In order to comfort his love and also to remind her that they've started fresh, Hagime sat behind her with his arms wrapped around her slim belly and gives her a peck kiss on her cheek which makes her smile as she understands without words being spoken.
As they were enjoying each other's warmth with the hero party being none the wiser as they stayed on guard, with this place being a labyrinth with strong monsters. Koari was feeling safe in his arms and Hagime being part of the world's strongest party, without care slips into the moving film of his memory.
_________
After revealing himself and waiting for Koari to calm down, Hagime just sat there with an overwhelmed look as Koari bombarded him with a chain of questions and concerns about his missing arm.
Hagime thinking it will be easier to show her from his view of things, takes a multi colored orb from his person and gives Koari a basic run down of its function while asking her approval which was unneeded as Koari taught it was a good idea.
Hagime holds the illusionary orb– this one was made before the floating feature could be installed like an IOS– and sends both himself and Koari into the illusionary world replaying his memories of the abyss.
In less than five minutes, Koari begins to cry from seeing how Hagime lost his arm to him starving for almost a week. Within the hour they spent reviewing Hagime's POV of the abyss; from eating monster flesh, coming close to dying, meeting Kenshiro, Yue and their battle with the last boss, Koari has express more emotion per minute than ever recorded.
Hagime decided to take things slow by stopping at the end of their boss fight and overtime the rest will be shown. Koari however was overwhelmed by the sheer monstrosity that laid wait beneath the first hundred levels of the labyrinth. Hagime then tries to leave to give Koari some space for her thoughts, but Koari holds him and begs at which Hagime stays to help her sort things out and they eventually sleep in the same room.
Koari wakes up alone in bed and she jumps out to find Hagime sitting in the chair with a satisfied smile on his face as he's watched an angel sleep. Koari releases a breath of relief for waking up to find him still real and alive but immediately gets punchy and 'angry' at Hagime for invading her privacy without caring for his explanation.
For the next few days Koari made her classmates worried as she seem to have lost her enthusiasm to quickly clear the labyrinth and she's been vanishing a lot without a word. It got to the point of stalking her when she sneaks out but they always lose her one way or another which clearly means someone is helping her.
Well, it's not like they could escape Hagime's senses as he leads Koari out of sight. After the first night, Koari proposed to get to know each other and to see what goes on from there. Hagime then points out the need to keep his survival from the abyss a secret from even Shizuku and Kouki, if they're going to do this which Koari agrees after 30mins of inner struggles.
From that moment on, at any given opportunity Koari disguises herself and they ride to another town quarter of an hour away on Steiff, ie Hagime's cycle, for their dates as they get to refresh things.
A few days before the Hero's party next dive into the labyrinth at a private booth in a restaurant, Hagime tells Koari about the Liberators, Ehit and the most plausible way back home after which he awaits her answer.
Koari however was having an inner battle of conflicting thoughts. She has seen the demonic beasts beyond the hundredth floor which were stronger than the battle power of the Hero's party combined and now Hagime informs her of a battle of greater proportions, how can she a weak healer do in that battle.
But as she looks at Hagime's face, she is enlightened at which she reprimands herself with her thoughts for almost making such a grave mistake.
'Stupid Koari!! He didn't tell me for my contribution to the battle or just to share information, No!... ...he needs me by his side when he fights against the stronger enemies, he needs to know if I'd stay when things turn from bad to worse or when he kills but... ...Can I?'
Was what rushed through her mind in a nanosecond as she looks straight into Hagime's eyes with greater will than before.
Hagime understanding what those eyes meant embraces her as he profess his love which he buried under all that pressure and pathetic ness of his former self and Koari reciprocates with a light kiss which soon turns passionate but as actual high schoolers they stopped before things got heated and steamy. When---
"I think it's about the time to leave… Is it okay now?"
___________
Hagime's trip down memory lane was interrupted when Kouki timidly called out Shizuku and Koari. Hagime feeling the urge to kill this pathetic excuse of a Hero, for rudely interrupting his reminisce was stopped as Koari stands up and readies to set off.
Incidentally, the ones here were Kouki, Ryuutarou, Shizuku, Kaori, Suzu, Eri, five people including Nagayama Juugo, and Hiyama's gang of four; a total of 15 people, while Meld and the Knights were standing by at 70th floor. Actually, they were able to start from the 70th floor, since a teleport magic circle that connected 30th and 70th floor was discovered. Though it became easier to move to the lower floor, 70th floor was the limit for Meld and the Knights. To begin with, there were only Meld and few others who could keep up while accompanied by Kouki's party when they were around the 60th floor. Thus, they had only become a hindrance to Kouki's party when they reached 70th floor.
Even Meld was conscious of that. He taught Kouki's party of all the know-how about the dungeon. That's why, he and the Knights decided to try their best to secure a safety zone around the teleportation circle, and only Kouki's party were to move on.
Meld wanted to show a bitter smile due to being exceeded in only four months. But even so, after associating with Kouki's party, he and the Knights were satisfied if their abilities could safely secure a safety zone in 70th floor.
Seeing her readiness to move out, Kouki ordered the other members. They had explored 90% of the 89th floor, and the route they were to go now was the last place to explore. Thinking about the structure of the floors up until now, it was about time for them to see the stairs.
The prediction turned out right, and the party discovered the stairs 10mins after they moved out. They descended the dim, spiral staircase while confirming the existence of trap. After they descended for around 10m, Kouki's party arrived at the 90th floor.
For now, Kouki's party were looking in vigilance for anything that might happen since it was the starting point. But things were more than expected when about 30mins into the 90th floor, an ungodly amounts of blood could be seen.
This was the last evidence that answered their uneasy feeling after not meeting a single monster or signs of anything relevant till now. Shizuku and Nagayama advice Kouki to order a retreat now before things start to get---
"So this is the Hero's party eh?"
"I also think so my lady..."
It's too late. Two demons, a female and a male who was clearly subservient to the red haired demoness that stood before the party as the male demon blocked their retreat. She had a voluptuous body with red eyes and a slightly pointed ears.
Hagime still hidden reassures Koari with his touch then pulls Donner and Schlag out of his coat and plans a strategy for the first time after exiting the labyrinth. This was a real challenge without the treasure trove, meaning limited bullets against many controlled monsters.
After all the drama with the party struggling to defeat the monsters but they foolishly become distracted seeing the brutally beaten Meld and an outraged Hero failing to kill the demon who steps in to protect the demoness out of realization that they also live, smile and die for a cause, Hagime decides to do something.
With careful management of bullets he clears the rear of monsters and now focuses on the front. Showing inhumane body endurance and strength, Hagime kills the demon leaving the demoness for questioning.
After a brutal coercion, Hagime guesses and learns the demon's purpose in this labyrinth in addition to why there were two instead of one. Apparently, the demoness' lover being a close aid to 'That guy' pleads for more monsters as a failsafe which meant plus one as the amount of monsters a person without that Ancient magic can control is limited.
With that she's killed and Ken's party arrives after the "excitement".