Forgotten But Not Lost

20

They just don't understand the true beauty and power of fire.

It always seemed that every time Megumin used her magic, all of the older kids would get angry with her. They didn't seem to care that her fireballs had taken down five goblins and saved Aoi's life in that last fight because they were all to busy crying about how the building was on fire. Who cares if the building is on fire? Just let it burn. If she had just used her [Blast] magic to begin with then she could have killed all of the nine goblins on the main floor and buried the ones in the basement, no problem.
Her Onii-chan never complained whenever she used her special magic, and Rin-sama recognized its power. Rin-sama had been so enticed by it that she learned the [Blast] spell herself, and while her [Blast] spells weren't as large and bright as the ones that Megumin and Mimori-nee-chan made, they had an elegance to them all the same. A sort of controlled swirling in the center of the flames that was really pretty.
Sometimes, Megumin thought that everything would be better if it was just her, her Onii-chan and Rin-sama… Sara-nee-chan could come too, since she wasn't mean.
Megumin supposed they would need a healer for when things got hairy, but surely Rin-sama could become a Priest easily. She already knew so much magic from the Mage's Guild, that there probably wasn't much reason in her staying there anyways. Not to mention that she could make her own spells, spells that were better than the crummy ones that the Mage's Guild taught.
…Megumin supposed that she could have become a Priest herself, since she already knew all the best fire spells that the Mage's Guild had to offer. But the Mage's outfit looked so cute on her. She couldn't give that up. Rin didn't even wear her witch's hat.
Onii-chan, Rin-sama, Sara-nee-chan, and Megumin, with Kairi-tan as their team mascot. It would be the best team ever.
Megumin knew that she wasn't on her Onii-chan and Rin-sama's level yet. She was probably better than most of the older kids in the party and was WAY better than Yukari when it came to magic, with the older girl having only managed to learn two of the weaker wind spells which managed to be even less effective than even the [Magic Missile], only useful for batting away arrows, but there was a long way to go before she was as powerful a Mage as Rin-sama.
Rin-sama said that it was because Megumin was still a growing girl and that her reserves and power would grow with time, and that some day she'd be as powerful as Mimori-nee-chan. Megumin sure hoped so. She also hoped that she would develop like Mimori-nee-chan in other ways. Mimori-nee-chan's really was really pretty with large, full breasts.
Maybe she should start trying to learn how to use a sword. Rin and Mimori both used them, even though they were Mages. She had seen her Onii-chan instructing Rin on how to wield one properly and it had always looked sort of like they were dancing together as he slowly showed her the steps.
Her Onii-chan was really good with all kinds of weapons. Even Kuro-senpai says so. He was insanely skilled and strong for a Rookie, and that was why Kuro-senpai always teams up with him on their days off, when her Onii-chan would fight all the bad guys in secret.
Megumin could only marvel at his strength as her Onii-chan walked back with them towards the city, an anvil hosted up on his shoulder, only barely slowing the party down. "Onii-chan, that looks really heavy."
"It's pretty heavy." He admitted with a small chuckle.
"Onii-chan, how much does it weigh?" She asked him.
"Well, this is a rather small anvil, so around three times as much as you do." He told her.
"Three times as much!" Megumin shouted in surprise. Yes she was young, but she was a healthy weight for her age.
"That's right, and the ones that the blacksmiths in town use are twice as heavy as this one here." He said, shifting the large lump of metal around on his shoulder.
"How do they ever get them into the shop if they are so heavy?" Megumin asked. "Could you lift one of those ones up?"
"I don't think so. I think three and a half of you would be about my limit right now, but I'm sure that there are probably people in town who are stronger than I am. Maybe someday I'll be strong enough to carry six of you myself." He told her.
She didn't think that there was anyone stronger than he was, but she liked the idea that he would get even stronger still.
The half-smile slipped off of her Onii-chan's face and he started to sniff the air. "Rin, I smell healing magic!" He called out the Rin-sama.
Another cool thing about Onii-chan, he could smell magic. Megumin wasn't sure if it was some special ability that some Hunters gained from their Goddess, but she wished she could do it. It would be another way for her to appreciate fire magic, by smelling its potency.
Rin-sama stopped and glanced to Kairi-tan who was flying through the air nearby. "Kairi says that there are three humans nearby, and five goblins close to them." Rin-sama said.
Megumin jumped as the anvil hit the ground with a loud thud and her Onii-chan started running full speed into the forest towards whoever it was fighting out there, only Itsuki bothered to run after him. The rest took their time moving in that direction.
If it was only five goblins, then it would all be over before they caught up.
"O Light, may Lumiaris's divine protection be upon you, [Cure]." Ayako chanted, feeling the drain on herself as the soft light appeared around her hand and begin to close up the arrow wound in Ippei. How many times had she just used that spell since she had rested? Five? Six? More than she ever had in practice. Her vision was starting to blur. She couldn't keep this up.
Ayako, Naonobu and Ippei hadn't been the front runners of their generation. They had been what was left when everyone else had already made their groups. Ayako was a small and meek girl, Naonobu was too fat and his didn't present himself with confidence, and Ippei had a very distracting nervous twitch. With no other choice, the three of them came together and formed a group: Ayako became the party's Priest while Naonobu and Ippei both became Warriors. They thought it was a smart idea, two frontline fighters and the Priest to make sure that the injuries didn't get out of hand.
Little did they realize that without range support of some kind, them taking damage in each fight was almost inevitable. Healing was exhausting and left her tired after just three casts, meaning Ayako couldn't heal endlessly. All this combined with the fact that they didn't have any kind of scout, things weren't looking good for them.
It was desperation that had driven them to trying to fight even two goblins at once.
They had been sleeping in the streets ever since their training with the Guilds ended and every night they were scared, not of monsters, but of other people. During the first night, Naonobu had been mugged and had his money taken by older soldiers, crippling their small party even further. Sometimes they wondered if they should sleep outside the city walls. That maybe that was safer somehow.
The goblins they had managed to handle on their own barely provided enough for their meals. The housing that the group had found cost fifty coppers a night per person. How can anyone afford to pay so much? They would have been bankrupt by it within the week.
When they saw two goblins sitting around a cooking pot with their backs turned, they had believed that they had gotten a stroke of luck. A target that they could get the jump on, and a free meal afterwards. It wasn't until they had started the fight and three other goblins showed up that they had realized their mistake.
Naonobu gave a short cry and fell to the ground as one of the goblin's got him in the side. His chainmail stopped the blade from cutting him, but the strike still knocked him off his feet and now two goblins were both about to stab at him before he could get up while the other three were moving around to get at Ayako and Ippei. Ayako didn't even have the energy to scream, not that there would have been any point in doing so. Her eyes were tearing up as Ippei pushed himself up, trying to go on through the pain, refusing to just roll over and die.
But before the goblins could bring down their weapons, two short swords came hurtling through the air and lodged themselves inside of the goblins' bodies, throwing them backwards to the ground. A figure dressed in red and with red hair burst through the trees behind them, brandishing two more swords and before they knew it, they he had already cut down two of the remaining three goblins.
Suddenly finding himself in a bad position, the final goblin started to stagger backwards, preparing to run. However, a second man ran into the little clearing, this one dressed in iron armor. He saw the goblin and charged it screaming. "[Juke Stab]!" The thrusting attack was quick, and he impaled the goblin on the end of his long sword before it had a chance to run. "Tsh, how dull. It didn't put up any fight at all." The man said with distaste. "Oh well. A vice is a vice." He then bent down over the slain goblin and started to hack off its ear.
The red-haired man just cleaned and sheathed the blades in his hands before going to retrieve the two that had been thrown. This person was covered from head to toe in weaponry. A sword hung from each shoulder along with two quivers full of arrows and a couple of bows. He had three more swords attached to his waist on his right and more than a few throwing knives strapped to his arms and thighs.
"Niko, Yui, check them for injuries." A girl's voice said. Ayako looked around to see still more people coming out from the forest. Two of them, girls dressed in light leather armor and holding the staffs of Priest, came forward to look at her comrades. "Are you three all right?"
The girl who had spoken was wearing the same kind of scaled leather as the red-haired man, with a red top and black leggings. Her black hair was tied up into twintails with black ribbons and a one hand sword hung from her hip. Ayako swore that her mind was playing tricks on her, because she thought she saw a blue fairy-like creature hovering behind the girl's shoulder and shimmering in the light.
"We're… alr… al… alright." Ippei said, twitching a little as he stared in wonder.
"You three are from the new group that came out of the tower ten days ago, correct? I don't recall seeing you around the barracks. Where have you been sleeping?" The girl asked them. She seemed a little forward in the question, but given the condition their party was in, Ayako suspected that she could have just guessed the answer.
"We've… we've been sleeping on the streets." Ayako admitted. "All the housing was too expensive. We can't afford a room for the night."
"I see. No one told you that Crimson Moon Trainees can get a room at the barracks for ten copper a night, four people to a room." The girl told them. Ayako's eyes widened. She really hadn't heard about this. She heard the sound of steam and turned her head around to see the red-haired man kicking over the goblin's pot of food.
"Hey, why did you do that!?" Naonobu shouted in surprise.
"Any Hunter could tell you that goblins tend to eat mushrooms in their stew that are poisonous to humans. If you had eaten this, you would have been throwing up all night." The man told them. Ayako's party's faces drained.
"Gather what you want from these goblins, you need the money more than we do. We were just heading back to town ourselves. We can show you the barracks and provide you something to eat, so long as Archer doesn't mind cooking for three more." The girl said, looking to the red-haired man.
"I can do that. Just let me go grab my anvil." The man said before walking back into the forest.
"I am starting to worry about his tendency to hoard metal objects." The girl said with a sigh, then smiles at the newest Rookies. "I'm Rin, by the way. Can you all stand or do you need some help getting back to town?"
First and foremost, I managed to find a hobo who wanted to be my editor. So thanks to aRabidHobo for taking that job. I'll be updating the previous chapters as he helps me iron out the problems.
Today also marks the one month anniversary of when this story started... wow I need to find something better to do in my free time.
I've decided to go ahead and do the bits for the perceptions of Sara, Megumin and Niko, with Niko's being the start of next chapter, while everyone is around the dinner table.
No these new people aren't going to join the party, they are just going to be a new group that Rin and Shirou help get on their feet, and a reminder of the situation. That being that the weak are tossed aside by the strong.