Let's dance just this once

[blueayes]

He was still trying to understand what was going on, and for the first time in two days, he was finally able to slow down and think about the situation, both he and Aqua were in.

He didn't expect Aqua to know, after all, she had been trapped inside that island for two days, but he felt as if he had to ask the question for no other reason than to hear it.

They had just beaten the demon king and as he died something on his throne began to glow, Kazuma was barely able to push Darkness and Meguming out of the way before he was pulled into whatever it was.

Aqua had tried to pull him out, but something reached out and grabbed her before pulling her inside.

Kazuma watched as the tear or whatever it was closed behind them, and he was forced to watch as his friends ran towards whatever was on the throne.

After that, the world went dark and Kazuma found himself completely alone, in a place that had no sound and no light, then he saw an explosion of blue light.

"Kazuma!" he heard Aqua calling out to him as a bubble of blue light wrapped itself around the two of them

"Kazuma! Kazuma!" Aqua called out to him as she tried to grab him

Kazuma didn't know when he had curled himself into a ball and only after a few minutes he was finally able to react to Aqua's words and he reached out to her, the moment he touched Aqua's hand did he notice that they were in space.

It was as if they were falling but at the same time, they weren't moving, Aqua had just regained her full power after all the deal was if they could defeat the demon king then she would get her full power back and be able to return to heaven.

Maybe it was because she had her full power back that they survived the tip.

As they were falling the bubble of energy or was it magic, kept on getting brighter and brighter, as the darkness of the universe seemed to become slime.

The slime attached itself o the bubble only to be burned away with the purifying effect of Aqua's powers.

"Kazuma I need their help!" Aqua yelled as they moved through the goo and he felt himself growing stronger until the images of the other goddesses and even the evils he had befriended flashed before his eyes.

The strange slime or goo was soon joined by different lights that bombarded Aquas bubble and Aqua retaliated with every attack that the goddess and devils had.

Kazuma soon saw the world beneath them and as they fell he soon found himself looking at a city.

Then something hit them from behind destroying the bubble, the attack had done more than just destro9yng their shield because their bodies began to disappear.

Aqua managed to heal them, but the damage was done and he was forced to watch as Aqua flew in one direction and he flew in another.

The only reason he even live was that a bluebird created a tornado that helped him land on an empty street.

He could see a blue light glowing in the distance, didn't know where he was, but he knew where he had to go.

When he finally found Aqua he couldn't help but smile, the more things changed the more they stayed the same.

The two of them had been in jail more than once, either because of something they did- they were falsely accused of doing something or because they had unwillingly caused something to happen.

After having to fight his way through an army of guards and half an army of prisoners, he finally managed to get to where Aqua was being kept, and with no other choice, he teleported back to the same street he had arrived on.

And now life threw another curb ball at them.

 

[blueayes]

[ Present ]
Both the Piltover and the Undercity were silent neither could believe what they were seeing, as they watched Kazuma and Aqua walk towards the group of people that were divided into three groups.

Those that wore the Runetech, those that used Chemtech, and finally everyone else.

As the pair walked into the crowd of people they found that Silco and Sevika were waiting for them, neither of them said anything, they just looked at Aqua and Kazuma before nodding and walking away with the people that used Shimer.

"Hey I need some volunteers"

"I need someone to stand guard over there and a couple of people to stay and keep watch here," Kazuma said to the people that stayed behind as he pointed at the line that had been drawn on the bridge and the edge of the bridge.

A man that had his legs replaced by pair of mechanical ones walked past him and walked towards the new border that had just been made.

Kazuma watched as a group of people that all had weapons or something that used the rune tech that he and Aqua made to help the people separate themselves and joined the group that Silco had left behind to guard the bridge.

Kazuma began to walk and as he did he began to lean on Aqua more and each step he took became harder than the one he took before, the injuries he had sustained as well as the fact that he had pushed his body beyond what it was capable of was starting to take effect.

They managed to reach the elevator and as they began to go down into the city, Kazuma couldn't help but smile, he could see the rune spheres that he and Aqua made to help the people of the city.

Both spheres glowed with blue and purple energy as they cleaned the air and water.

He could see something that someone drew a while back, from the time that he was forced to put on his mask and protect Aqua from both...

Kazuma closed his eye before the elevator stopped moving

 

[blueayes]

It all felt like a dream, the Shadow of Zaun, the birth of the Axis cult, Vi and Powder, it was all a part of him, a part of them.

He had tried his best but his best wasn't enough and now everything is going dark again.

He can hear and feel Aqua as she uses her magic to heal him, but he knows that right now he can't do anything, he's just too tired to stay awake any longer.

Aqua held onto Kazuma, as his breathing calmed and he fell asleep.

She smiled warmly at him, and everyone that was in the elevator began to look around as f they didn't notice the obvious sign of affection that she showed for him.

It was actually kind of funny when they tough about it.

Kazuma and Aqua's relationship could be said to be a mixture of an overprotective brother and his spoiled sister and friends that liked each other but were too chicken to go beyond that point.

The shadow of Zaun and the Goddes of water were a mystery to everyone.

No one knew where they came from and even those who specialized in digging into people's past couldn't find anything about them beyond the day that they arrived.

Aqua sat down on the elevator floor and watched the rune spheres that Kazuma had designed come into view, each one was made for a different purpose, but none of them were made to be weapons.

Each sphere had the power to control an element or spell that either she or Kazuma had control over.

These were the batteries that recharge the runes that the people in the city used, they absorbed the magic in the polluted air and granted their power to everyone that used the runes.

They were meant to help everyone either by giving everyone away of powering their machines or a way of recreating the spells that Kazuma had access to.

All they had to do was figure out what group of runes made and the right words and skills or spells were available to them.

Each one of the spheres had an Axis church underneath it, not too far from them was a Janna church and between them was a mask and \ or green cape painted on the walls.

Sometimes it was just the black and white mask that Kazuma wore when he fought someone, sometimes it was his green cape that he used when he was trying to keep the people in the area safe.

Aqua knew that by now everyone had figured out that Kazuma was the shadow that had shown up in Zaun, so they started to pain both the mask and the cape together.

Even if someone hadn't figured it out by now, the fact that both dawings had started showing up together meant that an alliance had been made between the two.

The elevator stopped and they found themselves deep in the spot where hardly anyone went, down where everyone that had fallen to the depths of despair arrived.

Her kids gathered at the elevator and gasped when they saw her holding Kazuma.

"He's asleep' she said to them and finally, the guys inside the elevator helped her carry Kazuma to their house.

The area where they lived was a place that was once covered in darkness, nothing but those that had given up lived down here along with mutants and monsters.

Now the darkness was still present, but it now had to fight the Hexcrystals that she had created, each crystal was a tiny battery made for her.

They created the light that drove back the darkness in this place, while her presence made the polluted water pure and clean enough to drink while giving it a healthy blue glow.

Their house was at the edge of the river that flowed into this place.

She opened the door and expected to see Powder and Vi but the house was empty, the men laid Kazum down on his bed and sat next to him.

The guy's just nodded to her before leaving her behind to look after him.

 

[blueayes]

The council was in an uproar they couldn't believe what they were seeing, Shimmer was one thing but, the discovery of the runes that the people in Zaun were using was something completely different.

The people in the city below had created two alternatives to Hexttech, the first being Shimmer and the other being Rune tech, both were dangerous but for different reasons.

Shimmer was a drug that existed between the natural world and the artificial world, it could be used to strengthen one's body or power machines.

It could be used for several things, but it also had the effect of mutating the people that used it or making them dependent on it.

The runes were a different matter, the alphabet alone was a mystery and yet the people of Zaun had figured it out.

Magic was usually reserved for those that were born with it, some could learn to tap into it through special items or the Hextech that they used.

Everyone in the council had learned about the Rune wars and the power that a single grate rune held and it terrified them that something similar existed beneath them.

When the existence of the rune spheres reached them they had tried to get them out of Zaun before something terrible happened, unfortunately, the people of Zaun refused to allow what they called their gifts to be taken from them and resisted violently.

The Runic alphabet could be used to make anything, the right word could cause rain to fall where it never rained before.

They could make fireballs fly towards an enemy or object, even call upon lighting and make the trees themselves become a person's weapon.

There were so many possibilities opened to them and so many threats that were just around the corner, if a person found the wrong word or even worse the wrong words who knew what horrors they could unleash.

Fortunately or unfortunately a line had been drawn, one that existed in both the people's minds and was physically present.

The line painted on the bridge didn't mean anything it just meant that for now, neither side would cross into the other, but the moment it had been drawn people began to talk.

As usual, some looked down on the people of Zaun and were glad that they were no longer considered to be a part of them, while others looked at the metaphorical division as an opportunity.

If Piltover wouldn't accept their creations or see them as worthy then maybe the city below would after all it had just proven itself to be equally as capable.

The council became silent as they accepted that things were changing again and this time they weren't the ones causing it.

A heavy silence settled inside the room as th sound of rain started to fill the room.

 

[blueayes]

[Past ]
The wind howled as the nights passed, neither Aqua nor Kazuma said anything, partially because they had nothing to say and partially because only now that they had managed to reunite that they began to understand the situation they were in.

"Hey Aqua remember when we were falling, what happened, I mean you were fighting something weren't you?" Kazuma said to Aqua as he tried to understand what had happened.

'Not much you know the usual"

"I had to put a bunch of minor gods that don't know who they're messing with, in their place, plus some Void born that didn't recognize me' she answered him.

Kazuma tried to understand what he had just heard, but if what Aqua had said was real, then this wasn't Erise's world and it certainly wasn't Earth.

He knew that he was in a city filled with technology, but considering the number of people that ended up being sent to Erise's world, he wouldn't be surprised if a group of them had created a place filled with all sorts of technology.

And the only reason Iris or anyone else hadn't said anything about it, was because they were just too far away for it to matter.

Sure there was a place filled with all sorts of creatures and technology, but none of it mattered if they couldn't or wouldn't help fight all of the monsters that were running around.

And now he knows that they aren't in their world anymore.

'So what about you, I mean aren't you supposed to be a goddess again and be in heaven, with all of your powers" Kazuma said to Aqua and he noticed that she tightened her grip on the girl that was sleeping in her arms.

'I was always a goddess, idiot, but I don't have all of my power" Aqua said as she tried to curl herself up, it was as if she was trying to protect herself from something.

"I used almost all of my power to keep you alive," she said to him.

Kazuma looked at Aqua before getting up and walking towards her and sitting next to her.

Their situation must have been worse than he knew, because even when he took her from Heaven she had tried to strangle him, and after a few days she demanded that he started worshiping her.

Kazuma didn't know what he was feeling, they had won.

They had beaten the demon king and it was only when he died that he managed to steal their victory, by dragging them to this world.

"Don't worry we'll figure out a way to get back he said to Aqua as he tried to comfort her somehow.

"I know, I mean we can get back home after I get all of my power back, but it's going to be a while," Aqua said to him

"What do you mean?' Kazuma asked Aqua fearing her answer

"It depends on how much power I use, but even I don't know how long that will be, but it shouldn't belong" she answered him

Kazuma took a deep breath, and allowed himself to smile, he had to admit that knowing that there was a way for them to go home, took a lot of weight that he didn't know he was carrying off his shoulders.

"So what are we going to do about him?' Kazuma asked Aqua as a thin man walked into the warehouse.

He didn't have an umbrella, nor did he have a flashlight meaning that either he had been caught by surprise by the rain, he was homeless or he was part of the reason why the girl they had found was crying.

"I know that you are here," Silco said to them, as he walked deeper into the warehouse.

The warehouse was pitch black the only light available was the brief flashes of lightning that briefly illuminated the inside of the warehouse.

Unfortunately for Silco, Kazuma could tell that the man couldn't see in the dark as he could.

The stranger\ Silco walked carefully as if trying not to step on something or walk into something that he couldn't see.

"I saw you take the girl."

'Her name is Powder and she was my brother's adopted daughter" Silco said to them.

Neither Kazuma nor Aqua moved, they were far enough for any light to reach them, but that also meant that Silco knew where to find them.

"Look, just give her to me and I can take her home, that is unless the two of you are going to take care of her" Silco said as he looked into the darkness of the warehouse.

"I won't bother pushing the subject, but if you are, she was my brother's daughter and I would like to visit her. You know to see how she's doing" Silco said to them.

Kazuma and Aqua looked at each other, they didn't know what to think, but what other choice was there.

They didn't have anywhere to go and the man in front of them just said that he was a relative of the girl's dad, so what right did they have to keep her.

"Okay but we are coming with her, you know we can't just hand a little kid to a stranger," Kazuma said to Silco before he stood up and walked out of the darkness.

Aqua who was still carrying the sleeping girl who they now knew was named Powder followed Kazuma and walked into the area where the brief flashes of light could reach her.

 

[blueayes]

Kazuma and Aqua followed Silco out of the warehouse and into the rain, where they found a couple of rough-looking boys waiting for them, but none of them said or did anything.

"I apologize if the men's presence startles you, but I did have to track her down before anything happened to her, and it is nighttime and well," Silco said to them as he moved his head towards the light of the fire that could be seen from where they stood.

"It's okay" answered Silco as he reached into his waits and pockets hoping that he hadn't used up everything and if he had, that the at the very least had his sword and the sword Dust had given him.

Unfortunately, he had lost everything during the fight with the demon king, so the only things he had on him, were his clothes, both swords, and the mask the Vanir had given him.

He did have a couple of Manatite crystals on him but they had lost all of their magic and were nothing more than a bunch of useless crystals now.

"Greate," Kazuma said to himself in a low voice

He followed Silco and his men to what looked like some kind of elevator and watched as they pulled a lever down and they watched as the elevator began to move.

"We will wait for you bellow' Silco said to them as the doors closed

Kauma and Aqua waited for the elevator to return and again they found themselves having to make a choice, they could follow the stranger down or take their chances with the city that they saw in the distance.

The city lights could be seen even now from where they were standing, but then what would they do with the girl.

No, there was never a choice for the, they had made their choice the moment they decided to take her from where they found her.

The elevator returned and they stepped inside and pulled the lever.

They watched as the doors closed and the elevator began to go own into the earth and they soon found themselves being welcomed by clouds of toxic fumes, they began to cough, as the air was so thick that it was nearly impossible for them to breathe.

Yet at the same time, they felt an all too familiar feeling amongst the smoke.

There was magic in the air, so much so that they could touch it and make it do whatever they wanted.

Kazuma began to feel a warm sensation in his pocket and when he took out the Manatite crystals he found that they had somehow recharged themselves.

He could tell that they had nowhere near the power they once held because they didn't glow as brightly as they once did.

He turened to look at Aqua and found that she had a thin line of blue light that covered her and by extension Powder.

When the tick clouds of smoke were finally out of sight, they found themselves looking at a city that was made of metal and stone.

It was incredible to think that something like it could exist beneath their feet.

The city had a strange green glow to it, the green light was met with the various colors of neon lights that were scattered everywhere, but regardless of the red-pink-blue and yellow lights that they could see the green light was the one that covered the city.

Kazuma could feel his skills activating on their own even as the elevator moved deeper and deeper into the city, there were threats everywhere and people were already turning to look at him and Aqua for no reason.

He was tired because he hadn't rested at all so he knew that if he had to fight someone, he would lose, but that was the thing.

Even now he could see the twist and turns of the city, pipes that hung in the air that connected one building to another.

There were shadows and dark places everywhere.

If it came to a fight Kazuma knew that he would lose, but if he chose to run, he knew that he could and would escape even if he had to carry both Aqua and powder with him.

He was at his best when he was in the dar and if he was well-rested he knew that the city in front of him was the perfect environment for him.

There was no way he could lose if he manage to get some sleep.

The elevator finally stopped moving and his skills flared alerting him of the danger, even before the doors opened.

Everyone here was a threat, from the women talking to each other on the street, to the men that were just sitting on the ground minding their own business.

Yet the biggest danger to them was the group of people waiting for them.

"Okay, where can I find you so I can check up on her?" Silco said to them, but before Kazuma could answer the man Aqua stepped out of the elevator and looked around.

She took a deep breath and yelled.

"Everyone fear not, I the great and powerful Goddes Aqua have come to your city" Aquaproudly announced to everyone that could hear her.

The people nearby turned to look at her for a moment then immediately went back to doing whatever they were doing.

"I see," Silco said to himself as he looked at Aqua with the same expression that everyone tended to look at her whenever she tried to tell anyone who she was.

"I guess that means that you don't have a place to live, word of advice just look for a place that no one is using and make it yours," Silco said to them before he turned around and walked away.

'I know it seems strange that I just leave you, but you'll find that it's impossible to stay hidden from anyone down here" he said to them as he walked away.

 

[blueayes]

"Follow the and watch them, don't do anything, don't help them or attack them, I want to know what they are capable of," Silco said o his men when he was sure that he was far enough from Aqua and Kazuma

"So what now?" Aqua asked Kazuma

'I thought we were going to follow that guy and see where she lived, but apparently, he just wanted to bring her back" Kazuma answered Aqua as he looked into the strange city in front of him.

The city was a strange place that didn't have a floor or a ceiling and at the same time it did, even now as he and Aqua walked into the darkness of the city streets he couldn't help but look down in amazement.

There were streets filled with people when he looked down and even when he looked up before the strange clouds that served as the city's sky the could see the lights of what he could have sworn were buildings.

Unbeknownst to them, the Zaun had begun to react to their presence, as the city's painful past and present reacted to Aqua's arrival.

Perhaps it was welcoming her, perhaps it was cursing her, regardless of which it was, no mortal could understand the shadow's intent, as the dead began to awaken only to be greeted by the hungry teeth of rats and mutants.

"Hey, do you know this girl?' Kazuma asked a guy as they walked only for the guy to say no

The same thing repeated itself over and over again, every corner they turned only made it harder for them to go back to the elevator that brought them here.

Sometimes they would walk past a man or group of men and sometimes women that catcalled Aqua or offered to buy her for a couple of minutes.

Other times they had to turn around and walk away from things that weren't Human.

They didn't know how long they walked but in the end, they decided to take the stranger's advice and began to look for a place to stay.

They began asking anyone they saw if they knew of a place that was renting or would let them stay in and as a result they were either laughed at or told to go away until a woman told them about an abandoned arcade they could live in.

The inside of the arcade was surprisingly clean and it looked as if someone had recently used it, even though the windows were broken and some of the games were thrown around as if someone had wrecked the place during a fight.

Aqua laid the girl on the floor and sat on the floor while keeping her back to the wall.

"Well, I guess we're at the bottom again," Kazuma said to Aqua as he sat next to her and closed his eyes.

He didn't need to worry about anything happening to Aqua, even if he could sense more than one threat that was just outside of the arcade.

For whatever reason, none of the people that he detected dared to enter the building.

As Kazuma began to fall asleep Aqua's eyes could see something that was normally hidden from the eyes of mortals.

She watched as a bluebird flew into the arcade and looked at her and Kazuma.

The bird turd into a woman that resembled an elf, but the warm presence she had made it clear that she had nothing to do with any of the Elven pantheons.

"Hey wanna make a deal," Aqua said to Jenna who tried to understand what exactly she was looking at.
][][[]
Jenna tried to understand what she was looking at, the woman in front of her was human.

Yet her presence extended itself to nearly everything, it was as if the blue-haired woman was something far older than herself, but at the time was trapped in the present.

She could feel the presence of divinity in her, but she had all of the needs and desires that mortals struggled with every day.

She was alive but seemed to have a hand that reached into the realm of the dead.

Jenna could see the woman's energies flowing within the man that slept at her side, mixed in with the energies of others that might be allies one day and those that never would be.

Then the woman spoke.

"Hey do you wanna make a deal," the woman said to her and Jenna quickly flew out of the building leaving the strangers behind.
][][

Aqua closed her eyes, she hadn't eaten or drunk anything since she came to this world, and she was too tired to care about the goddess that had so rudely left without listening to what she had to say.

She listened to Kazuma snoring next to her and she had to admit that she was glad that he was the one that ended up in this world with her, if there was anyone in the party that could make a bad situation work it was him.

Aqua closed her eyes and allowed her energies to blend into the world around her, it was going to be a while but she just needed to rest and regain her power.

 

[blueayes]

][][
The sounds of pages upon pages moving from one stack to another mixed with the sounds of footsteps, Still Water was in an uproar as both Prisoners and Wardens alike yelled at each other.

'What's going on?' Vi said to herself as she looked at everything happening around her.

She had expected to be locked away for the rest of her life, and either have to fight everyone that tried to take advantage of her because they thought she was weak or have to put up with constantly being beaten by the guards.

Everyone knew the stories about Still Water, after all, they had heard them from both the prisoners that had been released and the Wardens themselves as they bragged about what they did in here.

'Shut up' the Warden escorting her and the rest of the new prisoners said to her before he walked up to a group of guards that were talking to a prisoner.

'Don't worry about it kid, everyone's on edge about what happened last night" a man said to her, and before Vi could ask him what happened the man just pointed to a nearby window.

Vi walked up to the window and couldn't believe what she was seeing, there was a giant hole in the wall and ice covered the edges of the hole.

"The wardens didn't know it but they had someone important in here, had to be for anyone to bother breaking in and getting them out," the man said to her.

Vi wanted to say something but the guards grabbed her by the arm and threw her at the wall where the new prisoners were standing

'Who told you, you could move" the guard said to her before he grabbed her head and slammed it on the wall.

Vi didn't even feel the pain of when her head hit the wall, the only thing she knew was that one moment the guard was yelling at her, the next she was laying on the floor.

She tried to get her head under control but the guard picked her u and forced her to stand up and follow the rest of the prisoners.

As they walked, Vi couldn't help herself but smile.

There were Wardens tied up by their restraints, some were being carried away in stretchers, while others were frozen in place, as guards tried to break the ice and free them from it.

She soon walked past the hole in the wall and noticed that the path of chaos seemed to be longer in the direction she was walking in.

It was as if whoever had broken in had gone the wrong way and ended up having to turn around and fight his way towards his target.

She soon passed a room that had its metal door blown off, but the trail ended there, there were no signs that whoever had broken in tried to escape, it was as if they had just found their target and disappeared.

 

[blueayes]

Vi soon found herself standing in front of a metal door, that had a red line painted on the floor in front of it, the line was about two steps away from the door, and she watched as the guard escorting her opened the door before pushing her in.

The man then shoved her into the tiny room, that had what could only be called a bench made of concrete and a toilet that had a sink next to it.

She heard the sound of the door closing behind her and finally, she has left alone with her thoughts.

She tried not to think less she start to remember everything that had gone wrong, had she not taken Powder that day, had she not slapped her, had she handled the situation differently than maybe.

No, she couldn't allow herself to think, so she began to do the only thing she could, she began to practice her punches it was hard to get the distance right considering the limited amount of room she had but eventually, she was able to train without hitting herself on the wall.
][][]

Kazuma coughed as he cleaned the machines, there were a lot of games that the arcade had but weren't used as often by whoever used to come and play in here.

So the two of them were forced to both clean and repair the machines they found.

Putting the loose parts back where they were supposed to go and tying together whatever wires were either loose or broken was the easy part.

Neither he nor Aqua understood how the technology of this world worked, everything seemed to work with chemicals.

That much was obvious because every machine they had to either clean or fix had a tank that had one or two different colored things in them.

He called them things because he didn't know what the chemicals were, he did know that they weren't water because Aqua didn't just purify them by touching them.

In the end, he managed to get all of the machines working and all that was left to fix was the broken window that they used to enter the arcade when they found it.

 

[blueayes]

He looked at the blue-haired girl they had found yesterday, but she had just curled herself into a ball and didn't say anything, she just kept her head in between her knees.

Both Kazuma and Aqua left her alone, they recognized the look in her eyes.

The girl had lost something or someone important, while at the same time she felt an incredible amount of rage and guilt.

A lot of new and old adventurers in Axel had that same look, they all either managed to move on- died, or managed to get their revenge.

In the end, neither of them could help the girl avoid her fate, if she didn't try to move, it didn't matter how, she just had to stand up, and then they would handle the rest.
]
Unfortunately neither he nor Aqua knew where someone who fixed widows for a living lived, so they couldn't just go and ask him or her to send someone to fix the one that was broken.

Then there was their small problem, neither of them had any money.

While they did have silver and gold coins on them, they didn't know if anyone here would accept them, and if they did, the chances that people would hear that they paid with gold and silver were high.

Meaning that they would just put an even bigger target on their backs.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm" Aqua hummed to herself as she began to draw something on a piece of scrap metal that she found earlier.

More than once she had walked outside looked around and walked back in, after finding what she was looking for.

Normally Kazuma would have yelled at her for avoiding her part of the chores, however, she had already finished cleaning her half of the arcade.

And, considering that he was finally done with his half of the, he decided to see what she had been up to this entire time.

s Kazuma walked deeper into the arcade, he found himself looking at a pair of orbs that had what could only be called runes written all over them.

The orbs were each held in place by a pair of metal pillars, that had the same tubes that the machines in the city used.

He soon noticed Aqua standing proudly next to her creations, and she had the same smile that she usually did when she did something that she knew that she shouldn't have.

'Hey, what's that?" Kazuma asked Aqua as he walked up to her.

"I call them the orb of water and the orb of air" Aqua answered him

"Okay, but what do they do?" Kazuma asked her hoping that she didn't build something dangerous again.

Oh, they make clean water and clean the air" Aqua answered him.

For most people, this would have been enough, but Kazuma had seen more than once what happens when someone builds something and forgets to install the necessary safety measures.

"So they won't explode right?" he asked her only to see her expression change

"Don't worry, no one can use them against us" Aqua answered him as she looked away from him.

"Okay, so they won't explode, right? Right?" Kazuma insisted as he watched Aqua sweat.

"No" Aqua answered him with a soft voice and that was all of the confirmation that he needed, Kazuma looked around and found the hammer that Aqua had used to build the things, and he was about to destroy both pillars and orbs before Aqua stopped him.

"Sto Kazuma!"

"The air is bad here and the water isn't good either!" Aqua said to him as she hugged her creations/

Kazuma had to admit that she was right, ever since he awoke, he had been forced to take small careful breaths so that he didn't end up coughing.

"Can't you just make them not explode?" Kazuma asked Aqua who just said no to him

"I made them after something I saw when we were falling, so I only know what I saw'' she answered him.

Kazuma was about to say something when e noticed that Aqua had placed her hands on both orbs that were at the top of the pillars and he watched as they began to glow.

It didn't take long for the air inside the room to clean itself, he could breathe normally again.

"I thought that you couldn't just use your powers," Kazuma said to Aqua as he remembered what she told him the day before.

He watched as the expression on Aqua's face changed, there was a hint of genuine sadness, there was something that Aqua wasn't telling him, but he knew that he couldn't force her to tell him.

"Hey let's try and get people to come in," he said to her, it was better to avoid the topic, at least until she was ready to tell him what she was hiding

 

[blueayes]

][][
Aqua enjoyed listening to the people around her, they reminded her of her kids, not the ones that lived in the world she had just left behind, but the ones on earth.

They were a mixture of free will that could accomplish impossible things with just their bare hands and pure spite or was it pre-determination.

It didn't matter, this city was made by these people, it was a reflection of who and what they are.

A people that were free to indulge in their desires and not be judged for it, just like her kids, unfortunately, they were bound by invisible chains that restrained their growth.

She could feel their dreams- their hate- for she was everything that these children are, unfortunately, she couldn't do anything for them because she wasn't their goddess.

The only one that could help them was the minor wind goddess that she had seen yesterday.

Tonight she would force the wind goddess to meet her even if she didn't want to and it would be then that she would trade the wind sphere for her help.

This dimension and every other one connected to it was a failed creation and as such her power was easily noticed by every Deity- Spirit and whatever being that existed, so she needed something or someone to act as a distraction.

So she took a page from the gods here and created the Water Sphere and the Wind Sphere, with the two of them she could hide both Her energies as well as Kazuma's.

She looked at Kazuma and felt herself becoming warm, this warmth is something that only gods\ goddess knows.

Aqua had to restrain herself from telling Kazuma just how dangerous he had become.

She knew that when she began to explain everything to him that he would try to take advantage of his new power, and as much as she would enjoy seeing him fall on his face.

She also knew that by doing so, the beings in this world would notice and come looking for him, so decided that it was better to have the minor goddess under her control before she told Kazuma anything.

Aqua watched as the people ignore Kazuma while he announced to everyone that the arcade was now open.

She enjoyed watching the different kinds of people that lived in this strange city, from the creatures that weren't Human, to the people that were a mixture of machines and people.

She gave her best smile to the people that had decided to keep their bodies completely Human.

She began to notice that the people that didn't have masks on looked pale, well everyone in the city looked pale but the ones that didn't have masks looked sick.

Not to mention that a lot of people looked like they were hurt but hadn't had their injuries taken care of.

She wanted to help these people but if she did she would end up using more power and she would be stuck in this world longer than she needed to,s she decided to stick to her original plan.

She took a deep breath and. "Ladies and scarry looking tough guys, yes that means you the ones that aren't so big," She said loudly

"Come one come all, to the Axis cult's Arcade, we have clean water n clean air if you want to catch your breath!" she said to everyone and just as everyone ignore Kazuma, they ignored her.

 

[blueayes]

"I see that the two of you have been busy," Silco said as he walked up t them.

Aqua looked at the thin man, and she didn't like him, but at the same time, she didn't dislike him.

The man's soul gave the feeling of someone destined for hell, but for the right reason.

She couldn't help but pity him, h was the other idea of the mirror, the side that none thinks about, the side that does the wrong thing for the right reason because it's the only way to make something happen.

If Aqua had to explain what she felt, she would say that there are normal people, heroes- villains, and soldiers.

Soldiers usually went to hell if they didn't repent in their last moments, like it or not that was a fact.

The same went for kings or politicians that weren't corrupted by greed or power, but still gave the orders to massacre or invade other lands.

Soldiers killed people, and Kings ordered others to kill people for them, it didn't matter that they had killed someone trying to kill them, the fact remained that they had killed or ordered others to kill another person.

That was what she felt from Silco's soul, the soul of a soldier or a politician with morals, someone that had stained themselves for the right reason.

"Hey, sorry but we didn't get your name," Kazuma said to Silco

'Oh, it's Silco' Silco answered Kazuma before walking past him and looking around.

"I came to check up on her, but" Silco stopped talking for a moment before he turned and looked at Kazuma.

"Has she moved since you brought her here?" he asked them

"No" Aqua answered him

She watched as Silco walked into the arcade and stood in front of the girl.

"Hellow Powder, you might not remember me but Vander was my brother," he said to Powder

'I searched for you and your sister, but by the time I found you, these two were already keeping you safe and your sister was nowhere, so I had to keep looking for her"

"Do you know where she is?" Silco asked Powder

"She's not my sister" Powder answered Silco with a soft voice that was barely above a whisper

'I'm sorry I couldn't hear that" Silco said to Powder

'I said she's not my sister anymore!"

"She abandoned me and left me behind!" Powder screamed before throwing herself at Silco and hugging him tightly

"I see," Silco said as he hugged powder back

"You can choose, you can stay with them or you can come with me," Silco said to Powder who looked past him and saw Aqua and Kazuma standing at the entrance to the arcade where the window once was.

'I'll go with you" Powder said to Silco

Sicol just took Powder's hand and helped her to her feet, before walking out of the arcade with her, neither he nor Powder said anything to Kazuma and Aqua.

'Kazuma" Aqua said to Kazuma

"I know but we can't do anything for her if that's her uncle we can't stop her from going with him," Kazuma said to Aqua as they watched the girl walk away with the man.

"Kazuma we need to talk," Aqua said to Kazuma, now that the girl was gone and there was no one that could hear their conversation, it was time for her to tell Kazuma everything that she had learned about this world and their role in it.

She needed to explain to him what she was now and what he was not.

She knew that Kazuma would understand, even if she didn't explain to him the details of it all, but she had t do it now while there was still time.

The world was already in motion.

 

[blueayes]

"Kazuma we need to talk," Aqua said to Kazuma.

She had planned on bribing the minor wind goddess before she told Kazuma anything, but there would be much of a difference if she told him everything before trading the orb for the goddess cloak.
[][
Janna could both hear and feel something in the depths of Zaun happening, she wanted to fly in and investigate what it was before it became a threat to the people she protected.

Unfortunately, she couldn't, she couldn't do anything but watch for signs that whatever horrors had awoken- followed or been created by the thing that was in the arcade, were starting to emerge into the city.

She would do everything that she could to protect the people even if it meant sacrificing her very existence.

She watched as the black smoke mixed with the rotting pollution that was more a blend of chemicals than water.

Then she felt it, a foreign power was cleaning the air and somehow strengthening her.

She could feel the object calling to her, whispering to her, it didn't use words but authority to speak to her.

It spoke about her children the many people of Zaun, it spoke about the time when she was but a minor wind spirit drifting in the sea helping sailors, and when she was at the height of her power.

It promised to help her regain that power if she so desired to surpass that level of power.

Yet there was a price she had to pay, she needed to help someone remain hidden.

Janna ignored the object's call, but as the seconds passed curiosity soon began to overwhelm her and so she flew in search of the object that was calling to her.
][][]

"Okay, I'll skip over the boring stuff

"Remember when we were falling," Aqua said to Kazuma who just nodded

"Okay, remember that you are an Isekai just like the ones that you read about when you were on earth"

'And how there are comic books about heroes going from one world to another" Aqua said to Kazuma who just looked at her

"So, your universe and the universes of those comics are complete universes"

"What I mean is that nothing went wrong when they were made and when the time for them to change"

"This universe isn't one of those, it's locked because a lot of things went wrong and the gods here are too stubborn to admit that they were wrong," Aqua said to Kazuma before letting out a frustrated breath

'Your powers\ magic\ skills, and all of the things that you know are like oil, and this whole world is water"

"Kazuma if you use your skills, the gods of this world will find you and if they don't something else will"

"Not to worry I have a plan," Aqua said to him as she pointed at the orbs behind her.

"I took two of the Manatite crystals that you had with you and put them in the orbs when I saw that they had absorbed the magic in this place," Aqua said to Kazuma

'Okay, so what's your plan" Kazuma asked aqua, but before she could answer him he noticed a bluebird land on the wind sphere.

"Good you here," Aqua said to the bird

"Here is the deal, I give you the sphere and you help us hide," Aqua said to the burd who flapped its wings but didn't move

'What have you done?" Janna said to Aqua as she felt herself being forced to take her human-like form

'I won't be looked down by a lesser Goddes"

"So unless you agree, I won't let you go," Aqua said to Janna

"I refuse," Janna said to Aqua

"Aqua" Kazuma said to Aquas he watched her walk towards the water sphere

"Kazuma when gods tell mortals to do something, there is no negotiating. Look at all of the stories that you have read or heard, the god's talk, and mortals obeyed, and even if they say no, they are forced to do it"

'The same goes for me, if the higher-ups say something, I have to do it"

"Remember when you stole me from heaven," Aqua said to Kazuma, reminding him of the time when they first met

Janna trembled, this man, n this creature had forced a goddess into the mortal realm and forced her to take a mortal form, he must have been the one that corrupted her and bound her to the desires and needs that Gods didn't have to bind themselves with.

"Don't" Janna begged Aqua who ignored her and placed her hand on the other orb

Janna felt herself growing stronger, she could feel her mind being ripped open, it was as if something was searching through her memories looking for something that it could find useful.

If Janna was mortal she would have screamed in terror, but she didn't because she didn't feel fear.

No, what she felt was something different, she felt warm.

She turned towards the man she had been so afraid of earlier, she could feel them, the other goddess's presence embracing the man, he could feel their trust- frustration- anger, and embarrassment as well as their pitty.

This man was both their champion and their friend, he was someone that they could simply spend time with or use when they needed his help.

Janna stepped away from the wind sphere and hugged Kazuma, she tried to grant him some of her power and join the other goddesses, but it was then that she felt the Devil's presence.

Their power was constantly present waiting for the man to call upon them and corrupt him, yet their power was kept away by the goddess's blessings.

Janna stepped away from the man and felt Aqua her power was overwhelming her and it felt as if Aqua would and could crush her at any moment, but at the same time she could feel that the Goddes that wasn't a goddess was at her weakest.

"So I'll tell you again, help u and the orb is yours, but I know that you are going to need some help sometimes so just tell Kazuma, and if things are bad, I'll help too," Aqua said to Janna

Janna lowered her head and kneeled in front of Aqua, she couldn't escape, she was now bound to the goddess's will.

"Good, all that you have to do is put a bubble around Kazuma and me so that no one notices that were here," Aqua said to Janna

Janna created a protective sphere around the goddess and her champion, when she was done she noticed that both the sphere and the pillars that were holding it had shrunk and were on her back.

She also noticed that she was back in the form of the bluebird she was in when she came searching for the orb.

Janna wanted to cry, but she felt the man's power, she felt his warmth, she was no longer alone, whenever she wanted to simply talk to someone she could always come and speak to him.

"What was that?" Kazuma said to Aqua as he watched the bird fly away

"That's how gods make lesser gods obey," Aqua said to Kazuma

'Okay with that out of the way you have to know something else" Aqua said to Kazuma

 

[blueayes]

'Remember that I needed the help of the other goddesses that gave you their blessings"

"Well you can use all of them now, but you can't because your body isn't letting you use them because you are not strong enough yet," Aqua said to Kazuma before scratching her head.

She wanted to tell Kazum everything, but she couldn't there were a lot of things that could go wrong if she told him everything.

So she was forced to choose her words carefully and doing that was something that she was not very good at.

he hesitated for a moment, one that was long enough for Kazuma to realize or at the very least suspect that she was trying to tell him something difficult.

'Okay you can do this" Aqua said to herself

"There are gods- there are heroes and people that ascend, then there's you, someone that's caught between becoming a Devil or an ascended"

"You were already a hero, so you cant become a hero, and you are not strong enough to be a God yet," Aqua said to Kazuma as she felt her heart about to break.

She wanted to tell Kazuma everything, but it was too soon, if he knew everything then something might read his mind and force him down the wrong way and he would be gone.

"Kazuma, if we can't escape, will you stay with me?" Aqua said to Kazuma as she looked at him, she could feel the hot tears falling from her eyes.

"What are you talking about, you said that you just needed to regain your magic or energies" Kazuma answered her.

'What if I get sealed, will you leave me behind?" Aqua asked him, but she already knew the answer

She waited for Kazuma to answer her, but he didn't he just looked at her with a shocked expression.

"What if someone killed me, would you kill everyone and everything?" she asked him, but she feard the answer

She already knew the answer, after all, Kazuma had already tortured and killed those that had hurt her because they wanted to hurt her.

Kazuma just stayed quiet and she could feel herself start to tremble, in the past the devils we Kazumas friends and as such, they kept the power they had given him in check.

Now that power was growing stronger with Kazumas subconscious Aqua could feel its gaze and with every second that passed, she could feel its cold eyes staring at her.

The darkness was all of Kazumas hate- resentment- all of the times that he had died and all of the times that he had been afraid were feeding this darkness.

Aqua hugged Kazuma and allowed her energies to mix with his, she could feel her warmth entering him soothing him and driving the dark power back until Aqua could no longer sense its presence.

She could also feel Kazuma's warmth, he did care for her even if he sometimes acted as he didn't.

"Aqua what's wrong?" Kazuma finally answered her

"Kazuma promise me, that when it starts talking to you, you won't give in," she said to him

"What?," Kazuma said to her

"Promis me!" Aqua pleaded to him as she tightened her hug.

She knew that the chances that they would have another moment like this in the future would be rare.

Aqua felt Kazuma raise his hands and hg her back, she smiled as she felt the presence of the other goddesses' blessings and skills within him.

Kazuma was warm despite all of his bad habits Kazuma was good and he wouldn't fall into the darkness inside of him.
[][]

 

[blueayes]

I need some help what are the other species in Piltover and Zaun called, I've been looking for them but I can't find what they are named.

Besides humans, there are fish-men, strange bat-like creatures but I can't find what their species are called.

 

[blueayes]

[Elsewhere ]

He could feel it growing stronger, whatever the comet was it had started to infect the world, even the spirits have started to change, he couldn't see them but he could feel them.

The spirits in the wind speak about, a land filled with poison, but they are drawn to it because of what is there.

His eyes see a pair of pillars holding a sphere glowing with power and surrounding it are the wind spirits, trapped under the object's power, they are constantly poisoned and cleansed trapped in a cycle of torture that they can't escape from.

He sees a pair of hands wrapping themselves around them s if comforting them.

He imagines himself under the heavy rain and finds himself staring at another pillar with another sphere that looks like an exact copy of the previous one.

Except that this one has something clods his vision now and his attention is drawn towards something else.

"What is this?" he says to himself as he sees the hands of death reaching toward both spheres.

He can see the taint growing, corrupting the world around him, it reminds him of the islands that are said to be filled with undead.

He has never been to the but he's certain that what he is seeing is something being called to these lands from those islands.

Perhaps this is the reason the spirits call to him, perhaps they are begging him to destroy the spheres before their master finishes what they are planning.

He tries to focus on the creator of the spheres and he finds himself looking at something that confuses him, it takes all of his training to understand that the spirits are showing him things that might come should things go wrong.

He stands in front of something green and by the way that it glows he knows he has angered it.

The green begins to be enveloped by darkness, and a pair of crimson red eyes replace the darkness that he once saw.

He steps back, as he tries to understand, he knows that none of this is real and that what he sees are things that have already occurred and have yet to happen.

So he tries to think about something else, perhaps the pair of hands that tried to comfort the wind spirits and again the green object appears and his actions end up driving it into darkness.

"What will I do?' he says to himself as he tries to understand.

One thought after another just leads to the same outcome and he finds his breath leaving him, as the creature he has created finds itself with the corruption of the undead.

"No!" he gasps for air

He finds himself in the market that he was just in and all of the people around him look at him as if he were insane, luckily for him he was asleep until now so everyone just shrugs before ignoring him again.

He tries to remember what he saw, and what would happen if the result of his decision met with whatever was corrupting the dead, but as hard as he tried to remember he couldn't remember anything.

After a few minutes he decided to start walking, he had a long way to go, and maybe he could find a way of ending this without having to choose between something bad and something worse.

 

[blueayes]

[ Three months later ]
Caitlyn listened to the radio hoping to hear something, about the man that both the people of Piltover and Zaun called the Shadow.

She laid on her bed listening to the news as they talked about the growing evidence against the Enforcers and how they treated the people across the river.

No one knew who the man was, not even if he was a Human or a Chimera, some said that the man was some kind of Avenging Spirit that protected the people of Zaun.

While others believed that he was some sort of mutant or magician that liked to be mysterious while enjoying all of the attention that the people gave him.

"And on other news, the Shadow was spotted once again, yet interestingly enough, he was seen watching a group of worshipers praying to Janna," the reporter said as Caitlyn listened to the man move uncomfortably.

Even as she lay on her bed with her hands on her chin, she listened closely to what the news reporter said next.

She could barely contain her smile and while she couldn't see anything because she was listening to the radio, she imagined herself looking at a mask that was painted white on one side and black on the other.

"The shadow was said to be keeping watch over not just the worshipers of Janna, but the members of the Axis Cult that have recently appeared in Zaun."

"Both the Axis Cult and worshipers of Janna presented to the people of Zaun a sphere that stood above a pair of pillars."

"Witnesses claim that both the pillars as well as the sphere were covered with a type of writing that looked as if was some sort of runic alphabet."

Caitlyn could feel herself losing interest in the news, the hero must have just been interested in the new invention that was being displayed"

Things like that happened every day in Piltover and even if Zaun wasn't as fortunate, she was certain that things like this happened all of the time.

"Images taken by the Enforcers, show that the sphere glows green, but when they tried to investigate the sphere and either bring it to Piltover or try and get someone to go and inspect it the shadow immediately placed himself between them and the invention"

Caitlyn felt her ears suddenly stand up, this was interesting, so she decided to hear a little bit more just in case she missed something interesting.

"I now present to you the recording that one of our reporters managed to get during these tense moments"

"People of Zaun, the Goddes Aqua, and the Goddes Janna give to you the green orb, its purpose is to help all of you grow food!" a woman announced

"Just as we all need to breathe air and drink water to live, we all need to eat," another woman said

'So the green orb is a gift to all of you and is to be placed under the protection of the gardeners of Zaun."

"Not one just one gardener but all of them, because only that way it can be kept safe," both women said as their voices perfectly synchronized.

Caitlyn couldn't believe it, in the end, it hadn't been anything important the guy was just making sure that the invention was handed over to whoever it was meant to watch over it.

"Up next the man known as the green Cape has been seen once again near" Caitly turned the radio off the Green Cape had started showing up around the same time as the Shadow but he wasn't as good as the Shadow.

Just like the shadow, the green cape saved people, but he didn't scare anyone.

Unlike the shadow, everyone knew that the cape was a man that wore green clothes and used a green cate that covered the bottom half of his face.

Unlike the shadow that protected the people from criminals and corrupted enforcers, the cape only fought people that were using chem weapons and ignored the enforcers.

Caitlyn let out a breath and her mind began to wonder.

For a brief moment, she turned to look at her bedroom door and made sure that no one was walking near it, then she put on her hunting hat and picked up the stick she found the other day.

She imagined herself running from roof to roof over Piltover and diving into Zaun along with the shadow.

While the man moved from one building to another without making a sound, she on the other hand would be laud.

She imagined that the two of them were hunting a group of criminals that had just attacked a couple of enforcers, for a moment she pretended to have one of the men insight before she pulled the trigger and made him fall to the street below.

She pretended to land in front of the man and imagined herself standing tall over him, while the shadow watched her as she began to interrogate him.

"Caitlyn go to sleep!" her mom opened the door before looking at her, the two of them looked at each other in awkward silence as her mom looked at her, holding the stick in the same way she held her hunting rifle.

"Go to bed," her mother said to her, with a smile on her face

Caitlyn suddenly felt herself becoming completely embarrassed, just a moment ago she felt complete confidence, now even though her mom had just closed the door and gone out of sight.

She wanted to hide somewhere and forget that someone had seen her.
[][]

Kazuma watched as a group of women left the arcade, ever since word spread that people could get themselves healed for free, they haven't run out of customers.

The Axis cult was growing with every passing day, and although Aqua was the one healing everyone's injuries or curing their colds no one believed that she was using magic.

Everyone thought that she was using some sort of machine to control the energies of the sphere.

He watched as both kids and adults played in the arcade and noticed that a group of women that had pink chemicals was playing next to a couple of kids who were beating them at basketball.

 

[blueayes]

Chemical technology was something that he was having trouble wrapping his brain around, it wasn't powered by magic, or at least he thought it wasn't, although Aqua told him that the chemicals that were running all over the city had some magic in them.

She never bother telling him which part of the chemicals made everything work, but in the end, knowing Aqua she probably didn't care about the conversation and so she chose to move on and forgot about the conversation they were having.

"Kazuma" Kazuma heard Powder calling him

The girl had come back a week after Silco had come to pick her up, she didn't say anything she just sat on a bench that was on the side of the room and watched everyone come and go.

Sometimes she would come when they were about to close, and sometimes either he or Aqua would find her sitting outside waiting for them to open.

As the days went by everyone eventually started to consider her their one and only employee.

"Sup," he said to Powder

"Silco says that he wants to talk to you," Powder said to him

"Oh yeah, did he tell you why, I mean I can't just leave Aqua alone," he said to her

"Hold on I wrote it down," Powder said as she searched for something that she had in her pocket, Kazuma watched as she stopped moving her hand and pulled ut a small piece of paper.

"Oh, tell him that I'll keep Aqua under watch so no one does anything to her" Powder said as she read what she wrote down.

The sound of laughter made him look up before he could answer Powder, the Axis Cult in this world was the same in this world as it was in the last world.

It was a cult filled with a bunch of people with strange habits, and amongst them was Aqua.

Kazuma couldn't help but smile whenever he saw her performing her party tricks for everyone or when she was amongst her followers that didn't know they were her followers, it felt as if he was looking at a piece of home.

"Alright but tell him that I'm only helping him if he keeps trouble makers away from here while I'm gone," Kazuma said to Powder before rubbing her head.

He watched as she ran out of the Arcade and vanished into the crowd outside.

Now that Powder was gone he was left alone with his thoughts ad his smile vanished, as he began to remember.

It had been two weeks after they arrived and word was spreading that they had a machine that made clean water and that they were giving it to people for free.

Normally the one that would charge people for anything and tried to make money from anything was Aqua, but when he told her that they should charge people for the water she immediately told him no.

Kazuma had to admit that he didn't like the idea of giving the water out for free after all they were already struggling as it was and they needed the money.

So one day he placed an empty can next to the orb and let people do whatever they wanted, and eventually, everyone began to put a coin in the can.

The money they made helped out a lot but they still needed to repair a lot of the machines, not to mention that they needed a lot more money for food and whatever else they would need as time passed.

So he began to ask around hoping to find someone that needed some help, and eventually, someone told him about a job,

The job was simple, just carry a bag filled with jars that had something in them and then get paid, no questions asked.

That day he left Aqua alone, he will never forgive himself for that.

He was more than happy that day, he had a pocket filled with enough money to repair everything and still have enough left over to buy some semy new clothes, but then he saw it everything inside of the arcade was broken and Aqua sat alone on the floor trying to fix something she had been working on all week.

It was a glass portrait showing their party in one of their adventurers.

"Kazuma they broke and stole everything," Aqua said to him with a voice so defeated and filled with pain that it didn't sound anything like her.

"Where?' he asked the crowd that had gathered outside and a kid told him where the gang was.

He could feel the mask in his pocket calling out to him, but he ignored it, he was going to make the gangsters pay.

 

[blueayes]

He didn't say anything to Aqua, how could he, after all, he had been the one that left her alone, it was because of him that those monsters saw her as an easy target, it was because of him that they were here.

It was because of him.

Kazuma grinned his teeth as he pushed himself past the crowd that had gathered, for a moment he swore that he could hear aqua calling to him, but even if she had called out to him, he ignored her.

Not because he wanted to leave her alone, but because he couldn't let her see him right now.

As he walked each step he gave was faster than the one before it, and soon he was running past the colorful people of the city.

He jumped from one roof onto another, he uses pipes that were connected to anything, as levers to help him get from one place to another when he couldn't find a way across a hole in the floor.

Finally, he stood on the street where the kid had told him the alley was.

He didn't need to enter the alley, after all the people responsible for attacking Aqua were laughing as they threw the jewels that she wore on her hair clip and bow.

Kazuma can still remember how both the men and women laughed as they pulled on Aquas hagoromo as they tried to tear it.

Then everything went red, by the time he regained control of his senses, he found himself walking back t the arcade and finding Aqua standing outside waiting for him.

He can still remember the look she had when he handed her both the money and her things.

 

[blueayes]

The sounds of people cheering were the only things that they could hear, even as they gasped for breath the three of them could only watch as the guards walked towards them.

They were exhausted and even if they had to fight again they had used all of their strength so they were completely helpless now.

They each watched one of the guards place a piece of paper o their hand and after a moment the guards left them.

"Well what are you waiting for get out!" the leader of the town said to them as the arena doors opened

"Haha haha!" the barbarian laughed

"Alright you three you've earned it, get them something to eat, and a place for them to rest before they leave,!" the man said to someone as he looked at the three of them.

"Don't worry about being captured again, you are all a part of our village now so do whatever you want, hell you can leave and not come back but those marks will show everyone who your loyalties belong" the man said to them.

The three of them weakly lited their hands and found that while the rues that acted as their shackles were gone, they had been replaced by a mark, that was more like a tattoo than anything else.

The mark didn't have any magic in it, other than the one that was used to put it on their hands, and that magic was already gone.

Kazuma and Dust turned to look at Jaune before putting a hand on his shoulder, the guy had the least experience between the three of them but he had pulled his weight when it mattered.

They slowly walked out of the arena, and the moment they were outside they walked toward the wall and immediately sat down.

They sat there watching the people pass, none of them cared about the fact that they had dropped their weapons when they left the arena, they were just happy that they survived.

They began to chuckle to themselves, then they began to laugh, they did it, they had wone.

None of them cared bout how the hot sunburned or that they were so exhausted that they couldn't stand up anymore, they were just happy that they were alive.

"Well, what are you guys going to do now?" Dus asked Kazuma and Jaune

"I think I'll explore this place" Kazuma answered Dust

"I need to find Riven, I mean she did help me before we got separated" Jaune answered Dust

'Oh yeh that girl that you told us about when you were lost"

"Well guess I know what I'll be doing," Dust said to Jaune

"I guess it can't be helped," Kazuma said as he closed his eyes

'I'm sorry what?' Jaune asked the two men that had closed their eyes and were starting to fall asleep.

"Don't you get it, man, we're coming with you, besides we're a team, and let's be honest it's not like we know anybody around here," Kazuma said to Jaune

Jaune wanted to say something and thank the two of them, but he was too tired so he decided to follow the pair's lead and so he closed his eyes and began to fall asleep.

"Hey wake up," someone said to them

'Wake up or we will eat all f your food!" a boy shouted to them

Kazuma- Dust and Jaune found themselves looking at a group of children holding what looked like baskets filled with fresh meat- vegetables and bread.

One of the children had a bucket filled with freshwater, Jaune's attention was locked on the girl, and noticing this the girl took out a ladle and began to give Jaune some water.

At first, Jaune wanted to take the ladle from her, after all, it felt wrong for him to have someone so young feed him, but the girl told him that this was her job and she had to do it.

Jaune didn't like it, but the people in the town and this world had different values, she allowed the girl to put the ladle on his lips and he began to drink.

When he was done drinking, Jaune turned to look at Kazuma and Dust who were already eating, Kazuma was eating a peeled banana, while Dust ate a sandwich.

Jaune didn't say anything when a boy handed him a bow filled with different fruits, that were already peeled or had their seeds removed.

"Here," Kauma said to one of the boys as he hands him a piece of fruit.

"I can't the boy immediately says to Kazuma

'Why?" Kazuma asked the boy.

"This food and the rooms are your rewards for winning, we can't eat any of it because we would be stealing your victory, even if the three of you cant eat and drink everything"

"It all belongs to you, so you can't give it away" all of the children answer Kazuma

The three of them turned and looked at each other, before silently agreeing not to push the subject any further, this was just the way people did things here.

"So before leave are there any places that you want o to avoid?" Jaune asked his teammates

"Yeah, let's avoid Piltover" Kazuma immediately answered him

'Why?" Jaune asked

"You see before we came here, we got drunk and we ended up waking up with a girl," Dust said to Jaune but by the look on his face Jaune could tell that it wasn't a pleasant memory

'Some nut job with short pink hair and one with long blue hair" Kazuma said as he remembered Vi and Caitlyn.

"It was when we were looking for you, but if we can Ill rather not go to Demasia, at least not the capital"

"There's a woman that wants to kill me because I beat her in a duel" Dust said to them

"Oh yeah I remember that one, but since we're on the subject," Kazuma said while turning to look at Jaune, with a serious expression.

"Let's avoid"

 

[blueayes]

"Waite can you tell me about, the two girls" Jaune interrupted Kazuma

'What there to talk about, we went to a bar, we picked up a couple of girls, we got drunk and we both woke up in a hotel with one" Dust said to Jaune

There was more to the story but neither Kazuma nor Dust would tell Jaune about what happened next, especially since the blue-haired woman was shooting at them, .while the pink-haired tomboy tore her way through the city while she tried and failed to kill them.

"Okay, so can you tell me about the other one," Jaune said to Dust, as he bit into a piece of meat that a boy handed him.

Dust looked around and saw the faces of the kids around him, they all looked at him with the gullible expressions that children usually have, meaning that he could lie to them and they would believe every word he said.

Normally if he lied eventually people found out about it and he would end up being unfairly punished after all the tales of heroes such as himself were always exaggerated.

Fortunately, this time even if someone heard him telling the story, or if the kids went on and told everyone else, what he told them, no one would come after him because he was telling the truth this time.

"We met her while we were looking for you" Dust began to tell the story

"Kazuma and I were in Demacia eating lunch while taking in the view Dust said to Jaun as he remembered all of the female knights that walked passed them.

It still felt odd for him to carry a spear again, but considering all of the strange things that they've been running into lately, he knows that it's better for him to use it again.

Especially considering that thing that they ran into back in the desert.

"Here," Kazuma said to him as he handed him a wine bottle.

They had won four of them in a poker game, and considering that Kazuma wasn't the best in poker Dust knew that it was his good luck that helped them win.

They had already drunk two of the bottles, before coming here, and they would have drunk the other two, ad they had not found a caravan crossing through the desert.

That same caravan forced them to work while they were on it, they didn't have to do much, just fight off some bandits and help whenever the wheels got stuck in the sand.

Still, it had been a peaceful trip, if they ignored the half man half alligator fighting the half man half bird thing that they ran into, yeah it was a peaceful trip.

"So do you think he's here?" Kazuma asked him and Dust quickly remembered why they were there.

"I don't know, there are a lot of knights but none of them look like him, how's that sword of his doing is it?" Dust asked Kazuma but Kazuma immediately shook his head, silently telling him that Jaunes sword didn't feel the presence of Jaune in the city.

"Greate, then he's not here," Dust said before he took a drink directly from the bottle.

Kazuma began to laugh and Dust along with everyone else that was listening to Dust tell the story turned to look at him.

"What it's a good story"

"You see we were both drunk by the time we managed to get halfway into the bottles that neither of us realized that a group of knights had seen us," Kazuma said to everyone

The truth was that the reason why the knights turned their attention towards them was that they were so drunk that they didn't care about keeping their voices down anymore, and so they began to catcall every woman that they found attractive.

"Hey, why don't you girls come over here and have a drink with us?" Dust said to a pair of blond women who were walking past them

"Ignore the drunks" one of the girls that he had just called out to said to her friend before turning towards dust and giving him and Kazuma a disgusted look.

The sam woman stopped walking when Kazuma joined Dust and tried to get both women's attention.

Neither Dust nor Kazuma can remember who said what or what words were said to who before they were surrounded by knights.

"Hey everyone, my mane is Dust and I am the greatest Spearman in the world and I challenge the best duelist in this place!"

"So bring her here!" Dust yelled at everyone

Both Kazuma and Dust began to laugh neither of them could believe that Dust had won that duel not once but twice

Dust had fought the best duelist in Demacia while being completely drunk, and somehow managed to get a ride out of the kingdom for him and Kazuma

 

[blueayes]

Umm" one of the girls said to them

Jaune- Fust, and Kazuma all turned to look at her, waiting for her to say something.

"We were told to take you to take ou to an inn where you can get some rest," the girl said to them

The three of them looked at each other and reluctantly stood up, and began to follow the kids to a small house made of wood, there was nothing inside the house except for a couple of floor mats that Jaune assumed were their beds.

When the three of them walked inside the kids placed what was left of the food inside and closed the door behind them.

Kazuma- Jaune and Dust walked up to one of the mats and laid down, it didn't take long for them to fall asleep.

Little did they know that their past actions had caused a chain of events that would follow them for years to come.

"So what have you discovered?" Caitlyn asked the bounty hunter

"Nothing other than what I have told you already, besides what you already know there isn't any information about either of them" the bounty hunter answered her

Caitlyn didn't like that, but she had just hired the man to track the two imbeciles down, and then she would do the rest.

At first, she had thought that she only had to deal with two of them but there was a third member of their group, someone that could heal people's injuries.

"I'll find you when I need you to bring them to me," Caitlyn said to the bounty hunter before throwing him a bag filled with coins.

"So they covered their tracks," VI said to her as she picked up the evidence that the bounty hunter had brought them.

Caitlyn tried to look at Vi's face but VI just looked away, they hadn't looked at each other since the incident.

VI was from Zaun so one-night stands were a common thing there and Caitlyn herself was from a noble family, and amongst the higher circles, it was common for the women to enjoy themselves from time to time.

Yet the thing about this situation, up until now they both had avoided any physical intimacy with anyone of the opposite sex or same sex for that matter.

And those two men had...

Caitlyn remembered that day like it was yesterday, not because she had chased after the blond man while wearing nothing more than a blanket, no it was because of the defeated look on VI's face.

Ever since then VI has stopped drinking and is even more careful when she fights, Caitlyn doesn't want to believe that maybe VI didn't comeon=ut of completely unharmed.

Yet there's a high chance that something might have been out in their drinks, after all, Caitlyn knows that something is wrong with her.

Just like Vi, she can now smell things better, which makes going to Zaun a lot more difficult, and that's without mentioning the fact that she has cravings now and then plus the fact that she now has to vomit everso often.

 

[blueayes]

These were all signs of magical build-up, meaning that they had been exposed to a high amount of magic and their bodies were having trouble handling it.
][][
VI violently slammed the papers on the table, she couldn't believe what she had just read.

The group was wanted for crimes that weren't exactly crimes, while they never killed or stole anything, they were well known for getting drunk and causing a scene.

The man known as Kazuma was wanted in Ionia for stealing the panties of several women, but what caught VI's attention was who the women were.

All of the women were highly trained assassins and the wanted poser specifically said that they wanted him alive.

Dust was wanted in Ionia for running away from his responsibility not only had the man defeated Fiora in a duel, but he had done so while saying how h would enjoy doing all sorts of things with her.

What those things were VI didn't know as no one would go into detail about it, Fiora had said that anyone that repeated whatever Dust said with the death penalty.

It was the same thing over and over again no matter what she read, the three men.

It was all frustrating, she could remember everything about how the pair of drunken idiots tried to pick her and Caitlyn up.

Normally they would have just ignored the pair but, considering that the men were already drunk and willing to pay for their drinks, both Caitlyn and she decided t take them up on their offer.

Nothing should have come out of it, they had done it before, some drunk that had more money than brains tried to hit on them and they would act as if they were interested before leaving him with the bill.

If the guy tried anything, VI would deal with him, so how did they end up like that.

VI bit into a chocolate bar for some reason she had grown to like the taste of it, it wasn't as if she didn't like sweets, no she just didn't like chocolate bars.

She liked chocolate when it was hot or in a cake, but not chocolate bars and now she had to carry a couple of them just in case she feels the urge to eat one.

Caitlyn was the same she now had to have fruit on her all of the time, it if wasn't strawberries it was blueberries or some kind of berry.

Their bodies were dealing with the exes maa but that meant that they were burning something.

VI was losing sugar, while Caitlyn was losing something, but VI dint know what it was.

"Hey VI," Caitlyn said to her but her voice was softer than normal.

VI could see that something was bothering her, even though Caitlyn wasn't showing any signs of it, she figured that Caitlyn must have been frustrated about the events that she finally wanted to talk to her.

"Yeah," VI said to her

"What if it's not and exes amount of mana, I mean all the signs are there' Caitlyn said to her and VI felt her heart stop.

"First we find them, then we kill them, and then we worry about it" VI answered Caitlyn

 

[blueayes]

Word about that event must have spread because no one bothered them after that, sure there were the occasional troublemakers but that was a common thing here.

After a couple of days, Powder returned and Silco came with her, the man didn't say anything he just looked at the ob and its pillars but he didn't comment about it, he just stood there looking at it.

"Do you like it?" Aqua said to him

"It's interesting" Silco answered Aqua

"I know right, I made it because there isn't a lot o clean water down here," Aqua said to Silco

Kazuma remembered how Silco immediately turned to look at Aqua when she said that.

'So I take it that you made the other one too" Silco said to Aqua, causing Aqua to walk up to the sphere and proudly declare.

"Yep water and air are things that everyone needs, so why charge for them, after all, we all need them to live. Plus not everyone has money to pay for them here, so they can get as much as they need" Aqua said to Silco who just stared at her

"I see," Silco said to himself.

"Kazuma, I heard about the incident that happened, I know that the two of you need some extra money and I have a few jobs that someone of your skill can do' Silco said to Kazuma

Back then Kazuma didn't know that Silco wasn't a good person, sure the guy looked like a two-faced monster, but everyone in Zaun had something that made them stand out.

If their body parts weren't replaced by machines, they had some sort of chemicals running through them and if they didn't have that, then they had a scar or something.

It wasn't like there weren't people that didn't have anything, but it wasn't rare to see people walking around without them either.

"Aqua I have a job!" Kazuma said to Aqua who just waved goodbye to him

The jobs that Silco gave him were always the same, either guarding a train or truck filled with some kind of chemicals that were later dropped off somewhere.

Until now nothing ever happened so Kazuma didn't expect anything to happen this time either.

He would late investigate both the factory and the owners of the warehouse or whoever and wherever they picked everything up from, but for now, he just needed to do his job.

Kazuma smiled at the group that was waiting for him, they were a bunch of kids granted he was the oldest of them all, and all of the kids had guns on them, but they all got along.

"Hey," Kazuma said to them and they all waved back at him

They didn't need to say or do anything, they just got on the truck picked up the barrels filled with chemicals, and drove to the warehouse where they dropped the chemicals off.

Kazuma didn't say anything, but his detection skill picked up something or someone spying on them, he couldn't blame them after all he knew that whatever they were doing was illegal.

This was the same as usual, someone was always spying on them, maybe they were a member of the Enforcers, this worlds version of the police or someone that belonged to a gang or something, but as long as they didn't bother him Kazuna wasn't going to say or do anything about it.

 

[blueayes]

][][
Kazuma watched as the group walked away and so e began to walk home, no matter how many times he walked back to the arcade it still felt strange seeing it.

The arcade had become their new home, granted it was filled with all sorts of lights and machines, but it did have a room in the back with a kitchen and restroom too.

He walked past a group of kids that were playing together, he walked past a ma that looked a lot more like a giant bat than a man who held what looked like a miniature version of himself by his hand.

The feeling of being watched didn't go away, normally by now if there was anyone following him, they would have given up and decided that his part was already done so they would just leave him alone.

This was starting to get dangerous, he was already close to the arcade so whoever was following him would know where he lived if they didn't already.

With little choice, he turned down an alley and vanished into the shadows.

He quickly used an illusion spell and made it look as if he was wearing a mask that covered the bottom half of his face, the mask itself was connected to a cape that was the same color as the one he used to wear.

The illusion spell was something he learned before going to face the demon king, it allowed him to create illusions that made people see or ignore something that was or wasn't there.

Unfortunately, it only worked on him, so he used it to hide his appearance from everyone, that way no one knew who he was.

He immediately used his lurk skill and waited for whoever was following him to pass.

Then he saw her, it looked like a woman but she was covered from head to toe with machine parts.

Normally when a person would see something or someone like her they would think that she was a machine but his detection skill was marking her as a person.

The machine woman walked past him and he could hear her searching for him, he could see the faint green glow of her chemically powered body parts in the alley.

He watched her walk back and forth looking for any traces of him, then her eyes began to glow bright blue, and then they turned green.

Kazuma immediately knew that she had seen him and the two of them looked at each other.

Despite being a machine the woman smiled and walked slowly towards him, her hips moving seductively.

"A man walked past here not too long ago, where did she go?" she said to him

"Don't know I just go here" Kazuma answered her, but he used his ventriloquist skill to hide his voice.

It was the combination of his dodge and escape skills that allowed him to avoid her attack.

Kazuma immediately ran up the nearby building and tried to escape from the machine that was following him, but he didn't get fas as the woman had already caught up to him.

She used a pair of glowing green wires o jump from one building to another, when they were too far apart, and Kazuma watched as the mechanical woman's legs began to glow before she fired an energy slash at him.

Kazuma gasped for air, he managed to teleport away before her attack hit, unfortunately, he would have to walk back to the arcade, he couldn't take the risk that the woman could see magic.

So he dropped his illusion and began to walk back home again.