A bit of candid talk.

As the four original party members bathed together in the purified spring, Kazuma was of course having perverted thoughts. 'Seems Aqua is finally picking up the pace. Then again, it seems like she was never against being lusted after, she only moved so slow with the urges I gave her to spite me...'

"...you know Kazuma, you could do with treating me a bit better," Aqua said bluntly to the reincarnated adventurer.

"And you could stand to be a little more competent," Kazuma retorted.

"I'm being serious here!" Aqua pouted. "Look... I know I'm not the best at fighting around here, but I am trying my best to be helpful!"

"You also are a glutton, and a greedy idiot to boot," Kazuma added.

"Well yeah... But what exactly did you expect of a Goddess you dragged down to this plane?" Aqua pouted. "We're pretty used to living the high life..."

"I expected you to have been able to obliterate the Devil King by now, but that expectation has been dashed thoroughly," Kazuma replied.

"It's not that simple. First off, I had to be given a mortal body to be here, so I can't use my full power. And even if I could, have you ever heard of gods fighting? We very rarely use our powers for ****, to the point most of us have let any combat ability we may have had wither away."

"Oh right, you guys tend to have mortals to get their hands dirty for you," Kazuma rolled his eyes. "All while you live up there in a cushy lifestyle. Although I have heard of plenty of mythical gods that could kick serious ass when it was called for."

"Well yeah, but it's not so much this particular pantheon," Aqua puffed her cheeks out. "We can grant favors to mortals, but that's most of what we do besides our work in maintaining the balance of things."

"And what a bang up job you did, what with a Devil King running amok in this world, his forces making things miserable," Kazuma replied. "Like I said, you guys got a cushy lifestyle, doing the bare minimum to get shit done. Instead of solving the problem yourselves, your best solution was to reincarnate people from another world to take care of it for you?"

"...that IS a little messed up," Darkness remarked.

"It's against the rules for us to do anything directly though!" Aqua protested. "It's frowned down upon to even act in a mortal form here, except in circumstances like these, apparently!"

"And have you bothered to question why those rules exist at any point?" Kazuma asked, and Aqua looked stunned. "Nothing? That's what I thought. Seems like you're a pretty lazy lot to me."

"...even so... It's not like I actually am useless! I'm just not specialized in combat!" Aqua protested further."

"Yeah, I suppose that is true," Kazuma conceded. "To tell you the truth, I don't actually think you're useless."

"You... You don't?" Aqua blinked.

"No. I just wish you were better at the whole "smiting" part of being a deity, but I get that that's not what you are Goddess of, so I am past that. You do still however cause me a lot of problems and are quite annoying," Kazuma replied. "You also have to keep your bigotry against the undead in check."

"They're a violation of the natural order!" Aqua puffed out her cheeks.

"And that's... Bad? Why, exactly?" Kazuma asked. "Sure, if they're a threat to people, by all means, purify them, but I know of nothing wrong Wiz has done, so if your only justification is that her existence is against your arbitrary rules, then I'm sure as hell not going to let you do so to her. Even if the undead is deserving of purification, then you still need to apply some common sense if we can't actually win that fight, like with Beldia. It would have taken a miracle for us to survive him if I had let you say and do as you pleased towards him."

Aqua was gobsmacked, and he continued, "That said, I can tell that you actually want to save this world... Even if it's mostly to get your status back. And you have in fact been very helpful, like with the healing, and buff spells. So no, you're not useless. I just call you that out of habit at this point when you do something to tick me off and cause trouble. I just think you're a nincompoop who forgets abilities you actually have that are useful unless reminded regularly, and you're also pretty damn spoiled, which has led to you struggling to get used to mortal life. And you're also rather mean spirited and have an ego problem. If you could just act a bit more humble, and think things through a bit more, then I wouldn't act like as much of an ass towards you."

"Don't you mean "wouldn't act like an ass at all?"" Megumin teased.

"Yeah, no. I'm an asshole through and through, I can admit that," Kazuma replied way too easily. "...that said, I'm willing to dial back my negative traits a bit if you can do the same... Or we can just maintain the current dynamic, stick to what we know," Kazuma joked. "Your call really."

"...fine, I get it, I may bring some of your antics upon myself," Aqua huffed. "...but how exactly am I mean spirited?"

"Are you kidding?" Kazuma quirked a brow. "I mean, we literally met right after I had died, and what do you do? You mock me for my **** without end. Again, right after I had suffered said ****. No one likes being kicked while they're down." He then paused as he saw Darkness about to say something. "Sorry, MOST people don't like being kicked while they're down," he immediately corrected himself.

"Okay, that was rude, I admit it, but name one other time I was mean!"

"Easy. You mocked me for the skills I learned early on, at one point even suggesting I switch to being a farme-"

"I meant a time I was mean to someone else!" Aqua pouted.

"Okay? Still easy. How about the two guys you literally assaulted when they did absolutely nothing wrong? You know, when you were trying to get rich? First the water selling idea, and you attacked the guy who was giving water for free because it meant you couldn't sell it? That was a pretty shitty move there... Then the lottery guy who didn't know how useless the prize we won was to us? And then there's Wiz..."

"Alright fine, I'll stop trying to purify her, I get it!" Aqua threw her hands up in exasperation, which made her tits bounce in a way Kazuma appreciated.

"Good. And no more attacking people just for inconveniencing you either."

"...fine," she huffed, crossing her arms under her chest.

"You guys should try and talk things out more often," Darkness giggled. "Even if you don't get anywhere, it's pretty entertaining..."

"You got destroyed!" Megumin chuckled at Aqua.