Lots of handholding in these chapters

"I didn't expect to see a pyramid, like, ever." said Futaba, as she looked at the huge construction made of stone.

"To be fair, it's not a real pyramid. This is just your cognition of it." said Shin.

The black-haired teen crouched and grabbed a fistful of sand.

"How do you even know how sand feels like?" he asked the antisocial girl.

Futaba looked annoyed.

"I went to the beach once. Back then, when mother was..." she trailed off at the end.

'Damn, this might become awkward. Gotta change the mood.' thought Shin.

"I don't like this heat. Let's get inside."

To that end, Shin quickly picked up the smaller teen and haphazardly threw her over one shoulder, breaking into a full sprint up the stairs into the pyramid. Meanwhile, Futaba was screaming from shock at first, though that changed while going up the stairs, which caused Futaba's head to wobble up and down. After a few steps, Futaba was quickly silenced by the pain of having bit her tongue.

As they were moving up the stairs, Shin spoke up.

"So the plan is we go in, get to your treasure room, beat your cognition self up and leave. Got it?"

Still holding a hand over her mouth, Futaba mumbled a reply, but Shin couldn't understand anything.

"I'm glad we're on an agreement."

Stepping inside the pyramid, the two could immediately feel the cool air.

"Oh, that's nice. Feels good after that heat." said Shin.

"Why did you pick me up?" asked Futaba.

"We don't have time to waste letting you walk up all those stairs. Or would you rather I let you go at your own pace up all these?" he replied, turning around so as to allow the redhead to look at the stairs.

"Ehm... Continue." muttered Futaba.

Shin knew he couldn't keep Futaba inside her own palace for too long, which is why he insisted on rushing through. And now that he had the girl's express permission, he could go as fast as he could.

Going full speed on stairs meant Shin would jump a few steps at a time, making the poor girl on his back bounce wildly. Eventually, Futaba's eyes couldn't keep up with Shin, not just because he was fast, but because her glasses fell off. Luckily for her, with her game-trained reflexes, she almost got them. Unluckily, she didn't have the visual acuity to actually see how far they were, and her hand missed by quite a large margin.

It was unfortunate, but thanks to that, Futaba didn't have to see how her cognitive self, dressed up as a pharaoh, got kicked to the side by Shin. She did hear a grunt of pain and a body after them, though.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Just a mob trying to stop up." replied the other teen.

Futaba's cognitive self only appeared very close to the elevator to the treasure room, so after a few moments, Shin stopped.

"Where are your glasses?" he asked, only now having noticed.

"I... uh... dropped them on the way." replied Futaba, awkwardly. It felt weird to not be able to see around her.

Shin looked down the stairs a bit for the pair, but he couldn't see them anywhere, so he just shrugged and took Futaba by the hand to the lift.

"Ah, well, you won't need them for now anyways."

The girl nodded, unsure, but listening to him.