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CHAPTER 12: The Gold District Team

=Hiroko’s POV=

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      “The name’s Balo, leader of the gold district. Nice to meet you.” He says as held out his hand towards Junpei. We're all just getting used to the outside. I’m kneeling on the ground crying my eyes out on what just happened. I stood up and I quickly run towards Balo grabbing both of his shoulders.

      “H-help us! Please! One of our team members is still inside the dungeon! Please help us save him!” I begged him, and he looked surprised for me to be so close to his face. 

      “R-relax a bit! Relax! Wait…this isn’t all of you?” Balo asked me. 

       "N-no. There is one more person who is not here with us..." My voice trails off as I look at the ground. I feel guilty for leaving him in there. I'm imagining him going through everything all alone. The thought was too much for me to handle and I drop down to my knees and started crying. I held my hands toward my face and covered it to prevent people from seeing my expression.

       “Yasu….I’m sorry. I’m so sorry." I whisper as tears come rushing down my cheeks. Everyone kept quiet and just listened to me cry. That's when one of the gold members broke the silence. She came to my position and kneeled right beside me. She stretched her hand out towards my direction and gave me what I needed the most at the moment. A hug.

      “There, there. It’s ok. Cry all you want, we know how painful it is to lose someone.” She says while patting me on the back. By the looks of it, it seems like she is the oldest of the group. She is the gold district’s adult member. I cried more and ended up hugging her. I cried on her for a good couple of minutes. Right when my crying subsided, she pulls herself away but kept her hands on my shoulders.

      “Don’t worry, we’ll do what we can, ok? But before that, we need to introduce ourselves. My name is Kumiko, but you can call me sensei or Kumiko-sensei.” She tells me as she gives me a warm smile. 

      “S-sensei. Help us.” I say to her with snot and tears pouring down my face. She turned to everyone else waiting for a response.

      “M-m-my name is Sawada!”  Sawada has a stiff expression and his body went rigid.

      “Hello, My name is Riki. I-I’m a strong follower of A-Chan!” Riki nervously speaks and it caught Balo’s attention.

     What’s wrong with him?I say in my mind thinking how he can be happy telling her his weird hobbies when in fact we just left Yasu in the dungeon.

     “My name is Tobi," Tobi says as he bows down properly.

      “I’m Rikimura," Rikimura-san says. I look at him with anger. He’s the one that initiated the choice in the first place. If he never talked in the beginning about whom he’ll choose, we probably could have thought another way to negotiate with Luro. But deep down inside, I blame myself for going along. In the end, my need to survive is stronger than wanting to save him and its slowly eating me alive. He notices my glare and looks away not caring about what he had done.

      “My name is Junpei and I’m the leader of this group. Kumiko–sensei. How did you guys find us here? Seems like you already knew we were going to wake up here.” He asked, and it caught my attention how they quickly found us.

      “Well, you guys probably know about a maniac named Luro," Balo says. Just hearing his name is making me furious. “Well, he came and told us you’re all going to be here. Gave us directions to pick you up because he put all of you on our team."

    Ah, so we're not diamond anymore. I say in my mind. Somehow, my heart feels heavy knowing the fact that we’re not part of our old group.

      “How about you, what’s your name?” Kumiko-sensei asked me while smiling warmly. I can see a genuine character in her eyes. I guess she somewhat became the mother of this group. Even though we just met, I can feel she really cares for us like everybody else. 

      "My name is Hiroko," I tell her.

       After our introductions, I pleaded with them to go back in the dungeon but Balo told us to go back to their camp first to figure out how to save Yasu. I was happy there's still hope but deep down inside, I'm scared. I'm scared for him waking up all alone in the dungeon. We all started heading back the Gold districts camp and it didn’t take long for us to reach it. They’ve managed to set up camp somewhere in the middle of the forest. Balo told us about how they managed to get out of the dungeon two weeks ago. They were put in the same type of dungeon as us.  But they had one advantage. Their class. The class they picked put them on an advantage and they managed to kill the gatekeeper on their dungeon. And from what I noticed, all their class is different from ours.  

      Balo picked a class called dual. He said his class specialize on dual wielding weapons and mainly focus on attacking. Pretty much the class Yasu wanted. Kumiko-sensei chose to be a healer. She specializes in healing, removing curses and also putting a curse on others or inflicting attacks that damage over time. A person in their team named Akane picked a mage class. She can control all four elements from fire, water, earth, and wind. She seems excited to find another girl her age and stayed close to me the whole time.

     “Soooo, how did you guys get out? Like why were you all sleeping earlier? To get out of our dungeon, we had to go through skeletons, wolves, an elite version of them and then the giant stupid ogre. In the end…he…" Akane started tearing up and she was on the verge of crying when Kumiko-sensei comforted her.

      “Akane-chan. Its ok, remember we promised to be strong for him.” She says patting her back.

“I know. It’s just…I miss him.” Akane replies and hugs Kumiko-sensei. She lodges her face on her boobs and I can see some of the guys from my group are envious. It irks me how they’re not affected by just what happened. But then again, we didn’t know each other that long. But to me, it felt like Yasu was a real friend. Noticing Akane crying some more, I wanted to ask whom they are talking about but it seems like a sensitive matter, so I just stayed quiet. Noticing my curiosity about the subject, Kumiko-sensei gave me the information I was looking for.

      “He was our Leader.” She says as she pats Akane on the head as we all walk through the forest. “After he passed away, Balo became our leader. His name was Akihito. He and Balo were close friends back at earth. They were both transported here. He had leadership qualities that we all seek for someone who can lead us out the dungeon. He wasn’t obnoxious and respected everyone equally. That’s why we all cherished him as our leader…but…he had one flaw.” 

      Kumiko-sensei looks up the sky to watch different birds fly across above us. For a good minute, we all waited for her to continue on. Right when I was about to ask, she spoke words that pierced my heart.

      "He had a non-combat class," Kumiko-sensei says as she looks back down towards us. Everyone got quiet and all their expression caught up to them as they looked at the ground.

      “If you don’t mind me asking, what class did he have?” Junpei asked the question we’re all probably thinking in our mind.

      "It's called Footwork," Balo replied this time. “When he picked the class, he thought he would become a martial artist or something. He was wrong, the class he chose was a dancer class.”

      Again, something stabs my heart and it felt like something was lodged in my throat. They're way far too similar in circumstances.

     Yasu, I say in my mind.

     “A dancer? You mean he specialized in dancing?” Junpei asked another question.

      “Yeah. When Luro gave us our weapons, the weapon he got was shoes and a hat.” Kumiko-sensei replied. “His attack damage was really low, and he couldn’t wield anything except his dancing shoes and hat. At first, we all thought, how is this guy going to survive.”

      We all waited for her to continue on and after Akane removes her face, she pats her in the head giving her a smile. Then she looked up not to us but forward and continued walking following Balo while Akane moves closer to me and clings on my arms.  

     "But he proved us wrong," Kumiko-sensei says. "He managed to become our leader without fighting in the front line."

      “H-how?” Junpei asked.

      “Knowledge. He told us how to deal with the skeleton and even helped us deal with the gatekeeper. He figured out or would guess where the weak point is and would shout directions over us as we fight.” Kumiko-sensei says.

      “When we’re not fighting inside the safe zone, he would crack up jokes to make us laugh. He kept the group moving forward and motivated us when we needed it. He--” Akane stopped talking again and I can see tears welling up in her eyes.

      “He’s really stupid.” Balo interrupted.

      “He would give us more share of his food and put on a smile all day long. But when its night, he would cry to himself.” Akane says burying her face into my arms.

      "Really fucking stupid," Balo said again. But not because of anger, I can hear the frustration in his voice. He talked to us as he walks in front of us without looking back. Then I see him stop walking and everyone followed suit.

      “But,” Balo says and he paused for a minute before continuing. “He trusted us. He trusted us with his life.”

      That last line has put a mark on all of our hearts. We all couldn’t say anything and felt a deep regret.

     “In the end, we failed him. He died in front of us. He died in my arms.” Balo continued to walk and that was the last word we heard throughout the whole trip. No one said anything. They’re all probably thinking the same thing I’m thinking.

     We didn’t trust him. I didn’t trust him. Why? Why didn’t I trust him?I say in my mind even though I knew the answers to my question. I kept walking without talking until our journey towards the gold camp came to an end.

      Once we got there, we had a good look at their base. They've set up camp in the middle an opened plot of land right next to a giant tree. It's basically near a small lake in the middle of the forest. Trees were surrounding the area but there's enough flat land that distances their camp from the trees. If anyone or anything were to attack them from the forest, they could see it from a distance.

      They've made a makeshift shelter using sticks and leaning them against each other horizontally. They piled a bunch of leaves and build a wall around it. They have built a fire pit in the middle between their sleeping area and the lake. I guess this way if something were to set on fire, they can run to the lake and put it out real quick. As we all take a better look at the forest from a distance, the trees in the forest are something new to us. Its green color was a lot brighter than earth. Even the lake had crystal clear cyan water that contains various types of fishes. Looking at it made it seems like we're staring at an aquarium. The grass on the ground felt soft and was a much brighter green than the one we had back home. Is at if the plants in this planet are more alive, and the air is the cleanest we ever breathe in. As we look towards the distance, the sun was starting to set layering the sky with a yellow-orange hue.

      Balo helped us build our own cots. I put mine next to Akane since she was so adamant on sleeping near her and Kumiko-sensei. I'm not going to lie, it’s refreshing to see another female besides myself. Before I used to sleep with the guys inside the dungeon and I was starting to turn like one. But now, I can be a girl again with these two. I thought about how Yasu would enjoy the view we’re currently seeing, and I started to feel guilt creeping up my throat.

      We're here about to sleep under the moon and with planet earth in the sky while feeling the cool breeze of night-time. While Yasu, he's probably sleeping back in the cold hard floor of the dungeon. Alone. I whisper in my mind and I tried hard to not cry.

       We all went to the lake and washed. It felt like weeks since I cleaned myself and it was kind of nasty seeing the water wash off all the dirt and grimes all over my body. Kumiko-sensei and Akane helped cover me as I washed while the guys went on the further end of the lake. Even though it seems barbaric washing like this, it's refreshing after all the ordeal we went through inside the dungeon. After feeling clean, we gathered around the campfire as Balo instructed.

      "Ok, everyone! let’s go eat first then we can figure out how to save your friend.” Balo says. A relief has flown through me. If these guys can beat the gatekeeper, they can help us save Yasu. Everyone has the same happy expression as me except for one person. Rikimura-san.

    Ah, who cares about him? His one vote doesn't do any difference now. I say in my mind.

   We all sat around the campfire and they handed us cooked boar meat. Once we took a bite of the boar meat, our reaction wasn’t what they expected. We all looked at the meat and started crying. All of us cried except Rikimura-san who ate his portion in silence.

     “W-wh-what happened? Is my cooking bad?!" Kumiko-sensei was surprised by our reaction and seeing her panicking face was refreshing.

   “N-No Kumiko-sensei. Your cooking good. I just remembered-I." I tried to tell her, but I ended up crying. Akane who is sitting next to me also started crying. Now everyone on the gold district group has no idea what is going on.

     “W-What happened?! Are you guys alright?! Are you hurt?! I-I-I can heal! Give me a minute!.... Heal!”  Kumiko-sensei held her hand out and a green light emitted from her palm. Our body started glowing with the same light from our head to toe. It felt warm and refreshing and we all felt our body waking up. “Are you all alright now?! If not, I can do it a couple more times?!  Hea-“

      Just when Kumiko-sensei was about to heal us again, Junpei stopped her. “W-We’re fine sensei. We just remembered someone’s cooking.” Junpei says as he wipes his tears away from his face and everyone then follows.

      "We have a member of our group that also has a non-combat class," Junpei says. This caught everyone from the gold districts attention including Balo’s.

      “Really? What class did he have? Wait, is that you?!” Masato asked. Masato is a tall guy who wears glasses and a robe. His class is a summoner. He has the ability to summon celestial beast at his will to fight for him during combat. I see a small fox following him around which is kind of cute.

      “No, no it’s not me. His class was a cook.” Junpei replied.

      “A cook? Wait a minute, is he the one stuck in the dungeon?” Akane asked and we all nod in agreement.  

      "Holy shit. That is bad.” Balo whispers as he goes on a deep thought. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him it’s our fault.

      “We'll definitely save him. If cooking is his class, he must be good at it. Did he ever got to use his cooking skills?" Akane asked.

      “Well, there wasn’t much to cook inside the dungeon. So, the only thing he fed us are the rats.” I reluctantly reply. I didn’t want anyone to know we ate rats, but I wanted them to know how rats can taste good when Yasu cooked it.

      "Rats? You guys were able to eat that thing? Those were disgusting." Balo says and it confused me. I remember it tasting so good.

     “But…pfft!” Balo started laughing and everyone else from the gold district did the same. 

      "What's so funny? Those rats tasted good when Yasu cooked them!” I say.

     "No, no, we're not laughing at you guys for eating rats. It's just…that's the first thing we ate also was rats. Until we were able to kill a wolf, we ate rats. I don't know about the rats in your dungeon but the ones in ours were weird. It was really disgusting and every time we ate it, we felt like laughing.” Balo replied. Seems like they all had a similar experience to ours. This has made it easier for everyone to connect and we all started laughing together.

      Ah, if only Yasu was here. He would cook for us. I thought to myself. 

      “So, his name is Yasu huh,"  Balo asked.

      "Huh, oh yeah," I reply

      “Say, if you guys don’t mind me asking…” Balo voice trails off but then he asked the question they’re all probably thinking from the get-go. “Why is he still in the dungeon and not here with any of you?”

       We all stay silent for a moment. Then Rikimura-san spoke. “He was sacrificed for us to get out of the room.” Everyone looked at him with a surprised expression.

      “S-sacrificed?” Naoki asked. Then the atmosphere got heavy. Naoki is a high school student that looks like a grade schooler. His class deals with paper-mache. He told us earlier that he’s able to create figures from papers to fight alongside him. His class is like a summoner but he’s able to also create weapons like swords also.

Junpei was about to open his mouth when Rikimura-san interrupted him. “Yeah, Luro decided for him to stay behind for us to get out. We protested but we couldn’t do anything. Then next thing we know we woke up outside.”

  What? Did he just lie? How can he just lie like that? I scream in my mind and I give him a furious look.

      "Wow, that must have been heavy for you guys," Takumi spoke. Takumi also has the class dual like Balo since he’s wielding two swords. 

      "Yeah, that's why we need to save him," Rikimura-san spoke.

   This bastard he’s lying! Fury was slowly creeping, but I held myself back. If I do anything stupid now to lose all their trust, they won’t help us save Yasu.Junpei who is sitting on my right grabbed my hand and when I look at him, I can see him slightly shake his head. His grip was a lot tighter than usual indicating that’s he’s also furious but there was nothing we can do. No one said anything after that. We all ate our dinner and rested for the night. Most of the gold members are asleep except for Balo who kept night watch and switched with Takumi midway through the night. As for us, seems like our sleeping cycle is messed up. I’m still fully awake. So is everyone else. Morning came quickly and I didn’t sleep a wink.

     “Wake up! Everyone Wake up~” Balo shouted from outside our cot while singing happily. As soon as I got out, I felt the sunlight beaming down on us and for the first time, it felt nice to feel that I’m alive. 

     “Guys, go wash up. Breakfast is almost ready. After eating, we’ll leave to look for your friend right after.” Balo says and he leaves to join Akane who’s in charge of cooking breakfast. We head towards the lake to wash our faces. Everyone from the gold district was already awake. Four of their member’s and Rikimura-san went hunting while Akane and Balo prepared breakfast. I would think Kumiko-sensei would do the cooking but knowing her healing abilities, she more needed in the front lines just in case someone gets injured. Once we got to the lake and a distance away from Akane and Balo, I asked the questions the rest of my group was probably wondering all night. 

     “Junpei, why didn’t you say anything? Rikimura-san lied about Yasu.” I whisper and everyone from my group is listening.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

     “I know. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t.” Junpei whispered back. “We don’t really know these guys as well as they don’t know us. Even if they look nice, if they found out that it was our fault Yasu ended up in the dungeon, so we can go save ourselves, I don’t think they will help us find him.” 

     “But-” Riki tried to speak but stopped himself. 

     “If they found out, anything we say will sound like an excuse. No, actually it will sound worse because we chose to save ourselves instead.” Junpei whispered back.

     “So that’s why he lied, so they can help us save Yasu," Sawada said.

     “Probably. As for now, I think it was the logical decision. Come on, let’s finish up quick and help them set up.” Junpei says and he quickly dries his face with his shirt and started walking towards Balo and Akane.

     “Even if that’s the case, I don’t like the idea of lying to the people whose giving us a lending hand," Tobi whispers and paused for a minute to dry his face with his shirt. "But we need to save Yasu. He won’t survive in there for very long.” 

     We couldn’t say anything, so we just quickly washed up and walked behind Junpei following him towards Balo.

     “Eggs?! Where did you guys get these?!” Riki ask as we got close seeing eggs boiling on some makeshift pot.

      "Well, there's a lot of nests around the forest. We just look for a nest and take a few eggs from it. We feel bad because we're taking their babies to eat, but we have to survive. Come, let's eat." Balo says as we all sat by the campfire. That’s when the four members of the gold district came out of the forest along with Rikimura-san. They joined us, and we all ate breakfast together. After eating breakfast, we all started getting ready to look for Yasu. We don’t really know where to start that’s when Balo came to us with a big news.

      "Ok guys, you ready? It's going to take a couple of days trekking the forest to get to the portal, but it should be an easy travel from here to there.” Balo said.

      “Wait. You know where the portal is?!” Riki asked surprised. We're all dumbfounded how well informed they are.

      “Yeah. Your portal, it’s right next to ours.” He replies and gave us a smile. “Come on, let’s go.” That brought up our spirits. We're able to safe Yasu sooner. 

   Wait for us Yasu. We're coming. I say in my mind as we depart to head to our portal. Riki and Balo seem to get along very well. We followed marks on the trees they have made to be able to go back to the portal if they needed to. The portal seems pretty far from where they camped.

      "Ok, We don't really know how long it took us to get to the lake since we were aimlessly wandering around without counting how many nights it had been. We were trying to find a village. For all that we know, these marks we did might go in a couple of loops." Balo says.

      As we're all walk through the forest, Akane asked me out of nowhere a surprising question.

      “Sooooo Hiroko, do you have a boyfriend?” She asked and some of the boy’s ears perked up. Her question caught me off guard and my mind went blank.

     “W-what are you asking Akane-chan. O-of course Hiroko-san doesn’t have a b-boyfriend. Right Hiroko-san?” Naoki asked me to look for an answer that leads to a no. Right before I give him what he wants, Akane interrupts me.

     “I’m not talking to you Nao-Nao!” Akane retaliates back to Naoki.

     “W-What, I told you to stop calling me that!” Naoki retaliates back to Akane.

“Nao Nao Nao Nao!” Akane repeats to Naoki over and over again trying to agitate him. I laugh a little to their quarrel. They seem like a married couple. I decided to speak to stop them from fighting.

     “No, I don't have a boyfriend," I say.

     “See?! I told you!” Naoki says to Akane which made me laugh a little. 

     “D-do you have anyone y-you like?” Takumi asked and now all of the guys are listening. I pause for a moment then I answer.

     "I'm looking for someone," I say

     “Really?! What is he like? Is he tall? Is he handsome, Smart, wait…..is it Yasu?!” Akane asked. Her last comment startled me a bit and I can see Junpei looking at me with such intensity I can feel it.

     “R-r-relax with the questions. As for his identity, I don’t know. I only saw him once. And no, it’s not Yasu.” I tell her.

    “So who is it?” Akane insists on finding out.

     "The one I like is the one I admire the most," I reply to her. "He saved me on my worst time even though he was in a tight position himself. The only memory I remember of him is his back. And ever since then, I have been looking for it. He is the number one student from Seito Private High School."

      “S-Seito Private High?! You mean that prestigious school only a handful prodigies get elected in?! That high school?!” Akane was surprised once she heard the name. I can’t blame her. Even when I heard about Yasu going to the same school, I was surprised. Being in the same room with a person that goes to that school makes it somehow special. It’s like I was with a celebrity.

      “Yasu also goes to Seito high school," Riki says nonchalantly and everyone looks at him with a surprised expression Including Kumiko-sensei. 

     “Wait....what?! Are you serious?! People who go to that school are big leagues! They are the real deal!” Balo says. After that, somehow Balo was more pumped than ever that we moved at a faster pace than usual. We took turns taking watch at nighttime. Since there is no safe zone out here, we can get attacked on our sleep by monsters. But all we have seen towards our journey back to the portal is a couple of boars. Balo told us that, ever since they got out of their dungeon, they only come across boars, which I prefer. The boars seem pretty weak. I don’t want to go through the same experience as last time.

      It took us a while to reach the location. Balo told us that when they were inside their dungeon, time seems to go faster since they don’t know if its daylight or not. When they go to sleep and wake up it’s easy to think it’s the next day but in reality, it’s probably still the same day. The reason is when they got out; they got sleepy mid-day and were awake all night. They had to adjust to the time outside the dungeon. We feel the same way since all of us are awake at night and decided to take night watch a couple of times. Once we arrived, it was inside the forest hidden by a bunch of shrubs and tree branches.

      “Whoa.," Tobi whispers as we stand in front of a cave entrance.

      “Ok guys, we’re here. Inside the cave is where our portal is located.” Balo says. “When we got out, we saw that there’s another portal next to our which is exactly identical. We decided not to get into it because; we didn’t want to encounter the gatekeeper again. Sorry about that, we didn’t come to save you guys.”

     Balo’s apology is a genuine one. I feel bad making them go through danger for people they recently met but, we need to save Yasu. 

      “It’s fine. We understand you guys had a tough time. Thank you for helping us.” Junpei says and we all remember that their leader died before he even exited the portal. Balo gives us a smile and he walked in the cave with everyone following behind him. Once we got inside, we needed to go deep in the cave to get to the portal. I don’t know about the others, but my heart was pounding really fast. 

      I was scared. I’m going back to the place I was killed. I was petrified. 

      At the end of the cave was a pool of water. The ceiling hanging over the pool was a single large stalactite similar to the ones we had inside the dungeon. It illuminated the whole cave. We see some of the stalactite broke and fell into the pool and sank in the bottom. The broken stalactite illuminated the whole pool underneath and we could see crystal clear all of the fishes swimming in it.  The only difference between the stalactite in our dungeon and this one was its color. This one was purple and the ones in our dungeon were blue.

      “Alright everyone listen up," Balo shouts at all of us as we sit down to rest. “We’re going to camp here for today and leave tomorrow morning when we are fully rested. The portal is just on the other side of this wall. For us to get to it, we have to go underwater and swim to the other side from underneath. We thought about destroying it but, we didn’t want to cave it in and get you guys trapped after getting out. Once we surface, the portal is right at the end of the other side."

      Balo points towards the wall that is towards the end near the pool of water. I feel touched that even with the ordeal they went through, they still thought about other people. But at the same time, I was scared of what’s beyond the wall. Across this wall is where we all woke up in. Where we all fought in. Where we all died in. On the other side of the room, is where we left Yasu. 

      We all set up camp and rested. For dinner, we had the usual boar.

      “Say, how come you guys can cook? When we tried to cook inside the dungeon, the meat kept getting burned.” Tobi asked. 

     "Really? That's weird. I don't really know. We were able to cook from the beginning. If we didn’t we would have starved to death.” Balo replied. 

      "Hmm, let me try." Tobi then grabbed the boar meat that is lodged on a stick and placed it over a fire. The meat started cooking and we were all watching the meat waiting for it to turn into ash. It didn’t. 

      “What the… that’s weird. I can cook.” Tobi says in confusion. We were all confused at that moment.

      Why did the rat meat burn when we tried cooking it?I say in my mind.

      “When I tried to cook in the dungeon with Yasu, the meat I had on a frying pan burned," Tobi says.

      “Wait…Did you say frying pan?!” Kumiko-sensei asked in a surprised manner.

      "Yea, the weapon that materialized for our teammate was a spatula, frying pan, and an apron," Tobi replied.

      “Seriously?! I am in so need of a frying pan right now. We’ve been using sticks to cook the meat. It would be better if we didn’t have to grill everything over the fire.” Kumiko-sensei replied.

      “Wait, you said you used his frying pan?” Balo asked Tobi.

      "Yeah," Tobi replied.

      “Hmm. I don’t know if it’s the same but when we tried to wear the dancing shoes Akihito had, somehow, we couldn’t dance at all. When he wears it, his moves can be compared to a professional dancer or maybe even better. His moves flowed like water. But when we tried it on and dance in the shoes, we looked like penguins.” Balo says.

      “So you're saying that we can't cook using his utensils?" Tobi asked and paused for a minute to turn the boar meat towards the other side. “Maybe your right. The meat burned when I was using his frying pan holding it over the fire. I never really tried using a stick up to now.”

      We talked some more of our hobbies and what school we came from. Everyone was surprised when they found out I go to the second-best high school. After that, we ate our dinner, and everybody went to sleep. Except for me. I couldn’t sleep so I decided to soak my feet in the pool of water to calm myself. That’s when Balo and Kumiko-sensei approached me. At first, I didn’t hear them and scared me when Balo suddenly asked a question. They were on night watch duty.

     “Can’t sleep?” He asks.

     "Ah! You scared me." I say as my heart races. "No, I can't. Even though we're this close, I more worried now compared to when I was far away."

     “Stop worrying Hiroko-chan. Even though you guys didn’t pick him, in a sense, it wasn’t your fault. He probably won't blame you for it." Kumiko-sensei spoke. Her sudden words made my heart beat faster and my expression became pale like I was caught red-handed.

     "W-what?..H-h-how did you--I-I-i- I didn’t mean-" I stutter at my words trying to apologize. That's when Balo let out a laugh loud enough for me to hear but not wake everyone else. 

      “Don’t worry Hiroko. We will still help you save him. We’re not that of bad guys after all. And how did we find out? As dual, my perception is really high. We can hear sound from a very far distance. I heard you guys talking when you were washing your face in the lake the first time we met." Balo replies. Tears came flowing out my eyes with the shame of lying to them. Even after finding out they still decided to help us and even tried to reassure me to prevent me from worrying more. 

     “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. We didn’t mean to lie.” I tell them over and over again and that’s when Kumiko-sensei hugged me. Her hug took all of the heaviness on my shoulders and all I did was cry on her. After I calmed myself down. I decided to explain them everything. How we woke up and how we came across Yasu. How he helped us prevent from going hungry by giving half of his share of food to our portion. How he helped us prevent from going thirsty by transporting water back and forth. How he cried at night by himself trying to pick up a sword he knew he would never be able to lift. 

  *Sob

      “It’s our fault he died," I say while crying. “We didn't think things through. We dragged him out the safe zone and brought him to the enemies we couldn't even kill. Then we all died first and left him alone to defend for himself. He did everything for us but in the end, all we did for him was to throw him back in the same place to save ourselves.”

      Balo didn’t say anything. He had an expression like he was hurt and was in a verge of tears. Kumiko-sensei was already crying but she rubbed my back over and over again to calm myself down. 

       “It’s ok Hiroko-chan. We all make mistakes and when he sees all of you go back there for him, he will forgive you guys. Based on what type of character he has, he will hold on for as long as he can and wait for you. For all of you to rescue him.” Kumiko-sensei says trying to reassure me.

      “Yea doesn’t worry. We’ll save him. We might have to deal with the gatekeeper but since we dealt with him before, we should be able to kill it with all of your help. Besides, based on Yasu’s character, he's not the type to go on a rampage and mercilessly kill everything without regards to his life. He's smarter than that." Balo says. 

      I hope he right. I hope Yasu will welcome us. I hope, he’s still alive.

       “Ah! I still have some left."  I say suddenly realizing what's inside my dimensional bag. Tears are still pouring down my face but remembering that I still had some put a smile on my face.

      “Have of what?” Balo asked. Both Balo and Kumiko-sensei are looking at me with curiosity. I smile at them.

     “Item box.” Then I took a couple out of my bag and both of them smiled. “You guys want some?” I hold out my hand holding a few rat meat Yasu cooked for us. They both looked wary but took the meat off my hand. The minute they took the first bite, their expression changed, and we ate the rat meat silently laughing through the night.

      Once its daytime and everyone is awake and ready to go, we proceeded to dive in the pool. Akane couldn’t swim. She already had a hard time getting out from the other side that she almost died from drowning. Making her go dive again isn't such a good idea. So, she decided to stay and wait for us. Sawada decided to stay with her just in case monsters attack them; both of them should be able to defend themselves. We dived down the pool and swam towards the other side. Swimming underwater is a lot easier in this world because our vision doesn’t go blurry. We can see clearly as if we were wearing swimming goggles. But it’s still water; we had to hold our breath. 

       Once we got out of the other side, a brick wall that seems like it was built long ago and was blocking our path. The only weird part of the wall is a glass door that’s right in the center of it. This glass door is a hit of modern design and it was something out of the world concept. 

     “Ok everyone, through this glass door is another wooden door that leads to the portal. The only problem is that this glass door only opens from this side. When we got out, this glass door and wooden door was already opened. I decided to go back and close the other wooden door just in case a monster comes out of your portal. That's when the glass door closed behind me from the other side and I got trapped in there. I tried pushing the door, but it doesn’t budge. There is no way of pulling it from inside since there is no handle. I tried breaking it, but it wouldn’t break. Good thing Masato swam back and found me here banging the door nonstop. That’s why when we got it opened, we left it open so you guys don't get stuck here if you got out of your dungeon. Thus, being said, one of us has to stay here just in case it closes again. We don’t want to be stuck in there.” Balo says 

      "I'll stay," Rikimura-san suggested. It’s better, I don’t want him near me. “Me and Junpei both have a shield and it’s ideal to have one person who has a shield stay out here just in case monsters come and attack me from out of nowhere. I can defend myself.” 

     “Hmmm, that’s true. Ok then please stay Mr. Rikimura.” Balo says to Rikimura-san in which he replied with a nod. All of us except Rikimura-san entered the glass door and we reached the closed wooden door in a couple of minutes.

     "Ok, you guys are ready?" Balo asked us. We all nod. He opens the wooden door and what awaited us inside was something we didn’t expect. There were two portals next to each other that looked like the one that we saw inside the dungeon. Markings are engraved on top that says, 'To the dungeon'.

     The only difference is, the portal on the left was intact and functioning while the portal to the right, was destroyed.

      “Nice thinking. Destroying your portal is a good idea to prevent monsters from traveling through.” Junpei says as we come closer to the portals. We are at awe with their strength of being able to destroy it. But it was weird. Balo and the rest of the gold member didn’t say anything. They just looked at the destroyed portal with a heavy expression plastered in their face. 

     "What happened? What's going on?" I asked.

     “That portal isn’t ours. The one to the left is where we came out from. The one to the right is yours.” Balo says looking at the rubble. 

     “oh no…” Kumiko-sensei says as she puts her hand over her mouth.

     “no….no….No! This can’t be!” Junpei says as he approaches the broken portal that's shattered into pieces. I drop to my knees and started crying. It felt like the whole world was dumped on me and the heaviness is making me feel like I’m drowning. 

     "T-t-the portal is broken, that means Yasu, inside, he, he must be--," I say as tears fall out of my face and I cry on the floor. Everyone else couldn't say anything and all that filled the room is my sound of grief.

     "Y-you don't know that Hiroko-chan. He might still be alive in there. We just have to figure out a way to rebuild it somehow." Kumiko-sensei tries to reassure me.

      "Yeah! We can rebuild it! Guys help me piece it back. Maybe if we build it, it might activate again!" Junpei says at everyone. He then approached the broken statue and started rebuilding it. But as he builds the pieces, it kept crumbling down.

     "NO! DAMN IT!" Junpei screams with frustration. I kept on crying and no one else said anything. We all knew that even if we find a way to properly rebuild it, it would take some time.

      By the time we get it up and running again, Yasu inside will be already. I say in my mind as I blankly stare at the ground. 

      “Yasu! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please forgive me!!” I cried and apologized nonstop and no one said or did anything. We all just cried nonstop. By the time I've calmed down, everyone else has a sullen look and grief on their faces.

      “Yasu! You hear me! Stay alive in there! E-even if you don't! I’ll come back for you! I promise!” Junpei screamed towards the broken portal. There was nothing I could say except apologies. And I apologized till I couldn't anymore. We had no choice but to accept it. Yasu, we won't be able to rescue him on time. There wasn’t anything we can do. We have no knowledge of rebuilding the portal.

     “I know, it’s not the right time but, we all should head outside first to get some fresh air. Maybe we can find a village and ask around if they know how to re-activate a portal.” Balo suggested and we all just weakly nod. Hiroko sensei helped me up to my feet and I used her as support to walk towards the wooden door. Once we pass the wooden door. We are still silently sobbing with a hole in our heart for really losing a teammate. I guess this is how Balo and the other felt when their leader died. When we got to the wooden door, Rikimura-san was still standing on the other side.

     The glass door was closed shut. 

     “Mr. Rikimura. Open the door. Were back.” Balo says to Rikimura-san. But all Rikimura-san did is watch him and then he smiled. 

     “Uhh, the door? Can you hear me from that side? The. Door. Open. Please.” Junpei says as he gestures to open the door thinking Rikimura-san can't hear him

     "I can hear you just fine and no I'm not going to open it," Rikimura-san spoke with a tone we’re unfamiliar with.

     “W-what? Stop playing around Mr. Rikimura and open the door.” Balo was starting to raise his voice indicating he was getting annoyed.

      “No can do Mr. Gold Leader. As you guys can see your lives are in the palm of my hands. Now, I will give you one proposition. Become my slaves or die here."

   “huh? You fucking crazy? Open the door!” Balo’s demeanor changed and I can see him starting to become agitated.

     "You bastard! Open this door!" I scream at him as my temper and my emotions mix together.

      “Ha…hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Who are you to demand something from me in this situation?” He asks me as he raises his eyebrows and looks at me up and down. “You know what, why don't you become my plaything and maybe I'll let you out? As long as you satisfy me every night…” He says as he looks at me licking his lips.

     “W-what?! Are you fucking nuts?! Let us out or I swear to god I’m going to kill you!!” Junpei snaps after hearing his proposition. 

     “Ha…hahahahah..hahahahahahahahahah! Swear to god? Like Luro? Oi, you brat!!" He gestured at Balo.

      "What?" Balo responded with a firm tone. 

       "I lied earlier. Luro didn’t sacrifice that Yasu kid. We sacrificed him! HAHAHAHAHA! Stupid kids followed my lead and we all chose to kill him for the brat standing next to you!!" Rikimura-san started laughing like a maniac.  

      "Tell me something I don't know you psychopath. Open this fucking door so I can gouge your eyeball out you piece of shit!" Balo responded back. He is really mad. His expression has changed and the only thing keeping Rikimura-san safe from him is the unbreakable glass door. 

      "Junpei. Do you really think I chose you to live because you’re valuable? Ha! Get real you fucking brat! The reason I chose you is that you're the easiest to control~ That brat Yasu, he was slowly breaking. He was harder to control. How do I know? I went through the same fucking thing back on earth!! Did it ever occur to you idiots what I did back on earth? What I am? huh?!" Rikimura san asked with a crazy expression.

      "W-w-who are you?" Riki asked with a hint of fear in his voice.

       "Me? I'm just your average schadenfreude. I like to see people suffer. You know what I used to do back on earth before I was brought here? I used to kidnap people like you idiots. I would violate them and kill them slowly. I would make sure they stay alive on their last breath and feel the pain and suffering they can imagine! hah~ hah~ hah~. ooooh sooooo gooooooood~" Rikimura-san started panting like he’s having sexual intercourse with himself. Then he unzipped his pants and dropped them. He started masturbating in front of us. There was nothing we can do to stop him. 

      "Oh! Oh! Oh! Revelation is cumming! I'm cumming!! Ahhhh~! hah, ~ haaaaaaa~oooooh so goood." Rikimura-san ejaculated at the glass door and we're all looking at him at disgust as he put his pants back up.

      “You, you’re not fucking human you insane psychopath!” Junpei screams to Rikimura-san.

       “Me? Hahahahaha I am human. It’s just that, master Luro preferred me than all of you. He thinks I am a high candidate to become ruler of this world!" Rikimura-san says as he opens his hands.

      “Huh?! M-master Luro?!” Tobi says.

      “Yes! He is the new being worth worshiping. He brought me to this world knowing that I can become a fine leader! A fine ruler! A king! A god! Back on earth, I was nothing! Everyone looked down at me! That's why I tortured them. I chose the poverty-stricken bastards since no one would look for them. I never got caught but I was always cautious. But in this world, I can be reborn!” He says as he has his hands out. “For the looks of it, he brought me because he likes me. He brought me here to follow him. To be with him. To become one, with him.”

      His last light sent chills down my spine. All this time, a person with this mentality has been with us, walking with us, sleeping with us. It brought fear to my heart more than I can imagine.

      "Well, I have no need for any of you anyways. I was thinking maybe I could create a kingdom. And for a kingdom I need slaves. So, either become my slaves or die here. You can only choose one. We have done it before, so it should be that hard~” Rikimura-san says as he tries and sings the last part and smiles at us.

      "Go to hell, you psycho!" I screamed at him saying the words everyone is probably wanting to do. His expression then changes, and he stopped smiling.

      "Well then, suit yourselves. But if you do get out of here, I will know. And I'm going to come to get you one by one. I will start with you first Hiroko. I want, to taste your meat~" He says as he licks the glass door.

     BANG! 

       “Fucker! Open this shit!” Junpei kicked the door so hard Rikimura-san fell back for being startled. He slowly got up and then smiled at us.

       "Well, then brats...I need to go and get my fix. Chiao~" Rikimura-san disappeared underwater heading out the cave.

       “Fuck!” Balo screams as he kicks the glass door. “Fuck!” He was frantic on trying to open the glass door and I know why. Our teammates are about to meet our newest enemy without knowing anything. Sawada and Akane, they’re in danger.