### Chapter 1: An Unexpected Change
Kazuma Satou had grown accustomed to chaos. Traveling between dimensions with a party comprising a masochistic Crusader, a chuunibyou Arch Wizard, and a good-for-nothing Goddess had prepared him for anything—or so he thought. Winter in Axel brought silent nights and softly falling snow, but that tranquility was shattered one evening by a sudden, irreversible twist.
The shift began with an innocuous commission from a local mage. Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness were all exhausted from days of fruitless efforts to scrape money together. Aqua, in her usual wasteful fashion, had evaporated their savings on expensive party tabs and nonsensical expenditures. Desperation forced them into taking jobs from anyone who would hire them, and this mage promised a good reward for a simple task—"testing a new teleportation magic circle."
"What could go wrong?" Aqua had chuckled, brushing her dewy hair away from her face with an air of indifference. Kazuma's skepticism nearly rivaled his exhaustion.
When the spells were chanted and the magical circle activated, the room filled with a blinding light. Kazuma felt himself being lifted off his feet, a sensation eerily similar yet utterly different than his initial transfer to this bizarre world. Without warning, the world lurched, and Kazuma felt a shiver as cold as Axel's winter breeze replace his sense of self.
### Chapter 2: Reversed Reality
Kazuma woke, disoriented, to find himself straddling the line between consciousness and void. It was Aqua's voice that first registered in his mind, shrill and panicked.
"Oh my goddess, what is going on!?"
He snapped open his eyes. Everything looked strangely more vivid, the colors sharper, the details more pronounced. He reached up to wipe a cold sweat off his forehead but immediately froze when the image in his head clashed with what he saw. Slimmer hands, wrapped in detached sleeves of blue and gold trim, greeted his vision.
"What the...?" His voice—no, Aqua's voice—rang out.
Kazuma scrambled to his feet, his heart racing. Across from him stood his own body, Aqua’s fierce but humorless grimace plastered across his face.
"It appears we've had... an accident," Aqua-in-Kazuma said, her eyes wild with confusion and barely veiled post-inebriation rage. "This is your fault, Kazuma!"
"Me? How is this my fault?" Kazuma-in-Aqua shrieked back, his—no, her—voice reverberating with a goddess-level pitch of indignation. "You were the one who thought this job was a good idea!"
Before they could engage in their usual bout of bickering, the mage who had facilitated the swap flicked his wand, sealing their lips from spilling the truth. He had missed the intended target and errantly swapped the bodies of the two adventurers. Yet, to undo it would take powerful and forbidden magic, which threatened mind-warping consequences.
### Chapter 3: Learning to Adapt
Days turned into weeks, and the bodyswapped duo had no choice but to adopt their new roles. Kazuma, in Aqua’s form, had to take on the role of an Arch Priest. He grasped at the lingering bits of Aqua's divine knowledge, enough to summon water, purify spaces, and even perform demeaning party tricks when required. Aqua, suffering Kazuma’s physical frailties but retaining his cunning and expertise, not-so-willingly aided the party in the only way she could: through sarcasm and relentless griping.
"Why do you smell like raw sewage?" Megumin wrinkled her nose one evening as Kazuma-in-Aqua returned from a failed purification attempt at the sewer pipes of Axel. The fee had been substantial, yet the task an unequivocal nightmare.
“Blame her body’s purification limit,” Kazuma muttered beneath a tired and annoyed sigh. They had decided their sanity depended on keeping up appearances, so the irritated adventurer had to suffer public humiliation without letting anyone catch wind of the swap’s truth.
“Hey! I resent that!” Aqua-in-Kazuma whined from a safe distance. Picking up Kazuma's sword, Chunchunmaru, she slipped and landed face-first in the snow. "Owww."
“Great job, Aqua. Just great,” Kazuma huffed, dragging his weary burdens—the physical and the celestial—a notch closer toward insanity.
### Chapter 4: Embracing the New Normal
Kazuma found the winter seemed a little less biting as the days went by, distractingly immersed in managing Aqua’s goddess powers. For what she lacked in intellect, compensated somewhat in raw magical prowess. He experienced a kind of primal exuberance manipulating divine energies and coursing through water spells with a hand flick, despite missing his beloved Chunchunmaru.
Aqua, fumbling yet adapting to Kazuma's earthly capabilities, found herself oddly envious of his latent survival instincts. She wielded the short sword with a degree of bashed confidence, honing skill sets Kazuma, somewhat, avoided out of preference for ranged options and exploitative tactics.
Through it all, one barrier remained constant: they grew a fragile camaraderie navigating this swapped existence. Whether incremable or sharing high-fives over challenging quests, a hesitant yet resilient bond emerged, held together by mutual hate of one ultimate truth—Aqua had wasted their money. Yet this time, it was also their ticket to new understandings and maybe, just maybe, the tiniest shred of respect.
Their winter was long and frustrating, but Kazuma-in-Aqua and Aqua-in-Kazuma bore it together, one bizarre day after another, fighting their way back toward a semblance of harmony and a deeper grasp of what it meant to truly walk in another’s shoes.
This story was generated by user codepercy with assistance by one of OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model; prompts used to help generate the story are shown below.
Images were generated with OpenAI's AI system, DALL·E 2, or uploaded by the user.
Prompt: write a body swap that happen in konosuba the one who are swap are Kazuma and aqua. Kazuma Satou (佐藤さとう 和真かずま) (given name Kazuma, family name Satou) is the main protagonist of the KonoSuba series. He was shut-in who spent the days playing for video games until he died in a pathetic way, reincarnated into the Parallel World alongside the Goddess of Water, Aqua, in order to defeat the Devil King.[1] Appearance Kazuma is a young man of around 5'5" (165 cm), weighing 120 lb (54 kg) with slightly spiky chestnut-brown hair and green eyes (black eyes in the light novel). His usual outfit initially was a green tracksuit, but later he started using an adventurer outfit consisting of a gold-trimmed green mantle, white shirt, pants, and leather boots. He wore a short sword on his belt, later replaced by his short katana, Chunchunmaru. Personality Before he died, Kazuma used to be a shut-in, who stopped attending school and spent the days locked in his bedroom, playing video games.[1] After he went to the Parallel World, Kazuma kept his laziness, as, while he works hard while he is on debt, once Kazuma has spare money, he stops working, lazing around at his mansion as a NEET. Kazuma is so experienced in the NEET lifestyle he even taught Bukkororii, another convicted NEET, ways to spend the whole day doing absolutely nothing.[2] Kazuma also enjoys partying and getting wasted. Because of his laziness, Kazuma is also greedy, knowing he needs money in order to sustain himself without working daily. Because of his intelligence and luck, he has a great business sense, and is always after news ways to make easy money. However, Kazuma sometimes is carried away by the moment and wastes money partying in the Guild.[3] Also, since Kazuma spent much of his young playing video games or reading manga, he sees his life in the Parallel World as a video game. Although Kazuma has common sense, he usually classifies people and elements around him as manga and video games tropes, even having a soft spot for sister archetypes.[4] For such reason Kazuma gets frustrated by both the Parallel World realism, or its lack of common sense or logic, as its bizarre monsters or rules. Because Kazuma is basically a babysitter for this "troubled children" party members, he is a very stressed person too. Kazuma is always taking responsibility by and cleaning up the mess caused by Aqua, Megumin and Darkness, becoming a volatile person and having outbursts of anger, sadness and even joy. Also, as a babysitter to his party, he does not hesitate in punish his party members for their missteps. After reincarnated in the Parallel World, Kazuma decided to abandon his inhibitions.[5] Although he is still caring deep down, Kazuma became a "too honest" person, who usually speaks whatever comes to his mind, no matter who it hurts. Because of such rudeness, mockery and sarcasm, he usually ill-treats or treats well those around him according to his humor, often using excuses, like his speeches about "true gender equality", to treat everyone "equally poorly", no matter the gender. Although Kazuma can be kind, particularly with children, he is also resentful, taking revenge on those who mess with him or his friends, and merciless, not pitying his friends. Kazuma is a huge pervert as well, actually the most perverted man in Axel ever since its former Lord disappeared. Although his type are busty woman with long hair,[6] Kazuma is always trying to peep all women around him (except Aqua), as well as committing "minor" sexual harassments, like trying to feel Megumin's chest against his back while carrying her.[7] However, Kazuma actually goes after a kind and sensible girl (a typical novel heroine),[8] and for such reason his heart skips with any display of kindness, even with the person is Iris[9] or Aqua.[10] Kazuma is a coward too. He is willing of turn away and run off his enemies, while apologizes almost in tears,[11] and even use his party members as shield,[12] although he can overcome his fears in order to help his friends. Also, because of his cowardice, Kazuma is afraid of both make a move on or kick out his party members. He, however, is bold-faced, as Kazuma often begs for forgiveness on his knees shamelessly. Kazuma is also clever and artful, often formulating sneaky and pragmatic strategies during fights, thanks to his video games experience, as well as manipulating both his enemies as his allies in different situations. He is willing to trick party members in order to get what he wishes, as well as to keep secrets from them. However, Kazuma is still trustworthy in important moments, as life-threatening situations; and honest, as he never takes advantage of other people, nor the problems caused by his party members. Furthermore, Kazuma is, according to Megumin, a weak-willed man[13] with, according to Aqua, the mental resilience of tofu.[14] Although he shows confidence and tries to look cool in suitable circumstances, Kazuma is very frivolous, getting carried away by fame, status and popularity, as well as acting without thinking, or falling into temptations of the fresh and the money, no matter how determined he was. His lack of determination is also viewable by how fast Kazuma gave up defeating the Devil King once he reincarnated in the Parallel World, and Kazuma usually only acts on self-interest. However, while Kazuma usually complains about his party members and the harsh world he lives, Kazuma is a tsundere at heart, as while he pretends he doesn't care for his party, Kazuma grew attached to them, bending over backwards and sacrificing what is important for him, as opportunities, for his party's well-being,[12] aside of making their will and supporting their antics,[15] to his regret sometimes. Kazuma only admitted to himself he actually enjoys his party and that world in the end of the series.[16] Whereas his party members are too specialized, Kazuma has the opposite problem: he does not excel in anything. Despite having amazing Luck and decent Intellect stats, the former is not directly applicable in combat and he cannot make full use of the latter due to his low Magic Power. Also, while his class levels up easily, because of his unbalanced party, he hardly gains XP. Kazuma actually works a lot better when accompanied by competent teammates, or even as a solo adventurer, making up for his low stats by creatively using his many different skills. Stats: After becoming an adventurer and learning different skills, Kazuma had two high stats: Luck: Kazuma has an extraordinarily high Luck stat, so high that even Luna was surprised. However, she claims that its numerical value isn't really essential to an adventurer. The only person he has ever lost to in a game of rock-paper-scissors is Eris, the Goddess of Luck. During his gambling streak in the nation of Elroad, Kazuma was able to win enough money to temporarily put a casino out of business. Though frustrating and unpredictable in the short run, most things end up turning out well for him, no matter how many times he makes the same mistakes. Intellect: His Intellect is decently high, one of the highest out of his entire party, behind Megumin. In practical use, Kazuma is very cunning and sharp, often employing the usage of sneaky and pragmatic tactics. He also uses his intelligence to combine many different skills in order to create unexpected effects, as creating clouds of dust or trapping the target's feet on ice by using simple Basic Magic. Skills and Magic: Kazuma belongs to the Adventurer class, and as an adventurer, Kazuma can learn and use skills and magic spells of any class. He can also level up easily. After venturing into the world's hardest dungeon, he learned many other skills on top of the ones he had prior due to having an insane amount of skill points: Thief-Class: Steal: Steal a target's item at random. The item value depends on the user's Luck. Due to Kazuma's perverted nature, he often unintentionally (or intentionally) steals his female opponent's underwear. Bind: Binds a target in rope provided the user has a rope on them. Kazuma uses this skill with a special mithril wire. Disarm Trap: This allows the user to disarm any traps in their path. Trap Detection: This allows the user to detect any placed traps in the area. Enemy Detection: Allows the user to sense hostiles using "Radar-like" pings. Lurk: Reduces the visibility and scent of the user and anyone or anything they touch. Flee: Allows user to make a quick getaway. Warrior-Class: One-Handed Sword: Raises proficiency with one-handed swords. Wizard-Class: Tinder: Creates a small flame too weak to directly harm enemies. Create Earth: Produces sand or soil full of nutrients. Create Water: Shoots a jet of pure and clean water from atmospheric moisture. Wind Breath: Creates a gust of wind which can redirect small projectiles. Freeze: Creates a chill able to freeze the surface of the target's body. Fireball: Shoots a ball of fire that detonates on the target. Lightning: Summons a lightning bolt. Flash: Creates a intense light that blinds the opponent. Unlock: Allows the user to open up any lock or unseal any object. Teleport: Instantaneously transports up to 4 targets to a marked locations. Each user can have 3 marked locations for teleportation. Kazuma marked the boss chamber of the World Largest Dungeon, the entrance of Axel Police Station and Eris' room in the Afterlife. Explosion: Summons a single beam of light, that detonates at the target, creating a devastating blast of pure magical power. Undead-Class: Drain Touch: Absorbs MP and HP from a target, which in turn can be transferred to somebody else. It is more effective where the skin is thin and spots near the heart. This skill, however, isn't as effective for Kazuma on adversaries with high Vitality like Darkness and Mitsurugi. Also, undeads and monsters with low-quality MP can cause negative effects on Kazuma's health. Archer-Class: Bow: Raises proficiency with bow and arrows. Snipe: Increases the distance and accuracy of an arrow. Damage is based on Dexterity while Accuracy is based on Luck. Foresight: This allows him to see far into the distance and improve the user's vision overall. Priest-Class: Heal: Instantly heals a person's wounds. Monk-Class: Auto-evade: Allows the user to dodge any attack autonomously. Activation is dependent on the user's Luck. Ranger-Class: Set Trap: Increases the power and activation chance of any trap. Creator-Class: Create Earth Golem: Creates an earthen golem from the ground soil. Assassin-Class: Deadly Backstab: One-hit kills the target in their back if certain conditions are met, as being undetected. Success rate based on Luck. Dark Stalker Class: Eavesdrop: The ability to secretly listen to a conversation from a distance. General Skills: Lip Reading: Understand what someone is saying as long as the user can see their mouth. Kazuma usually uses this skill alongside Foresight. Chef-Class: Cook: Gets better at cooking. Kazuma used this in other to prepare dishes from his homeland, Japan. Blacksmith-Class Smithing: Ability to forge and fix weapons, armors and other objects. Kazuma uses his smithing ability to great effect by inventing products from Earth, such as dynamite, condoms, lighters, and kotatsu, as well as repair armor made out of adamantite. Kazuma Satou was once a regular student who grew up in Japan, and despite asking his parents to divorce before marrying somebody else with a little daughter so that he can have a younger stepsister, a request which got him smacked as a result,[1] still went ahead with life like a regular student. Yet during the summer of his third year in junior high, he witnessed his childhood sweetheart, who had promised to marry him, riding away on the motorcycle of her uppperclassman boyfriend. This shocked Kazuma into becoming a shut-in hiki-NEET, and instead of going to school spent his days engrossed with online games, where through endless battles against monsters alongside the parties he led, he made himself a name among the gaming community.[2] Equipment Short Sword: A cheap short sword that he bought some weeks after being reincarnated with what little income he had made from his construction job.[17] Chunchunmaru: A specially-ordered short katana, which has a weird name thanks to Megumin.[8] Silver Arrows: Handmade arrows made of silver, effective against undead, demons and wolf-type monsters.[18] Cursed Ring: A cursed ring that got stuck on Kazuma's finger after he put it on, and forced him to steal panties upon every full moon.[19] Mass-Produced Vanir Mask: A mask that raises magic abilities, increases blood flow and gives the user's skin a healthy glow on full moon.[4] Tinymite: An small item created by Kazuma, similar to the dynamite, that created an explosion as powerful as Blasting Magic.[20] Bottle of Poison: Alongside the Deadly Backstab skill, Kazuma gained a bottle of poison from the assassin who taught him that skill.[21] One day, Kazuma following several days of gaming without rest decided to leave his house for once to buy a new game called Myraid Swords 2. Managing to snag a copy, on the way back Kazuma noticed a girl from his class who was about to be hit by a truck, so taking the initiative he jumped into the way.[3] Kazuma death 1 Kazuma pushing the girl out of the way He next found himself transported to a room, where an inhumanly beautiful girl who identified herself as Aqua the Goddess of Water informed him about his death by shock due to mistaking that he got run over by what turned out to be a slow tractor. After Aqua made fun of his embarrassing death to Kazuma's fury, she informed him of the 3 options before him: either start anew on Earth as a new person, go to heaven (which she doesn't recommend due to the lack of things to do there and the inability to have sex), or get reincarnated to a Parallel World currently ravaged by a Devil King.[3] Kazuma opened mouth 1 Kazuma successfully bringing Aqua with him to the parallel world After revealing that the fantasy world's language would be loaded into his brain despite a small chance of making his brain go "poof", much to Kazuma's concern, Aqua instructed him to pick a cheat item or special skill to be reincarnated with. Next called a geek by the impatient Aqua because he took his time trying to decide, the angered Kazuma eventually came up with a plan to get back at her, and made the decision to choose Aqua as his "special skill". An Angel who subsequently appeared next notified him that his choice was accepted by the gods, as well as how upon him defeating the Devil King, they will grant any one of his wishes. The jubilant Kazuma was then sent to the parallel world along with Aqua, much to the goddess' dismay.[3] Arriving at Axel, known as the Town of Beginnings where new adventurers start their careers, Kazuma asked Aqua for any info regarding this world, only to be shaken around by the goddess, who panickedly told him that she couldn't go back to the Heavenly Realm unless he defeats the Devil King. Kazuma thus decided to find the Adventurer's Guild for getting more information, though when asked by Kazuma if she knew its location, Aqua confessed that she didn't know anything about it, leading Kazuma to call her "useless".[4] Managing to reach the Guild, they got pointed by a Ruffian towards the reception counters to sign up as adventurers, yet find out from Luna that there is a guild registration fee.[5] Kazuma thus asked Aqua for some money, only to be told of her having none, which caused Kazuma to call her "useless" again. He next felt sorry for Aqua when she went to pressure a priest for money, citing herself as the goddess of the Axis Order, but instead found out that he served the rival Eris Order, who nonetheless gave her money out of pity which she accepted despite feeling slightly defeated.[4] They pay the registration fee, and though their sorry states made Luna hesitate to look at them, she subsequently explained about the Adventurer Card and how it's used to show a person's level and skills, before telling Kazuma to hold his hand above a device looking like a card (or a crystal ball in the anime)[5] for determining his stats. With Kazuma's stats revealed to be average across the board except his high intelligence and extremely high luck, Luna explained that stats like these are more suited for merchants, but Kazuma still decided to be an adventurer. He was next piqued when Aqua's stats were revealed to be exceptionally high except for her low intelligence and extremely low luck, which qualified her to become an Arch Priest,[4] and further irrigated as the people in the entire Guild cheered for her. Calming himself down from the jealousy at Aqua stealing his thunder, Kazuma cheered up when Aqua approached him and told him that they will start a life of adventuring.[5] Irregular of Axel Arc The same night he arrived at this new world, Kazuma who at dinner regretted his selection[6] discovered to his dismay that because they had no money for equipment to start questing or even rent a room at the inn, Aqua could only borrow a stall at the stables for them to sleep in. The two of them next began working part-time jobs, first as servers at the Guild's banquet hall, where Kazuma berating the manager for asking him to harvest anchovies from the fields became a reason they got sacked, then later as banana sellers at a produce stand, where Aqua demonstrated making the merchandise disappear for good and got them both sacked again.[7] With jobs in the service industry all blown, Kazuma talked the reluctant Aqua into working for the construction industry, which was hiring heavy labourers because the craters Megumin had been blowing in the grasslands just outside the city walls needed to be filled.[8] He however got sick of the backbreaking work on the first day, and instead had to be persuaded by Aqua into continuing this line of work.[9] Thus they began a life of hard and gritty work during daytime before being the first to bathe at dusk, followed by them merrily eating and drinking at dinner after nightfall, sometimes in the company of their fellow construction workers,[5] though the foreman had a tendency of slapping Kazuma on the butt as a way to "be friendly",[10] and Aqua's antics such as swindling an adventurer who made her drop her wages brought him to tears.[9] Beginner Adventurer Arc Following weeks of life as day labourers, Kazuma abruptly remembered how they needed to do some real adventuring.[4] Aqua thus suggested Kazuma to go on a kill quest, and at him hesitating due to them being only Level 1, she stated that if she is around he has nothing to worry about, so Kazuma decided to believe the goddess, even though Aqua tripped and fell into the fountain as they were about to go back to the stables.[5] Waiting until the sleazy Aqua finally woke up late in the following day,[11] Kazuma armed with a cheap sword he had managed to buy took her on a quest to hunt 5 Giant Toads, and soon found himself running for his life from one of the oversized amphibians on the grasslands outside the city while Aqua laughed in amusement. He was thus forced to beg for her help despite the unreasonable demands she made, only to be shocked when Aqua was instead gobbled up by the Giant Toad, though its immobility when swallowing her allowed Kazuma to kill it. After freeing the slimy and smelly goddess who bawled about being defiled, he had to repeat the process because she foolishly charged another Giant Toad and ended up gobbled again.[4] The pair soon returned to the city where they first washed the slime off at the public baths, then during dinner Kazuma suggested recruiting for new party members. However, nobody came applying on the following morning because the recruitment advertisement posted by Aqua only accepted advanced classes[4] (and in the anime was not only badly drawn as well as written, but contained many fake reviews)[11]. Just as Kazuma was about to go change the advertisement, they were approached by Megumin, who bewildered him with her weird name as well as a chuunibyou introduction. Told by Aqua about Megumin being a Crimson Demon whose tribe is known for being overpowered mages sporting chuunibyou personalities, Kazuma after feeding the starving Arch Wizard and getting over his initial annoyance regarding her antics, took Megumin along with them for continuing the quest against the Giant Toads.[4] Exasperated when Aqua charged an approaching Giant Toad only to be gobbled up again, he became astounded by the sheer power of the Explosion cast by Megumin to completely obliterate another of the amphibians. His awe though turned to frustration upon seeing Megumin limply collapse from having exhausted all her magical powers before a newly emerging Giant Toad gobbled her up too, forcing him to rescue both her and Aqua, which ended up completing their quest. Carrying the limp Megumin on his back as he took the slimy girls back to the city, Kazuma heard the Crimson Demon explain how she had learned no spells except for Explosion which she could only cast once per day, the mechanics of which Aqua briefly elucidated for him. Naturally prompted to ditch the vehemently protesting Megumin, he ended up being blackmailed into keeping her around once Megumin began loudly deepening the misunderstandings of passersby, who had thought him to have sexually tormented the slimy girls.[4] Sending the said slimy girls to wash themselves off at the public baths before his reputation gets further damaged, Kazuma who collected the meagre rewards from completing the quest contemplated on how hard it is to make a living through questing. But just as he was crossing out some impossible quests, Darkness approached him pressuring to joining his party because she was attracted by how he got some girls all slimy and wanted to share the same fate, prompting Kazuma to reject the beautiful but masochistic pervert.[4] On the following day at the Guild, Kazuma was taught by Megumin how to learn skills using his Adventurer Card, before refusing to expend his skill points for learning Megumin's Explosion and Aqua's party tricks. He was then approached by Chris who came alongside Darkness, and accepted her offer of teaching him Thief skills. Accompanying the pair to the courtyard outside, Kazuma watched Chris demonstrate Enemy Detection and Lurk, subsequent to which she demonstrated Steal by taking his purse from him. Next offered to Steal something off Chris, he learned the Thief skills taught to him, before Stealing much to his excitement Chris' panties. Initially proclaiming to keep it as his family treasure, Kazama eventually returned Chris' panties after she returned his purse in addition to paying him all of her money.[12] Kona Suba Kazuma overjoyed at Stealing Chris' panties Heading back to the Guild where Aqua was performing to a cheering crowd, Kazuma was shocked when Darkness blurted out the scummy acts he had just committed for everybody to hear. After Chris left for some adventuring work, though not before further damaging Kazuma's reputation as payback, he at Megumin's request demonstrated Steal, and was rewarded with Megumin's panties. Next continuing with his refusal of Darkness' attempts to join, he was cut off by an emergency quest that called for every adventurer in the city to participate, which turned out to be a harvest of flying Cabbages, to Kazuma's utter speechlessness. He anyhow Lurked close to clusters of Cabbages before Stealing them into his load, and during dinnertime with the three girls contemplated the vegetables' tastiness, before agreeing to have Darkness join his party.[12] Kazuma a few days later asked some other adventurers to teach him Basic Magic in addition to some other skills, and used the money he earned for a new outfit. With Aqua and Megumin still traumatised by Giant Toads, he at Darkness' suggestion took a quest for hunting a Zombie Maker at the public cemetery to help Aqua level up. During a party barbecue at the cemetery that night, Kazuma detected unusually numerous Zombies crowding towards a ritual nearby performed by Wiz, whom Aqua identified as a Lich and immediately attacked. Kazuma however stopped Aqua from purifying Wiz and listened to her explain how she was simply sending the Ghosts of the buried dead who couldn't afford a proper burial to the afterlife, and accordingly made a deal to have Aqua send the lost souls in place of the Lich so that the buried corpses won't be animated into Zombies by Wiz's presence, even though this rendered their quest a failure.[12] One day when drinking Neroid, Kazuma heard about one of the Devil King's Generals occupying a nearby castle, before finding his party's abilities hopelessly unbalanced. Some days later, his plans of using the rewards from the Cabbage harvest for buying a decent residence became moot when he had to pay off Aqua's debts. Finding no quests against low-levelled monsters because they all went into hiding as a result of the General's presence, during the following week Kazuma accompanied Megumin on daily Explosion exercises aimed at an abandoned castle, and as a result gained a sense of how to rate the Explosions.[13] Like all of Axel, Kazuma too was shocked by the sudden arrival of Beldia, who turned out to be that Devil King's General residing in the abandoned castle, though it soon turned into perplexity when the Dullahan raged about him being irritated to madness by the daily Explosions. Subsequent to Darkness being cursed to die after a week in Megumin's place, he had to hold the Crusader back from following the surprised Beldia to his castle in order to fulfil her perverted fantasies. Kazuma and Megumin after the Dullahan's departure made up their mind to accept Beldia's invitation of raiding the castle and making him remove the curse, only to be dumbfounded when it was easily broken by Aqua.[13] At some point during the period, Kazuma assisted Aqua with soliciting her holy water that ended up not selling, and had to restrain her from pestering a retired adventurer who provided water for free.[14] He also accompanied Megumin on a job at a quarry, where she surprised him by mercilessly blowing up a baby Wyvern.[15] In addition Kazuma was asked by Darkness to help look for a runaway Roper that she wanted to keep as pet, though to no avail.[16] Then as the girls vied for leadership, Kazuma sat back to watch in hopes that somebody else could take up his troublesome duty, only for the girls to point him out as the party leader once Luna approached asking for somebody to take responsibility for their misdeeds.[17] And when Kazuma took the party to hunt for a golden bamboo early one morning, he managed to dodge bamboo shoots attacking from below, only to be hit in the butt by the golden bamboo, which nobody wanted to eat afterwards.[18] (In the audio drama, it was also during this period when Kazuma helped Megumin by pretending to date her in an attempt to make a stalker thought to be fancying the Crimson Demon give up)[19] A week after Beldia's appearance, Kazuma stopped Aqua from taking some high-difficulty quests before letting her perform one that involved purifying the riverhead lake in order to get rid of the Brutal Alligators infesting it, then came up with the idea of locking Aqua within a cage borrowed from the Guild and dumping it into the shallows, so that she could purify the water without being harmed by the ferocious reptiles as they attacked her. Yet following the successful purification of the lake, he was forced to cart Aqua back within the cage on their return trip to the city because the traumatised goddess refused to leave it.[13] Episode 5 Kazuma confronted by an angry Mitsurugi Kazuma next found himself confronted by Mitsurugi Kyouya on the streets, who after breaking Aqua out of the cage and hearing about her circumstances, angrily accused Kazuma of mistreating his beloved goddess. Piqued by the ignorance of the Swordmaster over Aqua's lack of respectability as well as his arrogant attitude which was indicative of one who never had to scrape around for a living thanks to the cheat item gifted to him upon reincarnation, Kazuma made to leave once his companions refused Mitsurugi's offer for them to join his party, only to be challenged by the undaunted Mitsurugi to a duel. Kazuma immediately pulled a sneak attack on the Swordmaster upon accepting the challenge where the winner can take whatever he wanted from his opponent, before Stealing the Cursed Sword Gram out of Mitsurugi's hands and knocking him out with the flat of the blade. Deciding to take Gram for his own even though it cannot be wielded by somebody other than Mitsurugi, Kazuma through threatening to use Steal on Cremea and Fio, successfully scared Mitsurugi's companions from attempting to take the cursed sword back.[13] With Gram still being dead weight, however, Kazuma decided to make good money off his prize by selling it to a general store on his way back to the Guild.[20] He was later confronted again by Mitsurugi, who came accusing him of various scummy deeds on girls, then following the Swordmaster's enthusiasm being punched out by Aqua, Kazuma sent him and his party scurrying away with the revelation of Gram being sold off.[13] The party of Kazuma was accordingly summoned by the Guild alongside other adventurers to the city gate, where Beldia returned to rage about how the daily Explosions had been continuing since his previous visit, which in turn enraged Kazuma because he realised that Megumin along with Aqua had been persisting with casting Explosions at the abandoned castle behind his back, prompting him to pull the cheeks of the two idiots. Kazuma later instructed Megumin to blow up Beldia's army of Undead Knights, which were chasing after Aqua who in turn chased after him, as they lured the horde far outside the city gate[21] (and in the anime right up to Beldia's side)[22]. Carrying the limp Megumin further away, Kazuma looked on in horror as Beldia easily cut down all the adventurers attacking him, and became additionally terrified upon hearing the onlookers reveal that they were waiting for Mitsurugi to show up and defeat the Devil King's General with Gram. He was next left speechless by Darkness' inability to hit Beldia with her attacks despite her tanking his, and with the other mage adventurers frightened from casting magic because of the Dullahan's death curse, Kazuma took it upon himself to Create Water for dousing Darkness who fantasized perversely even when repeatedly wounded, only to notice Beldia jumping away from the stream of water. Proceeding to Freeze the water puddles so Beldia cannot dodge, Kazuma and other Thief adventurers tried to Steal the sword from the Devil King's General, yet failed because of their difference in levels.[21] Just as Kazuma despaired his lack of competency while Beldia prepared to deal the killing blow on Darkness, he remembered from the games he had played that Undeads are susceptible to flowing water, thus teamed up with other magic-using adventurers to Create Water at the Dullahan. The streams they sent towards the Devil King's General though all got evaded, so Kazuma frantically told Aqua to summon water, but soon regretted it when the Goddess of Water summoned a flood that not only nearly drowned the adventurers, but caused huge damage to the nearby city walls and structures. Kazuma anyhow managed to Steal Beldia's head from the weakened Dullahan afterwards, which he gleefully used for soccer with some other adventurers, before Aqua purified the Devil King's General and revealed how she had Resurrected the slain adventurers.[21] Oh!YES! Kazuma Steals Beldia's head A day following Beldia's demise, Kazuma made up his mind to abandon his mission of defeating the Devil King, but instead become a businessman in order to live safely and soundly. Heading to the Guild where his party members and other adventurers were heartedly celebrating, he heard from Luna how his party was awarded a special reward for defeating a Devil King's General. Yet before Kazuma could rejoice, Luna handed him a bill for the flood damages to the city caused by Aqua, which instead plunged them all into tens of millions in debt, spurring Kazuma's determination for defeating the Devil King so that he could get out of this ridiculous world.[23] Some time afterwards, Kazuma stopped Aqua's attempt at swindling Chris of money for retrieving a purse forcibly taken from a beginner adventurer. He however was unable to prevent Megumin from getting away with a cursed gem she had taken from Chris because the Crimson Demon made a scene about being robbed, and instead had to flee alongside Chris from the pursuing policemen by using Lurk. Kazuma was later treated to drinks by Chris at the Guild, during which Aqua joined in much to his speechlessness.[24] Advertisement Deep Winter Arc With the rewards from every one of his party's quests getting a substantial portion deducted for paying off his debts as the cold hard winter approached, Kazuma who one morning woke up to find his eyelashes frozen over became desperate for money so that they can get out of the stables fast. Rummaging around the Guild's bulletin board where mostly difficult quests were posted, he ignored one for scouting out the Destroyer before choosing the one for hunting Snow Sprites.[25] At the snowfield forest where Snow Sprites gathered, Kazuma easily took out many of them before instructing Megumin to clear out the rest with an Explosion. He next became both terrified and exasperated once the Winter Shogun appeared, since the murderous spirit out to avenge the Snow Sprites took this form thanks to some Japanese reincarnate previously sent over by Aqua. Despite following Aqua's advice to dogeza at the generous spirit for mercy, Kazuma had to jump up and force the stubbornly prideful Darkness into lowering her head, which resulted in his own getting chopped off by the Winter Shogun.[25] He soon found himself back in the familiar afterlife,[26] where he was greeted by the goddess Eris who truly empathised with him. Accordingly offered reincarnation as a baby in a rich family back in Japan, Kazuma who thought himself hating the Parallel World starting weeping once he thought about his companions. Next hearing the voice of Aqua calling for him to return to his body that she had Resurrected, Kazuma was allowed by Eris, whom he found to be a true goddess, into going back to the world of living. His first thought upon returning to life, however, was to switch Aqua for Eris, before finally accepting the fact about rookies like him being incapable of taking quests during the winter. Although the party managed to earn enough for staying at an inn for the time being, the recollection of Eris was enough to make Kazuma regret his choice of coming back to this world where he had nobody but insane companions.[25] Deciding to find some simple porter jobs several days later at the Guild in order to let his recovering body take it easy, Kazuma found himself taunted by a drunken Dust over his weak Class, and finally lost it when the delinquent described his adventuring life in a party filled with beauties of advanced Classes as a breeze. He proceeded to agree with Dust's jest for them to switch parties for a day, and consequently accompanied Taylor, Rin, and Keith on a quest against Goblins as their porter.[25] Finding adventures with an ordinary party quite enjoyable even if he was looked down upon, Kazuma impressed them when his Enemy Detection picked up an approaching Beginner's Bane before he hid them all from the dangerous monster through Lurk until it left. With his new companions carrying their own luggage out of newfound respect for him, they soon discovered the Goblins who unexpectedly numbered a full score and gave them a tough battle. Kazuma though applied a combination of Basic Magic for defending the party and hampering the Goblins, allowing them to easily eliminate all of the monsters. As he headed back with the others who repeatedly praised him, the Beginner's Bane from earlier came chasing after them, at which Kazuma blinded the beast with another combination of Basic Magic and allowed for everybody to flee, further impressing the other three. Eventually returning to the Guild late that night, where they were greeted by an apologetic Dust who had a disastrous day with the three pretty but incompetent troublemakers, Kazuma ended up complying with his plea of them going back to their previous parties.[25] A week since Kazuma's decapitation, he having learned more Thief skills in addition to some Archer ones decided to go venturing into Keele's Dungeon alone for any leftover treasures, asking Megumin and Darkness for escort to its entrance. Using potions that masked his scent as well as Lurk to hide from monsters, Kazuma nevertheless had to let Aqua accompany him into the dungeon when reminded of Undeads that could still detect him. Soon contemplating ditching the goddess at the dungeon's depths after she laughed at how he freaked out at the sight of an adventurer's corpse, Kazuma tried unsuccessfully signalling for silence from the dimwitted Aqua prior to an enemy attack. Subsequent to cutting down the attacking monster that Aqua identified as a Gremlin, he realised to his shocking embarrassment how the goddess, who could see clearly in the dark, had witnessed him pleasuring himself when sleeping next to him in the stables.[27] Accordingly impressed when Aqua purified hordes of Undeads coming their way, Kazuma stopped her from approaching a chest, which turned out to be a Dungeon Mimic. Finally reaching the deepest part of the dungeon where they found nothing but unusually numerous Undeads crowding towards them, the pair was met by Keele who was awakened by Aqua's aura. Following Keele's recounting of his life story and Aqua's purification of the Lich using a magic circle drawn in his chamber, Kazuma as they left with the treasure Keele had gifted them realised how it was Aqua's goddess aura that had been attracting the droves of Undead, and consequently ditched her in the middle of a monster attack.[27] Seeking to compensate for his party's wildly unbalanced abilities, one day Kazuma made up his mind to visit the magic item shop owned by Wiz in hopes of learning Lich skills from its owner,[28] though due to Megumin's earlier warning about the powers Liches wield, as a precaution he brought Aqua along.[29] After clobbering the goddess because she against his instructions tried to attack Wiz, Kazuma who was surprised by the explosive potions Wiz put on sale in turn surprised Aqua once he expressed his goal. He next decided to spare the shopkeeper when she revealed her identity as a Devil King's General since she never hurt people, though Aqua's attempt at purifying Wiz while she demonstrated Drain Touch on her forced Kazuma to smack the goddess again. With the Lich reduced to a weakened state and incapable of taking on a request from a real estate broker to solve a Ghost infestation problem at one of his client's properties, Kazuma decided to have his party perform it in her place, especially when the owner allowed them to live there until it is no longer seen as haunted.[28] Cursed Dolls Anime Kazuma finds himself surrounded by possessed dolls As Kazuma brought his party to settle at the villa mansion that had belonged to a noble, he ignored Aqua's ramblings about Anna's ghost that still haunted the mansion, and also disregarded the goddess' bawling about her treasured wine being drunk by Ghosts, instead going to bed while she ran around Turning Undead. Yet waking up hours later with a need for the toilet, Kazuma was shocked to find possessed dolls encroaching upon him, and so fled in panic to Aqua's room, where he only found Megumin who was in the same situation. They next had to flee when the dolls crowded in from outside the window, before the pair managed to make it to the toilet, only to be forced into barricading themselves when the dolls caught up and tried breaking in the door. Kazuma finally made up his mind to make a break for it because Megumin became terrified to the point of chanting for an Explosion, only to knock Aqua down as he burst outside to find that she and Darkness had already taken care of the Ghosts possessing the dolls.[28] On the next day, Kazuma took Aqua to the Guild in order to collect rewards for the ghostbusting, yet once Luna informed him how the Ghosts began infesting the mansion because they were forced out of the nearby public cemetery by a powerful barrier somebody had erected around it, Kazuma made Aqua confess to him her deed of setting up that barrier, before refusing the rewards out of a guilty conscience. He next took the goddess with him while apologising to the real estate broker, though the party was generously allowed to continue living in the mansion, so Kazuma later tidied up Anna's grave in the mansion's yard.[28] At some point during the period, Kazuma became surprised at Aqua proving herself as a muse of the arts.[30] He however became disgusted at the goddess trying to bribe a policeman into turning a blind eye to her unlicenced soap figurine business through sculptures of pretty women that can have their clothes melted off, thus reported them to a policewoman.[31] His attempts at testing out the sword of Shack the Ripper having ended in failure, Kazuma then had to rescue Megumin when she attacked Giant Toads with the magical sword which allowed her to cut up any object but couldn't harm living creatures.[32] Additionally taught by Megumin a boardgame looking like chess but encompasses all sorts of crazy magical rules, which resulted in his repeated overwhelming defeats,[33] Kazuma proceeded to dominate her in shogi matches during one rainy day, as well as win a gamble with her on guessing the gender of their mansion's next visitor who turned out to be Chris.[34] (In the audio drama, Kazuma led his party on a simple delivery quest into the mountains, where he fell towards his death following a landslide and had flashbacks of several incidents concerning each of his party members. Initially accepting his death, he suddenly refused to die impoverished and disgraced, thus managed to spring back to life after Aqua's Resurrection repeatedly failed, only to hear about his body damaging somebody's rooftop when it fell and landed him into more debt)[35] Told by Aqua one day how Anna was playing pranks using her ghostly abilities, he then accompanied her on a job requested by Abram to solve a Ghost problem at his mansion, then following the identification of the Ghost as their client's recently deceased father Pickles, had to go buy rare pink neroid claimed by Aqua to be required for letting the Ghost pass onto the afterlife. That night following a party at the mansion for the completion of the job, Kazuma witnessed Aqua sharing stories with Anna, to whom she confessed some of her misdeeds against him, before he jumped in to stop Anna from blurting out his secrets.[36] Kazuma was interrupted from his job of sewing pouches in the mansion on one cold day when Darkness burst in goading the party on a scouting quest against a Powerful Messenger, and so teased the perverted Crusader for her apparent goal of going for the tentacles that the monster was rumoured to possess. Heading into the forest where the earth spirit was said to dwell, Kazuma became both disgusted and irated when the Powerful Messenger they had to flee from was revealed to have taken an appearance out of cosmic horror all thanks to some prior Japanese reincarnate. Later discovering Darkness being cursed into weakness by the monster and needing help with anything that required a little strength to perform, he began feeling protective of her. Taking her along when reporting the curse to the Guild, Kazuma warned the other adventurers taking advantage of the Crusader's weakness not to get carried away with it, before he began growing fond of the frail Darkness, up until the curse was eventually lifted.[37] Kazuma also joined the party in accompanying Wiz on her request to eliminate Ghouls, where he demonstrated his ability to stomach gruesome sights such as a Goblin all munched up by the Undead. After the team ran into Wolfgang inside the Vampire's hideout cave, followed by Wiz getting riled into a contest with him to determine who is the "King of Undead", Kazuma upon Aqua suggesting Megumin cast an Explosion on the two Undeads quickly proposed that they compete with Drain Touch instead, before frantically instructing Darkness and Megumin to save Wiz from being opportunistically purified by Aqua.[38] Kazuma despite his reluctance still took the party on a profitable quest suggested by Megumin against a White Tiger, which surprisingly used a Beginner's Bane to scout them out before handing Aqua its newborn cub requiring the goddess' aura for nourishment. Initially hoping to sell off the cub whom Aqua named Sieg, Kazuma eventually gave in to Aqua and agreed to keep it, then subsequently accompanied her on the trip to send it back to its mother.[39] With the craters close to town courtesy of Megumin's daily Explosions requiring him to pay for the filling costs, Kazuma accepted a job from fishermen to engage in explosion fishing, so after using the deposit for the crater filling fees, he took his party to the lake where the fish were to be caught from. Although Kazuma managed to talk the displeased Megumin into casting her ultimate attack spell, he forgot to remind her of lowering the magnitude as well as the goal being the creation of shockwaves to stun the fish. Ending up with the whole lake blown away and most of the fish reduced to paste, Kazuma while carrying Megumin back scolded her, though he still got his full reward since there were enough intact fish left over.[40] Kazuma afterwards expressed disbelief at the idea of Octopi being farmed in ranches upon Darkness excitedly calling for the party to take out an escaped Stealth Octopus because it turned feral, then had to follow her into the forest where his Enemy Detection soon located their quarry, only for the perverted Crusader to rush towards the grove he pointed at so that she would be caught in its camouflaged tentacles. His exasperated attitude turning into excitement once the Stealth Octopus began digesting Darkness' clothes, the untimely butchering of the monster by Aqua despite his protests gravely disappointed him.[40] On a day the party took a break from questing, Kazuma tailed Megumin as she brought her cat on an outing, before a hooded figure suddenly snatched away the furball whom he referred to respectfully. Proceeding to yell about the figure being a perverted felinephile so the nearby townsfolk on the main roads helped block the catnapper, followed by proclaiming him to be a weakling bounty monster in disguise so that people will pursue inside the alleyway he snuck into, Kazuma accordingly took Megumin to hurry ahead for cutting off that figure. Yet he instead found the catnapper, whose speed far exceeded expectations, not only making it further but also held Darkness as hostage at knifepoint in an open space. Kazuma thus offered him a salami as a distraction so he could Steal the knife, then after the catnapper revealed himself to be a Demon only to suffer damage from Aqua's Exorcism, saw him trying to use the cat as a hostage instead for covering his escape. Told by Megumin how the Demon's target was her cat, Kazuma instructed her to start preparing for Explosion, and removed any inhibitions by Stealing the cat away so she could cast the spell and finish off the Demon.[40] While working on his job of assembling artificial flowers in the living room one day, Kazuma to his bitter disappointment discovered that Aqua's intelligence would not improve no matter how much she levelled up, so he out of pity allowed the useless goddess back to the seat in front of the fireplace that he had just chased her out of. Later strolling around the city, he caught sight of Dust and Keith suspiciously loitering around an alleyway, and was accordingly let in to the secret among male adventurers about the Succubus Cafe.[33] Venturing inside with the support of his two fellow adventurers, Kazuma was greeted by the Receptionist Succubus who led him to his seat (which was right next to the Ruffian in the anime)[41], and heard from her a detailed explanation of the dreams their staff offer, thus he wrote down on the request form a dream where an older but naïve girl with a glamourous body bashfully serves him. Excitedly returning to the mansion as the others prepared crab pot, he painstakingly refused Aqua's wine in order to prevent himself from drinking into a dreamless stupor, and instead went to bed early, though unable to sleep because of the anticipation, Kazuma decided to go take a bath, during which he fell asleep in the bathtub.[33] He soon found himself faced with a naked Darkness coming in for a bath, so determining how this unnatural situation was simply his requested dream, Kazuma ordered the shocked Darkness into helping him bathe. Yet just as he was about escalate the orders given to the obedient Darkness, an alarm sounded by Aqua about an intruder sent him angrily dashing out into the hallway, where it turned out that the Loli Succubus sent to give him the requested dream got trapped within a holy magic circle laid by Aqua, who alongside Megumin was all bent on exorcising the Succubus. Doggedly shielding the Loli Succubus upon realising how the occurrences in the bathroom were the reality, Kazuma managed to cover for her escape, albeit getting beaten up by the three angry girls. Apologised at the following morning by Darkness who thought that he had been Charmed by the Succubus, he began rejoicing the living necessities now in his possession, only to have it broken by a Guild alarm signaling the approach of the Mobile Fortress Destroyer.[33] Determined to protect his hard-earned mansion despite Aqua and Megumin calling for them to flee, Kazuma took his party to the emergency adventurer meeting held at the Guild. There he heard about the formidable abilities of the rampaging ancient weapon as well as other adventurers' suggestions for countering that had been proven ineffective, then when asked for ideas, came up with the strategy for Aqua to break the Destroyer's magic barrier for Megumin and Wiz to blow its legs off with Explosions. While simple barricades were set up outside the city gates later on, Kazuma heard from Darkness her duty to protect the city when trying unsuccessfully to talk her out of standing guard at the forefront.[42] Endorsed to take command of the city's defence by Taylor and the Guild, upon the Destroyer coming into sight, Kazuma ordered Aqua to break the magic barrier, before spurring Wiz and the panicking Megumin to blow off the fortress' legs. Yet to his horror, Aqua who got carried away began uttering flag lines, following which the Destroyer broadcasted a warning about it accumulating heat. Kazuma anyhow dragged Aqua and Wiz into joining the rest of the adventurers storming the fortress in an attempt to prevent its imminent detonation, during which he wilily Stole the head off an attacking Golem, only to have his hand crushed by the heavy part's weight and requiring Aqua's Healing.[42] Eventually coming across the remains of the Destroyer's Head Researcher, Kazuma became exasperated at the absurdity recorded in his diary, before discovering the coronatite core used for powering the fortress. He proceeded to Steal the unstable ore out of its containment chamber, albeit suffering serious burns that Aqua had to Heal, then allowed Wiz to Drain Touch some magical power from him in order to Randomly Teleport the coronatite to somewhere else as it was about to explode, proclaiming how he would take responsibility for the consequences. When subsequently faced with the fortress about to explode anyways from all the heated gas it accumulated, Kazuma Drain Touched the magical power from Aqua to recharge the spent Megumin, which allowed her to cast another Explosion that destroyed the Destroyer.[42] Advertisement Late Winter Arc As he and his party were emphasising their exploits against the Destroyer while celebrating at the Guild, Kazuma was approached by Sena and her escorting knights, who instead of rewarding him announced his arrest on charges of treason.[43] Following Megumin and Darkness' "defence" of him revealing more of his scummy antics, he was told of how the coronatite ended up Teleported to the mansion of Alderp and resulted in its destruction, so despite no casualties caused, the prosecution was now suspecting him to be a terrorist or working for the Devil King's Army. Finding the other adventurers who had voiced their support of him changing their tune as soon as Sena threatened to arrest them too,[44] Kazuma failing to make a panicked break for it got apprehended by the knights.[45] Thrown into the prison at the police station where he soon found himself joined by Dust, that night Kazuma was woken by an Explosion outside the city, following which Aqua came smuggling him a lock picker while the guards were distracted by the telltale spell, only for him to throw it back outside and go sleep once he discovered his jail cell using a combination lock. The following day at the interrogation room where Sena questioned him while utilising a lie-detecting magic bell, Kazuma was forced to truthfully answer all sorts of questions exposing his scumminess, until he blew up at the prosecutor inquiring him over topics unrelated to his charges. Turning cocky upon an apologetic Sena admitting how she suspected him to be a terrorist based on the bad rumours over town about him, he was accordingly cowed into submission once she became stern at him bringing up the topic of her having no boyfriend. But when giving a negative answer to the question of whether he was associated with the Devil King's Generals, the bell indicated him to be lying because he had forgotten all about Wiz. Thrown back into jail to await trial on the next day, Kazuma during another Explosion that night was visited again by Aqua, who smuggled him a hacksaw through the window for cutting the bars, though she then attempted unsuccessfully to deliver him crates for reaching the tall window through the police station's doorway, prompting him to throw the hacksaw back outside and await his fate instead.[44] Kazuma appeared in court the following day (where all the unsubtle execution preparations brought him into a vomiting fit in the anime)[45], and became further pessimistic upon hearing how his party members, who acted as his defence attorneys, had only prepared for the task by practising how to shout "Objection".[46] Still feeling that he could manage as long as Aqua keeps her mouth shut, especially after she yelled "Objection" just for the heck of it, Kazuma was allowed to narrate his exploits against Beldia and the Destroyer in defence against the charges read against him. Subsequent to Sena summoning several witnesses to testify about Kazuma's scumminess as well as listing his party members' misdeeds in order to paint him as a terrorist, the protesting Kazuma found himself at a loss for words once Sena brought up sightings of him using Lich skills as well as him falsely denying connections with the Devil King's Generals during interrogation.[44] Alderp cutting in to declare Kazuma a minion of the Devil King's Army who purposefully sent the coronatite to his mansion, though, gave Kazuma just the opportunity to declare himself having no ties to the Devil King's Army as well as not purposefully Teleporting the coronatite to the lord's mansion, a testimony that the court's lie-detecting bell proved to be true. Yet just as the judge and Sena made to dismiss the charges due to the lack of evidence, they suddenly changed their minds upon Alderp's insistence that Kazuma is guilty, much to the shock of the said defendant. He was eventually spared from immediate execution thanks to Darkness getting the trial postponed, though the court still ordered Kazuma to prove his innocence in addition to paying reparations to Alderp. Heading for Wiz's Shop in hopes of partnering with Wiz to sell Japanese goods as a way for earning the reparation fees, Kazuma gave the continuously interrupting Aqua a thrashing because she had been obstructing and vandalising Wiz's business,[44] following which he got his valued possessions at the mansion confiscated by knights as debt collateral for damages to Alderp's mansion.[45] As Kazuma feared for the worst after the masochistic Darkness went to meet with Alderp but didn't come back, he got introduced to Chomusuke, and found the cat who was friendly to him a source of tranquility, though he then became shocked at witnessing Chomusuke breathing fire to cook the fish he gave her, something the girls didn't believe. Subsequent to Sena barging in and accusing Megumin's Explosions for making the Giant Toads hibernating underground just outside the city begin surfacing prematurely, Kazuma ordered Megumin and Aqua to take care of it, and shocked Sena by standing around to watch the pair get preyed on by the amphibians. His later offer to rescue a gobbled Megumin refused, he proceeded to Snipe the one chasing Aqua, yet the sheer numbers of the monsters newly emerging turned out to be more than they could handle.[47] Following the party being saved by Yunyun, Kazuma heard her blurt out all sorts of scummy antics exhibited during their school days by Megumin, whom he had recharged so that he won't have to carry her slimy body back. Later handed a piece of high-quality manatite won from Yunyun by the slimy Megumin, during their return trip he proceeded to internally rank Yunyun as being much better than his resident Arch Wizard, only to have the perceptive Megumin irately grab onto him in order to make him slimy too. Making it back to their mansion while Aqua was still out, he and Megumin quarrelled over who gets to bathe first, before nonchalantly undressing while throwing taunts, yet to his surprise the Megumin whom he simply saw as a child went ahead to bathe with him. The two of them accordingly discussed Yunyun while in the bathtub, before Kazuma panicked at Aqua's return, fearing what she would say upon witnessing him bathing with a little girl. He frantically expended all his magical power for Freezing the bathroom door shut, yet after collapsing from exhaustion, Megumin who realised the reason for his franticness began attacking him, forcing Kazuma to call for Aqua's help, which resulted in him being branded a "loli-NEET" by the goddess.[47] Turning more agitated the next day because of Darkness' continued absence, Kazuma went outside for breakfast, where he heard about the appearance of self-destructing monsters in addition to glimpsing Yunyun timidly buying kebabs. Subsequently seeing her timidly waiting for dating couples to finish playing at a shooting stall before challenging it herself, yet failing to hit the stuffed toy Winter Shogun that she wanted with her arrows, Kazuma stepped in to hit it with Snipe, only to have the stall owner charge him double price for violating the rules against using skills. Meeting Yunyun again at another stall where the owner offered a monetary prize for anybody who can break a lump of adamantite, Kazuma afterwards joined forces with nearby adventurers to stop Megumin upon her attempting to challenge with an Explosion. With Yunyun still trailing behind the two of them as they strolled around, Kazuma accompanied the Crimson Demons outside the city, where Megumin beat Yunyun in a contest of adultness by citing how she had already bathed with him.[47] (In the anime, Kazuma brought his party to Wiz's Shop to discuss his debt-paying plan the day after he met Yunyun, and witnessed how she and Megumin used a Friendship Crystal, before Megumin beat Yunyun in a contest of adultness)[48] Following a few days of worrying about Darkness who had not come back (a period in the anime that Kazuma and Aqua used to explore Keele's Dungeon, from which he returned with Keele's treasure only to spend it on partying at the Guild)[49], Kazuma became infuriated by Aqua's arrogant attitude, especially since her flood was responsible for a large portion of their debt, therefore he began Stealing her possessions to use for debt repayment. Then as Darkness returned to explain how she was the heiress of the Dustiness noble household and wanted them to help her ruin an arranged marriage with Walther, whose portrait Kazuma immediately ripped up upon it being shown to him, the Adventurer suddenly came up with the idea to play along with her, but in secret actually assist with sealing the marriage so that he can be rid of the incompetent Crusader, though in excitement he ripped up the portrait that Aqua had just repaired.[50] Kazuma went on to suggest him and Aqua respectively dressing up as a butler and a maid of House Dustiness so they could accompany Darkness during the upcoming marriage interview with Walther, then after meeting Ignis at the Dustiness residence, secretly made a deal to support his endeavour of marrying off his daughter. He proceeded to stop Darkness from expressing her distaste at the whole affair during their wait for Walther, as well as smack the heiress when she attempted to act unladylike once the young nobleman arrived. Next feeling exasperated at hearing the perverted Crusader rant to him in private over her masochistic fantasies and preference of lecherous scum, Kazuma nevertheless persuaded Aqua into letting him secure the marriage.[50] Although he managed to prevent Darkness from speaking out of line with discreet bursts of Freeze during the interview, once the interviewing couple went for a walk in the garden at Ignis' suggestion, where Kazuma was surprised by Aqua summoning a shoal of koi in the pond, his repeated babysitting of Darkness made Walther aware of their close relationship. Kazuma then leered at Darkness after she ripped up her skirt for challenging Walther to a duel in the dojo, before being ordered by the heiress to fight her with his scummy style. He thus drenched her with Created Water before Freezing it, then as she grabbed at him used Drain Touch on her, yet Darkness with her stamina was capable of enduring it while she twisted his hand in an armlock, until Kazuma talked her into capitulating through promises of unspeakable embarrassment. The soggy and half-naked Darkness whom he drained unto unconsciousness, however, was later witnessed by Ignis, who promptly ordered Kazuma and Walther executed, and only through the two young men's frantic explanations of what really happened were they eventually spared. Asked by the departing Walther to take good care of Darkness afterwards, the heiress' ensuing lie about her being impregnated by Kazuma forced him to spend the better part of the next hour clarifying the truth to the overjoyed Ignis.[50] Later confronted again by Sena for suspicion of being connected to the peculiar monsters emerging from Keele's Dungeon, Kazuma denied the accusations and refused to go help tackle the problem, then further questioned his party members over the issue following the prosecutor's departure, and discovered to his fury that the magic circle drawn by Aqua for purifying Keele was still actively repelling monsters from the Lich's chamber, which may make Sena think him responsible for the monsters' emergence. He consequently took his party to Keele's Dungeon for erasing the evidence, claiming to Sena who had hired a group of adventurers how he heroically wanted to protect civilians from the self-detonating Vanir Dolls, and was handed a evil-sealing sticker capable of disabling magic in case he found the source responsible for summoning the little monsters. With Darkness being his only party member willing to enter the dungeon, Kazuma followed behind her as she charged straight through the swarms of Vanir Dolls that left other adventurers behind them reeling.[51] The two of them finally ran into Vanir as he fashioned the dolls in front of Keele's chamber, and Kazuma upon discovering him to be an Archdemon in addition to a Devil King's General who was scaring all the Giant Toads into surfacing, managed to calm the agitated Darkness down from attacking, despite some of their recent embarrassing thoughts towards each other voiced out loud by the All-Seeing Demon. Following a conversation with Vanir, where they found out about his nasty plan for achieving his death wish with a perfect dungeon, Kazuma who wanted to avoid conflict asked to be allowed to clean up the magic circle behind Vanir, only to have the curious Archdemon look into his past, resulting in not just his otherworldly origins, but the true nature of Aqua also being discovered. Barely resisting the temptation from Vanir's demonic whispers that offered letting the pair enjoy themselves in the bedroom behind him while he went to kill Aqua, Kazuma unintentionally gave Darkness the opening to hack the All-Seeing Demon's body apart. Initially terrified when Vanir not only revealed his mask to be his true form, but furthermore forced it onto Darkness' face to possess her body, Kazuma soon became surprised when the masochistic Crusader unexpectedly retained some autonomy, so while she kept Vanir busy by repeatedly interrupting the Archdemon's dialogue, Kazuma seized the chance to clean up the magic circle.[51] He next slapped the evil-sealing sticker onto Vanir's mask, so that he would be trapped within Darkness' body while she walked outside for Aqua to purify the Archdemon. Panicking as they neared the exit when Vanir fully took control of Darkness and charged outside to kill the goddess, he was somewhat relieved after Aqua dealt the Archdemon a serious blow with Sacred Exorcism, before warning everybody nearby about the Devil King's General possessing Darkness. Kazuma however soon found himself powerless to help as Vanir fully utilised Darkness' body to defeat all the adventurers hired by Sena and then prepare to kill Aqua, yet faced with the goddess and the prosecutor's pleas, he nevertheless stepped out to confront the Devil King's General. Advised by Megumin to remove the evil-sealing sticker so Vanir can be released from Darkness' body which was shielding him from the full power of Aqua's magic, Kazuma tricked the All-Seeing Demon into defending against his Steal, when in fact he cast Tinder instead to burn away the sticker, though because Vanir still refused to leave Darkness' body, at the Crusader's own suggestion Kazuma instructed Megumin to blow them both up with Explosion.[51] A week following Aqua fully healing Darkness when the party found her, (a possible time interval for Kazuma to have put on a wish-granting choker from Wiz's Shop that slowly chokes him to death unless his wish is granted, spurring him to abuse the helpfulness of the five women on the scene into performing all sorts of debasing and humiliating deeds over the next few days, only to have the choker come off after his wish for having his feelings healed was inadvertently fulfilled, resulting in him being sent to Eris by the enraged women subsequent to his ensuing confession)[52], Kazuma spread word around the Guild about Darkness' real name and made her thoroughly embarrassed. Next having all treason charges against him dismissed by Sena, who was now convinced that he wasn't a minion of the Devil King's Army, Kazuma's party was handed their rewards for defeating the Destroyer and Vanir, which not only cleared them of debt but also made them rich.[53] Kazuma and Darkness afterwards headed for Wiz's Shop in order to tell the shopkeeper of Vanir's demise, only to discover that the Duke of Hell had reincarnated into a second life that now works for the Lich. The otherworlder was next offered by the All-Seeing Demon a money-making business deal prophesied to be needed in the upcoming future by him and the heiress,[53] thus for the remainder of winter, Kazuma spent most of his time designing prototypes for all sorts of Japanese goods that Vanir will market and sell, with the kotatsu being one of the first products pushed out,[54] and in return he was paid one-tenth of the sales profit.[55] At some point during the period, Kazuma supervised Megumin as well as Gilbert who commissioned her to show him an Explosion, and stopped them from targeting a church of Eris in addition to Wiz's Shop, yet distracted on the way by the argument between the construction foreman and a nobleman over the demolishment of a mansion, he ended up failing to prevent Megumin from casting Explosion at the mansion and causing collateral damage.[56] Kazuma also teased Darkness on her knitting when the heiress practised the art as part of her bridal training, before accompanying her on an errand to buy more yarn.[57] And hoping to attend a rock-paper-scissors contest at the Succubus Cafe for winning a prize, Kazuma instead got called into the forest by Darkness for smacking her awake if she got put to sleep by a lost Siren's song, yet he too ended up asleep before waking up long after the contest was over.[58] In addition, while out drinking with Dust one time, Kazuma blurted out all about his failed service with the Loli Succubus.[59] Furthermore, at times when he didn't have time to look after his party members, whose messes the Guild had named him ultimately responsible for, Kazuma hired Dust to observe what the three troublemakers were up to in his absence.[60][61][62] (In the audio drama, it was also during this period when Kazuma flaunted his newfound wealth by buying an expensive vase he believed to be a masterpiece, following which he went to help Wiz with the quest against Ghouls, yet upon return not only did he discover Aqua having already broken the vase, but that according to Vanir the vase was actually a cheap counterfeit, so Kazuma in enraged embarrassment smashed the vase before descending into tears)[63] Left alone to eat dinner by himself one day when his party members went on a girls night out, Kazuma dined on some delicious vegetables he had won from a vegetable shop's raffle. He however woke up the next day experiencing serious stomach pains that Aqua's detoxifying magic couldn't cure, so being told the possibility of him ingesting some parasitic monster, Kazuma agreed with going to the hospital, only to have doubts when the place turned out to be a Witch Doctor's shop outside town. Attempting to flee in panic when the Witch Doctor suggested cutting him open for diagnosis, he was held down by his party members before being put to sleep by the Witch Doctor. Eventually waking up in his bedroom, Kazuma who was initially angry at the girls later heard that the Witch Doctor had actually cured him of the watermelon seeds, which he had swallowed whole in the previous night, taking root in his belly, prompting Kazuma to go thank to skillful doctor afterwards, especially after discovering his foreskin problem also taken care of.[64] Following a series of explosions around Axel which the police accused Megumin of, Kazuma who initially took the stance of suspecting Megumin for them changed his tune once she returned from questioning at the police station where the lie-detecting bell convinced Lolierina of her innocence. He was next seduced by the deputy police chief who heard of his exploits, and chose to accompany her observation of Megumin as the Crimson Demon headed out to catch the explosion culprit. Unable to come up with other apparent suspects at the Guild, Kazuma wondered if the culprit's goal was to frame Megumin, then suggested Lolierina to arrest Megumin anyways when she began accusing random adventurers and listing people whom she committed misdeeds against as possible suspects. Following Yunyun being accused before getting exonerated and Megumin having an Explosion ban slapped onto her, which then got lifted because an emergency quest against One-Punch Bears required that spell's power, Kazuma agreed that Megumin's powerful Explosion didn't cause the other explosions. His trust in Megumin, however, was accordingly betrayed when Darkness with her house guards (or Chris in the audio drama)[65] came to explain how the other explosions were caused when Mine Mushrooms growing around the countryside detonated in reaction to Megumin's Explosions, spurring him to admonish the explosive girl.[66] The day after Sena led a raid on the Succubus Cafe, Kazuma at Dust's behest duped Darkness into working there for a day without telling the Crusader about the establishment's true nature.[67] For the purposes of making the product prototypes, Kazuma asked a blacksmith to teach him the Smithing skill, and while there also put down an order for a custom-made sword designed like a katana as well as a suit of armour.[54] On the way back, he witnessed Aqua summoning koi to perform tricks alongside her in a spectacular display, before advising her of how this attempt at convincing Megumin and Darkness of her godliness wouldn't work, and later got attacked when he asked her to teach him the trick for summoning fishes.[68] Advertisement Early Spring Arc As spring approached, Kazuma still shut himself into the warm kotatsu despite the others spurring him into taking quests, and respectively used Freeze and Drain Touch on Darkness and Megumin when they tried to drag him out. Suddenly feeling the need for relieving himself, he then petitioned the girls to carry the kotatsu with him inside to the toilet, only to hear them consider dumping him outside as they picked the whole load up[54] (which they actually did in the anime)[69]. He was saved when Sena came asking him to take care of the Lizard Runners causing trouble with their mating race in the surrounding countryside, and despite being reluctant to go out into the cold now that he was rich, Kazuma changed his tune once he heard his party members boasting about them attaining levels much higher than his. Taking Megumin to the blacksmith, he picked up the sword ordered earlier as well as a piece of magic branding paper for naming it, but had to abandon the armour because it was so heavy that he couldn't move, before discovering to his vexation how Megumin had without his permission branded the absurd name "Chunchunmaru" onto his new sword. Returning to the mansion where Darkness still couldn't persuade the goddess to head out, Kazuma managed to entice Aqua with the prospects of hot pot.[54] (Kazuma in the anime brought his whole party with him to the blacksmith, then had to have his sword shortened because he couldn't wield it properly at its original length, and subsequent to Megumin later naming it at the Guild, he accepted the quest against Lizard Runners from Luna)[69] Kazuma soon came up with a sound plan, which consisted of him Sniping the King Runner and Princess Runner from atop a tree on the grasslands, and in case he fails then Megumin can take out most of the Lizard Runners while Darkness stops any survivors from reaching them so that Kazuma can Snipe the leading reptiles again, and in the meantime Aqua will support them with her magic. Once Kazuma from his treetop vantage point spotted the horde, however, his plan fell apart because Aqua arbitrarily attracted all the Lizard Runners towards them, and Sniping the King Runner first only spurred other males into charging faster to replace him. Between Megumin unable to cast Explosion since he had Drain Touched her earlier on, Darkness being kicked by the reptiles, and Aqua getting stomped all over, Kazuma barely had time to Snipe the Princess Runner trying to fly-kick him, yet the impact from her body hitting the tree ended up jolting Kazuma off and making him break his neck in the fall.[54] Feeling embarrassed for seeing Eris again because of such an ignominious death, Kazuma was relieved to hear of his party members making it out alive once the horde disbanded due to the Princess Runner's demise. Calmly striking a conversation with the goddess while waiting for Aqua to Resurrect him, he began finding her to be the "main heroine" of his otherworldly saga, before hearing Eris admit to having sometimes secretly sneaked into the mortal world. When Aqua started to hurry him into returning to his body, a suddenly piqued Kazuma decided to start life over from a baby instead. Yet just as he was listing some preferences for his next life to Eris, Aqua began alerting him about Megumin doing something sacrilegious to his body, which shocked Kazuma into returning to life. Next told to rest his body because of the nasty death suffered but nothing regarding what had been done to it, Kazuma when he later on undressed for bathing eventually discovered, to his utmost fury, that Megumin, who went to stay with her friend for a couple of days, had graffitied onto his crotch the words "Holy Sword Excalibur" with an arrow pointing downwards.[54] Swearing on the following day how he would teach the absent loli girl a lesson once she returns to the mansion from her escapade, he received a visit from Vanir who immediately quarrelled and fought with Aqua. Subsequent to both parties calming down, Kazuma showed the Archdemon some new product prototypes, including some "balloons" which were actually failed samples of condoms he had tried to make, before being stunned by Vanir's offer to pay him 30 million eris upfront for the intellectual property of all the products he designs.[55] This notion of becoming so rich he doesn't have to work anymore prompted Kazuma into adopting the behaviour of an affluent entrepreneur, something Aqua helped with as she served him purified tea.[70] Forgiving Megumin upon her return now that the imminent fortune had made him generous, Kazuma declared his intent of quitting adventuring, and instead hire adventurers to weaken or outright assassinate the Devil King. Next trying to differentiate himself from Darkness who got turned on by him getting trashier, he cited the need to heal from his fatal neck injury as an excuse to rest, only to excitedly agree with Megumin once she suggested him take a healing vacation to Arcanletia the City of Water and Hot Springs, since the latter attraction is synonymous with mixed bathing.[55] With him and Aqua waking and packing up early the following morning in anticipation for the trip, Kazuma was told to head for the carriage terminal to buy good seat tickets while the goddess woke the others up. He however detoured to Wiz's Shop for telling Vanir that he wanted to postpone giving a reply to the Archdemon's offer because of the trip, and became surprised to find Wiz zapped unconscious by her employee because of wasting a fortune on purchasing faulty magical portable toilets. Kazuma consequently carried Wiz to join their vacation at Vanir's behest, and upon rendezvousing with his party members at the terminal, Drain Touched Darkness' life force for reviving the Lich. At Aqua's nagging, he went to purchase tickets for a carriage that turned out to have only four seats available because one of its seats was already occupied by a pet baby Red Dragon, but Kazuma's high Luck stats anyhow secured him a good seat in the rock-paper-scissors contest among the gang.[55] Happily spending the initial part of his first trip far away from Axel, Kazuma as he looked around the highway towards Arcanletia suddenly detected with his Farsight a flock of Running Hawkites heading straight towards them, which he soon realised was the result of Darkness' hard body attracting the monsters. Choosing out of a guilty conscience to take a stand alongside the other adventurers hired to guard the caravan, he nevertheless could only inwardly apologise when they were impressed by Darkness "noblely" letting herself being Binded by one of their skills and drawing the attention of the Running Hawkites jumping over her. As the passing flock turned back for another run on them, Kazuma having heard of a cave nearby jumped alongside his companions aboard their carriage and rode it over there, though with Darkness he had no choice but to have her Binded form dragged behind them. Using Powered strength upon arrival, he dumped Darkness at the mouth of the cave so that the Running Hawkites would all jump over her before disappearing inside, at which he ordered Megumin to wipe out the whole flock with an Explosion.[55] As the caravan made camp that night, Kazuma guiltily refused the rewards offered by the grateful caravan leader, before he made repairs to Darkness' battered armour. Hours later, he was waken from his slumber by attacking Zombies, a phenomenon he soon realised was caused by Aqua's characteristic of attracting Undeads, and so inwardly apologised to the other people as they were impressed by Aqua's purification of the Zombies, as well as refused the rewards offered by the caravan leader once more.[55] Allotted to sit on the carriage's luggage compartment when the caravan set out the following morning, Kazuma used Farsight to peek at Wiz's breasts, and later played magic tricks before punishing Aqua for flooding the carriage.[71] Finally arriving at the beautiful city of Arcanletia, Kazuma despite explaining how his party was responsible for all the monster attacks, still got offered free lodging for him and his companions by the grateful caravan leader at an inn he owned. While carrying a Wiz still unconscious from being caught in Aqua's purifying powers, he was soon shocked to find crowds of Axis followers attempting to convert him to their order, and even more so when Aqua revealed that Arcanletia was the headquarters of the Axis Order. Managing to get away by pointing out Aqua as an Axis Arch Priest, Kazuma and Darkness brought Wiz to rest at the inn, before the pair strolled around the city.[72] As they passed through the business district, an arrogant Elf and a stubborn Dwarf quarrelled in front of them as the shopkeepers looking and acting just like their kind in storybooks tried to sell their wares to the two impressed tourists. When turning back to ask the shopkeepers about local attractions, however, Kazuma discovered to his disappointment that the Elf who actually had round ears and the Dwarf who was actually wearing a fake beard were simply putting on an act for tourists, before hearing them talk about some hot springs recently causing illness to those who bathed in them.[72] Continuing to walk around with Darkness, Kazuma helped a young woman pick up the apples she dropped, yet immediately had her latch onto him while trying to convert him to the Axis faith, until Darkness revealed her talisman of the Eris Order to drive the irked woman off. Accordingly faced with a burly man pretending to be an Eris follower assaulting a woman, a shopkeeper offering him free gifts, and a young girl claiming to be his old schoolmate, Kazuma becoming sick of all the conversion attempts further got exasperated at Darkness being turned on by the insults thrown her way by the Axis followers. Refusing the pervert's request for them to move to Arcanletia, the sight of a little girl whom he helped to her feet after she tripped over on their way back to the inn made Kazuma feel relieved, only to be nearly tricked into signing a conversion form for the Axis Order, which at last made him lose it.[72] Kazuma consequently marched up in anger to main cathedral of the Axis Order, then after being made fun of by a priestess informing him of their pontiff's absence, tried to demand Aqua who sat inside the confessional to restrain her followers. His initial requests deflected by Aqua through a number of holy advice, Kazuma finally got her attention and pulled into her compartment when he confessed a number of misdeeds he had secretly committed on her. He next became disgusted at an Axis follower coming to confess about being tempted by the big breasts of Eris on her portrait depictions, and more so at Aqua when she consoled her follower by spreading how Eris wears chest pads. Kazuma later collected Megumin and Darkness, before leaving Aqua to bathe at the cathedral's secret springs as he headed back.[72] He returned to the inn to frustratedly discover Wiz, whom he had dreamed of bathing together with, already having bathed in the hot springs, so Kazuma decided to head for the mixed-bathing springs even though the others refrained from accompanying him. While stripping in the undressing room, however, Kazuma overheard Hans at the springs on the other side of the door boasting of him sabotaging the secret springs among others, so that he can over his long lifespan see to the destruction of the hated Axis Order. Realising how he had just listened in on a conspiracy by high-ranking members of the Devil King's Army, the spineless Kazuma, who also wanted the Axis Order gone, tried to avoid trouble by sneaking away, but changed his mind upon hearing Wolbach replying to Hans, and instead strode right into the springs to blatantly stare at her naked body. Left alone with her upon Hans' departure, Kazuma engaged in a conversation with Wolbach, who spoke of seeking her other half for restoring her full magic powers, as well as having taught a Crimson Demon girl magic, before hearing her warn him against bathing in the city's springs again as she left.[72] (In the anime where Wolbach left the hot springs first because Kazuma's staring disturbed her, he and Hans were massaged by some masseurs who tried to convert them much to their rage)[73] Remaining in the mixed baths when both members of the Devil King's Army were gone, Kazuma next heard Megumin and Darkness entering the neighbouring women baths. Pressing himself against the fence separating the baths, he eavesdropped on the girls discussing him, only to play right into their hands as Darkness punched the fence to hit him. This cumulated in Kazuma Creating Water to spray the girls, while they threw things including Chomusuke at him, before they returned to their suite to find Aqua weeping over her being scolded for purifying the secret springs into pure hot water.[72] Despite knowing it to be the truth, Kazuma tried to ignore Aqua's declaration at breakfast the next morning about discovering a conspiracy by the Devil King's Army to bankrupt the Axis Order because the secret spring she had purified turned out to be poisoned. Unsure of what to do after Aqua dragged Darkness away, he agreed to bring Megumin outside the city for an Explosion, a trip which Wiz also accompanied them on. While strolling through the streets, Kazuma inquired Wiz of the reason she switched from and adventurer to a Lich as well as her age, though he didn't get a straight answer for either question. Then when Wiz noticed Hans in the distance, he quickly dragged her and Megumin to complete the daily Explosion, so that she won't notice her fellow colleague in the Devil King's Army and inevitably pull him into the mess.[74] (Following breakfast in the anime, Kazuma brought Megumin out strolling in the streets, where they munched on Arcan Manjus before gettting harassed again, and later witnessed at the lakeside a maddened Hans venting his frustration towards the Axis Order, before Wiz ran up to join the two of them)[73] Kazuma was reminded of Wiz's identity as a powerful Lich when as the three of them made their way into the forest outside Arcanletia, she scared away the weaker monsters and defeated a Beginner's Bane attracted by Megumin's Explosion simply by letting it pounce onto her so that her passive Lich skills could render it incapacitated. Recharging Megumin so she could follow them back, Kazuma next witnessed Aqua's failed attempt at preaching about the danger facing the city, and decided to leg it upon Aqua's proclamation as the Axis Order's goddess inviting nothing but anger from her followers, though later that night he agreed to help her find the culprit.[74] (In the anime, he joined the others when the gang had to escape the inn because a mob of Axis followers came at night to lynch Aqua)[73] Joining his party's efforts with distributing around the inns questionnaires that ended up identifying Hans as the prime poisoning suspect, Kazuma blurted out how he had already eavesdropped all about the conspiracy, and as a result had to fend off the furious girls trying to beat him up. Later at the local Adventurer Guild, he proceeded to use Darkness' noble status for persuading the employees into looking out for the culprit, subsequent to which they had a discussion of nobility and their relationship with her as they made their way back to the inn, where they were told by a Guild employee that widespread contamination were appearing in the hot springs all over the city.[74] On the gang's way up the next day to the main spring situated in the mountains behind the main cathedral, Kazuma again used Darkness' noble status to get past the Eris followers guarding the gate leading there, before cajoling the Crusader into forgetting the embarrassment. Feeling uneasy when coming across the dissolved remains of a Beginner's Bane, he next got quipped at by Megumin over his low levels. Kazuma then had to use ice magic for cooling down Aqua's scalded hands when the goddess stuck them into steaming distribution ponds they came across in order to purify the poison contaminating them, with the gang accordingly running into Hans at the source reservoir which he was in the act of poisoning. Subsequently hearing Wiz identify Hans as a Deadly Poison Slime who like her was part of the Devil King's Army, the Japanese gamer who thought Slimes were but weak mooks surprised the others by confidently challenging Hans, only to be shocked upon discovering that not only was he a Devil King's General, but Slimes in this world are powerful adversaries capable of digesting people to the point they couldn't be Resurrected. Fleeing in panic down the mountain with his companions following, Kazuma was at length spared by the Hans chasing them when revealing how he was just a weak Adventurer. He nevertheless accompanied Aqua when she turned back to fight Hans, even though he believed that the world would be better off without the Axis Order.[75] (In the anime, the gang headed towards the main spring at night while being pursued by the lynch mob, which blocked their escape path when Kazuma fled from Hans, and eventually forced him to turn back and fight)[76] Kazuma consequently became astounded when Wiz got enraged by Hans devouring the old man maintaining the main spring and froze the Deadly Poison Slime in place, before Sniping with the help of Aqua's Blessing the globules of deadly poison Hans was tossing towards the uncontaminated springs until he ran out of arrows, which forced Aqua to purify the springs while Wiz cooled down her scalded hands. As the Devil King's General reverted to his true monstrous form, Kazuma could only run while Hans devoured everything around him, until noticing how the Deadly Poison Slime was just instinctively moving towards anything edible. He proceeded to divert Hans' attention from Aqua and Wiz by throwing out a pack of souvenir Arcan Manjus, then instructed Megumin to cast Explosion on Hans, before letting himself get Drain Touched by Wiz until he lost consciousness, so that she could freeze the reduced parts of the Deadly Poison Slime as they splattered all over for Aqua to purify.[75] (In the anime where the Axis followers joined the fight, Kazuma after noticing the undissolved bones of the old man devoured by Hans, confirmed with Aqua that she could still Resurrect somebody in this state, so after instructing Megumin to reduce Hans' volume by blowing him smaller in order for Wiz to freeze solid, the Adventurer using himself as bait lured Hans away from Aqua and into a nearby gorge, and was consequently devoured before having all his flesh melted off his bones)[76] Regaining consciousness afterwards only to discover the townsfolk furious at Aqua because while purifying Hans' pieces, she had turned the water gushing out of the main spring into pure hot water and thus ruined Arcanletia's hot springs industry, Kazuma pacified the incident by relinquishing their rewards from defeating another Devil King's General as reparations to the city.[75] Quickly taking his companions back to Axel, he returned to the mansion even more tired than before the trip while feeling unsatisfied from his mixed-bathing experience, and proceeded to sit down for a cup of tea before Yunyun came knocking.[77] (In the anime, Kazuma appeared in front of Eris as a pile of bones preceding his Resurrection by Aqua, then upon to his return to Axel proceeded to spend a long period there before heading to the Crimson Demon Village)[76] At some point during the period, Kazuma became impressed at Aqua employing her purification abilities at a broken water purification plant, until he discovered how she was the one who damaged it in the first place when showing off her water summoning powers.[78] He was also Blessed by her so that he could draw from a raffle the special prize described as a mysterious magic item from another world, which turned out to be a worn old style mobile phone.[79] On the days Megumin regularly visited a captured red-eyed Beginner's Bane, Kazuma too accompanied her.[80] When the town festival held a scaring contest, in which Wiz was set up by Aqua to dress as a Zombie, Kazuma went with Aqua for escorting her to the standby location.[81] (In the audio drama, Kazuma bought a diary for writing down a glorious autobiography, but because trying to write at the fireplace couch, toilet, and bathroom all resulted in Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness respectively bothering him, he instead wrote vituperative accounts of several incidents concerning each of them. This depiction of the girls however wasn't taken kindly by his party members, who proceeded to rip up all his hard work, leaving him to bawl all about it in tears to the Ruffian)[82] Yorimichi 2 3 Kazuma takes his party back to Japan Solicited by Wiz a magic item that sends people to another world for 12 hours before forcing their return and wiping their memories of the trip, upon hearing the destination to be Japan, Kazuma quickly bought it in order to take his party back to his homeland, where he planned to visit his old home once night falls for erasing his computer's hard disk of anything he didn't want others to see. Handing the girls some Japanese yen he had been carrying around ever since his first death as pocket money, Kazuma hurriedly vetoed Aqua's idea for him to Steal from ATMs, and instead took them to enjoy some fast food, following which he took them by train to Akihabara where their outfits won't attract attention, though Aqua caused a fuss when her hagoromo got caught in the train door. After the girls bought some drinks and was approached by a pornography scout, Kazuma took them to a gaming centre he used to frequent, where he once more dominated a number of games to Megumin's awe, until he had to go settle some trouble with Darkness as well as help Aqua with getting a Pokachu keyholder from a claw machine. When night finally fell, Kazuma led his party back to his home at an hour when his family was asleep, and instructed the girls to stay outside while he sneaked inside alone. Back in his room which had remained unchanged ever since his death, he proceeded to erase his computer's hard disk just as the girls outside got into an argument with the police. Next discovering the effects of the magic item running out, Kazuma left behind for his family the eris coins he had brought along, and was accordingly transported back to the Parallel World, where the party had no recollection of the events that transpired.[83] (In the audio drama, Kazuma started out with shutting himself in his mansion bedroom while the girls tried to goad him out, and upon Aqua threatening to reveal his secret stash of dirty material he had hidden inside, remembered how his embarrassing collection of pornography was still on his hard drive back in Japan, prompting him to readily accept Wiz's solicitation of the magic item that brought them back there for 6 hours. Arriving at Akihabara where Kazuma waited till nightfall as his party members had various misadventures, he led them back to his home and left them outside while he sneaked into his bedroom. Yet despite opening his passworded hard drive that nobody else had accessed, Kazuma hesitated from deleting the "treasures" that had accompanied him for many years. Accordingly rushing outside to rebuke the girls who got into an argument with the police, he realised to his horror that the party was being transported back because the effects of the magic item ran out, leaving the hard disk and its contents open for the world to see, though Kazuma didn't remember any of it upon return)[84] Taking Megumin out for Explosion one day, Kazuma who wanted to feel a girl against his back but also found piggybacking tiring had his thoughts pointed out by Vanir who tailed them, and against Megumin's protests bought the baby sling offered by the Archdemon. Kazuma later accompanied Aqua who trailed the former Devil King's General for any excuse to exorcise him, then witnessed the vegetable selling contest between the two of them. Hearing Darkness talk about a number of male adventurers claiming to have screamed in their inn rooms at night because of nightmares, he helped Aqua sell some Axis talismans for warding off low-ranking Demons suspected to be the culprit, before realising that it didn't sell because the Succubi would be repelled too. He was next told by Dust and Keith about the Succubus Cafe offering a "special service" ticket available only through raffle, which he easily obtained with his high Luck stats. Yet as he excitedly waited in anticipation at an inn that night, the Succubus who showed up to seduce him turned out to be a shapeshifted Vanir aiming to taste bitter disappointment from male adventurers through this intricate setup. Screaming in frustration and getting scolded by the inn owner as a result, Kazuma furiously called for Aqua to exorcise the Duke of Hell once returning to the mansion, only to hear the goddess express her reluctance to do so for the time being.[85] When Kazuma was munching on skewers along the streetside one day, he was intimidated by the approach of Zatu Ozuma who was looking for a "Satou Kazuma". Since Ozuma had travelled all the way to Axel for voicing protest at the Adventurer with a similar name but bad reputation, Kazuma upon meeting the veteran adventurer's party members, who had names similar to his own companions, decided to identify himself as "Tanaka". Invited to a meal at a restaurant, "Tanaka" brought Ozuma's party to tears with a touching account of how Kazuma repeatedly saved the city and overcame debt along with countless hardships to become a successful businessman, before telling his party members all about the encounter at his mansion. An angry Ozuma however came knocking with his party on the following morning, and called Kazuma out for the various scummy deeds he had subsequently discovered about him, though Kazuma in retaliation pointed out how his autobiography which they wept at didn't contain falsehood. Despite his refutation nearly convincing Megumi into apologising before Ozuma stopped her, Larkless' accusation of Darkness being an "imposter" brought Kazuma's party into a disadvantaged position, until Megumin challenged Ozuma's party to make themselves a name in Axel as adventurers.[86] Kazuma proceeded to laze around during the ensuing fortnight, only deigning to craft a silver arrow out of boredom. Yet upon finally bringing his party to the Guild, he discovered in shock that Ozuma's party had became the star for defeating various powerful monsters including many One-Punch Bears. Now described by Ozuma to be the party of "imposters", Kazuma was saved from his predicament when an adventurer was carried in sporting serious wounds inflicted by White Wolves that appeared closer than ever to the city. Going with the flow of Ozuma and his party being astonished by Aqua easily healing the mortal wounds, he made up a theory about Ozuma's party disrupting the local ecology through overhunting One-Punch Bears, resulting in White Wolves flourishing so much they spilled out into the city's vicinity. When the two parties found the pack sporting numbers that alarmed Ozuma's party, Kazuma having identified the pack's alpha with Farsight Sniped it under Aqua's Blessing using the silver arrow, much to Akua and Ozuma's amazement. Further instructing Darkness and Megumin to respectively assemble and annihilate the attacking pack with Decoy and Explosion, Kazuma's party reconciled with the apologetic Ozuma's party, whose past experiences made Kazuma reckon them to appear more like fantasy protagonists. Accordingly told by Ozuma's party their other goal of thanking Kazuma's party for defeating Hans, and hearing them list a number of misdeeds they now thought were slander against Kazuma's party, the very much guilty Kazuma along with his party members apologised for causing trouble to the similarly named party.[86] When storm season approached, Kazuma got ridiculed for not knowing that storms were caused by the agitated Great Spirit of the Storm, then suggested the Guild and other adventurers look to Yunyun for fighting the spirit off as a ploy to make Megumin agree to fight too. Heading to the lake where the raging spirit manifested as the only adventurer other than Aqua who wasn't dressed for swimming, he enjoyed the sight of Wiz and various other female adventurers dressed in swimsuits, and became excited when some male adventurers spoke of the Great Spirit of the Storm possibly releasing a powerful gust of wind capable of blowing the bikinis off the female adventurers. Joining the male adventurers swimming into the lake for defending the magic-users casting a barrage at the spirit, he talked Megumin into making preparations ashore and rescued the non-aquatic Darkness, before dragging Aqua back from the maelstrom caused by the Great Spirit of the Storm she was arguing with, while having her provoke it into chasing them towards the shore. Under his instructions, Yunyun, Wiz, and Megumin consecutively blasted the spirit with their spells, releasing it of its pent-up magical power. The relieved Great Spirit of the Storm proceeded to reward the adventurers with an exceptionally powerful gust, only to have it Broken by Aqua, much to the grave disappointment of Kazuma and all other male adventurers.[87] Possibly around that time period, Kazuma who was amazed at Aqua being contracted through the Guild for a job followed her to the farmland area where she set up a ritual for performing her rainmaking request, and became exasperated at the goddess trying to covet the expensive wine presented as offerings, as well as her later quarrelling with the spirits of rain over them until all people had to flee from the ensuing flood.[88] On another day when taking Megumin out for an Explosion which obliterated a Kobold, he had to fight a desperate battle against increasing numbers of the monster's kin thirsting for vengeance, before recharging Megumin's limp form in order to Lurk with her back to Axel, following which he became speechless at Megumin trying to inflate her exploit to Yunyun and sparking a fight between the top Arch Wizards of the city regarding the kill record on Megumin's Adventurer Card.[89] Then one other time he was asked by Darkness to help her tail Chris, and after hearing how the shady-looking people she approached were actually legitimate grocers, made a mental note to buy the heiress a birthday gift.[90] Trying to pose as a veteran adventurer by ordering a glass of whiskey at the Guild's bar one day, Kazuma was approached by a new adventurer named Ran who called herself a fan of him, so he disposed of the whiskey that he actually couldn't stomach by having Ran drink it up. Luna accordingly approached Kazuma with a quest for purging a strange Golem guarding some mysterious ruins, one which he couldn't refuse in front of his fan. Forcing the reluctant Aqua into going with the party to the ancient ruins by taking her staff, Kazuma became exasperated upon discovering the Titan Golem standing sentry to be a robot clearly created by some Japanese reincarnate. Barely making it out from the self-detonation of the Titan Golem following its defeat, Kazuma returned to the Guild to give Ran a romanticised account of the quest, and when she became enamoured by Mitsurugi's presence, jealously reiterated the Swordmaster's prior loss at his hands as well as the fact of him vanquishing three of the Devil King's Generals.[91] Kazuma was subsequently approached by Luna once more, and under Ran's watching eyes had to accept another quest for exploring the tunnels beneath those ruins. Bringing his party into the underground facility, where they only found all sorts of broken Japanese commodities and some little Golems possessed by Ghosts, Kazuma in the living quarters of the facility's creator listened to Aqua recite the diary of his fellow reincarnate. Shamed by the predecessor's initial determination for defeating the Devil King, Kazuma soon became incensed at that NEET's descent into the worthless depravity of creating Golem girls, before realising his identity as the Head Researcher who created the Destroyer. Kazuma nevertheless unsealed a completed Pretty Girl Golem created by the NEET scientist, only to find out that it possessed a sadistic personality for servicing its perverted creator's masochism. Managing to make it out albeit with a pain in the butt, Kazuma gave Ran a glorified version of the story back at the Guild. He later walked in on an argument between Ran and Luna, and discovered how the latter was paying the former to pose as his fan so that he will be forced to take quests instead of lazing around, so in retaliation the gravely upset Kazuma Stole the two women's panties.[91] Aqua (アクア, Akua) is one of the main protagonists of the KonoSuba series and with whom Kazuma started his party. Before she went to the Parallel World, Aqua was a Goddess of Water who guided young Japanese to the Afterlife,[1] as well as the goddess worshipped by the Axis Order.[2] Appearance Described by Kazuma as possessing beauty no human could match, Aqua has light blue hair and eyes, a slim figure with large breasts, long legs, wide hips, and blue waist-long hair that is partially tied into a loop with a spherical clip. Her B-W-H measurements are 83-56-83 cm (33/22/33 in) and she is 5'2" (157 cm) tall also she weighs 132lbs. (59.9kg). Aqua uses a sleeveless dark-blue vest with white trimmings, a short dark blue miniskirt, a green bow around her chest with a blue gem in the middle, a translucent purple underskirt, and detached white sleeves with blue and golden trimmings. She wears thigh-high blue heeled boots over white stockings with blue trimmings. Sometimes Aqua wears a divine relic in the form of a translucent pink hagoromo, which can disappear and reappear around her at her will. Her hair clip resembles an H2O molecule. Personality Although she looks dignified at first, Aqua is the opposite of what is expected of a goddess, being sloppy, cocky and ill-mannered. While she can be motherly, Aqua is insulting and not tactful, often offending people because she doesn't think before speak. Moreover, while she often calls Kazuma a "shut-in NEET", Aqua is a good-for-nothing as well, as she spends most of her time doing nothing or getting wasted (although Aqua is more party-loving than him), and is easily influenced by both Kazuma and Cecily's bad behaviors. Also, due to her low Intellect, Aqua is absent-minded, heedless, forgetful, and unable to understand complex conversations or situations, nor read the room. Her low intelligence, combined to her poor luck, are the reasons why most of her ideas and actions end up in a "critical failure". Aqua is, however, very intuitive and astute, guessing correctly what her party's antics,[3][4] as well as thinking fast in the rare occasion she is focused.[5][6] Furthermore, Aqua is a crybaby. Since she is oversensitive and prone to fear, Aqua always cries when she is scared, upset, or traumatized. Also, like a child, Aqua fakes crying sometimes to get what she wants[7] as well as throws a tantrum.[8] In addition, like a kid, Aqua is wasteful, being a bohemian who spends all her money partying and getting drunk, with no thoughts for tomorrow. Yet, as an adult woman, she is very sensitive to hints about her age.[9] Like her followers, Aqua is a scammer too, as, while in Heaven, she used to conceal information about the Parallel World to convince the recently-deceased Japanese to reincarnate there.[1] Aqua also supports her followers' schemes, even taking part in such scams during the Eris Festival.[10] She is even willing to shallow her pride and deceive strangers for just a few bucks.[11] However, as a goddess, Aqua is very self-centered, stubborn and spoiled, often expecting to be praised and pampered by those around her due to her status, although no one believes her. Aqua also tries to act more dignified when she recites her Order's unusual doctrine. Aqua is greedy as well, often trying to get a bigger share of her party's rewards, and the promise of a big reward is sometimes her only motivation for getting off the couch. Also, like other gods, Aqua despises both demons and the undead, reason why she constantly antagonizes with Vanir and exorcises Zeeleschilt. However, unlike other gods like Eris, Aqua is way more flexible, as she is able of sympathize with undead like Keele,[12] , apologize to the Succubi[13] and even got attached to both Wiz and Anna, although Aqua keeps bullying Wiz. She takes seriously her job as goddess of guiding dead souls to the Afterlife. Aqua is a very loyal person as well, to both her followers, even risking her life in order to protect them; and her party, as she never considered abandon Kazuma, even for Mitsurugi's promises of comfortable life,[14] and was willing to live as a fugitive with Kazuma when he was about to be sentenced to prison.[15] As long as Aqua is having some fun, she will stay by Kazuma's side, for richer or for poorer. Early Life As the goddess worshiped by the Axis Order in the Parallel World, Aqua had started sending young dead Japanese there ever since the gods decided that outside help is needed for that world to be saved from the depredations by the Devil King.[1] Part of this job was convincing Japanese people to reincarnate into the Parallel World with the encouragement of divine gifts, but Aqua instead spent lots of her time in heaven reading manga or playing games while making Eris take on her responsibilities.[2] In the event she did do her job, they were mostly done half-heartedly, thus not only did she forget about the existence of many Japanese she had sent over like with Mitsurugi,[3] but also allowed unsuitable candidates like the Head Researcher to reincarnate with powerful cheats.[4] And although hundreds of years had since passed in the Parallel World before she got dragged there herself, due to the difference in which time passes between the Parallel World and Heaven, according to her she had barely lived a bit longer than Kazuma.[5] Journey to Axel Arc Aqua teases Kazuma about his pathetic death Aqua teases Kazuma about his pathetic death 1/2 When the newly deceased Kazuma Satou was sent to her for processing, Aqua started out their interaction by laughing at and teasing him for his hilarious death as a means to relieve stress, then during the explanation about how reincarnation works and his selection of divine cheat items, further incensed the infuriated Kazuma with her apparent con tactics and arrogant attitude. It ended with Aqua being selected by Kazuma to be his cheat item as payback, which according to the Angel sent to manage the young Japanese deceased in her place, meant that she cannot return to the heavenly realm until the Devil King is vanquished.[1] Lunaa Aqua has the highest starting stats ever... only to later waste her Skill Points Aqua was subsequently transported alongside Kazuma to Axel where all other reincarnates started their adventuring, in the process briefly shining a divine aura over the city that, without her knowing, changed the outcome of the nearby battle between Megumin and Arnes.[6] Finding herself in a world where she had only skimmed the general knowledge of, the penniless and powerless Aqua descended into a panic fit of uselessness, until Kazuma took the initiative and led them to the Adventurer Guild. There she tried calling on her divinity to borrow money for the Guild's adventurer registration fee, only to end up begging from a Priest of the Eris Order. She still managed to be registered with starting stats that astounded Luna, and took the Class of Arch Priest for which she quickly learned all the Skills.[7] Advertisement Irregular of Axel Arc Having no money for equipment to start questing or even rent a room at the inn, however, Aqua had to settle with borrowing a stall at the stables where she and Kazuma slept. The two of them next began working part-time jobs, first as servers at the Guild's banquet hall where Aqua's purifying properties turned the alcohol she was serving into water and became a reason they got sacked, then later as banana sellers at a produce stand where she demonstrated making the merchandise disappear for good and got them both sacked again.[8] With jobs in the service industry all blown, they later turned to the construction industry, which was hiring heavy labourers because the craters Megumin had been blowing in the grasslands just outside the city walls needed to be filled, a job that Aqua despite initially resenting soon found herself enjoying.[9] Convincing Kazuma to continue this line of work, they began a life of hard and gritty work during daytime before being the first to bathe at dusk, followed by Aqua performing at various eateries as they ate dinner after nightfall, sometimes in the company of their fellow construction workers,[10] though her antics made a variety of people seeking her Arch Priest powers for help overlook her.[11] Later assigned to work on the city walls as a mortarer, Aqua one day noticed Host charging towards the city, at which she blasted him with a powerful Exorcism magic.[12] Beginner Adventurer Arc Aqua used her God Blow... Aqua used her God Blow... 1/3 Kazuma eventually brought Aqua to perform their first quest as adventurers against the Giant Toads infesting the grasslands outside Axel, though in the process she got gobbled up by a Giant Toad and became covered in smelly slime, then when trying to punch another understood that blunt attacks don't work on these oversized amphibians, following which she was eaten again and had to have Kazuma rescue her. Realising how their party is too underpowered, Aqua posted an advertisement at the Guild to recruit party members of an advanced Class, one that was ignored until Megumin at whom she had high regards for answered to it, yet when continuing their quest against Giant Toads subsequent to her Breaking the jinx on the Arch Wizard,[13] Aqua again ended up being gobbled.[7] Aqua expressed approval of Darkness when the Crusader offered to join, and afterwards participated in the Cabbage harvest,[14] where she grabbed a huge number of vegetables and accordingly began borrowing against the hall for her drinking tabs.[3] Episode 8A Being a goddess, Aqua instinctively hates the Lich Wiz Some days later at Darkness' suggestion, the party took a quest for hunting a Zombie Maker at the public cemetery to help Aqua level up, but instead encountered Wiz during her ritual of sending the Ghosts of the buried dead who couldn't afford a proper burial to the afterlife. After Kazuma struck a deal with Wiz, Aqua instead of purifying the Lich had to send away the lost souls in her place.[14] Following the revelation that she didn't earn as much as expected during the Cabbage harvest because all she had grabbed were the cheap Lettuces mixed within, Aqua managed to beg Kazuma into paying off her debts, before she had to work on various odd jobs, due to one of the Devil King's Generals stationing himself near Axel and scaring all the weak monsters that the party was able to handle into hiding. When Beldia later showed up at the city and cursed Darkness to die after a week, Aqua quickly solved the problem by Breaking the curse with her goddess-powered Arch Priest magic and eliminated the party's need to go fight the Dullahan. As payback for making her unable to work on quests, however, Aqua accompanied Megumin on her daily Explosion exercises at the abandoned castle occupied by Beldia's forces, so that the harassment against them could continue.[3] At some point during the period, Aqua tried to sell water purified by her powers and imbued with holy properties, though unlike an ex-mage creating water nearby it didn't sell.[15] She had then accompanied Megumin on the Explosion exercise where a passerby Roper became the target.[16] Aqua also vied for leadership of the party, only to back out once she realised the liabilities which party leaders are responsible for.[17] And during the party's hunt for a golden bamboo, she found herself a target of the attacking bamboo shoots.[18] (In the audio drama, it was also during this period when Aqua along with Darkness had for a short while mistook Kazuma and Megumin to have become a couple)[19] Finally tired of working on odd jobs that didn't earn her much, Aqua at Kazuma's approval took a quest for purifying the riverhead lake near Axel where Brutal Alligators were gathering, with the plan being her getting locked inside a large, sturdy cage that the rest of the party would lower into the lake, so her purifying powers would set to work upon her touching the water. It however turned out especially terrifying for Aqua when the Brutal Alligators swarmed in biting on the cage as she frantically cast Purification magic, until the lake was purified many hours later and made the Brutal Alligators leave. The traumatised Aqua though refused to leave the cage that her party members had to cart her back to Axel in, until Kyouya Mitsurugi caught sight of her and wrenched it open, though Aqua couldn't remember who he was despite getting reminded of herself being a goddess. She later refused Mitsurugi's offer to join his party, and upon hearing from the Guild how the cage he had damaged would be paid out of her quest rewards, punched him down at their next encounter before swindling him of more money over the cage.[3] Aqua reunites with Kyouya... Aqua reunites with Kyouya... 1/3 When Beldia subsequently returned to Axel in fury over the continuing Explosions at his castle as well as them supposedly leaving Darkness to die, Aqua was chatised by Kazuma over her role in conspiring with Megumin, before openly laughing at the Dullahan after Darkness showed up very much alive. She proceeded to cast Turn Undead on Beldia, yet was unable to purify him due to the Devil King's wardings. Aqua next found herself the only one pursued by Beldia's army of Undead Knights, who were instinctively seeking salvation from a goddess, until under Kazuma's plan they were all blown up by Megumin. After several adventurers were cut down by Beldia, Aqua busied herself with Resurrecting them, then upon seeing Kazuma and other mages trying to weaken the Dullahan with water, summoned a flood with Sacred Create Water, which washed away not only a lot of Beldia's power but a considerable part of the city walls and nearby structures. Following Beldia's head getting Stolen by Kazuma, Aqua was finally able to purify the Dullahan from the living world.[20] Yet despite the party receiving a huge reward for defeating one of the Devil King's Generals, the bill from damages wrought by Aqua's flood ended up plunging them all into great debt.[21] Yorimichi 1 9 Chris reminds Aqua of Eris... I wonder why? Some time afterwards, Aqua tailed Chris before trying to rob her of a purse she had stolen for returning to its rightful owner, though Kazuma showed up in time to stop it. Failing to chase after Chris and instead making a mess of herself, Aqua was later treated to drinks by the Thief, where during a friendly conversation she talked about Chris looking like an uptight junior of hers, though she subsequently made a fool of herself when drunkenly attempting to intimidate another adventurer.[22] Later following her return from a quest, Aqua captured a witch doctor who had been cursing women all over Axel, and planned to turn him over to the police, only to be stopped by Darkness and other women at the Guild when it was revealed that the women had paid him to be cursed into losing their appetite for a week so they could slim-up.[23] Advertisement Deep Winter Arc During the quest against Snow Sprites that Kazuma selected in hopes of it helping them survive the winter, Aqua brought to the snowfield forest butterfly nets and jars, with which she captured some Snow Sprites for cooling her drinks in summer. When the Winter Shogun appeared to avenge the Snow Sprites, Aqua pacified its wrath by freeing all the Snow Spirtes she had captured except one that she secretly kept, and advised her party members to dogeza at the generous spirit for mercy. Following Kazuma's decapitation, Aqua Resurrected his body and forced Eris to release his soul back into the living world.[24] In the one-day party swap between Kazuma and Dust, Aqua first surprised their temporary member by suggesting that they go fight Dragons, then made him speechless by showing off her Party Tricks and displaying indifference to Megumin's Explosion. Following the appearance of a Beginner's Bane, she attempted to unleash God Blow on the feline so she could brag to Kazuma afterwards, only to slip over on a puddle of its saliva and get her head bitten on by it. Later saved by Dust, she carried an unconscious Darkness as they stumbled back to the Guild, where they waited for Kazuma's return so they could revert to their original parties.[25] MagicHeader Aqua purifies the Undead... which she herself attracted After Kazuma's decision to venture into Keele's Dungeon alone, Aqua followed him all the same for protecting him against the Undead, which following her directing the soul of a deceased adventurer to the afterlife and a Gremlin attack, came attacking in droves, only to have her purify them all like an actual goddess. Nearly falling for a Dungeon Mimic afterwards, Aqua was asked by Keele who had been wakened by her aura to purify him so he can join his dead wife, a wish she granted through a purification ritual powered by a magic circle drawn in his chamber. When leaving the dungeon, however, Kazuma figured out that it was Aqua's goddess aura that had been attracting the droves of Undead and accordingly ditched her in the middle of a monster attack, so as a result Aqua became traumatised by dungeons.[26] Some time subsequent to Aqua placing a powerful magic barrier around the public cemetery and forcing all the Ghosts out so that she didn't have to deal with the hassle of repeatedly going there, Kazuma to her fury took her to a magic item shop owned by Wiz in hopes of learning Lich Skills. After revealing her identity as the patron goddess of the Axis Order and attempting to purify the Lich who was one of the Devil King's Generals under the guise of letting her demonstrate Drain Touch, Aqua agreed to help the weakened Wiz take care of a request from a real estate broker regarding a Ghost infestation problem at one of his client's properties. Upon settling at what her sight told her to be the empty mansion which once belonged to a noble and was used to house Anna whose Ghost was still haunting the property, Aqua became shocked that night when a bottle of her prized wine was drunk by a Ghost, sending her on a furious rampage of Turning every wild Undead she saw throughout the building. Aqua later took out the possessed dolls which had been terrorising Kazuma and Megumin, though when accompanying Kazuma to the Guild for their ghostbusting reward the following day, it was revealed that her magic barrier around the nearby public cemetery had been driving the Ghosts into taking refuge at the mansion instead. Despite this earning her the rebuke of Kazuma, the real estate broker after hearing her apology still allowed the party to continue living at the mansion.[27] At some point during the period, Aqua proved her abilities as a muse of the arts by replacing some noble's masterpiece that she had accidentally damaged with an even better masterpiece painted by herself, attracting an apprentice with an etching of the Axis symbol at Wiz's Shop, and performing magical tricks.[28] She also tried to sell masterly crafted soap figurines based on knights and spirits, though when she sold ones based on pretty women that can have their clothes melted off, Aqua attracted the attention of a policeman who she tried to bribe before Kazuma reported them to a policewoman.[29] (In the audio drama, Aqua joined her party on a simple delivery quest into the mountains, where she escaped to safety from a landslide only to have Kazama fall to his death, and managed to Resurrect him after they found his body a long time later, though not before apologising to the homeowner whose roof was damaged when his body fell into it)[30] Aqua found her abilities wanted when Abram hired her to solve a Ghost problem at his mansion, and following her discovering it to be his recently deceased father Pickles, proceeded to translate for her party members and Abram the desires of Pickles that needed to be fulfilled so he could pass onto the afterlife, before telling Anna all about it back at the mansion in addition to other secrets regarding Kazuma.[31] Yorimichi 1 2 Aqua being too lazy to help Darkness Aqua displayed reluctance to follow when Darkness accepted a scouting quest on the Powerful Messenger, and later tried to Break the curse it cast on Darkness that weakened the Crusader so much she had to help her with anything that required a little strength.[32] While accompanying Wiz on her request to eliminate Ghouls, Aqua again found herself attracting the grotesque Undead until being saved by the shopkeeper, following which she adjudicated the contest between Wiz and Wolfgang over who is the "King of Undead" by letting them Drain Touch her purifying aura, which burned up the Vampire and nearly destroyed the Lich.[33] Yorimichi 2 9 Aqua tried to take a White Tiger cub as a pet... It did not end well When Aqua was forced by Kazuma into accompanying them on a quest against a White Tiger, the divine beast instead gave her its newborn cub that needed to absorb her divine aura like milk. Aqua soon grew attached to the cub she had named Sieg after it weaned, yet due to it always soiling her hagoromo which it used as a bed and toilet in addition to unwillingness to be trained for combat, she decided to bring it back to the mountains for rejoining its mother. Sieg, however, refused to let go of the hagoromo, resulting in Aqua being brought away by its mother for a few days, after which Aqua made up her mind to own a Dragon as a pet the next time.[34] Waiting at a lake alongside Darkness when Kazuma one day brought Megumin over so the Crimson Demon could help the fishermen through explosion fishing, Aqua not afraid of the water insisted on standing at the shore, only for the Explosion cast into the lake blowing it up in addition to most of the fish, which resulted in her being splashed by a huge wave saturated with stinking fish offal. When the party afterwards followed the lead of Darkness into the forest for a quest against a feral Stealth Octopus, the goddess who loved to eat Octopi tentacles asked to have them all to herself but was refused by the Crusader. Aqua anyhow gathered kinder in preparation for roasting the Stealth Octopus while it had its tentacles slithering all over the captured Darkness, then became impressed at the camouflage effect of the monster making it morph into the colour of flesh once it began digesting the Crusader's clothing, though eventually she ignored the enjoying Kazuma's protests and butchered their quarry.[35] On a day the party took a break from questing, Aqua while walking around town suddenly found the accompanying Darkness taken hostage by a knife-wielding hooded figure who was also carrying Megumin's cat along. Unconcernedly observing the scene as Kazuma and Megumin also arrived, she quickly cast Exorcism before the figure could introduce himself because he revealed his identity to be a Demon, though at Megumin's behest Aqua let the Crimson Demon finish off the pest before he regrows like mould.[35] During the night when Kazuma went to bed early instead of enjoying crab pot with bubbly alongside his party members, Aqua caught upon the magic barrier she had erected around the mansion a Succubus attempting to break in, before beating up Kazuma who had covered for the low-ranking Demon's escape.[36] When the Mobile Fortress Destroyer advanced onto Axel, Aqua initially packed up to flee before Kazuma dragged her to the Guild meeting, where they formulated their response upon realising her ability to break the ancient weapon's magic barrier. Following her Breaking the approaching Destroyer's magic barrier so Megumin and Wiz could immobilise it, Aqua was forced by Kazuma to join the raiding party into the fortress on the verge of self-detonating, during which she Healed Kazuma's various injuries onboard and recited the diary of the Destroyer's Head Researcher. Then after the Coronatite core was Teleported away by Kazuma, Aqua became the source of magical power for recharging Megumin so she could obliterate the Destroyer before it explodes.[37] Advertisement Late Winter Arc With Sena coming to arrest Kazuma for treason because the Destroyer's Coronatite core Kazuma had teleported away obliterated Alderp's mansion, Aqua tried to force Kazuma to apologize for whatever he did, and then was one of the first to throw him under the bus after Sena threatened to arrest and imprison anyone vying for Kazuma for the same charges as him. Fearing Kazuma's reprisal once he gets out, she further incensed him during the two consecutive nights he was jailed with the stupid jailbreaking ideas that entailed distracting the guards through Megumin's telltale Explosions outside Axel, while she used the distraction to sneak him a lock picker when his cell used a combination lock, and a hacksaw for cutting the window bars he couldn't reach.[38] Then during the trial where Kazuma's party members acted as his defence attorneys, despite their practise mock trials gearing them up for nothing but how to shout "Objection",[39] Aqua kept interrupting at inappropriate moments while having her own past actions used by Sena in her case against Kazuma. Although she detected a dark power interfering with the judge and Sena's judgments following Alderp's insistence that Kazuma is guilty despite the lack of evidence against him, Aqua blew it because she appended onto her observation a false claim about her followers' numbers, triggering a response with the lie detector and rendering her testimony invalid. Then after the trial was postponed thanks to Darkness, Aqua received a thrashing from Kazuma, who found out about her obstructions and vandalism of Wiz's business,[38] following which she had her valued possessions at the mansion confiscated by knights as debt collateral for damages to Alderp's mansion.[40] Aqua was later introduced to Chomusuke with whom their relationship started poorly,[41] before she was again gobbled up by Giant Toads when Sena forced the party sans Darkness into purging the amphibians that she thought had been waking from hibernation because of the prior Explosions.[42] Subsequent to the party being saved by Yunyun, Aqua headed off to the Guild for selling the toad meat before returning to the mansion, where she discovered the "loli-NEET" bathing with Megumin who later attacked him, and proceeded with performing professional tricks in town the next day,[41] as well as sparking a contest between Megumin and Yunyun with a Friendship Crystal at Wiz's Shop.[42] Following a few days of worrying about Darkness who had not come back (a period in the anime that Kazuma and Aqua used to explore Keele's Dungeon, where Kazuma abandons Aqua to fend for herself against a horde of the undead after he finds out she had been unintentionally attracting them with her goddess aura, leaving Aqua traumautized yet again.)[43], Aqua was in the middle of having her possessions Stolen by Kazuma for debt repayment, when Darkness returned to tell her party about the arranged marriage she wanted their help to ruin, and during her explanation Aqua repaired a portrait of Walther torn up by Kazuma only to have him rip it up again. She later followed Kazuma's plan to dress up as a maid of the Dustiness household in order to accompany Darkness on her interview marriage with Walther, where she summoned koi in the garden pond towards her by clapping hands, though when Ignis walked in on the aftermath of Darkness' duel with Kazuma, she pointed the finger at him and Walther, which nearly got them both executed.[44] Aqua found herself reprimanded again after Kazuma discovered about the magic circle she had drawn in Keele's chamber still actively repelling monsters from the room, which could cement Sena's accusations of him causing the mysterious monsters that were emerging from Keele's Dungeon. Later forced to accompany the party to the dungeon entrance, one of the Vanir Dolls Aqua felt abhorred by hugged her before self-detonating. The shaken Aqua then decided to stay outside due to her prior trauma from dungeons, and upon detecting the evil aura of Vanir as he emerged possessing Darkness' body, immediately blasted him with Sacred Exorcism. Yet after exchanging barbs with Vanir, Aqua got backed into a corner when Vanir who fully utilised Darkness' body for defeating other adventurers present as well as protection against her magic proceeded to kill her, until Kazuma stopped him before enacting the plan that saw the Duke of Hell as well as Darkness blown up in Megumin's Explosion.[45] A week following Aqua fully healing Darkness when the party found her injured, (a possible time interval for Kazuma to have put on a wish-granting choker from Wiz's Shop that slowly chokes him to death unless his wish is granted, and forced Aqua to perform bread buying as well as other debasing things he requested, only to kill him after being enraged by his confession)[46], Aqua displayed her talent at drawing with water, before the party was declared by Sena to be free of treason charges and debt as well as receive a huge reward for their exploits. [47] At some point during the period, Aqua knitted some very masterfully made yarn dolls for a competition.[48] And when Kazuma reported experiencing serious stomach pains after Aqua returned from a girls meeting, she spooked his fears of being infested by a parasitic monster as payback for eating all by himself some delicious vegetables he had won, then later explained to a Kazuma spooked by the Witch Doctor he was brought to how hospitals in the Parallel World work.[49] In addition, Aqua tried convincing Megumin and Darkness of her godliness by instructing koi to jump around her while she cast Nature's Beauty by the waterside, though the attempt failed just as predicted by Kazuma, whom the goddess attacked when he asked her to teach him the trick for summoning fishes.[50] Aqua was too seen one day lazing inside the kotatsu with Kazuma until she was reminded about her being needed at a gathering of Axis followers, prompting her to rush towards the local Axis church where they decided to graffiti on the local Eris church, followed by running from police to sip tea at Wiz's Shop before heading home for dinner.[51] (In the audio drama, it was also during this period when Aqua went to help Wiz with the quest against Ghouls because she needed the money to buy a magic item from Vanir for repairing an expensive vase prized by Kazuma that she had broke, though afterwards she made fun of Kazuma once the vase was revealed to be a cheap knockoff which he got duped into buying at a high price)[52] Abilities As a Goddess, Aqua's power correlates to the devotion of her followers. Though drastically weakened after descending to the mortal world,[12] she is still the strongest member of Kazuma's party, having amazingly above-average stats,[2] with her Magical Power surpassing even Megumin's.[16] However, her Intellect and Luck are low,[2] and she cannot improve them since her stats are already maxed out.[17] Like Megumin and Darkness, Aqua also suffers from being too specialized, with her attacks only being effective against demons and undead. Holy Magic: Upon descending into the mortal plane, Aqua took up the Arch Priest-class, learning all her class skills,[17] allowing her to use all types of healing and recovery spells, support buffs, and evil-dispeling magic. Heal: Instantly heals a person's wounds. Sacred Highness Heal: Greater healing spell. It can restore erased memories.[4] Turn Undead: Creates a light that sends the undead to the afterlife. Sacred Turn Undead: A more powerful version of Turn Undead, which, when cast upon, can release a powerful spell that can purify even a lich. Exorcism: Summons a pillar of light that drives away demons. Powerful enough to stop a possessed Darkness in her tracks. Sacred Exorcism: A stronger version of Exorcism. Aqua fires it like a laser from her forehead in a pose similar to the Emerium Beam. This spell is potentially powerful enough to destroy an Archdemon like Vanir. Break Spell: A spell that can dispels magic and curses. Sacred Break Spell: A stronger version of Break Spell. It can break magical barriers.[18] Cure Poison: A spell to detoxify a person. Refresh: A spell that lowers the person's body temperature. Supporting Buffs: Aqua can cast several supporting spells to greatly increase the resistance, speed, and strength of the one she cast her spell upon: Blessing: A spell that increases luck. Powered: A spell that increases strength. Haste: A spell that increases speed. Protection: A spell that increases physical resistance. Resistance: A spell that increases magical resistance. Reflect: A spell that reflects an opponent's attacks back at them. Force Fire: Draws the attention of monsters towards the user. Eyes of Providence: Allows the user or its target to see and listen ghosts, as well as invisible stuff. Magic Seal: Seals someone's or something power. Used in a Divine Treasure[5] and in the Devil King.[19] It is so powerful even an Archdemon can't break it.[20] Divine Circle: Aqua can draw magic circles that repel ghosts, undead, demons, and monsters. She has also created protective barriers around the mansion to capture demons and keep them from entering the mansion (however, extremely powerful demons can still breakthrough).[21] Resurrection: The most advanced spell for the Arch Priest class, it revives a recently-deceased person. Usually one person can just be revived once, but due to her seniority over Eris, Aqua can even violate that rule and resurrect the same person multiple times. However, she cannot resurrect those whose physical forms have been completely digested or destroyed,[22] or died of natural causes (as diseases).[23] Water Magic: As a goddess with the domain over water, Aqua possesses many powerful water-related skills. Aqua also can manipulate water from a distance, and breath under water. Create Water: Shoots a jet of pure and clean water from atmospheric moisture. Sacred Create Water: Summons a large torrent of water from the sky, that causes a huge flood. It is such a large amount of water that it could flood an entire city and destroy subsequent buildings and structures, as well as the city's wall. Purification: Purifies water from dirty and poison by touching. As a water goddess, Aqua can purify any liquid, from contaminated hot springs to coffee and tea, through mere contact. However, it seems this is something Aqua has no control over as any liquid she touches becomes purified, regardless of intent, while casting Purification simply increases the effect. Holy Water: All liquid she purifies is turned into holy water (known as "Goddess Juice"). Aside from this it can be used as weapon against the undead, her holy water can be used to enhance the quality of weapons and equipment, and protect against illness. Water generated directly from Aqua's body, like her tears, are especially potent against the undead. Party Tricks: After learning all the Arch Priest-class skills at once, Aqua started to spend all her points in the Party Trick-skill tree. Those are used mainly for the entertainment and amusement of people, as Aqua refuses any payment for her presentations. Nature's Beauty: A skill that makes two fans appear on both hands and a pot of soil appear on top of her head. Spouts of water will emerge from each fan while a flower grows in the pot that will eject blossoms once fully grown. Versatile Entertainer: A buff that makes the target a multi-threat talent, able to mimic anyone's voice. Hundred Hazes: The ultimate party trick. Once it is activated, it takes half of a day to finish. Master Artist: As a muse of the arts, Aqua is an extremely talented artist, being able to repair a photo of Darkness's suitor with the bare minimum tools at hand and create detailed 1/12 clay scale models of Megumin and Darkness, as well as intricate sand drawings, soap scale figures, and even make handmade giant robot made out of milk cartons. While Kazuma has noted that she could make a living off these skills, she refuses to, as her greedy and lazy nature makes her unable to financially take advantage of these artistic talents. Construction Master: Aqua is also a skilled construction worker. She is so talented working on construction that she is able to repair all by herself a giant wall damaged by Explosion Magic in a single day several times in a roll. God Skills: As a goddess, Aqua posses unique skills related to her heavenly race, although her fall from Heaven weakened some of her special abilities as Goddess. God Blow: A lethal fist that carries a goddess' rage and sorrows. It can both purify the undead and cause physical damage at the target. God Requiem: A lethal hook, it's a goddess requiem of love and sorrow. Like God Blow, it can both cause physical damage and purify the target, being able of purify Arcanletia hot springs. It's an anime exclusive skill. Holy Aura: It causes pain for undead/demons that touch her, with prolonged exposure being lethal. Draining her vitality/magic is also poisonous for the undead. However, since the undead look "for salvation," mindless undead are also attracted to her aura. Her holy aura also limits the effectiveness of lie-detecting magical items; they will only detect her lie if it is something she very strongly believes is false. Night Vision: Aqua can see as well in the dark as well as the daytime. That is a less powerful version of her omniscience as a goddess. Undead/Demon Detection: Aqua can also detect undead and demons by their scent. Aqua can also see and communicate with ghosts and poltergeists even if they are invisible. Multilingual: Aqua is able of speak fluently many different languages, from Japanese, the Parallel World language, the spirits language and the elemental tongue. Divine Protection: If anyone attempts to see her location/future/mind or attempts mind manipulation on her, it results in seeing a bright light that prevents it. Advertisement Equipment Feather Cloak: A divine treasure imbued with a variety of magic, preventing all status ailments and is highly resistant. It can also fill with air like a balloon at her command and is used as short-range transportation for the team. Scepter: She uses a staff that will fly towards her if summoned. When casting spells, the closed flower at one end will blossom and boost any spells cast. this body swap can not be undone and take place during winter and they must take job becurse aqua spent all they money again and no one but them can know about the swap if people found out the mind of those people will forget. we will fallow only kazuma point of view it was made by a mage who want to swap with aqua but fall and swap Kazuma with aqua instead and the mind warp spell was made by the mage to.
Response: ### Chapter 1: An Unexpected Change Kazuma Satou had grown accustomed to chaos. Traveling between dimensions with a party comprising a masochistic Crusader, a chuunibyou Arch Wizard, and a good-for-nothing Goddess had prepared him for anything—or so he thought. Winter in Axel brought silent nights and softly falling snow, but that tranquility was shattered one evening by a sudden, irreversible twist. The shift began with an innocuous commission from a local mage. Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness were all exhausted from days of fruitless efforts to scrape money together. Aqua, in her usual wasteful fashion, had evaporated their savings on expensive party tabs and nonsensical expenditures. Desperation forced them into taking jobs from anyone who would hire them, and this mage promised a good reward for a simple task—"testing a new teleportation magic circle." "What could go wrong?" Aqua had chuckled, brushing her dewy hair away from her face with an air of indifference. Kazuma's skepticism nearly rivaled his exhaustion. When the spells were chanted and the magical circle activated, the room filled with a blinding light. Kazuma felt himself being lifted off his feet, a sensation eerily similar yet utterly different than his initial transfer to this bizarre world. Without warning, the world lurched, and Kazuma felt a shiver as cold as Axel's winter breeze replace his sense of self. ### Chapter 2: Reversed Reality Kazuma woke, disoriented, to find himself straddling the line between consciousness and void. It was Aqua's voice that first registered in his mind, shrill and panicked. "Oh my goddess, what is going on!?" He snapped open his eyes. Everything looked strangely more vivid, the colors sharper, the details more pronounced. He reached up to wipe a cold sweat off his forehead but immediately froze when the image in his head clashed with what he saw. Slimmer hands, wrapped in detached sleeves of blue and gold trim, greeted his vision. "What the...?" His voice—no, Aqua's voice—rang out. Kazuma scrambled to his feet, his heart racing. Across from him stood his own body, Aqua’s fierce but humorless grimace plastered across his face. "It appears we've had... an accident," Aqua-in-Kazuma said, her eyes wild with confusion and barely veiled post-inebriation rage. "This is your fault, Kazuma!" "Me? How is this my fault?" Kazuma-in-Aqua shrieked back, his—no, her—voice reverberating with a goddess-level pitch of indignation. "You were the one who thought this job was a good idea!" Before they could engage in their usual bout of bickering, the mage who had facilitated the swap flicked his wand, sealing their lips from spilling the truth. He had missed the intended target and errantly swapped the bodies of the two adventurers. Yet, to undo it would take powerful and forbidden magic, which threatened mind-warping consequences. ### Chapter 3: Learning to Adapt Days turned into weeks, and the bodyswapped duo had no choice but to adopt their new roles. Kazuma, in Aqua’s form, had to take on the role of an Arch Priest. He grasped at the lingering bits of Aqua's divine knowledge, enough to summon water, purify spaces, and even perform demeaning party tricks when required. Aqua, suffering Kazuma’s physical frailties but retaining his cunning and expertise, not-so-willingly aided the party in the only way she could: through sarcasm and relentless griping. "Why do you smell like raw sewage?" Megumin wrinkled her nose one evening as Kazuma-in-Aqua returned from a failed purification attempt at the sewer pipes of Axel. The fee had been substantial, yet the task an unequivocal nightmare. “Blame her body’s purification limit,” Kazuma muttered beneath a tired and annoyed sigh. They had decided their sanity depended on keeping up appearances, so the irritated adventurer had to suffer public humiliation without letting anyone catch wind of the swap’s truth. “Hey! I resent that!” Aqua-in-Kazuma whined from a safe distance. Picking up Kazuma's sword, Chunchunmaru, she slipped and landed face-first in the snow. "Owww." “Great job, Aqua. Just great,” Kazuma huffed, dragging his weary burdens—the physical and the celestial—a notch closer toward insanity. ### Chapter 4: Embracing the New Normal Kazuma found the winter seemed a little less biting as the days went by, distractingly immersed in managing Aqua’s goddess powers. For what she lacked in intellect, compensated somewhat in raw magical prowess. He experienced a kind of primal exuberance manipulating divine energies and coursing through water spells with a hand flick, despite missing his beloved Chunchunmaru. Aqua, fumbling yet adapting to Kazuma's earthly capabilities, found herself oddly envious of his latent survival instincts. She wielded the short sword with a degree of bashed confidence, honing skill sets Kazuma, somewhat, avoided out of preference for ranged options and exploitative tactics. Through it all, one barrier remained constant: they grew a fragile camaraderie navigating this swapped existence. Whether incremable or sharing high-fives over challenging quests, a hesitant yet resilient bond emerged, held together by mutual hate of one ultimate truth—Aqua had wasted their money. Yet this time, it was also their ticket to new understandings and maybe, just maybe, the tiniest shred of respect. Their winter was long and frustrating, but Kazuma-in-Aqua and Aqua-in-Kazuma bore it together, one bizarre day after another, fighting their way back toward a semblance of harmony and a deeper grasp of what it meant to truly walk in another’s shoes.
Post your own comment: