Editing City Series:Volume4a Prologue (section)

===Part 2===

'''10:24 PM

Water surrounded her entire body.

She could breathe because the Aqua Middle Rhythm’s power acted just like scuba gear.

To her, the water was no different from viscous air.

The view through her diving mask was dark.

This was not her first time in here because she had helped her father with a few jobs here.

But it was her first time diving here.

The sounds of the wind and waterfall were gone down here. She only heard the low rumble of the water pouring into the basin.

Looking up, the surface glowed a little and she was still only about three meters deep.

She felt a tickling sensation in her the stomach and left leg of the dry suit.

Water was getting in.

…''Looks like I didn’t repair it all the way.

That was a miscalculation, but she would be fine as long as she had the Aqua Middle Rhythm. She would only end up trembling from the cold once she resurfaced.

After nodding to convince herself of that, she looked down again.

There was only darkness there.

The Aqua Middle music in her ears flowed through her body and altered the current of the water around her.

When she desired to move deeper, the surrounding current started moving down.

With the water compression, the 80,000 Octave volume could reach one meter around her.

Guided by that power, she descended into the basin.

Her hair trailed behind her as she slowly dropped further and further down.

She turned on the maglite and a beam of light stretched through the water.

She could not see the bottom.

…''I really am weird for doing this in the winter. That guy up there must think I’m committing suicide.

Around one hundred people committed suicide at Kegon Falls every year.

Her father’s job was to dive into the basin and search for their corpses and belongings.

She was currently copying him.

Her motive was pure.

A certain boy had stopped coming here.

The boy had noticeably straight hair, he always seemed to be smiling, and he had been a little older than her.

Unlike her classmates, he had not worn a Device or anything else to fully use a Rhythm.

A somehow lonely atmosphere had surrounded the boy.

He had come here every Sunday for about five years and he had always dropped a single flower while staring into the basin from the viewing platform.

The large, white, rose-like flower had sunk under its own weight instead of floating on the basin’s water.

Due to her father’s job and her part-time work at the viewing platform’s shop, the falls had long been her home ground.

Every week, the boy had arrived, thrown the flower in the basin, and left.

According to the owner of the shop, he had started visiting five years before.

…''Did a relative of his kill themselves here?

Two years before, she had asked her father about it out of curiosity.

That was the first time she had heard her father raise his voice in anger.

After telling her not to pay any attention to the boy, he had turned his back and apologized.

“I haven’t dived down to the very bottom of the basin since eleven years ago.”

She had never asked him about it again.

She had sealed the question in her heart and watched from the shop each week as the boy dropped the flower in the basin.

But he had stopped showing up about a month before.

And yet he had always shown up before, even when the waterfall had frozen.

There had been a sign leading up to it.

One day, he had brought some friends with him.

It had been a weekday afternoon. She had happened to stop by on the way home from middle school and spotted him sitting on the viewing platform railing and speaking with his friends.

The girl had eavesdropped on the conversation from the counter of the café next to the shop.

She had heard the terms “sister” and “flames” as well as the names “Osaka” and “Tokyo”. He had also discussed the Kinki Riot, a student riot that had split Japan between east and west.

…''Are they discussing politics?

She had wondered that, but she had not actually asked.

Unable to move, she had simply glanced over at them and listened.

But she had fallen from her chair when one of his friends, a girl with a stole over her shoulders, had suddenly kissed him.

Just as she wondered what they were doing, that girl had spoken some Words.

''A red flower blooms in the darkness

''An empty party begins in strength

''A human heart flows into nothingness

:''A soldier saves the king

:''A woman becomes the queen

:''A sage reminisces

::''Run without looking to another’s path

::''Choose your own path and sprint

::''The true path lies in the future

It was a song.

These were the Words one needed to use a Rhythm.

Hearing it had only brought one thought to mind.

…''But the flower he throws in the basin is white, not red.

They had then left without even taking a picture.

He had never shown up again.

Each week for the past month, she had thrown a flower in instead.

The flower was sold at a single flower shop in the town at the base of the mountain.

The old lady who ran the flower shop was proud of how early she got up in the morning and she had known the boy. When the girl had found the white flower in the shop, the woman had smiled and spoken of the boy.

“That flower blooms year-round, but it’s hard to get your hands on. I’ll be losing money with no one to buy it.”

So the girl had bought one each week and thrown it into the basin.

…''What am I even doing?

Her thoughts cleared inside the water.

She thought about her father’s anger and silence, about what could have happened thirteen years ago, about the boy and his friends, about the girl who had kissed him, and about the Words that girl had spoken.

Finally, she focused her thoughts on the boy who had stopped visiting the waterfall.

The answer had to lie at the bottom of the basin.

She dropped straight down in the darkness.

The music flowing into her ears would continue for about three more minutes.

She felt the weighty current of the water on her cheeks. She also felt the water temperature beginning to cool.

The water’s traits were growing too strong for the Aqua Middle Rhythm to resist. The water at the bottom of the basin had been compressed for thousands or even tens of thousands of years, so its Lives were viscous enough to almost be solid.

Instead of leaving it all up to the Rhythm, she swam through the water.

—''Fujiwara – Gym Tech – Take – Dive – Hit.

The water rose toward her with the mass of a wall, but she broke through it to continue further down.

Time passed and she started to panic when she still could not see the bottom.

—''Fujiwara – Aqua Middle/Gym Tech – Multiple Take – Sink – Hit!

She moved further and further down.

She approached the solution to her questions.

To strengthen her Live, she sang her Words once more.

“…!”

As if to keep her from answering her questions, the water’s current would not stop, but she did not stop either.

She swam down to find those answers.

But the water leaping up from the depths became a wind and tried to blow her away.

A thought flashed through her mind.

…''If this water is coming up from the very bottom…

Then it might have swept everything away, leaving nothing there.

She was about to reach the point of no return for her Rhythm’s music.

Diving any further would be dangerous.

…''Should I go back?

Her mind suggested that, but her body wished to dive further.

“!”

Her hand reached the MD in her pocket and raised the Octave to about 20,000.

That was her limit.

She swam while listening to a volume she could only just barely control.

A slight change came over the surrounding current, even if it was awkward.

Her body could not defy her Words.

The answer to her questions lay below.

If she found nothing, that would be her answer.

Her body continued swimming despite her hesitation.

She shut off the maglite and continued down with darkness before her.

In her desperation, time seemed to slow.

Her hand broke through the wall of wind created by the water.

A moment later, all motion ground to a halt.