* * * *

“Takeharu-sama, do you think that Yoshitaka will be alright?”

Both Takeharu and Selia are walking in the night of the Gardan town’s garden.

“Truthfully, I’m not sure. But it might work out if we give him time right?”

“Are you sure it is okay?”

“Well, as far as I could see, it might be okay. Remember when we arrived at the world before this one, he was desperately holding her to not be separated right? And these past three days he’s searching vigorously for her. He must really treasure her. So, I’m sure he will try to reconcile with her.”

And even when he could only see her from the other side of his screen, he also treasures her deeply. But there’s no way Takeharu would say something incomprehensible to Selia.

“Well, if Takeharu-sama says so--”

“AAAH! You are that woman who was with the guy Mao interested with!”

Suddenly a voice interrupted their conversation. It was , Hal, who was with Mao before.

“It’s the guy who took Mao from Yoshitaka!”

‘Ah… I see, so that’s why Shou went and run his mouth… it’s who was with Mao.’

“Who is doing that?! Watch it young man, this girl is a seductress who tricked my friend’s acquaintance!”

“Who are you calling the seductress you seductive snake!!”

“Both of you shut it!” After Takeharu cease their fight, he took a deep breath.

“*Cough*, first of all, Mr. Hal, you misunderstood something here--” Takeharu slowly explained what Selia had told him.

“I see. I’m sorry for my previous behavior towards you Ms. Selia.”

“… I also need to apologize for my misbehavior.”

“We need to atone for our wrong-doings properly.”

“I also need to fix their relation as for my compensation. It is partially my fault after all.”

“Um… I don’t think that we need to think whose fault it is. I mean, it was just an unfortunate coincidence. Anyway, Mr. Hal, where are both of you stayed?”

Suddenly called by Takeharu, Hal raised his head.

“Ah right, there’s no need to be so formal. Just call me Hal. And we were staying nearby in the inn called as Sleeping Cats.”

“… Wait, are you serious? We were also stayed there.”

“Eh? Really? I wonder why we hadn’t met each others until now. What room are you guys staying at?”

“The room with two beds, 206. You guys?”

“The room with two beds, 207…”

“…”

"“HOW CAN WE DIDN’T EVEN CATCH EACH OTHERS?!!”"

“Shou usually start searching out at 9 in the morning and back around 8 in the night.”

“Yesterday, Mao search for him around 1 hour earlier and back at 5 or 6 in the night to eat dinner.”

Takeharu could only hold his hand in front of his face and let out a big sigh.

“So that’s why they didn’t meet…”

“Anyway, Takeharu-sama, what should we do?”

“How about we left them to cool down their heads for now? Tomorrow at 9 AM might be good for them to meet up downstairs at the dining room.”

“Ah, then it’s good. I’ll try to convince Mao later.”

“We’ll also call Shou. Then, see you later, Hal.”

* * * *

The next day, 9.40 AM.

“…”

“…”

Both Mao and Shou sat facing each other, yet both of them have been silent for about 15 minutes.

The sound of hustling bustling of the dining room which also used for serving breakfast kept going, yet there has been almost no sound from their direction.

“Hey, are you sure this is okay? They had been like that for 15 minutes…”

“Actually, it’s 17 minutes.”

“… This might not work. Let's go Takeharu-sama, we need to break that cold atmosphere.”

Selia who had been quietly observing the two of them has grown anxious. The three of them sat in different table than those two, hoping that they would resolve this problem themselves.

“It’s too hasty to do that. We need to give those two a little time.”

“Takeharu is right. We shall stay quiet and let them resolve this. From what I’ve seen, these both are just idiot who can’t be honest to themselves!”

“Ooh, aren’t you quite observant. Well, as far as I could see, both of them are just awkward in this kind of relationship and ends up in lost of what they should do. Can’t help it, those two are just a pair of ‘Tsundere’s~.”

“Um~hum.” Hal also nods at Takeharu’s remarks “I see, so they both are at lost. Seeing it like that, both of them looked quite cute together huh? Ahahahaha!”

“Aren’t they? So you also understand this kind of thing. Hahahaha!”

“Sigh… to have companions like this… I pity both Yoshitaka and Mao.”

In the middle of talking, the three of them already released their attention from Shou and Mao and begun discussing passionately and enjoyably.

* * * *

“… Those three… Don’t they know that we could hear them? Messing with us like this. I’ll make them regret.”

The one who raised his voice first is Shou.

“Agreed. I won’t let them go easy after mocking me like that.”

“…”

“…”

Both of them finally raised their face.

“Pft.” Suddenly Shou averted his eyes and holding back a laughter which slips out as he trembled a little.

“W-what’s so funny?! Hey Shou! Face me properly!” Mao ranted at Shou who held his laugh with a flushed cheeks.

“No, no. It’s just… I feel stupid after knowing what happened.” Shou finally lets out his laugh.

“… I guess you’re right. What a laughable farce.” Following Shou, Mao lets out a little giggle.

In just a moment, the light atmosphere changed back into seriousness.

“I have no excuse for the incident last time. I’m sorry. I wasn’t cool headed that time. I don’t think you would just forgive me easily but nevertheless, I’m very sorry.”

Shou lightly bows to Mao to express his deep remorse.

“Ah no, that was… I was also in the wrong. I was blinded with jealousy and worried that you might not need me anymore. I’m also, very sorry. My behavior was uncalled for.”

Sincerely apologizing, Mao also bows her head. It’s pretty unthinkable that the selfish and prideful Mao do such a thing before.

Raising their heads, both of them continues to laugh with a wry smile, restoring the light mood that was left behind before.

“A~ah, that was silly. Then, Mao, I shall accept your apology.”

“Really? But, I won’t forgive you easily you know. I have a condition, of sort, I guess.”

“Eeh..? seriously?”

“Well? How about it?” Mao winked and points her index finger towards Shou.

“Sigh, can’t be helped. I’ll try to do with whatever I can to fulfill those conditions.” While Shou can only sighed and shrugged his head like always.

“Then it’s settled. Just to remind you there is no backing off from contract with a demon.”

“Heh, now that’s the Mao I know.”

* * * *

While the ruckus between Selia, Takeharu, and Hal still going on, Selia suddenly looked towards Shou and Mao. Then she lets out a satisfied and relieved smile.

“Takeharu-sama, Hal, look at that. I guess before we know it, the both of them already reconciled.”

The three of them begun to observe Shou and Mao in silence. A small smile appeared on each of their face.

“You know, this is the first time I see Mao like this. Your friend, Yoshitaka Shou, is the first one to make Mao like that.”

“Which are you talking about? The jealousy? Or the smile she gives right now?”

“Both of them. I wonder if Yoshitaka knows about this.”

Certainly, neither Hal nor Takeharu had seen this kind of face from Mao. For Takeharu who had completed every route possible in the game, those smiles are never to be seen in any of them. The sight in front of him makes Takeharu wonder.

‘It’s not about he knows or not, it’s about he realized it or not. Hey Shou, you have opened up new expressions from Mao that she never gives from any scene you know. Moreover, your smile has come back to those of the old time. I really am glad for you, Shou.’

“Well, even if he don’t know (realized) about it, isn’t it fine? Both of them are doing fine after all.”

“… Takeharu-sama is right. Above all else, I’m glad.”

The three of them continue to chat in harmony, strengthen their bonds with each other.

* * * *

With Shou and Mao still sit facing each other, now Selia and Takeharu stand behind Shou, while Hal stands behind Mao.

“Cough, then, let me introduce them to you properly. This is Selia Nightfall. I could say she is in some kind of relationship with my friend so there’s no way I would take her.”

“Ah. Pleased to be your acquaintance. I'm Mao, my full name is rather long, so I’ll just introduce myself as Mao Rubina, is that fine with you? And… I’m sorry about the misunderstanding, I guess.”

“Ah no, it’s okay, um… Ms. Rubina.”

“Just Mao is fine, no need for the formalities.” Mao smiled gently towards Selia.

“And this is my friend who came from the same world as I am. He is Takeharu . . . . . . hey Take, what was your full name?”

“Wait?! You forgot?! Isn’t that too mean?”

“Ahahaha of course not, just joking. … Daijima was it?” Shou give an inquiring tone to Takeharu.

“You really forgot it! It’s Daichika! Daichika Takeharu!”

“Ahaha, sorry. It’s just I’ve gotten used to call you with ‘Take’ so I didn’t bother to remember the rest.”

“Yoshitaka, isn’t that to mean for Takeharu-sama?” Selia said while giving Shou disdaining eyes.

“… Shou… you must be an idiot.” while Mao looked at Shou with a pitying eyes. “Then Daichika was it? Nice to meet you.”

“Right, I’m not too comfortable with calling you Mao right on the spot. Can I just call you Rubina?”

“Ah well, it’s okay. And then, this one is Hal Arc. . .light? uh sorry what was it again?”

“Wait you are also the same?! It’s Hal Arcland!”

Suddenly, Takeharu patted Hal’s shoulder.

“I know how you feel, Hal! Can I call you brother?”

“Uh, Takeharu, you’re my true companion!”

““Idiots…”” in this moment, Shou and Mao had the same opinion towards the two of them.

“No, you guys are just too terrible.” Selia sighed hard once in a while.

* * * *

Around midnight, at Gardan town’s Sleeping Cats inn backyard, currently there are sounds of some kind of activity. It was Shou, in the middle of the night, he practiced his magic. Mao, who heard this sound, came to see.

“Shou? What are you doing?”

“Hmm? Ah, Mao. Sorry, did I disturb your rest? Urk, if I was too loud and disturb the other guest, the inn keeper is going to be mad at me.”

“No, I just woke up in the middle of night, and see that you aren’t in bed. Then I heard something here.”

After Shou and Mao reconciled, the five of them rotated their room. Originally, it was Shou, Take, and Selia in one room with two beds. Needless to say, Shou intended to sleep in the sofa or floor was denied by Selia and forced to sleep in the bed. And as for Selia, She snuggled up to Takeharus’s bed.

Meanwhile, Hal and Mao who rented the room besides, also have two beds. Of course, the two of them slept on different bed.

Now, Shou and Hal changed room. Hal now stay with Takeharu and Selia, while Shou stay in the same room as Mao. This makes Takeharu’s desire to tease both of them rose up and said “Eh, why not change the room into the one which have a shared bed? I feel pity for one of the bed that might not get to be used.” Although, Mao and Shou denied about it with a red face, it seems like Takeharu hit the bullseye.

And what Takeharu had said had become true. Just a few hours ago, Mao snuck up to Shou’s bed and thus both of them had their intimate night after a while. After Mao fell asleep, Shou moves towards the backyard and start to practices magic which he never had the chance to test out the past 4 days.

“So, what are you doing here Shou?”

“Just trying to use magic which I recently got my hand on, seems like Myste can't process the magic, so I need to chant it myself." Shou felt that he would dug his own dark history though. "I haven’t tried it in these 4 days after all.”

Shou smiled wryly towards Mao. For the past 4 days, he has been searching information about Mao and abnormalities in this world. That's why he hasn't tried to use the magic he got.

“… Oh right, Shou… actually…” Mao seems to be trying to say something but she felt like something is stuck on her throat.

“What is it? Don’t be so reserved, spill it. You can ask me anything.”

Seeing Shou’s gentle smile, Mao strengthens her resolve.

“I… Heard from Takeharu tha--”

“...” He already had guesed what Mao wanted to say. It seems Takeharu had told Mao about Shou's old experience that still wound him.

“That… about that. You once had some experience regarding--”

Shou moves closer to Mao and then hold her tightly.

“Don’t mind it. It’s okay. I’m okay now.”

Mao, who is a bit shorter than Shou, faced downwards and snuggles towards his chest.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what I had done hurt you like that.”

There was one time that Shou had experienced the same thing. He was once in a relationship with a girl. He cherished that girl, very dearly.

One day, his friend accused him that he cheated on her and shown Shou’s picture with another girl. In reality, he wasn’t cheating on her.

The girl was furious, at that exact moment she cuts of every mean of contact to Shou. Few weeks after that, Shou witnessed her with the one who accused him of cheating. He was anxious. He then investigated about it. In reality, it was the girl who cheats on him with his friend. Their affair had been long before his friend accused him of cheating. He was set up.

Shou who fell on despair show himself to the two of them. Instead of being furious, he only let out a small wry smile and say. “Well, how should I say? Good bye and congrats, I guess?”

Even after that incident he acted like usual. He didn’t change. No, he didn’t want to change, so he wore a mask.

This incident happened after resides inside him. And thus, he also knows about it.

“Let’s put those aside. More importantly, look at this, Mao.” Shou stretched his hand.

“Fire and light, form together, dance in the sky and explode! !” Just in a few moments, Shou already continued another chant. “Hear my song, hear my plea, and hear my command. Let those that had been sung be eternally remained. Let it echo through the world! !”

A bright ball of fire shot out from his hand, towards the sky. The ball reaches high altitude without colliding with anything and then explodes and scatters just like a firework.

“Beautiful…”

“ is a spell that lets any spell to repeat them, while is just a small ball of fire which will explodes into smaller part. I imbued to the which will explode later, creating the smaller part to explode again into another smaller part. I'm not even sure what I'm talking about now... Anyway, I’ve more or less already get used to using these magics. What you have seen is some kind of fireworks. That’s how it’s called in my world. There are other varieties to fireworks though.”

“Maybe, I would like to see some others.”

“Unfortunately, I can only perform a few imitations of them. I can’t do the complex one.”

“Hmm~ I see." Mao fell silent for a bit. Seems like she is thinking about something. She raised her head towards Shou and said. "Do you remember that I said I would forgive you only with some condition?"

"Have you figured out what the condition shall be?"

"More or less." She said with a charming smile. Shou can't help but blushed seeing her smile. "Then, I shall make the conditions to forgive you to let you show me these ‘Firework’s from your world. Not just fireworks, I want to know a lot more.”

“Should I fulfill that condition?” Shou teased Mao.

“Uuu~, I thought you promised.”

“Ahahaha, well, if I had the chance, I’ll show it to you. I promise.”

“Then… I also want you be the guide. No, you must be the guide.” Mao looked with pleading eyes.

“Yeah.” Shou nods in agreement towards Mao’s conditions.

“You understand what I mean right?”

“Needless to say.”

‘Show me your world to me one day.’ And ‘Don’t die. Because you're the one who must show it to me.’

“T-The most important is ‘you must be the guide’ okay? I won’t forgive you if you left me behind without my permission! Understand?!”

“Got it.”

Shou then hugged Mao once again. This time, he envelopes her from behind.

Mao closed her eyes. Her lips naturally formed a smile.

“I’m glad that we return like this again.”

“Me too.”

Certainly, just like what Hal had said, the bonds between the two had grown many times stronger now.

As she was wondering about something, Mao then asked about Shou's world.

"Hey Shou, I've been wondering. I've told you about my world countless times before, but you have never told me about your and Takeharu's world. I want to know about it."

“…My world huh… Well I could tell you about some, but I’m sure you might get disappointed.”

“Why is it?”

“It’s… not as great as you think. It might seem to be peaceful, but it’s not really that peaceful.”

“Seems peaceful but not peaceful?” Mao got a bit puzzled about it.

“Your world might be better than mine.” Shou gives a wry smile towards Mao.

“It’s not… the is getting oppressed there. We struggle hard even just to survive.”

“But, your country, ’s country seems to be great to me. … it wasn’t actually only one race right?”

“Yeah, there consisted hobbits, goblins, ogre, elves, beastmen, and many others.”

“That’s why I said that it seems to be great.”

Mao shakes her head gently.

“It’s not. Although it’s rare, sometimes internal fighting occurred here and there.”

Shou looked towards the stars in the sky with a lonely face.

“You know what? In my world, the same thing also happened.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but it’s worst. In the west, such thing happened because of skin color.”

“Even though they’re also humans?” Mao looked into Shou’s eyes with a surprised look.

“Yep. There were also wars caused by greed to expand their territory. There were also wars using the name of religion. There was once existed slavery just because they were thought to be inferior.”

“You used past sentence… then does that mean its better now?”

“I can’t confidently say its better though.” He gives another wry smile to Mao. “There still existed discriminations towards others just because they have different physique. There still also violence with people using the name of their God or Religion.”

“… Isn’t it quite bad?”

“There are also discriminations towards a certain group of people just because their hobbies (And I also suffer that discrimination a little bit).”

“…” Mao could only fell silent.

Certainly, from what Shou had said, her country seems to be great. Different race work together to survive, although sometimes there are dispute, it’s rarely serious.

“Humans in my world… no might be even in any world, humans are just like that. They’re such a feble existence so they tried to be superior to the others. They are scared to be oppressed so they oppress others. They are afraid to be betrayed, thus, they betray others. They don’t want something to be stolen from them, hence, they stole. Humans are such a selfish being…”

“Even so…” Mao raised her voice. “Even so, you still want to go back to such a world? If you think that my country is better then-- won’t you come and live in my country?!”

This time, Shou smiled with determination.

“Even so, I’ll go back to that world.” His smile seemed to be radiant and full of compassion. “You see, it’s not like every humans are like that. Even demons, there are many types of personality in right? Not each and every one of them are bad. I have a family, my father who work hard for us, mother who support my father and took care of me and my brother, and a brother that I look up to. I also have uncles and aunts who also sometimes took care of me, there's also my cousins who eager to play with me whenever they come. There are also some of my friend other than Take who might be worried about me. Aren't there also someone who might be worried about you in your world Mao?”

“… You’re right." Remembering something, Mao closed her eyes and gives off gentle expression "I guess so they might also be worried about me if they know. Then, after you went home to your world… will you come and get me?” Mao also rose up a smile to her face.

“Needless to say. I will search for any way be it possible or not, to reach you once again. So…”

“No matter what separates us.”

“And no matter what will happen here on after.”

““I’ll certainly find you.””

Both of them hold each others hands facing toward one another.

“… This time, don’t break the promise okay?”

“No, wait. I never broke it, right?”

Mao hit Shou gently in the stomach.

“Think about it yourself, idiot.” Then she quickly took Shou’s lips. “Too bad for you, I’m one of the type of those selfish beings.”

As the time indicating that midnight had past, both of them back to their room to take a rest (or maybe not…) before it’s time for the sun to rise.

* * * *

"Whew, it sure is hot huh."

"Its just as you said, Takeharu-sama."

"Both of them haven't realized us? Seriously?"

Up in the window, there stood Take, Selia, and Hal. Shou and Mao didn't realize that where they stand were in a clear view from Takeharu's room window.

"Hey Takeharu, your friend sure is amazing. I never seen Mao like that before. She changed, for the better. It's like she's more honest than before."

"It's not just Mao. Shou also changed even if it's just a little. Though I don't know whether it's for better or worse, but I'm glad I could see his old smile."

"Anyway, it's time for us to get back inside. It's not good to continue to peep them, and they might realize us soon."

"Okay~~"

"Acknowledge~"

'Hey Shou, your smile may comes back into those of the old you, but have your resolve strengthen enough to face 'him'? One day you might have to confront 'him' you know. After all, I caught a glimpse of 'him', the one who break our friendship... It wasn't his avatar, I know, it's 'him' himself. It can't be wrong.'

* * * *