41 Entering the Darkness

As Miyu closed her eyes due to the bright light earlier, the first thing she could see at this moment was darkness. After her eyes adjusted, she could vaguely see vines and tree roots all around her, as well as a dark passage in front of her.

There was only one path for her to take, as everywhere else was blocked off.

Although she was frightened, Miyu remembered about the items she received from Kio and Dan that she could use.

Taking out the Return Stone, she tried to use it, but it failed. Nothing happened even though she followed the instructions that Dan had given her.

As she put the Return Stone away, she then tried to use the Teleportation Crystal next, to go back to the meeting room that she was at previously.

However, that failed as well as nothing seemed to happen. With two consecutive failures, she started to panic as a bit of moisture gathered around her eyes.

*Sniff*

"Kio, please save me!"

A few seconds later, the Teleportation Crystal disintegrated as the figure of the man she longed for appeared.

"Mi-"

Miyu dove into his arms as she confirmed that it was the person who she was hoping for.

"Sob… Kio, thank goodness you came!"

"Miyu, are you alright? Did anything happen to you?"

"No… I just got to this place a while ago. I tried using the Return Stone and Teleportation Crystal to get out, but nothing happened. As I hoped for you to come save me, you appeared in front of me."

"I see… I'm glad you look fine. Maybe there's something here that prevented you from leaving, but didn't stop any of us from entering."

"Mmm. Thanks for coming here so quickly."

Kio patted her head and held her tightly to calm her down. When she stopped shivering, they ventured further down the passage to check what is ahead of them.

At the end of the passage, they saw a large stone door that is 3 meters tall and 2 meters wide, which would easily allow both of them to enter at the same time.

The door had many weird symbols on it, but due to how deteriorated it was, neither of them could read it, even though they had the [Universal Language Translation] skill.

On top of the door was a small piece of a mural, which was also illegible as a large portion of it was missing. As Kio pushed the door open, neither of them could see past the door as there was a layer of darkness that prevented anyone from looking past it.

His [Threat Detection] skill had been warning him of something dangerous behind the door, but he couldn't see anything.

They had no other choice but to advance through the door, since this was the only possible route they could use. He looked back at Miyu and noticed how overwhelmed she appeared.

"Miyu, hold my hand. Let's enter at the same time."

"Mmkay."

They both resolved themselves and moved forward through the darkness. However, the moment they crossed the door, they felt a sharp pain in their heads and lost consciousness.

***

"-o… Kio…"

"Zzz"

"Kio, wake up!"

When Kio opened his eyes, he could see the ceiling of his room, filled with the familiar sight of his desk, computer, manga, and anime figurines that he had collected. To his side, he noticed Kaori with a displeased expression.

The sunlight coming in through the window was too bright for him to fully open his eyes.

"Morning, Kaori. What's up?"

"Kio, how could you still be in bed! You're going to be late for work!"

"Yawn… What time is it?"

"It's already 7 A.M. I came to check up on you since your room was still so quiet. Are you planning to be late on the first day of your job?"

"Oh, crap."

Kio quickly rushed through his morning routine before he ran out of the house, heading to the hotel where he was hired.

He greeted Riko and Miyu as he left his house, since he saw them waving their hands through their bedroom windows.

When he arrived at work, he was scolded by his supervisor, Yuki, who he admired ever since the job fair where they briefly chatted. On the first day of work, he felt blessed as Yuki was the one responsible for training him.

After his shift ended, he energetically thanked Yuki and bid her farewell.

As he arrived home, he had a fairly normal dinner with Kaori, Riko, and Miyu, since both of their families often eat together to deepen their friendship.

"Kio? What's wrong? You were spacing out during dinner."

"Hm? Ah, it's nothing. Maybe I'm just a bit tired from the first day of work."

"Haha. You better work hard and get promoted quickly if you ever plan on making Riko your wife in the future."

"Dear, you shouldn't tease the children like this."

Kio's parents were having fun teasing him as they couldn't wait for the two to get together.

Kio felt something was a bit off the whole day, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He decided to shrug it off as he enjoyed the warm atmosphere surrounding both of their families.

He went to sleep early as he didn't want to repeat the same mistake this morning, since he still had work tomorrow.

***

A few days had quickly passed as Kio continued with his routine of going to work, eating with his family, and hanging out with Kaori, Riko, and Miyu.

He felt content to be able to enjoy such a peaceful time with the girls.

'Peaceful? How come this peaceful moment seems like it's too good to be true…?'

Kio didn't know why that question appeared in his mind as he thought that these ordinary days were pretty normal.

However, everything started to change with the appearance of another girl.

As a full month had passed, Kio had become more accustomed to work. When he went home one day, he noticed a commotion in his living room.

Thinking that it was Riko and Miyu who came over to his house, he eagerly went towards the living room to greet them.

However, to his surprise, it was a girl who he had never met before, yet felt strangely familiar for some reason.

"Kio! I missed you!"

The girl quickly dove into his arms and embraced him, causing him to stumble a few steps backwards.

"W-what? What's going on?"

"Kio, we haven't seen each other for 5 years already. Don't tell me you don't recognize me anymore?"

As the girl looked up at him, Kio still couldn't figure out who she was. She wouldn't let go of him either, causing him to be unsure of what to do in this situation.

"Um… you are…?"

"I'm Luna, your girlfriend from Canada. Didn't you promise to marry me in the future? I couldn't wait any longer, so I decided to come to Japan to visit"

"Huh?"

As he heard her name, something unlocked in his mind, causing a few memories to flow back to him.

"Luna… Luna… Eh? Luna! How come you're here?!"

"What do you mean? I took a plane and came here during my holidays."

"No, that's not what I mean-"

Before he could question her any further, Luna raised her head and locked their lips together in a passionate kiss.

"Oh my…"

"Kuh. How come my son can win the hearts of two beautiful girls?! Why couldn't I have this kind of luck back when I was younger!"

"Dear? What are you trying to say."

"N-no, that was just a slip of the tongue. I didn't mean it!"

"Oh? You're not sleeping in the bedroom tonight."

"Nooo!!!!"

Although Kio could hear his parents' conversation in the background, his mind was currently in chaos, as he was trying to process everything.

He felt good to share a kiss with Luna, but he was also confused about how she came to her house. As their lips separated, he looked into her eyes and continued with his train of thoughts.

'How did she even get to this world? Wait... this world? What world would she be in, if she's not supposed to be here?'

Kio felt a splitting headache as he tried to recall something.

"Argh…"

"Ah! Kio, are you alright? What's wrong?"

"Lu...na…"

Those were the last words Kio uttered before he passed out from the pain in his head.

"Kio! Kio, what's wrong!?"

***

*Snore*

"Nnn…"

Kio slowly opened his eyes from the sound of snoring and the sunlight shining on his eyes.

When he sat up, he could see Luna was sleeping peacefully by his bedside. She was holding his hand tightly, while her head was resting on top of it.

Kaori was sitting on a chair as she dozed off, and a bit of saliva could be seen leaking out of her mouth.

Sunlight was pouring into the room as it brightly shone on their faces, revealing their cute sleeping expressions.

Kio didn't know what the weird feeling was earlier, but he decided to worry about it later since he felt relaxed looking at the sleeping face of Luna.

A bit of her hair fell over her eyes, so he used his hand to brush it away. This slight touch caused Luna's eyelids to slightly twitch before they slowly opened.

She lifted her body slowly as she was still drowsy.

"Good morning sleepyhead. You're bad in the morning as usual… Hm? How did I know you're bad in the morning…?"

"Nnn… Kio…? Thank goodness you're awake!"

Luna dove into his arms as tears fell from her eyes.

"Don't you know how worried we were when you suddenly fainted like that? You have been out of it for more than a day!"

"Eh? Was I sleeping for that long?"

"Yes… Your family and I were so worried about you. They wanted me to use the guest room in the meantime, but I didn't want to leave you."

"Were you by my side this whole time?"

"Mhmm… I wanted to stay with you for as long as I could."

"Luna…"

As they looked into each other's eyes, Kio took the initiative to lean forward to give her a kiss. When Luna responded to his kiss, he went further and entangled his tongue with hers.

The feeling of kissing Luna felt too familiar to him, causing more memories to flood into his mind. This time however, there was no pain in his head, as if the obstacle blocking it had disappeared.

The moment he recalled everything, he ended the kiss and left Luna's arms, yelling loudly.

"Who are you?!"