Kouroemon

Those who had entered inside felt stuffy, Kouro squinted his eyes, he saw that this temple room turned out to be a basement.

He found a stone stairway leading down to a very dark room, Kouro turned on a small flashlight and hooked it to his chest before walking to the stairs.

Lin, Ana, and Ragna followed him, they were walking in a line with Kouro leading, behind him Lin and Ana were wearing uncomfortable expressions.

"Ana-chan, aren't you scared?" asked Lin.

"I'm not scared!" Ana quickly replied.

"Calm down, you might attract the attention of the Honkai beasts in here." said Ragna who was at the back of the line.

After walking for half an hour, they came to a vast dark hallway and in the center of the place was... A treasure chest.

Their expressions softened as they stared at the chest.

"It must be a trap, right?"

"It is indeed a trap."

"It has to be a trap." the three of them said in turn.

Kouro was then seen picking up a small stone and throwing it at the treasure chest.

*Clang!*

Nothing happened.

Seeing that, they then approached the chest with serious expressions.

"Is this not a trap?" asked Ana.

Ragna and Lin wore unconvinced expressions, after all, according to common knowledge usually a treasure chest in an obvious place like this was a trap.

"Only by opening it will we know." Kouro said with a mysterious expression.

Ana, Lin, and Ragna retreated a few meters to be careful if the chest was really a trap.

*Click*

Kouro opened the chest and inside was...

"Empty..." he said with a hint of disappointment.

And as if Kouro had activated a certain mechanism, suddenly there was a jagged machine sound as the ceiling and even the floor they were on shook.

"I guessed that chest was a trap!" The three of them quickly took out their weapons and looked around.

Ana took out a spear from thin air, Lin took out a pair of pistols from her back pocket, while Ragna took out a greatsword from thin air.

It seemed like the three of them had something similar to Kouro's 'inventory', but of course, it wasn't as big as his 'inventory' considering they used bags to store everyday items.

The wall of the hallway in their place suddenly shook and moved down to reveal 4 other hallways before it stopped shaking.

Kouro raised his head, although the sound of the jagged machine had disappeared, he could vaguely hear the sound of the jagged machine.

He then turned to stare at their exit and... as he expected the exit was blocked by a large metal door.

Ragna touched the door before swinging her sword towards it.

*Clang! *

There were sparks before Ragna was pushed back, she looked down at her trembling hands and stared at the door that had not been damaged at all.

"It's hard..."

"Let me try." Kouro walked past Ragna, he then stopped in front of the door and set up an attack stance.

After inhaling, Kouro without blinking his eyes activated [Power Strike] and hit the door.

*BAM!

The room shook violently even dropping small rocks on the ceiling.

"This power... Wasn't he serious when sparring back then?" Lin muttered; she could feel the blow could kill her instantly.

Ragna stared at the door before raising her eyebrows, the door didn't shatter even after being hit with such force.

Kouro looked at the door in front of him that looked a little scuffed with a serious expression, he then looked at his reddened palms, he could only deal a little damage even after expending that much power.

He didn't know what metal was used to make this door but he was sure that his previous attack was enough to destroy the Templar-type Honkai Beast's defense.

"We have enough food for how many days?" Ragna quickly asked, as a professional Valkyrie she should always be prepared for the worst.

"Umm... Enough food for one week, if we're frugal maybe three weeks." Ana replied after thinking for a moment.

Kouro tried to contact the base but it was useless because the network signal was absent, previously when he had not opened the chest the network signal was still there but now the signal had disappeared.

"I'm sorry, my curiosity got us trapped here. "

"It's okay, what we need to think about now is how to get out of here."

The only path left was the four passages that appeared.

"Are we splitting up? Or together?" Kouro asked Ragna.

Ragna stared at the passageways and wore a thoughtful expression before saying, "Those passageways look narrow and only suitable for one person to pass through, let's split up."

"Alright, then... I choose the leftmost one." Lin said after thinking, she stood in front of the passage waiting for the others' turn.

"Th-then I'll choose the one next to Lin-chan." Ana quickly stood in front of the passage.

"Then I choose the rightmost one." Kouro said, letting Ragna choose the hallway next to him.

Those standing in front of the hallway then looked at each other, "Good luck. "

After that they simultaneously went inside, after a while, a wall covered the exits to the four passages leaving the treasure chest still open.

...

Kouro touched the wall covering the exits, "Whoever it is, the person who created this temple must have been a great engineer."

He could not hear the footsteps of the others; it seemed that this wall in addition to having incredible hardness also had a high level of dampening.

He was not worried about them as he knew they were strong and experienced.

Kouro was then seen walking down the stuffy hallway, there was no sound other than the sound of his footsteps and breathing.

After walking for twenty minutes, he came to an empty room that had three new passages.

"Cap, Cip, Cup, flower... Bud..." After performing a strange ritual, Kouro then chose the leftmost passage.

(E/D: The "passage" in the previous paragraph was written as "assage". Like... What? The author is a man of culture, if you know what I mean and other men of culture, please explain what I am talking about to the uncultured.)

After walking again for half an hour, he came to another room with two intersections but this time there was something waiting for him.

Kouro stared at the creature in front of him, no, this term is a bit inappropriate maybe more accurately a robot?

In front of him was currently a two-meter-tall humanoid robot with no face, this robot reminded him of a mannequin in a mall.

Just when he was 10 meters away from the robot, the robot suddenly raised its head to stare at Kouro.

Kouro paused as he stared at the robot before tilting his head and simultaneously the robot followed his movements.

He raised his arms, the robot raised his arms, he did the Jojo pose, the robot did the Jojo pose, he did the 'Gangnam Style' dance, the robot did the 'Gangnam Style' dance, seeing the robot following all his movements, Kouro smiled widely, he seemed to have a 'brilliant' idea in his mind.

...

In a dark and stuffy room with even a slightly eerie atmosphere that makes adults scared.

A man was doing the 'Macarena' dance accompanied by music, in front of him was a faceless robot which was following his movements, the man was Kouro.

Kouro has previously done several dances as well such as, 'Billie Jeans', 'Stayin' Alive', and others, you could say Kouro has done all the dances you can imagine.

"I like this robot."

He also didn't forget to record this as a keepsake.

After finishing the 'Macarena' dance, he then did the 'Waltz dance' which strangely the robot did not follow his movements but instead became his dance partner.

Now in a dark room accompanied by romantic music, Kouro is doing the Waltz dance with a robot as his partner, but despite that, he ignores it and continues dancing.

Before Kouro realizes it, he is swept into the dance and then takes it seriously, a faint silhouette of a girl is seen from the robot but he doesn't notice.

He danced, danced, and danced, as if the world belonged only to the two of them, the room suddenly turned into a luxurious dance floor, and the robot transformed into a girl who had grayish blonde hair on her right side and on her left side she had brown blonde hair, she also had gray eyes with pink pupils.

Their clothes also changed, Kouro was wearing a formal black suit and the girl was wearing a pretty white dress.

They both looked at each other and danced, Kouro seemed oblivious to all these changes, he kept dancing, dancing, and dancing.

Before he knew it 1 hour had passed and their dance had climaxed as well.

Kouro was seen hugging the girl with a smile plastered on his face, the girl also smiled before then bringing her face closer and whispering in his ear.

"Wake up, Kouro..."

Kouro immediately blinked several times with a confused expression, the dance floor, the formal clothes, the girl, everything had disappeared, there was only a dark and stuffy room.

He looked at the robot he was hugging and subconsciously moved away.

"What was that? ....? Who was that girl?... What...?" He had never known or even met that girl, but even so, Kouro did not realize that tears were currently coming out of his eyes.

"Why... I'm crying?" The tears continued to flow even to the point of dripping onto the floor.

He then held his chest with a confused expression, "What is this feeling...?"

Kouro didn't have the right words to describe the feeling, but this feeling was the same when he remembered his previous life, the feeling of... 'Longing'.

He stood still in the center of the darkroom for a moment to let his mind calm down before walking over to the robot that had been lying still since earlier.

"This robot... Running out of power?" Kouro was not surprised, after all this robot had been here for over two thousand years, without being taken care of.

His expression looked pensive before putting the robot into his inventory.

"I don't know if the others are experiencing the same thing as me... "

He then stood up and looked at the two intersections in front of him.

Without much thought he then chose the right intersection, he walked alone leaving the room without looking back.

After walking for an hour, he then arrived at a large room, inside there he saw Ragna, Lin, and Ana leaning against the wall, they seemed to be waiting for him.

Kouro saw that their clothes were slightly torn and full of abrasions, it seemed that their journey was not as smooth as his.

They also looked at Kouro, when they saw that he didn't have a single wound they let out a sigh of relief.

He approached them and asked what they had faced from inside the passage.

"When I entered, I found three passages and I chose to enter the middle passage, inside there I faced various types of traps, fortunately, I was able to avoid them all," Ragna answered first.

After that, it was Lin who told the story, "My place was the same except I chose the rightmost hallway, inside there I had to face several armed zombies, fortunately, those zombies were not too strong so I could easily defeat them. "

Ana who heard both of their stories then said, "My place was the same except I chose the leftmost hallway, inside there I had to face a robot that could mimic all my movements, I defeated the robot after struggling hard for half an hour. "

"Then what about you Captain?" Lin asked.

"Well... I chose the leftmost hallway, so I fought that copycat robot too..." After saying that Kouro didn't say anything else.

Seeing him not explaining anymore, they didn't think much of it considering Kouro's incredible strength he should be able to defeat that robot easily.

Kouro then leaned against the wall, he looked forward where he saw a large door.

"Is that the boss room?"

(E/D: Hope you have done all the side quests.)

"Looks like it, that's why we should rest first. "

*Growl*

There was a sound from Lin's stomach, she then looked flushed when Kouro and the others looked at her.

"Well... I'm a little hungry, let's eat."

The three of them quickly took out their military rations and ate, as for Kouro, he took out the snacks he bought earlier from his shirt pocket.

Kouro who was about to eat his snack raised his head, he saw Ragna and the others looking at him.

"What... You guys want some?"

They then took some of the remaining snacks, just when they thought that Kouro's snacks were gone, he was seen taking out a plate of 'Ketoprak' from his shirt pocket, and not only that he even took out 'Pecel Lele'.

The 'Ketoprak' and 'Pecel Lele' were still smoking and even gave off a fragrant smell as if they had just been served.

They looked at the snacks and military rations in their hands and then looked at the Ketoprak and Pecel Lele in Kouro's hands, suddenly feeling that their food did not smell good.

"Kouro... Do you have a magic pouch?"

"Captain... Do you have a magic pouch? "x2

(E/D: I am tempted to add, "No I have a Doraemon pouch." here.)