Ash and Megumin walked through the town, the young Crimson Demon basically near falling over as she leaned on the former for support. "I told you we should have taken the free samples they were offering us." Ash said to her as she let out a weak laugh.
"Hahaha! A string mage like me...can endure even this much!" She said.
"You haven't eaten a thing since we met: that was three days ago." Ash says in a deadpan. He carefully held onto her as she wobbled a bit before moving to a bench. "Sit here, I'll bring you back some food. No 'buts' this time either: you will eat." He said as she sat. Ash went off to the market area and looked about for anything his companion could eat. He went from stall to stall till he found some good-looking meats and vegetables that he bought. Walking back with the basket he began to speak. "Alright, now time to...eat." He says looking at a now empty bench. "Where did you go?" He asked out loud with a sigh.
He walked over to someone who had been standing there before he left and asked them. "Oh that small girl? She went to the Adventurer Guild not too long after you left her, something about smell in' somethin' real good there." The person said getting a nod of thanks from Ash.
He looked around following the signs till he came across the building his companion went into. Crossing the bridge and pushing the door open he stepped inside and smiles lightly to himself. It was the place he had been traveling to so he could officially be an adventurer. The place his story will truly begin at. He looked around seeing adventurers of different sizes and classes doing various things. A job board and a receptionist desk also showed the organization the place had.
"I have anxiously awaited the arrival of those such as yourselves. My name is Megumin! My calling is that of an arch wizard, one who controls explosion magic, the strongest offensive magic! Do you too desire my forbidden strength, which is so almighty that I've been ostracized by the entire world!" A familiar voice called out from across the guild drawing Ash's attention. He sighed and walked over to it as the two people Megumin was talking to stared at her with blank expressions.
"Are you making fun of us?" The guy in a green tracksuit asked the girl.
"I'm not!" Megumin said quickly with some anger.
Ash looked behind the tracksuit guy and saw...the goddess that brought him here!? "That red eye...are you perhaps a Crimson Demon?" Aqua asked getting a nod from Megumin who handed them her adventurer card.
"That is correct! I am an elite mage from the Crimson Demon clan, Megumin! My magic is powerful enough to split mountains...splits boulders...in..." and like that the exhausted girl fell forward. Before she could faceplant Ash moved forward and caught her surprising the other two.
"So you wandered off without me to join another party huh? That kind of hurts after traveling with you for three days straight." He says to the girl feigning a hurt heart as he placed her on the bench.
"N-no no, that's not it! I just smelt some good food and wondered over here and saw their poster by chance!" She said, trying to correct the misunderstanding. She felt bad for making him think that; he was a good friend so far after all.
"I'm pulling your leg; and I'll admit whatever they're making here smells way better then what I bought." Ash says sitting down.
"Wait so does that mean you both haven't eaten anything in three days?" Tracksuit guy asks Ash who shakes his head.
"No, I have. She however refused anything offered on the basis of 'an amazing mage such as myself should be able to face even this kind of torment'. I told her it was a dumb argument but...well she wouldn't listen." Ash explained as she looked up to him and he patted her head lightly to ease her pain if he could.
"Well I'm ok with treating her to a meal, but what's with the eyepatch? If you're hurt I can get her to heal you." Tracksuit guy said gesturing to Aqua.
"No, this is a tool that holds my overwhelming powers at bay...if you were to remove it disaster will strike the world." Megumin says surprising Ash. He never asked about it due to assuming it was an injury but to hear this...it was news to him.
"So it's like a seal?" Tracksuit guy asks her tilting his head.
"No, that was a lie. It's a normal eyepatch- but I think it looks cool." She says simply. Tracksuit guy reaches forward and grabs the eyepatch pulling it back from her face. "Ah! No, stop! I'm sorry so please don't pull on it!" She frantically said waving her arms around. Ash sighs and grabs the guys wrist tightly.
"While it was bad she lied, I'd advise you to not do that." Ash said tightening his grip. He had made sure to keep Megumin safe while she was losing energy due to no food, and he'd be damned if that ended now because she told a white lie.
Tracksuit guy nervously laughed and slowly put the eyepatch back as he moved to his seat again.
"Hey Kazuma" Ash took note of his name for later "the Crimson Demon clan have really high intelligence and a strong magic affinity. Most of them turn out to be professional mages; theirs known for their red eyes and strange names." Aqua tells him simply making Megumin look up from running her head after Ash abruptly bonked her for lying like that.
"It's rude to say our names are weird. From my point of view it's your names that are strange." Megumin said to them.
"Well what are your parents' names?" Kazuma asks simply.
Megumin gets up and starts doing her poses again as she answers. "My mother is Yuiyui, and my father is Hyoizaburo!" She said happily.
A lasting silence came over the group at the revelation, a cricket chirping in the background as they stared at her.
"You said Crimson Demons are powerful mages right?" Kazuma says changing the subject fast.
"Hey! If you have a problem with my parent's names then say it!" She said in protest as Aqua and Kazuma checked her card. Ash stood remembering the other reason why he was here walking to the desk after saying a quick be right back.
"Oh hello" the blond lady said to Ash.
"Hello, I am looking to apply to be an adventurer- I assume you're the person I ask about that?" Ash asked Luna getting a nod.
"Yes, do you have the admission fee?" She asks with a smile. Ash proceeded to hand off the money he had been saving from traveling and helping people, Luna finding it to be enough and bringing out the crystal ball. "Place your hand on this please, we'll scan your stats and get you your job!" She said happily as Ash nodded and held out his right hand to the ball. It shined and began to transcribe his stats into the card below until it finished. Luna picked up the card and read it over, shock came across her face as she looked it over. "Oh my! All of your stats...their far above average! It's like you're not even human with these!" She said in amazement getting everyone's attention.
Ash grunted at all the eyes directed to him now. "So what jobs are available?" He asked her.
Luna got out a big book and began looking through it. "Almost...everything! But the problem is your stats are so high that it would be a waste to just put you in any of them!" She said flipping pages till one came up. Every guild reception desk had one but never used them: a New Job Authorization sheet. She pulled it out and handed it to him. "With that being the case...you get to create your job!" She said, happy about what this could do for the guild's moral.
Ash took the form and looked it over, thinking why to put. 'I dress, and fight like him, and even have his weapon...screw it' Ash thought beginning to fill it out. Once done the name of the job glowed and floated in the air before descending onto his card as well copying itself over. Luna looked at it and read out loud what had been put.
"The Dark Slayer...an interesting name, any reason why?" Luna asked him tilting her head.
"It's to honor someone I knew, they would call themselves that before they died so this is in homage to them." Ash said simply. Of course it was a slight lie but that didn't matter. Luna smiles and nods as she holds up his card.
"Today I, Luna of the Adventurer Guild, acknowledge and approve of this new job: the Rare Class, Dark Slayer!" She called out making everyone erupt in cheers.
"Not only did this guild produce an Arch-Priest, but also a new Rare Class!?" "Hell yeah! We're the best!" "Let's GOOOOOO!" The various adventurers shouted out as drinks were passed around for free to celebrate. Ash took his card and walked back to the table where Megumin was and saw them eating with wide eyes at the announcement.
"A new rare class!? Why didn't you tell me you were so powerful!" Megumin yelled at Ash as he put up a hand in surrender.
"In my defense this is the first chance I had to get the adventurer card. I didn't know anymore then you did aside from my own fighting." He said looking it over. His eyes widened a bit at the skills across it, and the fact he was already Level 15. He decided his skills almost immediately: Million Stabs, Air Hike, some combos he couldn't do before, and essentially every base skill you'd see if it were a wiki Moveset list. Then his eyes landed on the more magic aide of things. He had a few points; so Summoned Swords, Rapid Slash, and the gem of them all were learned: Judgment Cut. He noticed the lack of a certain power and tree that goes with it, but chalked it up to not being unlocked yet.
"So anyway, we were gonna go do the last of a quest Aqua and I picked up yesterday to test Megumin; wanna come along too? We could use all the help we could get." Kazuma said before leaning closer a bit. "Please, I need someone else in case this all falls through." He said desperately. Ash figures that, for a goddess, Aqua probably had no real fighting experience. She wouldn't need it after all as she was in that dimension away from war and a need to fight.
"I'll come along, I have to make sure she's safe at least before I decide if I'll join you or not as well." Ash said, getting a thankful sigh from the young man. "I am Ash." Ash introduced himself holding out his hand.
"What no last name? I'm Satou Kazuma...gotta day Yamato as a gift was an amazing choice." He said making Ash's eyes widen before he smiled.
"So you too..." Ash said to himself as they finished up and left the guild. Their destination was an open field with toads hopping around as their mating season began.
"Explosion is the strongest spell. On the other hand it takes a moment to cast it. Please keep that toad at bay while I cast it." Megumin said, getting nods from everyone.
"Target that one." Kazuma said, pointing at the toad in the distance. "Aqua and I will deal with the closer one, Ash keep them from getting close to her." He said getting a nod from me. "Let's get some revenge. Hey Aqua, you are a former something-or-other right? How about showing off that?" He asked her.
Aqua gained an annoyed expression as she yelled at him. "What do you mean former!? Current! Current! I AM a Goddess as in present tense!" She said.
Megumin looked back with confusion as Aqua was choking our Kazuma. "Goddess?" She asked.
"She seems to not be all there and will say anything if it makes her feel good." Ash said simply to the Crimson Demon who looked back with sympathy.
Aqua had enough and with tears in her eyes she started running at the toad. "I'll show you! It's just a toad, watch carefully! I haven't done anything amazing yet but this'll-!" And like that Aqua was swallowed by the toad.
Suddenly the air around Megumin began to move fast and get dense. Kazuma looked back to her with wide eyes and surprise while Ash stayed neutral next to her. Her uncovered eye seemed to shine as she began to chant. Darkness blacker than black and darker than dark, I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson. The time of awakening cometh. Justice, fallen upon the infallible boundary, appear now as an intangible distortion! I desire for my torrent of power a destructive force: a destructive force without equal! Return all creation to cinders, and come from the abyss!" She said as magic began to form: dark streams and a magic circle below herself and the toad as everything went at the oversized amphibian before she gave off one passionate: "Explosion!"
With her spell cast a giant explosion went off. The ground shook with the violent spell and once the dust cleared the ground had a crater in it and the toad was completely gone. Kazuma approaches the hole and looked at it with amazement as Ash moves close as well.
"Amazing! So this is magic..." Kazuma said.
Ash nodded with his own wide eyes: she was too weak to cast the spell when they traveled together so it was his first time seeing it as well. Ash was suddenly knocked out of his thoughts by Kazuma's voice.
"Wait if you're here then-" he was cut off as the sound of something falling over was heard. They both turned back and saw that Megumin was face down sliding in the grass.
"So she wasn't kidding." Ash said surprised.
"You knew about this!?" Kazuma asked him as a toad appeared from the ground.
"Explosion Magic is the ultimate spell, very powerful but it uses a large amount of mana. Sadly I have less mana then it takes so what I use exceeds my limit. I didn't think a toad would appear so close so...if you could save me please." She said as she was picked up by the toad and slowly was being swallowed.
"Stand back, I got this." Ash said, walking forward and putting a hand on Yamato's grip. The air again changed, now going cold and still as Ash took in a breath.
"That stance, this feeling I got that matches the feeling I had when fighting the boss...no way!" Kazuma yelled out as Ash channeled energy into the Yamato. Unknown to him and his party, (due to Kazuma being behind him and the two girls inside toad mouths) his eyes began to change to the demonic red slit eyes again.
"Face your judgement with dignity." Ash said as the scabbard of Yamato began to glow blue before he quickly pulled it out and put it back in. It was so fast it looked like he didn't even take it out to Kazuma, but in the one second after the movement a distortion appeared nearly invisible to the untrained eye, and suddenly slashes hit the toads. They stood still for a second until the distortion cleared up and they fell apart freeing the two girls.
Kazuma kept his wide eyes on Ash as his mouth hung open. "You can use Judgment Cut!?" He yells out. Ash smirks and simply nods walking to the downed allies. "Wait but to even use Yamato in canon...that means you have to be-" Kazuma's mouth was covered by Ash's hand.
"We don't talk about that. The world is being threatened by a Devil King so if that got out about me, what do you think the people will think?" Ash said simply getting a look of realization from the young man.
He lets his hand go and picks up the mage as Kazuma helps Aqua up.
"Let's head back now, that's the quest completed."
/A While Later\\
Ash has Megumin on his back as the party of four walked through Axel getting strange looks. "The inside of a toad is smelly, but the warm feeling isn't too bad...I have learned something I rather would have not learned." The poor girl mutters as Aqua sniffs the slime complaining about it.
"At least you're ok. I'd hate to lose a good friend so fast already." Ash said to her. With his arms occupied carrying her, he had Yamato carefully in his hand. So long as he didn't drop either it'd be fine.
Kazuma has been thinking before speaking finally. "From now you'll only use Explosion in case of an emergency. Use other spells to help out when we do jobs." He said to Megumin. However...
"I can't." She said, making him look back.
His eye twitched a bit at this. "You can't...what?" He asks carefully.
She takes in a breath and looks to him. "I can only use Explosion magic. I don't know any other Magic's."
There was a silence as the two stared at one another for a second, Ash thought a tumbleweed would have fit the scene as they stayed there.
"Seriously?" Kazuma asks.
"Yes." Megumin says.
Aqua chimed in finally after wiping some slime off herself. "If you had enough Skill Points to learn Explosion, then surely you could have learned another spell right?" She asks the mage.
"I am an arch wizard that loves explosion spells. What I like is not the detonation series magic, but the explosion spell." Megumin said suddenly leaning back making Ash catch his balance, otherwise they'd have both fallen over.
"Oi, careful moving around back there!" He said as Yamato almost dropped. Aqua leaned forward listening to the passionate cry of Megumin.
"Adventures would definitely be easier if I learn other spells. Fire, water, earth, wind and light, learning spells related to this should be good enough...but I couldn't do it. My only love is explosion magic. Even though I could only cast it once per day, even if I will collapse after using the spell, my one true love is still explosion magic! The only reason I chose the path of the arch mage was to cast explosion spells!" She yelled out.
Ash looked back at her with some more interest. "You certainly are dedicated aren't you?" He asks as Aqua also speaks.
"Incredible! Great! Your resolve to follow your romantic dreams despite knowing it is efficient is deeply moving!" The goddess says as they both do a thumbs up. Ash sighs chuckling as he starts to walk only to be stopped by Kazuma grabbing Megumin who tightens her grip on the poor Dark Slayer.
"Well! I wish you luck, the journey ahead for you will certainly be hard! Once we get back we'll divide the reward. May our paths cross again in the future." He said.
"The reward is just a side bonus. What I truly desire is to be able to cast my spell when I can. I'll even settle for the bare minimum of food and miscellaneous things, and my power could be yours. What choice do you have but to take me with you?" She says trying to convince him. He just pulls harder and she tightens her grip choking Ash.
"No no no! Our weak party doesn't deserve such awesome skill! It'd be too much to ask for you to join us! I'm the weakest job so we should start off with a normal mage and settle."
"No no no no! I don't care if you're newbies or weak! I may be an advanced class but I'm only Level 6 whereas Ash is Level 15! If I could get to his level I wouldn't collapse anymore so stop trying to pull me off him ok?" She says trying to give a sound reason to stay.
"Acgghhk!" Ash said chokingly. Because he was being choked by their struggle as her arms found their way around his neck.
"No no no no no! It's too hard to utilize a mage that can only cast one spell a day. Ugh, she is a mage, but her grip is strong...! Let go, the other teams probably don't want you too. Or rather, explosion spells couldn't be used in dungeons or in doors, which would render you useless. Hey, release your grip. I will split the rewards equally with you! Please let go!"
That's when, in Ash's humble opinion, it got desperate and sad. While he was trying to not die Megumin began to beg and say how no other party except for Ash would take her. But Ash saw in the distance three women watching and knew immediately what's about to happen. They made comments of what they saw and Megumin got a devious idea.
"I'm even fine with whatever erotic and perverted things you want to do! Just please, leave Ash out of it as he's the only person I have left that I can rely on!" She said making Kazuma quickly cover her mouth as she smirked.
"I get it! Welcome aboard!" He said frantically before the group rushed off.
The two of them both got hit on the head by Ash once they made it to the guild. "When you do that again, please don't almost kill me in the process." He said angrily as the reward was split up. Each toad was worth 5,000 Eris, so Kazuma having killed two got 10,000, Megumin got the base amount for her one, and Ash for 10,000 for his two. "Here, I will take rewards only when all of us have a share." He says handing half to Aqua who was sulking, now brightening up and thanking him. He also handed some to Megumin without her seeing it, putting himself at 3,000 Eris from the job. 'She still needs more food otherwise she would pass out even without using her magic.' He thought to himself.
After a bit the only people from the party left were Ash and Kazuma. The latter had looked at jobs but came back dejected that they were too hard. "Hey, how long have you been here?" He asks Ash who was sipping some form of tea.
"About...six days. Almost seven now." Ash said simply sipping his tea. "That look tells it all, you're home sick." He states getting a slight nod.
"Yeah. I wonder...what is my family doing? I didn't stay in contact much and I didn't have friends but...I still loved them." He said. "I was only 17 when I died. How about you?" He asks.
Ash put his tea on the table. "16, we haven't aged yet so we are the same age as when we died." He says looking at the young man before him. He was just two inches taller than Kazuma, but younger still. "I was from the US, you?" Ash asks this time.
"Japan."
"I wanted to visit Japan, see what it was like. But now...well, better not to think about such things otherwise this fantasy world will be too depressing for us." Ash says getting a nod as footsteps approached. "I'm calling it here, goodnight Kazuma." Ash said standing and leaving, walking by a blonde female Knight as he did.
-
I just saw what Xbox posted on YouTube...FINALLY! We can finally play as Vergil when the Special Edition of Devil May Cry 5 comes out on next gen! I don't care Microsoft and Capcom shut up and take my money! Seein a lot of people viewing this and gotta say I'm impressed; first story is so far going good on fanfic .net so I may post up more when I finish this.
Anyway I don't own anything save for Ash and a friend of mine owns Akira; support DMC's and KonoSuba's official release!
Have a good day!