“Uoh! It’s darker and longer than I thought. I can’t even see what’s inside, let alone the exit.”
“This tunnel curves slightly, so we can’t see the light from the other side.”
Yuugo was at the entrance to the tunnel, and his face turned pale when he saw how dark it was inside.
There was such a clear difference between the darkness inside the tunnel and the dazzling sun outside, that from the point where the sunlight didn’t reach, he pretty much saw nothing.
He thought to himself that it would be very difficult to investigate in that darkness, but conversely, Melt immediately trotted forward. And then…
“Kyah!?”
“Buh!!”
Five steps in, she tripped on something and fell.
Yuugo breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her fall safely by using both hands, but he was immediately faced with another problem.
The miniskirt of Melt’s uniform was lifted completely, and his eyes were faced directly with her pink panties. Yuugo immediately looked away, but it was just a little too late.
“…Did you see?”
“Ah, no… Just for a second, and it’s too dark to really tell anything.”
“…Really?”
“Really! And more importantly! That’s what happens when you rush into the dark like that! Isn’t there any sort of light?”
Even as he responded honestly to Melt, he couldn’t wipe away the awkwardness, so he forcibly changed the subject, and asked if there was any way to light their path.
Melt seemed not too happy, and puffed her cheeks, but understood that the problem was caused by her carelessness, and answered Yuugo’s question without prodding too deeply into the rest.
“Yes. Hold on…”
“Oh? Oh…”
Melt put out the index and middle finger of her right hand, and drew a heart shape in the air.
Yuugo looked on with confusion, as the ring on her index finger began to shine, and a light in the shape of a cross flew from her finger.
“There you go. Ah, grab the handle. If you grab the blade, it’ll snap you clean off!”
“Handle? Blade?”
As Yuugo wondered what she meant, he looked more closely at the light, and saw that while it looked like a cross, it wasn’t one. Not exactly.
It looked more like a big ceremonial knife than a cross. Yuugo tapped his hand with his fist when understood what Melt meant, and she puffed out her chest with a proud look on her face, as she began explaining her magic item.
“What do you think? This is the power of my magic item, Seward Ring! It can turn my magic energy into the shape of a blade and shoot it out!”
“Eh…! It sounds pretty versatile! Hn…? Wait…?”
Yuugo thought back to that explanation while looking at the knife made of beautifully shining violet magic energy, and when he turned back to Melt, a certain character popped into his head.
It was a thought brought about not by the otherworlder Yuugo Clay, and more by the nichiasa otaku Yuugo Kurei. And as he looked at Melt tilting her head a little, he thought about her attributes.
(A beautiful girl from a faraway place, violet, kind of clumsy, can make a blade with light… Oh? Could it be…?)
Yuugo was kind of excited, and not just because he was facing a beautiful girl up close.
He thought to himself that getting excited about finding a real life person who shared traits with a fictional character was a bad habit of an otaku. Then he thought that thinking about that was also an otaku habit, until Melt started feeling like something was off and started waving her hand in front of his face.
“Hello? Yuugo? What are you spacing out for? You have your light, so let’s go find that train!”
“A-ah, yes. Of course. I’ll go first. I’ll tell you if the footing is bad, so follow me.”
“Yes! And leave your back to me, partner!”
Yuugo was brought back to reality by Melt, and led the way through the tunnel while feeling a little bad for spacing out.
Melt responded in a joking way, and they relied on the shining magic energy knife to light their way as they advanced further through the tunnel.
“Oh, there! Isn’t that it?”
After a while, the violet light illuminated the black train they saw before, and Yuugo and Melt walked a little faster as they approached it.
It was not spewing smoke, and seemed to not be moving at all. The two thought there was something strange about it, and as they got closer, they became more cautious.
“…Strange. I’m not hearing any voices from the inside.”
“There should be passengers and engineers, right? Did they leave and abandon the train?”
The fact that the train ran into some sort of problem and stopped inside the tunnel was expected, but they were not hearing the people who were supposed to be inside.
Yuugo sensed danger, and activated his Blaster to cover himself in armor, before pointing to the entrance to the last carriage and speaking to Melt.
“Melt, I’m going in first. Follow me.”
“A-all right…! I’ll watch your back, Yuugo…!”
It was almost the same thing she said before, but this time, there was a nervous tone.
Yuugo nodded, reached out to the door to the carriage, and slowly opened it before going in.
“Excuse me! We are from the Luminous academy! We are here to check if everyone is safe! Is anyone here!?”
Yelled Yuugo, and he waited for a response… But there was none.
There was complete silence. There was no sign that anyone was in the other carriages either, so it appeared the train was deserted.
(What does this mean? Did everyone abandon this train before we got here? It’s still weird that it’s completely empty…)
This situation could be explained if the passengers left the train and headed for the exit on the other side, but it was very odd that not a single engineer stayed behind to investigate whatever trouble happened with the train.
Maybe the train only needed a single staff member to run, and said person led the passengers outside, although that sounded very unconvincing.
Yuugo felt more and more that something was off, as Melt followed him inside.
“How is it looking Yuugo? Have you found some… Kyah!?”
“Melt!? Hey, are you all right? It’s the second time today.”
“N-no, that’s not it! The floor is slimy!”
Melt entered the train in that tense situation, and the moment she stepped inside, she tripped for the second time that day.
Yuugo figured that it might have been because the strange situation put her on edge, but as he undid the Blaster transformation and helped Melt up, he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“Hahaha! You really brought a fool of a partner with you, Yuugo Clay! Well, you two are perfect for each other!”
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almost catching up to the latest TL-ed manga. let’s go