“…”

“…”

We continue our walk inside the tunnel. We left the room where we fought with the dragons and proceeded to the passage that dragons are probably guarding.  I am walking behind Ichirou right now and by my side, Casablanca and Hibiscus accompany my pace.

I didn’t know that Ichirou could get that angry…

I really didn’t intend to say that.

“Ichirou-nii…”

“…”

“Please say something…”

“…”

“I’m sorry for saying that…”

“…”

“Ichirou-nii…!”

This is bad.

I don’t know how to handle a situation where someone is angry at me and doesn’t want to talk to me. If I over think too much, I might start getting melancholic and negative thoughts will prevail over my rational thinking.

Haaa…

I don’t like this but I cannot back down too.

Geez… what should I do?! How do I confront people again?

“Miss Asagao… you really do knit your brows when you are thinking of something.”

“I do? I am doing it again?”

“Yes… while inflating your cheeks.”

“I do?!”

Is what Hibiscus told me as she wonderfully stares.

“You look like Casablanca and when she broods over on how to make people approach her. She is pretty unapproachable back in the school after all.”

“Hey! Hibiscus! That’s embarrassing…don’t talk about it! Don’t say anything about it!”

Oh, a talk about Casablanca?

Hibiscus mentioned something about school. I did hear it frequently from Fon because he keeps telling me back then that I probably should enroll in one near the capital. It is a bit interesting but I am not that young anymore.

I do earnestly want to study more because it is an opportunity, not a hassle unlike what the majority of people think.

“People at our school were really scared to approach Casablanca. She always walks grandly and always has her chin held up high.”

“Hibiscus, no more…!”

“But it is only because she is afraid to let out her true feelings. She wants everyone to be her friend, she easily gets lonely. She will cry herself out when we are separated for more than five minutes.

“E-Even that?! Hibiscus, please stop that!”

“Even so, I am happy that Casablanca would always want me by her side. I do want to be by her side all the time too. I get to see more of Casablanca’s cute reactions.”

“You--! Stop it already..! This is…!”

“When we trained under Miss Priscilla, a side of her mellowed down and more and refreshing attitude arises which is also fine for me.”

“Uhhh…”

“She is also an aspiring comedian, so please, Miss Asagao, let’s support her!”

Casablanca didn’t even deny any of those. She just tried to stop Hibiscus verbally but it was just her only resistance. She becomes red and teary as she got too embarrassed by what Hibiscus said about her.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

On to the other hand, Hibiscus is smiling cheerfully towards me as she talks about Casablanca. It looks like she is having fun doing this to her twin.

I already got an idea on who is the dominant one in their siblinghood.

It’s bad news if she is actually a closet sadist.

“But most of all, Casablanca is my sister, my friend and my comrade in every sort of grief, sadness or even the happiest days. Even we had our own conflict but we manage to fix it because we try to understand each other.”

“Hibiscus… I love you!”

“Un! I love you too, Casablanca!”

Somehow, this conversation turns into a cheesy sisterly bonding.

“That’s why, Miss Asagao and Sir Ichirou, please get over with your childish and unimportant conflict.”

“BUH!”

“URK!”

She somehow managed to say that with a genuinely worried face but to be honest I took a heavy damage of what she said. Judging from his reaction, it seems Ichirou is also listening to our conversation and heard what Hibiscus said.

We were told, huh?

GRUMBLE!

“Uwah!”

“Kyaa!”

“Huwaa!”

The earth suddenly shakes and everyone except Ichirou stumbles on the ground. The intensity was so strong but at the same time, it’s brief. Earthquake isn’t something unusual. Experiencing one or two or even three in a year by a single person is normal.

As we stand up, Ichirou was already in front of us and looks at me.

He hurriedly steps closer to me and hug me and lifts my whole body from the ground.

“Ichirou-nii…we…we just need to talk…that’s all…!”

“Asagao…hold on tight. Cling on to me like your life depends on it. Also, lock your legs to my body so you won’t get easily thrown off.”

“Eh?”

I cling tightly to his neck and entwine my feet to his body. After that, he suddenly picks Casablanca and Hibiscus by the waist and hung them on both of his arms.

He starts running at an incredible speed!

“What’s happening?!”

“Sir Ichirou, why are we running?! I mean, why you carry us and runs!?”

“Sir Ichirou, this is… why are we being carried like this?”

“There’s no other choice! A flood of magma is coming!”

He answers as he shouted.

A flood of magma?!

Since my sight is directed towards the opposite of where Ichirou is running off, I have a clear view of what’s about to come so I squint my eyes.

Something glowing is getting near…

I further peer my eyes to see what is about to come…

………

“Ichirou-nii… DON’T STOP RUNNING WHATEVER HAPPENS!”

“THAT’S WHY I TOOK THE INITIATIVE!!!”

The magma crept on to us.

Crap, crap, crap!

The magma splatters here and there as Ichirou turns from one intersection and corner to another. It roars throughout the tunnel as it splashes here and there.

“Ichirour-nii, can’t you do something about it?!”

“If I can, I should not be running like this!”

“T-then faster, faster, faster! It’s actually catching up with us!”

That earthquake is actually the cause of this unfortunate predicament we are in right now! Why did I even calmly think about earthquakes to experience ratio?!

I cling tighter than ever to his neck and strongly affix my feet to his back.

Casablanca and Hibiscus just hang there without any resistance as their butts stick out and their body sways left and right from Ichirou’s running momentum.

The magma comes closer and closer.

Damn…!

What the hell is that smell?! Rotten egg?!

“Asagao!”

“What?!”

“Dead end!”

“Dead what?!”

“Dead end!!”

“……”

“DEAD END AHEAD!”

“Isn’t that bad?”

“It is, I know!!”

“……”

“Asagao?”

Calm down.

I have to think of something.

A dead end ahead and a flood of magma behind…

There should be some ways we can overcome this hot situation. Front and back…front and back…

What would people do?

If master, he’ll just break through anything.

If Alstroe, she’ll just break through anything.

If Higan, she’ll break through anything too, I guess.

I can’t even imagine Violetta and Fon getting their selves into this kind of problem.

Ok, I decided.

“Ichirou-nii, do you have something that extends?!”

“Extends?! Wait--! I have one. What are you planning?”

“We’re going to launch ourselves… above…!”

“Above?! What if there’s more magma?!”

“I got that covered. Please, do as I say!”

“Ok, tell me!”

“I told you, we are going to launch ourselves!”

“Eh?!”

“Come on, there’s no other way.”

“…Let’s do it then…”

As we got on the edge of the tunnel.

“[Morning Glory Ninety Nine Petal Layered Barrier!]”

I cast my barrier pointing it upwards. After that, I urged Ichirou to use the thing that I requested. He immediately guesses what’s going to happen so he nods at me and start the conjuration.

A large amount of energy gathers at his feet.

“[Jingu Bang!]”

“Eh?! Sun Wukong’s weapon?!”

“Well…”

Suddenly, a large pole emerges beneath us and extends really swift. Ichirou planted his feet on the tip of the giant pole as it launches us upwards with a strong force.

BAM!

The rocky ceiling collapses and more magma rain down on us!

Because of my barrier, the magma is being parted sideways protecting everyone. It’s so hot, though. I don’t think I can hold on longer than one minute. I hope we can already reach the outside with this.

.

.

.

“Haa…Haaa…”

“That was…so intense…Asagao…”

“Yeah… thanks to your long and hard pole that we managed…”

“It’s also thanks to your barrier…also…what you just said sounds….”

“What…?”

“Nothing!”

“Haa…even so, I really didn’t think that… we’d end up in another underground cave or something again…no, more like this is the cave earlier where there are lots of these glowing crystals…”

“Yeah…but we did travel quite a distance. Also, the ceiling in this underground cave is freaking high.”

Yup.

We end up in another familiar underground cavern. From where we fell towards to where we pop out from the ground. I’m fairly certain that we are not going in circles anymore.

And this is much better than that hellblaze!

I never wanted to see another magma or lava ever again! I never knew they would smell so terrible too!

“Well, let’s go. Nothing’s going to happen if we idle here.

“Wait…”

“What is it?”

“Don’t you even see?”

“…Sorry…”

That’s right…

Except for Ichirou, Casablanca, Hibiscus and I are extremely tired and fatigued. We even collapsed on the floor the instant we knew we are safe now.

It was not really that easy for our young body.

“We should take a rest now…”

“Yeah! I’m sorry being insensitive about it.”

“In return, would kindly set up the tent for us? We wouldn’t want to sleep on this hard, tacky ground.”

I said as I took out a tent from my dimensional storage. Ichirou obediently does so and fix up the tent for us.

When he finished, the twins and I lifelessly crawls towards the tent and lay there without any care as our body is extinguished from any energy.

I can finally sleep…