I Died and Was Reincarnated as a Goth Femboy

Kenjiro, after a moment of dazed recovery, pushed himself up, his face a furious shade of crimson. He looked over at DragonSlayer, who was fuming, his hands clenched into tight fists, his knuckles white. A slow, wicked smirk spread across Bombom's face. He turned his back on the brewing fight, gave a thumbs-up to DragonSlayer, and then sat down on the dusty floor, crossing his legs. "Okay, so here we go, chat..." he began, settling in to provide color commentary for the impending beatdown.

Aokusa Renji looked from the enraged warrior to the casually seated Lily, a confused expression on his face. "You think you're going to defeat me?" he asked DragonSlayer, a condescending laugh in his voice. "You are clearly joking." He smirked, his eyes glinting with a cruel, sadistic light. "I'm going to kill you and make your girlfriend watch."

DragonSlayer's face, which had been pale with rage, now flushed a deep, embarrassed red. "Oi, oi, oi!" he stammered, waving his hands in a frantic, dismissive gesture. "He's not my girlfriend!"

The green-haired mage eyes widened in genuine surprise. "A boy?!" His smirk returned, even wider and more malicious than before. "Then I'll kill you and take your friend as my girlfriend," he declared, letting out a high, maniacal laugh. "Hahahahahaha!"

Bombom and DragonSlayer both sighed in unison. The chat, however, was having a field day roasting the new villain.

"Who's this avocado?"

"Bro thinks he has a chance with Bombom."

"Someone tell him to get in line. We all want Bombom."

The last message came through as a donation with a synthesized voice, echoing through the small cottage. Renji's laughter cut off abruptly. "Who's saying that?" he asked, looking around the room, genuinely confused.

"It's my drone," Bombom said, pointing to the small, hovering camera.

Renji's eyes lit up with a childlike fascination. He completely forgot about the fight, rushing over to get a closer look at the drone. "Oooh?! That's so cool! Are those real people?"

Bombom just nodded. Renji immediately struck a heroic, if somewhat ridiculous, pose. "Look at me, people watching! I am the most powerful mage in this land!"

"Stop bothering my chat," Bombom said, kicking him away with a lazy, but surprisingly forceful, push of his foot. "People are leaving." He pointed to the viewer count on his LilyPad, which had indeed dropped by over a thousand viewers during Renji's impromptu speech.

DragonSlayer let out a loud, derisive laugh. "Not even a real villain! You got Bombom to lose viewers! HAHAHAHA!"

A single, fat tear rolled down Renji's cheek. The humiliation was too much. "I'm going to kill you," he whispered, his voice trembling with a newfound, murderous rage. He waved his gnarled wand, and the very floorboards of the cottage began to writhe and twist. Thick, thorny plants erupted from the wood, rushing at DragonSlayer like a green tidal wave. The warrior didn't even flinch. He transformed his hands, his fingers elongating and hardening into a set of sharp, iron-like dragon claws, and tore through the approaching vines with a savage grace.

"Who's that pink-haired woman?" DragonSlayer asked, his voice a low growl as he advanced on the now-panicked apprentice.

Renji just laughed, a high, nervous sound. "Why do you want to know? You're not going to survive to tell the story! Hahahaha!" He slammed his wand on the floor, and a massive, monstrous carnivorous plant, its maw lined with teeth like daggers, erupted from the ground beneath DragonSlayer, swallowing him whole.

"That was easy," Renji laughed, a triumphant look on his face. "But now, for my prize." He started to walk toward Bombom, a lecherous grin spreading across his face. But before he could take two steps, the carnivorous plant behind him began to bulge and writhe. With a wet, tearing sound, it burst open from the inside, and DragonSlayer emerged, covered in green, slimy plant-guts, but completely unharmed. He grabbed Renji, lifting him off the ground with one hand, and slammed him into the floor. The apprentice coughed, a trickle of blood running from his mouth. "W-what...?"

"You thought I would die that easy, huh?" DragonSlayer smirked.

Renji's body began to break apart, dissolving into a pile of wet, brown mud. The mud then turned to dust and blew away. He had escaped. He reappeared at the far end of the room, a look of pure, unadulterated terror on his face. "Uh, you thought I would be so easily defeated? Check this out!" He waved his wand and whispered a single, powerful word: "Jukairai."

The entire cottage began to shake. The floorboards cracked and splintered, and from the ground beneath, a massive, hulking golem made of twisted wood, thorny vines, and solid rock began to emerge, its sheer size breaking through the cottage's ceiling.

DragonSlayer stared, shocked. "W-what?!" He looked over at Bombom, a desperate, pleading look in his eyes. "Help me, Bombom?"

Bombom just crossed his arms, a smug, unconcerned look on his face. "You wanted to fight him. Now you do it."

DragonSlayer sighed, a sound of pure, weary resignation. "Fine. I'll have to use it again." He bit his thumb, drawing blood, and once again smeared it across his face. The black and red smoke erupted, and he transformed, his armor fusing with his body, his draconic wings unfurling with a powerful whoosh. "Time to end this," he growled.

He launched himself into the air, flying directly at the massive golem. The creature summoned thick, powerful vines, trying to ensnare him, but he was too fast, too agile. He dodged and weaved, his dragon claws tearing through the grasping tendrils, until he reached the golem's head. With a single, mighty slash, he decapitated the creature. It stood there for a moment, headless, before crumbling into a massive pile of wood and stone.

Renji looked on, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated shock. "W-what? That's not possible!"

DragonSlayer appeared behind him in a blur of motion cutting Renji's back, the sharp edge of his sword resting against the apprentice's throat. "W-what? T-that's not possible," Renji stammered, his voice trembling.

"If you try to move, I'll kill you right away," DragonSlayer said, his voice a low, cold growl. "Now, tell me. What is the woman's plan?"

Renji coughed, a spray of blood landing on the floor. "W-we are mages," he gasped. "Called by our god. We are in the middle of... taking this place... away in time."

DragonSlayer, satisfied with the answer, turned his back on the wounded mage, his transformation receding as he reverted to his normal form. He walked back towards Bombom, a proud, triumphant look on his face. "I did it," he declared. "All alone."

"Good," Bombom said, not even looking up from his LilyPad, where he was busy reading the chat's fawning comments about DragonSlayer's epic battle. "It means you're not as useless as we thought."

"W-WHAT?! HOW AM I USELESS WHILE YOU DO NOTHING?!" DragonSlayer roared.

But while he was arguing, Renji, with the last of his strength, had dissolved into a puddle of mud, seeping through the floorboards and escaping. When DragonSlayer turned back, he was gone.

"Nice," Bombom said, still not looking up. "He got away." Bombom kept talking to his chat, completely unbothered, leaving DragonSlayer standing there, fuming, in the ruins of the demolished cottage.

They left the wreckage behind, making their way back through the eerily pristine, time-displaced city to the castle gate where they had left their friends. As they rounded the final corner, they saw them. Gluteus and Lyrielle were standing in the empty courtyard, their expressions a mixture of grief, shock, and utter defeat. The pink-haired witch, her creepy apprentice, and their friend, SynchroNoice, were gone.

Bombom's heart dropped, a cold, heavy feeling settling in his stomach. He looked at Gluteus, his own face a mask of shocked disbelief. "W-what happened to SynchroNoice?"

The giant knight, for the first time since Kenjiro had met him, looked truly and utterly defeated. His massive shoulders were slumped, and his voice, when he spoke, was a low, sad rumble. "She... she got him," he said, the words heavy with failure. "She turned him into her slave."

Lyrielle nodded, tears glistening in her emerald eyes. "S-she bound us with her magic," she whispered, her voice trembling. "We couldn't do anything... He fought so bravely, but she was more clever..."

A surge of cold, hard rage washed over Kenjiro, momentarily eclipsing his shock. He had brought SynchroNoice on this quest. He had mocked him, teased him, but in the end, he was responsible for him. "We need to save him," he declared, his voice firm. "Right? How do we open this door?" He marched up to the massive, magically sealed castle gate and began to punch and kick it, his blows landing with a pathetic, metallic thud against the unyielding, rune-etched iron. It was no use.

"That's why I told you we should go around the castle," DragonSlayer grumbled from behind him.

"It would have taken us to the same place!" Bombom shot back, spinning around to face him, his frustration boiling over.