MY PLAN TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT pt.2 A Real Adventure

What could she have been thinking by reserving just one room? Now she's leisurely enjoying her time in the shower... hold on, is there a gap in the door!? She never shuts it completely. Is she expecting me to gaze at her? No way, that can't be true, can it? (Rukito leans from the bed, unintentionally losing his balance.)

Out of nowhere, the door swings open, and Rukito lands on the ground as Kuragari appears with a towel wrapped around her. She glances down, spots him directly below her, and recoils as her cheeks flush. "What are you up to there?" she inquires, but Rukito remains silent. He rises, rushes to the bathroom, and says he requires a shower too. 

Kuragari gets dressed as she reflects, still confused by what happened. She wears a new outfit and feels a change within her in a place far from the estate in the capital. "It's pleasant to step out of the house from time to time," she whispers to herself.

Man, what is wrong with me? She’s definitely going to tease me for what I just did. Okay, I should stop; I'm starting to sound like the MC of that one manga where he pays a girl to go on a date with him and only gets to hold her hand.

After his long bath, he comes out to find Kuragari already asleep. He slowly gets onto the bed, making sure not to wake her, and instinctively puts his arm around her before catching himself.

That was close; I guess I'm still used to how I used to grab onto Mom whenever I slept with her after a nightmare. I wonder how she's doing after I died... can't say I don't miss her; well, my dad too, but I was closer to my mom than anything else.
Lucky Kuragari is asleep; I don't want her getting the idea she won or anything. Well, I did see Heaven today.

Rukito rises early and chooses to take a walk outside. A loud sound is emanating from the town square. A brawl has erupted, and bystanders are attempting to intervene. 

Rukito addresses a nearby observer. "Hey, what's happening here?" "Why are they in conflict?" The man describes the circumstances to him. It seems that a labyrinth has been uncovered recently, and some individuals ventured to explore it. From the group that went, only one person came back, and he is the sibling of someone in the group, so he’s angry at the survivor, holding him responsible for the incident. There has never been a labyrinth in this area before, so no one is certain where it originated or how it arrived.

Rukito pauses briefly before dashing forward. "Hey, that's enough!" Rukito utilizes Aether to prevent their movement. "Whatever transpired here, conflict won't resolve it, so relax, and perhaps I can assist you in locating the missing individuals." They pause momentarily until an unknown individual remarks, "What can a child do in this scenario?" The man chuckles while poking fun at Rukito's age. Rukito replies, "You've been attempting to prevent their fighting but have not succeeded, or are you merely enjoying the spectacle while a child intervenes?" Rukito talks in a serious manner and gazes directly into the guy's eyes. 

"Hey you both, I'll search for the lost individuals for you, but any treasure we discover is mine." If someone faces an issue, you should possess the courage to support your statements. "Are there any disagreements?"

Before leaving, Rukito asked, "Hey, you two, what's your names?" The guy who was fighting for his missing sibling said, "I'm Kaito." After him, the guy who went to the labyrinth said, "It's Lau." Rukito spoke in a calmer tone. "Okay, Lau, you will be coming with me, as you are familiar with the labyrinth. As for Kaito, stay here or come if you want, but first, wait for me down at that restaurant right there. I'm going to inform my companion that I'll be leaving."
 Rukito then teleported back to the inn, where he saw Kuragari in shock, as he wasn't there.

Just as Rukito prepares to talk, Kuragari interrupts him. "Where did you disappear to?" "It's 7 AM, and you vanished suddenly!" She appeared both angry and relieved when she noticed he hadn't abandoned her.

"I'm sorry I left without saying anything; I wasn't gone for long. I was just taking a walk outside when I heard a commotion and went to see. Long story short, there's a labyrinth, and I came to tell you that I'll explore it. You can come if you want."

                                "That's quite unusual, but I'll join in; this seems enjoyable." Oh, and one more thing: how did you return? You suddenly appeared as if you had teleported! "The door didn't open at all."

"Wait, didn't you know I can teleport ?"

                                                                     "No, if you could why didn't we just teleport?"

"I can teleport to a place I've been, but if I just teleport without a clear destination, it's called random teleport. It's how I randomly ended up in this realm at the brink of death. Didn't you know?"

Kuragari's face shows shock, and she appears increasingly impressed by Rukito's skills as she responds, "Wow, that's quite a useful ability!" "Who taught you the way to do it?" 

"I developed it on my own."

                                                              "Teach me, teach me now, please; I need to know."

"Well about that its not something I know how to teach and it doesn't use Mana or Aether as I was able to use it without mana when I couldn't use mana , Hold on if no one told you how do you seem to know so much about me?" 

Kuragari's complexion goes white, overwhelmed with guilt, and he hesitantly says, "Regarding that... I might have peeked into your thoughts to discover your name and some details about you while I was bare on top of you that morning...

"You did what?!" How can you do that? My thoughts are something that only I should understand... "Hold on, are you still reading my thoughts right now?!"

                           "No, my power only allows me to read minds if I touch them. If I'm close, I can tell the emotions of someone and their level of affection and trust towards me. That day, I only got to know that you were wronged and that you wanted to take revenge on humans as well as your name... but when you woke, all you were thinking about was my body. It was much harder to look into your memories; plus, there was some kind of seal that even I couldn't open, which held countless memories. The more I looked, the harder it was to see. It seems even you don't have access to that, as you remember nothing about a seal."

Rukito pondered 'I wonder who else has this power and how much they can look into my mind, find my secrets and weaknesses. I need to watch what I think from now on.'
"Promise me that you will tell no one about anything you read. Also, you need to teach me how to do that and never tell anyone about what happened that morning or my thoughts on your body."

                                         "I'm the only one with this power. You see, every primordial demon has an ability that they are born with, and that is something no one can learn but them. Primordial demons can, however, share that power in a way, but that power is weaker than that of the original. The term 'primordial demon' is not just a name; it's for demons that are born with power, unlike normal demons. They possess the power to control dreams, the power to control minds, the power of destruction, and the power to even control time itself. The magic that you may know, and that which primordial demons are born with, is very different. If you want to learn this power, I will have to give you some of my essence."

"Let's put that essence and whatnot aside for now. How strong are the other primordial demons compared to me?"

                                             "I'm not too sure right now, but they were way stronger than me; I am the weakest."

Rukito tells her that she's not weak and can get stronger before he realizes they lost track of time and soon leaves after Kuragari puts on clothes fit for combat and heads down the stairs where both Kaito and Lau are waiting for them. They seem to have higher spirits after seeing Rukito again and are determined to get their friends and family back safe and sound.
 Lau leads them toward the labyrinth and maps out what he remembers as they go. After an hour of walking, they reach the area where the labyrinth is located and go in, tracking back to where the others got lost.

Most of the beasts seem to have been killed as they never encounter anything in the past few hours of exploring. Finally, they reach the place where Lau lost the others, but the teleportation circle that was there has disappeared. What is there instead are three paths leading to the unknown.

Well, this is a situation. There are three paths and four of us, and I don't really know how good they are in terms of fighting, so I'm not sure what to do.

"We can all go to 1 of the 3 or split up but I don't know if you 2 are strong enough to stay alive"

Lau seems a bit offended by that but speaks normally and says, "I'm known as an Ice Elf, and we are far better at combat than the ones in the capital. As for Kaito, I'm not sure, but splitting up would be best."

"Can’t really tell if you’re better than them, but I’ll take you up on that. So here’s the plan: I’ll make two clones and send one to Kaito and you, and another to Kuragari while I take the left path alone. If any of you face danger, my clone will be there and can fight, so you guys will be fine. If you find nothing, tell my clone, and he will teleport you back to me. If you’re on the right path, I will come to you, so we don’t lose each other." 

Rukito opted for the far right path, while Kuragari selected the middle route, and Lau alongside Kaito took the far left. Shortly thereafter, Kuragari reached a dead end, prompting her to instruct Rukito's clone to teleport her back to his location. They both moved forward along the trail in front of them.

This is the first time I've been in a labyrinth, but it's quite gloomy and not as bright as it looks in anime, where even though it's dark, you can see almost everything.

Rukito and Kuragari seem to have come across a large door. They open it and are met with a chilling cold as the surroundings are filled with snow berries and a gigantic dragon-like beast with claws that can slice a group of people in half, white fur covering its body and ice-like spikes serving as an exoskeleton on its back, extending down to its tail. It appears to be asleep. 

Rukito takes the opportunity to pick all the snow berries around the ice-like beast without waking it. He ends up collecting them all and puts them in his storage pocket dimension, where he keeps all his valuables.
 Due to the change in temperature, the beast seems to have woken up; mad that all its snow berries have disappeared, it lets out a loud roar as the door closes, making it impossible to escape. Rukito had planned to fight this creature after getting the others out, but he decides to confront it now.      

Rukito tells Kuragari to stand back as he deals with the big boss of the labyrinth. Kuragari nods with disappointment, as she wasn't asked to fight with him but to stand back while Rukito charges forward with his sword, making the first move.