Today was a normal, calm day overall. The sky was blue and clear, the sun shone down upon the plains of the Starter City of Axel and adventurers were out doing their usual quests. The walled city was a hive of activity even today, as travelling merchants and Adventurers from Belzerg continued coming and going. It was oddly peaceful, though, for what was supposed to be the town where Adventurers began their Great Quests, such as wiping out the Demon King, for instance.

One such adventurer and unfortunate soul was Kazuma Satou, revived young Japanese fella from god-knew-where. He had died a horribly embarrassing death that he didn't want to talk about and was currently stuck with one of the most unimpressive parties in the entire world. A single-shot Crimson Mage who could only cast one spell once a day, a 'goddess' that was so useless, he may as well have been carrying her like baggage, and a masochistic blonde Paladin.

Megumin, Aqua and Darkness. His party since the start of this silly mess several months ago. He did care for them, as much as he didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to admit it because he was pretty sure they had shortened his second lifespan by quite a lot with their antics. Still, he cared. That was more than he could say about a bunch of the people in his past life.

Kazuma was a young man with brown hair and green eyes, a bit abnormal for a Japanese kid. He had also landed here in his gym clothing, but he wore something a bit more fitting for the medieval thing he was in right now. A green cape with a gold rim draped over his shoulders, a white shirt, black pants and a pair of leather shoes. Add to that he had a sword clipped to his belt alongside a 'purse' of sorts in which he kept his Adventurer's ID and he was in the most bog-standard equipment to date.

Yes, the world was calm and quiet. Kazuma had half a mind to go rest in their little mansion, sleep the day away and not give a rat's behind about the world as it was today, but he had other issues right now. He noticed the youngest of his team-mates charging him, seemingly in distress. "Kazuma! Kazuma! KAZUMA!" Megumin cried, flailing her hands as she rushed toward him.

"Hai, Kazuma des," The boy replied in clean Japanese. He felt himself get yanked by the collar by the younger crimson mage. He staggered, then asked "The heck are you doing, Megumin!?"

"We got some big metal monsters heading our way! Darkness and Aqua are already there and Aqua kept telling us to get you!" Megumin replied with a shout, which stunned the young man for a moment. He let himself get dragged off, thinking they were facing another case of some new creatures belonging to the Demon King's army showing up. He felt a pit form in his stomach once they approached the gate and saw the gathered Adventurers, some of whom were clamoring over each-other to see what was going on.

Before long, Megumin, with her small stature, managed to get them to the front, yelling various "Pardons", "Excuse Mes" and "Outta the Ways!" as she went. Surprising was that Kazuma was also able to cleanly pass through courtesy of her. He noticed several of the Adventurers stop to look at them, which unnerved him a little. The duet finally made it to the front of the line, where they saw a stunned Darkness staring forward, alongside a fidgeting, trembling Aqua.

Usually, the young man wouldn't take Aqua's trembling for something bad. The woman was notorious for faking some feelings and tears when it came to this kinda stuff. This time, though, Kazuma could see what worried her so. And he felt that pit in his stomach deepen as he watched the events ahead unfold, turning pale as bone at the sight. Megumin, meanwhile, fidgeted, fiddling with her hands, Darkness held her hand wrapped around the hilt of her sword and Aqua... Continued to tremble.

Dark-green paint, military camouflage patterns and matte-black weaponry stood in the hands of the men and women before them, alongside a squadron of desert-tan tanks in the rear and a bunch of familiarly-shaped, feared combat vehicles farther back. Four men seemed to be speaking to one of the town's gate guards, explaining to him the situation while they waited for the mayor.

Kazuma noticed the patches on their shoulders, the flags. Nations from Earth, one of which was a close ally of his people's... And his people themselves.

Japanese, American, Russian, Chinese. His plucky little nation and the three superpowers who stared each-other down at their borders with nuclear and conventional armaments. Officers from all four stood together, talking to a simple town guardsman that was way out of his element. Kazuma, however, approached the gate and placed a hand on the cold steel bars, staring at the Japanese Self-Defense Force officer ahead.

The SDF man, tall, pale and with black hair, turned toward Kazuma, then hummed and flashed a smile, offering him a thumbs up. Kazuma took a moment, blinking, before yelling out, "Jietai!" with a smile on his face. The Lieutenant of the SDF stopped, staring dead at him, while his comrades seemed to pause for a moment. The Russian said something inaudible to him, clearly in English, before both the Jap and the American walked up to the gate.

"You... Know who we are. And you just called us by our Japanese name..." The Japanese Lieutenant spoke.

The American, seemingly his friend and a Marine, smirked and looked to Kazuma, before noting, "Maybe he overheard our language from some of the people those fantasy shits captured. Who knows?"

"No, no, no! I'm a Japanaese citizen!" Kazuma started in perfect Japanese, stunning his teammates for a moment, "How'd you... How the heck did you, the Americans, Russians and Chinese get here?!"

"Uh..." The two men looked to one-another, then the Japanese officer spoke, "Maybe we can talk inside, man? We're not particularly sure what this world is, seeing as we arrived less than a week ago. And we may wanna learn how one of Japan's citizens wound up in the midst of an alien world like this, my boy..." to which Kazuma grinned. Maybe, maybe, just maybe he had a chance to go home now!

Kazuma had had to vouch for the troops the moment the mayor of the town had come about. Before long, the entire convoy of allied vehicles and the troops escorting or aboard it had rolled into town. Noticeable among the ranks of the allied troops, however, was the presence of Demihumans. Bunny girls, catgirls, foxgirls and even anthropomorphic animals wore the uniforms of the UN troops present.

The tank force was from the US Marine Corps and the Chinese were definitely not PLA, going by the fact their uniforms had the red flag with the white sun in the blue square on the top-right corner. It was just their equipment at resembled the PRC kit. So, something told Kazuma that these weren't his world's people, or, if they were, a lot had happened since the time he died.

Taking them to the middle of the town square, the officer cadre all stopped while their troops radioed in to their command, waiting to see just what they should do now that they'd arrived at a surprisingly friendly town. Even ignoring the stares from the other adventurers, the place seemed just a little surprised that a group of modern military assets had arrived.

"Well..." First Lieutenant Itami, one of he higher-ranking officers of the platoon here and leader of Third Recon, started as he looked at Kazuma and his party, all of whom had been gathered up in front of them to chat. What Kazuma had just told them, about he himself being from Japan and the likes, seems to have stunned even his team. All of them sans the blue-haired one, anyway.

"Yep." A member of the British Royal Marines started next. Richard Samuels shifted uneasily, slinging his SA80 assault rifle onto his back and crossing his arms to the chest. It was a weird tale to hear, but not weirder than the Gate having opened a second time, honestly. It was part of the reason they had Demihuman citizens that had signed up with them in the first place...

"This is fucking weird." The good Lieutenant Henry Torres of the United States Marine Corps voiced his own opinion, holding his XM5 SPEAR close. The US had long-ago updated their arsenal to the XM5, ever since the Ginza incident. It was still experimental only because SIG was ironing out the kinks in the design and the ammunition. That and the Vortex smartscope.

The Japanese lieutenant snorted, shouldering his modified Howa Type-89 AR, "Tell me about it. One of our own citizens here?"

"We knew there were other universes the moment the Gate first opened, honestly. This isn't as surprising as it should be." Replied another woman, this one with pure white hair, red eyes and a pair of Bunny ears that had appeared as soon as she had taken off her combat helmet. This was Tyuule Samuels, Staff Sergeant in the UK Royal Marines' Warrior Bunny Infantry Corps. A ring glimmered around her left hand's ring finger. She was the wife of Richard Samuels.

"Yeah, but a Japanese kid in the middle of this entire clusterfuck?" Henry stated, rubbing his eyes, "It's like God decided to slap us in the face and say 'Haha, look, I can open gates everywhere, bitch'. I'm just glad we didn't meet anything more hostile than a bunch of weaker 'mob-type' monsters when they hit Ginza again just a month ago." And he looked to see the reactions of the four-person Adventuring gang. Around them, a larger crowd of adventurers had gathered.

"He has a point." Another Warrior Bunny, this one with brown hair and golden eyes, replied as she shifted uneasily. This was Sarah Welkin, wife to Edward Welkin, one of the US Marine Corps tankers sat aboard Misfit Company's MBTs. The man was leaned out of the hatch, looking around at the crowd with a hint of unease. The same unease the soldier felt.

"Hey, hey, hey, guys, girls, please slow down." The Useless Blue Goddess started, confused as can be about what the troop was talking, "Another Gate? What? There were more and... How the heck did it open again?"

"What is this 'gate' you people speak of? And do you come from Kazuma's world, then...?" The blonde masochist of the gang asked, shifting the position of her behind on the bench she was sat as she looked at the Russian and Chinese troops chatting away while maintaining security. There was something oddly terrifying about the presence of this many armed men and women in their little town.

"They're so coooooool...!" The Crimson Demon's eyes were stars as she looked at the soldiers' kit. Kazuma had never taken the girl as a nerd about weapons, but, then again, there was probably still a lot they didn't know about each-other. And it wasn't like he had talked about his world for them to know just how their modern militaries functioned. No magic and all that.

"I mean, I agree, but I'm with Darkness on that. Does this mean I can... Go home?" Kazuma inquired, finally having reached the exact point he wanted to get to when talking to these folks. Even if it was a different world, it was still somewhat his own. An advanced world, where the amenities of everyday life would be at his fingertips once again, no worrying about dying to various threats, no more dealing with Aqua's stupidity, or the other two... He saw Aqua staring at him, a little worried, before feeling a pang of guilt in his chest. He sighed.

"We're still looking into the sitch, kid." Torres replied calmly, giving a quick look-over to his XM5. He explained to Kazuma calmly as he looked the young man in the eye, "Trying to find your family and the likes, tell them you're okay somehow, yadda yadda. It's a long process. Give us some time and we'll let you know if you can visit home afterward, alright?"

"Right." The boy sighed and nodded.

"As for all your other questions, folks?" Itami looked to the girls, all of whom straightened up as soon as the man started speaking. He smiled at them, "Well, for short, we're travelers from what we presume to be Kazuma's world, yes. We're here to initiate talks with the locals and find out just who the hell sent an army of Skeletons, a pair of giant toads and a few other undead creatures to try and mess with us. Don't worry, we wiped them out before they got too deep into Ginza this time."

"Speaking of..." The Marine Warrior Bunny grinned. Tyuule hummed and chuckled as Sarah continued, "We getting even more reinforcements this time, right? I head the Finns finally decided to send over Third Company, which means we may be looking at the more elite units of the Finnish Conscripts coming by to say hello. Probably a lot of friends of the KFOR gang."

"Oh, great. Junttila's gonna swing by. The amount of tomfoolery she and Shino are gonna get into..." Youji snorted, then covered his mouth, all while the confused locals looked on.

"You did not just fucking use 'Tomfoolery' unironically, Itami." Henry shielded his own mouth, trying not to burst into a laughing fit at his comrade's use of old-ish new jargon.

"Swear to Christ, the weirdest friends ever..." The British Royal Marine chuckled, his wife next to him smiling as her ears twitched. Some part of the girls was surprised to see so many demi-humans among the ranks of this alternate Earth, but, then again, who wouldn't be surprised? Kazuma himself was more interested in other matters, though. Like who else was coming.

In fact, the young man was so sharply focused on the idea of getting home quick, even though his teammates stared at him with a hint of worry, that he started, "Uh, fellas? A LITTLE FOCUS HERE, PLEASE?!" and he sighed, "I'm not sure how many people are gonna be cool with you folks just sort of rolling on up into the place. Heck, you might have to talk to the Kingdom's leaders before-"

"We're already working on making contact," Tyuule replied calmly, "Don't worry, mister Kazuma."

Overhead, rotorblades chopped through the air, echoing down to them. Kazuma and his party looked up, with Megumin jumping to her feet, a wide smile on her face as she saw them. US Military transport helicopters, namely Chinooks and Black Hawks, flew overhead. Gasps of surprise and murmurs filtered throughout the crowd of adventurers around them, as well, with Kazuma staring, dumbfound, but happy, watching their comrades' air power fly in. Behind the US Military helos flew in Russian and Chinese ones, all bearing marks of seemingly reformed countries utilizing this armament.

"Well, that solves that..." Kazuma sighed, "Huh, wait, we told you guys we're in a mansion and all that, right?"

"Uh-huh..." Itami nodded, "You're gonna have a unit assigned if you don't mind. We'll need places to set up forward operating bases and..."

"Yeah, no, I'm cool with it," Kazuma nodded, "Would be nice to have more people to talk to in there that know what I'm referencing from time to time, sir." And that got Itami to chuckle. However, his teammates seemed a bit stunned with just how easily he was gonna let a foreign military element into their homes. He looked to them and shrugged, "What? I'd like to have folks from my world."

"Y'know, it hits kind of hard to realize you apparently died and came back here, Kazuma," Megumin noted, "So would you mind expanding on that when we get home?" before crossing her arms to her chest and glaring at him and Aqua. Aqua froze, looking to Kazuma as well, as if begging him to help her outta this rut, somehow, some way. Darkness also gave him a quizzical look. He sighed deeply, his shoulders sagging...

He forgot about that.

And so, back at the Mansion...

Kazuma had given them a rundown(with the help of Aqua) of the events that led to his arrival in their world, minus the embarrassment of his death. He'd managed to shut Aqua up about it enough for her not to be able to get another word in without the story sounding completely Bogus, so there was that much. The Mansion itself was now eerily quiet as the girls tried to process this shtuff.

"So, let me get this straight." Megumin, being surprisingly the most lucid of the members as it seemed to her, started, "You died, met Aqua while she was still a goddess, the goddess Aqua of the Axis Cult," then she added with a remarkable nonchalance, as if trying to take a stab at Aqua herself with the murmured, but still audible words "A rather minor cult here-"

"HEY!" Aqua cut her off, angry at that remark.

The girl, however, continued, unabated by Aqua's angry stare, "And because she laughed at ya for something, you dragged her along with you to our world in hopes of defeating the Demon King, who has, in-so-far, not done a lot to try and counter that. Right?" And, of course, even that sounded crazy if she put it like that. it was kind of deranging to even think something like this was possible.

"That about sums it up, yes." Kazuma replied, also carrying an incredible nonchalance. In fact, deep down, he was kind of glad this thing got exposed, finally. He was tired of pretending he wasn't the crazy one when talking to Aqua, whom the girls must've thought up until now was a close frienemy of the young Japanese male. Certainly not the weirdest opinion he'd heard in regards to his and Aqua's relationship.

Darkness herself, ever wise, despite her penchant for strange moments, took a moment, putting her hands together and taking a deep breath, then asking them with surprising calm in her voice, "And why, pray tell, did neither of you tell us about this until now?" all while the two seemed to shrink on the couch. Darkness may have been a tad goofy, but the girl who now sipped from tea,

"We figured you'd think we're crazy. And, honestly, I wouldn't have blamed you." The boy admitted, which caused both Megumin and Darkness to pause. Was that really it? They thought their two teammates, who were a bit insane in their own right, would call them crazy for stating a surprisingly obvious-in-hindsight thing? Megumin figured Kazuma was not really from around the bend, but she didn't but in to say anything.

"Yep..." Aqua rubbed the back of her neck, cheeks faintly tinted red. She cast a glance toward Kazuma, not of anger but of seeming understanding, which was a fairly-rare occurrence from the girl, then she gazed forward at the slightly-surprised members of the Party and finished with, "It seems odd even now, when we say it. Heck, it seems odd to us and we're the ones who went through the whole experience."

Megumin hummed, then sighed deeply and chuckled, "... Suppose that's fair enough, honestly." and she then looked out of the window as a Helicopter flew overhead, its engine noises muffled by the chop of the rotor-blades. She hummed, then motioned to the outside with both hands and shrugged, "I'd have a harder time believing it if these soldiers from your world didn't actually just... Drop by."

"True." Darkness hummed, then patted Kazuma on the shoulder and looked to Aqua. She took a moment to take in her team-mates details again and stated rather directly and bluntly, "I suppose if you think about it, it makes sense. Aqua does match the Axis Cult's description of their Goddess. We just never took notice because her Cult isn't particularly widespread-"

"Aw, c'mooohohohooooon!" The girl whined audibly. So many stabs taken at her today made Kazuma giggle deviously.

"But why pick him?" Megumin, however, added, souring Kazuma's mood.

"Huh?" Both of them quirked a brow at that. Aqua had to take a moment to register the question properly, before looking to Kazuma and bursting out into her own stint of giggling, which further exacerbated the confusion of the young Japanese man sat beside her. Her giggling grew in intensity, before turning into a full-blown laugh as she fell onto the couch, grabbing onto her gut.

"I mean... No offense, Kazuma, but you're a bit... Weak..." The girl paused and curled her lips a bit, narrowing them into a barely-visible slit.

"HEY!" Kazuma yelled this time, jumping to his feet.

"And Aqua is also just an entertainer at this point." Darkness added, with Aqua suddenly stopping her laughter and staring at Darkness as if she'd just killed her puppy. The woman continued, "Her magical powers can be summed up as parlor tricks and entertainment things. Surely, that is on par with the Axis Cult's behavior, but that doesn't mean she wouldn't know to pick someone stronger... This is all kinds of mindboggling and I so wish those soldiers outside could give us an answer, but I'm afraid they may not know much about this, either..." and then let out a deep sigh.

By this point, the verbal beatdowns both Kazuma and Aqua had received had worn down on their well-being, with Aqua already sulking in a corner, a massive bottle of alcohol in hand. Kazuma, meanwhile, loomed by the window, disappointed and clearly waiting for something. That something soon came as the sound of car engines filtered in from the outside, a small convoy of military vehicles rolling into view in the courtyard.

The convoy in question was made up of a BMP-2M, an MRAP and a Finnish Patria 6x6 wheeled APC. The BMP kept its main cannon and the missiles pointed away from the building as it pulled up in front, taking a left and stopping parallel to the entrance. The Cougar MRAP, a massive armored truck meant to resist mines and heavy small-arms fire, also had the gunner keeping the .50cal machine gun pointed up.

Behind them, the Patria APC had no real weapons to speak of, but it was still an APC. There was a turret, now that one looked better, with a high-caliber machine gun as well, though that was seemingly pointed away, just like the MRAP's one. Soon, from within the vehicles, troops began to dismount. A squad of Finnish troops, several of which were female, got out of the vehicle first, followed by the MRAP's crew dismounting. A Romanian soldier, a Hungarian, a Chinese Marine, a Bulgarian, four Americans, one of which was a Marine and another, a PJ. Following them out were a Latvian and a Swede and, finally, the BMP's crew came out next.

A squad formed mostly of women, again. Oddly enough.

All three units stopped and looked at one-another, clearly surprised.

"What the fuck...?" The first one to speak was the Romanian of the gang as he looked around. He paused upon seeing a certain blonde girl from among the rank of the Russian forces and she, too, stopped dead, mouth agape, when she spotted him. The Romanian was Victor Toma, now a Sergeant and still the squad's automatic weapon carrier. Beside him, the Squad's lieutenant, Republic of China Marine Corps's Samantha Lee. She smiled, arranging her square-rimmed glasses on her face.

Beside Vic and Sammy, there was Jim 'Jungle Jim' Asher, one of the team's two rangers. Once he noticed both the Finnish and Russian teams, specifically one green-haired girl among the gang of Russians, he exclaimed happily, "No fucking way! Haha! It's the girls!" all while the Ruskies themselves laughed aloud. The blonde elbowed the green-haired one and another, a redhead with blue eyes and motioned to the men, smiling.

The next man to speak was a certain Marine rifleman who went by the name of Quentin 'Dushman' Palmer. He grinned menacingly at the sight of the gang, then spoke to them all, "Holy shit... Is... Is the gang back together?" as he shouldered his IAR-27 Assault Rifle. The Finnish behind them, two of which were fairly familiar to this lot of crazy people, bumped fists and laughed quietly, all whi;e their team-mates seemed concerned.

"Good fucking god... We are..." The Hungarian spoke next, taking his sunglasses off and grinning. Paul Nemeth(Not etymologically written correctly) stared with disbelief at the fact that their entire squadron of insane asylum rejects had just been assigned to the same section of the exploratory front of this whole new world. Beside him, Sammy grinned and shook her head, already concerned.

"... This world is fuhuhuhcked!" Last to speak was Alex Ryan, the team's Pararescueman and first medic. He looked over to one of the Finns, a Redhead with a cap, blue eyes, a fringe of hair covering one eye and a medical patch on her left shoulder. She smiled at him, saluted and got a salute back, before turning back to her Twin sister. Anja Korhonen and Saila Leppäniemi, twins separated at birth. Good friends to the entire team of lunatics that currently sat in front of the massive mansion.

All the while, Kazuma and his team regarded them from above, worried as they watched the teams unite.

Oh, good lord... Trouble...