Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid! - Chapter 15: Rescuing Tohru...How Hard Could It Be? R-Right?

"Mia? Did you wake me up?," Kobayashi wondered.

She looked around hazily, and saw nothing in the distance. Nothing. Just the horizon and a cool, blue sky. She took a step forward in confusion and heard the splash of water under her shoes.

"And...I'm walking on water apparently? Man...this is a weird dream.."

Although her sight was a bit foggy, she noticed something in the distance as she viewed her surroundings.

"Of course...Tohru. I guess this had to happen."

Kobayashi lazily strolled towards the maid, who looked just as happy and carefree as she did back in Kobayashi's daily life back in Japan. Her head was turned sideways to Kobayashi, looking out at nothing.

She met her master's dead-fish eyes.

"Hi, Kobayashi-san!," Tohru exclaimed, still retaining her pose. Kobayashi half-expected her to come running for a hug, given that they've been apart for a while. "Beautiful view, isn't it?"

"What? Whatever...let's just get this over with."

Kobayashi examined every detail of her maid, and fought back the urge to cry. Cry tears of sadness, that is. She was obviously not real.

"Yes it is," Kobayashi replied nonchalantly.

Tohru laughed.

"Ha...she's near the edge...," Tohru giggled. "About to be free."

"What are you talking about?," Kobayashi said, squinting her eyes in the distance. "There's no-one there."

"Are you hungry, Kobayashi-san?," Tohru asked with a soft voice. "I-I've made your favorite...we can eat together, see?"

Kobayashi didn't respond. She just wanted to wake up, and put this all behind.

"...Kobayashi-san? Are you alright?," Tohru quietly asked, lifting Kobayashi's chin up with the crook of her index finger. "Are you-"

Kobayashi batted away her arm and took a step back, looking her lost maid in the eyes while crying uncontrollably.

"Stop..!," Kobayashi cried. "J-Just...stop...I-It hurts...," Kobayashi mumbled.

Tohru lowered her head and giggled. She crouched down and began running her gloved hand across the water, sending ripples towards Kobayashi's feet.

"Kobayashi-san...even in your dreams you know that...I could never die...right?," Tohru laughed. "We still have memories to make."

Kobayashi lifted up her glasses and wiped away some tears, which quickly came back. Memories to make.

"Don't worry Kobayashi-san...," Tohru reassured, standing up and holding her master's hands. "We will be together. Forever...oh! Remember we made that promise a while ago?"

"W-What?," Kobayashi sniffled. Her mind was racing.

"When you almost died...you made a promise! That you'll never leave me~"

A wave of guilt rushed over Kobayashi, sending her down to her knees. She had just broken that promise.

"No...It's not your fault. It was me that left you...umm..sorry about that."

Kobayashi simply sobbed in silence.

"I guess it doesn't matter now. You're coming to save me. We'll chat later in the real world...okay?"

Tohru passionately kissed her sobbing master on the lips, before standing up, and strolling away towards nowhere. Her arms were behind her back, but she ran her hands through the air here and then.

"Tohru!," Kobayashi called out, still on her knees.

Tohru turned around, arms behind her back.

"I...I love you! And I always will!"

Tohru smiled one last time at her master, before a blink from Kobayashi caused her to disappear from the distance.

"I will always...love you...and no-one else..."

"...ayashi-sama!"

"Huh? Oh...right...it's time to go..."

"..Kobayashi-sama! Get up! Argh...you lazy...*incomprehensible murmur*"

"Yeah yeah...I'll be right over..."

Kobayashi's dead-fish eyes opened by about a millimeter before a slap caused her to jolt awake.

"Kobayashi! Oh...sorry about that."

"Urghh...what..?," Kobayashi groaned as she slowly parted from the ground. She was holding her cheek too.

"Look..!," Mia hushed as she pointed to the ravine. "...seven...eight...nine..! That's every dragon right?"

Kobayashi looked through the lenses of her rifle scope at the mountainous ravine, and noticed nine red and black dragons idly waiting outside.

After a while, a smaller dragon (still intimidating as heck) came out of the cave, and soon every dragon was flying upwards out of the ravine. Looked like they were waiting for him.

Kobayashi and her maid ducked into cover out of sight from the flying dragons.

"K-Kobayashi!," Mia squealed quietly as the dragons flew overhead. "I can't believe this is happening!"

Kobayashi nodded at the bubbling maid, and held up a small, blue-green vial.

"Don't get too excited," Kobayashi said as they stood up. "Usually, things never go...as planned."

"We'll go invisible at the first sight of danger. Right, Kobayashi-sama?," Mia asked.

"Yeah."

The two began climbing down the rocky ravine with makeshift harnesses tied to a tree stump. Usually when partaking in such a risky activity, Kobayashi would be stiff as a statue, however she was maneuvering down the rocks with ease, with only one thing on her mind. You probably know what it is.

With a hunting rifle strapped to her back and a bag full of various potions (invisibility potion comes to mind), Kobayashi jumped down onto solid ground, with Mia following soon after. Kobayashi looked up and sighed. They were really far down.

"Let's go," was all Kobayashi said, her voice bouncing off the walls. She lit up a torch and began cautiously walking into the cave at the bottom of the ravine.

A nest. It was far too small (compared to the last one she visited) for it to be the main base of the Chaos Faction, but she had no other idea to where Tohru might be hidden. Maybe she could snoop around the cave and look for clues...or at least she hoped.

Kobayashi gave Mia the torch so that she could cling onto her rifle with both hands.

"Ah, gonna shoot them away I see," Mia breathed as a small smile appeared on her face.

"S-Shut up...," Kobayashi trembled as she took another cautious step down.

The rocky ground now declined into a steep angle, like stairs going down a subway. Except these stairs seemed to go on for an eternity.

"Look...," Mia whispered as she held her torch near the walls. "Claw marks..." She placed her hand in one of the indents in the wall, which was only one claw out of three.

"Shh..!," Kobayashi hushed.

The two froze in place, waiting for a sound to echo in front of them.

Thump...thump...thump...the heavy footsteps of a dragon could be heard coming towards them.

Quickly, Kobayashi popped the cork off of the vial and took a swig, before handing it to Mia.

"...did it work..?!," Kobayashi whispered in sheer terror. The footsteps were getting closer.

"K-Kobayashi! Take off your clothes! Quick!"

Kobayashi observed the maid hastily stripping off her outfit, and she followed suit without hesitation. She wouldn't care that she was stark naked if she was in a dragon's stomach.

The last article of clothing, Kobayashi's shoes, dropped down to floor, and the two of them stood as flat as they could against the tunnel wall. Although they couldn't see it (since they were invisible), they were both cringing at the fact that they had left their clothes and gear out in the open, just waiting for a wandering dragon to see it.

"Kobayashi-sama! Let go of my boob!"

"T-That's your...?! Give me your hand-I can't see you!"

"Shut up! Shut up he's coming..!"

The two of them held their breaths, and each other's hands, as they heard the dragon stop in front of them. Without the light of their torch, they felt one thing: dread.

They heard the dragon sniff at the bundle of human stuff, before muttering something angrily. The sound of footsteps got quieter as he walked away, and Kobayashi released her breath. She stumbled around in the dark, hoping to trip over their stuff but...

"Where is it?," Kobayashi muttered. Her glasses was off too, not that she could have seen anything anyway.

"I can't find it either Kobayashi-sama...," Mia replied in disbelief. "D-Did he take it?"

"Don't worry. Let's just keep moving," Kobayashi said assertively. "We're almost at the bottom. I think."

Mia's jaws dropped wide open as Kobayashi, who was entirely naked with no gear whatsoever, began climbing down the rubble deeper into the dragon cavern.

"You...must really love her...," Mia thought as she shrugged her shoulders and followed suit.

As the two kept walking (stumbling more like; they had no light source) the black basalt walls changed color to a dull red. Beneath their feet were shards of obsidian and other shiny rocks which could have formed due to the intense pressure underground.

Kobayashi panted and wiped the sweat off her face. It was getting extremely hot, as if you stuck your head in an oven but didn't touch the metal. The lack of shoes became a problem for them.

"Kobayashi-sama...," Mia panted. "We can't...feet...hot..."

"...right," was all Kobayashi could pant. The duo stopped moving downwards as without their shoes, the sharp, hot obsidian would be like walking on lava.

Kobayashi tread lightly towards a piece of dead dragon skin. It looked like it was from a tail, as it was long and curled inwards. Even though it was dead, Kobayashi had a difficult time ripping it off into smaller pieces.

Mia saw the piece of skin levitate in the air and instantly knew what Kobayashi was thinking. She grabbed the end of the skin.

"Three...two...one...pull!," Mia heard. She pulled as hard as she could, and she was suddenly pushed backwards into the rocky walls, holding onto a piece of skin.

Blood could be seen dripping from Mia's back.

"Well...at least I know where you are now...," Kobayashi said nonchalantly as she tied the skin around her feet.

"Itai, itai...that stings...," Mia winced. She felt a hand hesitantly touch her, and pull her up to her feet.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention-"

Kobayashi's words were cut off abruptly at the sight of Mia's naked, sweaty body. Usually, this would send her over the clouds in a cocktail of nervousness, happiness and embarrassment, however given the situation...Kobayashi simply nodded.

Mia also looked her in the eyes and nodded, as if they both wordlessly agreed to focus on the mission and not on each other's sweaty bodies.

They were now visibly naked, with the exception of their makeshift dragon shoes (which were unsurprisingly heat-resistant), dimly lit by small puddles of lava. They had finally stopped descending, and were now cautiously checking ever corner of the intricate labyrinth of a cave. It really felt like a maze, even though the roof was miles up, and the walls football-fields wide.

They tread lightly on the bedrock and walked past a lava waterfall, into an even larger cave.

"Surely this must be where Tohru-"

"ARGH!," Mia yelled, jumping back.

"Mia..!," Kobayashi hushed. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine...I thought this lava would act a bit less like water...that's all."

The lava falling down next to them did in fact, act a lot like water. Instead of the stereotypical slow moving honey-type lava she had seen in the movies, this lava was much more fast and liquid-like. It was a miracle how Kobayashi didn't get burnt by tiny particles of splashing lava.

Kobayashi turned the corner and saw a metal door, built into the wall of the blood-red cavern. Her heart leapt with both joy and fear.

"Mia...," Kobayashi whispered as her hand hovered over the hot metal doorknob. "Um...whatever happens...I just wanna say...I-I'm sorry for dragging you along here."

"Mhmh!," Mia hummed, shaking her head. "Don't be. This is the most exciting day of my life...even if its the last..!"

Kobayashi smiled slightly before creeping open the door. No matter how slowly she pushed, it could not stop creaking and whining, alerting everyone or anything to their presence.

She peeked inside. There were rows and columns of dark jail cells, dug into the cavern walls. Kobayashi noticed statues of dragons in heroic poses scattered randomly around the place, as well as rubbish. The place looked like a dump.

"Kobayashi..?"

Her heart skipped a beat after hearing that voice. It couldn't be...nothing ever goes right the first try...right?

"Tohru!," Kobayashi yelled, ignoring all of her surroundings. She ran clumsily with her dragon-sandals towards the source of the voice.

"I'm over here!"

Kobayashi turned her head and continued to run, tripping over bones and cloth and rubbish. Mia was following her too, running further back after her.

Kobayashi stopped at a dead end. She could have sworn she heard it here...

Mia came to a halt next to her.

"..well...maybe she's downstairs..?," Mia panted. "K-Kobayashi?"

Kobayashi's eyes widened.

"Oh no...how can I be so..."

"..stupid...," Kobayashi murmured as she turned around. There was now a row of bars, confining them to this space. This cell more like. Mia looked equally horrified.

"K-K-Kobayashi...?," Mia trembled. She hoped that this was planned by the brilliant hero.

...

"Mia...," Kobayashi said normally, staring at the ground. "It's been nice knowing you."

"Y-Yeah...," Mia said. "Likewise."

They had waited in the cell for quite a while before they heard footsteps slowly getting louder. Footsteps, small and rhythmic, like that of a human.

Kobayashi looked to the maid one last time, before turning around and accepting her fate.

"Sorry...Tohru...," Kobayashi thought. "We'll meet in another life."