Hiatus Gifting This Unfortunate Guy With Blessings

Several minutes after Chomusuke has left my room I have decided it was stupid of me to worry if that black-furred, cat-shaped, cat-behaving not-cat will be angry at me for long. Surely, it wouldn't be mad at me for long. Or I would just have to placate her with some food... Why exactly was I so concerned about this issue?

I sighed deeply and finally decided to lay down and get some sleep since my human form was quite tired.

My brain, on the other hand, seemed to have different plans.

The moment I've tried clearing my thoughts to speed up a process of falling asleep I was reminded of the contents of THAT night. A vision of a drunk Chris on top of me suddenly caused my brain to go into overdrive, just like the day before.

I released an exasperated sigh and knowing the futility of trying to fall asleep like that and instead, I started thinking about how to fall asleep even though my brain was filled with scenarios…

I didn't know what could I do besides going into a Sage Mode but I had that weird feeling that it could somehow cause divine retribution falling onto me.

After a few minutes of thinking I had an idea.

My trusty owl form was quite tired as well since I was constantly using it here and there to fly around, without resting much. And since animals had a different set of instincts and… values... I thought it might help.

And help it did. Immensely.

It turned out, that no matter how a human or … a goddess… looked and what actions she took, it wouldn't bother an owl's mind. Well, maybe it would be a little bit put-off because of how close that person was, but nothing more. It seemed as if overthinking that stuff was a human thing, not an animal's.

Relieved of a healthy and arguably rotten teenage guy's mentality I was able to fall asleep very fast.

***

Morning came too fast for my liking.

Just as the sun has risen above the horizon someone knocked on my front door.

Fortunately, I remembered the fact that I had used [Imitate] to change into an owl so I didn't accidentally roll off the bed. I quickly changed into my Crimson Demon form that was normally clothed and headed towards the door.

After opening it I was greeted with a sight of Megumin's wide smile that for some reason widened a little bit when she scrutinized my get up.

"Oh! You are already up? Then let us go!"

"Good morning to you too. Go where? What's the hurry?"

Right after asking that I noticed Megumin tightly clutching onto her newly acquired staff and after having a second look at her face I noticed dark circles under her eyes. She probably couldn't sleep due to her excitement.

"To the guild of course! Let's go on some quest as soon as possible! With lots of monsters… or a really big one… or …."

Megumin's smile became a little bit dangerous. She looked as if she could start drooling at any moment if I let her fantasize just a little bit more so I quickly answered.

"Give me just a minute. I need to..."

She didn't seem to listen to what I was saying so I headed back into the house, dressed up my human form and went out again. Megumin stood in the same spot squirming weirdly around her staff and murmuring to herself.

"Let's go then."

She finally seemed to register my words and started descending the stairs together with me.

I haven't really factored a quest in the plan I thought of that night but I didn't have it in me to refuse to go for one with Megumin being that excited. Maybe I could ask her to settle for something easy and quick so she could fire off her Explosion and be done with it?

I looked at her doing borderline questionable things to her new staff while walking and started doubting it would be that easy.

Since it didn't seem like Megumin was able to do a normal conversation that morning I decided not to ask about Chomusuke since that would also require me to explain everything about Shinehorn form and I thought Megumin wouldn't be able to hold even just a little bit of excitement at that moment.

As per usual I was 'gifted' another lecture about Explosion Magic while on the way. I looked around while listening to her and noticed a few hooded people but they came nowhere near us.

Xylissa's incident was still fresh in my memory so I was trying to stay vigilant even inside of the city.

We arrived at the guild uneventfully though.

"I don't see Darkness, Kazuma or Aqua here…"

The inside of the building was unusually quiet due to the early hour. Unfortunately, both of us somehow forgot about the crucial fact that our teammates probably wouldn't be present that early in the morning. And due to the guild's policy of only allowing groups of three or more adventurers to take up the quests, we wouldn't be able to take one.

"Maybe we could…"

I was about to propose an idea but Megumin started furiously scanning for something inside the building. Her eyes stopped on a duo of male adventurers sitting at the table.

"Let's go together with those two."

Without waiting for my answer she started walking towards the duo in question. They were Dane and Kharg. The unlucky adventurers that got roped into the team with Megumin on more than one occasion. They seemed as if they couldn't find the 3rd person to their team even though they weren't that bad themselves as far as I knew.

"Hey you, do you want to go on the quest with us?"

Megumin quickly asked, without even greeting the two.

When I got near their table I noticed that something was off about them. They looked… tired would be the wrong word. Phrase 'extremely exhausted' fitted better. Not only their eyes looked half-dead but they also had sunken cheeks and their skin was really pale.

Dane lifted his head and weakly smiled while saying:

"Oh… Kazuki-san and Megumin-san… We hoped we could meet you today."

"What happened to you two?"

I asked with a concerned voice and Megumin finally started to notice the abnormal state of the duo as well.

"We owe you our lives."

This time it was Karg that answered. With confusion I asked:

"What do you mean?"

"It was you two that took care of that s.u.c.c.u.b.u.s, right? Xylieza… or something like that."

I nodded my head, waiting for the continuation of the explanation while Megumin puffed up her c.h.e.s.t proudly and in an unfazed manner exclaimed:

"I blasted that demon to the smithereens with my Explosion!"

The duo nodded their heads meekly in appreciative gesture and Dane continued.

"We were kidnapped by her and nearly drained of all our life energy. Thanks to what the guild heard from you the other adventurers found the cave we were taken to and we were rescued the next day."

"..." x2

We forgot about the possibility of other victims being inside of the cave Xyllisa has tried taking us into. It must've been Chris that told the guild the details she heard from us… If it weren't for her...

"Were you the only ones…"

"No, there were about a dozen guys there. Everyone managed to survive, thanks to you."

"We don't have much to reward you with right now, but we will surely repay you in the future."

Karg sincerely stated and Dane nodded to that.

Megumin released a strained smile hearing that but she lost that smile when Karg followed with another sentence, stopping me from asking more questions about their situation.

"Back to your question though. We already asked if we could take on some quest but the Receptionist-san said that until we are back to relative health we are prohibited from adventuring. We are sorry about that."

"That's okay…" I answered, not knowing what else to say.

Karg and Dane then lifted their mugs with some weird greenish substance inside of them and said.

"Your good health" "Cheers"

And they emptied their mugs in one go.

"Ugh! Bitter..." "So awful…"

"And here I tried my hardest to provide the best healing tonic for you guys, free of charge... "

Suddenly Luna-san came out of nowhere with a fake sad expression on her face.

"!!!"

Both Dane and Karg jumped up in their seats when they heard Luna-san's voice coming from behind. I could see the panic in their movements when they turned around to see who was speaking.

By this reaction, I could guess that they got kidnapped in the same way we were. Xylissa must have charmed them from behind.

"Ummm…"

While they both didn't know what to say so Luna-san sternly exclaimed:

"You have finished your medicine, right? Then quickly go to your homes to rest up. I don't want to see you around until you look better than zombies shambling in the cemetery, am I clear?"

"Yes!"

They both quickly stood up, thanked us and Luna-san with a deep bow and left the guild in a hurry.

Me, Megumin and Luna-san watched them go in silence and only after the door has been closed I was the one to speak again.

"Good morning, Luna-san. Do you have some free time right now?"

Luna-san looked at me with hopeful gaze in her eyes and answered:

"Yes, I could take a break. Is this about your promise?"

Megumin looked at me suspiciously hearing Luna-san's answer but I decided to not mind it since I wasn't doing anything to feel guilty about.

I nodded my head and before I could add anything else Luna-san grabbed my hand and started leading me towards the stairs to the 2nd floor that had private rooms. Megumin mouth opened wide, ready to complain about that random kidnapping but I quickly beckoned her to follow.

Although I was a little bit startled by Luna-san's assertiveness I remembered how happy she was when I promised her showing her more of my forms and decided to let her lead the way without interrupting.

"What is this all about?"

Megumin asked after we arrived in one of the private rooms. I quickly answered her doubts about the contents of my promise to Luna-san.

"Oh… Okay. Promises must be kept, indeed."

Megumin nodded her head sagely and decided to sit down on one of the sofas lying around. She was still clutching onto her staff as if she was worried if someone would try to steal it from her.

I then turned around and noticed Luna-san standing 50 centimeters away from me with a smile on her face.

"For starters, can I see you transform into an owl once again? It was really cute."

I had no reason to deny her request so I nodded my head and used my [Imitate] power.

Just like when she first saw it, Luna-san had sparkles in her eyes while looking at my owl form and quickly crouched down to pet me on the head with a silly smile on her face. After a minute or so I surprised Luna-san by opening my wings and taking off the ground. She wanted to see an animal so I decided to also show what it can do.

I flew a few l.a.p.s around the spacious room to Luna-san's delight and finally landed softly onto her shoulder. She gave out a surprised sound but otherwise didn't even flinch. I received another round of headpats after which I descended onto the ground and changed back to my human form.

"Luna-san, how do you feel about mice?"

I decided to ask it before changing since I knew that some people in my old world were simply terrified of those little rodents for no reason.

"I saw a few of them but I never had a chance to observe even a single one in detail."

It didn't seem that Luna-san was one of those people so I quickly changed into the first form I've acquired in this world.

I've heard a gasp coming from both Luna-san and then… Megumin - who seemed to be sitting a lot closer than she originally was.

I wondered why Megumin reacted like that since she already saw that form in the past and knew it was me. Before I could delve into that line of thinking I got carefully picked up and soon a Luna-san's gigantic face was all I could see in front of me.

She seemed a lot less thrilled about my mouse form but she still was beaming a smile towards me. When I saw that Luna-san's curiosity was satiated I jumped down from her palm and landed on one of the sofas. I quickly ran to the edge and jumped onto another one, on which Megumin was sitting and stopped right in front of her.

She looked at me questioningly but I just waved my mouse's paw at her and then jumped off the sofa while transforming back to the human form.

"Megumin, could you help me with showcasing another form?"

"Sure?"

With confusion in her eyes, she stood up after I've signaled her to do it. Luna-san was already standing near us and was watching the spectacle so I quickly changed into a squirrel form.

I didn't waste any time and jumped up towards Megumin and sat on her shoulder. After the initial shock has passed I started running all around Megumin's clothes. Vertically, horizontally, diagonally, in a spiral. For a good half a minute I felt like a Lightning McQueen driving around the race track. Lastly, I scaled Megumin's hat and sat down on it.

"Wha!-"

All the while I was doing that, Megumin couldn't do anything but shift around in place since she seemed to be still unable to let go of her staff.

Meanwhile, Luna-san was laughing so much at that spectacle that she had to hold her sides.

After both of them calmed down I've transformed into a cat form but since it was the most common animal in the city I wasn't required to showcase it much.

Next up on my list was the Giant Toad form so I had to move some of the furniture to avoid destroying them. Luna-san didn't look extremely thrilled about that form but didn't stray from it either. She already saw me using it in the Cabbage Hunt.

Cabbage form didn't elicit any shouts of awe either so I quickly transformed into a Young Griffin. Unsurprisingly, even the animal-lover Luna-san was stunned for a few moments. This was my most intimidating form but to her credit, Luna-san quite quickly woke up from her stunned state and started curiously looking around my Griffin's body.

In a half a second she already was touching the feathers on my neck and lastly, she bravely stroked my tail.

"Rumours weren't true… Griffin's tail isn't so fluffy…"

Although Luna-san sounded a little bit let-down she continued probing and touching for another few minutes before I saw she had enough.

After transforming back to my human form I said:

"Sadly, there's only one form left in my arsenal. I've left the best for last."

Luna-san had the most expectant look on her face while Megumin's face showed clear confusion. Megumin probably thought my last form would be a goblin form.

It might be a little bit risky to show this form to Luna-san since she was probably connected to that merchant somehow and wasn't stupid but I doubted she would raise a fuss about it.

"Are you ready?"

Extreme excitement and confusion were emanating from the two girls in front of me. At that moment I've transformed into my newest form - Shinehorn Doeling.

"Maaa!"

Kung Fu Goat's bleat filled the room which was followed by a staff falling from Megumin's hands and gasps coming out from both girls' mouths.

"Huh-?" x2

(A/N: Hello there.

Just like general Kenobi, I strike from shadows to surprise everyone!

Sorry, it's late and my brain is weird when I am tired. As promised I come back in the middle of February to resume writing this novel.

To anyone who cares - I managed to pass all my exams and finish all my projects in those last 2 months of absence. Just one more semester and I will have my master's degree. The joy.

As always, I do not promise daily updates but I will try to make them as frequent as possible.

I planned for the first chapter after coming back to be a recap chapter to refresh all readers' memories. But after writing 3k words of that I realized how stupid that idea is. I would give you an uninteresting summary of events that would take me probably an additional day of writing while the time needed to re-read my novel is around half a day…

I discarded that idea and wrote a normal chapter instead. That's why I didn't present you with anything on Valentine's day. Sorry about that.

Well, anyways… see you again tomorrow.)