*Where am I?*
Itami leaps into the horde of lizards cutting them down one by one, blood covers the snow as each step he takes leaves a crater in the ground. Each lizard he kills their blood covers him, both Aqua and Megumin are stunned at the site of it. From their perspective, it was raining blood but Rurunu was protecting them from the hellish shower. Then he got near Darkness killing the reptiles near her, she looked up at him with annoyance but before she could speak he grabbed the collar of her armor and threw Darkness at the others.
*It feels so cold...why am I like this?*
He notices the rest of the lizards are scattering away from him but his katana glows as he swipes at the running lizards, the blade cuts the lizard clean in half as a fire starts near them. He slowly makes his way back to the others only to see Aqua casting a spell, focusing on Aqua, Itami feels her holy aura
" So she is a God...". He collapses on his knees, dropping his katana next to him as he covers his right eye.
*It hurts so much...*
He snaps back into reality as he sees Darkness in front of him calling his name" Itami! Are you okay!? Hello!?".
Ignoring her, he looks towards the others and watches Megumin taking off Kazuma's pants. " The hell is she doing?" he mutters as Darkness shakes him " Don't ignore me!". When he looks at Darkness he sees another woman smiling at him but the rest of her face blurred out. He flicks her forehead slowly getting up, wiping the blood from his face but his sight starts to get blurry, then he hears Darkness yelling at him and the others yelling too.
*You all are so damn loud...*
Losing consciousness he falls onto Darkness," Why are you leaning into me! Not in front of the others at least!" Darkness shouted blushing carrying the faint Itami. A couple of minutes later he slowly wakes up to his arm over Darkness as she carries him " How long was I out?". "Not that long, Aqua just got done casting her healing magic on you.".
Itami shakes his head and sees the others ahead but sees Aqua snickering as she occasionally looks back at him. He hears Darkness giggling to herself but ignores her, he pulls his arm away as he begins to walk on his own. "Are you sure you can walk on your own?" Darkness asked.
" Yeah, I'll be fine."
" You were amazing dealing with the Lizard runners. " Darkness fully turned to Itami, giving him a warm smile. Itami waves her off but with a concerned tone of voice he asked: " What happened to Kazuma?"
" Oh he's fine, just a little upset right now" Darkness blushed as she said the last part. Itami looks ahead of them and is stunned as he sees Kazuma hunching over a bit with Rurunu on his head.
So she can cast resurrection magic
Itami sighs as he walks with them but is concerned at Aqua giggling when she looks at him.
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-Kazuma's talk with Eris-
" So they're all fine?" Kazuma asked, sitting up. Eris nods as she states " Yes, they're all fine since your new party member took care of them all".
" Good grief, I knew he could come in use" Kazuma sighed holding his head in his hands.
" Although, can you grant me one request?" Eris asked
Kazuma nodded his head waiting for her request, getting wild thoughts.
Oh, man! I wonder what's it gonna be!
"It's about your new party member, Itami."
Kazuma groaned as he leans back into his chair, continuing to listen, but he sees her with a sad look.
" You see, can you check on him from time to time? The power he demonstrated with dealing with the Lizards wasn't normal." Eris's face looked down at the ground as she made Kazuma perk up with curiosity. " His power, It's not normal. All I ask is that you watch and keep an eye on him"
Kazuma smiled as he gave her thumbs up " Sure you can leave it to me!". A bright smile came across her face but before she could speak to Kazuma, they hear Aqua calling for Kazuma.
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Back at the mansion Itami quickly gets in the bathroom about to enter the bath but stops in front of the mirror, he steps back and sees black marker written all over his face. Irritated, he goes back into the living room and sees Darkness sitting down on the couch reading magazine, "So who did it? ".
Calmly Darkness looked back at Itami '' It was me, what are you gonna do about it? " Visibly irritated and a vein popping out of his forehead, he only forces a smile and pats her head " Oh I forgot how childish you all are", He walks away as Darkness pouts turning away from him.
She just wants to get slapped, just walk away
Before entering the bathing room he stubs his toe in one of the console tables, taking a deep breath he enters the room slamming the door behind. Itami turns and sees Kazuma getting half-naked and snorts. "What? "
Itami dies of laughter as he reads what's written on Kazuma. " Shut up! " He shouts as runs down the hallway, still laughing to himself he sits in front of a mini waterfall in the bath, Itami relaxes his mind as he heard Kazuma enter the bath, slamming the door, and proceeds to scrub the ink away.
" Can you be any louder? "
"Oh, I'm sorry do you need some soap for the maker on your face" Kazuma replied as he scrubs the marker off his body. Annoyed, Itami washes his face, gets up, and wraps a towel around him. About to leave he stops at the doorway from hearing Kazumas's question."How did you get that scar across your body?".
Staying silent he opens the door but before he leaves he touches his scar, from his hip all the way to his chest " From mistakes" he responds. He then closes the door leaving Kazuma full of questions.
After putting on some clothes he climbs to the rooftop from the window. Swinging his legs off the rooftop, he breathes in the cold night air till a strange bird with two heads lands next to him holding a letter. He grabs the letter from the bird's mouth and opens it with a pink rose landing on his lap.
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Dear Itami,
I hope you got this letter and that little Chuske made it safely. Anyways I heard that you found a party and I'm praying with my heart that you can protect them and Rurunu. It gets lonely here by myself, the situation here has gotten better but they still don't let me do anything. They only let me be in my lab and room but I can still write letters to you in secrecy. I wish you were here like the old times but enjoy the rose I picked out for you. It's my favorite!
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Itami chuckled to himself as he pets the two-headed bird. Taking out his own letter he attaches it to the bird and sends it off, but it hits some roof tiles before it fully flies into the night sky, " You really are something-huh? " Itami was about to climb inside till he slipped on a loose tile and fell on the balcony.
He groans on the balcony floor as a door swings opened. " Who goes there?!" Darkness shouted looking for intruders but she saw Itami on the ground, "where did you drop from?".
" Don't worry about it" Itami groaned as he continued to lay on the floor.
After a few days, Itami was running around the city. As he was heading back home he spotted Megumin and ran next to her, " Hey where were you? ".
" Oh good morning, I was staying over at a friend's house" She replied.
"Oh yeah, Kazuma was looking for you be-" Itami snorted as he remembered what Megumin did the other day, she then turned away from him as they continued to walk together.
The both of them enjoyed the peaceful silence before but the silence was interrupted by Megumin asking, "You were freakishly amazing dealing with the lizards but the real question is how did you summon the fire? ". Itami stayed silent for a bit but answered " Because of my sword, it's specially made". The way he said it made Megumin suspect him but she sighed and accepted it.
When they entered their home, they see Kazuma and Aqua acting avaricious. Megumin turns to Itami but before she can speak, he cuts her off "Don't ask me, ask Darkness" He then points at Darkness sitting in the kotatsu petting Rurunu. "What!? Why do I have to explain it!? " Darkness yelled but Itami ignored her and went into the bathing room. After sinking in the tub and reemerging, he looks at his own reflection from the water.
-A Couple Of Days Ago-
Itami sits across Darkness inspecting her blade as they listen to Kazuma blabber about what he's gonna do with Megumin. Darkness blushes as she goes to Kazuma asking for more details but they hear a knock on the door. Kazuma rushes to open it as Itami sighs cleaning Darkness blade.
Vanir walks in as he introduces himself loudly. Itami sips a cup of water as he sees Aqua arguing with the demon. After their bickering Vanir notices Itami, after looking closer at him, he sees inside his mind. All he sees is darkness, also seeing dead bodies in his memories and a heavy aura of malicious energy inside of him. He takes a step back as he hesitates on what to say next, "what are you looking at? " Itami asked in annoyance.
"Ahem! Well looks like they added another human to your little gang. Vanir then gets next to him and whispers " Come by Wiz's shop and I'll help you out with your little problem ". Itami takes another sip as he sees Vanir's grin. " Tch"
Vanir then inspects some of Kazuma's items and as they talk, Itami plays with one of them. Aqua takes it from Itami's hand "These are called balloons, look how it's done" Darkness follows Aqua and the both of them blow weird-looking balloons.
-Present-
Itami gets up at dawn and looks out his window at the rising sun, he then touches the rose that's placed by the window. Turning he sees Rurunu sleeping by his pillow, quickly he changes and picks up the sleeping Rurunu putting him in his satchel. After a bit of time he finds Wizs shop, he clenches his fist looking at the door. After a deep breath, he enters to find Wiz on the ground with Vanir stacking some boxes. " Don't worry about her, she made a very dumb purchase and I have to fix it".
Itami carefully moves around the unconscious Wiz as Vanir pulls a chair. "Here have a seat, want some tea? "
"Sure..." Itami replied with uncertainty as he takes the seat, then he puts the bag with Rurunu on the table next to him. Vanir brings a teapot with two cups, putting them on the table next to Rurunu. After pouring Itami and himself some tea he sits across from him crossing his legs as he taps the teacup with his finger, each tap gets slower and slower as Itami sees him grin.
"Well, shall we begin? "
To be continued...