After having met Lady Hosoki and received some very strange crystal-like objects, the trio had waited a few moments, for that strange young woman to leave the mountain, before beginning to make their own way back down. They had a lot to think about, not to mention all the fighting they'd likely be doing on their way down. They made their across the bridge from before and stopping to heal up at the Crystal again. They didn't really need it, but given how hard their last battle on the mountain was, they could never be too careful.

Realizing that they'd completely skipped any and all exploration on the way up the mountain, they were thinking about taking awhile to explore this place, assuming they were strong enough. The last battle had taken everything out of them, but if they didn't run into any more ambushes like before, they might not have too much trouble. They began their descent, climbing down a ladder and crossing another bridge, back to the east side of the mountain. As they got across the bridge, they noticed a large, brown chest they'd missed. Taking a moment to stop, Hitoshi opened it up and pulled out a large bottle, a Quality Potion. This was a high-grade potion they'd seen at the academy before.

Continuing onward, they climbed down another ladder, only to find a giant, sasquatch-like monster waiting for them. Pulling out their weapons, they all jumped and gave the monster everything they had. Sei tossed his weapon at them, Tarou dropped down a Thunder spell, and Hitoshi launched a torrent of wind from his blade, easily subduing the monster. Looking back at each other, and at how easy it had been to conquer this battle, they smiled and were confident in exploring the rest of this place, that they would be just fine with these battles, from now on.

Finding the mountain path fairly repetitive, they crossed another bridge to the west side of the mount, came down another ladder and when coming to another ladder, they came, face to face, with a Dire Eagle, a small one. Quickly subduing it with Hitoshi and Sei alone, the trio continued their venture down the mountain. As they descended the ladder and procured a Memory Ticket from a nearby box, they couldn't believe that they'd been running from these battles earlier. If they had been plenty strong to do all this, they shouldn't have been running. They should have been fighting.

The path had a fork in it now. To the West was another ladder, leading further down the mountain, but to the right led to a fair-sized brown chest. Sei ran down the East path, finding something that would have been very useful had they been fighting their way up the mountain, instead of running. Inside the chest was a short dagger, with more of a grip-friendly handle than the one he'd been using earlier. He recognized the type as a gauche, particularly the “Main Gauche” model. Slipping it into his holster and placing his previous weapon, the Rondel Dagger into the box, he rejoined the group and they went down the next ladder.

As they came down, they came, face to face, with yet another chest, which Hitoshi procured some Dumplings from, adding to their “Ration” inventory. As they ran down this path, heading east, they ran into a few more Dire Eagles. It took all three of them, and a bit of effort, but they took them down and continued on their exploration. Sei was now able to weaken them and injure them a lot faster with his new weapon. Running up this place, instead of exploring truly was a bad choice. They wouldn't be making this sort of mistake again, in the coming locations they might be exploring.

At the end of the path, they entered a cave. Twists and turns lines this place, but Tarou held his staff forward, casting a fire spell, every so often, leaving flames here and there, which lit the place for them, making it relatively easy to navigate. After going through a dozen turns, across a bridge, and through another dozen turns, they made it back out, into the sunlight. After coming out, they found another fork in the road, the West path leading down towards the base of the mountain and the East, leading to a rope and another platform.

Hitoshi took the East path this time, quickly making tracks and climbing down the rope, finding a chest, similar to the one Sei had found earlier. Within it, he found a long, curved sword. It was a Katana that read “Kotetsu” on the handle. Trading out his weapons, he kept the Kotetsu and headed back to the others. On his way back, he was attacked by a Dire Eagle. With Sei and Tarou too far away, he clenched his new weapon and assaulted the beast. Being on his own, he gripped the sword and slashed it towards the eagle, focusing his energy on his new blade. A torrent of wind blew out from it as he called out a technique he'd learned about at the academy. “Aerothrust!” The wind blew into the eagle, knocking it out of it's dive and down the side of the mountain.

Heading down two more ladders, the group followed the mountain path, picking up another Memory Ticket from a box they found, adding it to their inventory, spreading the items throughout all three of them, ensuring that no one person was weighed down by the items they were collecting. Heading forward again, they ran through another cave, coming back down at an even lower area of the mountain. Just outside the opening, they saw another rope, leading down to a platform. Tarou took the initiative this time around and headed down, finding a chest with a long, metal Staff in it. After exchanging his weapons, he rejoined the group as they fended off a group of Dire Eagles, along with a sasquatch-like “Megabunny”.

They went down a few more stairways, forks, and ladders, but they finally made it back down to the mountain's base, having picked up a Roast along the way. Just before reaching the bottom, Tarou stopped and spoke up to Hitoshi. “Hitoshi...are you sure you want to carry out that girl's wish? I just can't shake the feeling that we're about to get into something we're meant to stay out of.” The mage had a lot of concerns with this and, like Umi, had a bad feeling about what they were about to go and do.

Hitoshi, keeping his cool, expressed his calmness of the situation. “I'm not very worried, Tarou. The girls of that shrine have always been allies of Suzuka Academy. Even if they do have secrets they wish to hide, I highly doubt they would do anything to harm us.” Sei, trying to add to the confidence and push Tarou down a little with teasing, said “What's wrong, Tarou? Do you get shy around all those pretty mikos?” Tarou sighed, expressing more of his thoughts, closing his eyes as he spoke. “You know that's not what I mean. Yes, I may be overthinking things and worrying a little too much, but at the very least, I think we should report our findings to Principal Ayuka.”

Finally starting to agree with what Tarou was saying, Hitoshi spoke, saying that they'd be seeing the principal first and then heading over towards the shrine. The trio then headed down into the base of the mountain and back to the field that led back to Suzuka Academy, preparing a report for the principal...