79 I Am Thou, Thou Art I

Two people were staring at each other inside a barely illuminated dusty stone chamber. A boy and a girl sat face to face motionless, soundless, too scared to breathe.

A boy was looking at a girl with long chestnut hair, her violet eyes seemingly glittering from within. But instead of said girl, his eyes saw a man past thirty with dark hair and perceptive brown eyes. That man was smirking sarcastically after another witty comment, waiting for his peer's reaction.

A girl was looking at a timid boy, his grown out silver hair partially covering his green eyes. But the girl's eyes reflected not a boy but a young and beautiful woman wearing a peach bob haircut and giant red glasses. The woman was looking up, hoping, and wondering when the promised moment of happiness would finally bless her with its presence.

"Is that... really you?" they said in unison, as they usually did before.

"Satoru?"

"Mirai?"

"But how..?" together, their voices echoed through the tunnel again.

Silence spread over the chamber, leaving no sound except for two hearts beating to their own rhythm. Both people stretched their hands to touch each other's faces.

"Is that really you, Mirai?"

"What about you? Are you Orihara Satoru? Certainly doesn't look or sound like that, if I'm being completely honest," Kanai chuckled and took Orisa's palms in his hands.

Quietly squeezing each other's palms, their gazes connected and created a bridge between their souls. At least that was how they both felt at the moment, basking in compassion and showering in warmth.

Before long, Orisa jolted, and a grimace of shame and regret distorted her face:

"Mirai, I'm so sorry! It's all because of me that you ended up here!" her emotional outburst rose in intensity with each passing word. "If not for my meddling, you could have lived such a wonderful life. But I almost dragged you here to this world, to this place, to this body. I'm so sorry for everything I had caused to you. I'm..."

"Are you done with this crap?" Kanai asked with a puzzled expression. He looked at Orisa for a long time, his right brow raised questioningly. Then his expression finally softened, and he voiced a question with a tender voice: "Idiot, is this really what you should be saying right now?"

"What..." Orisa was startled by such a question. Deep in thought, she lowered her head and pondered her actions. It took her five long seconds to realize her grave mistake, and she looked up and right into Kanai's eyes, her gaze steeled with determination. Orisa squeezed his palms, let out a long breath, and finally said it: "Mirai, I love you."

"I love you too, my dumb and slow Satoru," Kanai answered with a smile brighter than Sun.

A moment later, they both jumped forward and embraced each other tightly. The world around the pair turned two tones brighter, filled with their warmth, joy, and love. Dirty, ragged, wounded, bloodied Orisa and Kanai ignored every inconvenience because Satoru and Mirai were together at last. Nothing could bother them in such a moment, they melted into each other and formed a blob of pure bliss. Not a single thing could get in their way, except for just one:

"Well, this is awkward," mumbled Kanai, still holding Orisa.

"I don't know a suitable phrase to describe how mixed my feelings are," she added. "Oh, fuck it, let's stay like that for a bit more."

"Yay!"

A few more minutes of cuddling ended, and an embarrassed Orisa and Kanai distanced themselves from each other. Flustered but happy, they were facing their true love that survived and traveled to another word. Coughing shyly while looking away, Kanai mumbled:

"Say it one more time."

"Ugh, really? Okay... I love you, Mirai."

"Can't hear you."

"Mirai, I love you," said Satoru even louder.

"One more time, please," giggled Mirai.

"Kanbara Mirai-san, I'm in love with you!" This time, Satoru shouted it with all his strength, feeling courageous and young. Even though he spent more than three months in this body, he never felt the age mentally. But now he was young and almost almighty yet again, strength and energy coursing through his veins.

"You won't believe how long I waited for these words, idiot Satoru. What took you so long?" Mirai was staring at him with a glitter in her eyes.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm on a slower side in this regard," Satoru chuckled awkwardly and scratched his nape.

"Honestly, we could have done so many wonderful things were you a bit more decisive. Maybe ten times more, for starters?"

"Hey, that's mean! If you were so dead set on everything, what stopped you from asking me out?" protested Satoru.

"Huh? Are you nuts? I'm a girl, you know. I gave you enough opportunities and chances to do one single thing. Oh god, how frustrating it was, day after day and week after week dropping you subtle or even obvious hints. How many conversations there were when I praised you or said how great it was to spend time together. I can't even remember the number of times when I took your hand or hugged you, geez."

"A man has his doubts, you know."

"You were like a saint virgin being tempted by a devil. I so wanted to slap your stupidly cute face!" Mirai almost growled in frustration.

"Hey, stop beating a dead horse. To be fair, most people would be in doubt when approached by such a perfect lady."

Two blushing teenagers were exchanging stares, flustered by each other's confession. Their hearts were beating in unison, speeding up with each passing second. Something sparkled between them, and reunited lovers jolted up from their sleeping bags and almost jumped into a tight embrace again. Mirai half-closed her eyes in anticipation, and Satoru's lips were rapidly approaching hers.

And then they stopped a mere inches away. Orisa and Kanai were staring at each other, blinking in confusion and embarrassment. Orisa slightly distances herself, and Kanai muttered with a shocked expression:

"Oof, gross. I hoped it would work somehow, but nope, no-no-no way."

"Um, yeah, this is beyond strange and way above my discomfort threshold," agreed Orisa and let go of Kanai before slumping back on her sleeping bag.

"I'm astonished of how lame this whole situation is," Kanai groaned and stretched on his sheet, with his hands crossed and used as a pillow.

"On the other hand, many things became clear," Orisa chuckled after remembering her first weeks in this world. "When I first met you, I was thrown out of the loop with how moody you were. Now I at least can see why."

"Goddamit, of course, you'd be moody. You can't even imagine how awful it is to end up with so many unfamiliar and counter-intuitive..." Kanai was interrupted by Orisa's coughing. "Oh, right, you actually can. Anyhow, the center of gravity is completely off. And I'm so tall right now that I acquired a fear of heights. I can't properly pee while standing! And you don't even want me to start with all this morning, ahem, tower eruption. Satoru dude, the first time I woke up with sticky pants, I thought something was wrong with my body, holy crap."

"I raise your bet with my first period when I woke up in my bed in a pool of freaking blood."

"HOLY SHIT, REALLY!?" Kanai rolled off from his bed, shuddering in laughter.

"I thought I was going to die from embarrassment. Stop laughing, you demon."

"Oh, man, I'm dying here..." Kanai kept laughing for another minute before returning to his bed. "So, does anybody know about you?"

"Yeah, Onuki and Rita."

"Onuki? Why?"

"Well, um, I mean..." Orisa shuffled uncomfortably, knowing all too well what will follow next. "She made rather bold advancements on me, but I was pretty sure from her demeanor that she has some issues with men, so I decided to confess."

"You cheated on me with Onuki?!"

"She only kissed me twice and, um... Well, nothing happened in the end."

"Lust-driven molester!" Kanai tried to accuse Orisa with a straight face but couldn't keep the facade and broke into laughter yet again.

"What about you?" Orisa asked to put an end to another round of teasing.

"No, of course not. How was I even supposed to say something like that?"

"Yeah. Must have been hard on you, I guess," Orisa muttered sympathetically.

"Kinda. I didn't want to live at first. All this dying stuff wasn't that pleasant, and then I found out about the gender..." Kanai stared at the ceiling that was barely illuminated by a single orb of light. "But then I met you..."

The chamber became quiet. Outside noise was blocked by tens of meters of solid rock, so the only sound inside the room was their breathing. Several minutes had passed before Kanai said:

"Satoru?"

"Hm?"

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"I love you so much."

"Probably as much as I love you, Mirai."

They were smiling and looking at each other fondly. An unknown bond between them finally took a form and acquired a proper name, clearing up the confusion and replacing it with another layer of happiness and warmth. Orisa and Kanai were basking in the light that their smiles produced, the minds of theirs finally at peace. They had spent some time like that, doing nothing and merely admiring each other before Orisa finally spoke after a short sigh:

"Honestly, I don't even know what comes next. I mean, what are we supposed to do now after finding all this?"

"Um, how about we continue like we were before?"

"You think nothing is going to change between us?"

"Wow, you were so slow before but now jumping the gun? How cute," Kanai chuckled, teasing Orisa again. "What do you suggest? It's not like we have lots of options, right? As much as I'd love to, I'm sure nothing good would come from trying something physical. I don't want to kiss a girl, just saying."

"Well yeah, same here - I think I'll throw up in the process, too," agreed Orisa after imagining how she would kiss a man.

"Then let's not rush things. If something were to change in the future, we would always catch up on our lost, ahem, activities. But for now, let's keep it as it is. Also, not like we have time to waste on this."

"Ho-ho, somebody actually speaks business now? Wonderful!" Orisa laughed after observing Kanai roll his eyes and sigh. Then her face turned all serious, and she took the backpack to rummage through its contents. After pulling something out, she gave Kanai an intense look and said: "I know you'll be against it, but please keep it on you all the time."

With that, Orisa handed him a green crystal with a black circle around it, their most powerful restorative item. The crystal contained the Restoration spell with enough power to recover lost limbs and cure the most fatal wounds. Exorbitant price and rarity of the item came from the fact that its reagents were five evolved cores plus other materials on top of rather high skill requirements from the crafter. Dippo gave it to Kanai with tears in his eyes, begging him not to waste it.

"Why?" Kanai asked, immediately turning defensive and almost offended.

"Because I don't want to lose you again."

"So it's okay for me to lose you, then?" he scowled back at Orisa's answer.

"Okay, how about this?" Orisa said after some contemplation. "If you are alive and well, you'll be able to heal me back. I can't do the same."

Kanai glared daggers. He couldn't deny Orisa's words completely - there was the Source Heal in her arsenal, which she could use on Kanai effectively activating his high Intelligence, but its power and healing speed were still way lower compared to his Lifespring. Growling something unpleasant under his breath, Kanai took the crystal and stuffed it into his breast pocket.

"Thank you," muttered Orisa apologetically but with a warm smile.

"Whatever. Let's go check on the tunnel and our spoils," Kanai jumped on his feet and swiftly marched towards the entrance.

Judging by the fact that the corpses of the Beasts already dissolved, they had spent more than two hours recovering and talking. The tunnel sustained quite the damage during its first combat test: the stone cracked here and there, some of the blood ink scratched or burned away, and several local cave-ins partially buried the path. Predicaments aside, the pair plundered one evolved and twenty-five normal cores, amounting to roughly one hundred Beasts killed.

"Whew, aren't we hella rich now, dear wife?" Kanai cackled, shaking the bag with the cores. "Yay, I guess. Although, what to do with all this pile? It would be a chore to drag them with us."

"Don't worry, my dear, I'm in the middle of something. Remember how I told you that we are running out of Concentration potions? Well, I was experimenting with the cores to create a substitute and now am quite close to the actual test. If you don't have anything better to do, we can run a trial today."

"Uh, honestly, I don't know," Kanai began slowly. "You see, there is this thing to do, and also that and those as well. Kind of, like... I'm a busy person, you see. Not sure I can find a room in my tight schedule."

"You better find a room, or else…" Orisa jokingly threatened him with her fist.

"Officer! Domestic violence! Help!"

"Sheesh, you'll wake up our neighbors!"

Laughing cheerfully, they arrived at the cave's entrance and stopped motionless, staring outside with their mouth agape. The astonished pair was looking at clear, bright skies without a hint of clouds. The rainy season had finally come to an end.

With red cheeks, Kanai slowly took Orisa's palm and squeezed, looking at her. Orisa turned to him with a smile so bright that Kanai was almost blinded by its shine:

"Into the bright new world," she said, radiating joy.

"Together," added Kanai.