Mikan arrives home earlier.
As she had promised, she came straight home from school.
At the sound of the door opening, she heard: "We're back!"
"Asia, if you want more tea, feel free to help yourself." She said before getting up from the couch.
"Got it." Asia smiled.
At the door, Lala and Rito, who had just entered, were greeted by Mikan.
Looking at her, Rito asked: "Is there coffee ready?"
"Yes." She nodded.
"Great, I'll grab some." He said: "Wait for me in my room in the meantime."
Without thinking much, she agreed: "Okay."
Lala asked: "Is Asia in the living room?"
"Yes." Mikan replied.
"Then, I'll keep her company." She hummed softly and headed to the living room.
...
Later, in Rito's room.
One thing he hadn't thought about before, but now that he had time to reflect, he realized: A safe point.
Just like in games, he wanted Mikan and Lala to have a place where they could be safe, that is, the Garden of Eden.
Before, he only intended to talk about the orbs with Mikan. However, after reflecting on it, although it was a big secret, the existence of the hunting dimension itself, which he thought he would no longer have access to, was the real crux of the matter.
And another thing. If he couldn't yet restrict who had access to the dimension once the door was open, the solution was actually simple: just restrict who held the access key.
That said, when he arrived in the room and saw Mikan waiting for him, Rito said: "Follow me."
He performed a strange action in her eyes, after all, he closed and opened the door again, passing through it.
Mikan followed him.
"Where... What?"
Mikan was confused, understandably so, as soon as she passed through the door.
"Mikan, welcome to my world!" He said with his arms open.
How many seconds does it take to feel embarrassed after saying an extremely chūnibyō line?
{Chūnibyō: Middle school second-year syndrome is a colloquial Japanese term typically used to describe teenagers with delusions of grandeur. It is believed that these teenagers desperately want to stand out and convince themselves they possess hidden knowledge or secret powers.}
But Rito didn't say that just to show off grandeur; rather, it was to soften the impact of what he was about to reveal.
"What is this place, Rito? Something Lala made?" Mikan asked.
Her question followed a more logical pattern. After all, Lala was a genius who had basically managed to maintain a dimension in her phone.
"Not this time." He denied, saying: "Close the door, and let's sit down first and talk."
He had already placed three chairs in the Garden of Eden.
Mikan looked at him strangely but still did as he asked.
By the way, besides the door to his room, the closet door also served as an entrance and exit to this dimension, and so, as soon as Mikan closed the door, to avoid any possibility of problems, he canceled the one from the room's door.
After Mikan sat in the chair facing him, she raised an eyebrow: "So?"
"Where do I start…" He seemed to ponder, but he had decided long ago. He made a red light orb the size of a cherry appear between his fingers: "First of all, look at this."
Mikan took it.
She sniffed it and came to the same conclusion as Lala: "Secret ingredient?"
"Yes." He replied: "This is something I started being able to produce, and it's the reason I've changed so much."
He wasn't exactly lying, though he wasn't telling the whole truth either.
Mikan was a smart girl; she understood right away: "Since I started eating food made with this secret ingredient, I've felt stronger… Just yesterday, I managed to lift the couch with one hand…"
"Yes, little by little, your body will improve to the point that lifting more than a ton won't be a dream." He replied.
She became thoughtful, crossing her arms.
She did exactly like him, lowering her head and closing her eyes while thinking.
She opened her eyes and looked in his direction: "I get it. So, the reason for telling me all this is…"
"Of course, it's because now that I've become stronger, I'm able to produce more of these light orbs." He said: "That's why I want to share them with you. I told you before, didn't I?"
She nodded, and he continued: "That I want to keep you safe, but there's no guarantee I'll always be there when you need me. And the only way I can be sure you'll be safe is if you're at least strong enough to escape and… That's where this place comes in."
"I'm listening…" To say she wasn't moved would be a lie; she was struggling to hide it herself. That's why she wanted to let him talk.
It didn't go unnoticed by him, but Rito pretended not to see as a gentle smile curved his lips.
When he finished telling her everything, Mikan stayed silent, processing…
"I have a question." She asked: "The same side you enter, can the other side of the door be used too?"
"Huh?"
That question caught him off guard.
Now that he thought about it, he hadn't considered this matter.
In theory, one side opens to enter and the other to exit, so what if it's opened from the opposite side he used to enter the dimension? For example, when he entered the Garden of Eden, he entered from the room's side, but if someone tried to enter from the outside of the room, would they still have access to the Garden of Eden?
"Worth testing…" He murmured: "Alright, Mikan, let's do it now."
"Sure." She agreed.
Rito smiled a little as he looked at her, seeing that she was acting normally even after all this.
But if he thought about it, she had always been like this. Even when accepting Lala's existence as his fiancée and an alien.
They exited through the closet door.
After they left, Rito canceled the closet door as an entrance to the Garden of Eden, and Mikan entered the closet.
"I'm going to activate it." He warned.
As soon as he did, he opened the door and gained access to the dimension.
Without closing it, he said: "Try opening the door."
The closet door has two sides. Mikan tried opening it from the left side but couldn't, but when she tried the right side, she opened it and got out. She explained this to him.
It became easy to understand after that.
While the door to the Garden of Eden is open on one side, the other side remains locked. But since it was a double door, Mikan was still able to exit the closet.
Another thing: if he left the access open from the outside of the closet but with the door closed, Mikan could exit the closet normally but wouldn't have access to the Garden of Eden from that side.
In other words, only the side the door is opened from grants access to the Garden of Eden.
With this, he saw even more restriction options.
When they finished testing this, Rito brought her back to the Garden of Eden.
"So, Mikan, you still haven't answered me… Knowing that once you start using these orbs, you'll stop being an ordinary human, do you still want to?" He asked.
She rolled her eyes at him: "Do you really need to ask?"
"Well… It's worth asking, right? There are plenty of people out there who shout that they'll live and die as humans." He teased: "But let's just say they do things even more inhumane than many Devils out there."
"I have no idea who you're talking about." Mikan said: "But I trust you."