As Vivi walked around the halls of the dorms, she sighed tiredly to herself. She had gotten off bed rest a few days ago, and those were the most dreadful days of her life. And here she was, pacing up and down the halls in a fit. The Nekomata was too bouncy and hyper, and all the energy she kept in was making her twitch about. Thinking of an idea, she looked around quickly for Ren to join in on a dungeon. Yes, the perfect plan it was.
"REEEN! HELL, KHEIRE TOO! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS!?" the cat demon yelled at the top of her lungs, running now as she searched for the 2 fellow students.
Naturally, Ren heard her yelling down the corridors, soundproofing be damned. "Hey, that's Vivi," he muttered. "Hey, Vivi!"
With her now heightened perception, she picked up a soft voice that sounded like Ren, coming from down the hall.
Miki stuck close to Ren like a shadow, curious as to why the Nekomata was screaming so loudly, "Should we go check on Miss Neeakomi?"
"...I don't know who that is," Ren said, "but Vivi's just down here."
He pointed down the halls to where her voice had come from.
"Let's go see!"
Running faster towards the voice, Vivi could not stop when she saw Ren. So instead, she went flying and tackled Ren to the ground with an audible 'oof!'.
...Not to mention the audible "crack" from when Ren struck the ground.
That said, he was still squealing like a schoolgirl, so apparently it didn't hurt that much.
Seeming rather excited at the turn of events, his immediate reaction was to hug her head and yell.
"Vivi, Vivi! Where have you been?"
"Doing dungeon runs! Which reminds me, do you want to go on one with me!?" The Nekomata yelled with the same excitement. Still not noticing the swordsman behind Ren, she proceeded to nuzzle Ren's fluffy white hair.
His answer was, at first, drowned out by giggling. "That tickles!"
"Miss... Neeakomi, I would like it if you would stop nuzzling my Master..."
"It's okay, Miki," Ren told him in attempt to reassure the Gheist for entirely wrong reasons, "It doesn't hurt at all. Vivi is gentle really." As if to prove his point, he petted her behind the ears as he spoke.
The brunette sighed, holding out a hand for the two, "At least get up, Master..."
The small boy, apparently a little distracted, looked at Miki, seeming a bit perplexed. "Miki, would you come too?"
"If Master wants me to..." Miki glanced at the Nekomata, watching as her ears twitched.
Vivi began to purr very loudly, letting her head lean closer to Ren's hand. The feeling was calming and relaxing, and helped with her previous headache of hyperness and sugar high.
"I'm coming." He said with finality, staring at the Nekomata intently.
"We can all go together!" declared Ren cheerfully, exploring the Nekomata's head with his hands and watching for various reactions.
The Nekomata proceeded to go limp on Ren, the purrs continuously being loud and long as she nuzzled his face and pawed his hand.
"Heh-hee!" The boy's laugh was more of a triumphant one than anything else, as if he had tamed a great lioness rather than a cheerful Nekomata. Nonetheless, he kept going. "So what kind of dungeon are we going to?"
"Well we will never know if you keep sitting on the ground Master." The brunette was more than exasperated at this point as he forcefully made a grab at the two.
With a loud hiss, her first reaction was to claw at the grabbing asshole. "YOU'LL NEVER KNOW IF YOU DON'T PUT ME THE FUCK DOWN. I'LL EVEN GET RENYA YOU SON OF A BITCH!" She yelled loudly, trying to kick at Miki.
"R-Renya...?" whispered Ren. "What do you...? M-Miki, stop! Stop!"
Miki set them both on the ground wiping his hands on his pants, "I don't know who that is, but please don't say that name... It's annoying."
"And your face annoys me, you fucking grabby shit! Fucking fight me you cuck!" She challenged, raising her fists. "One on one, no weapons! Come on shit for brains!"
"That can hardly be called a fight if it has rules..."
"S-stop...! We don't have to fight! It's fine! I'm standing up, see? It's fine!" he pleaded, reaching over and petting Vivi some more to try to placate her and Miki at once, not expecting a great deal of success.
The Nekomata calmed instantly, turning into a cat and jumping to rest on Ren's shoulders. Her tail was puffed and her eyes were narrow on Miki, waiting for him to try something else.
"So the dungeon?" The cat was less than impressive, and if it wasn't Ren standing between them he would probably try to skewer it.
"An electric dungeon..." the cat muttered softly, trying to keep the sword boy from hearing.
Ren blinked, given the cat was right next to his ear. "Wow. I've never been to one before. This will be brand new. Have you been in the one near the Academy before?"
"No..." she whispered into Ren's ear, curling up into a ball to get comfy.
"I'm guessing we'll be using the portal room Dorm Advisor showed me?"
"That's a good idea," Ren nodded. "Actually, now you mention it, Kheire might be really helpful to have around. He probably knows all the dungeons like the back of his hand, knowing him!"
The Nekomata gave a grumble and nodded, letting her grudge go with a shake of the head. "Sure, he's probably in his room...which reminds me to hand him my guns for a quick idea modification upgrade..."
"An upgrade?" Ren echoed, moving down the corridor and gesturing to Miki to follow with a smile. "What are you thinking of?"
"Well then, we all have something for Dorm Advisor to look at then?" The Gheist stuck close to Ren's side, looking at the cat resting around his Master's neck.
Ren raised an eyebrow, confused for a moment, before remembering something.
"Oh, you're right!" he nodded, taking a handful of fire cores from his pouch. "I have a ton of these I was going to ask him to condense. He has so much equipment in his room, it makes me wonder how he can sleep..."
He was silent for a moment. "Does Kheire sleep?"
"I'm gonna ask him to see if he can make the chambers removable and make it possible to put a core in each chamber..." she said weakly, the fire cores throwing her off her train of thought.
"Oh, so like a multi-tool weapon?" he summarized. "That's a really cool idea!"
"...not really." She put her head between her paws, looking off towards Renya who waved and went into her own room. "Bitch..."
"Did you say something?" he asked.
"No!" She stated quickly, shaking her head.
Ren smiled, rubbing the underside of her chin with his finger. "Let's all go ask him, then."
Miki nodded and produced his three crystal cores, "Do you think Dorm Advisor would agree to come with us?"
"I hope so," nodded Ren. "He would know his way around it better than all of us. He'd be great to have with us. And not to mention, he can probably pick up a ton of materials and stuff that he couldn't normally find in an electric dungeon. He might be able to get electricity to do something useful. Besides lamps, I mean."
"Ba dum tsss." She moved her paws and stretched, yawning. "Come on already!"
"I'm going, don't worry," he assured her, knocking on a dorm door.
Kheire burst out of his dorm door with armfuls (and bandagefuls) of stuff, forcing bags into everyone's hands and heading to the exit. "Allons-y! We have a dungeon to conquer." His face is a cheshire grin of mischief and determination.
"Was he... waiting for us to ask him...?" Ren queried nobody in particular.
A whisper is heard in Ren's ear, Kheire's mouth not moving, "I have ears everywhere, my apprentice..."
"Eeeeeeeeeee!" Ren shrieked, going stiff as a board.
Vivi quickly turned human and stood close to Ren's side, pulling out the ice sword and powering it to 2 feet long.
Miki pulled Ren behind him, glancing at the Nekomata and Dorm Advisor as he summoned a crystal into his hand.
Giving Kheire a cautious look, Vivi moved a little closer to him. "Kheire, it's time to stop sexually assaulting your apprentice..." she said softly.
"What does sexually assaulting someone entail? I'm not sure what you are implying." Kheire asked curiously as he exited the building. "Oh, and keep up!"
"IT MEANS STOP WHISPERING IN HIS EAR ALL CREEPY LIKE!" she yells as she put away the sword and ran after Kheire.
"Th-that was scary," Ren mumbled, clinging onto Miki's sleeve a little.
Jumping on Kheire's back as a cat, Vivi gave him her two guns. "Could you make them a revolver type? With each slot capable of holding a core? If it isn't much trouble..."
"Of course it isn't too much trouble, if you stop calling me creepy and provide the cores." Kheire frowned at the treatment from his friends. "It will have to wait until after the dungeon, though."
Her ears drooped, flattening against her head. "Ya, just keep the guns on your for a while...I still need to get more cores..." she muttered, jumping off him and running further up ahead.
Ren timidly handed over a fire core.
And then another fire core.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And looked through his bag a bit more.
And handed over another core.
And another.
"Maybe we should do this when we get back..." he said quietly.
"That sounds like a good idea. Take these back." Kheire stuffed them back in Ren's bag.
"Thank you. I'm sorry."
The Nekomata stopped in front of a large metal door and yelled behind her for Kheire. "Is this it?!" She questioned loudly.
"Close enough. Look for a glowing doorway with a lightning symbol over it." Kheire called out to her.
She looked around more, seeing a door with a glowing yellow lightning strike on it a couple doors down. Running towards it, she waved the others over. "Found it!"
Ren hurried over, looking at the glowing insignia with excitement. "It's so rare that I get to go through portals! Have you been through one before, Miki? You're new, right?"
The brunette nodded. "Dorm Advisor brought me here when we went through a dungeon together."
"Hmm..." Ren nodded. "So that makes me the only who hasn't been through a portal to a dungeon before..."
"No, I traveled by foot. I honestly didn't know these existed...but traveling on foot was way more fun!" She said with the same amount excitement as Ren.
"Ah, Val took me flying to our last dungeon," he smiled brightly. "It was fun until... she got... hospitalized..."
Vivi resisted laughing at that, instead patting Ren's back to cheer him up. "Want to go on another dungeon with me? Just one on one? We can make it a camping trip too!"
The boy's eyes lit up with joy at the suggestion, and his beaming face offered a single wholesome nod. "Let's do it!"
Kheire is doing an inventory check, ensuring everything is prepared for this new challenge. "Everyone ready?"
"As we'll ever be, I assume..."
"Aw, come on, Miki! We'll be fine!" Ren assured him. "Let's go!"
Opening the door quickly, Vivi jumped in with joy. "WOOHOO!" she screamed before landing on the floor. "Fuck!" she muttered. "I thought there was a drop..."
"Vivi, you can't go injuring yourself already," chided the small boy, coming in after her. He knelt beside her, placing his hand on her ankle briefly to heal what little damage had been done. "We've just started, right?"
"Being rash and hurting yourself is only causing a burden for others..."
"Shut it sword boy." she sneered, jumping up and quickly moving on ahead. "Fucking dick..." she had muttered to herself, pulling out her two blades.
Kheire grinned and followed them through, "Once more, into the rift..."
Summoning a windplate, she jumped up high to the closest ledge that was about six feet in the air. "You fuckers coming or what?"
Miki channeled Exin into his shoes, forcing crystals to form on them and began climbing towards the Nekomata.
Jumping on to another ledge, she hissed under her breath, rage filling her. 'Stop being an idiot...ugh, leave it alone!' She thought angrily to herself as she jumped to another ledge, almost missing.
Kheire just leisurely flew to the top, carrying Ren with his bandages.
The brunette aimed at a rock face above him, launching himself up using his gauntlets.
Using another windplate, she jumped on to it and bounced herself up another 5 feet to another ledge. Deciding this to be faster, she used 2 more windplates and aligned them to bounce on two of them swiftly, becoming 20 feet high on the mountain.
Kheire looped a bandage around the waists of both Miki and Vivi, ensuring his kids are safe.
Miki adjusted the bandage that had just wrapped around him, giving a thumbs up to Kheire who most likely couldn't see it. The brunette moved at a relaxed pace, making sure to stay a bit behind the Nekomata.
"Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just carve a path?" Ren inquired.
"Nah, we need to practice movement techniques anyway." Kheire responded, sitting at the summit and slowly pulling up Ren while watching everyone else.
"I usually just climb them," he admitted. "If I have a lot of time, I just shoot some beams and burn out a safe way up, but sometimes I don't have enough time for that."
Jumping two more windplates, Vivi took a small breather before taking to jumping on her own instead of using exin.
"Can you move a bit faster Miss Neeakomi?" Miki questioned, loudly as he launched himself to the neighboring rock face.
"Both of you should hurry up! I can carry you the rest of the way if needed." Kheire shouted down.
"It's somehow both not as bad and much worse than it looks," Ren chimed in. "Maybe we should see if we can find a cave into the mountain or something like that. Going through would be easier than going over."
The Nekomata shrugged, not wanting to waste much needed exin on climbing. "You can carry me...I guess...?" She said.
"If it'll be faster, than I'm all for it." Miki lurched forward as he collided with the rocks, nearly losing his grip at the motion.
Bursting out with laughter, she gave a bright smile as she jumped near Miki, digging one of her ice blades into the rock to keep from losing grip. "Having fun there?" The Nekomata said with a teasing tone.
Kheire gave the bandages a tug as a warning before pulling them up the rest of the way of the mountain. "So should we search the top or look for a cave?"
"Caves are nice," Ren voted, trying to raise his hand before remembering he was tied up.
Vivi squeaked at the sudden jerk of movement, not used to being carried by bandages other than being held hostage.
"Having fun there, Miss Neeakomi?"
"That was nice, now let's enter a fucking cave. Objections?" She questioned, turning her head to look for any other opinions.
"Are all the dungeons in caves?" Miki didn't protest and just summoned his weapons as he hung from the makeshift harness.
"Probably not, but caves are pretty cool and dark." She shrugged as the Nekomata pulled out her battle axe.
"I don't mind either way. There is a cave entrance on the other side of the mountain, if you would like to search it." Kheire shrugged, following the majority vote.
"...Kheire, have you been here before?" blinked Ren.
"No, I just always have unseen eyes exploring my surroundings. Always case your environment, Ren." Kheire answered, patting his apprentice's head.
"Unseen eyes?" his apprentice echoed. "Is that your ability, Kheire?"
"There are things better left unknown, Master Ren," Miki cut in, a comment that earned Ren's silent agreement.
Looking around a bit more, Vivi took in her surrounding group of friends. "Two guys, two girls...my OCD feels pleased with this." She thought aloud.
Ren, hearing this, frowned a confused frown and started counting the group members quietly.
"Vivi, there are three guys. Miki, Ren, and I are all male." Kheire responded, wondering what she was talking about. "You are the only female here."
"You're saying sword boy isnt pretending to be a guy?" Vivi tilted her head in confusion.
"In case you didn't notice... I'm not wearing a shirt. There is the least doubt that I'm a guy."
"I thought you were wearing a very well designed binder..." She stated as she poked Miki's chest. "Huh..."
"I feel as if this is going places that it shouldn't be..." mumbled Ren.
"I don't know what you mean, Ren."
"I don't think I do either."
"But are we exploring the cave or traveling to the top?" Kheire responded, getting a little impatient.
"Exploring caves is fine." Miki said, smacking her hand away.
"Then let's get going, hm?" Kheire starts walking around to the cave entrance.
Vivi nodded and turned to her cat form, scampering after Kheire to conserve exin for the long run.
Kheire remembered to remove the bandages from his friends as he started walking.
Ren stretched his arms out as he was set down, exhaling. "It's pretty cozy wrapped up like that, but I think it might have started to ache before long," he noted offhandedly. "Anyone need a light?"
Shaking her head, the Nekomata sat down in her spot in the cave entrance. "I can see fairly well."
"You have cat eyes," Ren pointed out. "That's cheating."
"It's not cheating if I was born a Nekomata..." Vivi trailed off, wondering what point Ren was trying to make.
"Well, that's also true," he decided after a moment of thought before conjuring a small orb of light and delving into the dark.
"I could provide light as well, if necessary." Kheire glowed, maintaining the exin on his form but moving it to the surface of his body.
The small boy blinked in surprise. "You can do a lot of things, Kheire. I definitely need to ask a few things when we get back. What about you, Miki? Do you have any light sources?"
"Does this work...?" Miki conjured his sword and swiped his finger across its edge, causing it to practically melt to the ground in a puddle of molten metal.
"That... looks dangerous..." Ren mumbled, taking a step back. "Are you sure you don't want me to give you one of these...?"
The Gheist shook his head, and made the glowing puddle shift across the ground like a snake, casting a soft light on the surroundings. "It's easier to do this with my abilities..."
Ren's eyes were practically glowing with excitement. "That's so cool! Oh my goodness, that's cool!" he squealed. "I want to be able to do that!"
"Hmmm. I wonder if I could do that with my magma? It would be nice." Kheire wondered, messing around with his lava as if it were clay or slime, generating it from his palms.
Ren pulled a thoughtful expression, apparently considering something. "Glass core..." he made his mental note aloud.
"I could help you get one of those later, if you like. I saw that there were glass-aligned monsters in the bubble-aligned dungeon for now." Kheire offered, wanting to get healing bubbles like the healer teacher, with all their different uses.
"I was just wondering about something is all!" Ren insisted, half-embarrassed for some reason. "Don't worry about me!"
"Aw, guess I'll have to do the bubble dungeon alone. Shame." Kheire frowned, wondering if it was even worth it if the enemies had no healing bubbles.
"Oh, it's not like that! If you would like my help, I'll definitely come!"
Master is being guilted again... "I think something is moving up ahead..."
Nodding, Ren stopped in his tracks. It's exactly like it was last time... The best thing I can do is...
"Everybody, take my hand. I'm going to give you a boost."
"It feels like overkill to use this on that thing..." Miki mumbled as he grabbed the white haired boy's hand.
"I don't care," he said instantly, his voice sounding a little strained. Like a bursting dam, he began to feed energy to the Gheist.
Kheire nods, patting Ren's head with one hand and grabbing Ren's hand with the other, leading the smaller boy to do the same for him.
The Nekomata grumbled slightly and took the small boy's hand. "Miki's right, this is overkill..."
"It doesn't matter!" Ren told her, feeding her energy as well.
Miki brought his blade down on the creature's head, decapitating it, "Onwards..." he said with a lazy drawl.
"The bosses should be right up ahead." Kheire called out to the rest of the party.
Sniffing the air, the Nekomata took note of the muddy scent, Kheire's plant like smell, Miki's metal scent, and Ren's curry and smoked scent. Up ahead however, was the distinct sent of something sharp and burning, almost like ozone and gas. 'Up ahead maybe...? Electric creatures are so fucking weird...' Vivi thought to herself.
"Be careful..." Ren mumbled to his companions. "I haven't fought anything like this before so I don't know what to expect..."
"We will be, don't worry about our stupid asses!" Vivi gave Ren a reassuring grin.
"Trust us a little bit, will you, Master Ren?" Miki patted the white haired boy's head and shifted the molten metal with a slight gesture.
"I-it's not that I don't trust you...!" he insisted hastily. More like I don't trust myself...
"Be not afraid, little apprentice." Kheire reassured his friend, offering a comforting smile to the nervous lad.
"Now if I know anything from these dungeons, it's that these bosses are weird as fuck with their alignment. I fought a fucking regenerating piece of shit water lizard. And a fucking snowman. I think we'll all be good." She rolled her eyes and grabbed a stone, ready to toss it down the path to see a reaction.
"Going for the boss with that attitude is dangerous Miss Neeakomi," she isn't wrong though, "expect the best but plan for the worst, was the saying, correct?"
"Uuuuuu..." shuddered Ren.
"And if I dont go with a positive upbeat attitude ill be scaring the crap out of little Ren here with my usual silence." She pouted slightly. "Now throw the stone or what?"
"Usual silence? It's nice to know being near anything that breathes breaks your, so called, usual silence."
Four holy beasts began to approach the group of young adventurers, eyes and pelts glowing and crackling with energy from their electric alignment. Upon getting into a sufficient range, they roared in unison and leapt at the children, two going after Kheire, one pouncing towards Miki, and the last targeting Vivi. None of them sensed danger from the glowing marshmallow boy.
Kheire responded to his attackers by raising his defenses, specifically his wyvern scale spirit armor, and lashing out with the lava he had been playing with, throwing a charged blob at each of them after tanking a hit from the stronger of the two.
Miki held his ground as the beast gouged at his chest and brought his sword down on the creature.
After the boss had pounced her, the Nekomata pulled out her battle axe quickly, giving a swing from the left upon the boss monster charging at her.
Ren gritted his teeth. Looking between the three, Miki clearly had taken more damage, so he moved to target him.
Letting his Exin built up, white-blue lights illuminated his wounds, healing them as they went.
The Raiju, being quadruplets and often acting in sync, unknowingly attacked their respective enemies simultaneously, using their preferred method of divide and conquer.
Miki created four large swords and launched them forcefully at the Raiju that shot lightning through his body, putting some distance between them with the attack.
Kheire responded to his attackers by avoiding one in favor of the other. He tanked the hit with his spirit defenses, throwing out globs of lava at the two of them to burn them more.
Looking at the wall next to her covered in a thick green slime, Vivi took out one of her regular grenades and covered it in the sticky substance. Pulling out the ring, she threw the grenade right at the Raiju.
As she did, Ren sent more lights out to heal the Nekomata this time.
The boss Raijus all kept going, their bodies crackling with electricity as they built up power. Again they attacked simultaneously, hoping to overwhelm their opponents through persistence.
The Gheist evaded nearly effortlessly, driving his leg into its stomach and creating blades to impale it in a swift move.
Kheire threw more lava projectiles, finally overcoming his enemies by melting them down with dozens of lava projectiles.
Knocked back, the Nekomata regained her balance quickly and charged at the Raiju, aiming to slam her battle axe down on to the beast.
Once again, Ren used healing magic on Vivi as she attacked.
Both Raiju that were assaulting Kheire melted under the lava from all of Kheire's projectiles. Miki's enemy was nearing death, but Vivi's seemed to be mostly okay, which it showed by attacking again and shrouding itself in electricity, seeming to glow with power.
Miki wasted no time in creating crystal shards to hold the bleeding creature down and turning his attention to the glowing beast.
Kheire unleashed a flurry of lava bolts at the shining creature, getting better at using them with time.
As the Raiju jumped at her, Vivi slid underneath it while it was airborne, digging her axe into its chest and letting it slide down to its stomach.
Ren clenched his fists. It was nearly over, right? He could visibly tell that the monsters were weakening by now.
The overcharged monstrosity slashed Vivi with a claw, roaring in rage at being ganged up on by the young heroes. All of its brothers were now dead.
Kheire created a concentrated lava grenade, throwing it directly at the monster. It was able to avoid a direct hit, but not the explosion.
Summoning a collection of swords and crystal spikes, Miki launched them at the Raiju that was being engulfed in flames.
Enveloping an extra blast/stunt grenade in cave slime, Vivi took out the ring and threw it at the Raiju while it was distracted, pissed off herself about being wounded.
The corpses of the four beasts lay at their feet, utterly defeated. Their halos began to appear above them, shining and crackling with the light of their souls.
The Nekomata went closer and picked up one of the cores, tossing it in the air and catching it happily.
"Fucking finally, this will work just well for my plans..." she said excitedly to herself.
Kheire dragged out a chest from the sleeping place of the four Raiju. "Ren, this equipment is luck based. Do you still want it?"
Ren shook his head wistfully. "There's nothing I can do with it. You take it."
"Alright, thank you, my apprentice." He put the accessory around his neck. It did not feel right, and he ended up wrapping it around his arm twice. Before sitting down in front of one of the corpses, his Kirin's core in his lap. He returned to the school afterwards, happy with his pet's new ability.
Yawning tiredly, Vivi turned into a cat and jumped onto Miki's head. "I got a date tonight, I'll hitch a ride with you..."
"I am staying back for the spirits. Go with Master Ren if you want a ride." Miki shook his head and sat down by the corpses.
"You're extracting spirits, Miki?" Ren blinked. "How do you do that?"
"I just wait for them to, hatch, basically. From the Halophages. It takes around a day or so. So unless you want to stay with these guys," he gestured at the fallen forms, "I suggest you go with Master."
Vivi stuck out her tongue and hopped over to Ren's head. "Pussybitch." She insulted half-heartedly.
"Do you want to pick up some cores first? I probably won't have much use for them, but..." he admitted as he wandered over to the body of the last Raiju to fall and looking at it inquisitively. "Hm..."
He made a series of thoughtful noises as he stroked the Nekomata's ears.
"Here. I'll do it since that guy might get angry if you mess with its body." Miki flipped over the body and stuck his hand in to its innards to cleanly extract the core. "There you go. You can do whatever to the others since they aren't my problem."
Ren's astonished face didn't change as he slowly took the core from Miki. "Th-thank you. You do it a lot differently to Kheire."
"It's more practical this way since I don't have the same skills as Dorm Advisor..."
"That's true. You don't need to worry about what happens to the inside since you're not extracting anything. It's a good idea if you have the strength for it..." Ren laughed anxiously, self-conscious of his weakness.
"I'm pretty sure you and Vivi could do this a lot easier than me since you're both stronger."
Ren pulled an odd sort of face, doubting somehow that he was better at impromptu surgery than the living sword, but didn't say it. "W-well, um... If you won't get lonely, we'll go on ahead."
"I'll be fine, just go ahead okay? I'll be back before you know it." Miki smiled reassuringly and returned to waiting for the spirit.
Beaming sunnily at Miki's smile, Ren nodded, gripping his sari as he hurried back through the cavern.
The Nekomata yawned and mewled tiredly, making sure to keep her claws in as to not hurt Ren on their way back.
