- Chapter 4: Exploration In This Bustling Town! -

"Kazuma, Kazuma? I'm back," Megumin called out as she shut the front door behind her, shrugging off her jacket.

"Mhm, hey," His voice came from the direction of the front room, "You were gone for a while."

Following the sound of Kazuma's voice, she made her way into the front room. There, she spotted Kazuma lazily lying on the couch, his phone held out a few inches above his face.

"It shouldn't really be that surprising. The bus trip there and back takes about an hour, and I ended up talking to Wolbach for longer than I thought I would," Megumin explained as she wandered towards him.

Tearing his attention away from his phone, he looked at her quizzically. "Wolbach?".

"Oh, right," It dawned on her that he had no idea who she was talking about, "She works at the kindergarten that Komekko goes to. She was even working there when I went there, too, so she almost feels like an aunt to me and Komekko."

"I see," Kazuma replied, not really sure what to say, "Must be hard for her."

"Hey! At least try to say something nice," She rolled her eyes in displeasure, though the amused smile on her face showed otherwise. Megumin, now having reached the couch, grabbed Kazuma's heels and lifted them into the air slightly, "Move over, I wanna sit down too."

"Yes ma'am," He said sarcastically, wriggling his legs from her grasp and swinging them onto the floor, "Happy now?".

Megumin didn't say anything in response as she sat down next to the boy, who was moving himself into a more comfortable position. "What are you looking at?" The girl asked as she watched Kazuma return his focus to his phone.

"Apartments," He told her as he tilted his phone screen towards her, "I'm trying to see if there are any cheap places I can rent out in Axel. No luck so far, though. The rent there is so much higher than my old place ever was."

She quickly felt her smile faltering at his words. "Axel?" Megumin tilted her head, a questioning look adorning her face, "Why would you be looking there? I-I mean, it's obvious that the rent would be higher there."

Kazuma sighed - he knew that she was completely right. "I guess that's true. Still, it would be nice to get a place in Axel," He said as he continued scrolling through his phone, "Why do you look so bothered by it, anyway?".

"Eh-? I'm not bothered by it, I just…" She trailed off momentarily before deciding that there was no point in hiding her true feelings in this specific case. So, feeling bolder than usual, she continued, "I just don't want you to move away."

The boy's body seized up, shocked by her words, "Huh?".

"If you move away, we won't be able to get the bus to school together anymore, or walk home together either. I e-enjoy doing those things with you, so I don't want you to move to Axel," A guilty look began to form on her now reddened face, "I know that probably sounds a little selfish, but it's true."

"W-well, I enjoy doing that stuff with you too, M-megumin," Kazuma cringed at how lame he felt but managed to keep talking, "And I only said I was, y'know, looking for places in Axel. If I find somewhere more affordable around here, I'd probably just end up choosing that instead."

"Y-yeah," She took a soft breath as she felt her composure slipping, "It's good that you're being proactive in looking for somewhere to stay and all, but aren't you forgetting that we already have stuff to do today?".

"Today?" Kazuma was confused for a few seconds before remembering, "Oh, right. You said something about a day out, didn't you?".

"Exactly!" The short haired girl stood up, excited, "C'mon Kazuma! We should get going as soon as possible. If we leave now, we'll have just over five hours there before we need to pick Komekko up from kindergarten."

"...And before I need to go to work," The green eyed boy grumbled as he lazily got up from the couch, "Well, whatever. Going out into Axel does sound fun. You don't go there often, do you Megumin?".

"Not really, no. I only ever go there if it's necessary for some reason. I don't really go there for pleasure too often," She explained as they grabbed their jackets from the coat rack.

Kazuma grinned at her as he threw his coat over his shoulders, "Guess we'll have to fix that, then."

Just as they had suspected, the bus - and then later train - ride into Axel had taken them almost an hour. By the time the duo had arrived in the Axel station, it was already drawing close to 11am. As they passed their time on the arrival journey, they'd already discussed everything they intended and had created a sort of mental itinerary for the day, until they'd have to depart at around 4:20pm, just to be safe.

"There's so many people here," Megumin commented as she traversed through the train station, sticking close to Kazuma, "You never see this many people in one place back home."

Kazuma couldn't help but hum in agreement as he scanned the overhead signs. "No kidding," He laughed, "I wasn't expecting to see this many people here at 11am on a Monday. I guess we weren't the only ones who thought today would be a good day to go into town."

"Well, it is pretty warm today. I wouldn't be surprised if people just wanted to take advantage of this great weather," She suggested, twisting her body slightly to fit through the bustling crowd.

It only took them a few more minutes to finally exit Axel's train station, quickly being hit by a gentle breeze and that year's warmest weather yet. The beaming sun and cloudless sky completed the illusion of a serene Summer day, despite the fact that Summer was officially still two months away.

"Kazuma, Kazuma," Megumin called out for his attention as they began to wander the streets, eliciting his usual reply, "Before we do anything else, I think we should get something to eat, I'm kinda hungry."

"Isn't it a little too early to eat lunch still?" Kazuma questioned her, his eyes darting from building to building for anywhere that piqued his interest, "Won't you just get hungry again later if we eat now?".

Kazuma's questions were fair ones, but Megumin already had a solution to both his problems. "Not really. I mean, we'll probably end up buying snacks of some sort if we're going to watch a movie later, right?".

"True, I guess. I didn't think about that," He admitted, shrugging, "Anywhere you wanna eat in particular? I'm not really bothered, so you can decide."

The girl stopped and rubbed her chin for a few moments, as if in deep thought, before realising that she was lagging behind and running to keep pace with Kazuma.

"Hmm, fast food of some sort would probably be best," She explained to him, to which he nodded, "It's pretty cheap and we won't have to waste a ton of time waiting for it to be made, I wouldn't mind going to a burger place personally."

"No complaints from me."

After a short search, luckily accompanied by the maps app on Kazuma's phone, the two friends made their way into a familiar fast food joint, one Kazuma would always frequent with Aqua when he was too tired to cook dinner. Quickly cementing their position on the queue, they both scanned the menu, Kazuma scouring for something with the perfect mix of quality, quantity and a cheap price.

Megumin tugged on his sleeve to get his attention, "Hey, Kazuma?".

"Kazuma here."

"Sooo… are we paying for our own food?" She asked him, a somewhat sheepish look on her face.

His eyebrows furrowed in response to her question, "Why do you ask?".

"Ah, well, since I don't have a job, I only have whatever allowance my parents give me, along with the money they left me for essentials while they were gone…" Megumin looked at her companion apologetically, "I kinda didn't bring enough money for all of today, could you please pay for my food, Kazuma?".

To her credit, she did look genuinely guilty for her actions, or lack of actions, something that made Kazuma slightly less annoyed about the fact that she was fleecing him down for money. After a short mental back and forth, he slumped his shoulders and conceded.

"Fine," He simply said, before grinning mischievously as he craned his neck towards the girl, "But isn't this the part where you offer me some sort of 'repayment'?".

Megumin's face scrunched up as she swatted the boy away, "You jerk! If you don't want to pay, then just say so instead of trying to creep me out!".

"Oi, calm down. I already said I'd pay for you, I just wanted to mess with you a little," The 'jerk' grabbed her wrists, which were still trying to hit him, and brought them together in front of her with his hands, in an effort to get her to relax.

She pouted at him, but otherwise relented, her face flushed from the contact, "You really are a huge dummy. I don't know why I deal with you sometimes…".

"Oi, I'd probably be upset if it wasn't for the fact that you're smiling right now," Kazuma snorted, letting go of her wrists, "Anyway, what are you ordering?".

It was Megumin's turn to smile impishly, "Fufufu~! As revenge for you being such a pervert, I will be ordering a large triple-layered cheeseburger! Oh, and don't forget the extra bacon, okay Kazuma?".

He scowled at her as she just gave him a smug grin in return.

'This damn brat!'.

Kazuma looked on with a deadpan expression and his head resting in his hand as Megumin attempted to take a bite of her comically sized burger, her face being one of complete bliss. Somehow, in the time it had taken Kazuma to eat his entire burger, Megumin had barely managed to eat half of hers, fitting each bite into her mouth being a challenge of its own. He picked at the order of large fries between them as she finally managed to fit her mouth around the towering bun.

"Having fun?" He asked sarcastically as Megumin swallowed.

She made a small noise of happiness as her face lit up into a beautiful smile, the kind that Kazuma had a very hard time being irritated at, "Yeah, it's really good! You wanna try it?".

"I'll take it if you're offering," He smiled and sent a small puff of air from his nose.

Megumin grabbed one of the untouched sets of cutlery from the table and got to work cutting out a chunk from the untouched side of her burger. Once finished, she passed the cross-sectioned piece to Kazuma, an expectant look in her eyes. With somewhat less difficulty than Megumin, he took a bite from the burger, pleasantly surprised by the great taste; it was a lot better than the one he'd ordered.

"Whaddya think?" She asked him as she sipped on her soda, eyes sparkling in excitement, "It's good, isn't it?".

"The hell? This is actually, like, really good," Kazuma responded, looking down at the overpriced meal in slight disbelief, "Still not worth the price though…".

"But you made a precious comrade happy," Megumin raised one hand to her forehead, while the other was thrown out to her side, "Shouldn't something like that be considered priceless?".

He simply just clicked his tongue at her, "Just eat your burger before I finish all of these fries by myself."

"Hey! Wait, Kazumaaa! Save some from me, c'mon!".

"So what do you wanna do first, Kazuma?" Megumin curiously inquired as she followed him through Axel's local shopping mall.

"Clothes shopping."

She looked slightly taken aback at his response, "I didn't take Kazuma to be the type of person who enjoyed looking for new clothes."

"Honestly, I'm not particularly interested in it usually," Kazuma scratched at his neck as he glanced at her, "But I kinda have to now. Right now, I only have around 4 or so sets of clothes, for obvious reasons."

"I see, so you sought out my expertise with such a task? Clever thinking…" She grinned proudly, sending him a thumbs up.

"Uhh, not really. Actually, I assumed that we both had similar levels of experience with buying clothes," He cringed as he watched her pride shatter almost instantly, "But you can still help me out if you want, it would probably be helpful regardless. Or you can just look around for yourself, I don't mind."

"R-right! Sounds good, let's get going then," With that declaration, she latched onto Kazuma's wrist and dragged him in the direction of the nearest clothing store.

Once inside, they quickly got to work looking around at the different articles of clothing on display, making note of the items that took their interest and making sure to point out the pieces that they wouldn't be seen dead in to the other person. After a while of perusing through outfits, they both made their way towards the changing rooms, their chosen outfits in hand.

"You go first, you have less things to try on," Kazuma advised the girl beside him, to which she enthusiastically nodded.

She sent him a wide grin as she made her way behind the curtain, her head briefly peeking out to address him. "Prepare to be amazed by my undivided beauty and pristine fashion sense, Kazuma!".

He simply chuckled as he placed his large pile of outfits onto one of the wooden benches, sitting down next to it as he waited for his companion to finish changing. After about a minute or so of silence, Megumin spoke again.

"Okay, I'm coming out now," She informed him, the curtain being pulled aside a few moments later, "H-how do I look?".

Megumin was dressed in a red shoulderless sweater that was long enough to act as a dress, with hints of yellow on the ends of the sleeves, a pair of black thigh-length socks and orange-brown boots. One hand was placed on her hip while the other was holding a peace sign in front of her softly blushing face, trying her best to hide the anxious expression on her face as she awaited his evaluation.

Honestly, he couldn't deny the fact that she looked absolutely adorable dressed like that. The outfit was a must-keep as far as Kazuma was concerned. He tried to ignore the feeling of his cheeks slowly heating up as he thought of a response.

"Uh, y-yeah, that looks pretty good on you, Megumin," He would've looked away in embarrassment if his gaze wasn't locked onto her outfit. "I'd say that it's worth buying."

Kazuma watched as her pensive expression slowly grew into a wide smile as he spoke, a pretty pink dusting her cheeks as she looked at him.

"Well, i-if you really t-think it looks good…" She trailed off, slowly stepping backwards into the changing booth and clearing her throat, "I-I'll go try on the others now."

As Megumin disappeared behind the curtain once again, Kazuma, for the second time, felt himself have to resist the urge to sneakily pull back the curtain a little and get a glimpse of what was behind. The temptation to potentially catch a glimpse of Megumin in only her underwear was a powerful one, but he also really didn't wanna spend the next few hours trying to stop her from killing him.

Once again, after a short waiting time, where Kazuma did his best to quell his imagination, Megumin walked out from the booth and did a little twirl. This time, she donned a simple black off the shoulder dress, held up by two straps. It didn't look extravagant or anything; she didn't have the money for anything more flashy, but it certainly didn't look bad, far from it. Kazuma had never seen the girl show that much skin before, even her meagre cleavage was having an effect on him.

"I-I didn't think that you were the type of girl who was interested in wearing dresses," He commented as he discreetly tugged at his collar.

"I'm not, usually," Megumin told him as she fidgeted with her dress, clearly not used to wearing something like it, "I don't really own any dresses, so I thought it might be good to get one. For, you know, special occasions?". Upon Kazuma continuing to gaze upon her in silence, she puffed up her cheeks in indignation and spoke again, "D-don't just stare at me like that, say something! Do I look o-okay?".

Kazuma pulled his eyes from her underdeveloped chest to meet her eyes, noticing the single bead of sweat that was rolling down her pretty face and praying that she hadn't noticed where he was looking. "You look beautiful," He then waved his hand dismissively, concerned by how direct he'd been with his praise, "O-or something like that, you know, it looks fine."

On one hand, she could barely contain how happy she was to hear him call her beautiful, maybe she was finally becoming more to his liking. Megumin had to buy that dress now if it could get a reaction like that from Kazuma. On the other hand though, she was a bit upset at how quickly he'd tried to cover up his honest compliment. She really just wished he'd be more straightforward with her, and maybe call her beautiful a few more times.

After that, Megumin went back into the changing booth to try on a few more outfits, which did each look good in their own right, but Kazuma still couldn't get that dress she'd worn to leave his mind. Finally, once she was done, they swapped places as he grabbed his pile of clothes and made his way behind the same curtain Megumin had been using.

Compared to his crimson eyed friend, Kazuma cycled through outfits at a much faster pace. Due to the large amount of clothes they'd both picked out for him, it was imperative that they work quickly, unless they wanted to stay there for the next few hours. They quickly developed a routine where Kazuma would come out and Megumin would either give him a quick thumbs up or thumbs down, though she only turned down a few, to let him know if they were worth keeping or not. Of course, she made it very clear when she especially liked a certain outfit or item, practically insisting that he purchase some of them, telling him 'how cool' he looked. That coupled with the way her face would occasionally heat up when he exited the booth was an ego boost that he was more than happy to receive.

"This is definitely gonna leave a sizable dent in my savings," Kazuma sighed as they made their way towards the counter, clothes in hand, "But it is kinda necessary. Oi, you don't happen to have any coupons for this place, right?".

"Nope, sorry. I've never even been in here before," Megumin gave him a sympathetic look as she carried her much smaller pile of clothes, the black dress Kazuma had enjoyed seeing her in so much being among the pile.

"Hey, Kazuma, did you check the cinema's screening times on the train ride here?" She asked him as they exited the store, their purchases now safely stored in the duffle bag slung over Kazuma's shoulder, along with his work clothes for later.

The boy let his arms rest behind his head as he walked, "Oh, yeah. There's one showing in about twenty minutes, one in about an hour and twenty minutes and another one in about two hours and twenty minutes."

"Hmm," Megumin scrunched her brows in thought, "You said earlier that there was an arcade nearby, didn't you?".

"Yeah, it's only a couple minutes away from here. I've been there with some friends before," Kazuma answered, tilting his head to look at her face, "Why, you wanna go there first?".

She nodded her head at him, "That's what I was thinking. I haven't been to an arcade in ages, so it might be fun to go there for a while. We can always just go to one of the later showings, no need to rush."

"Works for me," Kazuma flashed her a cocky grin, oozing with confidence, "Though you should know that I'm pretty much a master at things like this, so don't cry too much when you lose, okay?".

"Lose?" Her competitive spirit quickly flared up at his challenge, "Just because you spent months on end lazing around in your room playing video games, doesn't mean that I'll lose to you! I'm pretty good at stuff like this, if I do say so myself."

"Sure, I'll believe it when I see it," He said, wholly unconvinced, yet still amused by her enthusiasm, "I think you'll be quite shocked when you see how good I am a-".

"Hey, Kazuma!".

"Huh?".

Turning around, Kazuma instantly recognised a familiar face, Eris. Widely considered to be one of, if not outright, the most attractive girl in his school, Axel high. Not just that, but the very girl who'd helped him graduate from being a NEET and actually go back to school again. If not for her kind and understanding words to him back then, he might've never even taken Aqua in all those months ago.

Simply put, to Kazuma, she was the kind of girl who you'd see in the starring role of a typical high school rom-com. Truthfully, he was very much taken in by her.

"O-oh, hey Eris," He tried his best to act casual as he waved at her, "What's up?".

Megumin scowled as she looked between Kazuma and this new girl. She'd never heard of this 'Eris' girl before, but if her otherworldly beauty and the way that Kazuma was looking - and stuttering - at her was any indication of the relationship between them, she couldn't say that she was particularly fond of her. Didn't she already have enough things to deal with when it came to Kazuma?

The silver haired girl smiled brightly as she made her way towards the two. "Nothing much, I just thought today would be a nice day to do some shopping," She looked to Kazuma's side and took note of the short girl next to him, "Oh, and who is your friend, Kazuma? I don't think I've met her before."

The girl, now the centre of attention, hurriedly plastered a small smile on her face as Eris looked her way, praying that she hadn't seen the sour glare she was previously giving her, "My name is Megumin! I'm a very close friend of Kazuma's, he's staying with me over the Spring break, actually."

Eris' face suddenly lit up in recognition as a beautiful smile adorned her face. "Megumin, I recognise that name now. Kazuma has told me about you a few times before," The dark haired girl had a hopeful look in her eyes for a moment before she sent a sceptical glare to her friend, "Don't worry, Megumin, he hasn't said anything bad about you, on the contrary, he ha-".

"Anyway," Kazuma cut in, wanting to steer the conversation towards something much less embarrassing for him, "Hey, if you're not busy, how abo-".

"It's really nice to meet you, Eris," Megumin smiled as she discreetly stepped on Kazuma's foot, shutting him up, she could already tell his intentions and there was no way she was gonna let herself become a third wheel for Kazuma and this girl, "Me and Kazuma decided that we wanted to spend today checking out Axel, together. I gotta say, it really is nice here."

Admittedly, she knew that she was probably coming on a bit too strong, she didn't even know if this girl had any interest in Kazuma or not. But either way, despite how kind she was, Eris was still a rival to her for Kazuma's affection, something she wasn't willing to give up without a fight.

"How nice," Megumin felt a small wave of guilt wash over her as she saw how genuine the smile on Eris' face looked, it was entirely possible that she had been misjudging her, "You said something earlier about Kazuma staying over at your place over Spring break, so what's that all about?".

"Right…" Kazuma smirked sheepishly, scratching his cheek, "My roommate kinda burnt down our apartment, so Megumin let me stay with her while her parents are gone."

"H-her parents are gone?" Eris squeaked out, shocked, "Do they even know that you're living with her!?".

"Actually, it was my mom's idea to have him stay over while they were gone," Megumin explained, "Kazuma has been helping me take care of my adorable little sister."

"Aww, I wish I had a little sister," The high school girl cooed before seemingly remembering something, "Ah, but, Kazuma, what about your roommate, Aqua? Is she staying with you two as well?".

Kazuma frowned a little at the mention of her but responded anyway, "Nope, she's staying out of town with someone else right now. It's nice not having to deal with her for a little bit, haha."

His eyebrow twitched a little at how the conversation had been going. Sure, it hadn't been going poorly or anything, but it hadn't exactly been going great either. It felt more like some casual small talk between random acquaintances instead of an actual interesting conversation, like the ones he'd been having with Megumin literally all day.

As much as he hated to admit it, a lot of his conversations with Eris usually ended up like this. Not unpleasant, but not overly engaging or special. It just felt like he was always in a standstill with her. He groaned internally as he brooded over his romantic struggles. Surprisingly, even to himself, he felt as though he was gradually losing some of his motivation to keep chasing after Eris, especially with how little progress he always seemed to make with her. Though, now that he thought about it, maybe he was just being skewed by the intimate moment he'd had with Megumin the afternoon before, he couldn't really tell.

"I see," Eris softly said, "I'm very sorry to hear about the trouble she's been causing you but I really do hope that you continue to take care of her, Kazuma. You really are doing an incredibly kind thing by looking after her."

"Y-yeah, I guess so…".

Megumin twitched a little in irritation as she heard the kind of praise she had for Kazuma being given to him by someone else, the cute flustered expression he made in response to the other girl doing nothing to help her mood. She decided that now was as good a time as any to end the conversation.

"It really was nice to meet you, Eris," She told her earnestly, because she really didn't dislike the lilac eyed girl, she was just jealous of the clear interest Kazuma had for her, "But we really should get going now, we still have a lot left to do before Kazuma has to go to work later."

"Yes, you too, Megumin. It was lovely to meet you," The closed eye smile that Eris gave her was so powerful that it could be considered a lethal weapon, "And it was nice to see you again, too, Kazuma. See you soon."

"Uh, yeah. See you soon, Eris!" Kazuma smiled at her as they parted ways.

"Hey," Megumin spoke in a hushed voice once they were a considerable distance away from Eris, "Why are you so interested in that girl? It's clear that she's not interested in you. At least, not in that way."

In reality, she had no idea if Eris felt anything for Kazuma. She thought it was likely, based on her behaviour, that she didn't, but she was nowhere near as confident in that deduction as she had made herself sound.

Megumin did feel pretty guilty about her claim as she watched Kazuma's lips turn downwards for a moment, before returning to a neutral expression. "If you must know," He said, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice, "She was the one who helped me to stop being a shut-in. You can't really blame me for taking an interest in her, especially with how pretty she is. Not sure why you care so much about it though."

She was honestly a little shocked at the revelation that Eris had been the reason Kazuma had started attending classes again. Megumin had always just assumed that he'd managed to motivate himself, or that his parents had forced him into it, not that someone else had been there to help him get out of whatever mental pitfall he had been stuck in at the time. Someone who wasn't her.

Actually, now that she thought about it, she really knew almost nothing about Kazuma's time as a recluse. He had been missing from her life for almost half a year and she'd done pretty much nothing about it, besides hoping that she'd be able to see him again eventually. She hadn't even tried to call or visit him once, assuming that he was just busy with his new high school, instead of being alone in his room for months on end.

"Of course I care," She replied, with maybe a little too much emotion creeping into her voice from her previous thoughts, something that Kazuma didn't fail to take notice of, "I can't let such a close friend go around chasing someone who isn't interested in them, of course! Seeing such Yunyun-esque behaviour would just make me feel bad for you."

"Well, whatever you say," Kazuma looked at her with a complex expression, his heart beating just a little faster than usual.

"I was honestly expecting this place to be a lot smaller," Megumin commented as they entered the main floor of the arcade, looking around in awe.

Kazuma chuckled as he observed her expression. "Yeah, no kidding. Pretty sure I said the exact same thing when I first came here too, it's huge."

"Mhm. I've been to arcades before, but none of them had even a fraction of that amount of stuff here," She started hopping up and down in excitement as she took in the impressive vastness of the area, "Kazuma, Kazuma, they even have a full mini-golf course! We have to do that at some point, okay?".

"Sure," He shrugged, an amused look on his face, "I'm not as good at mini golf as I am at everything else here, but I'm sure that it'll be fun to beat you in that too."

"Fufufufufu, how naïve," Megumin giggled, striking a flashy pose before she spoke again, "When I was younger, I used to make mini-golf courses out of used cardboard boxes and twigs all the time, don't you dare doubt my skills!"

"Oh, is that so?" The boy leaned down to get in her face, the arcade environment re-igniting his spirit as a former hardcore gamer, "How about we go test that out right now, then?".

The girl grinned, determined to win, "Gladly."

Upon Kazuma and Megumin paying for a standard eighteen-hole game and procuring their clubs and balls, coloured green and red respectively, they excitedly made their way towards the first hole. Though she got a hole in one - it was the first hole after all - Megumin quickly wisened up to the fact that an actual mini-golf club and ball were a lot different to the tree branch and old musty tennis ball she had been used to using.

Despite that, she was still wholly confident in her ability to win, her confidence only soaring higher as Kazuma's ball almost completely missed the hole, only going into the hole through a wild stroke of luck; something that Megumin was all too used to when around him.

"It would've been pretty embarrassing if you had missed that shot," She playfully mocked him as they made their way towards hole two, "Good thing you have such ridiculous luck, it helps cover up your lack of skill."

Kazuma simply rolled his eyes, "Yeah, and imagine if that so-called 'ridiculous luck' came into play when it comes to anything that actually matters. I'd probably be filthy rich with a harem of hot girls by now."

"Good-for-nothing pervert," She scoffed as her small finger jabbed into Kazuma's chest, "Do you ever think of anything else besides lazing around all day and sex?".

"Unfortunately, yes," Kazuma crossed his arms as he watched Megumin line up her shot, carefully adjusting the angle and swinging with a moderate amount of force, "Holy shit, nice shot."

Megumin placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest in pride as she watched her ball ricochet off of the short walls surrounding the course and come to a perfect stop as it teetered above the hole, eventually falling in after a few tense seconds.

"Not as confident now, are you?" She got up in his face with a smug expression, causing him to push her backwards slightly in response to her sudden closeness.

"Not at all," The boy shot back, looking as casual and sure of himself as he could muster, "The first holes are supposed to be easy, you're obviously gonna start fumbling once it becomes actually difficult."

"Oi, stop looking at me like that," Kazuma grumbled as he observed the smug grin on Megumin's face as she presented the results sheet to him, making sure he could clearly see the results, "It's not like you completely destroyed me or anything, it was still close."

To his credit, the final results were somewhat close, with Kazuma having around six strokes over Megumin, though the small point gap could probably only be attributed to the girl's dreadful performance on hole twelve. Not including that, she had either beaten or drawn with him on almost every single hole.

"It's okay, Kazuma," The continued smug grin on her face heavily contrasting with her words, "Not everyone is good at everything. Something that involves as much planning and calculation as golf might just be a little too much for someone who's just used to mindlessly spamming buttons."

"Planning and calculation my ass," He complained as they returned their balls and clubs to the front desk and made their way back towards the main arcade, "You go against me in any of those fighting games over there and I'll show you what real planning and calculation is. I bet you don't even know what the term frame data means."

"I have no idea," She casually shrugged, smiling, "But it does sound like the kind of phrase that only some shut-in gamer like you would use."

"Ah, I get it," Kazuma snorted as he once again decided to rile up the girl's competitive nature. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her in the direction of a nearby multiplayer fighting game cabinet, "You don't actually have any skills to back you up, so you're resorting to petty insults. How typical."

From the look on her face, he could tell that his prodding had worked perfectly.

"How dare you accuse me of something like that! Just because I'm not some hardcore nerd like you, doesn't mean that I'm not capable of beating your ass at video games too!" Megumin confidently boasted, rushing forwards to match his pace instead of being dragged along behind him, "You better not treat me like some clueless girl who's never touched a controller in her life."

"Huh? Wait, what?" He stopped and looked back at her in genuine surprise, "I know that you're more of a nerd than you like to let on nowadays, but I always assumed that you couldn't afford video games."

She couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed at his completely on-the-money assessment, both in regards to her lack of funds to buy video games and her attempts in recent history to start covering up her more niche interests from everyone that wasn't Kazuma.

"Y-you're not totally wrong," Megumin admitted as Kazuma inspected the arcade machines around them, making mentals notes of the ones that peaked his interest, "There's no way we'd be able to afford anything modern, but I did manage to get a few older video games, and a console too, obviously, from a yard sale a few years back. It was my birthday present for that year."

He felt a warm feeling in his chest as he looked at the nostalgic smile on her face as she described the happy memory. It made him happy to know that, despite her family's constant financial struggles, she still considered her life to be a happy one. Truthfully, he was a little envious of how close her family seemed to be with each other; though he quickly decided to lock that thought away, at least for the time being.

Fortunately for him, as he was trying to rid himself of his more negative thoughts, a new thought crossed his mind as he thought about Megumin's words, one that quickly made him forget his previous pondering.

"Oi! So you're saying that you in fact do own video games and you're only telling me this now!?" He grit his teeth in frustration at the realisation that she had been hiding such treasures from him for the past three days.

"E-eh?" Megumin recoiled a bit at his intensity, "O-oh, right. Well, I was a little worried that if I told you, you'd go back to being a hermit and ignore me and Komekko. It was for your own good, I swear!".

Kazuma looked as though he was going to snap for a moment before he put a hand to his chin and took on a curious expression.

"You just completely forgot to mention it until now, didn't you?".

"...Maybe," She looked away in embarrassment, a few beads of sweat rolling down her forehead, "Can we please just play now?".

"Pleeeease, Kazuma! Just one more round? I know that I'll beat you this time," Megumin pleaded as her hands desperately latched onto his shirt, her eyes locked onto the cabinet's screen, watching as the 'Player 1 Wins' text overlaid the game for what felt like the millionth time that day.

"No way. You've been saying that for the past five rounds, just give up already," Kazuma reprimanded her as he tried and failed to pry the girl off of him, "If we keep going until you win, we won't have time to do anything else!".

"Fine," Came her response as she weakly headbutted his upper torso, "I won't be a sore loser about my loss, like you were earlier. Let's go play something else."

He decided to bite back his retort of 'You've been acting like a sore loser for the past ten minutes', knowing that any further provocation would just make her even more determined to beat him, something he wasn't really in the mood to deal with anymore.

"Hey, Megumin," He looked down at the girl who was still gripping his shirt, "How about we try something where we have to work together? Like, a multiplayer game or something?".

The short-statured girl fidgeted a little, caught off guard by his sudden suggestion, before she loosened her grip and looked up into his eyes. "Yeah, it might be nice to do something t-together," She shrank back a little, embarrassed by the random stutter, before laughing it off in an attempt to recompose herself "How about we try the claw machines?".

Kazuma rested his chin in his hand in contemplation as he followed behind her, in the direction of the claw machines, "Well, on one hand, those things are almost always heavily rigged against the player; I doubt we'll actually win anything. But, on the other hand, it might be fun to at least give it a few tries."

"Kazuma, Kazuma, look!" Megumin happily called out, a few metres ahead of him, giving him the mental image of a kid in a candy shop, "Let's go for this one. Look at how cool that red dragon is!".

Casually making his way towards where she was pointing, Kazuma laid his eyes upon a standard looking claw machine. Contained within it, among a myriad of other plushies, was the object of the girl's interest, a moderately large red dragon plushie.

"Eh, cool isn't really the first word that comes to mind for me," Kazuma commented as he leaned closer to analyse the dragon, "I guess I can kinda see what you mean… maybe? Either way, I don't really mind aiming for this one if you want it so badly, at least there's actually something for the claw to latch onto".

"So, do you think we'll be able to get it, Kazuma?" Megumin's eyes lit up as she questioned him. She had very quickly taken a liking to the dragon, even beginning to brainstorm some potential name for if they really could win it.

The boy scratched his head awkwardly in response to her overwhelming excitement, "Not sure. As I said earlier, these machines are almost always super rigged, so that people dump as much yen into them as possible."

"Well, yeah, I know that. I'm pretty sure everyone knows that by this point," She told him as she dug around in her pocket from her purse, "But still, it's not like winning is impossible. We just gotta be really accurate with where we drop the claw."

"May as well give it a few tries I guess," He found himself slowly began to be swept up by her enthusiasm, sauntering over to the control panel, "Hey, how about I control the claw and you go around the machine and tell the best place to drop from, 'kay?".

Megumin sent him a grin and a thumbs up as she inserted her money into the machine, receiving a similar grin and thumbs up from Kazuma in return.

Surprisingly, they did actually manage to win a prize from the claw machine. Even more surprisingly, it was the exact thing that they had been aiming for, the red dragon. Unsurprisingly, though, it took a small chunk of Megumin's allowance in order to obtain it. Though, that said, they still did do a good job when it came to coordinating the position of the claw, the approach of Kazuma moving it under Megumin's supervision being a fairly successful one.

"I'll admit," Kazuma placed his hands on his hips as he watched Megumin pluck the plushie from the machine's prize hole, "I didn't expect that we'd actually win anything, nice job."

"Mhm," She nodded in agreement, gazing down at the doll in her arms with a proud expression, "Do you think that Komekko will like it?".

"Huh?" He questioned, only just catching on to the fact that Megumin had been trying to win the prize for her little sister. He'd honestly just assumed that she wanted it for herself. "Hmmm, yeah. I'm sure she'll like it, especially if it's from you. She also might try to eat it though."

"Well, it's from you too. You helped me get it, after all," She smiled softly at him for a few moments before looking back down toward the dragon, "It's not often that Komekko gets new toys, so I hope she likes this."

"You really are a good big sister…" Kazuma mumbled, unconsciously - barely above a whisper - but she still heard him.

Megumin quivered slightly, raising the plushie up to just below her eyes in an attempt to conceal her newly developed blush, "Th-thank you… I a-always do my best to take care of Komekko when my parents are too busy to do it themselves."

"Right, w-well, you do a pretty good job of it," He awkwardly looked around, hoping to find something, anything, that he could use to take the attention off of his unintentional words, and the wave of embarrassment that came with them, "Woah, no way. They have an air hockey table here. That wasn't here last time I came!".

Around an hour had passed, and Kazuma and Megumin were finally making their way out of the arcade, headed in the direction of the mall's cinema. After a few rounds of air hockey, being possibly the only game in the entire arcade that they seemed to be equally skilled at, they moved back to the arcade machines, both co-op and competitive.

Though, after the girl, who was 'not exactly at peak physical fitness' - to put it lightly - began panting and wheezing, obviously out of breath, after only three rounds of getting way too into a certain dancing based rhythm game, Kazuma decided that they'd had their fill of the arcade for the day. It was just his luck that they were only around fifteen minutes away from the next showing time for the movie they had both wanted to watch, a movie adaptation of an anime that they both mutually enjoyed.

"Uuuurggh," Megumin groaned, letting her head rest next to Kazuma's, "You didn't tell me that it would be this exhausting."

"Yeah, that's because it isn't. Maybe if you actually attended gym class more often, you might finally surpass the stamina of a senior citizen," He chided her, receiving a soft, but still firm, headbutt in response, "Anyway, I get that you're tired out and all, but was it really necessary to have me carry you? I'm pretty sure that we've been getting a few strange looks."

"Don't care," She mumbled, not feeling the need to speak up due to her close proximity to his ear, "This is comfortable. And my legs still ache a little bit."

"Fine," The boy huffed, slightly adjusting his grip on her legs, "But you're getting down as soon as we reach the theatre, you hear me? There's no way I'm carrying you all the way to your seat."

She sighed exaggeratedly, but nodded regardless, "Fair enough."

"Oh, come on, Kazuma," Megumin practically pranced around the boy as they left the cinema, "You have to admit how cool that fight scene was!".

"I'm not saying that it was bad. It just sucks that a ton of scenes from the original source material were cut," Kazuma reasoned with her, "But, yes, for your information, I did think that the final fight was cool."

"Well, I do get what you mean, but doesn't that kind of stuff happen in adaptations all the time?" She questioned.

He shrugged, dumping their empty popcorn boxes into a trash can as they passed by, "I mean, yeah, it does. But that doesn't mean that I can't complain about it anyway, especially when they cut out actually good scenes."

"I've never seen someone be so passionate about nit-picking."

"Oi, it's not nit-picking!" Kazuma scowled at her, getting an eye roll in return, "It's fair and valid criticism. I'm not saying that it was bad or anything."

"Personally, I loved it," Megumin's eyes sparkled as she talked, "I've never seen such beautifully animated explosion effects before! Don't tell me that you didn't notice how incredible they looked, Kazuma."

The boy gave her a deadpan stare as he observed the dreamy look on her face. "Of course you'd enjoy it for a stupid reason like that."

"S-stupid? I expected better from you Kazuma! How could you call explosions stupid?" She pointed an accusatory finger at him, "Take that back right now."

"Right, right, of course," Kazuma replied, his voice as monotone as possible, "I'm so sorry Megumin. I'll never do something so stupid ever again."

The girl smiled brightly at him, "Apology accepted."

'The hell? She accepted that as an apology?'.

"So…" Megumin spoke up again, with a look in her eyes that seemed to contain a small amount of disappointment, though Kazuma wasn't entirely sure if he'd seen it clearly. Whatever it was, it faded away before he could get a better look at it. "Are we going now, then?".

"Mhm, yeah," He relaxed his posture as they continued walking, "Our train doesn't leave for a while still, but we wouldn't really have enough time to do anything else here and get back to the station on time, so we may as well just take our time getting there."

"I see… Hey, Kazuma?" She quickly got a response of 'yeah?' from the boy, "...I had fun today, thank you."

"No problem, I-I had fun too," Kazuma coughed into his fist, trying to steady his nerves. Today really had felt like a date to him, a thought that made his heart feel all sorts of different things. "We should do this again sometime."

"Maybe we can go with Komekko next time," Megumin suggested as she looked down at the red dragon, tucked under her right arm, "I'm sure she'd love the arcade."

Kazuma felt warm, fresh air blast his face as they exited the mall and wandered out into the streets of Axel, "Sounds good to me."

Their time in Axel for the day had come and gone, with the train having left the station around three minutes ago. Kazuma smiled slightly as he watched the bustling town gradually disappear from his vision. Prying his gaze away from the window and turning to his left, he saw Megumin, in the seat next to him, absentmindedly fiddling with the plushie, prideful of her winnings.

When they eventually reached their destination - in around twenty five minutes - they'd be splitting up for the next few hours, with Kazuma heading over to the cafe for his work shift and Megumin heading over to take Komekko home from kindergarten. Today, similar to almost every other day, Kazuma wasn't exactly looking forward to his shift at work. If it wasn't for the fact that he quite literally had to have a job in order to survive, he'd probably have quit a while ago. Or at least, he would've asked Chris for significantly fewer shifts.

Not that he particularly hated his part-time job though. Truthfully, with how lenient his boss was with him, he considered himself somewhat lucky to get the job he had. It also helped that such a job definitely helped him improve his ways as a cook significantly, going from someone who could only cook cup ramen and microwave meals to a pretty competent chef in only a few months of working there.

Again, looking back at Megumin, he noticed something different, something that he hadn't really bothered to take notice of before; there was barely anyone near them. Sure, there were other people on the train, but all of them were off in their own world a couple of seats in front or behind them. In their immediate area, there was practically no one, a piece of information that gave Kazuma a wonderfully devious idea.

Shuffling up towards the window, he made as much distance between himself and Megumin as was possible on their two train seats. Seemingly noticing him moving away from her, Megumin looked over at him just in time to see his head softly fall down into her lap.

"K-k-kazuma?" She squeaked, trying to keep her voice down in an attempt to not draw attention to them, "W-what do you think you're d-doing!?".

"Getting my lap pillow," He said matter-of-factly, immensely enjoying the view of her adorably flustered face, "We were interrupted last night."

"That's not what I meant!" The embarrassed girl sharply whispered, yet she made no attempt to move him off of her, "We're in p-public, Kazuma."

"Relax," He told her nonchalantly, bringing a hand up to rest on her thigh, though that only served to further redden her face, "No one is near us, I wouldn't be doing this otherwise."

She looked around for a moment, to confirm if his words were true or not, and relaxed a little when she saw that he was in fact correct. "Well, o-okay," She softly stuttered, letting out a nervous breath.

Though he did enjoy seeing her get embarrassed because of him, Kazuma felt a sharp pang of guilt as he noticed small tears of embarrassment prick up in the corners of her eyes for a brief moment, before disappearing again. "Look, it's fine," Kazuma slowly began to lift his head up from her lap, though with immense reluctance, "If you're really that uncomfortable then I'll get u-"

"No, it's okay," Megumin tried to reassure him as she shoved his head back down into her lap, doing everything in her power to calm herself down, "I'm not bothered by it at all, I already know how much of a gross pervert you truly are."

From the tone of her voice and her hurtful words, it almost seemed as if she was actually angry with him, though the way she began to tenderly caress his hair, as he had done for her the previous day, made it clear that she wasn't annoyed at all. She took a few deep breaths to try and steady her breathing, the soft texture of his hair on her fingertips calming her further.

Feeling somewhat bold now that Megumin was finally comfortable with their position, Kazuma started to move the hand that was resting on her leg, absentmindedly rubbing up and down. He smirked, pushing his charisma as far as it could go, "You know, you have really soft thighs, Megumin~."

His random bout of confidence was quickly squashed as he felt her free hand rest upon his cheek, shaking ever so slightly, as she softly rubbed circles into his skin with her index finger. "...Sh-shut up, okay?" She breathily whispered, biting at her bottom lip. Truthfully, hearing him say something like that about her sent her head into a complete tailspin, and getting him to stop talking was all she could do to stifle her raging heart.

Kazuma didn't speak after that, he couldn't. His throat felt as though it had gone completely dry. He simply just sunk further into her lap as he allowed her to continue exploring his hair and cheek, massaging her thigh in return. Though the whole experience, along with the entire day they'd just spent together, made Kazuma determined to take the time to properly figure out what he actually felt for Megumin, he decided that now was not the time for that. He'd rather just enjoy this moment, for however long it would last.

It turned out that, to Kazuma's luck, they had stayed in that position for almost the entire train ride, only getting up when their stop was announced to be coming up soon. After getting off of the train and leaving the station, the two exchanged awkward goodbyes before heading off to their respective destinations.

Over an hour had passed since then and Kazuma's work shift was now in full swing. He'd done his best to stop Chris from questioning further about the happy look on his face as he came into work, something which was apparently a rarity in her eyes. All things considered, his shift was fairly laid back so far, especially when compared to the fairly busy shift he'd had the day before.

Discreetly checking his phone, he saw that the time was quickly approaching 6:30. He'd spent the last forty minutes in the kitchen, being the one to prepare and cook the orders that Chris would pass along to him. Though he usually would've taken the post out front for his first hour or so, some irritating patrons had quickly gotten on his nerves and chief had thankfully decided to switch roles with him after watching him silently seethe for a few minutes.

"Hey, helper," Chris cheerily called out to him as she stuck her head through the doorframe, "We're switching. I need you out front pronto, there are already customers waiting to order."

He let out an exaggerated groan at her, "I thought you were the one who constantly told me not to switch while there are customs waiting to order."

"I was!" The older girl sneakily grinned, "But this is an exception to that rule. I want you to go out and serve them. You can thank me later, no worries."

And with that cryptic message and a wink, she grabbed his shoulders and pushed him out of the kitchen. The moment he made it out of the employees' area and into the main room of the café, it instantly dawned on him just why Chris had been so eager to get him out front.

"Big brother!" Komekko shouted as she ran up to Kazuma and tightly hugged his leg. He tried his best to ignore the surprised looks that he was getting from the cafe regulars as the small girl clung to him.

"Hi," Megumin gave him a small wave as she walked up to him, softly trying to pry her sister from his leg, "Surprised?".

Chomusuke meowed in greeting from her spot on the girl's shoulder.

"Psh, yeah, a little," He exhaled from his nose in amusement as he reached down to lightly tousle Komekko's hair, "So what exactly are you doing here?".

"I haven't seen you all day," Her pout managed to rival even Megumin's, "And then big sis told me that you were at a place that makes yummy food, so I knew that I had to come try some!".

"She wouldn't take no for an answer…" The older of the two sisters added on, "But you did say that I could come visit you while you're working. So it isn't a problem, right?".

"Oh, I did say that, didn't I?" Kazuma remembered, shrugging it off, "No, it isn't a problem, but I do actually have to, y'know, work. I can't just stand around for the rest of my shift."

"I know," Megumin smiled at him, grabbing Komekko's hand and leading her to the front counter, "We're here to order."

"Alright, what will it be then," He asked as he took the pen and pad Chris had left on the counter for him.

"I'll have the beef udon stir fry," The older girl requested.

"Spaggy-tee and meatballs please, big brother!" Komekko looked up at him with wide, excited eyes.

"Big brother? Is there something that you're not telling me here, helper?" Chris questioned, appearing seemingly out of nowhere as she leaned over Kazuma's shoulder, or tried to, at least. Despite being three years younger than her, he still had the height advantage.

"GAH!? C-chief?" He scowled, embarrassed at his surprised outburst.

"Nice to see you again, Megumin!" Chris greeted her, getting an enthusiastic thumbs up from the girl, before she crouched down in front of Komekko, smiling her widest smile possible, "And who are you? Aren't you just the cutest little thing ever?".

"My name is Komekko, I'm four!" She introduced herself as she gazed up at Chris with great interest, "Do you also make tasty food in this place, like my big brother does, miss chief?".

"You know it, scamp!" The silver haired girl affectionately patted her on the head, "I'm gonna make you the tastiest spaghetti and meatballs ever, okay?".

Komekko vigorously nodded, "Yay! Thank you miss chief!".

"So what'll you be drinking?" Chris asked as she stood back up, turning her attention to Megumin.

"Umm, well…" She seemed to be a little uncomfortable, "We'll just have two waters. Water i-is free here, right?"

Kazuma, understanding the situation, leaned over and whispered something into his boss' ear for a few seconds, before she nodded and he leaned back.

"I see," She took the pen and pad from Kazuma and began scribbling something down, "So a lemonade for you and a nice glass of apple juice for the little one, on the house! Oh, and a saucer of milk for your little friend, of course."

"Th-thank you," Megumin shyly responded as Komekko jumped up and down in joy and Chomusuke just yawned while Kazuma sent her a thumbs up.

"Well, I'd love to keep talking, but I've gotta go prepare your food and drinks for you. Hey, helper, go and show them to their table now, 'kay?".

Kazuma managed to barely hold himself back from commenting on the fact that 'showing people to their table' was never something that they did at the café and instead just led them over to an unoccupied table for two.

After the two sisters had sat down, and their cat hopped down onto the table, Kazuma was luckily granted a few free minutes, with no new arrivals or current customers in need of assistance, to talk to them. All of which was taken up by Komekko telling him all about the fun she'd had at kindergarten, not that he at all minded. Unfortunately, though, it was only a matter of time before a new customer entered the café and he had to scurry back to the front desk, much to Komekko's displeasure. She had been in the middle of telling him about her lunch.

While he didn't really get another chance to properly talk to them for the time being, he did still get to experience the adorable sight of Komekko's face lighting up as she tasted her first bite of meatball pasta from afar. Eventually, both girls had finished their food, and the younger one was starting to look fairly drowsy, her bedtime quickly approaching.

"Hey, Kazuma," Megumin got his attention as she wandered over to the front counter, her groggy little sister holding onto her hand, and Chomusuke trotting along next to her, "We're gonna go home now. It's almost Komekko's bedtime, after all."

At the mention of her name, she snapped her eyes towards Kazuma, as if she'd been in a daze, "Goonight big brother… The sketty was… super duper yummy…".

He laughed a little as he watched her desperately battle to stay conscious, her eyes half lidded. "Good night Komekko, sleep tight."

"I'll probably still be awake when you get back," Megumin told him, deciding to scoop the little girl into her arms before she fell asleep, "But if I'm not, then good night, Kazuma."

He couldn't stop himself from smiling at the simple scene in front of him. "Yeah, good night, Megumin."