After that confession of being just as bad as Evilus, the atmosphere took a delicate turn in the Hostess of Fertility. On one side, the Akatsuki members were clearly enjoying fine wine and food. On the other side, there were adventurers sitting there, smelling the delicious wine that they couldn't drink, while also needing to stay ready to defend themselves from a possible crazy attack by Evilus.
Still, the attention given to them by the waitresses didn't decrease—in fact, it increased. Chloe hovered around Sasori, Syr showed interest in Yahiko, and even the Uchiha brothers managed to talk to Anya.
Bang!
With a thud, food was placed in front of Akira. Seeing the elf, who clearly had hatred in her eyes, Akira couldn't help but feel a little nervous. But drunk Akira was not afraid, "Miss Elf, no need to put your anger on my plates. There are other ways to cope with it."
Ryuu looked down at the criminal scum. On one hand, she wished she could deal with him right here. On the other, she didn't know how to evaluate them. They were clearly evil, but their ideals were not all bad, "When criminals are enjoying themselves while the families of victims are suffering… that just makes me a little angry."
Akira turned serious, as if the drunkenness didn't exist. He took another sip of alcohol and replied,"That's true. If it's any better, you should know there's another reason I called us villains. Like any other story, we were defeated and paid for our sins."
"I don't think there is any punishment that would absolve you of those crimes," Ryuu rejected the idea flatly.
"Well, you'd have no idea how far some punishments can hurt, Miss. So please… can you be a little nice to them?" Akira's eyes and tone were sincere. Looking at him, Ryuu knew he was genuine, and that all the happiness around him was just a way to avoid the pain of his punishment. Still, she couldn't change her stance.
"Sorry. I can't be kind toward criminals. But I won't be hostile either."
She placed the plates a little gentler this time. Seeing that, Akira couldn't help but smile a little and say, "Thank you."
Konan and Naori couldn't help but console him. Feeling the care of his two lovers, Akira slipped back into his drunk mode.
When he had talked about punishments, he wasn't kidding. Most of the people at this table were already dead. Even after dying, some of them had to work in strange, bizarre worlds for thousands of years, protecting them from invaders. That is very punishing work—ask Emiya Archer. For those still alive, they had signed similar contracts.
In Akira's case, he had gotten everything in the end, but the guilt of his sins was too heavy even for him. So the goddess had given him this option. Although it was a vacation, he knew it was just a temporary stop on his road to atonement.
-----------------------------------
"Well, we have food, alcohol, and friends. It can be called a perfect party," Akira murmured while happily drinking. He didn't know his words were heard by a sharp-eared cat girl.
"It is still not purrfect, nya." Anya twirled her finger and shook her head. "It's still missing one important thing, nya"
Looking back at her, Akira was intrigued.
"Of course, it's music, nya." She took out what could be considered a magical mic—only to be subdued by Chloe and Lunoire, who took it away from the crying Anya.
'Although she's an airhead, she's right about that.' Akira looked through his phone's inventory to find something suitable. He couldn't choose the jukebox—Loki Familia was here. Many of the items were restricted and couldn't be taken out in this world due to limits set by the world and the group chat. Finally, he found one and sent a message to Konan. Again, hiding its source by taking out a smoke scroll.
"This should be enough for music."
Hearing his words, Anya slipped out of Chloe and Lunoire's grip. With her eyes shining, she leaned over his shoulder and asked, "Is it a magic item? Nya."
"Something like that."
He and Konan walked to the adjacent wall. Finding it big enough, he unfurled the scroll on the ground. Konan placed her hand on the floor.
PUFF!!!
A cloud of smoke appeared, and in a second it vanished, leaving behind a strange machine with lots of mics hanging in front. A small screen was on front with buttons below, and on top of it was a black crystal with an eye-like structure inside.
"A karaoke." Obito was surprised. He was one of the few who had lived to see one of these. But this wasn't a regular karaoke—it was one upgraded by Akira.
[Item: Not A Regular Karaoke (Legendary)
Properties: Muliversal Song, Music Video, Projector, Auto Translate, Singing Cheat]
[Muliversal Song: Has all the songs that have ever existed or will exist.]
[Music Video: Can find an appropriate MV based on user settings.]
[Projector: Of course you need a projector to watch. Works on any perpendicular wall.]
[Auto Translate: Everyone should understand music no matter the language.]
[Singing Cheat: To save the singer from embarrassment. The singer will know the lyrics and music by heart while singing.]
"That's right. Now we decide who goes first—by drawing lots. Everyone has to take one." Akira was excited. He had switched the playlist to random and the music video to anime version. Now all that was left was to have some people embarrass themselves.
Before Konan started letting people pick slips, he had placed one with the word 'Last' written on it and marked it secretly. All he had to do was draw it.
"Why did I get last!?" Anya cried out after reading her slip.
'HOWW?' Akira was shocked. He looked to see Syr consoling Anya. She looked at him and gave him a bright smile.
'This scheming goddess…' Akira was frustrated. He decided to take revenge later. For now, the bigger problem was in his hand. Looking at the box in front of him, Konan urged him to take a slip. He prayed it wouldn't be the first. Opening it, he was disappointed to see such a low number but relieved it wasn't the first.
"Who is the first one?" Akira asked, looking around for the first sacrifice.
"That would be me." Yahiko happily showed his slip with number 1.
Akira gave him the mic and let him press the song selection button. After all, he believed every man should choose his own fate—even if random.
Yahiko clicked. Song titles flickered across the screen, some known to Akira, most he had never even heard of. In the end, it stopped on one of Akira's favorite songs.
"No way!!" Akira was stupefied. 'Well, this world has strong fate and destiny, so this isn't surprising.'
He looked at the screen. At the edge, it still said Song Selection: Random, but he felt it wouldn't be that random.
"It says two people. Nagato, come up—we can do it together." Yahiko threw him a second mic, which Nagato caught.
"Okay, I'm the second, so I'll count this as my turn." Nagato walked up beside him.
Akira, backing to his seat, had a spark of an idea. He shared it with Nagato, who rejected it at first but relented after Yahiko's convincing.
Back at his seat, Konan asked what they were planning. He didn't want to ruin the surprise, so he just said it was something funny.
"Everybody hold still. The lights are going to go out," he announced, pulling out a lighter. He opened it and then closed it. All the lights in the tavern shut down, causing a blackout.
The beat dropped. The crystal atop the karaoke sparkled and projected a clear picture on the wall—it was a sunrise in an open field. On the right, a person in an orange jacket was walking toward the sun.
The lighter clicked open again—the lights came back on. Only Yahiko was standing, and he started singing:
"♫♫Tooku de kikoeru koe wo hinto ni
Hitori mata hitori tachiagaru doushi
Kurikaesu dake no fudan doori kutsugaesu
Junbi iize are you ready?♫♫"
[Hero's Come Back!! Song by Nobodyknows +]
Akira was clearly happy that the video was Naruto Shippuden - Opening 1. Everyone other than the Akatsuki was mesmerized by the foreign art style. Yahiko, giving his all, felt like a music star and acted like it was a real concert. It certainly help that he was too good.
As the video continued, one of the first in the audience to appear was Sasuke. The video rolled on, booze flowed, and moods turned high and cheerful. Now Gaara was about to appear—meaning it was time for the rap.
"♫What you gonna do? What you gonna do?♫"
From directly behind, Nagato in his Pain transformation appeared, he had been copying Yahiko's moves to hide behind him. He was going with the beat, giving a performance equal or better than Yahiko.
Akira smiled while drinking wine from a bottle—gone were the goblets with their small volumes. He had taken out ordinary glass bottles to fill up. Looking around, he saw everyone smiling. Hestia in her drunken stupor, was standing on the table cheering. Even other adventurers joined in, and people gathered outside the gate to enjoy the music.
On his right, Konan had started tearing up. She looked at him and said something he couldn't hear through the noise, but from her smile he could guess. He lifted his bottle and took another sip.
Whoosh!!!
Nagato used Banshō Ten'in to pull the bottle and drank it whole in one go, smashing it on the floor like a real rapper—earning cheers from the audience.
'Now that I think about it… I don't think Nagato has ever drunk alcohol,' Akira thought.
"♫Everybody stand up!♫"
The video reached the part where Akatsuki appeared with a blood-red background—mysterious figures in cloaks with red clouds. It showed all of the second-generation Akatsuki from Naruto, which wasn't supposed to be there—only some were shown in the original, as Akira remembered. But the bigger shock was that in the midst of them, Akira could see himself present.
The rush of joy he felt was unmatched as he joined the rowdy crowd, arms around Obito and Loki. The song continued, showing snippets of everyone's iconic fights: Kakuzu and Hidan vs Konoha security guards, Sasori vs Granny Chiyo, Gaara vs Deidara, Kisame vs Might Guy, Akira vs Aizen, Konan with her billions of talismans, Juzo playing baseball with a beast bomb, Itachi vs Sasuke, Obito vs Kakashi—each earning massive cheers.
The song ended with Pain crushing Konoha, which made the crowd pause. Akira thought they might be upset, but then the cheers came roaring back. Akira realized—everyone liked massive destruction, though the fact it was animated probably helped.
........................
(A/N: It has been so long that I wrote something by myself that I feel I forgot how to write. Any comment to improve would be a huge help)
You can Support me on p@treon: [email protected]/Uchiha_Itachi007 (replace @ with a)
I mainly translate other fanfics on there.