The Divine Bathhouse, an exclusive sanctuary reserved solely for the goddesses of Orario, was a haven of steam, echoing laughter, and the pleasant aroma of expensive oils.
Hestia slowly let her body sink into the milky water, feeling peace for the first time in days.
She let out a long sigh, sinking until the water reached her chin. Her mind drifted to Bell. Her sweet, innocent, hardworking little rabbit.
They had a date planned! Just the two of them!
A soft chuckle escaped her as she remembered how flustered he had gotten when she confronted him about that Pallum girl he was accompanying, Liliruca Arde.
She felt so silly for assuming the worst. The girl was just his supporter. His panicked, blushing face when he tried to explain himself was practically weaponized cuteness.
And then, like a door slamming open, another face crashed into her thoughts. A scarred mouth locked in a lazy smirk. Her mood violently flipped 180 degrees.
Toji.
That absolute, unrepentant deadbeat! The water around Hestia seemed to physically boil in response to her rising anger. She was out here working two grueling jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. And what did the freeloader do? Live rent-free and have the absolute audacity to laugh at her working conditions!
Oh, how she wanted to discipline him! To smack him over the head and demand respect!
But...she couldn't. He was technically her child now. Even if that child was a six-foot-something parasitic entity leeching off her, she didn't believe in physical discipline...not that it would work on Toji anyway.
"Oh? Hestia? Is that you?"
Hestia blinked, her murderous aura vanishing as she looked up. Through the steam, the Goddess of the Harvest approached her, wrapped in a plush towel. Demeter smiled warmly, sliding into the water next to her.
"Demeter! It's been a while," Hestia greeted, genuinely happy to see a friendly face.
"It really has," Demeter sighed, leaning back against the smooth stone. "I heard a rumor going around. Did you finally get your own Familia?"
Hestia's chest puffed out with immediate pride. "I sure did! Two of them, actually!"
"Two?" Demeter leaned in, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Well, don't keep me waiting! What are they like?"
"Well," Hestia began, her voice softening. "My best is Bell. He's an absolute angel. White hair, red eyes, works incredibly hard. He's a bit naive, but he's so pure and reliable!"
"Aww, he sounds adorable," Demeter cooed. "And the other one?"
Hestia's face instantly soured. She crossed her arms, splashing the water. "The other one is a giant, lazy, gambling freeloader! He's got this scar on his lip, he never tells me where he goes, and he literally laughed at me for working! He's horrible!"
The water rippled. Suddenly, the soft chatter of the bathhouse died down.
"Wait, wait, wait," a new voice echoed through the steam.
Hestia froze. She looked around and realized that half a dozen goddesses had silently slid closer, their ears perked up and locked onto her life story.
"Did I hear that right?" another goddess chirped, her voice finding the perfect target for gossip. "The little virgin Hestia snagged two men for her first Familia? And one of them is a tall, scarred bad boy?"
"Ooh, tell us more!" a third pressed in, completely ignoring personal space. "Is he handsome? I love the brooding ones. Bring him to my next banquet!"
"Hold on, I want to hear more about the cute white haired one," Demeter laughed, joining the teasing. "Are you making a move on him, Hestia?"
Hestia's face erupted in a shade of red that rivaled Bell's eyes. She shot up from the water, grabbing her towel in a panic.
"Stop listening in on my life!" she shrieked, clutching the towel to her chest.
"Oh, come on, don't be stingy!" someone laughed. "Just introduce us! We can show them a good time if you're too busy working!"
That was the wrong thing to say. Hestia's embarrassment instantly vanished, replaced by the fierce territorial wrath of a mother bear. She pointed a dripping finger at the assembled deities. "Listen to me you homewreckers! You stay away from my kids! If I catch any of you within ten feet of Bell or even that deadbeat Toji, I will cut you myself!"
Without waiting for a response, Hestia stormed out of the bathhouse, leaving a chorus of amused laughter and scheming goddesses in her wake.
It was safe to assume her supposed date with Bell was not going to go as planned.
༻❁༺
Spoiler alert: it didn't go as planned.
The heavy wooden door of the ruined church was violently shoved open.
Hestia dragged herself down the stone steps into the basement, looking completely drained. Her shoulders slumped depressingly as she recalled how her date with her little Bell had gone. Right behind her, Bell Cranel followed, looking incredibly nervous and deeply apologetic.
"I'm really sorry, Goddess," Bell whispered, scratching the back of his head. "This was supposed to be a special day for you."
Hestia just waved a tired hand, not even looking back. "It's fine, Bell. The other goddesses ruined it. I'm just...done for the day."
As they reached the bottom of the stairs, the sound of metal scraping against stone filled the air.
Toji, who was actually home for once, was sitting on the floor, his legs stretched out as he ran the Inverted Spear Of Heaven against a whetstone, sharpening the edge that had worn out from Revis tough skin. He didn't look up when they entered.
"Yo," Toji greeted.
"Ah! Toji-san!? Welcome home!" Bell greeted warmly, surprised to see his senior home after so long.
Hestia didn't even dignify the freeloader with a greeting. She let out a heavy suffering sigh and shuffled toward her lumpy mattress. She was ready to just collapse and sleep for twelve hours.
She stopped right at the edge of the bed.
Lying directly in the center of her pillow was Toji's Inventory Curse. The hideous, purple monster worm was curled up like a cat, snoring softly.
Normally, Hestia would have shrieked, grabbed a broom, and chased Toji around the church for letting that disgusting abomination into her sleeping quarters. But Instead, she just stared at the curse. The creature opened one eye, looked at her and went right back to sleep.
Hestia shrugged and crashed onto the mattress, lying directly next to the creature.
Bell watched her with a guilty look as he sat on the sofa, eventually turning his eyes to Toji.
"It was a rough day," Bell began, trying to fill the silence. "We ran into some other goddesses, and they started following us around..." Bell proceeded to summarize the chaotic events of his day.
Toji kept his eyes entirely on the blade. "Hmm," he hummed.
Bell kept talking.
"Uh-huh," Toji replied, wiping the steel clean.
It was peaceful...until the chatter died as Bell finally ran out of events to recall.
The silence returned, with Toji's sharpening process being the only sound occupying the church.
Bell awkwardly looked around while breathing heavily. His finger dug slightly into the sofa's fabric as he glanced nervously at Toji, opening his mouth to say something, then snapping it shut again, unable to find the courage.
After Bell's fifth failed attempt to speak up, Toji stopped sharpening the blade, "If you're going to keep breathing that heavily, go do it outside. You're using up all the oxygen and it's annoying." He said without looking up
Bell froze, his face already flushing. "S-Sorry! I just...I wanted to ask you something. Something...personal, but didn't have the chance since you weren't home..."
"I'm not training you for free, so don't bother," Toji said flatly, returning to his blade.
"It's not about that!" Bell squeaked, frantically waving his hands. He took a deep breath, his face reddening further. "It's...well. You're older than me. And you've been around. So I was wondering if...if you knew anything about...girls?"
The whetstone stopped. Toji slowly raised his head, staring at the white haired boy with unblinking eyes.
On the bed, next to Toji's worm, the supposedly asleep Hestia stiffened for a fraction of a second. Her ears twitched open to listen in.
"Girls," Toji repeated, slightly taken back.
"Y-Yeah," Bell stammered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Like...how to appeal to them. What they look for in a guy. That sort of thing. My grandpa taught me a lot but I don't think his methods will work."
A lazy smirk crawled onto Toji's face. He leaned back against the stone wall. "Ah. I see. The rabbit hit puberty. Let me guess. It's the Guild girl with the glasses right? You want to know what she looks like under the uniform."
"Eina?! No! No, it's not Miss Eina!" Bell panicked, shaking his head violently. "It's someone else! I can't tell you who, but she's...she's really strong. And beautiful. And I just feel like I'm not good enough to even stand next to her. I want to show her my pure intentions and dedication, but I don't know how to bridge the big gap between us!"
Toji's left eye twitched.
"Pure intentions." The phrase made his stomach churn. He looked at Bell, really looked at those wide, hopeful, naive red eyes, and felt a sudden urge to extinguish that light purely out of spite.
"Is this a joke?" Toji deadpanned. "Kid, you're asking the wrong questions. You want to know how to pull a woman out of your league? Stop treating her like a goddess on a pedestal."
"But she is amazing!" Bell protested.
"I don't care if she craps gold," Toji interrupted smoothly. "Here's the reality. Women have plenty of the strong and rich idiots who are trying to show them their 'pure intentions.' It's boring them to death. You want her attention? Ignore her."
Bell blinked. "Ignore her?"
"Be completely and unapologetically unavailable," Toji instructed, tossing the Inverted Spear Of Heaven into the air and catching it. "Make her think you don't need her. The best way to get a woman's attention is to look like you're already perfectly content without her. It works better if you are in another chick's skirts and spending her money. It drives them crazy."
"What?...How cruel Toji-san! Don't you have a human heart!?" Bell gasped, his pure soul actively rejecting the advice. "You can't use women like that! Have you ever actually loved someone? Or do you just treat romance like a game?!"
Toji paused. "I've been married twice. So you tell me," he said casually.
Bell's jaw dropped open. His brain effectively flatlined. "Married? TWICE?!"
On the bed, Hestia violently stiffened. A muffled squeak escaped her lips as she bit her pillow to stop herself from screaming out loud.
This deadbeat was married? Two times?! She pitied the wives.
"Yeah. Fushiguro is my first wife's name," Toji muttered, completely ignoring Bell's shocked expression. "Anyway, the point stands. You don't win them over with 'pure intentions,' kid. You win them over by providing a service they didn't know they needed. Or by being so much of a mess they feel the psychological need to fix you. That second one is a goldmine if you play it right."
Bell looked horrified. "Are...are you telling me to manipulate her into pitying me?"
"I'm telling you how to get free room and board," Toji corrected. "Look, if she's a high level Adventurer, she's stressed. You don't offer her flowers. You offer her a distraction. You walk in, look her up and down, and tell her her posture is terrible. When she gets mad, you tell her you know a massage technique that targets the lower lumbar. Once you get your hands on her hips, you just have to make sure you press right on the—"
"ALRIGHT, THAT IS ENOUGH!"
The lumpy mattress squealed as the supposedly sleeping Hestia launched herself off the bed like a tiny cannonball, violently kicking the inventory curse as she practically tackled Bell, slapping both of her hands over the boy's ears to protect his rapidly dissolving innocence.
"Do not listen to a single word this filthy, degenerate freeloader says, Bell Cranel!" Hestia shrieked, glaring daggers at Toji.
Bell was currently malfunctioning. His entire face, all the way down to his neck, was a vibrant glowing shade of crimson. "Lower...hips...massage..." he muttered, his eyes circling in dizziness as images flooded his mind.
Toji just watched the Goddess screech at him, utterly unfazed. He went back to running the whetstone down his blade.
"You asked," Toji said lazily. "Don't come crying to me when some other guy sweeps her off her feet because he actually knows how to use his hands."
"SHUT UP TOJI!" Hestia screamed, dragging the smoking Bell toward the stairs. "We are going outside! Right now! To purge your soul of his corruption!"
Toji watched them stumble up the stairs, leaving him alone in the quiet basement. He shrugged, checking the sharpness of his blade with his thumb.
"Kids these days. No appreciation for practical life skills."
༻❁༺
"Ah, finally, the sun!" Tiona exclaimed, her voice echoing off the massive pillars of Babel.
She threw her arms wide while stretching her back as they stepped out of the suffocating air of the dungeon and into the golden late afternoon light of Orario.
It had been an exhausting journey. After the chaotic nightmare on the eighteenth floor, saving Rivira from the monstrous Violas, Ais clashing with the red haired beast tamer, and then spending days diving deeper just to farm enough high value magic stones to cover the enormous repair debts for their weapons, the Loki Familia was practically running on fumes.
At the front of the formation, Finn Deimne and Riveria Ljos Alf walked side-by-side. Despite the grueling days, the Pallum captain and the High Elf maintained their perfect authoritative composure.
"Are you certain it was wise to omit him from the official Guild report, Finn?" Riveria asked, her voice pitched low enough that only he could hear. Her emerald eyes narrowed slightly against the glare of the sun. "A man of his...caliber and suspicious nature is a massive red flag."
Finn kept his gaze forward, his thumb resting thoughtfully against his spear. "I'm certain, Riveria. There is no need to rush and cut off a potential lead so carelessly. Besides, I'm almost certain he wasn't the one who killed that Adventurer."
"Even if not, did you not see him clash with the redhead? There is no lead to trace if he's the enemy of the culprits as well," Riveria countered with a sound argument.
Finn shook his head gently. "I like to think that there was a misunderstanding between the two parties. I don't have the proof, but I believe he might be a mercenary driven by coin..." Finn offered a small, calculated smile. "With the way we seem to constantly cross paths with him, I have no doubt we will see him again soon. I'd like to have a word with him before we turn him over to the Guild."
Riveria sighed. "Don't be overconfident, Finn," she warned the Pallum, to which Finn just chuckled.
Behind the two executives, the rest of the party was far less composed.
"Tiona, keep your voice down! My head is pounding," Tione groaned, rubbing her temples as she adjusted the strap of her daggers.
"Oh, come on Tione! Look at the sky! It's so beautiful!" Tiona laughed, practically bouncing on her heels. She turned to look over her shoulder at their supporter, who was currently bent double under the weight of an impossibly massive backpack. "Right, Rakta? We did great!"
"I...I think I'm going to die..." Rakta wheezed, her legs trembling as the massive haul of magic stones and drop items rattled with every agonizing step.
"Don't die yet, we haven't even gotten paid!" Tiona cheered, giving her backpack a hearty slap that nearly sent the poor Hume bunny girl tumbling face first into the cobblestones.
Lefiya Viridis walked beside them, clutching her staff to her chest. She offered Rakta a sympathetic nervous smile, but her eyes kept darting backward, looking over her shoulder at the lone figure trailing behind the group.
Ais Wallenstein walked in complete silence.
While the rest of the Familia basked in the warmth of the surface, Ais felt completely cold. Her golden eyes were dull, staring blankly at the cobblestones beneath her boots. Her hand rested instinctively on the hilt of her blade, her knuckles white beneath her gloves.
Her mind was a chaotic storm of memories, playing on an painful loop.
"Aria."
Ais squeezed her eyes shut, a sharp ache stabbing at her chest. Why? Why did that...that bitch know her mother's name?! Why did she call her that?!
And then, stepping through the ashes of her mind, was a lip scarred man with a purple worm monster wrapped around him.
He had beaten the redhead to near death before Ais intervened...but why?
Did he know something? Ais couldn't tell, because even with all their bizarre encounters, they had never even had a single conversation together.
This time...if she could find him again, she would demand whatever he knew about the redhead. If not peacefully, then by force!
Her boots slowed. She stopped in the middle of the street, slowly turning her head back to look at the massive, towering structure of Babel.
Force.
She wanted to go back.
The physical urge to turn around, draw her sword, and plunge back into the darkness of the dungeon was almost suffocating. She needed to swing her sword. She needed to kill monsters until her muscles tore and her lungs burned. She needed to get stronger.
If she wasn't stronger, she would never get her answers.
But Riveria and Finn had explicitly forbidden it.
"You are exhausted, Ais. Stand down. Rest for once in your life," were Riveria's firm words to her, her tone leaving zero room for argument.
They did not understand. Ais's grip tightened on her sword. She couldn't rest. Every second she wasted sleeping, her goals got further away.
A rebellious thought crept into her mind. 'Maybe...tonight. When everyone's asleep. I can sneak out through the courtyard. Just a few floors...just a few hours...'
"U-Umm...Ais-san?"
Ais blinked, looking up to see Lefiya standing a few feet away. The young elf was fidgeting nervously with the hem of her dress, her ears twitching with anxiety, but her eyes were full of overwhelming concern.
"Are...are you okay?" Lefiya asked, taking a hesitant step forward. "You look...really down."
Before Ais could formulate a response, an arm suddenly slung heavily over her shoulders.
"She's just hungry!" Tiona announced, leaning her weight against the Sword Princess with a massive, beaming grin. "Right, Ais? Too much dungeon gloom, not enough sugar!"
Tione walked up on her other side, crossing her arms with a smirk. "Honestly, I can't blame her. After the week we've had, eating those dry rations is a crime against mankind. We need real food."
"E-Exactly!" Lefiya jumped in, her face flushing as she gained a bit of confidence. "W-We worked so hard! And we brought back so many stones! I think...I think we deserve a reward. We should get crepes! The stall in the North District has those double strawberry ones you really like, Ais-san!"
Ais stood frozen between them. She looked at Tiona's bright grin. She looked at Tione's fond expression. She looked at Lefiya's earnest attempt to make her smile. Even Rakta managed a weak thumbs-up from beneath her crushing backpack.
The cold, suffocating grip around Ais's heart slowly loosened. The obsessive need to bleed in the dungeon faded, chased away by the warmth from her friends.
They didn't understand her fully. They didn't know the weight she was carrying in her heart.
But they knew she was hurting, and they were trying to fix it the only way they knew how because they were her friends.
Ais let out a soft sigh. The tension drained from her shoulders and for the first time in days, the edges of her lips curled upward into a faint smile.
"Yeah..." Ais said softly, her voice light. "Crepes sound really nice."
She looked back at Babel one last time. The massive tower that pierced the sky was a permanent, looming presence over the city.
'I can relax... just for tonight,' Ais told herself. The dungeon is always there. It will always be there.
"Alright! Crepes on the Captain's tab!" Tiona cheered, pumping her fist in the air.
"I heard that, Tiona!" Finn called back from the front, though the amusement in his voice was clear.
Surrounded by her Familia, Ais turned her back on the dungeon and walked into the warmth of the city.
༻❁༺
A few days later...the evening crowd of Orario were trickling in a tavern, forming a rowdy chaotic mix of boasting Adventurers and the heavy clinking of wooden mugs.
Toji Fushiguro sat in the most secluded corner booth, lazily nursing a lukewarm mug of cheap ale. He took a sip, set it down, and clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.
Thanks to his Heavenly Restriction, his metabolism operated at a terrifyingly high rate. He could drink alcohol by the barrel and feel absolutely nothing, to his body it was essentially slightly bitter water. But holding a drink was the easiest way to occupy a dark corner without drawing the attention of the waitstaff.
Across the wooden table sat Kong. The broker leaned forward, his elbows resting on the sticky wood, his voice pitched low beneath the roaring laughter of a nearby dwarf.
"You're going back into the dungeon," Kong said, his eyes darting around the room for eavesdroppers before locking onto Toji. "Eighteenth floor again. The client wants a face-to-face for the next job."
Toji didn't blink. He just stared at the bubbles popping at the rim of his mug. "Annoying. Since when do they need to look at me? Just take the contract and give me the target."
Kong offered an apologetic chuckle. "It's just this once. The client is just a tad too paranoid. They want to judge your character in person."
Toji's eyes slowly lifted, pinning Kong in place. The casual laziness in his posture vanished, replaced by the suffocating stillness of a predator. "Are you setting me up?" he asked. The tone wasn't angry which made it infinitely more terrifying.
Kong swallowed hard, though he held his ground. "Don't be an idiot. I haven't been this rich in a decade. You're my golden goose, Fushiguro. If you get offed, I'm back to hiring brain dead thugs to collect gambling debts in the slums. I need you alive and working."
Toji listened. His heightened senses tracked the steady rhythm of Kong's heartbeat, the slight dilation of his pupils, and the faint smell of nervous sweat. No spikes or traces of deception were present.
"Fine." Toji broke the tension, leaning back and tossing a single coin onto the table to cover the drink. "I'll go meet your paranoid sugar daddy."
"Remember, no fighting!" Kong hissed urgently as Toji stood up. "This is a handshake meeting!"
Toji just raised a hand in a lazy wave, already turning toward the exit. It wasn't his fault if people decided to pick a fight they couldn't win.
༻❁༺
The eighteenth floor was calmer than Toji remembered. The town of Rivira had practically rebuilt itself overnight after the Violas attack, the shady Adventurers who ran the place had quite a stubbornness in them. Toji bypassed the town entirely, venturing into the dark forest that occupied the majority of the safe zone.
He stood in the deep shadow of a massive quartz pillar that had fallen from the crystal ceiling, blending seamlessly into the darkness.
Thirty minutes had passed. Toji's patience, already notoriously thin, was rapidly evaporating. If this client didn't show up in the next five minutes, he was going to turn around, go back to the surface and put Kong through a brick wall for wasting his time.
A twig snapped softly in the distance. The sound was practically microscopic, easily masked by the calm hum of the forest, but to Toji's ears, it rang like a dinner bell. His eyes shifted toward the treeline.
A figure cloaked entirely in white fabric materialized from the gloom. They wore a bone-white, bull-like skull mask over their face, completely concealing their identity.
"You felt my presence. Very good," the figure spoke in a masculine voice, seemingly pleased at Toji's sharp senses.
Toji lazily scratched his jaw, stepping out of the shadow. "This is a waste of time. Cut the mysterious phantom act and tell me what the job is."
Olivas Act, one of Evilus's top commanders, felt his eye twitch beneath the mask at the mercenary's words. While offended by the blatant lack of reverence, Olivas kept his composure.
"Think of this as a necessary evaluation. My master has no patience for liabilities," he spoke with a sharp, authoritative voice. "We have a new task for you. A guarding contract for the pantry on the 24th floor. The quest duration will be two to three days max, and you, of course, will be paid for it fully."
Toji nodded slowly, crossing his arms and leaning back against the crystal pillar, staring at Olivas as he waited for further details.
"We are turning to you again because you have proven your...unique capabilities," Olivas revealed. "You managed to inflict significant damage on our agent, Revis. That proves you have the physical strength to hold a perimeter against high level threats."
Toji let out a dismissive snort. "So that's the red bitch's name? Wasn't so tough. She just took a lot of hits. A punching bag with an attitude."
"Whatever, mercenary." Olivas didn't seem too offended by the insult to his comrade. "Tomorrow morning, you will head to the Guild," he instructed. "Our few pawns inside will be able to post a specific commission on the eastern quest board. You will accept it silently, preferably without drawing too much attention from the staff."
Toji raised an eyebrow, genuinely annoyed at the unnecessary bureaucracy. "Why involve the Guild, skull-face? Paperwork just leaves a nasty trail."
"Don't be ridiculous. It legally establishes you as a Guild Enforcer acting on their behalf," Olivas explained, his tone completely matter-of-fact. "With an official seal backing your presence, no third party will have the jurisdiction to bypass you. It ensures the location remains secured without us needing to shed blood and draw unwanted attention. More importantly..."
Olivas paused, smirking maddeningly beneath his mask. "It blames whatever happens next entirely on the Guild, rather than us. Or you, mercenary."
Toji stared at the masked figure for a moment, processing the bureaucratic loophole. It was good enough, assuming no one could trace the quest forger. It meant he got paid a fortune just to stand around, and if anyone complained, he could just tell them to go file a grievance with HR.
"Fine by me, skull-face," Toji said. He turned his back on the commander and started walking away.
Olivas watched him go. The man had no presence, both spiritually and in the real world. No amount of background checks provided any trail to his origins or offered a logical excuse for his supposed monstrous strength.
People that strong did not just pop into existence without leaving a footprint.
He was an anomaly that existed outside the chessboard, a rogue piece that could either help or ruin everything they had worked for over these long years. It was better to keep a piece like that close to the vest, or so his master had instructed.
But the question remained: Can one trust a ghost?
Olivas snorted softly. If it came down to it, he would just kill him. Right now, he needed to focus on helping "Her" ascend.
༻❁༺
The journey back up the dungeon was pretty dull. Toji moved at a fast pace, effortlessly bypassing the middle floors. He stepped onto the fifth floor, his mind already drifting toward the surface. It was probably past midnight. The casinos would be thinning out, which meant less competition at the tables.
Maybe he'd crash at the ruined church first. Take a shower.
Then, the sharp smell of burnt flesh and scorched stone hit his nose.
Toji paused. He looked down the dimly lit corridor. The walls were heavily blackened with soot staining the cavern. The air was hotter than it should be, vibrating with the leftover residue of explosive flames. And lying face first in the center of the floor was an unconscious figure.
Toji recognized that ridiculous tuft of white hair. Bell Cranel was completely unconscious, sprawled across the dungeon dirt. His hands were smoking lightly, clear evidence that the idiot rabbit had been spamming some kind of new spell until his brain effectively shut off from exhaustion.
A pack of goblins had already picked up the scent of helpless prey. Four of them were creeping out of the darkness, their filthy claws extending as they circled the boy.
Toji let out a long, long sigh. He really hated doing unpaid overtime.
He didn't draw a weapon. Instead, Toji vanished from his spot.
A fraction of a second later, he appeared directly in the center of the monster pack. He lashed out with a vicious kick that cleanly decapitated two of the goblins at once. Before their bodies even hit the ground, his hands blurred, plunging into the chests of the remaining two and violently ripping out their magic stones.
Toji pocketed the stones, then looked down at the unconscious kid. He didn't bother checking for a pulse, Toji could already hear the kid's rapid heartbeat echoing in his ears.
Reaching down, Toji grabbed the fabric at the back of Bell's collar, then casually hoisted the boy off the ground and threw him over his right shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Bell's head fell limply against Toji's back.
"Uhmmm...Ais..." Bell mumbled in his sleep, a goofy smile briefly crossing his face.
Toji snorted. "Wonder what the shortstack is gonna do when she finds out her prized pet is dreaming about another woman," he muttered.
A slow and malicious smirk crept onto Toji's face. He couldn't wait to drop the kid directly onto the church floor, tell the overprotective goddess exactly how reckless and stupid her little angel had been, and watch her skin the rabbit for dinner.
"Yeah," Toji chuckled softly, adjusting the dead weight on his shoulder as he started the walk up the stairs to Babel. "That'll be fun to watch."
༻❁༺
Ais will not become a Level 6 just yet...
I decided to take that divergent point, but don't worry she'll level later
Trust the process and have patience reader...
Anyway, again, I must repeat my words:
This is a TEST fic of DanMachi x JJK, I have a bigger one on the shelf
This one is not some high fantasy, super thoughtful, super detailed, everything-taken-into-account fic of Toji
But there will be divergences from the original story, it is not an exact copy paste of the canon Danmachi and Sword Oratoria events, that would be boring as hell
Oh, and this fic is also not one of those fics where Toji, the literal teenage killer, deadbeat father, and labeled Sorcerer Killer, just magically changes overnight because of two interactions with Bell or Hestia
That just doesn't make sense
Need I remind y'all that this Toji did not even get to think of Megumi when Hollow Purple devoured him?
He was devoured, unlike in canon, and thus did not have the "life flashing before his eyes" moment that might have changed him
He's still the deadbeat he was
At least he's giving Bell advice about pulling girls lol
But he'll change...slowly