So, a bit of a shorter chapter. Mostly filler, since we need to wind down a little from the last one. I decided to chop this chapter straight down the middle in order to keep the tone on the straight and narrow considering the dark stuff that happened in the last one.

So anyway, it's time for...

:clap: REVIEW REVIEW

Zapper3000380 - One, it turns out that orange wasn't a big a part of the color scheme I thought it was. Oopsie.

Two, I'm pretty sure Astral Infection is post WoF.

Third, well, about the Moon Lord thing…

Yes, but I ain't tellin' ya any more than that. Honestly, any parallels to Terraria DxD: Lunatics are mostly coincidental because I forgot that the story even existed…

On a semi-related note, the petition to add the Moon Lord's lower half as a boss in the next update got 10k signatures.

Legs confirmed.

Spazmatism- Okay, first of all, how the hell does a giant mecha eye use a keyboard?

Anyways, funny you should mention that...I wasn't able to figure out a place to put the EoC but this story arc WILL feature vanilla bosses. Or, at least, their Sacred Gear variants.

Originally, I wasn't gonna follow the linear boss progression (Which is pretty ironic since I'm not really a big fan of how Calamity made the game less linear).

...But then, I kinda realized that making Signus the first boss enemy he encounters would've been a bad idea...since, you know, highschooler vs a master shapeshifting assassin...yeeeah.

Also, I'd like to address a few things.

Terraria has official lore now! It's...actually pretty inconsistent in places, but it exists.

That being said, this story will continue to use fanon lore that I have created in my other, older Terraria fanfictions, though heavily modified to adjust for Calamity lore.

You...won't find much of it considering that most of the stories featuring it (Such as Red Like Crimtane, Lands of Illusion and Creation, and whatever the fuck that Gate + Terraria crossover was called.) were deleted because I didn't really like them, and those that still exist are quite limited in what they actually tell you.

But given that this story takes place on Earth, it's not really that important.

On with the show!

Kuraima sat on one of the couches in the ORC club room, idly staring at the ceiling.

'Alright, Kuraima. YOU CAN DO THIS.'

Right now, he was trying to psyche himself up. Why you may ask?

Well, as previously mentioned, Kuraima achieved his life dream, one that is so incredibly unlikely that it might as well be a fantasy; Meeting alien life.

So, he decided to embark on an even more treacherous trial, one that defines the barrier between boy and man…

Our Astral boy decided to try and find love.

Couldn't be THAT hard, right? He straight up nearly died about a week ago, so he was obviously ready for anything.

Yeah, no.

News flash, girls have the terrifying ability to stop a man in their tracks through the sheer force of one's lacking self-confidence.

His thoughts were interrupted by someone entering the room. He looked up at her and greeted her. "Oh, hey there Asia-san."

"Ah! Hello Kuraima-san!"

"How's school been for you?"

"It's been so much fun! Everyone here is so nice and supportive!"

The Astral Student smiled. "Heh, that's good. Say, has anyone been giving you any trouble?"

"Not at all!"

Good. Let's keep it that way.

"Good, good. How's Issei treatin' ya?"

Asia had moved into Issei's house, given that Kuraima already had a housemate. Apparently, Rias had used a little bit of her "Charisma" to convince Issei's parents that she was a foreign exchange student from Italy.

They asked too few questions, but they definitely bought it nevertheless,

Anyways, with that issue taken care of, Asia was enrolled in Kuoh Academy, where she quickly became popular for her absolutely adorable innocence.

"He's such a nice person! I...I don't really get why you don't like him all that much…"

Uh oh, she's asking too many questions.

"W-Well...you see, we just don't see...eye-to-eye on a few things."

She stared at him for a few moments, before shrugging.

'Speech 100.'

"Hey, so, uh, you wanna join me and Issei when we go to that cafe Nyke-san told you about?" He asked, trying to change the subject.

"Why, of course!" Her eyes sparkled at that.

"Alrighty then. We'll just wait for Issei then…"

And so they waited.

…

…

…

"Hey, I brought my Switch. You wanna play Undertale?"

"Undertale?"

"Yeah." He said, pulling his game system out of his bag. "Cute little game from the West. Absurdly popular, even here in Japan."

So much so, that Sans got added into Smash as a Mii costume.

"Everyone knows it because of the internet memes, but it's actually a pretty deep game about morality and the likes."

That was very true. One of the main selling points (besides the sheer number of dogs in the game) was that it was an RPG where nobody had to die.

"Mor...Morality?"

"Yeah. It's a pretty weird metaphysical force that tries to keep you from doing really bad things. Or was that ethics?"

Kuraima shrugged. "I'm just a kid in highschool, what do I know about morals and ethics?"

A few minutes later, Kuraima had to comfort Asia when she got to the Toriel boss fight.

"K-Kuraima-san…I d-don't know what t-to do...!"

"Asia! Relax! Relax!"

Much, Much later…

The party of three, now consisting of Issei, Kuraima, and Asia, entered the fantasy cafe.

"Ah, welcome to the Moonlit Tavern, weary scholars!" The man at the front desk called out to them. "Please take a seat and we will send our waiters to take your order!"

...There was something familiar about him, but Kuraima couldn't put his finger on it.

Oh well.

"Oi, Kuraima!" Ah yes, the voice and greeting the Astral student knew all too well.

"Oi, Nyke-san!" Kuraima raised a clenched fist, bumping it with Nyke's as he sat down. "My man!"

"N...Nyke-san!"

"Yep, it's me, in the flesh. How's life been, Asia?"

"W-Why, it's been splendid! Everyone is so nice and welcoming!"

Nyke smiled, leaning back in his chair. "Good, good. So, what brings the three of you here today?"

Kuraima shrugged. "Figured we might as well celebrate Asia's first full week of school, y'know?"

And, of course, maybe try flirting with the barmaid.

"Aye, I can get behind that."

As they chatted amongst themselves, a certain barmaid approached.

'Okay Kuraima, it's do or don't.'

"H-Hello, may I take your order?" She asked pen in hand.

"Yeah...I'll take the Cosmic Cream Puffs, a root beer…and…"

Kuraima's next words got stuck in his throat. 'Come on! Say it! Say it! SAY IT!'

"...a-and…"

'SAY IT.'

"And perhaps a nice evening with the young lass taking his order."

has stopped working.

Cute_ has stopped working.

"N...Nyke-san!" The Astral student spattered out, tears of embarrassment welling up in his eyes. "Why do you do this to me—"

The white-haired gal put the notepad to her face, her eyes looking away from Kuraima's direction, blushing heavily.

"W…Well…I'm f-free...this weekend…and...I don't really have much else...t-to do…"

Meanwhile, inside the Astral Champion's head…

A problem has been detected and the Brain has been shut down to prevent damage to your Main Character.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your human. if this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your therapist or other trusted individual for any updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Purge the memory cache through willful ignorance or obscene amounts of alcohol. If you need to use Full Mindcrash Mode to escape the current undesirable situation, restart your human, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Full Mindcrash Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x000000FE (0x00000008, 0x000000006, 0x00000009, 0x847075cc)

Issei was laughing his ass off at Kuraima's torment, while Asia just looked on, incredibly confused as to what was going on.

"W-Wait?! Just like that?!" The student sputtered and spat, looking between her and Nyke rapidly. "T-That's all it takes?!"

"Yeah, kiddo. Scored a few dates back in my day before I left my home to get as far away from my sister as possible."

"..."

"Come on, Kuraima. You got this."

Kuraima turned to face the waitress.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

"Do...you wanna hang out with me?"

Her eyes darted around shyly.

"S..sure…"

"Ah ...um...when ...do you…wanna meet up?" Kuraima asked, trying to cover his face with the menu.

"W-Well, I'm free on the weekends…"

He thought for a moment. Today was Friday, so "...uhm…how about uuuh…does tomorrow at 4 PM work?"

As long as nothing came up, 4 PM would give him an ample amount of time to get ready given how late he tends to sleep in.

"Y-Yeah, I can work with that…Anyways, o-orders!"

After she took the rest of their orders, Kuraima buried his head in his arms.

"Oh. My. G—Astrum. I...I actually did it. I actually pulled it off."

Nyke gave the student a big, somewhat forceful pat on the back. "I knew you had it in ya', kiddo."

"Kuraima-senpai!" Issei pleaded. "Teach me your ways! Explain to me how you did it!"

"What?" Kuraima replied, "Ask Nyke-san! I ain't teachin' you—" He glanced at Asia, "—jack!"

Nyke just lost it, laughing his ass off at their shenanigans.

"So, you guys got any stories to share?" He eventually asked, changing the subject to give the poor kid some relief.

"Oh, yeah!"

"...so then, I told her, "One sees you later, and the other in a while!"

The group of four laughed as Nyke finished up his current story. They had been cycling through stories of their lives for a good few hours now, with a couple of laughter intermissions.

"So anyway, that's when I realized that my passport was stolen and now I was stuck in Japan."

The laughter came to an awkward halt at that.

At that time, the sound of a fire truck off in the distance could be heard.

"Huh? Fire squad's on the move."

Kuraima shrugged. "In the few years that I've been here, I've never seen them get mobilized."

Issei shrugged as well. "I've only seen them send out the fire trucks only twice as far as I remember. The second time was when my dad tried cooking without mom's help."

"Woah, okay, now this, I gotta hear."

"Well, you see, my dad's a really bad cook. Actually, now that I think about it, I can't help but wonder if someone has it out for him…"

Really, it was a bewildering experience to hear Issei talk about anything other than boobs for longer than five minutes.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen.

"I did it, Sensei…! I...I got a date with him...he asked me out first…!"

The barmaid was nearly in tears from emotional overload as she talked to her manager.

"I'm proud of ya, gal." Her boss responded, putting his hands in his pocket. "You're already growin' up. Soon enough, you won't need my help with anything."

The barmaid pouted, "A…..you're embarrassing me, s-sensei…!" Her sensei laughed. "Bwahaha! Can't I tease my adopted daughter a little bit? Father's duty!"

He then paused. "Speaking of duty, look who's callin'! Dinner rush just started. Time for work!"

She saluted him. "Y-Yes sensei!" She then left through the door to take orders.

The manager sighed. "God, you always were an adorable one. Unlike a certain someone."

He glanced up at the ceiling.

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, that's right. I'm talking to you, bird-brain."

Out of one of the vents came the round white bird Kuraima had seen through the window about a week ago. It landed on the kitchen counter, staring at the manager.

"Do not refer to me by that name!"

The man scoffed. "I'll refer to you however I damn well please, you shitty goddess."

"S-Shitty?! I'll have you know that—"

"We've been over this a million or so times. I am fucking MILES above you. The moment you try anything suspicious, I'll fucking end you. I already lost one bright pupil…"

The manager's eyes glazed over as if an illusion were being dispelled, before clearing to reveal a pair of glowing cyan-colored eyes with pixelated irises.

"And in the name of the Moon Lord, I won't lose another."

Author's notes

This arc is mainly a Terraria arc, after which we will begin the forest of familiars mini-arc, I suppose.

Originally, I was going to merge this one with the aforementioned Familiar Forest arc, as Kuraima was gonna meet the same character there, the difference being she was a homeless person.

But come on, a GF and a familiar? That's a little too much, even for my skewed definition of "too much".

Hell, I haven't even decided if he should get one or what he'll get if he does.

Suggestions would be nice, though I highly doubt he'll get any of the waifu Elementals...