to decapitate her, before putting the attacker to sleep.
After a couple more minutes (Kazuma couldn't imagine how so many thieves could fit in that carriage, even though it was quite big compared to the usual types he'd ride in when he went on quests), Kazuma gave off a sigh of relief.
"All right, should we send the signal that we made to indicate that we caught the thieves?" Yunyun asked.
"Sure," Kazuma replied. "I feel tired and want to sit down, but I'm not going to so that I can savour this victory."
"Ok, the- KAZUMA WATCH OUT!"
Kazuma was about ask why, but then he felt an extremely sharp pain on his upper chest. When he felt it, fresh red blood came spurting out with a blade right through it.
Before he could scream, he collapsed to the ground, where he saw Chris, who looked as if she'd realised what she'd done, and heard Yunyun scream his name.
Then, it all faded to black.
"Kazuma? Kazuma! Wake up! Don't die on me again!"
Kazuma forced his eyes open, the light blinding him and a severe headache welcoming his consciousness.
"Y-Yunyun? What happened?" he muttered.
When his vision got clearer, he saw not just Yunyun, but Chris and the whole gang of thieves standing before him on the bedside. He felt a large bandage on his upper chest with the same pain he felt before he blacked out, and realised that his whole chest was naked, his pants thankfully still on – causing him to blush as he remembered that over 40 girls were staring at him now – some of which had bandages, whilst the rest were just really sleepy.
And in the corner, one of them was also blushing madly when she stared at him.
"Let's just say, we managed to reach an understanding – and I'm so sorry that I stabbed you!" Chris apologized – and how could Kazuma not say that the way she did it was cute? It gave him a small smile.
"It's alright, Chris, at least I'm not dead right now," he said. "Now anyway, can someone give me some more details?"
Chris explained that they got the wrong group of thieves, and that they had also happened to see the quest way before Kazuma had actually accepted it, but someone had taken it already. Not wanting to be outdone, they decided to find the thieves themselves.
And then, they encountered them.
"Oh, yes, and Liliruca Arde over there-" she pointed to the girl who had the fox ears and – Kazuma noticed – a fox tail as well – "would like to have a word with you."
Liliruca then walked over to Kazuma, and gave him a glancing slap across the face.
"Perv!" she shouted, a very visible blush spreading across her face. Then, she gave an angry pout before leaving the room.
"Jeez…" Kazuma said, rubbing his cheek. "I wouldn't have done it on purpose to her, even if she was cute…"
"Anyway, me and Yunyun were wondering why Megumin, Aqua and Darkness weren't with you at Crimsonia. So, why?" Chris asked.
Kazuma's face darkened, and suddenly the room lost its warmth. He rubbed his neck.
"It's… kinda personal," Kazuma said, a clear tone of sadness in his voice that he meant to hide.
"We're your friends, Kazuma, you can tell us," Yunyun said, her voice very caring.
Meanwhile, the other girls weren't being very supportive.
"Perhaps he was so perverted he drove them off," he heard one say.
"Makes sense that they left him, he's just an adventurer and they sound like powerful people to be with, but maybe he gets all the credit."
Kazuma's face darkened, but he thought that he could handle telling it with a straight face.
Everyone was just either in complete shock or just sympathetic sadness when Kazuma was done with his story.
"Sheesh, Kazuma, that must've hurt a lot," Chris muttered, nearly on the verge of tears.
"I can't believe Megumin would do something like this," Yunyun joined in, close to having an emotional breakdown. "You sure you're alright to go on with the quest? You're not quite healthy right now, and plus there might be things that can trigger your emotional PTSD…"
"I'll be fine, all that matters is that we stop the group of thieves who are causing trouble for Crimsonia and the villages around," Kazuma replied.
"W-well for now, at least rest for the night, you'll need some energy tomorrow, because we have our own information on where they are, and we can handle them then," Chris requested, but Kazuma raised his hand.
"If we consider that all thieves follow the same timetables, we can consider that they'll be sleeping right now as well – it looks dark outside, so it's night-time, meaning that we can catch them off-guard. We can find them using the info that Chris has, and Yunyun can teach us how to use the sleep spell, then she'll use 'Explosion' on their camp to take most of them out, then we go down there and use the sleep spell, before tying them up," Kazuma said.
"But first, let's eat!"
Despite how heart-breaking the break-up was that night, he still found it hilarious that Megumin would cheat on Kazuma for Aqua – and was confused about the world's laws on same-sex relationships.
Probably best to not question it, 'cuz I don't wanna insult the LGBTQ+ community in another world, Kazuma thought to himself. Especially when they're armed with weapons and magic.
He drunk a single glass of rum, and had some rice and beef that the thief guild provided – he didn't eat a lot as to not get a stitch when they're going to the troublesome thief group.
He washed his own plate when he saw that Liliruca was being gathered around by a small group of taller girls. Kazuma thought that they were her friends, but when he saw one of them push her onto the wall, he knew too well what it was.
Something in him was triggered when he saw one of them sling back their fist, and was ready to deliver a punch right at her face.
He threw a rock at the girl's head, and sure enough she recoiled heavily, tripping forward from the force of the rock, and next thing he knew he started running toward them and shielded them from Liliruca, who was surprised that someone came to defend her.
"Hey! Don't hurt her! She's part of your own team, damnit!" Kazuma shouted at them.
"So?" The tone in one of the girl's voices was too familiar, and immediately Kazuma hated her. "She's nothing but a backup, whilst we're here doing the main work, yet she gets the same pay as us!"
Kazuma could slightly relate – but it still didn't justify their actions.
That's when he decided to play bad guy with them.
He gave Lili a wink with a cheeky grin.
Lili only blinked, her expression of surprise remaining.
Kazuma turned to the girls.
"You know, I'm a true advocate of gender equality," Kazuma said. "I will not hesitate to dropkick any rotten woman in the ovaries if she deserves it!"
Then, he extended his hand.
"I will use my Steal ability on you if you don't hesitate to step back. On the count of three, you will leave this girl alone. If not…"
He put his most evil look in his eyes, and started doing weird things to his hands.
The girls actually started to look scared, but stood their ground.
"One…"
"Two…"
He saw that none of them budged.
"Oh, so that's how it must be then. Three!"
"STEAL!"
Luck must've increased by 6 times that day, because when the usual burst of blue thief magic disappeared, not one – but 6 panties were now in his hands.
They all shrieked when they realised a certain something had disappeared, and ran after Kazuma – who was laughing as he waved them around.
Liliruca – no matter how perverted his ways were – was extremely thankful that he saved her. They had been bullying her since she'd joined the group as a supporter, and no one had done anything about it – not even Chris, the girl who helped her get a role in the group.
Until today.
"Kazuma, you idiot," Chris groaned. "I know your intentions were good, but you could've done something other than steal… you know."
"I stand by my opinion that Kazuma's a perv," Yunyun said, and a couple girls agreed.
They were all now headed on their way to the thieves' camp, fresh and ready to go.
"What? If anyone knows that a girl's weakness is, it's their panties," Kazuma said back.
Everyone rolled their eyes.
"Ah, men," Yunyun said, "making stereotypical statements of women and finding an excuse to act like pervs."
"But that's where your wrong, Yunyun," Kazuma said. "Because from this day on, you won't be able to call me a pervert."
He stood up to make an announcement
Everyone raised an eyebrow, curious as to why they can no longer call him a pervert.
"Because from now on, I've decided that I'll be asexual!" he beamed proudly.
Everyone gave off confused looks.
Kazuma sighed.
"It means that I am no longer sexually attracted to women – in fact, toward anyone!" Kazuma beamed proudly once again. "Oh yeah and make that aromantic too – I am no longer interested in relationships with anyone!"
Everyone was silent, before giving off suspicious looks.
"And how exactly will prove that?" asked Chris dully, not thinking it was possible, especially for a guy like Kazuma.
"Now that's pretty simple. Back in Japan, some of my friends were asexual as well, and they always made dirty jokes, constantly cuss and ask, 'where's the logic in that?' when they get themselves in a situation where they'd get called a perv, and basically never blush at all. They'd also make really dark jokes, they're practically void of any emotion except for anger, happiness and sadness, whilst also never giving a crap about life. Oh yeah, and they constantly interact with the opposite biological gender in everything."
Chris's suspicious glance only went further. Then, she smirked.
"Well, if that's the case, then I'm sure that Kazuma-kun won't mind taking a bath with Liliruca…" she trailed off with the most mischievous grin yet.
"H-hey now, I'm still working on my sexuality and personality, so no need to test me so soon!" Kazuma complained.
"In that case then, you're still a perv, Kazuma," Yunyun giggled.
She was going to regret that soon enough.
"Alrighty then, Yunyun-chan," Kazuma started, putting a teasing note in his voice despite being serious. "Wanna go to the baths at your village later and have a quick chat?"
Yunyun, evidently forgetting his new (and self-proclaimed asexuality), went "EYYY?" with a blush that turned her face redder than a sack of tomatoes.
He made sure to sound calm in his voice whilst still carrying said teasing note, so it sounded as if it was a normal thing to do with the busty Crimson Demon.
And now, everyone was looking at Yunyun with eyeroll-like expressions.
Yunyun covered her face in embarrassment.
"K-Kazuma-kun! Don't be so aggressive on me!" she whined behind her hands.
Everyone "oohed" when she said that.
"Oh, come on, I thought bathing together was a thing done with good friends! Aren't you my good friend?" Kazuma replied, and decided that would be it as everyone burst into laughter on the carriage.
Well, except an embarrassed Yunyun and a slightly sad Liliruca.
One of the thief girls opened the door carriage to find everyone in high spirits.
"We're here, Chris-sama." She announced.
"Alrighty, gang, let's roll out!"
The mission was relatively easier than they'd fought. A couple of the thieves had some cursed swords (which Kazuma thought on taking, selling and giving to the group of thieves), but they were no match for the skill and speed of the opposing thieves. Kazuma used Drain on a thief girl twice his size, and could now run around delivering injuring blows to the opposing thief gang's members.
Soon, they were all tied up, and Yunyun could finally shoot the signal of which indicated the quest was done.
"Hey, Yunyun, can we still have a small chat at the baths? I don't really want anyone hearing the conversation, so…" Kazuma started, but Yunyun cut him off.
"Stop being so perverted at me, Kazuma-kun!" Yunyun whined again, but then Kazuma give her a serious look in the eye.
"It's about the gang who abandoned me."
Yunyun's attitude changed in a heartbeat, and nodded.
Kazuma put the cursed swords in a bag, but decided to take one for himself for finishing the quest. He grabbed a second after remembering he could learn Dual-Wield like Darkness, so 2 cursed swords would be pretty good.
He waited until Sena and the rest of the authorities arrived, got the reward (delivered from Luna), gave the rest of the cursed swords to the group, then went back to the Crimson Demon Village with Yunyun and two cursed swords on his side now.
Thank god no one's out in the night, I don't want anyone to question about what happened 10 days ago, he told himself.
The baths at the village – at least – had some separate baths for both genders, which Yunyun was glad for. She didn't want Kazuma seeing her blush, or be disappointed that she doesn't have a chance with her anymore.
She was the first to arrive at the notably large, steaming-hot bath, and lowered herself down slowly as to relax her tired body. The warmth felt so comforting to her skin, she couldn't help but sigh really loudly as she sat down.
Then, she saw Chris walk in.
"Chris?" Yunyun hesitated. "Why are you here?"
"Oh, we wanted to relax a bit, and your village just happened to have the nearest baths around. Besides, we wanted to have a little bit more fun with Kazuma." Chris said, a mischievous gleam in her eye.
"I-is he here yet?" a familiar, small voice came from the women's changing room.
Liliruca Arde walked out, naked except for her fox ears and tail.
"Dang, Lili, didn't know you were so… flat." Chris criticised, whilst looking away. "Also, please bring a towel before going in the bath – it allows people to not see what they're not meant to see."
She heard a defeated grunt come from Lili, before eventually joining the girls in the large bath.
"Say, this bath really makes you feel lonel-"
Just as Chris started, girls came rushing in with towels wrapped around their bodies, and also repeated Yunyun – slowly lowering themselves in for more relaxing pleasure, before letting out a sigh.
"Well, fate has a funny way of interrupting me, I guess," Chris muttered.
"B-but you guys! Me and Kazuma came here because we thought it would be just us! He wanted to talk about something regarding his group!"
"Just pretend we aren't here," Chris said, telling the girls (who were probably whispering fantasies of the boy to another) to be quiet.
Yunyun sighed. No one in their right mind would ask someone to leave a relaxing bath for a private conversation.
After a moment of silence, they heard Kazuma's footsteps enter the room opposite, and Kazuma entering the water with haste.
"Ahhh…" they heard Kazuma sigh.
"Yunyun, you there?"
Yunyun was put off.
"Y-yeah?" she hesitantly replied.
"Alright, then let's talk about my group. If they come back – either here or at Axel, then tell Megumin that I forgive her."
"W-wait, what? But why?" Yunyun asked.
(Aaaannd that's today's chapter 1 of my story. There will be more updates, I will edit this if reviews tell me it doesn't live up to standards, and please understand that this was kinda rushed, that I don't know if there's a public bath at the Crimson Demon village or the character who's essentially a reference to an anime very slightly similar to Konosuba (Dan Machi: Familia Myth, or "Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In The Dungeon?")
Anyways, chapter 2 will come VERY SOON, see you guys, love ya (: )