Chapter 1: Forever Hold Your Peace

Mitsurugi waited in the front rows in the pews.. Dust stood at the altar, grinning like an idiot. He was getting married. Dust was also marrying way above his class. Before the Crimson Demons village had been wiped out by Sylvia one of Yunyun's friends had predicted that she'd be the Last Crimson Demon, and the child that would avenge them would be fathered by her and the biggest deadbeat she could find.

'Well she definitely found the biggest one out there.' He thought bemusedly. Thoughts of Sylvia instinctively had him rubbing his right arm at his forearm, and looking to his scabbard. Fighting hadn't been the same since he lost Gram.

In reality Mitsurugi did not want to be here. He was mainly here to support Megumin, the other last Crimson Demon. It was always weird the relationship between those two, but ever since both girls had to bury their parents the swing between their attitudes to each other had become practically bi-polar. One moment they could blame the other for the demise of their village the next they could be as if they were grief stricken lovers who couldn't bear to be apart.

The marriage to Dust had really up the ante on that lately. Megumin wanted her and Yunyun to become a couple. Yunyun felt it was her duty to fulfil the prophecy and bring their people back from the brink. Mitsurugi didn't know which way to feel about them. For one reason he suspected Yunyun didn't like him, she had been taking sword lessons from a mentor that was hostile to him, coupled with her veiled references to backstabbing, wanting loyal friends it seemed like there was something that happened between the two. Technically it was Dust who invited him and his party and Yunyun had nearly called the wedding off over this.

He looked to Darkness for support. It had been almost two years since Mitsurugi had recruited Darkness, Megumin and greatest amongst them; Lady Aqua for his party. For most of her tenure in his party, Darkness had worn a Yellow overcoat with armour, with a winged shoulder guard to denote her faith to the bra-padding Goddess Eris. Five months ago she had been killed and revived and since then had chosen the correct faith of his Goddess, Lady Aqua, and with that Darkness had switched her Yellow overcoat and armour for a Light Blue one, he shoulder guard changed from a wing to a water drop, but any joy that Darkness had ever shown had not returned with her on revival. It might have had something to do with his Goddess's powers being diminished after the loss of Arcanletia, but Darkness seemed to live in a depressive funk. Mitsurugi had hoped that Darkness seeing her childhood friend Chris would have bolstered her mood, but looking across the aisle at the petit girl staring daggers at her blonde once best friend killed that hope. Darkness had to fight back the tears and shrivelled under the silver-haired girls glare.

It was heartbreaking that so many close friends seemed to be at each other's throats nowadays especially since the world had been through the wringer over the last two year. Mitsurugi had entered the world three years ago knowing that a Devil King had raised an army and intended to conquer it. That the Devil Kings warmongering and spreading of misery had devastated the population to the point that no one would ever want to be reincarnated to this world again. He had died on a planet named Earth where his Goddess Lady Aqua had requested he come to this world as the chosen hero and save it. He was given the mighty sword Gram a blade capable of cutting through anything to aid him on this quest.

His first year had been a great success he had built a party with two other adventurers. A fellow warrior named Cremea and a thief named Fio. They had defeated many high level foes, dragons amongst the list. The year ended with them taking on board Megumin, Darkness and Lady Aqua from a floundering party run by an incompetent back up hero. The girls had jumped at the offer and Mitsurugi thought that the Devil Kings days were numbered from there.

The reality was very different.

Megumin was a powerful Arch-wizard who only knew one spell. Explosion! A spell that she could only cast once a day, as it left her drained of mana and unable to move afterwards. It was a very effective one hit-kill but incredibly unnecessary when Gram could slice anything in half and with significantly less collateral. He first learned this on their first mission as a party of six. They had travelled for over a month into the mountains to clear a Wyverns nest, 300 strong wyverns. These level 40 monsters could have at any point flown into Belzerg and fed off of Axel and roosted in its ashes. The plan was to have the five girls run interference with their skills while he picked the Wyvern's off one by one. The Crimson Demon through threw all of that to the wind by firing off her explosion.

To be fair, she managed to slay 180 of the winged-lizards, but the 120 she missed then flew off to rein fire upon Axel. Mitsurugi was told a gruff and distant member of suicide-guild had managed to rally the town's defence so that only three people were killed and the 30 injured were healed by Lady Aqua when they got back. (By Aqua he hoped it wasn't that damned Aussie). The repairs and damages and the party having to pay for them should of straightened his Arch-Wizard out but it hadn't. On top of that he learnt Darkness had no accuracy with a sword, enjoyed being hit to the point she would jeopardize missions to indulge in it, and Lady Aqua had her 'quirks'.

The Wyvern disaster was only a hint of things to come. The Destroyer had rolled through the town and Mitsurugi had learnt that there were in fact exceptions to the cut through anything rule.

The town had lost some walls for protection, several houses, and the guild hall. 25 civilian casualties and a difficult to comprehend number of once fertile farm fields now existed as a blast crater know as 'Destroyers Wrath'.

The party then had the misfortune of being prosecuted for incompetence for their role. It hurt that Mitsurugi and his party were suspected of being Devil King Spies because of how badly they had been failing at that point. The lawsuit was settled through a deal where Darkness would be engaged to the mayor's son Walter. Walter was a fine man but his father gave Mitsurugi the creeps. The party had fallen into debt by then, Gram being the only thing that made any hope of clearing the debt possible.

They then fought and lost against the Devil King General Vanir. The loss further soured the people of Axel to his party and they had to retreat to the Arcanletia where they then lost a fight to the Devil King General Hans, who then killed almost everyone in the city besides his party and a priestess named Cecily who was traumatised into a catatonic state for the longest time. The city was the main domain of Aqua's followers and with her only having two followers left her powers dropped dramatically. No longer could she mass resurrect people and do so repeatedly.

They then were warned of an attack on the Crismon Demon Village which they met their third general Silvia. Who stole an ancient weapon, took Mitsurugi's sword arm and sword. Soundly beat and captured his party, and laid waste to the village. It was a week in Sylvia's dungeon before his party and Yunyun were rescued by a ninja who openly rejected the offer to join his party.

After that Mitsurugi soon learnt that he was nowhere near the legendary hero he was without Gram. He and his party were witnesses to wins and losses but the reality was they losses were more frequent. The frontlines were unforgiving. The Capital was struck. Seeing the Princesses attendant Claire cradling her broken body was something he'd never forget, but the capital held.

The capital held but the country of Belzerg was losing its lands by the day; currently the only victory Belzerg had truly achieved was when a lone warrior single handily fought the Demon King's army in Samuidoh. He fought long enough to give the villagers time to flee and make it to Axel, led by a wolf-man named Squall and dog-women Amy. Funnily enough Mitsurugi had assumed that Squall was the father of the child Amy was carrying, only to be corrected that it was the lone warrior's child.

'Pity the kid will never know its father, he's almost certainly dead, not that we'll be any different if we can't turn this war around'. Mitsurugi thought gazing at the motherly dog-women looking longingly at the altar. It was easy to tell who ever the brave warrior was he was also a lucky man to have ended up with someone as kind and compassionate as Amy. Heck Mitsurugi could even see himself falling for someone like her if he never won Lady Aqua's favour. The lone-warriors last stand had been 5 months ago. It may have been undone because 3 months ago the Devil Kings army had a new weapon which frankly sounded like a terminator. Reports described a killing machine that didn't stop no matter what you hit it with, any damage almost instantly disappeared, a human form with a big monstrous helmet, the way the reports described it the weapon was controlled through the helmet usually by Sylvia, the weapon would use blades from its arms to slaughter and soften the Belzerg armies. It was even worse because now reports were coming in that Daniel the newest general had 'put a leash on lightning itself'.

He continued his register of everyone in the crowd.

Dust at the altar Cecily with him preparing to do the ceremony, she had been lucid enough to do so these last few weeks, it had been a long period of catatonia after the loss of Arcanletia. On Mitsurugi's left were Fio and Cremea and to his right Darkness was next to him trying not to shrivel under Chris's gaze on the opposite side Walter next to Darkness and Claire next to him, the royal attendant had become a wanderer after her princess and fellow attendants death. Erika with Chris, the two knife users had been friends for 6 months, ever since Cielo had been killed, and Lia taken away by the recently promoted Devil King General Daniel. They were made a trio by a coarse mouth dark haired girl named Bobbi, who wielded a buster sword and a Warhammer and womanized like Dust wished he could. Luna had opted to stay at the guild being one of the many that hated the idea of this wedding and what she thought was Yunyun's misguided attempt to save and avenge her people.

Dust's party were on patrol outside the city, in protest of Rin being snubbed by accepting this marriage then insulted when Dust dismissively suggested making her wife number two. Wiz was also absent but more to avoid Lady Aqua for some reason.

Amy, Squall and the Samuidoh were in there own set of 6 pews, Squall being the only adult male amongst them, between them a fox girl named Mia who used to use spears exclusively but started to switch to knives and claws in inspiration to the lone warrior.

An adventurer that Mitsurugi didn't know the name of but always thought of as 'Hell's gate' was acting as one of the ushers. Another was unfortunately an Australian that Mitusrugi knew for a fact had no respect for him. Their first meeting had the Aussie introduce himself as Dinkem Fair then when asked for his real name then told Mitsurugi it was Larry Ken. When asked what his item was 'Larry Ken' told Mitsurugi it was the condom he used when he was intimate with Mitsurugi's mother. Only it was said in a not so polite way. When asked what his problem was 'Larry' told him a dog's c-word is the type that steals another man's party and that Mitsurugi was a Dog's C-word. This was once again said with not so polite words. Kyouya saw this as a challenge to a duel.

This was before the loss of Gram, and still Mitsurugi had lost that fight, so now that he was without his item Mitsurugi knew he wanted to stay clear of him.

The bride stood with the ushers at the entrance of the church. Yunyun would be walking herself down the aisle and it was Mitsurugi and his party's fault for not being good enough. It was sombre to know who wasn't here either through breakdown of friendships, being MIA or casualties of war.

The role check Mitsurugi was doing in his head was almost complete; everyone was accounted for besides Megumin and Lady Aqua. It was a shame that they were late to the ceremony but they felt the need to run errands before the ceremony.

BOOOM!

Or they decided they were going to go to the castle hosting one of the Devil Kings General Beldia and fire an explosion. This was bad because none of them were ready for a fight that pissing of the Headless Knight would entail. It was hard to contemplate if Mitsurugi could have fought him with Gram. Hans was a slime that won because his body could segment and recombined rendering the power of cutting through anything worthless, Vanir's form was in hell and what Mitsurugi ended up fighting was an animated pile of dirt that could always reformat. Apparently the Devil King had a priestess who's goddess had given her the blessing of any harm visited on her persons would be inflicted upon the dealer instead, once again terrible for a guy who's swords power was cut through anything. The less said about Sylvia the better.

Authors Notes

Apologies these are notes added after the fic were created and launched with chapter 2. Chapter 2 has its own notes.

This fic is going to be a little long winded and be written in close third person style. The first few chapters are going to be from the perspective of Mitsurugi as I feel it's going to be a challenge to make him a sympathetic character. Right now I'm writing Yunyun perspective hence why they are the current characters focused on. If these chapter go smoothly I'll move on to Darknesses

At the time of this fics first chapter, this story is going by the title: Main Hero Mitsurugi and that because one of my main ideas for this fic is what sort of power set would Kazuma need to be able to contribute all that the girls do for the party, and the title I intend to switch it to spoils the surprise of it. Especially a reveal in chapter 3-4, that reveal will be so obvious under the real title, it will be less of a "holy shit moment" and more of a "finally after 3 chapters" moment. The other idea is how I think Mitsurugi would handle the Devil King Generals and honestly as a "hit it till it dies" type strategist well that goes to my next point..

This is obviously a dark timeline, and when I conceived it some of my inspirations for it were Doctor Who's episode -Turn Left, and X-Men's TAS two-parter -One man's worth. There will also be titbits of Avatars Zuko Alone.

The last thing I want to cover are my 2 O.C's Larry Ken is a mentor character, what I imagine Obi-wan Kenobi and Guy Gardner would be like if they existed as one person and were Australian. He's going to be a challenge cause O.C are hit and miss, and my decision is to kill him quickly so he isn't tedious. Why he's in this world, well without giving to much away it's Aqua's fault. Bobbi is sort of a take on a cannon character going so far from who they originally started out as.