Howdy pups, welcome back to another chapter of this story, I was going to do something else but I just wanted to post this for my weekly upload so I hope you enjoy.
GOW - Konosuba
Kazuma walked out of the guildhall with dignity, or he'd like to think that, he walked out the door and kept walking out the street. His footsteps became slightly faster with each connection of the ground until he was fully running home with tears streaming down his eyes, how could Kana be here? sure he wasn't the best person out there but he'd done so much here couldn't he have a break? No, especially not since Aqua lied to him, how could she? How could that useless goddess spend every day complaining, using his money, and making trouble for him all while lying to him every single day since they met?
He couldn't bear the thoughts in his head. As he got back to the manor he threw the door open and slammed it shut behind him, Chomuske gave him a weird look. Still, he ignored her, moving some of the decorations in the entrance hall to block the door behind him so he could be alone for a little longer, he was always best suited to that wasn't he?
Being alone was how he survived the betrayal he felt after Kana hurt him the first time, hiding from the laughter was how he handled the mockery of his comfort, this was supposed to be his comfort zone where he could be safe, but as he entered his room he couldn't see anything but reminders of everything.
All the lies Aqua told him, how Darkness was too busy trying to live her perverted fantasies to be useful, how Megumin couldn't even offer him sympathy during his moment of torment simply praising his pain as a better backstory. It was too much to be reminded about.
"The last time this happened, I had my room to go back to and hide in to feel better, those girls made a NEET's most sacred place feel like a torment," Kazuma said to himself, it took him a few moments before he realized the answer.
If home reminded him too much of his pain, why would he bother staying there?
GOW - Konosuba
The guild was stunned into shock following Kazuma's departure, he was done? done with what?
Kana could barely process anything going on around her still, her conversation with Kazuma replaying in her head, sure she wasn't a fan of begging like that but she fucked up, and if she even tried claiming otherwise then everything she was working on, every hope that this second chance gave her, it would all be for nothing if she couldn't get a chance to repair things with Kazuma.
No, she did deserve that hit he got on her, she also needed to apologize for more than just her selfish desire to put things back the way they were, Kazuma deserved an apology after she ruined his life, she knew she was wrong a long time ago but always thought that it wasn't too bad, always thought that there was time to set things right while she fucked around being a punk, that she could swoop back in where she used to be and everything would go back to how it used to be.
Of course she was wrong, it was foolish to think that after abandoning him she could waltz back in without a damn problem. She only realized how bad it was after she found out he died, no one even told her in person until a few months later causing her to investigate. Only with her investigation, while roughing a few people up along the way, did she find out how affected he was by her, though from the rant he just put her through, it looks like her betrayal hit him worse than she thought.
She couldn't give up though, she agreed to come to this world for a second chance at a life with him, and damn it she wouldn't waste that just because he gave her what she deserved.
'I said I'd do anything, and I will follow the fuck through!' Kana thought she brushed the tears from her eyes, her mind focusing on the guildhall again, chaos was the word to describe this shit show, groups were talking up a storm, the three girls who must have been in his party, hopefully, no girlfriend but that'll be a later problem, were freaking out with the blue one crying the child shaking and the blonde muttering to herself with red cheeks. Another blonde in a guild employee outfit a little too small for her large chest was making her way over to the five of them, she didn't look happy. Kana began to pick herself off the floor when a sword came in front of her in a warning.
"I do believe that a preferential location for the moment would be where my knight has laid you flat," Sumi said with a scowl. Kana growled.
"You're going to get that sword out of my face before I beat your ass bitch." the delinquent felt power flow through her veins, she didn't know what Sumi took for her cheat item but knew it had something to do with the bag.
'She's probably got a more utility-based item, my Spiritual Aid cheat should give me an edge if this turns into a fight, but I don't like starting the fight on my ass, fucking hell I figured the bitch wanted Kazuma but I didn't expect her to take her shot like this, if it wasn't aimed at me I'd respect it.'
"I would appreciate it if none of you were to fight in my guild hall." the Blonde worker said, and she sounded pissed, the kind of pissed that drew all five of their attention even if the blue one was still in tears. "Now, I'm afraid I don't know what happened between all of you and Mr. Satou, I'm also afraid I don't particularly care. What I do care about is you all putting your problems aside and getting back to work."
"I'm sorry Luna but I'm not sure if we'll be able to resolve this issue any time soon, I'm still a little unsure of the details myself." The blonde confessed.
"Not an option, I wasn't just going to give Kazuma a reward for your last mission, I have a special request for him and his party from the royal capital," Luna said. Kazuma's party paled.
"I-I can accept the request on his behalf?" she tried.
"No, no you cannot because this is specifically requesting Kazuma and his party, not you, not Aqua, not Megumin, the royal capital has a special request for Kazuma Satou and whatever band of fools is willing to tolerate his presence, and even if they didn't he is the only one who can wrangle you three and his sinister plans are some of the most effective things we've seen in this town since Mitsurgi arrived, honestly if I check the clear log and compare them his feats may be more impressive, not that any of you will repeat that under any circumstances, So while I'd rather you all remain a party and continue doing great things together, I will not hesitate to find someone desperate enough for money to do whatever it takes to get him back to work and more people desperate enough willing to follow what that scumbag says, do I make myself clear Darkness?" Luna said, she wore a smile that Kana recognized from every customer service rep in Japan and a tone cheery enough that you could almost mistake that for not being a threat and Kana felt fear from standing too close to her.
"Y-yes we'll set this right immediately! Just, just stall the request for a little bit and we'll fix this." Darkness said, the blue-haired girl, Aqua, most likely, went back to sobbing, and the child, Megumin, according to the process of elimination, was shaking twice as hard. Then Luna turned her gaze to Kana and Sumi causing the reincarnated ladies to freeze.
"As for you two, I'm not sure what your relation to Kazuma is, and I don't particularly care much, I'll ask you both to help these three get him back into quest taking shape for now and if you do well enough then he may even let you into his party," Luna said with a far kinder smile, though Kana still felt the same fear of this woman she did from when she was talking to Kazuma's main party.
"H-hey! We don't need these two, we can resolve this with our party leader just fine!" Megumin interrupted, Luna turned to look at the girl, and she caved in three seconds.
"Now that I've gotten all of you on board, I trust you all will bring him back soon. I'll do my best to postpone the request in the meantime, fix this."
All five girls agreed instantly and ran out of the guildhall as fast as they could, Kana briefly noted that no one seemed to shift conversations from earlier, did they not notice what Luna told them? Maybe they just were that quiet. However, she couldn't think long about it because the second she left the guildhall she went into a combat roll, a smart idea as a sword slashed around chest height where she was walking, Kana stood up and glared at the offender, Sumi.
"We gonna do this bitch?" Kana asked, pulling her spear off her back and aiming it at her new opponent.
"I do not believe that allowing you a second chance to damage my knight, either mentally or physically, would be a wise decision, therefore I believe reducing your motor functions will be sufficient in forcibly tabling you from this endeavor, I would offer you the chance to withdrawal willingly, but I do not believe you will, thus If you wish to come to blows then I will oblige," Sumi said, her hand already inside her bag.
"Hang on you two, we're supposed to work together in bringing Kazuma back, now I'm not sure what exactly happened between you and him, and frankly I want the full story myself, but working together is what we were tasked to do, Sumi was it?" Darkness began, Sumi nodded in affirmation without moving her gaze from Kana, "If we work together then we'll likely have a better chance, and if she does deserve punishment for something she did to Kazuma would he not be a better fit to determine the punishment?"
Sumi didn't move for what must have been at least a minute, eventually, she nodded, slowly taking her hand out of the bag to reveal nothing before sheathing her sword. "I will work with you, but only until Kazuma tells me otherwise." Kana didn't move.
"Kana, I know you're on edge about this attack, but she just has Kazuma's best interests at heart, she believed that this was the best move and while I can not agree with her actions, you both share the goal of making sure he's happy and safe, for now at least we're working together so we must try and trust each other," Darkness said. It made sense, she'd have no problem using her cheat to beat the shit out of any of these people if she thought it would make Kazuma come closer to forgiving her, she still didn't like the bitch, she was responsible for his death after all and could get him killed again, but…
"I'll work with you, but only until Kazuma's okay, after that, it's up to him what happens," Kana vowed, putting her spear away.
"Excellent, for now, you two can walk on either side of me, that way if either of you tries to attack the other I will shield you with my body." Darkness said, was that drool coming out of her mouth? "For now I believe we should give you a brief bit of the tour Chris promised, I'm not sure where she ran off to but I'm sure she had good reason for making her leave."
"No! I wanna go to the house, Kazuma's a NEET he's gonna be in his room, I wanna see him." Aqua cried, quite literally as the tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Yes, he abandoned us at the moment of his backstory coming to fruition and seemed rather disturbed, we must rush to his side and make sure he is right of mind," Megumin said.
"As much as I want to go and see him right now, we need to give him some time to process, whatever happened in there, we'll return to the manor later with some good crab and fine wine, that should cheer him up." Darkness offered, the idea was sound to Kana, and Sumi too apparently since both girls agreed with it and helped convince the other two that Kazuma needed a bit of space, hopefully by the time they saw him next he'd be up to talking with them.
GOW - Konosuba
Eris was worried, she teleported back to the divine realm to check on Kazuma's file only to find it wasn't there, she did some digging and found out that when he took Aqua with him to Belzerg the senior goddess never had a chance to get it filed away properly, and the angel in charge of Aqua's duties didn't know that it wasn't sent in let alone where it was now, Eris thankfully had some pull with her Senior on a world she looked after and had a few angels on the hunt for where the file on her assistant was hiding, though it would take much too long for her liking.
Soon enough she decided that she couldn't wait to talk to Kazuma for the file to be found, who knows what the boy would do left by himself after what happened in the guildhall, worse still what would happen if the girls followed him in this state? So with her mind made up, Chris was sprinting down the streets toward Kazuma's manor, she knew where it was and even visited on a few occasions, so she flew past the gates and made her way to the front door, her body hitting the wood when it wouldn't budge against her force.
'He locked himself in? This can't be good,' the goddess thought to herself, not wanting to waste time she found the closest window, an open one that led into the kitchen, and she entered the house. She'd been here before and knew exactly how to get to Kazuma's room when she arrived the man in question was grabbing his thief gear from its hiding spot, the mask appeared to still be put away though.
"Assistant-kun?" Chris asked, Kazuma turned to look at her, his eyes were red and puffy though it looked like he stopped crying.
"Did you know?" he asked, his voice was hollow. And he raised one hand, a lie detector bell was in it.
"I had no idea, I knew that the girls from your world were looking for you but I didn't know who they were or… or what Aqua did."
Kazuma was silent for a moment as if waiting for a ding before he gave a nod, he set the bell down.
"I had to be sure, thank you for being honest with me," Kazuma said, he put the fake bottom back in his closet leaving the mask in there though Chris could tell he was well enough equipt with his adventures gear and some of his Thief gear.
"What are you doing Kazuma?"
"I'm leaving, I don't want to be around here after what happened in the guildhall," Kazuma said.
"Are you sure? I know they didn't handle that well by any means, but you all do really care about each other, I'm sure if you just take the time to process this and talk it over-"
"No, no I can't do that, not after what happened there."
"But, Kazuma you're very good at being a thief and a party leader, but you're not the best suited to going off by yourself, please reconsider, at least… at least let me go with you to keep you safe until you're ready to come back," Eris said, she may be in disguise, but Kazuma knew the truth, not only did he know the truth but he was someone who she talked to on both sides of her personality quite often, the goddess in her and the thief in her couldn't let him go off alone like this. It was too risky, especially for someone who's died as often as he had.
"No offense boss, but you've heard Aqua, hell you've heard all of them, I'm a NEET, I'm scum, maybe I brought it on myself but even when I tried my hardest to be better it always seems to end in trouble, especially when I'm trying to get by with all these people, by myself is how I handled everything back home, it's time I go back to doing things that way," Kazuma said, "besides, after this, I don't know if I will come back, I don't want to see my party, the last person I ever wanted to be here showed up and, and," tears started flowing down Kazuma's cheeks.
"Kazuma," Eris breathed, not daring to make a step.
"I don't know what to do anymore, goddess," Kazuma confessed. "I don't know how to feel, I barely know what to do, but I've heard the whispers of all the people in this no-good town, hell everywhere I go in this no-good world I hear them, I hear it from my own party, and I've seen what they did today, and with Kana here too… I need to go, I'm going to go and I don't know if I'll ever come back to this town." With his speech finished Kazuma walked slowly to the window.
"You don't need to do this, please reconsider, the girls all care about you so much, if you just wait things can get better." Eris pleaded, she began making her way to Kazuma, but he took notice and threw some wire at her calling out "bind" and activating the skill that left her stuck on the floor.
"Sorry boss, but I've made up my mind," Kazuma said, climbing out of his window, he locked eyes with the goddess on the floor and she could see the pain he felt in them, he gave her a single parting sentence before he descended words that worried her greatly.
"I'll see you again, Goddess."
GOW - Konosuba
Damn that was a chapter alright, though now we officially begin this arc of the story what will happen? Will Kazuma fall without a rez avalible? What the hell was Sumi thinking? Well the first two you have to wait for, however the last one you can actually see now, the Sumi POV of this chapter is up now exclusively in my Discord for anyone to read. as always if you enjoyed give me a fave/kudos if you want to keep reading a bookmark/follow would be nice and if you want to comment I love reading those, as mentioned I have a discord which I love seeing people in to talk about this story or any of my other ones or just talking in general, with the added benefit today of being able to read Sumi's point of view for today. See you all next time or in the server: 5B4kC2qSG3