Chapter 25

I stumbled a bit while walking as the dirt path was faded from all the heavy rain, however Toru marched on holding onto my wrist. I yawned once again as I looked at Toru, seeing that she was looking at the map as I looked down, seeing her hold my wrist. Huh...When was I dreaming of this... I was trying to get more sleep as I felt a small pat on my face.

"Stay awake Kirin-kun, we're almost there."

Toru spoke in a softer tone, music to my ears as she spoke Japanese, something that I hardly got. The only words I knew was Kirin-Kun, obviously. I took a deep breath as I tried staying awake this time, seeing a proper dungeon this time rather than the caves we've seen. "Alright, here we are Kirin-Kun!" She spoke English a bit better this time, although her accent kept slipping out she's gotten used to it slipping out around me.

I nodded as I rubbed both of my eyes, completely ruining my sleep schedule and forcing myself to stretch. I looked at her as Toru handed me the map. I took and looked at it, the map showed the dungeon as it had two subfloors.

Two Subfloors...Then this floor must have something good here...

I was going to hand the map to Toru as I looked at her, seeing her stretching and warming up a bit. I couldn't help myself but stare for a bit, in awe and a bit surprised by her energetic and courageous nature. She turned her attention to me confused as she asked, "Something wrong Kirin-Kun?" tilting her head slightly to the left.

"I- N-no not really..."

I stuttered, shaking my head as that really brought me a reality check, fully waking me up this time. I handed her the map back as she took it and puts it away in her inventory, the both of us walking through the entrance of the dungeon.

We looked around as it was quite dark, luckily the torches there were lit, giving us a pathway as we walked down that path. Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap Our footsteps echoed throughout the hall as we were quite silent, neither of us talked for a good while. Ah F**k it... I looked over at Toru, asking, "so, how did you get your hands on a map?".

"Oh the map?"

"mhm, how did you manage to get one?"

"I told you in the morning."

Oh right...she did...what did she say?

I took some time to think as I didn't clearly remember where she said she got it, but either way we stopped at a crossroad again, the feeling of Dejavu settled in as we both didn't want to split up again.

"Left or right?"

"You choose."

"Toru you choose."

"I went first last time, you go."

"argh...uh...let's go right."

Although she's right, I reluctantly went first this time, going right as she followed behind. While we walked it was too quiet and too peaceful for a dungeon, obviously we were expecting monsters but surprisingly and oddly enough, there weren't any monsters spawning. This is...too weird...Where are the monsters... We kept walking as we heard the sound of swords clashing up ahead, we both looked at each other as we began running.

"Other players are already here?!"

"How should I know, you grabbed it!"

"But I did not know too!"

Now wasn't the time to argue as we saw a tight corridor, looking ahead we saw players fighting off Drunken Apes and Cave Goblins. But as we got closer, the corridor was getting smaller, eventually as we reached the corridor it had closed shut. "Sh*t Sh*t SH*T!!!" I panicked, trying to find something to open the closed corridor, hearing screams of agony from the other side. As I heard that, I knew that I was already too late, hearing things shatter as I sighed heavily, leaning my head on the closed corridor.

"Was...that a trap?...Kirin-Kun?"

Toru asked as she looked at me awaiting a response, however I was in a trance once again as I heard my heartbeat, starting to hyperventilate from hearing the shattering sounds, holding my head as I clenched my hands onto my hair. "God...dammit!!" I was experiencing a traumatic event again as Toru hugged me, patting my back.

"Kirin-Kun, focus on my voice."

She spoke in Japanese as her tone was a lot softer, her hands patting my back as I was leaning against her, making her fall a bit as she stumbled but caught herself, lowering to the floor to sit down. Toru hugged a bit more as she kept my head together, saying "You're okay Kirin-Kun." in english.

She repeated that same phrase a couple of times as I took some heavy breaths, my panicked state fading away as I also began to calm down, taking a total of four minutes to calm down. I eventually was just resting against Toru, feeling a sense of safety for once. "All better?" She asked as I looked and nodded, feeling comfortable but knowing this isn't a place to settle down for the day.

I got up as Toru was worried, it was written all over her face by her worried expression. She got up as well as I turned to look at Toru, seeing her worried expression. "I....I'm sorry for worrying you...Toru..." I felt bad for making her worried but she smiled, holding my wrist as she said, "Listen, If we make it out alive today, I'll accept.".

I looked at her as my heart felt like it melted a bit, she gave me a bright smile as I felt my heart skip a beat for a second, my cheeks and my ears having a light red blush. She giggled saying in Japanese, "You look like a ripe tomato Kirin-Kun." I didn't mind it as she took the lead this time. I followed as she held my wrist, taking some time to think about it. What...What if...the answer was just in my face this whole time... I kept looking at Toru as she turned to look at me once again with a warm smile on her face. W...What if it was...Toru...this entire time...? Her smile gave me butterflies in my stomach as I couldn't resist but smile back lightly.