A/N: I am sorry for updating this, and my other stories late. I am really sorry. Due to work and other problems coming up, this will be a problem for me to handle. School is already stressing me out so I probably can't keep up with the updates and I guess you guys have to bear with me for quite a while. Indeed, I had to think of ideas and my non-stop imagination and with much more stories coming up from my brain, this will affect my studies. But I shall try and not disappoint you readers, happy reading!

Chapter 2: Are you afraid?

Ayano's POV

So here I am, right in the creepy dungeon, alive and might be dead anytime. What are the chances? I'm gonna touch that moron who has been doing all these! I'm glad though, Kazuma is with me. He doesn't even seem scared... I thought a normal human being would be afraid of all these, unless he isn't one? Or he had encountered something like this before? Or... Did he turn into a ghost too?

That minor thought scared me for a while. If he was ever a ghost, I don't know how am I going to survive. I would be the only human being in this creepy dungeon!

I shook my head, there's no way he would be a ghost. But the silence was darn awkward, so I decided to lighten MY mood.

"H-hey, Kazuma." I started with no topic at all.

"Hm?" He responded without even looking behind. DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT! I almost shouted that, but never mind.

"W-well... What do you think there might be inside the dungeon?" I stuttered off at first, but remain calm so that he would not notice my 'oh-no-I'm-too-scared-to-save-the-world-because-there-is-ghosts-here!' expression.

"What do you think..." He started first, then looked behind slowly. "I'm not the one who created this dungeon, but if you are so excited on seeing what is in the dungeon, I can invite you to go first~" He smirked after that sentence.

"N-n-no way!" I pushed him lightly and noticed how cold he was. But why cold? Is he scared too?

"You're cold..."

"When you go down a dungeon, there would be dead bodies, skeletons, skulls, ghosts, spirits, witches, dogs, cats, the moon..." Kazuma teased a little.

"Stop your creepy-ness before I push you all the way down there!" I almost teared for being too scared. I mean, what if … There's something behind me? Unnaturally I mean!

He patted my back and brought me close to him. My heart nearly stopped. Already being too scared down here and now he's being close to me, my heart could beat faster than anyone else's.

"Who knows what's down there? We might not be able to survive throughout though."

"W-we can! We just need to defeat all of them!"

"Yeah maybe, let's just be careful."

We continued to walk down the staircase, and once the flight of staircase stopped, we stopped to see which direction we should head to.

There are 3 ways with gates covered, but we are not too sure which one we should choose.

"Eenie meenie~?" I asked as I materialized Enraiha and got it in my hands.

"Not that way," Kazuma closed his eyes and used his powers; probably trying to sense it. How I wish I had all that power of his...

"Let's go front."

"Sure sure, mister." I lighted up the pathway since it was getting darker. The fire is sure warm, but I am way too cold because of this dungeon itself. I was still terrified, to be honest.

"I wonder where does this lead us to." I asked quietly.

"I wonder too."

Now I am a little surprised, Kazuma always knows his stuff, what he is doing, and what he is up to. This mission sure got a little suspicious... But from the last 'ghost' hunting in school, I must not be naïve since he is always full of tricks.

His face did not looked like he's hiding something from me, well not like I could tell... He's always so suspicious and not open to others, might as well leave him alone. He'd better protect me good anyway.

After a few minutes of walking, there's another pathway again. "Can I blow this whole dungeon up? Why would there be so many pathways in the first place?" I groaned and complained.

"Then..."

"Then?"

"Let's fly all the way then." Once he finished his sentence, he grabbed my waist. Before I could even reply, he covered my mouth and we swooshed by in a blink of an eye.

Was there danger behind? Or in front? Or someone must be rescued quickly? Why did he fly off so fast? I doubt it's for me... I looked up, it was hard to see his face with my hair flying around and with him hugging me.

"H-hey, what did you sense?"

"Nothing, I thought you wanted a ride."

"... I don't think you would be so charitable to use your powers for me. Spit it out, what happened back there?"

End of Ayano's POV

Kazuma's POV (The secret shall be out!)

With this trick going on, their butt shall be burned by Ayano. She'll be so furious that the whole dungeon might explode.

What did I sensed... There was danger going behind and in front too. We definitely won't turn back, besides, Ayano questioned too much. She sure is that scared of this huh?

In order to calm her down, I might as well tell the truth. "I just sensed something, it was quick and fast, so we needed to get to the main source fast."

She did not reply, as I glanced down at her, she was busy staring at me. "Ayano?"

"Nothing, that had better be the truth."

We flew and came to a stop when the danger was cleared from what I sensed, but something else told me that it was never the end...

I have to protect her no matter what in any way.

"Why did you stop?" She asked and frowned.

"The danger is cleared, I need to save my powers for later on anyway. Better not waste them." God, Jugo had better give me good money for this.

"Sure sure."

Throughout this whole dungeon trip, I found that I haven't been teasing her... There was no humor between us because of this dungeon. Seems like location really gives mood too, huh?

"Kazuma, I found something!"

I turned back, she held a stick, or more like a rod. Whatever it is, that had better not be a bad sign. It looked like a magic stick... And it... is a little heavy...

"What the hell is this thing made of?" I complained and examine it for a while.

"Why?" She asked. She did not find it heavy at all? Why?

"You did not find it heavy?"

"No... How can that be heavy! It's as light as a normal paper stick!"

"... Something's... abnormal then... Are you abnormal?"

"! I think you're the one who's abnormal!" She shot back.

Indeed, weird, but I decided to let her keep it, for future sake; I guess.

So we continued to walk and hoping to reach our destination. After this whole mission, I'm going to go back to the Kannagi's to demand more money. This is taking too much of my precious bed time. Just joking.

There was a sudden thud on my back. I turned; without a need to guess that Ayano did that.

She was tired that she was walking while resting her eyes, and probably hit my back by accident because her eyes weren't open. Sleepy girl, I thought she always had enough sleep with her fanciful pajamas.

I grinned and took her in my arms just to let her sleep on me. She's so precious to me, being stuck in this dungeon together with her is good enough.

End of Kazuma's POV

When they finally reached the destination, they were amazed, shocked and also scared. There are lots of witches, wizards, and a huge gigantic pot in the middle and with a lot of funny funny containers at the side.

Not to mention that there are zombies, monsters and … including weird insects.

They did not notice the pair that was flabbergasted by the scene that they created.

"E-eh... So... They mean no harm?" Ayano asked with widened eyes.

"Uhh... I think they do...?" Even Kazuma was clueless about all these.

"A-are we like i-in another w-w-world..."

"Guess not..."

Ayano took out the rod that she found earlier on. "I'm guessing that this must be theirs..."

"Let me have it." Kazuma rolled the rod on the ground, hoping to catch their attention. "Guess they failed to notice it..."

Suddenly, there was a witch who swopped by, and landed on the ground behind the both of them.

Ayano's POV (I think POVs are much more easier to write... LOL)

I was indeed shocked at what I was seeing, but how did they even go about making all these creepy stuff? I know they are already creepy; no offense to them though. They did not really seem to take notice of their surrounding even though their enemies are here...

How dangerous, witches who just flew by randomly, and especially the one who just landed on the ground.

"Heyyo dee hey there human beings." The witch started.

"H-hey..." I waved at her. When it is a close-up look, she looked mature, and she looked she was about to seduce Kazuma any time... Her clothes are all rugged, and she rode on her broom.

"Do you mind telling us what is happening here?" Kazuma asked.

"What's happening here? Well, we're leading our normal life." She asked confused with our questioned too.

"W-well... There's a nearby hotel here which has been haunted... And there was this dungeon so we decided to check it out."

She blinked twice and then laughed out loud. "Haunted? As in? Sorry I did not understand that part."

"The whole building has been corrupted with weird, scary, creepy stuff. Like ghosts and apparently some demons..." Kazuma said.

"Are you trying to insult us? We are one of them!" She said angrily.

"No, but you guys are scaring the people here. It is a building which lived by normal people who thinks you are creepy and scary." Kazuma continued, almost insulting them.

I pulled Kazuma's arms, wanting to stop him from talking.

"How dare you... How dare you insult us!" The witch said angrily and flew back with her broom stick and got all her other members to attack us!

"W-wait! Hold on a second!" I don't believe that they do not have feelings.

"Well, if they wanna fight then go ahead." With his eyes closed, both hands in his pocket, he's always so confident no matter how many attackers are about to attack him. Did he even spared a thought for me?

"Kazuma! Wait! Please don't attack us first! I want to know why are you doing this all of a sudden." I said and blocked Kazuma from entering.

"This is our new home, what are you talking about? This is our new house, our new place! We live here normally!" The witch shouted and moved her stick around.

So … What they are doing is leading their normal life... But we can't let them continue on because the hotel is not their only place.

"Whatever, quit wasting my time and get off." Kazuma said and flew over me and went in, all the witches, wizards then cast their magic spell, but they were too slow, Kazuma just blew all of them away; hurting each one of them.

"Ayano, what are you standing there for? Help me out?" Kazuma shouted to me while I was worrying what he might cause to the entire place.

Should I go? Does he have his reason for doing this? He said he's willing to protect everyone... But he will go against the evil... Does that mean they have evil intentions of doing this? I thought they were friendly!

I did not know what to do, I stood rooted on my ground when suddenly an army of witches and wizards came behind me and attacked me from behind.

"KILL HER." I heard them said. Their attacks are seriously powerful, I could not dodge, nor cure myself in time.

Just when I was about to feel my body split into two, a pair of arms enveloped me as I felt the warmth and I feel safe for this.

CLING!

I was indeed thankful that he saved my life. I almost fainted because of that. Why did my sensing went wrong in the first place? Why can't I sense them? Were they too powerful for me to handle?

"You okay?" He interrupted my thoughts as he continued to shield me.

"Y-yeah, thank you."

He smiled, and headed on. I think that smile just made my day, enough to cure me.

Yes, I should fight with him, continue to fight on, determine to save the day and make it out of here. No matter how scared am I, he's here to protect me, and I will protect him too.

End of Ayano's POV

Kazuma's POV

That scared me for life... Ayano... She was so precious to me I could not let her get injured in any place. I had my reasons on killing them, I hoped she understood and got my message across.

But after rescuing her, I think she did get what I meant by wanting to kill them. They are indeed strong and evil that was why she could not really sense them when they almost killed her.

Job well done for the two of us. We need to get rid of them fast, before another huge bunch of them comes. So I trapped them in one shield, and took Ayano's hand and ran off to the correct main source.

"We have to be fast, they might have informed more of their people of our intruding." I told her.

Giving up to run, I carried her and flew right to the main room.

~w~w~w~w~w~w~w~

"What in the world..." I whispered and stared right at the main thing that attracted our eyes.

"I know right..." She whispered back.

It was a huge, a really huge gigantic purple jewel crystal. It looked like it was made from Amethyst, and it looked really really evil.

"It has a really strong evil force in there. More importantly, if I had that much of crystals..." I grinned, but did not have the intentions on stealing them.

"We need to break it right?" She asked, ignoring my temptations on the jewel.

"Yeah, break it, fast too." I said and sent a wind cut over.

"Right!" She sent multiple fireballs by melting the jewel so that I could easily break them.

Job well done, this mission is easy after all.

"So, guess we are... Done?" Ayano said and looked everywhere.

"Not entirely..." I said and pointed at the little creature which looked quite cute.

"What is that doing here?" Ayano said and almost touched the creature.

"Don't touch it, it might be as evil as those witches and wizards."

"How can such a cute thing be so..." Ayano trailed off when the monster grew as large as the jewel earlier on. "Evil."

"I told you, did I not." I was already quite exhausted to continue fighting on, with all the monsters attacking us from everywhere, this mission is never gonna end.

End of Kazuma's POV