Editing City Series:Volume4a Prologue (section)

===Part 3===

'''10:27 PM

Before she could wonder what had happened, her shoulder slammed into the hard ground.

…''Ow!

Her hand touched the ground.

It was a somewhat warm stone surface.

The speed of her descent had pressed her face-down against the exposed stone and she stopped moving.

As her exhausted breaths escaped into the water, the air bubbles tickled her cheeks and led her to realize two things.

First, the darkness surrounding her now was quite still.

Second, the intense current had vanished.

…''Where am I?

She had reached the bottom of the basin.

“…”

Unable to even speak in her heart, she straightened up.

She slowly stood up as if bouncing up inside the dark water.

She sensed the torrent roaring by overhead, but the very bottom was disturbingly quiet.

She had miraculously held onto the maglite, so she shined it around the dark space.

…''There’s nothing here.

That thought was immediately proven wrong.

There was snow.

White snow drifted in the light before her eyes.

No, it was actually snow-like flower petals.

Her movements had caused the small white flower petals to dance about the bottom of the basin.

She recognized the petals.

They belonged to the white flower the boy and then she had thrown in.

Those petals had become snow and now danced about as if surprised by her sudden visit.

…''What is this?

The white snow gently flew through the dark water like cherry blossoms.

…''Was he creating this?

Her question led her to walk slowly forward.

She walked to the center of the snow-filled basin and spotted a rock.

The large, pedestal-shaped rock was five meters across and two meters tall.

It had likely broken off of the rock wall above because there was still moss and a tree on the rock.

But she was not looking at the moss or the tree.

She looked to the top of the pedestal where two people lay.

…''!?

She lightly kicked off the ground to gently jump through the water and get a better look.

Atop the pedestal covered in white flowers, a boy and girl lay on top of each other.

“…”

She shined her maglite on the two of them.

The one on top was a girl with short hair in a white sailor uniform.

Below her was a boy with long hair in a black school uniform.

Their eyes were closed and they held each other in an embrace.

Their uniforms had some outdated combat gimmicks worked in.

Those gimmicky uniforms and their hair were flowing in the water’s current.

…''Who are they?

No one was going to answer her and the maglite strayed from those two in order to gain more information.

A long arc reflected the light back at her.

—''Fujiwara – Sight Tech – Take – Detect – Hit.

It was a long blade.

The curved blade of a Japanese sword stuck out from the girl on top’s back.

The object jutting out of the man on the bottom’s chest was likely a spear’s shaft.

The spear tip had to be stabbed through his body and into the rock behind him.

The two of them were dead.

[[Image:City_v04a_033.jpg|thumb]]

The girl only now confirmed that obvious fact, but the idea of death did not feel unpleasant here.

Their hair simply flowed in the current and they almost seemed to be sleeping.

…''Who were they?

When she tried to find an answer, she found a Device fallen next to them.

The long spear with a wooden shaft had fallen alongside them on the stone.

Unlike the Devices stabbing them, this spear looked old.

“…”

New questions occurred to the girl.

…''Who were they to the boy who was throwing in the flowers?

…''Why did they stab each other?

…''Why are they smiling?

…''What is that spear next to them?

Those two embraced each other in the depths of the water, never to move again. The flower petals danced around them like snow, but they remained silent.

Their deaths and smiles only raised further questions for the visiting girl.

“…?”

Another question mark filled her mind.

A moment later, her Rhythm stopped.

“!”

The water Live vanished from her body.

The chill of the water inside her dry suit stiffened her body.

Her mind was numbed by the loud roar of the water pouring down above.

…''Oh, no!

It was already too late.

She was going to die.

First, fear raced through her entire body.

Next, the powerful water pressure pressing down on the basin’s depths crushed her from every direction.

The pain of the pressure reminded her what divers called the water.

…''Their holy ground.

An intense pain deep in her ears directly throbbed into her head and the pressure on her stomach forced the air from her lungs.

The snow danced around her.

As she questioned the scattering of those white flower petals, she used all her remaining air to shout.

“Dad!”