KonoSuba: Blessing This Wonderful World! IF Route - Kazuma Becomes a Dark Hero of Vengeance
Sato Kazuma, an adventurer, was fighting against the Demon King's general Beldia with his party members Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness.
But just before the final battle, their strategy leaks to the enemy because of Aqua's blunder. Kazuma finally snaps, yelling, "You guys are the worst!" He banishes his party and decides to fight alone.
"I'm never trusting anyone again."
With that vow, Kazuma joins the dark guild 'Shadow Stalker.' There, he meets Maria, a former goddess turned dark priestess who
KonoSuba: Blessing This Wonderful World! IF Route - Kazuma Becomes a Dark Hero of Vengeance - Bond Burst - I Just Wanted to Say Sorry
The back of my eyelids flickered white.
Far away, someone was shouting. Aqua's shrill scream, Darkness's groans, and then—Megumin's faint breathing as she lay collapsed.
(Ah, I'm...)
The back of my right hand throbbed sharply.
But it was somehow different from that black pain that had been tearing through my entire body until just moments ago.
"...Nn."
Slowly, I opened my eyes.
My vision was filled with a dusty stone ceiling stretching out above me. Volgana Fortress, the throne room. The air that had been wrapped in purple miasma was now impossibly clear.
(My body... can move...)
Kazuma lifted his right hand.
The cursed seal carved into the back of his hand was emitting a faint golden phosphorescence. It wasn't that messy black radiance that had been the proof of the Grudge Weaponization. It was a gentle light, like the morning sun.
"Ka-Kazuma!"
Aqua's voice pierced my ears.
When I turned my face to the side, Aqua was scrambling toward me, her face a mess of tears and snot, her translucent light-blue ponytail whipping wildly.
"Uwaaaah, Kazuma! Thank goodness, thank goodness!"
Both her hands clung to Kazuma's chest.
Tears spilled from her large blue eyes, staining Kazuma's clothes.
"Hey, Aqua... you're crushing me..."
"But! But Kazuma! I thought... I thought you might never wake up...!"
She sobbed and shouted those words over and over.
For a goddess, she was crying like a ten-year-old.
"...Aqua."
Kazuma slowly sat up.
His joints still creaked and groaned. If he put too much strength into it, his cracked skin felt like it would split open.
At the edge of his vision, another companion came into view.
"...Darkness."
Darkness was standing, leaning against the wall.
Her waist-length blonde ponytail was battered and disheveled, her expensive knight's armor was dented all over, and blood was seeping from her shoulder. Wounds from when she had blocked those countless black blades.
But—she was smiling.
"You're awake, Kazuma."
Her blue eyes twisted as if about to cry.
"Thank goodness... truly, thank goodness..."
She dragged her wounded body and took a step closer to Kazuma.
"Honestly, I couldn't very well let my personal toy get away, could I? And besides... ah, what kind of eyes will Kazuma look at me with, all covered in wounds like this... will he hit me, I wonder..."
"That's supposed to be the touching part, you pervert!"
My voice cracked involuntarily.
But—it was our usual back-and-forth.
"...What about Megumin."
Kazuma's voice suddenly hardened.
His gaze turned toward the corner of the room.
There, Megumin lay collapsed.
Her blunt-cut black hair was plastered to the stone floor with blood and dust. Her small body was limp, like a broken doll, and her crimson eyes flickered faintly, as if about to go out at any moment.
"Megumin!"
Kazuma forced his aching body to move and rushed to her side.
He grasped her small hand.
It was cold.
"...Kazu...ma..."
Megumin's lips moved faintly.
"Don't talk! Aqua, use healing magic right now—"
"...The magnificence... of my Explosion magic..."
With trembling breath, she spun her words.
"...I still... haven't told... Kazuma about it... yet..."
A faint strength filled her small hand.
"So... I can't die..."
A single tear spilled from her crimson eyes and traced down her temple.
"..."
Something deep in Kazuma's chest tightened painfully.
Images flashed back through his mind.
The guild tavern, the *Weathercock Inn*, where he'd made a racket with Aqua like idiots.
The Pokapoka Manor, where the three of them had gathered around a dinner of nothing but natto rice, drowning in debt.
The nights he'd reluctantly carried Megumin home on his back after she'd fired off Explosion and couldn't move.
The days he'd shouted "Shut up, you pervert!" at Darkness as she breathed heavily over her humiliation fantasies.
(I—)
Everyone was here.
Battered, covered in wounds, and yet they had come to save me.
"...Why."
I realized my own voice was trembling.
"Why, you guys... did you go this far... I'm the one who banished you. I'm the one who... did that to Megumin—"
The words stuck in my throat.
The corners of my eyes burned hot.
"Without Kazuma, I..."
Aqua turned her tear-soaked blue eyes toward Kazuma and shouted.
"I'm just a useless goddess! I came because I like you, Kazuma! Without Kazuma, I'll just go back to being a shut-in goddess again! I don't want to go back to days of just eating rice balls and crying anymore!"
She threw her arms around Kazuma's back with all her strength.
"I can't do it without Kazuma...!"
That warmth seeped slowly into Kazuma's chilled body.
"...Aqua."
"I feel the same."
Darkness nodded quietly.
"You've snapped at me countless times, made fun of me countless times, and yet... you never abandoned us. Rather, it was we who were abandoned. I simply wanted to say it to you one more time."
She paused for just a moment, then smiled mischievously with her wounded face.
"'Kazuma, hit me.'"
"...You guys."
Tears spilled from Kazuma's eyes.
They wouldn't stop.
His vision blurred.
"I just... wanted to say I'm sorry..."
His voice became a mess of tears.
"I didn't mean to get angry, to hate... I was just lonely... I just wanted to go on adventures with everyone again...!"
The moment he put it into words—
*Thump!*
The back of Kazuma's right hand pulsed strongly.
"...Whoa."
The seal began to beat like a heart.
But—it was no longer that black pain.
The seal slowly changed from black to gold.
The shape of the curse crumbled as if ice were melting, turning into particles of light and rising into the air.
"This is...!"
[[Skill <<Grudge Weaponization>> has been deactivated]]
[[The cursed seal of <<Grudge Weaponization>> is vanishing]]
An inorganic voice seemed to echo inside his head.
It was disappearing.
That power of hatred that had gnawed at me and possessed me so deeply was turning into light and vanishing.
In its place—something warm overflowed from deep within my chest.
"Everyone..."
When Kazuma raised his face, Aqua, Darkness, and even Megumin lying collapsed—all of them were crying.
Golden light overflowed from the four of them.
Aqua's pale blue light of purification.
Megumin's crimson remnants of Explosion.
Darkness's silver-white fighting spirit of defense.
And the warm golden light overflowing from Kazuma's chest.
All of it swirled together into a single vortex in the center of the throne room.
"Wh-what is this...!"
"It's... warm."
"...This is truly..."
Megumin opened her trembling eyes wide.
"The true... Explosion magic..."
[[New Skill <<Bond Explosion>> has manifested]]
The vortex of light gathered into Kazuma's right hand.
It took the form of a single, enormous sword of light.
"This is... a new skill...?"
The hand gripping the sword trembled.
But it wasn't from fear.
Power surged throughout his entire body.
Aqua's feelings, Megumin's feelings, Darkness's feelings—all of them were contained within this sword.
"Go! Kazuma!"
Aqua wiped her tears and shouted.
"I don't mind if you cut me down along with him! No, rather, please cut me! Ah, just imagining Kazuma's blade of light slicing through my skin... *pant* *pant*..."
"The second half was completely unnecessary!"
But—somehow, I felt like laughing.
"...Here I go."
Kazuma fixed his gaze on the throne.
There, the Demon Lord in the form of a black-haired young man sat, smiling quietly.
"So that is your answer."
The Demon Lord slowly rose to his feet.
"You have overcome hatred and chosen bonds... Interesting."
He spread both arms wide.
"Come. Let me see... that power of yours."
Kazuma took a deep breath.
He raised the sword of light high.
Aqua's light of purification, Megumin's flames of Explosion, Darkness's barrier of defense—all resonated with Kazuma's feelings and merged into one.
"Everyone's feelings... I'm putting them all in... and blasting you away!!"
[[Bond Explosion—]]
He swung it down.
A torrent of golden light swallowed the throne room, the Demon Lord, the entire castle—in an instant.
*DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!*
The sound came crashing in a moment later.
Everything in sight was repainted gold.
Within that torrent of light, the Demon Lord simply smiled quietly.
"...Magnificent."
Leaving only those words behind, his form became particles of light and dissolved into the sky.
And so—the Demon Lord who had lived for 800 years was quietly purified.
Silence.
The purple miasma had completely vanished from the throne room, and it was still and quiet, as if to signify that the long battle was over.
"...Is it... over?"
The sword of light vanished.
The strength drained from his body.
—Further within the throne room.
In the shadows.
A girl with long, pale purple hair braided on one side—Maria—stood frozen.
Her golden eyes were opened wide.
"...It became light."
A trembling voice escaped her lips.
"The power of hatred... changed... into the power of bonds."
Her usual cold, thin smirk was nowhere to be seen.
Tears quietly spilled from her eyes.
"I too... really, just..."
In a small, hoarse voice, she murmured.
"I just wanted... Aqua to acknowledge me..."
Without even trying to wipe her tears, she turned her back abruptly.
"You... were different from me, Kazuma."
Leaving only those words behind, she vanished into the darkness.
Aqua noticed her back.
"Ah... Maria...!"
She started to say something, but then closed her mouth.
Her blue eyes wavered, just a little, with sadness.
"...She's gone."
"...Yeah."
Kazuma nodded slightly.
That person had probably set off alone again, to find her own answer.
But—that was probably a step forward for her.
---
Several days later.
The town of Axel was wrapped in its usual bustle.
The lively calls of merchants. The sound of carriage wheels striking the cobblestones. The laughter of children heard from somewhere.
The Adventurer's Guild headquarters, on the second floor—the tavern and dining hall, the *Weathercock Inn*.
The four of them sat around one of the roughly eighty tables.
On the wooden table, the guild's specialty dish, "Adventurer Curry," was steaming. 300 eris per plate. And four mugs of ale.
"Alright, once again."
Kazuma raised his mug.
Faint traces of scars still remained on his face.
"...The party's reformed. I'm never doing something like banishing anyone again."
He said it, looking just a little embarrassed.
"Uu...! Kazuma...!"
Aqua, her eyes welling up again, was making a rice ball. When did she even order that?
"Of course! I shall continue to tell Kazuma of the magnificence of my Explosion magic! Fuhahahaha!"
Megumin, her arms covered in bandages, still puffed herself up arrogantly.
"Of course. You'll continue to... hit me, won't you?"
Darkness clasped her hands in front of her chest and wore an enraptured smile.
"That's why the pervert ruins the moment!"
"Fuhahahaha!"
"Ehehehe!"
"Ufufufu..."
Laughter echoed through the second floor of the Weathercock Inn.
"Alright then, a toast to our new party!"
Aqua energetically raised her mug—at that moment.
*SPLAAAAAAAAASH!!*
"Ah."
Her over-enthusiastic mug knocked the curry plates and ale on the table, sending everything crashing to the floor in one go.
Curry-colored liquid spread across the stone floor.
The table fell silent.
Kazuma, Megumin, and Darkness looked in turn at the food scattered on the floor, the empty plates, the sticky table, and then Aqua's face as she scratched her head going "ehehe."
"...Ehehe, sorry Kazuma, my hand slipped ☆"
"............"
Kazuma slowly stood up.
He took a deep breath.
"Are! You! Kidding! Me! You ruined our celebration! What the hell were you thinking, you useless goddess!!"
The usual retort.
But—his face was smiling.
Traces of tears still remained on his cheeks, but even so, he was smiling from the bottom of his heart.
"So mean! Kazuma's so mean!"
Aqua was also laughing through her tears.
"Fuhahahaha! This is truly our daily life!"
"Ah... this mess... it's as if I've been disgraced... wonderful..."
"You shut up fo
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