Kazuma would have been content staying under his kotatsu for the rest of his life, if his teammates would let him. Luckily, a few occurrences had made it possible for him to bake in the glorious warmth for hours on end. The first of these events had been Darkness' sudden departure. Apparently, she and her farther had to attend some sort of lord gathering. At first Kazuma thought she would deny the request, even if the letter her father sent made it clear coming was absolutely mandatory, but she went without any argument. He had honestly been shocked by her willingness, and he could only guess at the reason for the rest of the day. It wasn't until the final goodbyes that he saw the slight blush on her face and the heavy breathing that she always displayed right before throwing herself in harm's way. It was only then that he remembered what she had said about nobles back at her father's mansion. "A noble should have a vulgar grin on their face at all times and use a maid's mistakes to subject her to all kinds of punishment." It was right then and there that Kazuma realized that Darkness was hoping to meet a few of those nobles. Knowing this information, Kazuma couldn't give a heartfelt goodbye like the rest of his party. He ended up basically yelling at her to not do anything to ruin her family's reputation, or more importantly, do anything that would make trouble for him. Unfortunately, his warning only severed to increase her hope of punishment and further turned her on.

Aqua's departure was much more dramatic. Basically, that useless goddess went a little too far with her party tricks and ended up flooding a merchant's wagon, destroying most of his inventory, and he wasn't some scrawny, well dressed, feather in his hat, pushover. No, this guy looked like he was part giant and had more muscle weight then Kazuma had body weight. Obviously, he didn't take Aqua turning his wagon into a pool very well and demanded payment. Aqua immediately turned to Kazuma and fell to her knees begging for money, to which Kazuma pretend not to know her. With no one to front the payment the burly merchant dragged her off saying she was going to help him with some manual labor job outside of town until she paid him back.

Kazuma did feel kind of bad for abandoning her, but he only had to remember the numerous times she blew all their money on booze to justify himself. Something like this was bound to happen anyways, so it's better for Aqua to learn the consequences now. He decided that giving her some expensive alcohol when she got back would make up for it. Besides, without her and Darkness he could fully enjoy the comfort of his kotatsu.

"Kazuma, I'm back." Of course, there was still one member of his party left. Megumin, despite all odds, was able to stay out of trouble. "Kazuma, where are you? I got the food. Wait, are you seriously under there again. I don't know what kind of pleasure you experience under there, and I don't want to know, but you need to come out, this is getting ridiculous."

"Hey, don't make it sound like I'm doing something perverted in here! I'll have you know this it perfectly normal back where I come from. Now just slide the food under the blanket so I can eat."

"No way, if you want to eat then you're going to have come out of there and act like a normal person."

Damn that loli! Forcing me to leave my one true joy in this world. Kazuma crawled out from under his fortress to see Megumin with a large bag. On the surface, there was nothing wrong with this picture, but Kazuma already had a couple red flags going off in his head. The first was the strange logo that was on the bag. "Weren't you supposed to get food from the guild hall? I don't recall them having any sort of logo, especially on food bags."

Megumin's eyes widen slightly at the implied accusation. "You don't have to look at me like I did something wrong! It's true that I didn't get food from the guild hall, but that doesn't matter because I guarantee this food is better! I found it while I was walking towards the guild hall. There was this heavenly aroma that made my mouth water. I followed it to a merchant tent, and using my top-notch negotiation skills I was able to buy the source of the scent for half of what you gave me." Megumin finished with a proud smirk, and looked like she was ready to be praised for her decision, but Kazuma had a few questions.

"You say half?"

"Yes."

"What was your first offer?"

"Half of what you gave me?"

"And he didn't ask for more?"

"Nope."

"What was the look on his face when you offered half?"

"I don't know I was only focused on the smell, but I do recall him sounding very happy."

"And what kind of food did you end up buying?"

Megumin froze. All the color drained from her face as she glanced down at the bag. Kazuma was not amused. "You didn't ask, did you? You let the smell dictate your decision and ended up buying a mystery bag."

They both stood there looking at the bag of unknown contents before Megumin finally snapped. "Alright fine I don't know what it is, but nothing that smells this good can be ba—hey don't go crawling back under there!"

After a brief scuffle, the two companions sat across from each other with Megumin's purchase between them. Kazuma would admit that it smelled rather nice, but that's where it ended. The item Megumin had purchased was nothing more than a large block of blue meat. That's right, Blue! Kazuma didn't even want to know what kind of creature produced blue meat, but the oddness didn't end there. When Kazuma put it on the stove to cook, it started melting like ice cream. Kazuma was also 99.9 percent sure that when the meat started smoking it formed a skull and crossbones. "Listen, I'm starting to think we should just ditch this and find something else."

Megumin, however, wasn't about to let a perfectly good meal go, especially one that smelled this good, and even more especially one she bought, so without heeding Kazuma's suggestion she raised her utensils and proceed to devour the strange meat.

Kazuma was helpless to stop her. "Hey, I know you can be stubborn, but this is ridiculous! Just admit that you made a mistake and bought some tainted something!"

"I didn't make a mistake!" Megumin defended as she continued to shovel food in her mouth. "Just because you're too scared to try anything new doesn't me the rest of us have to be so picky!"

"Picky! This goes way beyond picky! That stuff is going to kill you."

"I'll have you know when I was younger I had to eat way worse stuff then this."

"So, you're admitting it's bad."

"I am not!"

Megumin eventually chomped her way through the entire meal without leaving Kazuma a single crumb, not that he wanted any. But, he did have to eat something, and since there was nothing in the house he would have to find it somewhere else. "Alright, I'm heading out to get some actual food. Just make sure when you barf to do it in to toilet. I'm not cleaning up after your idiotic decision."

"I'm telling you, I'm fine," Megumin said as she got up and did some stretches to prove her point.

"Yeah yeah, just remember what I said about puking." Kazuma left the house before he could hear an angry Megumin's reply.

His search for eatable food went on a lot longer than expected. It was kind of late and many of the vendors were closed. The only option he really had was to find an actual restaurant and sit down to eat.

The sun had completely set by the time he finally made it back to the house. No one was there to greet him, so he guessed Megumin had already gone to bed, but a groan from the living room proved his guess wrong. "Oi, is your dinner not agreeing with you," Kazuma said smugly, walking towards the living room fully prepared to boast about his predication, but his tone completely changed when he actually saw her.

Megumin was laying on the couch with both hand grasping her stomach. Her face was completely flushed of all color, and her eyes were shut with pain. Her breathing was uneven and only broken by the small groans she let out when her stomach made an audible and unnatural rubble. Her hair and clothes were a disheveled mess like she had been constantly clutching at them. She didn't even seem to notice Kazuma standing over her.

All thought of teasing her flew out of his mind. He had thought that at the very worst Megumin would have an upset stomach and been confined to the bathroom, but Kazuma had never seen the usually energetic girl look so bad. He might have bordered on the scummy side, but he wasn't heartless. He wouldn't add to her suffering. He bent down to get at eye level with her and asked her if she was okay.

Megumin opened her eyes, and even Kazuma could she the pain that filled them. "Are you still on about that. I know I don't look that great, but I'm more tired than anything else. I'll be completely fine tomorrow." Kazuma didn't buy her lie for a second, and his concern was only reinforced when Megumin brought her two shaky legs to the floor and attempted to stand up. She was up for about half a second before her legs gave out and she collapsed forcing Kazuma to catch her before she hit the ground.

If Megumin looked bad then she felt even worse. Kazuma could feel his sleeves become moist as they absorbed the large amount of sweat from Megumin's arms and face. Her breath felt like it had been baked through a desert before exiting her mouth. Kazuma wondered if he should get her something to drink, but the sounds coming for her stomach made him rethink subjecting it to anything else. "Megumin, I don't know if somehow your definition of fine and mine became different somewhere along the line, but let me tell you that you looked about as far from fine as possible."

Megumin was only able to respond through heavy breathing. "I…told you…I'm fine…now let me…go." She said that, but she made no attempted to push herself away from him. It looked like she was too weak to even pull that off. Kazuma helped her to her feet and wrapped his arm around her shoulder to help keep her balanced. She was shaking so badly that Kazuma really thought that he would have to carry her to her room, but Megumin was as stubborn as always, so one uneven step at a time, they slowly made their way to her room.

By the time they got there, Megumin was exhausted. Kazuma gently set her down on her bed. "Do you need anything?" he asked.

Megumin's eyes lazily moved across the room like she was trying to decide if anything in the room was worth having. "No, I think I'm fine. All I really want to do is sleep."

"Okay, I guess just call if you need anything." Kazuma wished he could have done more to help. It was true that Megumin's high energy sometimes annoyed him, especially her daily urge to use explosion magic, but seeing her so low-key didn't feel right. He was starting to regret not bailing Aqua out. If she was here she could have fixed Megumin with one spell, but as it was Megumin only had his limited help to work with. It honestly pained him that he couldn't relieve just a little of her suffering. All he could do was hope a little rest would make her better.

Kazuma left the room with Megumin still sitting on her bed. She felt awful. Kazuma had joked about it before, but Megumin really felt like she might barf at any moment. Her stomach was killing her and her entire body felt hot, but despite that, she wanted nothing more than to cover up in the warmth of her bed. When Kazuma had asked, she had almost asked him if he could get her pajamas, but decided against it because she honestly didn't know if she had the strength to put them on, and there was no way she was asking for Kazuma's help. It was already embarrassing that he had to walk her to her room, but she would die if he had to help her change. Not to mention he would never be able to stop seeing her as a child if she couldn't do that simple task.

So, with her day clothes on, she slid under her sheets and tried to clear her mind of all thoughts as she begged sleep to take her away. Sadly, clearing her mind was impossible. Every time she tried, her thoughts would be filled with the pain she was feeling. The way her stomach seemed about ready to explode to the smell of sweat building up under the blanket. It was awful, and she would do anything just to make it go away. She thought about what she could do, and realized that maybe focusing her thoughts on one thing would be easier than removing all thoughts completely.

Her thoughts, of course, drifted to her favorite thing in the world: explosions. She had made a nice one earlier today. It was beautiful with it hues of red, orange and yellow. The way it ballooned into the big fiery ball had been impressive as well. She hadn't got to admirer her work as much as she would have liked since she had fallen forward instead of backwards causing the ground to obscure her view. She had Kazuma relay the finer details of the explosion while he carried her home. She should really thank him for that. She knew explosions didn't interest him that much, and yet he still took a lot of time out of his day to make sure she wasn't stuck on the ground for an hour. Sure, she could probably ask Aqua or Darkness to carry her, they had done so before, but it just didn't feel right. She really didn't know how to explain it. There wasn't really anything wrong with the way Aqua or Darkness held her, expect maybe Darkness's hard armor, it was just that Kazuma was her preferred choice. She simply felt better—felt warmer—with him. It was probably a mistake to trust Kazuma with her paralyzed body, but she truly was grateful.

She could still remember the days before she met Kazuma and Aqua. Normally, she didn't have anyone to help her with her explosion magic. Sometimes, a group would accept her to see what she could do only to kick her out once they saw her handicap, if she was lucky, they would carry her back, but a lot of the time they would just leave her as punishment for not telling them about her limitation. There were also rare occasions when Yunyun would follower her, but for the most part she was alone. It was hard being alone. There weren't many quests she could do by herself, and her funds quickly ran dry because of it. It had gotten so bad that she was on the verge of having to head back to her village or starve to death. By the time, she saw the recruitment poster she was out of money and mostly out of food. It had been her last chance and she knew that is she failed \ she might have to give up adventuring. She had gathered up all her courage and tried to act like normal, but on the inside, she was terrified. Ture, Kazuma did try to ditch her at the end, and she had to resort to some less than noble tactics to change his mind, but still she was grateful. Kazuma could have not bothered to carry her at all, but he did. He could have ditched her after those ladies were out of earshot, but he didn't. He could have done any number of things to kick her out of the party, but he didn't.

Becoming part of the party had been one of the happiest moments of her life, and it was all thanks to Kazuma. Sure, Aqua was there too, and Darkness later, but it was clear to everyone that without Kazuma the party would pretty much dissolve. Without him the party would likely collapse and they would lose the place they started to call home. Yes, he's lazy, complacent, perverted and sometime just down right cruel, but he did all the plaining and managed most of the money, and most importantly he had accepted them, with all their faults and shortcomings. She really needed to thank him. He probably had no idea how much she meant to them—how much he meant to her.

Megumin wasn't even aware that her thoughts of Kazuma had devoured any thoughts of explosions, but it didn't really matter since her plan had worked. The pain from her body wasn't reaching her mind. It was strange, but in a way Kazuma was easing Megumin's suffering, even if he didn't know it.

As Megumin recalled more of what happened after she joined the party, she suddenly remembered one of the scariest days of her life. If she ever told anyone she'd probably be laughed at since looking back it wasn't that big of a deal, but at the time she had been in a panic. Kazuma had just died after dealing with the lizard runners. That in itself worried her since even if Kazuma had died a few times before, Megumin had never heard of anyone being resurrected more than once, and Kazuma had smashed that recorded. There was no guarantee Aqua would be able to infinitely revive him. Her stomach would always drop when he died as the thought, what him Aqua can't save him this time, would take hold, but this death had been so much worse because Kazuma had actually refused to come back.

Maybe it was because her mind was in overdrive thinking about the traumatic event, or maybe it was because her sickness was causing her to lose touch with reality and fall into her dream, but whatever the cause, Megumin felt like she was reliving it instead of just remembering it.

When Kazuma announced that he wasn't coming back, her whole body became stiff. She found it hard to breath and everything seemed to stop for a second before snapping forward. It was like her very vision was lagging. She was about to lose it, the place she belonged. If he didn't come back she'd be alone again. She had never been so scared, yet so angry in her entire life. Who did Kazuma think he was, putting everything they had built up in jeopardy, and for what! Just to satisfy one of his stupid whims. She wouldn't let him. She wouldn't let him destroy it. She wouldn't let him abandon her.

She wouldn't be able to take it if he did.

She had to take drastic action. If he wouldn't come back on his own then he would force him to. At that moment, nothing was off the table. She would have done anything and everything in her power to get his soul back into his body, so without any hesitation she got out a pen, walked over to his body, and started removing his clothes. She was aware of the tears building up in her eyes as she wrote her message, but from what she could hear of Aqua's yelling, her plan was working. Kazuma wasn't happy about the treatment of his body, but if he wanted to do something about it, he would have to come back.

She was hopeful about her plan as she finished her message and buttoned up Kazuma's shirt. She sat there, on his chest, waiting for him to open his eyes. She knew he would, there was no way he could stand someone messing with him, but minutes passed and his eyes didn't open. The tears that had been building up rolled down her face and on onto the corpse of Satou Kazuma. This couldn't be happing. It wasn't supposed to end like this. Kazuma wasn't serious about this. He wouldn't actually call it quits on life. He was just being lazy, taking his good sweet time getting back. He would wake up soon.

But, he didn't.

The steam of tears was no longer enough to express her feelings. Her eyes formed waterfalls as she wept, clutching onto Kazuma's shirt as if in some vain attempted to trap his souls inside his body. "You can't do this. What will happen to us? What will we do without you? What will I do without you? Who's going to help me with my explosion magic and carry me home? I don't want to be alone again. I can't be alone again, so please, I'm begging you, come back…

"…Kazummmaaaa!" Megumin shot up, in a cold sweat, screaming that name. Apparently at some point she had fallen asleep, and the altered version of that event had only been a dream, albeit a very vivid dream. It took her a little bit to convince herself that the events didn't happen that way. Kazuma had only played a cruel and terrible joke on them that day, at least she hoped that was the case. Although the longer she sat there, the more a small, dark thought in the back of her mind began to grow. A thought that told her that it hadn't been a dream. That Kazuma really was dead and everything she thought she remembered was nothing but a lie created by her to ease the pain. Megumin kept telling herself it was ridiculous. There was no possible way she could have just imagined all the things that happened after the incident, but with sickness beating down on her, limiting her critical thinking, the ridiculous became a lot easier to believe.

Meanwhile, in another room in the mansion and a little back in time, Kazuma sat on his bed. He hadn't even changed out of his clothes to make the attempted to sleep. He was too busy thinking. Seeing Megumin in so much pain affected him more than he ever thought it would. He was very nearly in all out distress opposed to his normal apathetic attitude. But, to be fair, his apathy on adventures was mainly due to Darkness being the only person in their party to take any major injury, and well since it was Darkness there wasn't anything to worry, but this time there was something to worry about. Kazuma couldn't recall a single instance where Megumin had suffered more than some light scrapes. Megumin wasn't used to severe pain nor did she enjoy it, so he was in a completely different mindset than if it had been Darkness. Even if it was her fault for buying and consuming something so sketchy, Kazuma couldn't just ignore the poor Crimson Demon. Ironically, as if the very world hated him, the one time he wanted desperately to help his friend, he was powerless to do so. He didn't have any healing magic and it was too late to go shopping for any type of medicine. He didn't even know if this world had any modern medicine.

He should have thrown the meat away the moment he saw how inedible it looked, but he hadn't, simply because he wanted to tease her when she got an upset stomach and prove to her that she was an implosive kid. Megumin probably thought he didn't care about her at all, and who could blame her? On quests, he certainly didn't seem to care, and the only thing he had done for her when she got sick was stuff her in her room. He never felt so deserving of the name Kazutrash.

He continued thinking about what he could have done differently. He probably would have kept at it for a while, but a sudden scream alerted him to his surroundings. He jumped off his bed and grabbed his sword before racing into the hallway. That wasn't her simply calling my name. What the hell could have happened? Why did she sound so terrified? Did someone break in? Having just beaten himself up over not taking proper care of Megumin, Kazuma was beyond worried. He couldn't get to Megumin's room fast enough, and when he finally saw her door he nearly kicked it down to get inside.

The door burst opened, and Kazuma rushed inside holding his partner in a very awkward way. He had been in such a hurry that he hadn't even removed it from it scabbard. Kazuma didn't see anything wrong in his brief glace around the room, but he didn't have time to look in much greater detail since something weakly rammed him and wrapped its arms around his stomach. At first, he thought a creature had gotten into the mansion and was ready to bring the full force of his sword down on it, but he stopped once he saw a head of dark-brown hair.

Megumin was once again shaking terrible as she buried her head in Kazuma shirt, but unknown to Kazuma this wasn't entirely due to her fever. "Kazuma, I'm so glad you're still here."

"What are you talking about? I told you I come over if you needed anything." He knew his teammates did I lot of weird things, but Megumin's actions seriously confused him. Why did she sound so scared when she screamed his name, and why did she think he wouldn't be here? Was it possible whatever she ate was causing her to see delusions as well. "Could you explain why you called me?" he asked.

Megumin looked up into his confused eyes and blushed. Now that she knew her dream had been just that, she felt really embarrassed. She didn't want to tell him why she had really done it since he would probably laugh at for having a nightmare over a joke that happened forever ago, but there wasn't any lie that she could come up with that wouldn't get him laughing just as hard. Maybe it was better to tell him the truth. At least that way he would know how she felt, and possibly try harder not to die, and at worst, in the morning, she could say she hadn't been feeling like herself and to forget anything she said. Megumin decided to try it.

"Kazuma I—"

However, she wasn't even able to make it three words in. Her mouth clamped shut, her cheeks ballooned and her eyes started to water as she felt what was coming. Maybe it was the sudden jump she forced her body to make from bed to floor to Kazuma, but whatever the cause there was no stopping it now. Her mouth was wrenched open as the contents of her stomach shoot up her throat and through her mouth splattering both her and Kazuma.

It took both parties a moment to fully comprehend what had just occurred. Toad mucus was one thing, but this was on a whole new level of disgusting. Kazuma might have been worried, and he might have felt bad for her, but Kazuma was still Kazuma. He wouldn't just let this slide. "Oi, Megumin."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Megumin quickly apologized. Embarrassment couldn't even begin to describe what she was feeling. Trying to tell Kazuma about her dream was nothing compared to this. Her urge to run away and hide was so great that it completely overpowered any disgust she might have felt from being covered in her own stomach fluids.

"I'm sure you are, and I just want you to know it's okay, you're sick." Kazuma spoke slowly and gently, but when he closed he's eyes and gave a thin smile, Megumin knew she was in trouble. She tried to back away, but a strong hand placed on her shoulder stopped her. "After all, I know you wouldn't get me to come to your room so you could pounce on me then puke as some sort of unjustified attack."

"I wouldn't do that."

"So, you chose to ignore my advice about vomiting and toilets."

"You know I would have, but it came so suddenly I didn't have the—" Megumin suddenly had to stop from explaining as her stomach decided it was time to remind her that she was still sick. The ache was so bad that she fell to her knees. She honestly felt like she might vomit again, and getting a nice whiff of her pervious vomit, as he body curled up in pain, certainty didn't help, but she managed to keep it down.

Kazuma could only look at the crippled Megumin with slight irritation. He sighed as he bent down to rub Megumin's back like he had done for Aqua so many times. He wanted to hold on to his anger but he couldn't. She wasn't exactly at her best, and she did sound sincere with her apology, so he would let this incident go. "We should probably get cleaned up. Being covered in vomit isn't healthy for either of us. Do you want to come with me while I fill the bath, or do you want to stay here until I'm done?"

"Are you suggesting we bathe together?" Megumin asked without the normal disgusted undertone that most girls would have had in this situation although it wasn't like she was happy at the idea. It's was more like she was asking if bathing together was necessary.

Kazuma found it little strange. He had been prepared to yell in his defense, but now he could give his reasons calmly and logically. It was almost refreshing considering the back-and-forth with his team. He thought that Megumin might have matured a little, or was he reading too far in, and she just didn't have the strength to make wild, emotional accusations. "Well I doubt either of us would much like to be waiting around, covered in barf, for the other to finish. Also, who knows what might happen if you're alone in there. You can barely stand up straight. You might pass out or something.

"I'm not a little kid."

"But you are sick, and I would feel better if someone was watching over you, and right now I'm the only option you've got.

Megumin felt her heart pick up. Those few words meant a lot to her. They proved that Kazuma cared about her and wasn't going to leave her alone. They probably wouldn't have been that big a deal if she didn't just have that dream, but since she did, it was nice to have some reinsurance that what she believed and looked up to in Kazuma was still true. "I'll go with you. At least I'll have a change of scenery for my suffering."

"Maybe a bath will help with that," Kazuma replied. Megumin nodded before making an attempted to get to her feet, but before she could stand to her full height another wave of pain brought her down. "Do you need me to carry you?"

"I would appreciate it."

Kazuma moved to put Megumin on his back like normal, but he realized that might be hard on her stomach plus it also put her mouth in close proximity to his face which would be a disaster if she had to puke again. Kazuma decided to change his approach by putting one arm under her knees the other on her shoulders as he gently uncurled the girl from her hunched position. Once that was down, he moved his hand to her back and lifted her up bridal style. Megumin was a little confused by this, but the way of carry didn't matter to her. She did hold on to Kazuma shirt, though, just because she felt a little uncomfortable not having at least some grip of her own.

Kazuma brought her to the changing room and set her down. Megumin closed her eyes as Kazuma striped down and put on a towel. Then he went to go fill the tube asking Megumin if she would be okay on her own. Megumin gave him an affirmative nod, but considering she was clutching her stomach and still hadn't gotten to her feet, Kazuma could only give a skeptical look. Once he was gone she had to work herself out of her clothes. This was not an easy task since she barely had the strength to lift her arms above her head, but even if vomiting on another person was the apex of embarrassment, she still had some pride left. She would not call on Kazuma to help no matter what.

The bath was filled long before Megumin was able to get herself fully nude, but she had been able to do it by herself. Now all she had to do was get a towel and join Kazuma. That, however, required walking. She took a depth breath and pushed herself upwards. Immediately, she felt dizzy and nauseas, but she used the wall to keep herself steady. She worked her way around the room, got her towel, and then procced to vomit into it. Cleary walking had been asking her body for too much.

"Megumin, did I just here to vomit again? Are you alright?" Kazuma asked,

She heard the water shift in the other room and had to quickly respond to kept him from checking on her. "I did, but I'm fine. Just hold still. I'll be there soon." It hadn't been a complete lie since after getting more of that meat out of her system, she did feel a little better, not a whole lot but good enough to walk correctly. Sadly, she had a different issue to worry about. The towel she had made a mess in was her only one. Her only option was too toss it, with the rest of the vomit covered clothes, and bathe without it. So much for rest of her pride. "Kazuma, I'm coming in now, but you have to close your eyes."

"Why do I have—"

"Just do it!"

"Fine."

"You better not be lying to me."

Kazuma was seriously tempted to say, 'why would I lie there's nothing to look at,' but he deiced to take it easy on the girl and said, "I'm not."

Megumin opened the door to the bath, her hands covering herself up as best she could in case Kazuma's curiosity got the better of him. Luckily, he controlled himself and she made it into the bathe without having to use the wall although it was difficult. When she slipped into the water, she realized just how dirty she really was. It felt nice to see some of it removed.

"Can I open my eyes now?" Kazuma asked.

Megumin looked down at her body. The water and the hot steam distorted the important parts enough that it was unlike Kazuma could get too clear a look, but she still didn't relish the idea of being naked in front of him, but she couldn't ask him to keep his eyes closed the whole time, and once you vomit on a person there's not much left to be ashamed of. Still, she put her arms over her breasts, just in case. "Alright you can open them now."

"I don't understand why you wanted me to close my eyes. We've done this before." Kazuma opened his eyes and he saw Megumin across from him and understood everything. Although she had been right in that he couldn't clearly see the parts that really matter, he gazed at her completely naked body in awe. She was lot prettier than he gave her credit for. Her hair wasn't done up in a bun like the last time, and it wasn't being hidden by her hat, so he could really tell how smooth and soft it was. The water reflected the color of her eyes making them look redder than usual, and the moonlight coming through the window gave her skin a pale glow. Although her breasts were on the smaller end, from what he could see of them they fit her body well. Overall, he liked what he saw.

"I know I said you could open your eyes, but can you stop staring at me," she said turning slightly away. "I felt like you're examining every detail and its making me uncomfortable."

"Don't mind me."

Megumin groaned. She knew Kazuma would do something like this, but there wasn't much she could do about it. She would just try to ignore him.

Silence settled in as the two began washing themselves. All things considered it was a perfectly normal bath, at least until Megumin reach for the soap. Up until that point, Megumin had felt functional. She had thought she was on the uphill track since she probably puked the last of that meat out, but she had been terrible wrong. As she reached for the soap, a horrific pain coursed through her body dwarfing anything that had come before it. Her vision blurred and her body felt like it had been transformed into lead. The next thing she knew her head was engulfed in water. She tried to pull herself back up but her inner turmoil didn't translate into outward action. She could already fell the lack of air getting to her despite only have been under for a few seconds. She started to panic really believe she might die, but soon enough something pulled her up.

She had never been so happy to have fresh air around her, and she greedy ate it up in her heavy breaths. "Megumin, what the hell just happened!" a voice beside her yelled. Megumin turned to look at the owner which had to have been Kazuma, but what she didn't expected was that he was literally right beside her. Her body was leaned up against him with his arm wrapped around her shoulders, and her head was resting on his chest. She pulled back in shock and embarrassment, but the sudden motion gave her a severe headache, and she fell back onto Kazuma. "Megumin, you need to answer me so I know you're okay."

Megumin couldn't be sure, but Kazuma sounded almost desperate. "I think I'm good. There was just a sudden wave of pain, and my body wouldn't listen to me. I guess you were right about needing to watch me. That was really scary."

"You thought it was scary think about from my end. I about had a heart attack when you collapsed." That was an understatement. The moment she went under Kazuma felt his blood turn cold as he raced to get to her. He didn't even want to imagine what might have happened had he not been with her.

The room grew quiet once again. Kazuma couldn't help the blood that rushed to his face as he thought about Megumin's naked body against him. He wondered if this time he had gone too far. Megumin wasn't trying to get away from him, though, so they stayed like that his arm still around her like he was afraid to let go. After sitting like that for a while Kazuma's eyes began to wander and they noticed that there were still small clumps vomit in her hair. Since it was something to do and kept his mind occupied, Kazuma decided to run his fingers through her soft hair to get them out.

While this was happing, Megumin was thinking about her near drowning. She was still a little shaken up about it. Kazuma had been right. She couldn't even take a bath on her own. Suddenly, she felt Kazuma finger move through her hair. She was about to yell at him for using her for his perverted fantasies while she was powerless to stop him, but his finger actually felt nice. They didn't yank her hair and they went deep enough that they gently touched her scalp. It felt like a low-budget head massage. It helped calm her still shaky nerves.

Kazuma noticed the joy in her faces and continued rubbing her hair despite brushing all the chucks out. "You know, you never did tell me why you were screaming my name."

Megumin froze. She once again debated telling him the true or not, but this time she came to her answer much faster. He deserved to know, and she wanted him to know what he met to her. Even now he was doing his best to take care of her. So, with only slight hesitation, it came pouring out. It wasn't a confession of love, but it was the next closest thing. She opened her heart and all the emotions and thoughts that came with it. Her words didn't seem to stop as she told him about her situation when she asked to join his group, what it meant to get accepted, how happy she was on all their adventures, how she hated it when he died, the dream she had, everything. By the time, she was finished she was exhausted. She had put it all out there. Her goals, her dreams, her past, her feelings, and her hope.

And that's why she about cried when Kazuma only replied with a simple "oh."

Nothing could have prepared her for that one word. Her entire being up to that point seemed to crumble. She felt sicker than ever before. She couldn't even look at him. All she could do was turn away and scrub herself intensely hoping to end this bath as quickly as possible. She didn't really know what she had been expecting him to say, but he could have said that he didn't feel even remotely the same way, and that the only reason he kept her around was because he felt pity for her, and she was sure it would have been better. He had dismissed an entire year of her life, possible the most important one she'd ever had, in one word. He hadn't rejected her or welcomed her. He was simply indifferent.

She made sure he couldn't see the tears fall into the bath as she washed.

Kazuma knew something was wrong the second Megumin turn away and pushed his hand off her head. He knew he had done something wrong, but he didn't know how bad it was or what exactly he did. The truth was after Megumin finished her speech, he had a thousand thoughts pounding inside his skull. Most of the things he told her he never even guessed. He never knew how cruel he had been when he decided to not come back after being killed. He didn't know that he had basically saved her by letting her join the party. He didn't know a lot of things. He saw a whole new Megumin just then, and he was having trouble processing it all, so when he said that fateful word, he didn't even fully realize he was saying it. He only said is since he knew he had to say something. It was a reaction, a placeholder, while he got all his thoughts and feelings together. But, that placeholder might have hurt her more than her fever ever could. "Hey, Megumin I—"

"Can you go get my pajamas. I'm very tired and would like to go to sleep."

Kazuma stopped. She had tried to hide it but the sadness in her voice had been clear to him. He didn't even try to explain himself. He had screwed up and he wouldn't be able to fix it at the moment. He only gave her a nod before heading off to get her pajamas.

When Kazuma left, Megumin brought her knees to her chin. She had been stupid. She should have never brought something so serious up. Expecting Kazuma to take anything she said seriously had been a mistake. After all, to him she was a child—a child who didn't know what she was saying. It hurt her to think about it. She only hoped that tonight's conversation didn't affected their day to day life because she liked and admired Kazuma despite all his flaws. In fact, those feelings might be a little more potent than simple like, but after Kazuma responds she knew she would have to bury those feelings forever. There was no way Kazuma would accept them.

Kazuma, who had already changed into his own pajamas, soon came back carrying her clothes. She made him turn away and shut his eyes again as she changed. She had a much easier time since she was feeling a little more refreshed after her bath. She still wasn't close to having her full strength, but at least Kazuma only had to hold her hand on the way back instead of outright carry her.

There were a few instances where she nearly fell on the way, but they made it back without any major incident. Megumin climbed in bed and wished Kazuma a goodnight expecting him to leave, but instead he did something that made her question if this was the real Kazuma. He gave her a genuine heartwarming smile as he pulled the sheets over her and tucked her in. He then left the room for a moment coming back with a cool towel, a mop and a bucket. He pushed her hair back and place the towel on her forehead. He then went to the spot where she had puked on him and started cleaning up few clumps that made it to the floor. "Why are you doing this?" Megumin couldn't help but ask.

"So, you don't have to smell it."

"But you never go out of your way to help anyone."

"I'm doing this because you're not only sick, but you my teammate and I care about you."

Megumin felt the blush creep up her face as hands tightened over the edge of her bed sheets. She didn't think Kazuma had it in him to say such nice things. Was it possible that Kazuma hadn't meant what he said. Did she still dare to hold out hope?

It didn't take long for Kazuma to finish cleaning, and it looked like he was about to leave, but Megumin stopped him. "Wait, can you stay for a little longer?"

"Huh, what for?"

"I'm having trouble sleeping thanks to all this pain. Could you do something to take my mind off it? Like tell me a story until I fall asleep." Megumin was proud of herself for being able to come up with that on the spot.

Kazuma looked at her with the strangest look, and for a second she thought he would deny her request, but then he gave another genuine smile and walked over to her bed. He sat on the edge right next to her head, and in a bold move, even for him, started patting her head. "What kind of story would you like to hear?"

Megumin was honestly a little worried with how Kazuma was acting and briefly wonder if this was something she was hallucinating, but no matter how these circumstances came to be she was happy to experience them. "It doesn't have to by any specific story, just talk about anything and it should be fine."

Kazuma smiled. His plan had gone even better than expected. He had been trying to do nice things for Megumin so he could apologize to her, but he had just been handed the prefect situation to make amends for unintendedly hurting her. "Alright, I know you talked a lot about this in the bath so you might not want to hear any more, but I would like to talk about you. Specifically, how I feel about you."

She couldn't believe it. Kazuma did care. That simple 'oh' had been a mistake something Kazuma had accidentally said. She was so shocked that she couldn't even give an answer. A slight nod was the only thing she could do to give Kazuma the go-ahead.

"Alright, first thing first, I want to apologize to you. I'm sorry about what happened in the bath. I didn't mean to shrug you off like that, but you have to understand with everything you told me I was kind of overwhelmed. But I want to make this right, so now it's my turn to overwhelm you."

Megumin was barely able to keep still. She didn't know what to expected from Kazuma, but she was going to latch onto every word. She would finally know what Kazuma really thought of her.

"When we first met, I knew I was in some serious trouble. The way you introduced yourself and the strange name you gave was almost enough to make me cry, but then you gave Aqua your stat card and for a brief moment I had hope; then, when you casted your explosion magic and collapsed, I really did cry. My first thought was how do I get rid of this kid, but you pulled that trick with the slime and became a party member. I fell into a depression. My prefect fantasy adventure had been ruined. I had already gotten a rotten deal with the useless goddess of party tricks, but now I was stuck with a flat-chested, childish, explosion-obsessed mage. The only time I had been more miserable was after Darkness forced herself into the party, but that's beside the point."

"Are you just here to mock me!" Megumin screamed. She couldn't believe she held out hope that Kazuma cared about her and would accept her. This was Kazuma we're talking about. He takes every chance he gets to complain. She was about to tell him to leave, but before she could he held his hand up.

"Just hang on one moment, I promise it gets better," Kazuma said. Megumin glared at him feeling like he should have skipped the first part if that was the case, but she let him continue. "Now as I was saying, I believed that this loli who join my team was going to be my worst nightmare and cause me nothing but trouble. It turns out this was only half true. She did cause me endless amounts of headache, however, the more we adventured together the more she grew on me. She was a little stupid and a little headstrong, but she was sweet and had the heart of an adventurer. She had set her own path. It didn't matter if it wasn't the most reasonable or efficient. She loved the path she choice. With how much she loved it, I couldn't help but start to support her on it. I went with her every day to cast her explosion magic. It started out as something of a daily chore, but it turned into something I enjoyed doing just as much as her. It wasn't long before we developed a bond. It was a simple bond, and until a few minutes ago I had believed it was mostly one sided, but now I know that bond meant a lot more than either of us realized.

"So Megumin, I'm sorry it took me so long to say this, but I'm really happy you're part of my party. I'm happy that you're an explosion-crazed manic because without that you wouldn't be you. I'm happy that I'm able to spend each and every day with you, and I'm sorry that I made you worry about me. I'm sorry I didn't realize your feelings sooner. I'm sorry that I'm such an asshole. I promise that I'll try to be better, even if it will be hard with all the crap I have to put up with, so please forgive me."

Megumin was nearly in tears—scratch that she was in tears. Kazuma had said everything she wanted to hear. She couldn't help herself as she sprung up in bed and latched onto Kazuma in giant hug, which he returned. "Kazuma could you spend the night with me? I don't want to be alone."

Kazuma merely snickered at that question. "You know you should word your questions better. If I didn't know any better I'd think you were inviting me to sleep with you."

"I am," Megumin said flat out. She had decided it was time to stop avoiding her true feelings. She was going to claim Kazuma before anyone else could.

In a rare event, Kazuma got a little flustered. "Holdup you can't be serious. Even if this is a confession, you're skipping a couple steps before inviting me to you bed. Like for starters we need to actually be dating first, and then there should probably be some romantic situation between us before we move to the step your suggesting."

"Fine, then we'll do it all right here," Megumin stated, feeling bolder than ever. "Kazuma I really like you and have for a long time. Would you please be my boyfriend?"

Kazuma had to do a double take to make sure he heard right. Megumin couldn't be this forward, but as he stared into her crimson eyes in search of any doubt or hesitation, he came to realize that she was absolutely serious. Kazuma hadn't expected things to go this far, but now that the question had been asked it was up to him to responded, and respond he did.

"Nothing could make me happier." Then in surprise twist both of them, in trying to futile the 'romantic situation' requirement, leaned in for a kiss. Their lips met for only a few seconds before parting, but it had been more than enough to leave both of them satisfied and blushing. Kazuma didn't even mind if he happened to get sick because of it.

Without another word Megumin moved over to allow Kazuma enough room to get under the covers, which he gladly accepted. Once he was nice and comfortable, Megumin curled up under his arm with her head on his chest and her hair fitting nicely under his chin. Her color was slowly coming back, and Kazuma really wanted to believe it was because of his presences.

It was a lovely scene which reminded Kazuma of the anime dating sims he used to play. He had always played games like that because he, just like Megumin, had been lonely. He wanted to be the guys in those games with tons of girls surrounding them at all times. He had always thought that the more girls that loved you the happier you could be, but looking at the girl breathing slowly on his chest, he discovered something that NEET Kazuma never could have understood. Those guys could keep their empty harems. All he needed was the one. "Megumin, I love you."

"I love you too, Kazuma." And with that Megumin brought her head up one more time and their lips met for a goodnight kiss.