Note: Finally, Chapter 4. The one chapter you all await. Sorry for the delay, especially considering the chapter 2 and 3's remakes. I know some of you don't really care about the remakes. But here it finally is. With effort.

I am getting used to writing fanfiction (also being my first), so I am open to criticism, suggestions, compliments, etc.

Bold will indicate attacks.

Italics will indicate characters thinking.

"I have decided to learn advanced magic."

Those words that came out of Megumin echoed in my mind.

"Wh-what? What did you say?"

What did this explosion obsessed maniac say? Learning advanced magic?

Megumin had her adventurer card in her hand when she said that, she eyed it for a moment,

"I plan on learning advanced magic. Surprising, isn't it?" she let out a slight chuckle before continuing,

"It is something that I'd normally wouldn't even think of doing, but with recent events, I'm going to have to reconsider. I do not want to be useless. I will not be a burden anymore, and I want to help my party members, and everyone else too. This way, you won't be attacked by anymore wolves, or me ending up accidentally blowing up any towns, or anything worst along the way. So, I am willing to seal away my explosion magic from this day onwards." After she finished talking, she smiled again.

'Seal away her explosion magic'?

"Wait, hold on. It will be a huge help if you do learn advanced magic, it may be so, but there's no need to seal it away for good. It's going to help, especially now, but when we've taken care of the debt we could take it easy, it's not like we're going to do quests every day. When we're free we could still cast your explosions daily, right?"

Megumin sighed, "For the past weeks, I have been saving up my precious skill points up. But, after I do learn advanced magic, I won't be able to cast explosion if I do cast any other magic, and I won't be able to cast any other magic if I do end up using explosion. As it uses up the entirety of my mana reserves, and besides, to become proficient with advanced magic, I'd have to cast them repeatedly, and practice more with it."

"And this is something you want?" You won't regret this?" I replied,

"I won't. I will no longer get in the way, I will not be a burden anymore. If I had already learned advance magic, you wouldn't be suffering the pain you feel right now, and we would have already cleared our debt. I want to stop anything bad from happening in the future. For our sakes."

Megumin smiled, and looked at her adventurer card once more, she then closed her eyes.

Let out a deep breath and opened them once more.

Her shoulders were trembling.

"Sorry, Kazuma, but can you do it for me?" She said embarrassingly,

"You can't press the button on your card to learn the magic so you want me to do it for you?"

She nodded, and handed her adventurer card to me, "Also, I am sorry to have to tell you so late at night, it's the only chance I have."

I looked at her adventurer's card. She already had four skills preselected; Flame Burst, Light of Saber, Lightning Strike, and Teleport.

I took one last look at it. God, why is this so hard, this is something I've always wanted her to do, so why is it so hard to press? It's nothing more than an ordinary button. Megumin spent everything for explosion magic, and she is now handing it away. Is it something she should do? I'm not sure.

Then, I felt the soft and warm sensation of Megumin's hands touch mine, "Kazuma, I know it's hard for people to change. I'm hesitant to do it as well, but this is for our future, I'll help you." She let out a smile, and I returned with a smile as well. I sighed, and we both pressed the button on her adventurer card.

When the morning comes, I woke to the sunlight shining through the windows. I was still tired, but couldn't go back to sleep.

I fell asleep way late than I thought. Megumin especially. Things are going to change forever now. She now knows advance magic. I don't know if it could be a good thing, or not. But I will try to see the good things in it. She can be more useful now, being able to cast more offensive magic than her exceedingly overkill explosion once a day. She could help us in dungeons, if we get into another one.

I let out a yawn, and stretched. I rose from the bed and realized that the usual pain that I felt when I usually did that didn't hit my body. I hoped that my injuries have healed. But the pain came back when I tried to stand from the bed. But it was way less painful, which rose my hopes that my wounds would heal.

I walked into the living room, and I realized that I was able to walk without needing the aid from the walls to stand up straight. Especially that I felt way less pain. I would like to think that the conversation with Megumin helped my injuries. But I know that can't be true.

Once I got to the living room, I was greeted with both Megumin and Yunyun. It seemed that Yunyun was the first to notice me, "Good morning Kazuma, how are you feeling?" Yunyun said,

"Ah, I am actually feeling much better now. I can walk normally now." I answered,

"That's good Kazuma, now you can help me train today." Megumin said,

"Huh? What? Today?" I sighed, "I'm never going to get another break now, aren't I?"

"Just shut up and eat some breakfast, we're going to go afterwards." Megumin said.

Deep down, I just knew I would have to do this after she talked me into learning advanced magic for her.

"Alright, alright, I get it." I sighed as I sat down and ate from the plate that Megumin handed to me.

After breakfast was dealt with, we had to go out with Megumin's training, as she had said. It was perfect that I was able to walk without any assistance from Megumin or Yunyun. Where Megumin decided to go was near a lake, with no nearby trees or grass. I could understand why, as if she had used her Flame Burst, it could cause a fire.

I sat down near a rock to catch my breath, "Uhm, Kazuma, I'm going to use those rocks as a target." I heard Megumin say, I groaned and lazily got up from the rock and moved out of the way.

Megumin pointed her staff at the rocks and was about to cast magic before Yunyun said something, "Um, is it really safe to be this close, Explosion has a big radius."

So I guess that Megumin hasn't told Yunyun about her learning advanced magic yet.

I looked at Megumin and noticed that she was grabbing at the end of her hat and was laughing at herself, "Explosion magic is a thing of the past, no longer will I cast something as useless as that."

"Megumin, what are you talking about?" Yunyun said but Megumin ignored it.

She aimed her staff at the rocks once more, "Come Forth, Flame Burst!"

I heard Yunyun yelp, "Wha-?!"

A small flame of fire exhausted from the end of her staff as it moved towards the rocks quickly, it wasn't as fast, considering that I could see the projectile, but that "advanced magic" seemed so mild as once the ball of fire reached the rock, it extinguished the small fireball.

"Well then, that was a little disappo-" then just like that, the rocks exploded into a ball of flames. I wasn't expecting that, as once the rocks exploded I fell backwards. Yunyun was just as surprised as she had her eyes widened the entire time,

Megumin was excited though, "Kazuma! How was that? Did I do good? I can't believe that I casted something other than explosion! It's so refreshing actually!" Megumin jumped all over the place, as Yunyun fell onto her knees, "Me-Megumin knows advanced magic now… Sh- She did. I-I can't believe it." I heard her mutter.

I rose from the ground. "That was… actually really good. I am happy for you."

Megumin looked at me with a happy expression, "Gimme a score, Kazuma!"

"I only saw it once, so I don't know how to score that. I guess I'll give it a… 65 out of 100."

Megumin sighed, "Still bad at judgement I see."

"Hey don't judge me." I replied and we both laughed, then Megumin looked at Yunyun.

"Well, well now. Looks like thou number one mage of the 'Crimson Magic Clan' has fallen." She poked at Yunyun's cheek with the end of her staff.

"…"

"Let's give her a moment until she comes back to reality. Let's train some more." Megumin said to me,

I nodded as I watched Megumin casted Flame Burst once more. And then a Lightning Strike.

The Lightning Strike was exactly as that, but unlike Flame Burst and Explosion, the lightning came from her hand instead. She rose her left hand towards the rocks, still carrying her staff with the other.

"Lightning Strike!" Megumin yelled, as lightning covered and wrapped around her left hand, as it built up and finally propelled and exhausted into the rocks and spread and moved around the rocks before disappearing.

Then she used Light of Saber, unlike the others, I was familiar with this, as Yunyun uses this and I have seen it. It worked as I suspected, albeit weaker than Yunyun. It's understandable as she is only now using it for the first time.

She repeatedly casted her magic until she finally collapsed. It seems as though she could cast about 6 or 7 of either of the three magic that she learned before she exhausted all her mana, but still I was surprised at the amount she could cast.

"I forgot to keep some mana in reserve to teleport all of us home. What a pity." Megumin said, as she had most of her face buried into the sand. "Ugh, I got sand in my mouth. Gross."

I remembered, out of the three, on her adventurer card, she also had teleport too.

I reached down next to Megumin, "Having fun yet? Here, I'll carry you if I can."

I picked Megumin up and put her onto my back. I was surprised at the little pain I felt, with my injuries I expected to feel much more pain.

"Kazuma? You sure? I mean, with your condition it is impractical. I could have Yunyun do it." I looked towards Yunyun to see her lying in the sand. I guess having her self-proclaimed rival learn advanced magic really hit her hard.

"Nah, I'm good. I don't feel much pain right now. After all, how long has it been since I've carried you on my back?"

"Way too long." Megumin said as she rested her head onto my shoulder.

"Yo, Yunyun. Are you going to lie there in the sand all day or what? Megumin and I are about to head out."

"Okay, I'm coming."

On our way back to Axel, Yunyun said that she was returning to her own home, so we both said our goodbyes.

Once we reached the front gates of the mansion I realized that Megumin's grip on me has tightened, "Oh, how I missed this so much…" she mumbled, but it was way too quiet for me to hear it clearly,

"What was that, Megumin?" I asked,

"Hm? Nothing!" She yelled,

"If you say so…" I said, "Can you walk now?"

Megumin started to move her arms and legs, "Yeah, I think I can." Then I let her off my back. I stretched for a bit before I opened the door, "Ladies first."

"How noble of you. If I recall, you were the one bragging about gender equality."

I frowned, then I walked in and closed the door on her.

"Hey! Kazuma, I was kidding!"

Then I opened the door again, "And so was I."

"You're more playful then I remembered," Megumin sighed as she walked through the door.

When we got back to the living room, I sat down on the couch and let out a deep breath, "Ahh, it's good to be back. That trip really took a lot out of me."

"We've only been gone for about four hours."

"I know but with all that walking, my legs got sore. And, I'm tired. Didn't we go to sleep late last night?"

"Yeah. I'm tired too. With all that magic, it really took a whole lot out of me." Megumin said as she sat down beside me.

Megumin said something else to me, but I couldn't hear it clearly. I yawned and quickly fell asleep.

"Ehm?! M-Megumin? Kazuma? What are you doing?!" I heard Darkness yell, I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep,

"Huh, Darkness? Back alre- WAH?! What was I doing?!" I heard Megumin yell, which got me annoyed,

"That's what I'm asking! Kazuma! Wake up!" Darkness yelled at me,

"Urgh… Fine. I'm getting up! What's going on?" I rubbed my eyes and I got up lazily,

"Don't 'What's going on?' me! You know exactly what's going on! Why did you force me onto your shoulder when I was sleeping and defenseless?!" Megumin yelled,

"What are you talking about? I was asleep the entire time, you expect me to do whatever you claim I did while sleeping? You just can't blame me for everything! There's times where I am innocent you know! It's always accuse and accuse. I would appreciate some thanks every once in a while." I yelled annoyingly,

"Uhm, well that is true." Megumin apologized, her tone changing from being aggressive to being full of regret.

"Whatever, I'm going to bed where it's peaceful and quiet." I said annoyingly as I got up from the couch and walked out of the room waving goodbye to Megumin and Darkness without looking back.

"Ah, wait Kazuma!" I heard Megumin,

"Goodbye." I said in a cruel tone and left the room.

Megumin's Perspective

I was shocked at Kazuma's sudden cruel tone. Strangely, it left a pain in my heart. As he left the room I could only stand and stay frozen where I stand.

"Ahn…" I heard Darkness moan,

"What's wrong with you?" I asked her,

"Just seeing how much of a douchebag Kazuma was just now got me wondering on the abuse he might use in the future…"

Some things just don't change with her.

I immediately went and ran off after Kazuma, and when I got to the door of his bedroom, I put my hand on the handle, but hesitated on turning the doorknob. Maybe now would be a bad time, should I go talk to him?

I let in a deep breath and opened the door.

I saw Kazuma lying in his bed. Then all my thoughts and feeling to talk to him just left my body, I guess he already fell back asleep, and now would be a bad time, I already interrupted him enough.

"I guess now is a bad time. Sorry, Kazuma." I let out a sigh and walked back out and softly closed his door. I walked slowly and entered my own room. When I closed the door, I sat down leaning against it.

I messed up, I pissed him off.

The things he said, they were true. He's perverted, and because of it we openly blame him of things. We never give him any credit for the good things he's done. It's always just bad, and I guess now, he just snapped. Kazuma, if only you knew how I truly felt about you.

I wrapped my arms around my legs and curled up. Then the tears came.

"Kazuma… I'm sorry." I whispered through my tears, the sleep took hold on me.

Little drama never hurt, I guess. And Megumin now knows Advanced magic. Yay?

I am getting used to writing fanfiction (also being my first), so I am open to criticism, suggestions, compliments, etc.

Till next time…