SOLARIS the Abyssal:Volume 1

Illustrations

(includes only illustrations at the start of the novel)

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  Alternate Cover

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Episode.0

It was the last day of March, halfway into the 22nd century.

The rows of cherry blossom trees on the artificial island were in dizzying full-bloom this spring.

Beautiful wasn’t the word for it—they were almost oppressive.

Surrounding humanity with blossoms in their full glory, the trees seemed like monsters.

Do you think you could call it a picture of paradise on Earth? The branches swayed gently in the spring breeze, and the flurry of pink blossoms that followed in their wake were hypnotizing, as if threatening to pull you away from reality. It was at that moment when Minato Yamajo realized he had stopped walking.

I have to to get to the Academy.

I’m supposed to meet with the president. On top of that, I need to head over to the dormitories to unpack all of the stuff that arrived there yesterday. And of course, there’s a certain someone I’ve been wanting to finally see again.

Work starts tomorrow. There wasn’t enough time in the day to lose it to these blossoms.

As soon as he started to move, however, Minato stopped in his tracks once again. A voice had caught his attention.

He spotted a girl wearing the Academy’s trainee uniform high up in one of the taller cherry trees.

“It’s dangerous up here, little kitty. . .”

The girl slowly crept along a large branch, hunched over like a cat herself. She clearly didn’t put much thought into what she was doing and was in a compromising pose as a result. Had she only not been wearing the uniform, she might have been able to pass off as something like a cherry blossom fairy who went around and enraptured the hearts of men. As she was wearing it, though, she seemed more like the kind of girl who lived next door and tried to mimic cats.

Wait a second. . . She is that girl. It’s my childhood friend.

“Natsuka?”

It was a girl one year younger than Minato who lived next to him as they grew up. It had been a year since he had graduated this Academy and last seen her. What on earth is she doing up there? She wasn’t exactly an outdoors person, let alone a tree-climbing enthusiast.

He looked more carefully and noticed there was a black kitten on the other end of the branch she was crawling along.

“It’s okay. Here, kitty. . .”

It seems she’s trying to rescue a kitten that can’t find its way down. There was a tall ladder resting against the trunk. It’s clear how difficult this must’ve been for her considering how uncoordinated she was.

She moved carefully along the branch inch by inch towards the kitten on the other side. There was a foxtail in her hand, and her voice was light and cheerful.

“Here, here. . . I’m not scary. It’s okay meow!”

Her speech patterns are getting interesting. Minato started to make his way under the tree, somehow managing to stop himself from recording what she was saying.

It’s a good thing I passed by when I did. I can already see how this is going to play out. As the girl inched forward more and more, the branch started to groan and creak. Finally, she managed to scoop up the kitten into her arms.

“See? Everything’s okay now!”

That’s when the branch reached its limit. With a loud snap, it broke cleanly right off.

“Eek!”

Letting out a small yelp, she fell headfirst with the kitten still held closely to her chest.

I’m always taken aback by how tall the genetically modified cherry trees on this artificial island are. The drop from the branch was a whole five meters—this could get bad if she landed poorly.

She descended fast alongside hundreds of loose cherry blossoms fluttering around in the air.

—so Minato expanded his Territory.

His entire body become enveloped in a lustrous gray.

In that moment, the world before his eyes transformed in an instant.

As if replaying the scene in slow-motion, he calmly assessed the girl’s situation as she continued to fall. Velocity, angle, altitude. . . All of this information was instantaneously collected and recorded in Minato’s mind. In this moment, he was able to follow each and every individual cherry blossom petal as they swirled around before him in countless numbers.

It was the conversion of sensory input into raw data. That was the sole function of Minato’s silver Territory.

He was engulfed by a cascade of blossoms and information.

Ever securely, ever precisely, he caught his precious childhood friend in his arms.

“Oh. . .”

For the first time in a year, their eyes met. At that moment, the kitten jumped from her arms and scurried off without a hint of appreciation. Ignoring the kitten altogether, Natsuka Hoshino’s eyes grew wide.

“Am I on the other side now?” she asked.

“It’s okay. You’re still in the land of the living.”

“But you’re here, Minato.”

“Wha— Was I dead to you for some reason?”

“No, I didn’t think that, but. . . I thought you graduated.”

“It turns out I’m an instructor at the Academy now.”

Immediately after, Minato let out a large “Ooph.” His childhood friend had quickly wrapped her arms around him.

Ever since they were young, Natsuka had been as friendly as a puppy. She hasn’t changed one bit.

That’s not true, actually. Her chest is noticeably bigger, now pushing tightly against her shirt’s fabric. That, and she smells so nice. This is too much for me. I swear, she’s finally starting to seem like an actual girl now.

“Come on. Get off me.”

“Nope! I’m so happy. I can see you whenever I want now, right?”

“Exactly. So how about we leave this for another day?” The logic was a bit suspect.

“Nope!”

“I can gauge your weight with my ability, you know.”

“Eek!”

Natsuka immediately turned red with surprise and then finally lowered herself to the ground. Though he didn’t mention it to her, the deed had already been done by the time she had landed in his arms. I’ll probably end up taking those secrets of hers to the grave.

When they separated, he noticed that Natsuka’s eyes had become a little red. She rubbed them and took a deep break to calm herself down.

Maybe this island’s monstrous cherry trees aren’t so bad after all.

“You know. . . I’m happy you’re here again, Minato.”

“Yeah. It’s good to be back.”

With the dazzling spring scene of cherry blossoms behind her, Natsuka Hoshino broke out into a smile that was second to none.

Episode.1 - Onward/Myself/To Battle

—I feel a curse hanging over me.

It was April 1st, 2145, in the Orient Federation-controlled waters of the Pacific Ocean.

He had finished unpacking only yesterday, and yet here he was already diving to the sea floor 1,500 meters beneath the surface without any kind of breathing apparatus.

It was only a routine mining exercise, but Minato wasn’t originally going to participate. The instructor who was scheduled to oversee the practice, however, ended up incapacitated by a sudden stomachache. The president, the woman at the helm of the entire Academy, happened to be nearby, and she offered this proposal:

Seems like the perfect chance for your first sortie, don’t you think?

She had a point. Mining exercises themselves were pretty simple, so there wasn’t much involved in the process. All you have to do is take the trainees to a predesignated spot on the ocean floor and mine a certain amount of the living mineral Solaris. For water manipulators, people for whom moving around in the ocean depths was possible, this kind of work was everything they could ask for. It was as basic as it got. Just dive and gather. There wasn’t a single complicated thing to it, and so for Minato Yamajo’s first time supervising the trainees as an instructor, it was the perfect fit.

And yet, what a curse.

“A sh-sh-shark!”

There was a shark.

A form of sea life found commonly scattered throughout the many oceans of the world. There were also cases of people being attacked by the larger, more fearsome varieties.

It was akin to encountering a bear on land.

Three large shadows swam around Minato and the trainees as if trying to surround them. Although the ocean depths were dark, water manipulators could perceive their surroundings as if through an infrared lens, so the sharks were as clear as day.

It looks like they managed to slip into the Academy’s mining area last night. What a curse.

“It’s a sh-shark! Are they great whites?!”

Minato tried to hold down one of the female trainees as she flailed her arms and legs around in fear.

Panicking underwater was far more dangerous than the occasional carnivorous fish. Although water manipulators were capable of moving around and functioning in the deep, a single misstep at these depths could spell sudden death—that would never change.

“Calm down. Everything will be fine as long as we follow the proper protocol, so don’t panic. And they aren’t great whites, by the way. They’re called oceanic whitetips. That question will come up a lot on your tests.”

Minato’s first action was to gather all of the trainees into one place and make sure there was no one missing. Four in total. Alright. Everyone’s accounted for.

Now then, all that’s left is to get the sharks to retreat.

If only they were great whites. . .

“Out of everything it could’ve been, it had to be whitetips. . .”

Although they weren’t very well-known, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them the world’s most ferocious shark.

They were indiscriminate gluttons. Be it people or trash, they consumed anything their eyes fell on. That’s why there were many cases of them attacking people, even without any provocation.

Just as expected. As the three sharks continued to carefully circle around the trainees, one of them suddenly changed its course, almost like it couldn’t take the temptation any longer.

“It’s coming!”

“I told you not to move!”

Minato flicked the forehead of the trainee who was starting to panic and then launched himself up by jumping from the ocean floor.

It was the perfect opportunity to teach them about shark countermeasures, so he explained what he was doing clearly for all the trainees to hear.

“Number one: you punch them hard, right in the nose.”

He demonstrated this right after. The shark approached him from the front, and Minato landed his fist square between the eyes. The shark twisted its body following the impact and changed direction, likely out of surprise. It swam farther and farther away, convulsing as it did.

Ignoring the retreating shark, Minato turned towards the trainees and followed it up with an explanation.

“See? Other vital areas include the eyes and gills, but the nose is most effective. The thing is, though, these sweet spots change with each kind of shark, so when we get back to the surface, make sure you guys carefully memorize what works against what. With that in mind, dealing with sharks up close can get a little dangerous, so I don’t recommend this method.”

“Eek! Behind you! There’s one coming behind you!”

“Number two: you use the anti-shark cloth provided by the Academy. This method is your best bet.”

Without skipping a beat, Minato quickly pulled a small container the size of a pack of cards from his belt and pressed the button on the side. Immediately following the sound of decompression, the contents of the small case were expelled and started to expand rapidly.

It was a sheet of fabric. It was white, thin, and made from organic fibers. The cloth opened up towards the attacking shark and blocked its vision.

That’s all it did. It simply expanded.

And yet, the shark stopped immediately.

“Sharks have a tendency to avoid anything larger than themselves. That’s why if you open this cloth up in front of them, they stop attacking. And just so you’re aware, it’s made from materials that eventually dissolve in water, so it doesn’t harm the environment either.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt you while you’re having a moment, sir, but there’s a third one!”

The final shark avoided the cloth and greedily swam towards the trainees.

“This is why I hate whitetips. . .”

Unlike other sharks, they tended to defy theory. Because they often lived out in the ocean where food was scarce, their frequent hunger caused them to occasionally get frighteningly aggressive. In cases where water manipulators wound up hurt after a run in with sharks, the culprit was almost always the oceanic whitetip.

Out of other options, Minato pulled out the knife from his belt. He’ll just have to kill it.

Although he hadn’t explained it yet, there was always a third option when dealing with sharks. Depending on the person, however, it could be difficult to pull off. He would be hard pressed to formally teach a technique not everyone could use successfully.

He would just have to explain it in more depth once they all got back to the Academy. For now, Minato tightly gripped the knife in his hand to take down the oncoming shark, and then—

—he heard a girl’s voice.

“With all due respect, this is ridiculous.”

His surroundings were suddenly illuminated.

“Huh?” Minato reacted.

The light was golden, and it rapidly diffused throughout the ocean depths as if fragments of moonlight.

It was a Territory, the origin of a water manipulator’s power. Normally, the light it emitted was almost imperceptibly faint, but at maximum output, you could clearly make out its unique hue.

In some cases, you could even put enough power into it for it to function as a weapon. This was what was called expanding one’s Territory, and the result differed for each person. That was the water manipulator’s third and final shark countermeasure.

“What do you think, sir?”

The source of this voice turned around with a cheeky expression. She stared at Minato and smirked, as if bragging about her power.

“Don’t you think this method is much faster?”

It was a small girl with blond hair and blue eyes. She manipulated the stream of pale golden light, and within it, the shark dissolved completely and without trace.

It all happened in an instant. The scene unfolded almost like a dream, and for a bit, Minato could only gulp, dumbfounded.

The whole reason water manipulators start off as trainees is so that they can perfect their ability to create and use their Territories. They need the guidance of their predecessors—that’s why institutions like the Academy exist in the first place.

As is the case in any field, however, there are occasionally those who transcend this.

Without ever receiving a hint of help, they intimately understand every aspect of their Territory and manipulating it comes as easy to them as breathing does to a baby—true geniuses.

At that moment, Minato couldn’t help but wonder if she was one of them.

“You. . .”

The golden glow almost seemed like warm sunlight descending on the dim waters of the deep.

She possessed a beautiful Territory, the kind that etched itself into your memory. Her blue eyes were brimming with unshakable confidence. For a brief period, Minato and the girl locked gazes.

Finally, he spoke like an instructor—straight to the point.

“When we get back, I want you to write up an apology.”

It’s possible the girl was expecting some kind of praise. Smile still on her face, her expression froze completely.

It stayed that way much longer than expected.

Really, what a terrible curse on my first day.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

It is strictly prohibited for trainees without licenses to expand and manipulate their Territories without prior permission from instructors in all instances barring emergencies. Furthermore, the aforementioned emergencies are limited to recognized cases of self-defense and the protection of human life and also include any situation in which an instructor deems its application appropriate.

That’s it—taken directly from the handbook itself.

What the rule boils down to is: “Don’t go and use your abilities whenever you feel like it.”

“I refuse to accept this.”

Discontent laid bare in her expression, the girl objected strongly.

After the mining exercise had ended, Minato returned back to the Academy’s staff room. In no time flat, the power-walking, blond-haired genius stormed into the room and demanded to see the rules.

Was it that she didn’t want to write the apology, or was it a matter of wounded pride? Whatever it was, you could feel her indomitable spirit as she challenged Minato’s stance.

With her small stature, she puffed out her chest with a humph. “There was a shark. I believe you’ll agree that falls under ‘self-defense’ and ‘the protection of human life.’”

To be honest, this was getting to be a pain in the ass. He had arrived only yesterday, so there was still a lot he had to take care of.

Minato wasn’t making her do this because he wanted to either.

For him, rules were rules.

There were other trainees there when it happened, so there was no way that he could let her off the hook after breaking the rules that brazenly. As an instructor, he had no other choice. The rules would lose their meaning if he did.

“It only works like that if there are no instructors nearby. I hate to say it, but I was there.”

“I judged the situation to be too much for an instructor as inexperienced as yourself to handle.”

“Oh yeah?”

There was a lot of fight in her. Nothing she said about him being new was strictly untrue, but were there any other trainees who would talk back to their instructor like that?

He didn’t dislike that, though. If anything, he had a thing for people like her. For better or worse, people like her never spoke with ulterior motives, so that side of them was always fun to watch. It’s probably because they’re constantly serious that their responses are always so downright adorable.

Be they men or women, Minato loved to watch people with strong reactions.

“Your punishment is now a written apology plus solitary confinement, Chloe Knightley.”

“Wha—”

“The reason being disobedience towards an instructor.”

“Guh. . .”

“Or rather, solitary confinement is what will happen if you don’t hurry up and write that apology. I’m sure you of all people can handle writing a single page by tomorrow.”

“Me of all people. . . Today is the first time you’ve met me. How could you possibly know—”

“A little bit of research is all it took for me to learn about a bright hopeful like you.”

This blond-haired girl was named Chloe Knightley.

She was 15 years old and entered the Academy as a trainee in the year 2144. She was born to American parents in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of the Orient Federation.

It hasn’t even been two years since she entered the Academy and already her grades were nothing other than extraordinary. Her practical and written exam results were virtually perfect, and the control she possessed over her Territory was immaculate enough to already warrant receiving a license.

It was possibly because of this skill, however, that her pride hindered her ability to cooperate with others—you could see bits and pieces of this in the information on her.

“I didn’t mean to imply that I find writing the apology difficult in any way. It’s just that I’d rather not take unfair punishments lying down.”

She never lets up, does she? What a persistent girl. To put it less positively, she has no idea how to talk with others.

This is getting more and more annoying. In reality, this kind of insubordination was already grounds for further punishment, but if I go down that route, she’ll probably use it as “proof” that I’m being tyrannical somehow and double-down on her convictions that she did nothing wrong. There would be no point to even punishing her in the first place if that happened, Minato thought.

He decided to continue pressing his argument for a little longer.

“So what you’re saying is that there was no proof I could’ve handled the sharks on my own?”

“That’s correct.”

“Then let me ask you a question. Why do you think I’m calling you out for using your abilities and breaking the rules?”

“I assume it’s because I stole your thunder.”

“You take me for a child?”

“May I ask your age?”

“18.”

“Well look at that. A mere three year age difference.”

“But unlike you, I have a license, and I’m also certified in seabed operations. It should go without saying that I’ve studied shark countermeasures as well.”

“Is that an attempt at showing off? I can easily dispatch sharks, even without those fancy certifications.”

“You’re right. You’re definitely better than me when it comes to dealing with sharks. Your Territory was much more efficient than what I was going to do in that situation. I really am impressed by how amazing your abilities are.”

“Uh. . .”

After hearing something so entirely different than what she was expecting, the girl’s expression seemingly started to loosen up. I think it was the word “amazing” that did her in.

“I-I’m already well aware of that. . .”

She looked away, and her lips curved into a smile. She seems pretty happy. I would’ve never imagined that a little flattery here and there was all it took to get her like this. What a simple girl.

Minato didn’t say that to placate her, however. He wanted to make a different point.

“It doesn’t matter how amazing your abilities are, though. If you don’t follow the rules, then there’s no point to having them in the first place.”

“So that’s what this comes down to. . .” Chloe’s gaze turned cold once more, as if resigning herself to disappointment. “You think you’re always right, just because you have the rules on your side? What are you, a god?”

“Of course not. Even I make mistakes. The thing is, though, I’m not the one in charge. I have to listen to the higher-ups, just like you have to listen to me. I don’t plan on letting you off the hook, especially not after you tried to show off without my permission. This is how it works here. You’d better get used to it.”

“That’s not fair. . .”

“You’re free to feel that way as long as you follow the rules. That’s how you get through life.”

“Fine, I understand. . . I’ll submit the written apology tomorrow morning.”

The girl finally gave in. Judging by her expression, however, it was safe to say it was less out of acceptance and more because she realized that arguing wouldn’t get her anywhere.

Chloe turned around and stormed out of the staff room with heavy steps.

Minato remained seated and watched as she left.

“She’s going to take some work,” he muttered to himself. Was it out of exhaustion or admiration—not even he was sure.

All he knew for certain was that she had made one hell of an impression.

 

A couple minutes passed.

“Chewed her out on your first day, huh?”

Minato turned around and found himself a couple inches away from a huge bear-like person looking down at him. The giant had beefy arms and a suit bursting at the seams. To a stranger, it probably felt like being trapped in the ring with a professional fighter—that was the kind of presence this muscular man possessed.

Whoops, my bad. I meant woman.

It was the head of the Academy, the very President Maria herself.

Possessing years of military service under her belt, she towered over Minato with a massive body that seemed to rival the scale of Yggdrasil. She cracked a wild grin.

“First day on the job and you’re already making the Knightley girl write an apology. Boy, you’re something else.”

Minato sighed at the half-sarcasm and responded while arranging the the things on his desk.

“It looks like she’s his daughter. . . The director of the Solaris Applications Agency, I mean.”

“That’s not the half of it. I hear it’s the stuff of legends, how much he dotes on her. Stuff like: if you make her angry, her dad will make sure you never set foot in another water manipulation job for the rest of your life.”

“You don’t say.”

It made sense. While looking through her records, I saw lots of passages that hinted towards her breaking the rules, but strangely enough, there wasn’t a single official violation to her name. The director of the Solaris Applications Agency could be considered the boss of every professional water manipulator. As a result, it’s possible her other instructors never called her out even if they thought she did something wrong out of fear for their position. How sad. When it comes to disobeying authority, water manipulators and office workers are pretty much one in the same.

“You know, she’s definitely stubborn, but she doesn’t seem like the kind of girl who would flaunt her family’s position around like that.”

People like her just wouldn’t be satisfied if they didn’t win with their own power. She’s just a blunt, awkward girl, imagined Minato.

“Even still, there aren’t many who’d stand their ground against her. When you were a trainee here yourself, you were always a little—how do I put this—bold? I’m glad to see you haven’t changed.”

“Well in my case, even if I do get fired, I’ll always be able to return to a blissful life with my little sister. I’ll forget all about this water manipulation nonsense and the two of us can open up a nice cozy bed and breakfast in the countryside.”

“It looks like your lovey-dovey sister stuff hasn’t changed either.”

“So yeah. What can I say? I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. A Chloe Knightley or two isn’t enough to scare me away.”

He started to feel like he was getting a little too carried away.

There was a glint of excitement in the president’s eyes.

“That’s the spirit!” The beast-woman reared her fangs and laughed. “You’re going to be in charge of Chloe, starting tomorrow.”

“—Huh?”

I’m a personal instructor right off the bat? I figured someone new like me would start off teaching beginner classes.

“Her previous handler couldn’t take it anymore—ended up in the hospital with a stomach ulcer from the stress. All the other ones steer clear of her, too. You’re perfect for the job, though, don’t you think? You being bold and whatnot. . .”

“I’ll be having a lot of fun with a girl like her if you don’t mind my teaching methods.”

“I do mind.”

Shame. I can definitely tell Chloe will be a fun one to tease.

“Just to be clear, how far am I allowed to go with her?”

“As far as you can take it before hitting potential lawsuits.”

“It depends entirely on her tolerance, then. Sounds like a lot of fun. Count me in.”

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

My only grievance at the moment is that my little sister isn’t at my side.

The Academy was originally built in the Orient Federation’s capital, Ulaanbaatar (former Mongolia). That meant the Japanese Autonomous Zone would be right next door, and Minato would be able to visit his homeland over the weekends if he wanted. While that sounds nice, it was unfortunately not the case anymore.

It was now on an artificial island in the Pacific Ocean, far from the coast.

It was a lonely island out in the distant sea, crafted by mankind in the spot where Tokyo used to be some time ago.

During the Oceanic Calamity a hundred years ago, the island was hastily built by Japan to house a provisional government as their lands were being swallowed up by the sea, but following the establishment of the Orient Federation, the plans ended up being abandoned midway. The Federation government later repossessed this island made by Japan and resumed construction. The result was a water manipulator training facility difficult to get to from the outside world.

That meant that in all four cardinal directions was nothing but the sea. Even if I were suddenly overcome by the desire to see my sister again, a one way trip by airplane would take around five hours, and the cost of a round-trip would eat up half a month’s wage—just the perfect location really. Going back a couple times a year is probably the most I can manage.

If you ignored all that, however, this wasn’t a bad place by any stretch.

Especially wonderful was the abundance of good fishing spots, it being a rare passion of Minato’s.

“You’re always so easy to find, Minato!”

The sun had just set.

After completing his first day as an instructor, Minato headed over to the breakwater near the lighthouse, unable to resist it any longer. That’s when Natsuka Hoshino, someone who knew his habits ever since he was young, showed up unexpectedly with a big smile.

Something about her seemed even brighter than usual.

“The fish be bitin’?”

“Some here n’ there.”

They did their usual exchange, and she plopped herself down like a jellyfish next to him, smile unyielding. She seemed to have taken a shower before her evening stroll. She smelled faintly of soap.

“Today was your teaching debut. How was it?”

“We got surrounded by man-eating sharks.”

“Isn’t that big news?! Are you okay? Did you get hurt anywhere?”

“It’s me we’re talking about. I could’ve taken care of all of them in three seconds flat, no problem. . . One of the trainees called Chloe stole the thunder from right under my legs, though. I got downright green with envy and made her write me an apology as a punishment.”

I told her this jokingly, and she responded, “Chloe? As in, the Chloe?”

“I guess everyone knows about her. . .”

It only made sense for girl who constantly disobeyed and fought back against the instructors to not get along well with her fellow trainees. It seems that was the case with her.

“I’ve never met her myself, but I hear her name sometimes from the other girls in the locker room, you know? They’re always saying mean things about her.”

“I can’t say I don’t understand where they’re coming from.”

“Oh? You don’t like Chloe either, Minato?”

“I wouldn’t say that. From what I’ve seen, I actually rather like her. She’s strong-willed and, in a way, an honest girl.”

“I see.” Her mouth curved happily into a grin. “If you like her, she must be a sweet girl.”

That smile of hers. . . She looked uncannily like a dog wagging its tail.

“I made some riceballs to snack on. You can have one,” Minato said.

“Yay!”

In his days as a trainee, Natsuka was quite possibly the main reason Minato didn’t crack under the pressure of not being around his sister. Her cuteness was a point of pride for him.

She stuffed the riceball into her mouth, and for no reason in particular, he poked her cheek. She smiled.

“Hm? Why’d you do that? It tickles.”

She’s like a baby.

You could probably even fondle her breasts and she wouldn’t complain—if anything, it was almost scary. How long will I be able to keep this up? When she eventually gets married, I feel like I’ll end up being the one who sobs like a father at the wedding. Part of me also feels like I’ll end up kidnapping her and running away before it does come to that.

Trying to take his mind off of any other strange thoughts, he returned his focus to the fishing.

I could also do with a change of topic.

“So, how’s your training coming along?”

“Really bad. . .”

She turned visibly depressed in an instant.

According to her, she started to stagnate ever since entering the intermediate curriculum. Unlike at a normal school, each trainee in the Academy graduated at a different pace. It was an entirely exam-based system.

 

Beginner Curriculum, Practical Exams: 45 subjects

Intermediate Curriculum, Practical Exams: 52 subjects

Advanced Curriculum, Practical Exams: Approximately 20 subjects (course-dependent)

 

There were over a hundred different practical exams in total, and, in addition to that, there were also various written exams that tested cultural and technical knowledge. Upon passing all of these, a trainee would finally be allowed to graduate.

Furthermore, it took five years on average for a trainee to graduate, and the maximum allotted time was eight. If you went over that time limit, you would lose your chance to take any more courses and be expelled from the Academy. What that essentially meant was that you would never have another opportunity to become a licensed water manipulator. There were always one or two trainees every year who had their dreams crushed in this fashion.

Natsuka Hoshino, in her fifth year at the Academy, was also starting to come face-to-face with this bitter reality.

“I don’t know why. . . I mean, I can dive and move underwater, but anything more than that, like hardening or changing the shape of my Territory. . . It just never works. I just don’t have any talent, I think.”

“Are you really a Zone Specialist?”

Water manipulators were categorized into four basic types, and the one Natsuka supposedly fell under—Zone Specialization—included those who excelled at directly manipulating the substance of their Territories, altering it, and so on.

Those techniques included the very “hardening” and “changing the shape” that Natsuka found difficult. Controlling her territory was something she was supposed to be good at, but instead she had a hard time doing it. That’s a little much, even for someone as clumsy as her, Minato thought.

“Are you sure you’re not actually a Perception Specialist like me or some other type?”

“Does something like that happen?”

“Not really.”

With developments in Solaris-based technology nowadays, it was possible to determine a water manipulator’s type with near-pinpoint precision. It was a matter of black and white. It’s hard to imagine the Academy would make a mistake like that.

It was probably a simple issue of talent.

While there were trainees like Chloe Knightley who were perfect from the start, there were also those like Natsuka Hoshino who found even the basics taxing.

“Not to jinx you or anything, but what will you do if you can’t graduate?”

“Hmm, well. . .”

Natsuka stared up at the night sky as if deep in thought.

Minato had only just realized that you could see the stars with impressive clarity on a fine evening like this one. I remember hearing about it before. While the planet’s total land-area shrank in the aftermath of the Oceanic Calamity, the starry sky apparently only grew more beautiful.

When he returned his gaze to the longtime friend sitting next to him, her face showed a sad smile as it pointed up towards the stars.

“I can’t really think of anything. . . I’m not that smart. Sorry I’m so useless. . .”

“No, it’s my fault for asking something like that. Just forget I said anything.”

It’s not like it was a lost cause just yet.

Besides, she’d probably end up leading a happier life if she didn’t become a water manipulator. You aren’t able to choose where you end up assigned once you get licensed, and because the job revolves so fundamentally around deep-sea operations, the work goes hand-in-hand with danger. Instead of walking the thorny path of the expert, how about finding and chasing a new dream instead?

I couldn’t stop the thought from entering my mind. I guess I really am overprotective.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

In the morning, Chloe Knightley submitted her written apology. Normally, one or two pages were sufficient for this kind of thing, but she instead handed over fifteen.

She strutted in confidently with a triumphant expression on her face, looking as if she herself thought she wrote a masterpiece. “I have to say, it was almost like the pen took over at a certain point,” she said.

The words “waste of talent” came to mind as he took the apology and flipped through all the pages in fifteen seconds. His eyes scanned each page in only a second.

He then immediately fed it to the shredder without a moment of hesitation.

“WHAT?! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!”

“Do it again.”

“I even lost some sleep over that! And all you did was skim it!”

“I did read it. My Territory lets me read things quickly.”

“A speed-reading ability?” Chloe opened her eyes wide in surprise, and then a contemptuous smile grew across her face. “I can’t believe it. What a boring ability! Forget water manipulators—even normal people can do that.”

“Well it’s not so much speed-reading as it is data management, but it definitely is boring, I’ll give you that. Anyways, what you wrote wasn’t an apology, so do another one. I mean, come on. The entire thing was just a bunch of sentences of you defending yourself and getting mad at me. There wasn’t even an ounce of remorse in it.”

“Well, that’s because I don’t feel any remorse. I dislike lying.”

“Lying or not, what I told you to write was an apology. I knew very well you didn’t agree with me, but I still told you to do it. Listen to orders. Once you get into the real world, you’re going to run into a bunch of situations where you have to swallow your pride even though you think you’re right—you’d better get used to that.”

“You really are a textbook dictator, aren’t you, sir. . .”

“You need to get over yourself. Listen, I don’t care if it’s short, but if you continue to refuse, I won’t let you do any training.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Hate to break it to you, but I can. Go on, then. Shoo.”

“I’ll never forget this.”

She glared at Minato with a vengeful expression and then stormed out of the staff room.

Minato smiled bitterly.

If only she realized showing irritation like that was the whole problem in the first place.

 

At any rate, Chloe returned once again at 1:00 in the afternoon and handed in a page with a couple “I’ll be more careful”s here and there. It was entirely lip service, but he accepted it anyways.

Minato Yamajo then started Chloe Knightley’s training in earnest—well. . . not that there was much to teach her in the first place.

“What ridiculous talent. . .”

They were 5 kilometers off the coast of the artificial island, 1,700 meters below the surface of the sea.

Enveloped in her golden Territory, the girl chased after him. You couldn’t really call it swimming—it was more like she was flying through the water.

Was she a mermaid? Some kind of torpedo?

It’s a little scary to imagine what she’s going to be like in the future. Her reckless attitude only makes it worse.

—Academy Intermediate Curriculum: Underwater Maneuvering Training IV

In layman’s terms, it was a course that tested multiple fundamentals by having the trainee move underwater at high speeds while avoiding obstacles like sunken ruins. As for the results, Chloe finished it with more than half of the allotted time remaining.

To add to that, Minato, who originally should have been guiding her through the course as an instructor, ended up falling behind.

She waited with her usual smugness as if welcoming him to the finish line and then smiled cockily, “You’re slower than a trainee, sir. Wouldn’t you say your skills are lacking?”

“Man, you’re fast; you beat me by a mile. You win.”

Well, the course was only meant to test basic underwater movement competency at any rate. You’d pass as long as your maneuvering abilities were above a certain threshold. Still, her fundamentals are as good as they get.

It’s pretty tough teaching someone with almost nothing left to learn. I have to say I feel for the guy with the ulcer.

And to top it off—

“If you continue to have me participate in these shabby drills, I fear I may lose my motivation altogether.”

—this girl really likes to run her mouth.

“We can’t be having that. Before taking an exam, you have to do at least one training course corresponding to it. Those are the rules.”

“Again with your rules. . . That’s all you’re good at. I honestly don’t mind having to take the courses, but under an instructor with skills inferior to mine? Doesn’t it seem like a waste of time? Though I suppose you’ll brush it off by hiding behind the rules again.”

I bet it was this mouth of hers that did the last guy in, thought Minato as he silently prayed for the other instructor’s recovery.

Minato was different, however. Possibly due to his personality, whether he was slandered or made a fool of, none of it ever affected him. It was almost like he didn’t feel any self-worth. He focused so entirely on what was important to him—like his little sister and childhood friend—that he himself tended to be of minor importance. Of course, if his sister was the one being slandered, there would be no mercy.

Back to the issue at hand. . . His pupil had just called the time spent training with him useless.

What to do, what to do. . . ?

“Then how about we have a proper match this time?”

Chloe’s eyes narrowed with suspicion at Minato’s proposal.

“A match, you say.”

“Yup. There’s nothing else we need to do for today’s course, though, so I’m thinking we could make the trip back to the Academy a race. Getting there normally would be pretty boring, don’t you think?”

“Alright, then. I’ll take you up on that!”

With a small body that looked as if it were a fairy’s floating in the water, she confidently puffed out her nonexistent chest.

Wait. . . Could it be?

“Okay then, how about the loser gets a punishment?” I asked.

He threw the suggestion out there, and then as if right on cue, she nodded back in exactly 0.3 seconds.

“Sure, why not? There’s no possible way I’ll lose, after all.”

“Man. . .”

Minato was certain. This girl was the real deal. There wasn’t an ounce of self-doubt in her. Her naivety rivaled even Natsuka Hoshino’s.

Here I am proposing a punishment, and yet there isn’t even a hint of suspicion in her. Shouldn’t she be thinking something like: Maybe Minato was holding back earlier? Well, not that I was. . .

There was, however, a hidden side to Minato’s challenge. He was planning on winning.

It seemed like the girl didn’t notice one bit. To make matters worse, she looked as if she were a baby spotting a new toy when she asked, “So, what should the punishment be?”

“Oh, um. . .” Even Minato started to feel somewhat guilty at how innocent she was. “I’ll leave it up to you, Chloe.”

“Really? You’re going to regret that.”

Her blue eyes shined brightly.

“Then the loser has to become a slave!”

Minato coughed as he choked on his words. It was so childish and yet so extreme at the same time.

What should I do? My pupil is selling herself off for cheap.

“Are you being serious?”

“Yes, after this, I’ll have you obey everything I say. You’ll be adhering to all of my rules. Maybe I should make you write me an apology for punishing me so unfairly once we return to the Academy? A 30 page one. And in addition to that, you’ll have to come running like a dog whenever I call you. I’m no monster, however. I’ll release you out of pity once I graduate.”

She went on and on about about the loser’s conditions like she had already won the race.

It seems she took having to follow Minato’s orders exceptionally hard.

“Haha, I can hardly believe I already have the chance to eliminate one of my life’s most unsightly eyesores.”

“What a short life. . .”

“Quiet, you! I won’t let you back out of this now, puppy-instructor!”

“I don’t remember that being my title.”

Oh well, it’s fine. This was as good a time as ever to really show this sheltered princess how naive she actually was.

With personal freedom on the line, the race started.

 

—15 minutes later

“HOW?!”

The blond-haired girl was in near hysterics as she stood on the sandy beaches that constituted the race’s finish line. There was no way Chloe could’ve escaped defeat after jinxing herself that much beforehand. Minato had won the race by a mile.

It was true that Chloe had the advantage in terms of raw speed. The decider in this match, however, boiled down to a so-called gap in their experience.

“The key to moving quickly underwater is to look for the strong currents. You should remember that.”

Immediately after starting the race, Chloe zoned in on the shortest possible route to the finish line. The problem with that, however, was that it took her through currents running in the opposite direction, slowing her down considerably—a classic beginner’s mistake.

When using your Territory to move through water, your muscles don’t experience as much stress as they would if you were swimming normally with your body. That meant that there were many people who ignored currents altogether, even if they were strong.

Minato, on the other hand, was aware of a strong current that headed towards the finish line, so he rode it all the way there without a care in the world.

“So as you can see, raw skill becomes less of a factor—by making use of your environment, you can drastically increase your efficiency. If you understand this now, I’d say today’s training wasn’t a waste after all, right?”

The whole point of the race was to drill that point through her head. Minato thought that for someone like her, there was no way she’d seriously listen to him if he told her that normally.

That said, she didn’t look all too eager to listen to him at this moment either. Her entire body was quivering.

“I regret to inform you that I don’t quite care about your constant preaching.”

“Loser has to obey the winner.”

“Guh. . .”

“Is it really okay for a slave to ignore her master?”

“Ugh, I wanna die. . .”

She started to break down in tears on the beach. She was acting as if the world was going to end. Well, her reaction wasn’t unfathomable. After all, she was bound by her promise to an instructor whom she absolutely despised.

Minato was no monster, however. He’ll release her out of pity once she graduates.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

At a periodic inspection when I was 12 years old, I learned that I was compatible with Solaris.

By choosing to become a water manipulator, I could make more money than your average office worker. There would be little to no chance of losing my job. My future would be all but guaranteed.

With that strangely mature reasoning, Minato Yamajo garnered the resolve to part with his parents, isolated himself on the artificial island in the Pacific, and spent three years studying as a trainee to become a water manipulator.

The result was that he didn’t have many he could call friends, and he was well-aware that he had brought it upon himself.

“Eek! Minato Yamajo?!”

“Eek, you say. . .”

He’d heard that the instructor Aishwarin would be returning back to the island after a week-long business trip and went to welcome her back—only to see her face go explosively pale.

When Minato was a student, she was the mentor specifically assigned to him. Born in the Indian Autonomous Zone, she was a beautiful 21 year old female instructor whose healthy light-brown skin matched her good proportions and gave her a mature yet childlike appearance. Add to that her lively personality and sprinkle in a willingness to look after others, and she won the hearts of everyone in the Academy, men and women alike. I would like to remind you that her face is ghostly pale at the moment.

I even went out of my way to wait for her at the airport like this. . .

She dropped the bags she was carrying in both her hands to the ground and started to point at her former pupil with a panicked expression.

“W-W-W-Why are you here, you brat?!”

“Brat, you say. . . Wait, did the president not tell you? I also started working here as an instructor two days ago. That means we’re coworkers now. I look forward to working with you!”

“I didn’t hear anything about this nightmare! I mean, yeah, I saw your name on the instructor candidate list, but I was like, haha, no way are they going to let this punk in or something ridiculous like that! But they actually took you? Are you serious? I never have any idea what the president is thinking, and like, anyways, this is impossible. No, no, no, this is impossible. It’s so impossible. I can’t do this. . . I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. . . I’m going to murder you. I’m so going to murder you for real this time.”

She went on and on like this, cradling her head. She might have even been stomping the ground a little.

“I’m glad to see you haven’t changed one bit.”

Minato thought back warmly to his former trainee days and started to grin excessively. He didn’t intend on doing anything differently.

“Just like always, you’re so cute when you’re riled up, and to top it off, you still don’t have a boyfriend. Well, this island is in the middle of nowhere, so I can’t really fault you for not being able to meet anyone nice, but I mean, look at you. You’re downright adorable, so you should stop trying to wait around for someone to hit on you with your shirt all unbuttoned like that and be proactive for once. Oh, would you like me to carry your bags, by the way?”

“Just shut up! You also haven’t changed at all, you little sexual-harassing shit. I-I only unbuttoned the top ‘cause it’s hot out. Getting b-boyfriends has nothing to do with it!”

“Nothing, you say. . .”

Like always, she flailed around like a child.

This kind of thing isn’t good for me, honestly, Minato thought.

For as long as I can remember, I haven’t been able to resist people with that kind of card up their sleeve—namely, huge, over-exaggerated reactions. Maybe it was something like how little boys always wanted to bully their crushes. . . Maybe it was because she got cuter and cuter the more he messed with her. . . Whatever the reason, he eventually developed this bad habit of his. Whenever he asked her something like, “Don’t those boobs get in the way,” her reaction was priceless, and the payoff felt divine.

Likely due to that teacher-student relationship of theirs, Minato eventually ended up getting branded a perverted cretin all throughout the Academy, and most of the female trainees that saw him would wind up running away as if trying to avoid a spider. Not to mention his ability essentially made him a walking three-sizes detector.

That background of his may have been one of the reasons why Chloe Knightley’s attitude never got the best of Minato. After all, he himself was the kind of trainee that constantly disrespected his instructors.

He realized Aishwarin was staring at him wearily, fists at the ready.

“S-So you’re really an instructor now?”

“I’m just as surprised as you are. Well, apparently it’s because of my ‘bold’ personality, and it’s possible that the president chose me specifically to see where this one trainee named Chloe is at.”

“Oh, her, huh? She does seem like a good match for you. . . Even if you were the cause of my suffering, personally!”

“You’re so mean. We should try mud wrestling again, for old time’s sake.”

“Don’t bring up the stuff I did when I was drunk, you idiot! We are absolutely zero-percent friends, and the only reason I let you get away with everything you did was ‘cause you were a trainee, but now that we’re coworkers, you’d better forget it! Just go die in a pit already.”

“Die in a pit, you say. . .”

“And carry my bags for me!”

“I already told you I would, though.”

She really was a sweeter person than she let on. That’s why Minato truly respected her, more than he let on as well.

 

A well-known fact among the people on the artificial island, the housing unit put aside for the instructors was entirely mixed. There were a whole host of good reasons for the tight security measures in place.

That’s why helping Aishwarin take her luggage back to her room also doubled as returning home for Minato. For whatever reason, however, she decided to go back to the Academy on foot even though it took a good hour from the island’s airport.

Granted, it made for a good conversation.

“Look at us walking back together like this. It’s almost like we’re lovers.”

As Minato said this with a little smile, she glared at him from the side and said, “Could you not with the sick jokes? It’s so creepy how you can avoid security cameras and infrared sensors with your ability. If you ever come to my room, I swear I’ll rip you apart.”

“You know, even I adhere to a strict code of conduct whenever I harass you. Three things: I don’t touch, I respect privacy, and I never do anything to anyone who isn’t a target. I would never break these rules.”

“If you know it’s harassment, then why do you do it in the first place?! And what the hell do you mean ‘target?’ Am I one of the targets?!”

“Well, it’s more like you’re the only target. There’s no one else like you in this whole world!”

“For such a sweet line, it’s making me strangely unhappy!”

“And besides, ma’am, I can clearly imagine all the underwear and stuff laying around your room already, so there’s no need for me to go through the trouble of breaking in.”

She kicked him in the butt.

“How the hell do you know what my room’s like?”

“Oh god, I was right. . . That won’t do, ma’am. Just because you’re a certified water manipulator doesn’t mean you can slack off on things like cleaning and cooking. Lots of guys these days seem to think that women should take care of the chores. That’s right, didn’t your last boyfriend break up with you over your cooking? I’m pretty sure it was something to do with curry, which is surprising considering you’re Indian—”

“No, it wasn’t! I keep telling you it was ‘cause the long-distance thing didn’t work out! Ah, screw this. I’m so thirsty now. . . I hate how I can never control myself when I talk with you. Ugh, I just want to disappear.”

“When I first met you, I remember how everyone thought you were so cool and collected.”

“Yeah, well thanks a lot asshole. Just get eaten by a shark already.”

“Oh, speaking of sharks, I just remembered. . .”

He hadn’t actually forgotten anything, but it was the perfect chance to chime in anyways. It was about Chloe Knightley.

Minato had wanted to ask one of his senior coworkers for their opinion on Chloe ever since he was assigned to her, and Aishwarin, the one he trusted the most, was the perfect fit. It was even one of the reasons he decided to meet her at the airport in the first place.

Using the nicely timed mention of sharks as a segue, he told Aishwarin about how he made Chloe write him an apology and everything that happened after that (excluding the little bit about slavery). Finally, he gave his own opinion on the matter:

“So I’m thinking it’s more important to focus on fixing her mindset than it is to develop her abilities.”

“I agree.”

By the time the story finished, Aishwarin had already completely turned calm and nodded. I can’t believe I lived to see the day when I could get professional help from her of all people, thought Minato with a strange sense of fulfillment.

That’s when this kindhearted Indian sister to us all started to speak at length about the topic.

“It’s definitely true that Chloe’s talent as a water manipulator is an incredible asset. All of her abilities, from the basics functions to the unique characteristics of her expanded Territory, are top notch. Most importantly, the way with which she can instinctively control her abnormally strong powers is astonishing in every sense of the word. I doubt there’s more we can teach her in that regard. . . Unfortunately, she’s realized this as well, and it’s given her a warped understanding of her time here. As a water manipulator, Chloe has started to imagine herself as a ‘completed product.’ Though it’s true in a sense, it’s also incorrect. For a profession that requires both mind and body, she’s missing half of what’s necessary.”

That’s exactly it.

She was able to accurately put Minato’s thoughts into words. It was the exact kind of verbal analysis that you’d expect out of someone with such extensive teaching experience.

“Have you mentioned this to her?” I asked.

“Yeah right. Talk about a pain in the ass.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I’m not in the habit of looking out for pupils that aren’t mine. Besides, even if I did tell her that, there’s no way she’d take it seriously. You’ve seen how see looks down on the instructors. Hate to say it, but I have absolutely zero interest in dealing with her.”

That’s true.

Though I couldn’t help but think there was a special caring tone in her voice. Of course, if I tried to tell her that, she’d deny it vehemently. It might even ruin the serious atmosphere.

The discussion of Chloe continued.

“I think she’s an easy girl to understand, though,” Minato said.

“That’s exactly why it’s such a hassle. She’s convinced she’s the best and won’t listen to anything that says otherwise. Just like you said, I think putting together a curriculum for her that focuses more on developing her mindset will be better for her growth in the long run. For example, giving her a environment where she can interact with classmates like at a normal school.”

Interesting idea. . .

“Classmates, huh?”

“It’s a shame though. This Academy doesn’t have any system like that in place. Oh well, do your best. Not that I care.”

“No, that was plenty helpful, Aish. You really are a great senior,” said Minato genuinely. He not only received a valuable hint, but he was also able to have a nice time talking with her.

He then noticed Aishwarin had stopped in her tracks.

She stood there motionless, in complete silence. Ten seconds went by. Minato understandably tilted his head in confusion.

“Is something wrong?”

“What did you say just now?”

“Huh? It was helpful?”

“No, not that. The part after it.”

“Um. . . You’re a great senior?”

“Again.”

“You’re a great senior.”

“One more time.”

Once he repeated it for the seventh time, it suddenly dawned on Minato that before he arrived at the Academy as an instructor, Aishwarin was the youngest member of the staff. It was possible she really longed for a younger coworker to fawn over, surprisingly. Proof of that was the fresh spring in her step once she started walking again.

For seemingly no reason, Aishwarin suddenly felt the need to demonstrate her generosity and said, “Come on, let me treat you to some food.”

Really, what a great senior.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

“Apparently, you’re famous for harassing girls, sir,” came the snickering comment.

With a triumphant grin, Chloe spoke about Minato’s Academy days. Lots of people knew about it, so it didn’t come as a surprise.

If anything, the strangest part of all of this was how she was actually here in front of him. Ever since becoming a slave, Minato assumed Chloe would’ve wanted to remain out of sight for as long as possible. Instead of playing hooky, however, she was faithfully at their designated meeting place on the shore. It was possibly because she was so straightforward, or maybe she just conveniently forgot about everything that happened. Did she actually like being treated like a slave? Minato started to suspect traces of masochism in Chloe.

He didn’t plan on abusing it, however, so he decided not to press the issue.

“You hear that from your friends?”

“No. My older sister’s on a mission right now, so I can’t get ahold of her.”

It’s a little strange that she started talking about her sister when I asked about her friends. . . On the topic of her sister, she was someone who joined the Academy at the same time as Minato but who graduated much more quickly, one year before him. She was pretty well-known, but the two never had a chance to talk. Both sisters clearly possessed the esteemed Knightley lineage.

That aside, Chloe had apparently learned about it by chance.

“Some of the girls were talking about it in the locker room and I overheard it. I definitely wasn’t trying to listen in on their conversation, so I’d rather you not take that the wrong way.”

It seems the Academy’s female locker room is a hotbed for rumors. . .

Not only that, but Chloe had also apparently taken the time to write down what she had heard. She proceeded to list them out loud one-by-one, as if she were a reporter for some kind of weekly gossip magazine.

“So, I ordered the major points into a list: 1) You always keep an eye out for visible bras. 2) You abuse your ability by taking girls’ bodily measurements. 3) Through your own information route, you expose the secrets of various couples. 4) You can impregnate girls through malicious brainwaves. 5) Your mother tongue consists only of inappropriate slang and indecent euphemisms. 6) You are in the process of domesticating your childhood friend, Natsuka Hoshino. 7) You have a collarbone fetish. . . That’s all. What do you have to say?”

“What the heck? Number 7 is so true it’s scary.”

“And the rest is false?”

“Number 6 is completely false. I can understand why the rest might be there, though.”

That said, all of it was just stuff I did to Aishwarin, blown out of proportion. She’s always been a klutz with her appearance, so I’ve had to warn her countless times about that. When she and her ex-boyfriend were in their honeymoon period, she went on and on about their relationship despite Minato not asking for it, and it’s true he used a lot of what she said to tease her after they eventually broke up. And the whole thing with pregnancy probably came about during a little episode when a female instructor who was close with Aishwarin retired right before her shotgun wedding.

Chloe started to crumple up the paper in her hand.

“I see. Well, I was never going to bother with this gossip in the first place.”

“Oh? You don’t think it’s true?”

“Of course not,” she responded resolutely. “Your actions towards me have never constituted sexual harassment. These rumors contradict the reality of working with you.”

How on earth was she always so sure of herself?

It was like the Code of Chloe. It was like she was thinking, if this man was truly was a habitual offender, then there’s no way he’d not target me. Sure Minato was just like any other guy with a healthy interest in the opposite sex, but the most he wanted to do with Chloe was maybe give her some candy. At the moment, at least. . .

She’s just so amusing. I’ll buy her something to drink after training’s over. Minato couldn’t help but break out into a small smile.

“I am now aware, however, that you’re universally hated by every woman in this world.”

“Yeah, well, I’d rather you didn’t make it a global thing.”

It was true at least within the confines of the Academy. Not that he’d be any more popular in the city. . .

For whatever reason, this incomprehensible girl then started to try and console Minato. “Please don’t take it to heart. The fact that even someone as dull and of such disreputable character as you can successfully obtain a water manipulator license is proof of the wonder of this fantastic world we live in. Be assured, for even now, I empathize with your struggle and am blessing you with the chance to guide someone like me. I fear I am the only thing keeping you from being chased away by the Academy, after all.”

Oh my god.

“I’m so moved I can hardly speak.”

It seems that by hearing about Minato’s ill reputation, she managed a complete return to how she used to be. Simple, as always. I wonder if she forgot she’s the slave of that aforementioned dull person of disreputable character, Minato thought.

Though her constant preoccupations were a shame, that conviction of hers was definitely her greatest asset.

“So anyways, this is what we’re going to do in today’s training. . .”

With that, he started the exercises as usual.

 

We’re still in the preliminary stages.

All we can do now is sow the seed. There’s no way of knowing what kind of flower it will grow into.

”Instructor Minato Yamajo, the president requests your presence. Please report to the president’s office after lunch. Repeat, instructor Minato—”

Soon after lunch recess started, an announcement blared over the intercom.

Today like every other day, Minato was eating his lunch on the roof of the training building—the girls always glared at him when he used the lounge inside—and once he heard the summons, he scarfed down the remaining food and hurried over to the president’s office.

He had an idea as to why he was being called for. It was probably an answer to his earlier request.

 

“I thought you were a little more rational than this,” the president said as soon as he entered the room.

The chair the large brawny woman sat in was much bigger than the average chair, so the sight of her in it didn’t look that far removed from reality. If anything, seeing her sit down like that gave an even intellectual impression.

It was difficult to make out the president’s expression with the sun shining behind her, but judging by her tone and the choice of words, she was probably in complete disbelief.

Unable to figure out what she was implying, Minato repeated back, “Rational?”

Her shoulders started shaking, as if she were laughing.

“It’s just that I never imagined you’d be looking after that girl like this. You have a thing for little girls?”

“You’re so mean. You’re the one who assigned her to me in the first place. I’m just trying to see what works for my little pupil—is that really so strange?”

“It wouldn’t be if you two were anywhere near normal. If you were, then I would’ve been able to laugh this whole thing off as some kind of dumb sitcom development while I stamped the papers. But it’s you and Chloe Knightley, so I can’t help but be a tad bewildered.”

“It sounds like you aren’t going to give me the approval.”

“Before I do, I want to ask you something.”

The president took a moment to pick up one of the papers on her desk. It was probably the request form that Minato turned in first thing this morning.

She sighed while looking over the sheet.

“I’m pretty sure I already told you this when I first assigned her to you, but the Academy evaluates instructors more highly the faster their pupils graduate. The reason being, the faster we can develop water manipulators, the better we look to the top brass. And then you give me this? If I approve this request of yours, her lesson pace will probably drop drastically. Your evaluation will too.”

“That seems to be the case. You wouldn’t mind taking care of that, would you?!”

“Is it really necessary? Chloe’s skills are perfect, personality aside. Don’t you think it’d be much easier to forget all the extra work and just have her graduate already? She’ll end up passing all the training and exams anyways.”

“I feel like you’re trying to get a certain answer out of me.”

“You’re overthinking it. If you’ve got an ulterior motive for this, you’d better spit it out.”

“Ulterior motive, huh? Promise you won’t get mad?”

“Depends on your answer.”

Why do I want to alter Chloe’s curriculum? Why do I want to make the “perfect girl” take a detour, even though it was clearly more work?

Without hiding anything, Minato answered the president’s question. It was actually quite simple.

“Chloe reminds me a lot of my sister.”

The president showed her confusion in full force. “Are you kidding me? Are you forgetting you’re a professional?”

“I do fancy myself quite the idiot.”

It wasn’t their personalities or their appearances that were similar—it was the atmosphere they exuded.

There was something she was missing even though she was so extraordinary, and thanks to it, her strange stubbornness was uncannily similar. Both of them lacked even the tiniest trace of apprehension. They didn’t fear failure. My sister’s motto was: “If you drop it, pick it up immediately!”

Ever since meeting Chloe, there was a strange sense of calm I’d feel whenever I was around her, and that was why. The president was entirely correct. This was as personal and unprofessional a request as it got.

“I can’t say it impresses me. So much for being fair.”

“Well, I’m pretty frail, so if you threaten to punch me or something, I’ll probably take back the request.”

She only smiled, however.

“Sure, why not? I’ll stamp it for you.”

“I believed in you from the start.”

“Your rationale still isn’t good enough, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect good things out of you. I’d much rather we spend a little more time on her instead of sending her out into the workforce like that. Most of all, it’ll be a good chance for you and her to test new waters. Give it a go.”

“Thank you very much.”

For now, that was one hurdle out of the way. I managed to get the go-ahead from the one representing the Academy. Whether it was ultimately a good thing or not, however, depended on Chloe and one other person.

“Well then, time to pair Chloe up with her new buddy.”

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

“Sir.”

“What’s up?”

“Who might this new girl be?”

Chloe seemed irritated today. Maybe she had already sussed out that something was going on.

The girl standing behind Minato walked out in front to introduce herself and cheerfully raised her hand to say hi.

“I’m Natsuka Hoshino. Um, just like Minato, I was born in the Japanese Autonomous Zone, and I’m 17 years old. It’s my fifth year here, and my favorite things are fried mince-meat and jellyfish. Oh, but I like raising the jellyfish, not eating them. I like aquariums, and I don’t really have any special talents.”

Minato started to clap before he could stop himself. It was a great introduction. It really painted the perfect picture of Natsuka in so few words.

Chloe became even more irritated and said, “You haven’t told me a single piece of important information.”

“Really? Well, let’s see. I’m 162 centimeters tall, and my weight is a secret. From top to bottom, my three sizes are—”

“Stop talking! Are you trying to be sarcastic? That’s not what I’m talking about. I couldn’t care less about your personal information. I’m currently in a training course, and yet why is there another trainee here as well? That’s what I want to know. We’ve already finished with the group Solaris-mining sessions today.”

Her reaction was justified. Minato answered her question bluntly, without keeping any secrets, “This girl is going to be your partner from now on.”

He timed the explanation poorly like this on purpose. The look of shock on her face was even better than expected.

“U-Um. . . I’m not quite sure I understand. . .”

“The thing is, this girl was also under the care of that instructor you bullied and gave an ulcer a while back, so the poor thing is being shuffled around without anyone to teach her. It’s going to end up affecting her graduation at this rate.”

“So get to the point. . .”

“Doesn’t it eat at you? This girl—the very epitome of innocence and harmlessness—being forced to weather such hardships. . . ?”

“Hey. . . Hey, Minato. What does uh-pit-uh-me mean?”

“I definitely feel annoyance, right now. . . I don’t feel a shred of sympathy for her. How does her being in that situation have anything to do with me? Her skill should decide that. And for the instructor in the hospital—for someone who let his health deteriorate like that from a few words here and there—I can only imagine that to be a personal failure for someone like a professional water manipulator.”

With a cold sneer full of contempt, she shook her head from side to side. Minato sighed back.

“Not everyone’s as exceptionally full of themselves as you are, you know.”

“F-Flattery will get you nowhere.”

Her selective hearing was in a league of its own.

“Anyways listen. Because there’s only one of me and two of you, I’m going to slow down your lesson pace to match Natsuka’s. I’d like some of your exceptionalness to rub off on her.”

What a way with words, if I do say so myself. If I’m going to be introducing Chloe to a buddy system, I might as well secretly try to help my failing childhood friend at the same time. It was only the finest display of mixing the personal and professional.

After that, Minato went to explain the system without trying to probe for additional reactions and said, “I also want you to learn a little teamwork.”

“Teamwork?”

Why the heck does she look like she’s never heard the word before?

“It doesn’t matter which division you get assigned to in the future, you’re going to have to work with others. Your job’s not going to work out so well if you give all your coworkers stomach ulcers.”

“I’m not looking to work with people who have weak stomachs.”

“Once you become a water manipulator, you won’t be in a position to make those kinds of decisions. As it so happens, I’m not in that sort of position either. You see where I’m going with this?”

“Humph.”

She actually humphed me just now. You’ve got to hand it to her sometimes.

“Well I’ve already come to expect this kind of high-handedness from you by now. So then what’s her name? Natsuka Horsey-Nose?”

“It’s Hoshino! Please don’t make me self-conscious!”

“Sorry, it’s just that you looked as clueless and vacant as a horse, so it accidentally slipped out. So what exactly am I supposed to do with Hoshino, then?”

“Oh yeah. Could you go ahead and train her?”

“Excuse me?”

This was the true face of the “buddy system” that Minato put together.

“I’ve giving you a new rule: you’re only allowed to take a subject’s practical exam once your partner has passed it. The more Natsuka stumbles around, the longer it’s going to take for you to graduate. Seems pretty difficult, but I’ll be rooting for you!”

“W-W-Wait a moment!” Chloe’s expression finally changed for the worse. “You’re expecting me to teach someone this boring and forgettable?!”

“Hey, don’t point at others. It’s rude. I thought you were already used to my decision-making.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that I was surprised. I was planning on graduating in only two years, just like my older sister, and now I have to drag around this heavy luggage while I do it. . . ? You can’t be serious.”

“Heavy. . . ? Please don’t talk about my weight. . .”

Minato ignored Natuska’s random interjection and continued talking with the furious Chloe.

“You’ve been making faster progress than your sister so far, so I’m sure you’ll make it in time if you really give it your all. Besides, it’s up to the instructors to decide if their pupils can graduate. I’ve decided that I’ll let you graduate if you prove to me that you can mentor Natsuka as well.”

“But that’s just—!”

“Slaaave.”

“Guh. . .”

It was the magic word.

An irreplaceable promise. . . A special secret. . . An unforgettable memory. . .

The special way I pronounced it even further kept it between us.

She instant she heard it, her incessant cross-armed resistance disappeared without a trace. Though the muscles in her face twitched, both her arms dropped to her sides as if on command.

Her face was bright red, perhaps from anger.

Then, with the most sullen tone imaginable, she responded, “Sir. . . yes, sir. . .”

It was all too easy.

For how unbelievably full of herself she was, she always did what she thought was fair and kept her promises at the very least. She was an honest person, for better or for worse. I feel like it’s only going to get harder for me to leverage it in the future, considering how effective it turned out to be.

“This is all I’m asking you to do. You don’t need to do anything differently otherwise. Try not to think too much about the whole slaaave thing.”

“Am I allowed to strangle you then?”

“If you can!”

—is what Minato really wanted to say back, but the chances were likely that he’d turn into a bloodied murder victim if she went all out. That’s how truly frightening her Territory was. He instead just stayed silent.

The girl that could only barely expand her power in the first place, however, had her cheeks puffed out grumpily.

“You can’t do anything mean to Minato! Be nice to him!”

“I’m getting irked.”

Watching them both, he couldn’t really blame her for feeling that way. Chloe probably saw her as doing some kind of conniving cutesy-act. Sorry to say it, but that was undeniably the true Natsuka. She’ll figure this out in due time.

Though the air between them seems pretty tense at first glance.

“And what’s up with the ‘Minato this, Minato that’? Call him ‘sir’ like you’re supposed to!”

“Huh?”

Chloe was already starting with the lessons. Minato started to feel like this was going to go swimmingly.

The badmouthing she was so proud of against instructor and classmate alike just wouldn’t get through to Natsuka, a girl as carefree as a jellyfish. The two of them would be a great combination.

There was the sense of camaraderie and an introduction to the hardships of not having everything go your way. Minato wanted to have her experience both of these ingredients vital to her growth through training sessions with a buddy.

They might even become lasting friends.

Rather, they almost certainly would have, had not even fate forsaken them so—

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

The monster scurried away.

The location was 400 kilometers southwest of the artificial island that housed the Academy in the Pacific Ocean, 1,500 meters below the surface, on the ocean floor.

In this world beyond the reach of sunlight—in which the passage of the day seemed to hold no meaning—there were rows upon rows of buildings that had long since descended into ruin.

Until a hundred years ago, it was known as the Japanese city of Osaka.

Even an area as large and bustling as this one fell victim to the Oceanic Calamity and was now an empty shell submerged deep beneath the surface. It was unimaginably desolate—scarce was even aquatic life—and it was enveloped in a hellish silence.

It was midnight. The quiet was suddenly broken.

“This is Stella in alpha squad. I’m in pursuit of a creature believed to be an Under. Requesting confirmation. Over.”

“This is Tachibana in second squad. I’ve confirmed your location. Begin rendezvous. And I keep telling you, you’re first squad, not alpha. We need to match. Get it through your thick skull. Over.”

“But alpha sounds so much cooler. Maybe you should match me, instead? Over.”

Transmissions ended. Alpha—or rather first squad leader Stella turned around to face the rest of her squadron waiting on standby behind her.

“We’re moving now, Komaki. Tachibana’ll chew you out if you lose sight of that thing.”

Squadron wasn’t the best way to put it. There was only one other girl there.

“Osaka is the mecca of husband-wife comedy duos, isn’t it?” said Komaki.

“The hell you on about?”

“You should so, like, pair up with Tachibana. The two of you are so good together, you know?”

“I hope you die to an Under.”

“You’re so meeean. Communication water manipulators are, like, super important, you know?”

The two of them were in special diving suits, yet neither of them were equipped with any kind of breathing apparatus. To reiterate, they were at depths that reached pressures of 150 atm. Even if there were a breathable atmosphere down there, there was no way anything even remotely human-like would be able to function.

Water manipulators were another story, however.

Those who received the benefits of Solaris were able to raise their chemical affinity with water to the fullest possible levels, and in doing so, they could do things like breathe underwater, utilize different methods by which to hold a conversation without air, and even work in areas almost completely robbed of light. Among them were also those like Komaki, who had the ability to create long-distance communication channels in water when normal electronic transmission was impossible.

All of these supernatural activities stemmed from the Territories possessed by water manipulators. People like them were to never be harmed by water.

In addition was their exceptional mobility underwater—though varying from individual to individual, their speeds averaged at around 40 knots.

At this very pace, they continued to pursue their target.

 

“This is all so stupid.”

“Huh? What is?” asked Komaki, caught off guard by the sudden sound of Stella’s voice in front of her.

Stella’s shoulders drooped. “The guys over at the Farm. I can’t believe they let even one Under escape. They’re such a joke.”

“We should totally laugh, then. If any of this gets out, aaaaall of us are done for. ♪”

“Yeah, can’t really find it in me to laugh. . . Let’s just hurry up and get this over with.”

The two headed towards the transformed ruins of Osaka. As they propelled themselves through the the gaps in the buildings, they almost looked as if they were flying.

“Well, on the bright side, at least the one that escaped was only D-class trash. You could totally take care of it, no problem.”

“Better safe than sorry. We’re just going to tail it until Tachibana’s squad gets here.”

“Roger!”

They continued to keep a large figure in their line of sight.

The creature resembled a massive tadpole. The difference, however, was that it possessed forelegs with which it charged as if crawling along the seafloor. Its movements were chaotic and seemed almost irrational. Occasionally it would barrel into one of the dilapidated buildings and destroy the walls. There likely weren’t any goals motivating its actions. It simply lived.

Humans were the ones that gave them a purpose.

“You know, I have an teeny question.”

“What?”

“Like, why’re they called Unders? We used to just call them experimental subjects.”

“Oh, that? Actually, I was also curious, so I asked Tachibana. They wanted to standardize the names, I guess.”

At that moment, a bright light suddenly illuminated the water around them.

The Under was bombarded by a cascade of explosions. In that world of pitch black, countless flames burst out as if blossoming.

The ability to create these mine-like objects was a specialty of Tachibana’s, the leader of the second squadron. It was well suited to large-radius destruction, but that very inability to aim made it unsuitable for cases of simple subjugation like this one.

It was far more effective as a signal to Stella and her squad.

Time to start the battle.

“He should at least warn me before he goes and does that. . .”

Stella also prepared herself for combat. The brightness of the Territory covering her increased in intensity and then started to mold itself into armaments.

She was a Zone Specialist.

The energy took the shape of two dignified blades, reminiscent of the gladius used by swordsmen of old.

It was the solidification of her Territory. The ability itself was common among water manipulators, but Stella especially turned into a formidable fighter with the swords in hand. Tachibana’s ability also proved to be an asset—in even this kind of battle—as he could be tasked with delivering the finishing blow.

As if trying to avoid the repeated explosions, the Under launched itself above the buildings and ended up in a wide-open area.

There was nowhere left to hide. This was the perfect chance to finish it off.

“Whoops.”

Almost forgot. Right before launching her attack, Stella answered Komaki’s question.

“About what you asked earlier, it’s short for ‘Under control of the SORALIS.’ It’s ‘cause they’re controlled by the stuff. Unders are basically like the polar opposite of us water manipulators.”

“You don’t say.”

With the sound of Komaki’s impressed voice in her ears, Stella flew into the darkness of the deep.

“I’m going to go finish this up.”

It was past midnight. Countless shadows mingled amongst themselves in the depths of the submerged Osaka.

There were but a few who knew the truth.

Episode.2 - The Translucency Between Girls

Where did Solaris, the living mineral, originally come from?

—Some say it arrived from outer space.

—Has it always existed on Earth, lying dormant deep beneath the surface?

—Could it have come through an inter-dimensional passage?

—Or perhaps it was first brought into this world by the progenitor of water manipulators.

. . . And so on and so on. All kinds of scholarly theories clashed with one another over where this mineral originated. Not to mention, there was no shortage of people who maintained even more absurd possibilities.

It was a mysterious, supernatural material.

Modern-day humanity now relied on Solaris however, and thanks to it, they were able to rebuild society in the wake of the Oceanic Calamity.

Water manipulators were a kind of mutant born from this very mineral. Essentially, they were man-made super-humans. With compatibility ratios of only 1:1,000 for women and 1:10,000 for men, they were a new breed of human that could thrive both on land and in the sea.

They could function at depths that rejected nearly all forms of life, so they were able to collect materials like methane hydrate that quietly slept on the ocean floor as if it were child’s play. In places where monumentally expensive machinery was once necessary and even for things like surveying sunken ruins, they could utilize their abilities for a whole host of purposes.

Above all, in the ocean, a place that never ceased to endanger human life, water manipulators were unrivaled protectors.

 

The trainee Natsuka Hoshino expanded her own Territory and cut off a section of the coursing energy, letting it float upwards in the ocean. It looked sort of like a Nomura’s jellyfish. It was just as big as one too.

Chloe suddenly shouted, “Stop! Everyone’s dead!”

“Huh?” Natsuka responded.

“Everyone has drowned! What the hell is up with that useless albeit strangely cute Territory? I thought I told you to make a flotation device! If a passenger boat ends up capsizing, hundreds of people are going to be thrown into the water, you know. So what’s with that size? You trying to give them a lifesaver made by Carneades?!”

“Erm. . . Carnies-in-bees?”

“You’re not even remotely close. It’s the plank of Carneades! It’s a thought experiment with two people in a situation where only one can survive. What I’m saying is that thing you made could only save one person.”

“Oh, I see! You’re so smart, Chloe. I wish I could be like you!”

“E-Everyone knows this kind of stuff. . .”

A sincere upperclassman praising her blushing junior. . .

Minato was watching the two talk with their heads above the water as he sat cross-legged on the surface of the ocean. More precisely, he spread out his Territory on the surface and sat on top of that.

It was an example of how one could manipulate the properties of their Territory. The two trainees were currently practicing how to do exactly that.

The exams they were training for were Zone Manipulation Training I - IV. In it, they gave their Territories shape and solidity, converting them into things like tools or footholds. At high enough levels of mastery, one could even turn their Territory into a weapon or defensive barrier, so it was an indispensable skill in many situations, ranging from crime fighting to rescue efforts.

—and it was also an area of personal struggle for Natsuka.

Chloe, who had been tasked with mentoring her on myriad subjects, bared her teeth in frustration. “Listen, Zone Specialists have a much larger Territory compared to other manipulator types, and you’re one of them, so you’re not going to pass if you can’t make something at least the size of a small boat.”

Although she was being talked down to by another trainee younger than her, Natsuka continued to smile cheerfully like always.

“Yeah, it just never works like I want it to. It’s like, when I try to let a lot of Territory out from my body, it kind of just explodes, you know? I can’t stop it from doing that.”

“That explains the jellyfish size. . . It’s a little ridiculous how uncoordinated you are, Hoshino. Are you sure you’re not a Perception Specialist? Was there some kind of mistake?”

“Haha, Minato told me the same thing.”

“Call him ‘sir.’ And I’m sure anyone else would agree. I’m not even a Zone Specialist myself, and I can still produce a platform the size of a lifeboat.”

I’m pretty sure that’s just because you’re you, thought Minato in disbelief as he watched.

There was rarely any overlap among water manipulation abilities. Minato was a Perception Specialist, for example, and creating a platform the size of a boat was a fundamentally impossible task for him. Even Aishwarin wouldn’t be able to pull it off. It was safe to say that Zone Specialists had a monopoly over the ability to manipulate their Territories’ substance on that scale.

Chloe’s ability to utilize powers bordering other specializations was simply a byproduct of her own genius.

“Oh, yeah. What type are you, by the way?” asked Natsuka.

“Me? I’m just an Order Dictator. What of it?”

For someone calling herself normal, she looked positively smug. She was definitely sick in the head.

And then there was Natsuka. Her eyes went blank as she proceeded to annihilate Chloe’s pride. “Yeah? I didn’t even know there was a type like that.”

Chloe’s face fell straight into the water with a splash. Immediately, she brought it back up.

“You don’t know about it?! Even though Order Dictators are so rare?!”

“Sorry. . . I know Minato is a Perception Specialist, but that’s it. . . I’m so stupid.”

“With the ‘Limit Operator’ type, that makes four, and if you include the ‘Emotion Dependent’ type, there are five kinds of water manipulators in total! How could you not know this? Everyone knows this! They were supposed to teach that right after you enter the Academy! What was that instructor doing?”

It looked like she was directing her anger, not at Minato, but towards the stomach ulcer instructor that came before him.

Natsuka placed a finger on her chin as if also thinking about their mutual instructor. “But you know, he taught me lots of interesting things too. Like, ‘if you ever see someone who’s drowning, you’ll always have those two big flotation devices on you, hehehe.’ He was always smiling when he gave me advice.”

“That was definitely a disgusting smile and even worse advice! I made the correct choice, putting that asshole in the hospital. . .” Chloe seemed to come to a conclusion. “I finally understand. The reason you’re lagging this far behind is because of that bastard.”

“Haha. I think I’m just bad at remembering things, though. . .”

“Yes, that’s also undeniable. At any rate, my hands are tied. I’ll just have to work with you from the ground up. Let’s go back to square one and practice hardening your Territory.”

“Okay!”

“Next, try to focus on making something bigger than a jellyfish. Even if it starts getting tough to control it, try to power through. We’re going to keep doing this and slowly increase the amount of Territory you can handle.”

The two of them resumed their training.

Their chemistry exceeded even Minato’s expectations.

Chloe initially greeted the introduction of the buddy system with a lot of resistance, but now, possibly thanks to her stubborn personality, she approached the task of mentoring Natsuka with determined dedication. It wasn’t only her. It’s true Natsuka might’ve been slower than others when it came to learning things, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t serious about it in the slightest, and the way she earnestly took the advice of someone younger than her was proof of that.

It was a beautiful day out. The training was going perfectly.

Minato started to whistle a little to distract himself from the fact that he had nothing to do.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

It was past noon.

While Minato was hard at work at his desk in the staff room, going over various piles of paperwork, his senior instructor Aishwarin approached him with a glare. In a disgusted tone, she muttered, “It’s going to be you and me. . .”

“Excuse me?” Minato had absolutely no idea what she was trying to say. Finally, a possibility came to mind. “Oh! You must be talking about the Newspaper Club’s annual ‘Secret Couples Edition.’ What will I ever do about them and their antics. To be honest, it does make me a little happy, though. . .”

“Not even close, you asshole!” Her fuse shorter than most, she slammed both of her fists down onto Minato’s desk and angrily said, “We’re in charge of the training expedition— Wait a sec. . . The Newspaper Club really chose us for their thing?! What the hell’s up with that?! I’ve got to stop them from publishing that, or I won’t be able to live with myself.”

“You’re a little late on the uptake. They’ve already sold a lot of copies. I even helped them—”

“Just do me a favor and fall off the face of this Earth.”

“Still, the training expedition, huh? You’re one thing, but why did they choose a new guy like me?”

“That’s the least of my worries. . . Anyways, there’s nothing we can do about it now. This kind of thing always happens. They always pass off the annoying stuff to the people at the bottom.”

“Really?”

Thinking back on it, she might have a point. Back when Minato participated in the expedition as a trainee, the instructors that led it were Aishwarin, the youngest member of staff at the time, and Muhammad, the instructor that started right before her.

Speak of the devil, there he is, praying to Allah. There were tears in his eyes—he must’ve been pretty happy to have not been chosen.

Watching that scene out of the corner of his eye, Minato couldn’t help but ask, “Is it really that bad? I had a lot of fun last year.”

“Hey, um, Minato? Think about it a little. Six days and five nights of marching at the bottom of the Pacific? Sure it’s fresh and interesting when you’re a trainee ‘cause you rarely go out that way. It was like a picnic for you guys, I’m sure. By the way, you know how many times I’ve done it? Five.”

“I’m so sorry.”

That. Sounds. Painful.

It was fun the first time. I’d probably be able to put up with it a second time, too.

But anything over three times would, without a doubt, be boring to the brink of death.

There were essentially only rocks and sand at the the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, with the best possible outcome being strange forms of aquatic life and the occasional remains of a sunken city—that’s it. Going once or twice was more than enough to get your fill of that.

For people to whom the ocean deep didn’t hold any appeal or novelty, spending a week down there was nothing other than self-inflicted torture.

As he imagined how Aishwarin must’ve felt, Minato couldn’t repress his pity.

She let out a loud sigh and then said, “I’m going on my sixth time now, and having you as a partner is still the worst part of all this.”

“You’re so mean. We even bonded over that game of Twister, didn’t we?”

“Don’t bring up the stuff I did when I was drunk!” Her face bright red after remembering what she did in the past, Aishwarin shoved some paperwork at Minato. “Anyways, we need to talk about the trainees who are going to participate in the expedition. You and Chloe were chosen in addition to three others via recommendation, so make sure you tell her.”

“Oh man, I can just tell it’s going to be a pain in the ass to convince her. . .”

Chloe was definitely not suited to situations where she had to relax and interact with others.

“If she says no, we’re going to have to start this whole thing from scratch, so do whatever you can to make sure she accepts. The biggest issue is who’s going to volunteer, though. There are two spots, and we do have one applicant, but. . .”

“We can’t fill the last spot? I feel like it shouldn’t be that hard as long as we get the word out.”

“Even though one of the supervising instructors is Minato Yamajo?”

“Yeah, that could be a problem.”

There were expeditions in both the first and second semesters, and each time, only either the girls or boys went. This was the first semester, so that meant only female trainees could apply.

Of course, a large majority of the girls on campus lived in fear of Minato. It might be a little too difficult. To make matters worse—

“It’s your fault, so you take care of it. It’s up to you to find the last person.”

“So it comes down to this. . . Very well, then. I’ll do it.”

Minato glanced down again at the documents he received from Aishwarin. He only had around a month before the expedition started to find a willing applicant.

It looks like I’m going to have to find time between lessons to make it work somehow.

He noticed the materials also indicated the destination for this semester’s trip.

—the sunken ruins of former Osaka.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

First things first, I should probably start by breaking the news to my pupil. When I sent her an email reading ”We need to talk,” however, she sent one back with a ”Not even to my face, I see.” Whatever will I do with this girl?

Minato eventually went to go see her.

The meeting place he designated in his email was next to the cliffs after the Academy had already closed for the day. The distant horizon was dyed a dark red.

For Minato, his usual fishing spot on the breakwater was the obvious choice, though he didn’t bring a fishing pole, unfortunately. I’ll just have to put my hobby off for now and do some teacher-y stuff instead. . .

He soon spotted his pupil.

The fair-skinned, blond-haired girl was standing atop the surface of the ocean. Above the warmly glowing waters, her skirt waved gently around in the breeze.

She was just too beautiful. He swallowed his saliva.

Minato managed to maintain his composure, however, and called out to her from behind.

“What’re you doing?”

“I’m standing. Is that not obvious?”

Phew, it’s good to see that she’s as impertinent a slave as ever.

Her appearance seemed almost divine—it was as if she were a spirit that haunted the twilight.

“I like it. . . the sea at this time, I mean. I also wanted to get a feel for my Territory.”

She turned her feet along the gentle waves on the surface of the water and faced Minato. With the passionately-hued sun to her back, her expression seemed softer than usual.

“Get a feel?”

“That’s right. I always use my Territory without really thinking about it, so it’s a little difficult to describe what I do to other people. I’m also not that good myself at changing its substance.”

Minato’s eyes grew wide. She was apparently using up her time standing on the water like this in order to explain it to Natsuka.

“You really are something else.”

I’m always at a loss around her.

She’s an earnest worker and always honest, and she has a bunch of cute sides to her as well, but her reputation around the Academy is as bad as it gets. If she only worked on improving her superiority complex and that foul mouth of hers, I’m sure she’d gain genuine admirers in no time. What a waste. . .

“So? What did you want to talk about?” she asked, suddenly reminding Minato why he was here in the first place.

“You were asked by name to take part in the training expedition.”

“Training expedition? What’s that?”

“You haven’t heard of it before? There’s a poster on the noticeboard, and I’m pretty sure they send out emails about it too.”

“I may have seen something or other about it, but I don’t know what it entails.”

“To put it simply, it’s a recreational activity separate from training. Maybe it makes more sense to call it a volunteer event. It’s for a production company, and we do it every year.”

“A production company? Like, for TV?”

“Yeah, exactly. They have this long-running documentary series on sunken city ruins around the world—have you seen it? It’s called Deep Cities.”

“Oh, yeah, I have. It’s that one show that’s so unbelievably boring it calls into question the director’s ability to comprehend human emotion.”

“No comment. But anyways, the Academy always helps out with filming the Japanese areas. This island is right where the former Tokyo sank, after all.”

Though traditional filming was difficult in the deep sea, water manipulators were able to use specialized cameras to capture footage without those limitations. That’s why there were many external requests in that vein.

Chloe snorted. “So what you’re basically saying is that since professional water manipulators are expensive, they throw in some trainees to lower the price like the cheapskates they are?”

“No comment on that either.”

While she was being a smart-ass, that was exactly the case. Water manipulators on average didn’t come cheap.

“Well, what I can tell you for certain is this is a valuable experience that won’t come around often.”

Academy trainees rarely left the Tokyo area, but on a training expedition, it was possible to see some submerged cities in really far-reaching places. Osaka was the destination this time around—you’d even be able to see Mt. Fuji’s peak sticking out of the water on the way there. You wouldn’t be able to visit that kind of location just everyday.

That said, Chloe didn’t seem the type to be interested in that kind of old Japanese atmosphere. Sure enough, her expression was positively frigid.

“As much as it pains me to say it, the idea of seeing crumbling cities doesn’t exactly bring the word ‘fulfilling’ to mind.”

“I figured you’d say something like that. You really won’t join us?”

“No, I won’t. I’m not in the habit of doing things I don’t find productive.”

Listen to her say that after spending so much time teaching Natsuka. . .

Oh well. I saw this coming from a mile away, so I’m not too hung up on it.

He also knew that once Chloe decided to do something, there would be nothing he could say to change her mind. Her stubbornness was one of the unchangeable things about her.

All he could do to force her compliance was to abuse his position and order it, but. . .

“Fine, I understand. I’ll tell them you’re not going to do it.”

Minato was quick to give up.

If this had something to do with her training and development, that would have been a different story, but as participation was completely voluntary, Minato felt he had to respect her wishes. He felt a little bad for Aishwarin, but it should be fine as long as he put in some overtime to look over the lists and find a replacement.

On that note, Minato started to walk away from the breakwater.

In that moment, however, Chloe let out a small, “Huh?”

Her voice seemed out of character, and her expression looked somewhat uncertain. It was almost like their conversation went unexpectedly for her.

After a moment, she asked, “Wait, no command?”

“. . . What?”

Confronted by this almost incomprehensible reaction of hers, Minato was rendered nothing short of stunned.

You. . . you can’t be serious.

“Wait— NO! THAT’S NOT WHAT I—!”

Her expression was frozen in fear. It looked like she also realized her slip of the tongue.

Amid the glow of the sunset, her face was red enough to confirm my suspicions. Her voice also did a fantastic job of giving her away.

“T-T-That’s not what I meant! I-I mean, like, y-you know. . .it seemed like you’d like, you’d like say the ‘slaaave’ thing, zir. . . O-Oh, uh, I, uh, keep messing up w-what I want to say. . .”

The girl slapped both her cheeks.

Minato grew even more uneasy.

“Umm. . .” Is it really okay to ask her this? “Were you, by chance, waiting for me to order you?”

“It’s not. . .” She was almost on the verge of tears. “No, it’s not. . . It’s not that. Just now, that was. . . nothing. Nope. Nothing. Nothing at all.”

Oh man, she’s really going to start crying.

Minato finally threw in the towel, judging that letting this go on any further would only bring her closer to breaking down. I can’t watch this any longer. It’s my loss. You beat me. I give up.

He crouched down on all fours. Ordering her around at this stage in the game would only make things worse.

“I’m really sorry, Chloe!” All I can do is beg her, now that it’s come to this. I’ve got to find some way to sweep this under the rug, too! “On second thought, I’ll be completely out of options if you refuse me here! I am fully aware that you have no interest in something like a training expedition, but can’t you find a way to make a small exception this time? Please, I’m begging you!”

Minato knew perfectly well just how forceful he was being, but at the moment, Chloe was teetering dangerously close to the edge. The only possibility left to him was to give her something genuine that she could latch onto.

“Um. . . well. . .” she sniffled and rubbed the corners of her eyes. Her expression softened, and she looked a little embarrassed. Eventually, she muttered in docile tone, “Okay. . . I’ll go.”

—And that concludes the story of Chloe’s massive blunder.

It must have taken years off my life.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

Natsuka Hoshino loved aquariums, and apparently she even raised jellyfish in a fish tank in her room. Of course, there was no way Minato was allowed to enter the girls’ dormitory, so he had never seen it for himself.

According to her, raising jellyfish wasn’t all that difficult, just like with fish and shellfish. While you only fed them once a day, however, failing to keep the water clean would lead to them dying. While most jellyfish varieties had short lifespans, they could live for up to a year if you really took good care of them. Whenever one did die, Natsuka would always fall into a state of gloominess. That’s apparently why she resolved herself to only raise one jellyfish a year. In that period, she would focus everything she had on keeping it happy.

 

With that said, it seems it passed away just this morning.

They were on the shore of the artificial island in the middle of April. Wearing a diving suit since early in the morning, Natsuka looked unfocused with a sullen expression.

“I’m so sad. . .”

There were even bags under her eyes—her usual refreshing charm had drastically diminished.

She was like this every time a jellyfish died, however, so Minato talked to her normally, already used to this kind of thing. “Didn’t you start raising it right after New Year’s? What happened?”

That put it at a little over 4 months old. This might’ve been the youngest to-date.

Still in shock, she wearily glanced at Minato with lifeless eyes. “I think it was a natural death. When I first started to raise him, he always looked a little tired. Even the same kinds of jellyfish have strong ones and weak ones. . .”

“I see.”

“I need to light some incense when I get back. . .”

“For a jellyfish?”

Even for my childhood friend, I’d never heard of anyone going that far in paying their respects to a jellyfish. Well, I have heard of people who held funerals after their cat or dog died, so I guess this wasn’t too different.

It was a little strange personally, but I had no intention of telling her what to do.

“Well, keep him in your memory, okay?”

“Mhm. . .”

The air was so heavy. Welcome to the jellyfish shock of 2145.

Seeing her like this, Minato decided to hold off on telling her about the training expedition for now, as she would almost certainly say she didn’t want to go, because she was “in mourning.”

Then again, it’s not like I was going to invite her in the first place.

The second he was initially approached about the expedition, he immediately crossed off Natsuka’s name from the list of people he could potentially recruit. There were two reasons:

The first one was because she raised jellyfish. They were delicate creatures, requiring lots of care in order to stay alive, so Minato imagined Natsuka would decline something that stole away an entire week of her time. Well, the jellyfish did end up passing away just this morning, I guess. . .

The second reason, however, was much more serious.

—her grades.

 

“What are you doing, you two?”

Chloe appeared on the beach after finishing changing. The second she saw her instructor and upperclassman together, her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

It was probably because of how Natsuka looked. There were tears in her eyes.

“Sir, what did you—?”

“It’s not what it looks like. Her pet died this morning.”

“Pet? Oh, you mean the jellyfish.”

Her expression calmed down immediately.

That was a little unexpected. It seems Chloe took careful note of the fact that Natsuka was a jellyfish enthusiast. I wouldn’t have taken her for the kind of person to pay even a little attention to someone else’s hobbies.

That said, it didn’t look like she had much sympathy for her either.

“We can’t be letting personal issues cut into our training time. Please pull yourself together.”

“It’s as you say. . .” mumbled Natsuka.

She definitely carried herself like a king. Usually people would find it difficult to tell her how it was in this kind of situation, but Chloe didn’t have an ounce of hesitation.

What’s more, I can only be in awe at how she’s able to keep a straight face after yesterday’s huge slip-up. Either that, or maybe she was only trying to make it look like nothing happened, when on the inside she was only waiting for more verbal abuse. Or maybe her entire body was waiting for it?

It looked like because of that incident, Minato was no longer able to keep a level head around her. Her strength as a water manipulator was one thing, but he didn’t really want to help her develop her other “talents” as well. Minato was getting closer and closer to being actually murdered by Chloe’s papa. My little angel started wanting to be abused by others— or something like that.

“Besides, if you like jellyfish so much, why don’t you also participate in the training expedition?”

Natsuka looked a little confused. Oh boy. . .

“Egg-spug-dishin’?”

“I checked this morning, and they’re still looking for one more person. You should be able to find all kinds of rare jellyfish on the deep sea tours, right?”

I was hoping I could’ve been the one to tell her when the time was right.

Chloe went ahead and jumped the gun. Well, it’s not like I ever told her to keep it a secret, so I couldn’t really get mad at her, and besides, it only went to show how much Chloe was thinking about her upperclassman. If I think about it like that, it almost makes me smile.

Still, this puts me in a difficult spot.

Likely her first time hearing about this, Natsuka readily took the bait. “There are deep sea jellyfish tours? Can I swim with a Stygiomedusa gigantea?”

“What kind of monster name is that? It’s not really a jellyfish tour, specifically. It’s an extracurricular trip over six days and five nights to film the sunken ruins of Osaka.”

“That sounds wonderful! I’d love to go!”

“Wait a second. . . Why haven’t you told her about the exhibition yet, sir?”

Her blue eyes stared sincerely at me. Natsuka’s cute, wide eyes did the same.

Minato sighed. This wasn’t how he wasn’t how he wanted to do it, but his back was up against a wall. He’d just have to explain. “We’re not bringing her along, or rather, we can’t afford to.”

As soon as he said this, Chloe’s gaze sharpened a little. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

“You’re also aware that Natsuka is a 5th year trainee, right? With her graduation in mind, her current pace is cutting it way too close. Two or three days might’ve been okay, but going for a week without any practice is out of the picture. I’ve already put in a request to have another instructor look after her while we’re away on the expedition.”

The same even went for the buddy system. Had Natsuka shown any signs of slowing down her lesson pace, Minato was fully prepared to abandon the system right away for both of their sakes. Luckily, Chloe turned out to be a much better mentor than expected. As Natsuka still hadn’t shown any tangible progress, however, taking her on the expedition would be far too risky.

“You can’t be serious. . .” Chloe was visibly upset. “Didn’t I make myself clear? I told you I wanted to graduate in two years.”

“Yeah.”

“And yet, here you are telling me that you’re afraid it’s going to take her three more. Can’t you see the contradiction in that?”

“It’s true that I’m really hoping for some dramatic changes with the two of you working together now, but there are no guarantees. If things do turn out poorly, I don’t want her to regret coming on this week-long trip with us.”

If Natsuka was any old pupil, Minato would have probably been content with just letting her do whatever she wanted. The fact was, however, that she was like family to him. It’s true that there had been times when even Minato doubted her potential as a water manipulator, but she had spent the last five years giving it everything she had, no matter how difficult it was. He didn’t want to let that time go to waste.

All of this, only because it was Natsuka. . . Look at me, mixing my personal and professional lives again. . . I’m probably not suited to being an instructor either.

I recognized that she was a trainee and that I was an instructor, and yet deep down, there was no getting around how much I worried about her.

“Please stop fighting. . .” said the girl at the center of the conflict. An uneasy smile formed on her face, and her shoulders drooped. “It’s true my grades are really bad. You don’t have to fight about it. . .”

She never liked conflict, which explained why she tried to interject.

Things would’ve died down had the two of us agreed to drop the conversation, but unfortunately, Chloe was in no mood for that. “Humph. I don’t agree. If Hoshino says she wants to go, then let her.”

For a moment, she started to sound like a friend would—

—and then she pointed a finger in Minato’s face, revealing her true intentions:

“I simply cannot stomach the idea of you doubting my teaching abilities!”

“You’re such a sore loser.”

“And what’s wrong with that? You shouldn’t expect me to always go along with your little plans. Besides, you and I are like cats and dogs.”

“You really hate me that much?”

“No. . . Maybe it’s more like foxes and squirrels.”

“And with that, you’ve lost me.”

“Anyways! For both Hoshino’s sake and my pride, we’re going to give it our all.”

“Our all? What do I have to do?” chimed in Natsuka.

“In the one month left before the trip, we’re basically going to make your eventual graduation a certainty. No problem,” Chloe said, brimming with confidence. Without even waiting for his response, she walked towards the shore with a spring in her step, wiggling her little butt as she did.

Halfway there, she spun around and directed a glare at Minato.

“What are you waiting for? We’re starting the training. If you’re done, time is of the essence now.”

Yep, she was definitely like a king. Once she set her sights on something, there was no turning back.

How can I put this. . . it was like she was in a league of her own. Even as a guy, Minato couldn’t help but admit she looked pretty cool.

Next to him, on the other hand, Natsuka’s opinion of Chloe was much more orthodox. “Oh, Chloe is so cute, it gives me chills! I want her as my litter sister.”

“Sisters, huh?”

It suddenly dawned on me.

Although she might not talk like one, Chloe was probably the kind of girl that was infatuated with her older sister. Maybe that’s why Minato couldn’t help but imagine her as his little sister, while at the same time, Chloe viewed Natsuka almost as she would her older sibling.

She was famous around the Academy for not having any friends. In that sense, maybe you could also say the reason she wanted Natsuka to come on the training expedition so badly was because spending six days and five nights without her would prove far too lonely. . .

I hope that’s the case, wished Minato.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

There were four trainees confirmed to be participating in the training expedition.

Three of those, Chloe included, were directly recommended by the Academy. In order to fulfill the expedition’s ultimate goal—taking deep sea footage—it was necessary to bring along those who had strong water manipulation fundamentals so they could work underwater. The Academy also chose them with the intention of giving their bright hopefuls some real-world experience.

In order to balance it out, they opened up two more positions for volunteers. Because of Minato, however, only one of those slots was currently filled, and there were no other takers in sight.

A spot with no hopes of being filled. . .

After three days of no news on that front, the other instructor in charge of the trip, Aishwarin, trudged her way over to his desk, as if getting impatient. “Come on, already. You still haven’t found the last person?”

Minato didn’t really know how to respond. “Well actually, there is someone that wants to. She’s behind on her training, though, so I put off on letting her participate right away.”

“You’re that worried about her? If she wants to participate while understanding where she stands graduation-wise, then it should be up to her. Just let her join.”

“There are, well, extenuating circumstances. . . Would you mind letting me watch her progress for a little longer?”

Putting his obvious motive aside, this was the first time that Chloe had really tackled the buddy system head-on like this.

How would the carefree Natsuka respond to her burning passion? He truly wanted to put the expedition business on hold and see where this three-legged race of theirs ended up taking them.

Aishwarin nodded without asking any prying questions. “Well, I don’t care what you do as long as we get five trainees by the deadline. I mean, I’m still in shock that you managed to recruit even one girl. I figured it was impossible.”

“The truth is out.”

She had given me what she assumed to be an impossible task. Well, it’s not like I could really blame her for it.

Aishwarin smiled cheekily. Oh my, how cute.

“You’re also an instructor, so you can’t always be distancing yourself from the girls. Well you managed to find someone at least, so I’ll give you that.”

I really hate it break it to you but that “someone” I found was actually a childhood friend of mine that has already long since developed an immunity to me, so in reality, I haven’t put in even an ounce of commendable effort with regards to—ah. . . She has such a happy expression on. . .

I think I’ll just blush and thank her for now. “You have my utmost appreciation.”

“So, going back to what we were talking about, would you mind doing something for me?”

“Of course. Right now, I could commit a sin in your honor without a second thought.”

“What’s up with you? It’s nothing hard. It’s just that one of the recommended trainees for the expedition happens to be my pupil, and she isn’t really great with technology, apparently. She asked me to teach her how to use the underwater camera, and, well. . . yeah. . .”

She looked positively unenthusiastic about it.

“Oh, that’s right. You have a bit of trauma from using those things, don’t you?”

Back when Minato participated in the expedition as a trainee, she managed to absolute demolish one of the cameras and broke down in tears soon after. He had to console her after, reassuring her that everything had been financially insured.

“How was it my fault? It was that time of the month.”

“What a convenient excuse.”

“You’re good with this kind of stuff, right? ‘Cause of that annoying ability of yours. . .”

“See, now that’s when you’d use the word ‘convenient’. . .”

It’s true that mine wasn’t as pretty as Aishwarin’s or Chloe’s, and I had to admit that there was a time when I myself looked up to water manipulators with flashy Territories like that. Still, I couldn’t exactly choose the expansion ability I was born with. Once the power awakened, you were stuck with it for the rest of your life. Besides, it was nice and convenient, like I mentioned before, so I was perfectly satisfied. It was useful in a whole host of situations, after all.

“So make sure you leave your schedule open tonight. I’ll go tell her the plan.”

“You sure she’s not going to be scared, me teaching her and all?”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. She’s a little peculiar.”

At the time, I couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say.

 

The soft glow of the setting sun seeped through the windows of the staff room.

With the equipment in hand, Minato had intended on arriving before the trainee did, but when he got there, she was already waiting. Their eyes met. In that moment, he found himself understanding why Aishwarin used a word like ‘peculiar’ to describe her.

Her expression almost felt crafted.

There wasn’t any sense of apprehension at meeting someone for the first time, but similarly, it didn’t look like she was trying to make a charming first impression. All she did was intently examine the face of the person entering the room, not a shred of emotion present in her expression. It wasn’t so much that she was like an expressionless android—it felt most like being closely watched by a deer or tiger.

Her presence there was so overwhelming that I found myself at a loss for words.

Her mouth opened. “Hi.”

It was surprisingly casual.

“Hey. I’m the one Aishwarin asked to help you. You’re Lee, I take it?”

“Affirmative. However, Meifa is preferable. Academy contains four with the surname Lee. This becomes a source of confusion.”

She said this in a way that perfectly complimented her expression.

She was of Chinese descent, just as her name implied, but her name was written out in English as opposed to Chinese, likely due to her being raised in a predominately American region. According to the Academy register, she was 16 years old and a zone specialist in her 4th year at the Academy. She possessed strong basics as a water manipulator, and in particular, her underwater maneuvering and control using Territory-crafted weapons against others—her combat know-how, to put it simply—were enough to even impress instructors.

She was an outstanding trainee worthy of the Academy’s recommendation.

Though apparently she wasn’t good with technology.

Minato placed the school-owned underwater camera that he brought with him on the desk, and finally a grimace formed on her face. In part so that it could withstand higher pressures, the thing weighed 20 kilograms in total, despite being one of the more compact models—it truly was a monster.

“Simply obscene up close.”

It was almost endearing the way she cautiously crept up on it like a stray cat seeing the ocean for the first time. Minato couldn’t help but be amused.

“Are you the kind that doesn’t even know how to record TV shows?”

“That task falls to my older brother. My task is mistakenly destroying his plastic models. Was an accident.”

“Those kinds of models are tougher than that, you know. They don’t break that easily, unless you drop them of course.”

“Falling does it?”

“I’d say that’s pretty likely.”

“High value will complicate compensation. My family will be entrenched in debt. Charged with a crime against humanity. . .”

She really went on and on for how expressionless she looked. I’m also not sure where she drew the line with personal space, but her face was getting way too close. Minato moved back without thinking.

“Overthinking it will just make you more likely to drop the camera.”

“Blindfold would be preferable. Don’t think, feel.”

“Wait, wait! Don’t try it, seriously! Let’s just start with how to hold and use it.”

While, to a degree, there may be those who became comfortable enough with the device to operate it solely by sensation, this girl seemed to be more at the stage where finding where to hold the camera was a challenge in and of itself.

He explained the process to her step by step.

Meifa listened intently and nodded at every step of the way. Minato had assumed she would be difficult to get along with after hearing she was a “peculiar” child, but those concerns were quickly alleviated. If you took the unnerving lack of facial expressions out of the picture, she was just another ordinary girl.

Once he finished teaching her almost everything she needed to know, Meifa gave him a thumbs up. With a straight face, she said, “Okay, the information has been digested. My comprehension is complete. All of this amounts to inapplicable theory.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that last part, but anyways, try to pick it up, at least.”

While for scuba divers and the like, compact, yet high-spec cameras were standard fare, the video cameras used by water manipulators were very similar to those used on the surface in that you normally supported them on your shoulder during use. For how heavy they were, they boasted top-of-the-line specs among other underwater cameras and could even film areas with little light in crystal clarity. I didn’t tell Meifa how much they costed, but one unit went for around 100,000. (In dollars. . .)

Although she didn’t know the exact value, she was clearly able to imagine the ballpark figure as even her expressionless face seemed to clench furiously. Minato supported the camera with his hands and helped place it on her shoulder. Immediately, the device started to tremble uncontrollably.

“I-If it breaks, hello red-light debut. Virginity was nice while it lasted.”

“Can you try relaxing for a change?”

What, is she allergic to technology or something? After seeing her like this, I’m starting to think it might even be a good idea to split up camera duty so she doesn’t have to do it. I almost feel bad for the poor thing.

But you know what they say. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Let’s try to get her used to it.

“Is it too heavy?”

“It’s okay, but. . . In terms of money, the weight is crushing.”

“Just try and get used to carrying it for now. How about we have a little chat to take your mind off it? Is there anything we can talk about? Feel free to ask me anything.”

She was quiet for a moment.

“Natsu. . . ka. . .” she said out of the blue.

“Natsuka?”

“Natsuka Hoshino. She is my roommate. She talks about you often. Her tone is warm.”

“Yeah, I’ve known her for a long time now. I can promise you she’s a sweet girl.”

“How is your current temperament, sir?”

“Fine, why?”

“Natsuka has seemed different lately. As in from fluffy to fiery? She has a new motto: “I’m making Minato worry!” A blond loli comes to our room every night, and they disappear somewhere. She returns home and is exhausted. Quickly, she sleeps. Must be a threesome.”

“That’s an interesting jump in your logic.”

“The last part was a joke. However, it seems you are pressuring them. This is my question.”

It seems Meifa was getting worried seeing her friend change that drastically over the past couple days.

The blond loli she mentioned was Chloe without a doubt.

Minato was already aware of the fact that the two of them were going out each and every night after official training ended to hold their own practice sessions. He knew this because he stalked them while they did it. (This was because, if there was some kind of accident while an instructor wasn’t present, it’s possible the punishment would result in much more than a simple written apology.)

Seeing Chloe check every now and then to see if anyone was following her while putting all her effort into training Natsuka also made Minato happy beyond comparison. That’s why he didn’t intend on stopping them anytime soon. Probably should answer Meifa’s question though.

“I’m actually doing so little that it’s embarrassing as an instructor. Everyday I do nothing but sit back and relax. Natsuka is trying this hard because she wants to.”

“That’s good, then. Actually, that’s not good. Start working, you NEET.”

“That’s why I’m making up for it by teaching you how to use this camera. It seems like it’s finally stable, so why don’t we switch it on now? You see that big knob by your right hand? Try turning it.”

“No, can’t do that. It’s impossible. Moving anything will ensure falling. Have already achieved equilibrium.”

“Stop panicking already. You can’t use the camera just by holding it.”

“Oh. Going to vomit.”

“Okay, let’s bring it down.”

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

“The fish be bitin’?” asked Natsuka. Her smile seemed a little more subdued than normal, maybe because of all the hard work.

It was almost 10:00 PM.

Minato was fully aware that today as well, she and Chloe had been secretly training on their own up until only an hour ago. On his way home afterwards, he suddenly decided to do some late fishing on the breakwater in his usual spot. Natsuka showing up was no real surprise either, as she often took an evening stroll on a nearby route before going to sleep.

She must’ve already gone back to the dormitories and taken a shower, as when she sat herself down, the sweet scent of shampoo wafted from her hair. She had on a thin cardigan over her V-neck shirt and wore pajama bottoms that resembled leggings. Everything she wore accentuated her body’s shape.

Doing his best to pry his eyes away from that part of her, he returned his usual follow-up, “Some here n’ there. You won’t last through tomorrow’s training if you stay up this late, you know.”

“Thanks for telling me.”

There was a light breeze today.

As she held her hair down, she gazed at the dark surface of the ocean with a soft smile on her face. Though the conversation seemed to stop abruptly, Minato didn’t worry about starting it back up. The two of them were as close as siblings. There was nothing awkward about letting the silence continue like this.

Natsuka suddenly spoke up with a brightness in her voice. “This is so nice.”

“I know I said it was here n’ there, but the fish haven’t been biting at all, actually.”

“Sorry, not you. I meant me. Ever since you came back to the Academy, my life has been so perfect. Chloe is so cute, and I’m getting along with my roommate. From when I wake up to when I fall asleep, no matter where I go, everything just feels so nice.”

“I’m really glad to hear that.”

As long as Natsuka was embracing the training with a positive outlook—refusing to accept things as they were within the Academy—then that’s all I could ever ask for.

“I’m such a useless water manipulator, but you know, I think I’m enjoying my time here more than anyone else, and I almost feel bad about it. I almost feel like I’m going to be punished for it.”

“There isn’t any one way to be a successful water manipulator. That’s not where your worth comes from.”

I said that as a friend, not as an instructor.

“Sure you’re a little slow, but I know about all of your good points too. You don’t need to compare yourself to others.”

Maybe it came off a little too preachy. . .

As Minato started to regret it a little, Natsuka suddenly showed a faint, bashful smile next to him.

“Mhm.” She turned her head slightly and nostalgically asked, “Can I hug you?”

For as long as he could remember, Natsuka was the kind of girl who wanted to embrace others when she was happy, as if she yearned for human contact. When Minato was in the throes of early adolescence, however, he put a stop to things like that. For him, it felt like that was the first time he had heard those words in a long while. She looked so eager, too. If she were his sister, he would have been able to oblige, however—

“Nope. When you get back to your room, go hug your roommate.”

“Oh. . .”

The mood was ruined immediately.

There was definitely a bit of embarrassment on his part considering his sensitive age, but most important was how obviously bad it would be for an instructor to hug a trainee on the breakwaters at night. Not to mention how much she had grown—hugging her now seemed almost dangerous. She was truly something else.

“Well, in words then. . . Thank you, Minato.”

“Yeah. Don’t mention it.”

“I’m going to try my best. I want to go to Osaka, and I don’t want you to worry.”

With the moonlight casting shadows across her face, something about her seemed more mature than normal.

Then she immediately sneezed.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

Chloe’s eyes, normally sharp, had metamorphosed into something almost violent by the time first period rolled around. Rather than simply looking grim, they more closely resembled a serial killer’s. And she was only 15. . .

The main reason for this appearance was the heavy bags beneath her eyes.

It had been three weeks since she and Natsuka had started their nonstop training and practical exams, and the toll it took on her showed clearly in her complexion. She probably wouldn’t listen at all if Minato said anything about her needing to take a break, so as much as it pained him, he needed to pull the slave card for the third time. With a heavy heart, he commanded the both of them to spend the day recovering in their rooms. I hope they’ll be okay, in more ways than one. . .

 

I guess they were doing that well precisely because of their strong will, however.

Chloe returned the next day with a slightly improved complexion. It was her after all, so she completed her task to perfection, be it only resting for a day.

“If Hoshino passes this exam, then she’ll be able to participate in the expedition, correct?”

“Of course.”

The condition that Chloe proposed to Minato three weeks prior was that Natsuka would complete the practical exams for at least six subjects. Minato responded that, honestly, at Natsuka’s current pace, even half of that would suffice, but the strangely motivated girl dismissed that compromise and stuck to her original declaration.

As they entered their final week, they had already managed to complete five subjects. They were working so much that it was almost excessive—especially Chloe. Something about her felt different and more mature compared to three weeks ago, aside from the bags under her eyes, of course.

“Why are you grinning like that?”

The two of them were outside. In front of the training building, where Natsuka’s final exam was taking place, Chloe eyed Minato suspiciously. What accidentally showed up on his face was probably some mixture of admiration, fondness, and complete awe.

In order to brush the question aside, he tried to change the subject. “Where do you want to work after you graduate?”

“After I graduate?”

He’d heard her boasting countless times before about how she was planning on graduating in only two years, but it suddenly dawned on him that he had no idea what she wanted to do after that. Well, the decision was ultimately up to the Federation government and the Solaris Applications Division, so what she wanted wasn’t necessarily going to come true.

Chloe stroked her chin, deep in thought, and casted her eyes downward.

“Well, I haven’t really given it much thought. I’m not opposed to joining the military like my sister, but I suppose there are a lot of branches in it, so I wouldn’t necessarily end up in the same one as her. Our expanded Territories are completely different, so, well, I don’t feel that strongly about it.”

“Oh yeah? It might be a bit early for this, but how about becoming an instructor?”

“An instructor?”

“It’s just my two cents, but I think you’d be suited to it. You think quick on your feet, and you’re really headstrong. The short fuse could be a problem, though.”

She stepped on his foot.

“That last part wasn’t necessary.”

As if confirming what Minato said about her short tempter, she glared angrily up at him. . .

—however that expression of hers immediately dissolved. It was replaced by a soft smile, the biggest thing to have changed in her recently.

“It doesn’t sound terrible. I’ll give it some thought.”

“Please do. If you ever start feeling like it, we can even get Aish involved in recommending you to the president. What I lack in actual teaching ability I make up for in sowing the seeds of future potential.”

“So what you’re saying, sir, is that. . .”

“Huh?”

There was only silence. He couldn’t hear any continuation.

Curious, he looked down at Chloe and saw her zoning out. Her lips were shut firmly together. Was she holding her breath? From what I can see, her ears were starting to turn red.

Finally, she exhaled deeply and continued from where she left off, “Would you be happy if we were coworkers?”

“I’d be overjoyed.”

I mean, if someone as talented as her joined, I’d be able to sit back and take it easy after all. Not only am I the office newbie, but I’m constantly given loads of paperwork because of my Territory’s use in administrative duties. Well, it helps that my pupil is such a prodigy in the first place.

Chloe seemed to shrink in size. She started to hunch over, and her face was already completely hidden.

“I’ll give it some thought. . .”

I wonder why she said it twice. She was definitely getting quieter as of late.

Thirty minutes later, Natsuka Hoshino emerged from the training ward with her usual smile spread across her face. She tightly gripped an exam success certificate in both hands, and with that, her position on the training expedition was secured.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

The corpse slowly descended.

Former city of Osaka. Ocean floor. 1,200 meters below the surface.

Amidst the ruins of this once city now a hundred years surrounded by oceanic pressure and darkness, there was a certain facility that continued to operate even now. Various domes were linked together in a circle with a huge one standing in the center. In it were large turbines that produced a low grumbling noise even throughout the water around it. It was an area devoted to power generation. The airtight facility it powered for what seemed like eternity had never once been seen by the public—nor would it likely ever.

The facility existed in utmost secrecy. As a result, it didn’t possess any official name, instead only being known by a nickname.

To those involved, it was called the “Farm.”

 

The corpse slowly descended there.

In the passageway connecting the research center with the administrative center, a man used his foot to flip over the remains of his former coworker. All it took was a glance to confirm that the corpse belonged to Chief Johansen.

The cause of death wasn’t hard to suss out—half of the face had been chewed clean off.

Seeing that, the head of security, Tachibana, sighed. He was a muscular man of Japanese descent in his thirties, and he was covered from head to toe in a black diving suit.

“And so the foul villains perished, never to see the sunlight again. Suits them right,” he chuckled.

“You trying to be funny? That’s how we’re eventually going to end up, you know?” sighed Stella, the living, breathing woman next to him. She stayed behind him, keeping watch where he couldn’t. “It might even be how the world ends up. . .”

Tachibana’s shoulders started to shake, as if he found that line amusing. “That was pretty damn poetic of you. You think the Unders are going to destroy the world? That’s never going to happen. They can’t even breed. Even the Federation could take on a single generation of ‘em.”

“That’s if the people who stole the research from here don’t have other plans in mind. I’m sure they can add the ability to reproduce later if they want. They’ll go and do that, fuck up once, and then it’s game over for all of us.”

“Well, thinking about it isn’t going to do anything. We’ll just do what soldiers do and run away if shit hits the fan.”

Tachibana activated his Territory, and a small glowing orb appeared in his hand. It would detonate if it came into contact with anything—that was the nature of his ability. He went on to create several dozen of them and then placed the spheres in various areas around the passageway.

“We’ll be able to hear if they come from behind now, and it should give us enough time to make a break for the administrative center. You have any idea how many Unders were in the production center, Stella?”

“Only roughly. From what I saw last night on patrol, there were two B-ranks and one A-rank. Also a ton of C and D-ranks. If you don’t count the ones we’ve killed already, around a hundred?”

“God, my head is killing me. Komaki was the one that released all of them, I’m guessing.”

“Probably. I’m going to cave her head in the next time I see her.”

The perpetrator behind this whole fiasco was a spy that managed to sneak into the research facility.

Komaki was a water manipulator in her twenties, but that name was likely an alias. She apparently stumbled on some research details while taking care of something in the administrative center, and then this morning, killed the two guards on duty at the production center. She then released all of the experimental organisms into the facility, barring those that hadn’t been fully cultivated yet.

Three hours had passed since the start of the incident.

The water manipulators who had the means to protect themselves, like Tachibana and Stella, managed to survive, but more than half of the people at the facilities had already become corpses like Chief Johansen, as they were normal and lacked any kind of special ability. It was only a matter of time before they were wiped out completely. Even if they managed to find weapons, their chances of success were low, even against a D-rank Under.

To Tachibana, however, Stella’s life was a valuable asset.

Not only was she strong in combat, her experience as a security guard in the production center gave her lots of knowledge concerning the numbers and types of their enemies. Tachibana, on the other hand, was in charge of managing the rest of the security personnel, so he spent most of his time in the administrative center. He knew the facilities like the back of his hand, but was clueless when it came to details regarding the Unders.

As they moved along the passageway seeped in silence, he started to ask Stella for information vital to their current situation, “Are there any Unders we have to worry about?”

“The A-rank one is dangerous, of course, but the one you have to be most careful of is one of the B-ranks, the No. 09 erosion-type. The guys from the research center call it Blotch.”

“What does it look like?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. It has a humanoid body with red blotches all over. Don’t even think about fighting if you see it.”

“Is it really that vicious?”

“That’s not really the best word for for it. For water manipulators, it’s—”

Stella cut herself off mid-sentence having heard a noise close by. Tachibana also turned around instantly. From behind them, they could hear the sound of a compact explosion going off—the mines that Tachibana had set up only minutes earlier. The entire passageway shook furiously.

Under or human—something set off the traps.

Stella reacted as soon as she confirmed what the noise was. She expanded the Territory that surrounded her and then gripped onto a pair of blades as if they were there from the start. Crouching down somewhat, she prepared herself for the strike. Keeping her voice to a whisper, she told him, “I’m explain later. Let’s just stick to surviving for now.”

“Sounds good.”

Tachibana nodded with a sigh and then increased his own Territory to maximum output.

Immediately following that, an indescribable, distinctly inhuman voice resounded throughout the passageway.

Episode.3 - Chaos Diver

The day for departure arrived just like that.

Though the boat was set to depart from the artificial island’s port at 8:00 in the morning, Minato had to wake up at 5:00 in order to take care of last-minute preparations. With a splitting headache, he managed to drag himself to the expedition’s meeting place, and there he found the television studio production staff already waiting on standby with a medium-sized cruiser yacht anchored next to the dock. The staff was comprised of three cameramen, none of whom were water manipulators. Because they couldn’t dive, they would only take care of the filming on the way to Osaka.

The instructors were in charge of both inspecting and operating the vessel, which was why he had to wake up so early. Though he genuinely wanted to go back to sleep, Minato forced a smile as he greeted the people there.

“Good morning.”

“Likewise. We’ll be counting on your help with the filming.”

The middle-aged men looked to be in high spirits.

Minato then started to give the cruiser a once-over to check for any faults or problems. Once they were out in the open sea, returning to the island could prove difficult if there were any undetected malfunctions. It was crucial that he do this beforehand.

Everything is screwed in tight. The engine’s going strong. The dashboard controls are all working as intended.

There seems to be nothing out of place.

Eventually, he concluded his inspection and exited out onto the boat’s deck. As he did, he noticed a couple figures approaching on the dock. It was Natsuka Hoshino and her roommate, Meifa Lee.

They were impressively early. There was still an hour before the designated meeting time.

Natsuka was struggling to carry her bulging sports bag as she walked unsteadily towards the boat. When she stepped onto the wooden planks of the dock, she suddenly noticed her childhood friend and broke out into an innocent smile. For an moment, it looked like she was trying to find a way to wave her hand, but it was clear the bag was too heavy, and she instead continued to focus on just making it to the boat in the first place. Meifa on the other hand waved liberally, albeit without a single change in her expression. Minato returned the wave.

The sky was a faultless blue. The surface of the ocean shimmered gently with the reflection of the rising sun.

Seeing this, Minato had a passing thought: a day at sea doesn’t get any better than this.

 

By the time the hour for departure had finally arrived, all of the participants were assembled, and the Academy president had concluded a simple speech with instructions for the trip.

There were two instructors, five trainees, and three cameramen in total. The ten of them filed into the cruiser and set off in the west-southwest direction.

It was 9:05, on May 20, 2145. Thus began the expedition.

—the cruel expedition.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

The deep-sea filming trip spanned six days and five nights.

This boat, property of the Academy, could travel at speeds up to 20 knots, but cruising at 5 knots was most efficient with fuel consumption in mind—in other units, 30 km/h. The distance from the Tokyo area—in which the artificial island was located—to the heart of the Osaka area was around 400 kilometers, so a one-way trip would still end up taking at least 14 hours, even without any stops.

Furthermore, the production company that requested this whole thing mentioned wanting to “film things like Tokyo Skytree and Nagoya Castle on the way there, if possible.” Taking the time necessary to film those places into account, a liberal guess would still place us arriving at our destination tomorrow.

It wasn’t a huge deal.

For the trainees, this was their first time filming underwater ruins. Though they were given a short lecture before setting off, Minato figured it was important for them to get in some practice before eventually arriving in Osaka.

“Prepare to dive!” Aishwarin shouted. In other words, it was time to change.

As they performed many functions underwater, for water manipulators, the ability to change quickly into their diving suits was a crucial one.

Each person aimed to accomplish it within three minutes at most. The changing room in the cruiser had only enough space for two people at a time, however, so the girls took turns using it. The five trainees would have to be divided into three pairs, so it would probably end up taking around 10 minutes or so. Themselves not needing any additional speed-changing practice, Minato and Aishwarin were already in their diving suits. Since they would be diving in order to take the deep-sea footage, the middle-aged men that made up the program production staff would be the only ones on board. While he waited for the girls to finish changing, Minato took steps to anchor the boat in that location.

He soon heard a high-pitched scream, the voice coming from Chloe.

He heard things like, “C-Calm down, Hoshino!”

. . . things like, “Stop there!”

. . . things like, “Don’t go out like that!!!”

It seemed like Natsuka, who was slower than most when it came to changing, was having a difficult time in the narrow changing room and was starting to panic. She was the kind of person who would bolt out of the bathroom mid-bath in the nude if she felt a small earthquake or saw a single cockroach. Minato was especially worried, not wanting his childhood friend to dash out onto the deck with a less-than-appropriate appearance. You can do it, Chloe!

 

Ten minutes passed.

Having finished anchoring the boat, Minato stepped out onto the deck and spotted Natsuka. Her diving suit seemed to be in order, but the admirable worker next to her looked worn out and utterly defeated.

The skies had become even more beautiful since this morning. With the brilliant sun as the centerpiece, there wasn’t a single cloud in the blue expanse. The surface of the Pacific Ocean reflected the clear skies back and sparkled like a kaleidoscope of gemstones.

Once you jumped into the ocean, however, that refreshing scene would eventually cease to exist.

1,500 meters beneath the surface, the largest of the underwater ruins in the Japan Sea—Tokyo.

It was a world enshrouded in darkness, far isolated from the blazing sun. Once the thriving center of Japan, the city no longer retained any of that former glory. It seemed almost like hell, like a demonic realm. With exception of a small portion of deep-sea life, this was an area that forbade the presence of the living before the birth of water manipulation—a long primitive domain.

In the darkness of those deep waters, a gleeful voice rang out. “What’s that? What’s what? Look at that fish!”

A single gulper eel moved slowly through a valley of dilapidated buildings. It was an otherworldly creature—a well-known example of fish from the deep—and it possessed an appearance that could only be described as alien. A goblin shark appeared soon after. It also looked unsettling.

“Wow! It’s so disgusting! I’m actually impressed by how ugly it is. Look at it, Saorin! It’s right there!”

She was like a tourist, Minato thought.

Cheerful girls are cheerful no matter where they go. It was the same for Natsuka, but it became especially clear to Minato as he had to stay behind everyone to carry out his role as supervisor. After they arrived in the sunken city, there were reactions of amazement all around. Crumbling buildings, creatures with demonic faces. . . It was almost like they had entered some grand haunted house. The remnants of the great city now at the bottom of the sea were brimming with a fierce eeriness like nothing on land, and the ability to freely study it was a privilege that fell to the water manipulators who could exist in its depths.

There was a single unimpressed voice, however. “Can you believe they’re going so crazy over something like this?”

It goes without saying that it was Chloe who voiced this thought.

Immediately after everyone dived, she put distance between her and the rest of the group led by Aishwarin and swam next to Minato at the very back as he carried the filming equipment.

“You can get pretty jaded, can’t you,” I said to her with a small sigh.

She glared back and responded, “Oh, really? Are you saying you’d be happy if I went around saying things like ‘wow’ or ‘amazing’ at every little stupid thing I saw? Are you saying that’s your type? That you’d enjoy going on dates with girls like that?”

I wasn’t trying to start anything by saying that, but things were starting to take a strange turn.

“No, it doesn’t really have anything to do with what I like in a girl. It’s just that this kind of thing doesn’t happen everyday, so I was personally hoping you’d be able to have some fun, is all. Getting away from the training is a nice change of pace, too.”

“That could be difficult. I’ve never had much interest in old ruins.”

Figures she’s not the type of girl that cares about the past.

“So, in reality, do you like those kinds of girls?” she continued.

“Is it really that important?”

“You just said we’re getting away from the training, didn’t you? That means having these kinds of conversations is permitted too, surely.”

“Oh fine. I too love making ridiculous excuses.”

Who would’ve thought Chloe liked to gossip as well? All things considered, she was a 15 year old girl in the end, and for all he knew, she could be asking in order to get some dirt on her nuisance of an instructor, so she could use against him at a later date.

“By ‘those kinds of girls,’ you mean like Michel, right?”

“That’s red-perm’s name?”

“Red-perm. . . ?”

Michel was your “essential girl,” to put it into words. She was full of expression, always thinking about fashion, and the kind of girl to be always surrounded by her friends. If the Academy were structured like a normal school, then she seemed like the type of girl who would be at the center of the class.

All of that was nothing more than my first impression seeing her, though.

“Forget preferences, I barely even know her. I’ll tell you what I think of her later.”

“Then who on earth do you like?”

“My sister.”

“Ugh. . .”

She looked at me with disgust from the heart. It was (partly) just a joke. . .

Well, it looked like it lowered her curiosity at the very least, so I guess it’s fine. I don’t have much experience around the opposite sex, after all, so that kind of topic had me in a bind.

I suddenly noticed Tokyo Skytree in front of us. Time to prepare the camera. . .

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

None of it would be possible without a strong source of light.

Although water manipulators could use their Territory to correct for the darkness and allow themselves to see, video cameras were different and required a clear source of light in order to capture proper footage. At 1,500 meters below the surface, it was like filming a blackout curtain. Returning back to the boat with footage like that would probably get the production staff irritated at him, so operating the light source was a vital task.

Doing so was simple, however. All it took was placing it somewhere random, adjusting the angle, and moving the switch to the “on” position.

“You can do it, Meifa!” Natsuka called out warmly to the girl chosen to be the light-bearer.

“It won’t shoot out radiation. . . right?” she murmured.

“I don’t know about stuff like that, but I’ll go apologize with you if it doesn’t work out.”

“Goodbye, cruel world.”

With that inauspicious line, she clicked the switch. The high-intensity underwater light turned on without a problem.

“It’s on! It turned on! You did it, Meifa!”

“Incredible. Me, successfully using precision technology like this. . .”

“Don’t look directly into the light, you two. It’s not good for your eyes,” Minato sighed.

It was only around the size of a basketball, but the light it produced was blinding, showing objects even 90 meters away in perfect detail. To put it another way, however, 90 meters was as far as it could go before starting to dim.

On the other hand, today’s filming subject was the Tokyo Skytree, a tower of steel stretching at over 600 meters tall. Though around half of it broke apart from the resulting tsunamis as the island of Japan began to sink, it was still massive. It would be impossible to capture the entire thing in a single take. There was no other choice but to move the camera and light source bit-by-bit.

Once the preparations were finished, Aishwarin asked the trainees, “Who here wants to work the video camera the most?”

“I’d love to see you show us how it’s done, Aish.”

She wordlessly buried her fist into Minato’s stomach, and he clutched it in agony. It was way too painful, and no one around them even enjoyed the slapstick. Not even a comedy show would get any use out of the footage.

As he was trying to catch his breath with tears in his eyes, Michel called out enthusiastically, “Me! Me! I want to try!”

For her to continue talking like that while surrounded by 150 atm worth of water pressure, she must have the mental fortitude of a TV host. It looked like she, out of everyone, was making the most of this excursion.

“Be careful, it’s heavy.”

The camera weighed 20 kg. Not only that, because it was so densely constructed in order to make it usable in the ocean depths, it had virtually zero buoyancy. While she was a trainee, she wasn’t built like your average soldier, and it was clear that she would have some difficulties trying to support its weight.

As if on cue, her face distorted when she tried to lift it up. “Wha— It’s so heavy!”

“Help her out, Minato.”

You sure it’s okay to ask that of me, so-called Pervert the Great? Well, I couldn’t very well ignore my coworker’s command. I’ll give it a try. I’m used to the pain.

It turns out there was no reason for me to worry. Michel, who might as well be the female representative of the entire Academy, looked back with a beaming smile and said, “Oh? Mr. Yamajo’s going to help me? Thank you! I’m so glad!”

“Huh?” I replied, dumbfounded. “You’re not scared of me?”

“Nooope!” she shook her head vigorously. “She was bragging about it earlier.”

“Bragging?”

“Ms. Aish was saying you only play around with her. That means you’re as harmless as me! ☆”

Aishwarin stared to shriek nearby. “THAT’S NOT HOW I SAID IT? I was just trying to reassure everyone that Minato wasn’t— Wipe that grin off your face, Minato!”

“Sorry, sorry. . . I was just thinking about how our interests are finally aligned—”

“LIKE HELL THEY ARE! I swear to god, if you say even one indecent thing to me on this trip, I will make sure this ocean is your grave!”

Where’s your sense of humor? We’ve even played the Pocky Game before. . . At least, that’s what I wanted to say, but since there were trainees present, I’ll just keep that to myself for now, Minato thought.

Silently wrapped up in his thoughts, he started to lag behind the group.

“Hurry up and do your job, Saint Pervert,” Aishwarin said.

“Okay, I’ll hold the camera from above, so you use it to film, Michel.”

“O~kay.”

In the end, they were able to tape Tokyo Skytree without a hitch.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

The rest of the ride to Osaka was spent mostly on the boat.

There was no time to rest. Since it was nearly noon, he had to start preparing lunch.

“So I’ll be in the kitchen then.”

“Alright.”

Minato left Aishwarin in charge of steering at the helm and headed over towards the boat’s kitchen to start making lunch.

Though she had been left traumatized by the incident with the camera, she was clearly a professional when it came to things like piloting the cruiser. It’s nice to have a senior coworker who was so dependable. Thanks to that, Minato was able to devote his entire attention to preparing lunch. Well, he wouldn’t have had to take care of the food in the first place had her own cooking skills not been. . . what they were.

Let’s focus on the present! Minato didn’t mind cooking. (He didn’t especially like it either.)

You do what you got to do. And you got to do it seriously. If I cause a food poisoning incident on duty, then I’ll be in for a world of societal punishment.

Minato started working in the kitchen, wearing disposable cooking garments, when Meifa shortly dropped by. Because of how the boat was built, the kitchen was in complete view of even the saloon.

“An unexpected development.” She rested her chin on the counter and sleepily tilted her head. “Homemade cooking from you, sir?”

Minato lined up the ingredients and cooking utensils in the sink to start and nodded.

“I volunteered myself to do it. I’m hoping it’ll get me on Aish’s good side.”

“Low impact. . . Won’t get far with her.”

“I don’t think so either.”

“But Minato’s really good at cooking, you know?”

A new face appeared on the counter—this one smiling, unlike Meifa’s. It was Natsuka.

Meifa fired back a question in response to the intruder’s report. “You’ve tasted his cooking before?”

“Yep. When was the last time. . . Sometimes he made food when Matsuri—I mean Minato’s little sister—didn’t have any time. He’s always been very good with his hands.”

“Oh? A man who can cook,” Meifa responded, tone full of admiration.

Minato stayed humble. “I wouldn’t say that. I’m practically cheating with my Territory.”

“The rumored Cooking Specialist water manipulator?!”

“Why do you sound so excited? No, it’s because I can record and output recipe information.”

“Output?”

“It’s kind of like an ability that lets me move my body based on calculated simulations. . . I’m going to be using it now, but it might be a little hard to see what’s happening. It’s pretty boring, after all.”

Immediately, Minato started to expand his gray Territory. In that very instant, all of the utensils and ingredients lined up before him had their positions logged as data.

“As long as I can remember the positions of the tools and ingredients as well as the structure of the kitchen itself, and no irregularities present themselves, I can probably just use my default process.”

Minato took each of the vegetables one by one and peeled them before placing them into a bowl. Once that was done, he placed them on a cutting board and sliced them into large chunks, except for the onion which he diced. He then oiled a frying pan and started to fry the onion alongside some pork.

“Oh, curry.”

“It’s curry!”

“Making curry with Territory. It’s a little. . .” Meifa started to say.

“Boring, right? Though you might not notice it, I’m still using my ability right now.”

Though they were all called water manipulators, they possessed an endless variety of expanded Territories.

Just like Chloe, who could tear anything and everything asunder, there were water manipulators capable of performing incredible feats in as many ways as there were atoms under the sun. Though it depended on the individual, some were even seen by many as being living, breathing weapons of mass destruction. It wouldn’t be a stretch to liken them to wizards or superhumans. They were born in the 22nd century as mankind’s hope for the future. The entire world revolved around the existence of water manipulators, and yet here Minato was, focusing all of his effort on making a batch of curry.

He followed the recipe to the letter, and as a result, everyone seemed pretty satisfied by it, the general consensus being “curry doesn’t get any more normal than this.”

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

Although some of the people on board booed when Minato brought out more curry for dinner later that day, he didn’t waver in his decision.

It was 8:00 in the evening. The boat was now in the waters above Nagoya in the Aichi area.

He called out to the trainees to “prepare to dive,” and once everyone was finished changing, they began their descent into the deep waters of the night. Their filming subject this time around was Nagoya Castle—a traditional structure rich with history.

There was no time for it, however. An incredible creature made an appearance.

“What. . . is that?”

“Is it some kind of monster?”

It was a pale blue light floating admist the darkness 1,500 meters below the ocean surface.

The blue whale was said to be the largest living organism on earth at up to 30 meters in length, but the thing floating around the top of Nagoya Castle was twice that.

At a glance, it was like a monstrous earthworm.

It was incredibly long and thin, and dozens of wiggling feelers were attached to its head (was it a head?) like some kind of sea anemone. Watching it, you couldn’t help but imagine it was some kind of alien invader trying to take over the castle. It was a simply nauseating sight.

One of the trainees, however, couldn’t help but burst out in glee, “It’s a siphonophore!”

The self-professed jellyfish-maniac Natsuka was right on the money.

It was similar to a jellyfish, neither ghost nor cryptid. It was a colonial organism composed of many smaller animals, and though there were rumors that some larger than blue whales existed, something on this scale might’ve even been enough to challenge the world record.

While this was happening, Minato could feel his arms starting to go numb. Upon seeing all of this, Natsuka was engrossed in a fit of excitement and seemed to be desperately trying to cut off the circulation in one of his arms from the rest of his body.

“Amazing, it’s so big! I think I’m going to faint! I knew they could keep growing, but I can’t believe how huge it is, right, you see it too, right, I mean to top it off, they usually only live 800 meters down in the Mesopelagic Zone but the fact that we can prove it also lives deeper will shock the world of jellyfish research and oh my god Minato is hugging me too and my heart won’t stop racing!”

“I’m happy you know so much about it, but, um, why don’t we calm down a little?”

On his right side, Chloe was also desperately clinging to his arm—in this case out of pure fear.

“N-Not a ghost, huh? That’s good news. Physical attacks don’t work on ghosts, you know?”

Looks like the girl wonder wasn’t very good around things that defied logic. I couldn’t blame her for that.

As he relished the gradual loss of feeling in both of his arms, Minato asked Aishwarin, “What should we do about the filming? I mean, we have a monster on top of the castle.”

With a frustrated expression, she muttered back, “Yeah. . . When you think siphonophores, you think those venomous Portuguese Man O’ Wars, right? I’m not sure if it’ll sting us if we try to move it out of the way. . .”

“I’d hate to kill something that magnificent. How about we just include it in the shot?”

With that decided, Natsuka readily volunteered to be the cameraman. If anything, having this kind of light source hanging over the castle was something that only a jellyfish would be able to manage.

By this point, Natsuka was practically drooling as she giddily held up the heavy video camera. “Oh wow! I’m so happy I came! I’ll remember this for the rest of my life!”

“Good for you. Good for you.”

They returned to the boat with the footage in hand, thus concluding everything they had to do on May 20th.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

It was pitch black out, the date just switching from the 20th to the 21st. The boat finally arrived in the Osaka area.

Minato checked the clock and saw that it was around 2:00 AM. Aside from him, everyone on board was already long since deep in slumber. The trainees were scheduled to wake up today at 6:30. Once they ate breakfast, they would start diving into the waters above Osaka at 8:00. Unlike yesterday, which was mainly spent traveling by boat, the majority of today was going to be for capturing footage of the sunken remains.

In other words, Minato had nothing left to do while waiting for the sun to rise. He’d already finished preparing breakfast the previous night, and there was still an hour left before he switched shifts with Aishwarin and was able to get some sleep.

In reality, this was everything he could ask for. He was finally able to take a break.

“Nothing wrong with taking a little breather, right?”

Chuckling to himself, Minato went out onto the deck and immediately started to fish.

I’ve been working nonstop steering the ship, making food, and looking after the trainees, all of this on barely a wink of sleep. Surely I deserve a moment of downtime. I don’t often get the chance to fish out in the ocean like this, either. Like Natuka with her jellyfish, fishing was Minato’s only true passion.

Unlike cooking, fishing didn’t depend on one’s calculations.

Plain as his expanded Territory was, it was applicable in a whole host of activities ranging from cooking curry to shooting free throws in basketball. He was adept at calculating physical space, and because of that, he rarely enjoyed games and sports. It might not be too far off to call him a jack of all trades and a master of none.

With fishing, however, the result always changed depending on how the fish were acting at the moment. He enjoyed the sensation of things not going his way. That’s why in the future, when he eventually opened up an inn next to the seaside with his little sister, he’d fish to his heart’s content and treat all of his customers to fresh aquatic cuisine. You should stop by, too!

He dropped his line down into the jet-black surface of the water.

Tonight, Natsuka’s “the fish be bitin’?” was nowhere to be heard.

 

“I see you’re fishing over there.”

It was Chloe who called out to him this time, instead.

Would you look at that. He glanced up and found a girl on the top deck staring back down at him, leaning forward with her elbows on the handrail.

“You’re still awake?”

“The boat stopped, and I was wondering what happened. I’ve always been a light sleeper.”

After that brief exchange, she suddenly jumped over the railing without hesitation and landed next to him. From where she was to the bottom deck was a fall of 4 meters.

“Wha—”

Though it was definitely reckless, he thought, she used her Territory as a cushion to soften her landing and made the whole thing seem effortless. The brown cardigan she wore over her pajamas fluttered around, and the scene almost resembled a painting under the bright moonlight. Impressive as always.

Minatos’ expression grew strict, however. “What are you, a kid? Doing dangerous stuff like that. . .” He said it without mincing his words, and then his face and shoulders relaxed.

“I mean, it would be a downright hassle to go back through the ship,” she responded.

“I didn’t take you for the lazy type. Don’t do it again. . . Wait, don’t sit down yet.”

Minato held out his jacket, and Chloe stared back at him in confusion as she was about to sit.

“What’s that for?”

“Those are your own pajamas, right? My work clothes are meant to get dirty, so you can turn it inside-out and sit on it to keep your clothes clean if you want.”

“Oh. . . thanks.”

Chloe accepted the jacket as a makeshift seat and finally sat down completely. She brought her knees close to her body and looked deep in thought. She probably wasn’t going to start talking any time soon.

Minato was the one who had something to say. “This is a good chance for me to thank you.”

She raised her eyebrows and looked at Minato with a clueless expression. “For what?”

“For everything with Natsuka. She was so happy back there in Nagoya. Seeing her like that, I was glad she was able to come along. You were the one that made it possible. Thank you.”

“I didn’t really. . .” She hid her mouth behind her raised knees. “It’s not like I did it for you or anything, and Hoshino was the one who put in the effort. There’s no reason for you to thank me.”

“I figured you’d say something like that.”

“You’re starting to tick me off,” she said, glaring back. She closed the gap between them and continued, “If you’re really thankful, then what are you going to do for me in return?”

“In return, huh?”

I never imagined that she’d request collateral. This was more than likely her just trying to rile him up, but Minato was serious about wanting to acknowledge her efforts. He wanted to show her how much it meant to him.

In that case, there’s only one thing left to do. He was going to put his all into resolving this matter for good.

Minato explained how he would repay the favor:

“It’s a little early, but how about I release you from your slave contract then?”

“———Huh?”

 

Yep. This girl is the real deal.

 

She wasn’t even trying to hide how heartbroken she looked right now. She was never upfront about it in the past, but now there was no denying it. She was, without a doubt, a masochist. How did it come to this? I’ve done something I’ll never be able to make up for. I’ve gone and awakened the true form of this cute girl. A certain director of a certain agency is going to have my head, and I can’t blame him in the slightest. Now that it’s come to this, have I no choice but to take responsibility for her happiness and eventually find her the prince of sadism that she so desires? Must I become one myself? I’m sure Chloe hates herself for her masochistic tendencies, Minato thought. If that’s so, then things have become dire. I’ve never once experienced such uncertainty. Please, I’ll never ask for it again, just let me go back in time this once!

And so, Minato took back what he said a mere second after it left his mouth.

“Haha, just kidding!”

This is the same exact thing I did last time!

“Life’s not that easy, you know!” he continued. “You better prepare yourself, ‘cause I’m going to have you stay a slave all the way until graduation!”

“You don’t say! Well, you know, it’s a promise, so I guess there’s nothing I can do! I’ll definitely destroy you once I graduate, hahaha!”

She also had the same easy-to-read, relieved expression, so it helped put me at ease.

—That very easy-to-read aspect of it was also part of the problem, though.

As if scowling, Chloe slowly and awkwardly started to smile. “You’re such a cruel person, sir. I despise that kind of stuff.”

Her smile was almost too sweet, as if trying to brush the whole matter aside.

Suddenly, Chloe averted her eyes, and it soon dawned on Minato how much he had been staring at her. After realizing it, he felt strangely embarrassed. How could he have been acting like that around a pupil three years younger than him?

When he first met her, Minato thought of Chloe as nothing more than an upstart shorty that would be fun to mess with.

In reality, she was but a charming girl.

Gotta love adolescence, Minato chidingly thought to himself. This only reaffirms how unfit I am to be an instructor.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

It was 8:00 in the morning.

Starting today, they would film the Osaka area in full swing.

Deep-sea footage of Japan under the moniker of “Japan’s bygone cityscapes” mostly dealt with popular spots in eastern Japan, like Tokyo, and also included areas rich with history in the west, like Kyoto and Nara. Up until now, Osaka had never been the centerpiece. Though documentaries lacked the spectacle of other entertainment programs, ratings were still vital, and they couldn’t get away with showing the same exact sunken metropolises every year. That’s apparently why the program this time was titled “The Beloved Old Town” and focused on Osaka.

That concluded Aishwarin’s insider information.

“For people who aren’t interested in it, though, it might as well be New York or London. Sunken cities all look pretty much the same, and they don’t care enough about what’s different between them,” she continued.

“That’s pretty harsh.”

Minato spotted a suitable building in the underwater ruins of former Osaka and descended down onto its roof. They were lower than 1,500 meters below the surface, and in reality, it was the same as any other submerged ruin—filled completely with silence and darkness. Compared to Tokyo, the whole area seemed to have far fewer towering buildings. There wasn’t even the slightest trace of the hustle and bustle that made this once-city a hub of comedy and performance.

Minato placed the heavy filming equipment down at his feet.

They were on a tight schedule, so they needed to do things efficiently. He turned around to face the trainees waiting on standby behind him and issued a command:

“Starting today, we’re going to be staying down here at all times, aside from when we have lunch. Make sure you tell us if you start to feel sick.”

Long working hours aside, the filming won’t be any different from what they had done in Tokyo and Nagoya. The plan was to spend the entire day in the area around Tsutenkaku Tower, in particular, in areas like the once-thriving shopping street called New World. It was their job to capture the appeal of places like these that once formed the core of Osaka’s identity.

It was certainly a difficult task, especially compared to the previous day, full of lounging.

Not to mention, compared to being on the surface, “fatigue” in the far depths of the ocean was infinitely more troublesome.

 

Still, their first day on the job ended without any problems. The point at which things started to go south was on their second day in Osaka, on May 22th in the afternoon.

“Are you okay, Saori?”

Hearing Meifa ask this all of a sudden, Minato turned around and noticed one of the trainees hunched over while standing on the ground.

They were currently somewhere in the downtown Dotonbori area. Though both the river and the Nipponbashi shopping district were both lost as the city became submerged, some of the symbols of Osaka at the time—things like the Glico Man and Kani Doraku crab restaurant signs—managed to retain their original appearance and were included in the shot.

Standing on the main street at the time, too, was one of the participants in this excursion, Saori Mizushima, complaining that she didn’t feel well. Like Natsuka, she chose to participate on this trip by herself without receiving a recommendation.

It was possible she became lightheaded from moving around too much. Her voice lacked strength as well. “Ugh, excuse me. I’m a little dizzy.”

Aishwarin immediately frowned and said, “Take her back to the ship, Minato.”

“Roger.”

Poor bodily condition equals immediate withdrawal to the surface—a near-ironclad rule.

Listening to her instructors exchange words, Saori Mizushima waved her hands in a fluster. “No, no. You don’t have to worry about me. It’s barely anything.”

“We already told you this before setting off, but symptoms like dizziness, headaches, nausea, palpitations, and vision impairment are possible signs of ‘deep-seasickness.’ I’m going to need you to return to the boat so that you can recover. This is a matter of life and death.”

“I really am fine though. . .”

Managing one’s health is treated with utmost importance and severity among water manipulators.

Especially when working at low depths for a long period of time, one becomes susceptible to deep-seasickness. Though water manipulators are protected by their Territories, there is considerable psychological pressure from being surrounded by levels of water pressure that would immediately kill you otherwise. That’s why stress subconsciously builds up in the mind, making way for a whole host of physical and mental abnormalities. As these abnormalities develop and worsen, they can eventually take the form of a panic attack—rendering water manipulators unable to maintain their Territory in worst-case scenarios.

In other words, resulting in death.

That’s why instructors were required to take action if one of these symptoms were ever observed or felt. Take action if there’s any doubt. Safety first.

“Do you need any help swimming back to the boat?”

“No, I’m okay. . .”

With an almost inconsolably disappointed look, Saori Mizushima pushed off from the sea floor and began to ascend. Trainees weren’t allowed to break off from the group by themselves, so Minato fulfilled his duties as an instructor and led the way.

They swam at a speed of 20 knots. It took something to the tune of five minutes to reach the surface.

 

The swim back was brimming with disappointment.

“This means I can’t do anymore filming, I guess. . .”

Minato nodded. “Yeah, you should take it easy in bed for the rest of the day. Do you like video photography?”

“Not really that, but I wanted to learn more about working in the ocean.”

“I see.”

“My expansion abilities aren’t really that great. Once you become a water manipulator, though, you get to work in the ocean all you want. That’s really all I want. But with a body like this. . . It sucks.”

“Everyone has their off days, and most trainees will eventually get over their deep-seasickness by the time they take their advanced courses.”

It’s good to be optimistic, so he told her what he really thought about her situation.

For some reason, it was almost like he was looking at his childhood friend.

Natsuka was the same, and so was Chloe. I want the two of them to find their own paths in life, and to take pride in that future—naive thoughts like these occupied Minato as he gazed at the sun finally breaking through the surface of the water.

 

However, a terribly long day was soon to arrive.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

It was May 23rd at 8:00 AM—the very next day.

The sky looked threatening, and it had been raining gently all morning.

Saori Mizushima’s dizziness turned out be from a cold in an unfortunate turn of events, and she had become bedridden with a fever ever since the previous night. It goes without saying that she wouldn’t be able to help with the filming for the remaining two days. When she heard this, tears started to stream from her heartbroken eyes. I felt sorry for her, but there was nothing we could do.

The filming of Osaka was all but complete, so today, they decided to reposition the boat a little to the Sakai city area for more taping. They mainly wanted a birds-eye shot by positioning the camera in a high location, so there was less work than yesterday.

Still, the bad weather continued to loom over the ocean.

Aishwarin pulled one of the members of the production staff still on the boat aside and said, “We’re going to be taking a wired transceiver connected to the ship, so make sure you contact us if the weather makes a turn for the worse.”

“No problem. A storm could get pretty scary.”

On the small off chance that the seas became too rough, it was possible the boat might end up capsizing. Though the water manipulators among them had little to fear in terms of drowning, the production crew wouldn’t be so lucky. Everyone needed to be prepared in the event of an emergency.

To add to that, since a wireless receiver wouldn’t work underwater, they needed to run a cable between them and the ship. It was possible for the communication cable to extend around 3 km, but it could prove a large hassle to bring it down into the depths. Since the cable had a tendency to get snagged on various things when moving throughout the sunken ruins, the person carrying it had to always be careful. It was a real pain in the ass. . . so Minato was put in charge.

Once again, they began their dive towards the Osaka sea floor.

 

On their way down, Natsuka seemed somewhat depressed. “I feel bad about Saori. . .”

“Especially since she seemed so excited. . . Well there’s always next year,” Minato responded.

“Huh? She can volunteer next year for a second time?”

“If no one else wants to go, at least. I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ll probably have to supervise again next year, and I doubt the other girls will want to spend time with Pervert the Great.”

“I don’t mind, though~” Michel cut in.

“Oh?”

While Minato was desperately trying to put up a cool front, she had spun around to face him while swimming in front. Moving skillfully even while facing backwards, she continued, “I have an itty-bitty question.”

“What is it?”

“It’s about how you only harass Ms. Aish. Is it ‘cause you like her?”

Oh. Up at the front, Aishwarin’s shoulders lurched a little. (For some reason, Chloe had the same reaction.)

Natsuka’s expression also brightened up. “That’s true! You were always really friendly with Ms. Aish when you were a trainee too, Minato.”

I was nearly certain Aishwarin was going to start yelling at us any second now, saying something like, “Enough with the stupid questions!” but to my surprise, nothing happened. She simply continued to swim forward in silence. It seemed there was no getting around answering it.

What should I say?

Of course I like her, but there weren’t really any romantic feelings involved, and since I did like her, I couldn’t bring myself to deny it completely.

—There was no need for Minato to worry, however. The chance to answer Michel’s question had already passed.

There was a sound—

—a sharp ping.

peep. . .

“Standby,” ordered Aishwarin, and everyone stopped. Immediately after, the sound repeated itself.

It was an ultrasonic sonar.

Though the sound was in a range that humans couldn’t normally pick up on, their Territories allowed water manipulators to perceive ultrasonic frequencies. Rather than “hearing” it, then, it might be more accurate to say they could feel the vibrations.

That’s not to say their senses were nearly as precise as the passive devices issued by the military, but they could at least gauge roughly in which direction the source of the ultrasonic signal was.

—and that source was the ocean floor.

pip-pip-pip peep. . .

The wavelength changed in fixed intervals, continuing intermittently.

Putting Michel’s question on hold, Minato descended next to his coworker. “You think it’s a submarine?”

“I think so, but. . . I made sure to confirm beforehand that the Federation navy would be operating outside of this location so we wouldn’t run into them. It could be a private research vessel from somewhere. At any rate, all of you are to continue waiting on standby.”

Submarines were a source of trouble for water manipulators. They were hulking masses of steel that could travel at speeds of up to 70 km/h, especially in the military’s case, and so accidentally colliding into one would almost certainly result in massive injuries. As a general rule, if you end up intercepting nearby sonar signals, you should tread carefully while waiting for the signals to disappear.

The sound continued.

peep-peep-peep. . .

“Wait a sec.” Chloe realized it before anyone else. “Is it. . . Is it morse code?”

“Now that you mention it. . .”

Sure enough, the signal had been faithfully alternating between long and short sounds.

If you were to write it out into text, the signal would look like this: · · · — — — · · ·

—an all-too-infamous message.

“SOS. . . It’s a distress signal.”

The second he said it, Minato could feel the tension in the water around him rising.

It was getting more and more likely that something bad had happened.

At the moment, however, Minato and the others were 800 meters below the surface. The source of the sonar signal came from a place much deeper. If the source of the transmission really was on the ocean floor, then they’d be asking for help from a depth of 1,500 meters.

If it really was a submersible that ended up shipwrecked at the bottom of the sea, however, we’d have little to no hope of rescuing them with our current members. None of our abilities were suited towards rescue, after all. None of us possessed the expanded abilities to either haul a several ton submersible or make it so that normal people could withstand the deep-sea pressures as well. It should go without saying that their boat wasn’t equipped in any way to handle salvaging either.

If it was a nuclear submarine, then its crew might have access to a lot of breathable air, so it was possible that they could be saved if we relayed the SOS fast enough, but. . .

More likely than not, it was already too late.

As a result, a grim expression appeared over Minato’s face. Aishwarin reacted the same way. “Well, I guess we can’t pretend we didn’t hear anything. . .”

“Right. . . At any rate, let’s focus on pinpointing where the SOS came from,” Minato responded.

We shouldn’t give up hope.

After sending a report back up to the surface, Minato and the others continued their descent in order to ascertain the source of the distress signal.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

The surprises continued one after the other.

The source of the sonar-based SOS turned out to be nothing like a submarine.

—it was an underwater facility.

At 1,500 meters beneath the surface of the ocean, it resembled the petrochemical complexes of old.

No, it was more like a single section of one of those complexes. Sitting amid the scattered ruins of many industrial facilities destroyed by flooding, it was a remarkably archetypal structure in the shape of a large dome. The sonar’s sound waves continued to pound against them like a heartbeat from the building’s direction. Then finally, as if ultimately seeking their arrival, the distress signal ceased to beat.

For a moment, none of them could remember how to speak.

Once they set foot atop the dome, they could feel the faint humming of slow-moving turbines. It likely had something to do with power generation.

“A base this deep. . . ?”

As Aishwarin mumbled this under her breath, Minato set down the recording equipment and crossed his arms. “The only two underwater facilities I know of are the ones in the EU and where the former Hawaii used to be. . .”

“You say that, but we’re looking at one right now.”

“Yeah, this is extremely suspicious.”

Underwater facilities like this were extremely difficult to construct and maintain, and there were usually no benefits large enough to merit the sheer amount of effort necessary to build one.

The only conceivable reasons for having one were for research or mining. At any rate, an enormous sum of money would be required. That meant sponsors were naturally sought after, which would usually result in news of the project going worldwide. No financial backing meant that everything was taken care of out of pocket, meaning that their source of revenue was comparable to that of an international foundation or country.

Perhaps it was that very foundation or country that was concealing the facility’s presence from the public, engaging in a conspiracy behind the scenes. . .

A secret underwater facility. . . One glimpse was enough to see just how mysterious it all was.

“I’m guessing this place isn’t up to much good.”

Aishwarin nodded gloomily. “I don’t think so either. . . Like they’re developing a new narcotic or weapon, or maybe it’s for some kind of doomsday cult. Even if they are criminals, though, I don’t think we should ignore their SOS and let them die. . .”

It looks like her mind was already made up. She was planning on responding to their distress signal.

Though, if they were to learn the secrets of this facility, there was no guarantee that they would be able to turn back. . .

—Completely in the dark, Minato and the others started to search for a entrance into the facility, regardless.

 

After around 30 minutes, the group managed to locate an arrival gate which looked to be meant for submersibles, but they weren’t able to figure out how to contact the people inside, and the gate seemed to be impossible to open from the outside. They gave up shortly after.

Another 10 minutes later, they discovered a hollow cavern that seemed to be something like a drainage shaft.

“Looks like we can go through it.”

Theory could even be applied to underwater facilities, even when there was little precedent. If you went through a water duct meant for drainage, there was a high chance of being able to break through the other side.

Standing on the ocean floor, Aishwarin turned towards Minato and the trainees. “I’m going to go up ahead to scout things first. Everyone else is to wait here on standby. Watch after the trainees, Minato.”

“Shouldn’t we reverse the roles?” asked Minato, unable to completely erase his uneasiness. “I mean, you don’t exactly come off as the most diplomatic of people, and there’s always the concern that you’ll be attacked by sex-starved villains and end up in some kind of—”

“Would it kill you to worry about me more normally, you asshole?!” Aishwarin yelled, and immediately after, said persuasively, “And even if there are ‘villians,’ that’s all the more reason for me to be the one who goes. I’m much more suited to dealing with criminals.”’

“That’s true, but. . .”

Dubbed “The Academy’s Fastest,” when she expanded her Territory as a Limit Operator, she was able to leap around at unparalleled speeds. If she were to use that inhuman speed in combat, villain or not, the average person would be in over their head.

But she was a clumsy one. . . That’s my only worry.

“Don’t look so gloomy. All you have to do is listen to your trustworthy senior.”

“I understand. Just. . . Just please don’t do anything reckless.”

“I won’t, I won’t. If it gets even a little dicey, I’ll abandon the rescue mission and come back right away.

With a reassuring smile, she tied a wire rope around her waist to prevent her from needing to be rescued as well, handed the other end to her junior, and then disappeared off into the waterway.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

The infiltration was underway.

Aishwarin slowly made her way through the complete darkness, searching for the end of the waterway at a little under 10 knots.

“. . .”

Honestly speaking, she wasn’t the biggest fan of dark and narrow places.

It’d be better to say she really didn’t like them. She hated them. They’re so scary. They suck so much!

Maybe I really should’ve switched with Minato Yamajo. I do regret it a little, but going back at this point would only endanger my position as his senior. I can’t exactly ignore how little respect he’s already given me at this point, but I should probably go about addressing that in a less stress-inducing way than this. . .

Fortunately, the tunnel was wide enough for a single person to walk comfortably through it, so there wouldn’t be any problems in going forward.

I can’t help but worry about the length of the connecting rope I entrusted to Minato Yamajo, though. . . It was an impressive 500 meters long, but depending on how complicated the interior of this place was, there was a real possibility that it wouldn’t be enough.

See? As if on cue, there’s a fork in the path.

Should I go right or left? Well, if I’m wrong, I can just follow the rope back, Aishwarin thought before going down the path on the right.

Five minutes in, and she was already starting to get irritated.

“Why is this place so stupidly long. . . ?”

She still couldn’t see any semblance of an exit. Already, there had been three separate points where the path split into two.

This underwater facility smelled like bad news. The farther Aishwarin proceeded through the waterway, the more she was gripped by a vague feeling of unease. The longer the facility stretched out before her, the more afraid she felt, as if sensing the absurdity of the beings behind it. Although the structure was unbelievably massive, it was built as to be completely secret from the rest of the world.

Maybe I never should’ve come here. . .

Delusions like ghost stories swam around in her head, and that’s when it happened.

Upon arriving at a four-way split in the path, she turned right—

—and saw half a person drifting down before her.

 

“This can’t be. . . real. . .”

Aishwarin was barely able to suppress a scream. Only her face was frozen in terror.

It was only half—the upper half of a body. It seemed to be a woman’s.

Aishwarin immediately turned around without thinking, but the path behind her hadn’t changed at all. Aside from the corpse, there wasn’t anything else at all in the area. . . Not even the body’s lower half.

Even as goosebumps broke out all over her, Aishwarin cautiously began to approach the corpse.

Upon closer inspection, it was definitely a woman’s, and the thing that stuck out most was her clothes. She was wearing a diving suit, but there was no breathing apparatus. This meant that there were two possibilities: the body was dumped here after dying. . . or this person was a water manipulator.

Normally when a corpse is left underwater, it absorbs that water and ends up severely bloated, but that wasn’t the case here. The body remained pristine. That meant this didn’t happen very long ago.

She finally noticed a dog tag attached to the corpse, and whispered the name engraved on its surface:

“Stella. . .”

Tearing off the tag from around the corpse’s neck, Aishwarin decided to return.

A single glance at the condition of the body was enough for her to tell that something had murdered this woman. Not only that, it was something so dangerous that it had managed to kill a water manipulator. To make matters worse, if this woman was killed underwater as well, then there was a good chance that perpetrator was also a water manipulator.

Whether the culprit was someone from inside the facility or an intruder who came from the outside, there was a chance that they were still hiding nearby. She started to worry about Minato and the trainees still waiting on standby outside the drainage shaft.

—I need to get back.

Using the red rope connected to her as a guide, she began to head back in the opposite direction, and then—

“———Huh?”

She was dragged into the darkness.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

Outside, Minato and the others suddenly saw the rope lurch violently.

“What the. . . ?”

The roll of rope started to unwind rapidly, extending farther into the dark tunnel. Something had clearly happened to Aishwarin, who had been moving at a snail’s pace up until this moment. It seemed that she had stopped moving a minute ago for some reason, but immediately after, started to dash like crazy. . . at an unbelievable speed.

“What’s going on?”

There was no question that she ran into trouble.

She herself promised that she’d return at once upon encountering any problems, and yet, the rope only continued to be swallowed up into the tunnel.

It’s possible that Aishwarin found something in the facility and was currently trying to chase it down. It was definitely more than possible for someone like her to reach these kinds of speeds. The faster she moved, however, the more rope would be used up.

Almost instantly after, the once-taut rope suddenly became slack and drifted to the ocean floor.

This doesn’t look good. A chill crept down Minato’s spine.

“Don’t tell me. . .”

He started to pull in the rope, to see what was going on. It returned frighteningly easily, as if there wasn’t an ounce of resistance.

Without thinking, Minato held his head in his hands.

“The rope was cut. . .”

This was incredibly bad.

They were at the bottom of the ocean with no surefire way of communicating with each other. If only she realized that the rope was severed and returned. . . Of course, he had to also consider the possibility that she might not be coming back.

“What happened? Hey. . .” asked Meifa, Aishwarin’s pupil, with furrowed eyebrows. However, Minato had no way of knowing what kind of situation Aishwarin was in right now, either.

Although he wanted to put them at ease, there was no way he could beat around the bush, so he told the trainees exactly what was going on. “The safety rope got severed somehow. There’s a possibility that she’s in trouble as well.”

“Not good. Going after her.”

“I’ll go,” interrupted Minato. “Everyone, return to the boat.”

“No. I’m against this. You’ll disappear too, sir. . .”

“Stop scaring me. You watch too many movies.”

Besides, even if this situation was like Meifa suggested, like a horror movie in which “once you enter, you’ll never return,” then that made me want to take the trainees with me even less.

There was an instructor with whom they lost contact and a distress signal from a mysterious underwater facility. Even Minato couldn’t suppress his anxiety about breaking in alone to a shady place like this one, but his fear for Aishwarin’s safety was even greater.

That’s why going in alone was his best bet, he thought.

—as an instructor and as a person.

Chloe voiced her disapproval, however. “I’m also not okay with this. Let’s say Ms. Aishwarin did end up in a bad situation, and you weren’t able to handle the problem on your own. What would you do then, sir? It would be more rational for all of us to move as a unit.”

It’s true that having more people would help out. Forming a group, however, was an entirely different situation altogether.

“In the end, Aish and I are professionals, so facing danger like this is part and parcel of the job. All of you are trainees, so it’s different. Please understand where I’m coming from.”

“Is that a command?”

“It is. Return to the boat.”

“I refuse.”

That was pretty much treason. Even if I were to use the slave card on her, I doubt she’d listen. He could feel an unyielding strength from her blue eyes.

“Feel free to make me write an apology or throw me in solitary confinement after this is over. I will go with you.”

“You’re putting me in a difficult spot.”

Trying to convince her would only waste time, and time was of the essence if I wanted to convene with Aishwarin.

Even worse, since Natsuka was here as well, things were getting difficult. “If Minato went alone and something happened to him, I would also regret it for the rest of my life,” she said. “I don’t want you to do everything by yourself. I don’t care if I’m expelled. Let me help you search for Ms. Aish too.”

“Huh? You mean everyone’s going? I’m going to get lonely by myself, so let me come too!” added Michel.

Did they really have such little faith in me. . . ?

I know I’m a new instructor with a lousy personality, and I figured no one respected me because of that, but who would’ve thought that everyone was also thinking “you’re utterly useless by yourself!” It came as a small shock, to be honest.

At this rate, even if I forced all of them back to the boat, there was a real chance that they would continue to follow after me regardless. If that was the case, then maybe it was better to have them in a spot where I could watch over them.

It didn’t sit right with me, but I guess I’ll have to take them along.

As he finally came to this conclusion, there was a sudden sound.

“—HELP!”

A man’s voice came out of the wired transceiver. It belonged to one of the production crew members on board.

Minato reflexively picked up the transceiver and switched on the mic. “This is Minato. What happened?”

“Everything’s flooding!”

“. . . What?”

“There’s a huge hole in the boat! We’re going to sink!”

“What the hell. . . ? No, I understand. We’ll head back right away. There’s a lifeboat on the stern deck, so please try to group everyone up over there. Please try to calm down.”

“How the fuck am I supposed to calm down?! Just hurry up! There’s this weird thing that—IT’S HERE! IT’S HERE!”

With that last bit of unintelligible shouting, the transmission stopped abruptly.

There was complete silence. The mic must’ve been switched off on the other end. Right before it did, he could’ve sworn that he heard something like the scream of a madman in the background.

“What on earth. . .”

Minato ripped the transceiver off the buckle. It’s too heavy. It’s getting in the way and pissing me off! I need to be searching for Aishwarin right now. . . How could a boat possibly be sinking in an area without even reefs.

Without bothering to conceal his anger, Minato outlined the plan moving forward. “All of us need to get back to the boat as fast as possible. Apparently it’s sinking.”

Since he wouldn’t be able to tell Aishwarin what was going on if she really did end up returning, he wrote a small message on a board for use underwater and then started heading back to the boat with the trainees.

I feel like I’m going insane.

—What the hell is going on in these waters?

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

Roughly four minutes later, Minato and the others finished their 1,500 meter ascent to the ocean’s surface.

Once his head broke through the surface, he was able to spot the boat around 200 meters away. Already it was starting to tilt forward. Strangely enough, he wasn’t able to see any of the production staff waiting out on the deck.

Once she saw the sinking boat, Natsuka’s face grew pale, and she screamed, “Saori! She’s probably still sleeping!”

First she ended up catching a cold and needing to rest, and now the boat she was on was sinking. Poor girl. . . She can’t catch a break.

Still, what on earth are the production guys doing? Why aren’t they out on the deck like I told them? If the boat sinks fully with them still inside, even a water manipulator will have a hard time getting them out safely. Minato clicked his tongue in frustration and then redirected all of the power in his Territory to help him move faster and close the distance between him and the boat.

Once he reached it, he grabbed the ladder railing and hoisted himself up onto the deck. At the same moment, he heard a girl’s voice.

“I’m first!”

It was Michel. She had made it onto the deck one step ahead of Minato. Just like Aishwarin, she was a water manipulator who specialized in movement, in particular, in “ignoring terrain differences.” She was being far too enthusiastic for the situation.

Having her here was perfect, however. She’d be able to make it up to the trainee sleeping quarters on the second level in no time flat.

“I’m going to make my way through the boat, so I want you to go straight to Saori Mizushima’s room, Michel.”

“Gotcha!”

After that exchange, Minato pushed the self-inflating lifeboats on the lower deck over the edge into the water and then in no time burst through the door to the saloon, itself constructed to be partially below sea-level.

 

As he expected, the interior of the boat was filled with seawater.

It was almost like a swimming pool. The kitchen near the rear deck was already completely submerged. The hole must’ve been huge. That’s the only way it could’ve flooded this quickly.

He noticed Chloe standing behind him.

“I don’t see anyone here,” she said.

“They’re probably on the upper level. I’m going to make my way to the wheelhouse and send out an SOS.”

“Then I’ll search for everyone up top.”

“Thanks.”

Minato made his way through the flooded saloon and then rushed up the stairs in order to get to the helm.

He entered the corridor. There, he found Michel standing some ways away. She was halfway down the hall from the helm, in front of the sleeping quarters for the trainees where Saori had been resting. She was completely upright and motionless.

Somewhat confused, Minato approached her and asked, “What’s wrong?”

She turned her head to face him. Her lips seemed to be drawn in an anxious smile.

“Saorin’s here, but. . .”

“But?”

Minato wasn’t sure what to say to her vague explanation, so he decided to look in the room for himself to see what was going on.

Michel continued to speak as he did so.

 

“—but something’s kinda eating her.”

 

That’s right. Her body was being gnawed through, accompanied by the crunching sounds of her bones being snapped apart. Her head had already been fully consumed, and her right arm was in the process of being finely chewed up. . . by razor-sharp fangs.

There was a monster.

Dexterously using its front limbs, it continued to eat the young girl. The glass window in the room was visibly shattered apart. That’s likely how it managed to get inside, attacking her while she was still asleep. How unfortunate this poor girl was. . . Unable to process even sadness or fear, Minato continued to stare vacantly at the scene before him.

“What is it. . . ?” Michel asked.

Minato couldn’t respond.

Much larger than any human, it was almost like a pale, spongy giant salamander or a massive axolotl. Its front limbs seemed fully developed, while its hind ones looked stunted and atrophied. Most striking was its mouth, in which jagged teeth were strewn chaotically about like a shark’s. Greedily, it pulled more and more at Saori Mizushima’s corpse. It suddenly spit the girl aside, however, as if finding Minatos’ voice unbearable.

With sloppy, bloodied fangs, it looked in their direction.

Finally, Minato pulled the knife from his belt.

“Run, Michel.”

“I-I can’t. I’m scared.”

The unknown monster’s front limbs were bowed outwards, like a frog or grasshopper’s. Those kinds of legs were designed for pouncing quickly in order to catch their prey.

At last, it launched itself from the bed it was on—a jump with the ferocity of a bullet.

“—shit!”

In a fraction of a second, Minato expanded his Territory.

He didn’t feel the need to hold back, facing an unknown enemy. He set battle readiness to full output.

Minato’s power was the type of ability that could create multiple personalities. In a way, what he did was essentially produce an exceptional artificial intelligence in his mind. The ability to convert input from the five senses into data was originally nothing more than an accessory to this main ability.

(Just between you and me, the process that went into naming this ability as a child, dictionary in hand, embarrasses me to this day. . .)

 

《MAI (Minato Auto-Intelligence) / booting. . .》

 

To Minato, the process of making curry was no different to that of combat. As long as you follow the correct procedure, you’ll end up with the correct result.

The blinding speed with which he was able to process information was reflected in his ability to chose the most precise course of action. What made that possible was a single pseudo-program, built up from his Territory.

MAI’s judgment surpassed even Minato’s own kinetic perception.

《MAI》※counterattack possible ※initiate lethal counterattack—Y/N

YES

Immediately after, Minato thrust his knife into the head of the incoming monster. He then twisted his wrist and shifted his weight, using the monster’s momentum to throw it over his shoulder. It crashed into the wall, leaving a large crack on its surface. Even though it had been stabbed in the head, however, it didn’t look anywhere near the verge of death. After collapsing on the floor, it instantly pulled itself back up, letting loose an excited, grotesque scream.

Minato wasn’t so kind as to give it another chance to attack.

He landed a roundhouse kick at full force across the monster’s face and then stuck the knife this time into the back of its head. Even then, it refused to die. It never gives up. This could get bad.

《MAI》※detecting target attack

—shit!

Minato jumped backwards as soon as the assessment came. The monster reached out with its front limbs, almost grabbing and trapping him there.

I doubt I’ll be able to do anything with only this knife. One hit from the thing, and it’s probably all over for me, too. The only way to win would be to kill it with overwhelming force.

On top of that, Michel was in the way.

Though it might’ve hurt her in the process, he grabbed her hand and pulled her violently into the corner.

“Eek!”

“Stay there!”

I’ll apologize to her after. For now, I need to focus on the fight.

The monster readied itself to pounce once more. Noticing this, Minato slammed his heels into the monster’s elbows. As it started to crumble to the floor from the impact, he stabbed his knife into it for the third time—this time into the side of its head. Finally, its movement started to show signs of damage.

—and yet, it refused to stay down.

Suddenly came the color violet. . .

Someone’s Territory started to illuminate his vision.

The monster’s body was cleaved in half. With a single swing, the top half was separated from the bottom—and it happened in an instant. Then there was yet another flash. With a streak of blue light, the monster’s head fell mercilessly from its neck. With that, it was over.

It was too much for even the monster, and it slouched lifelessly to the floor.

Minato wasn’t the one who finished the monster off. Since its body was severed, he assumed at first that it was Chloe who landed the blow, but instead—

“Are you okay, Minato?” Natsuka yelled, having just ascended the stairs. It wasn’t her that did it either.

The violet-colored Territory belonged to someone right in front of him.

“What is this? Was killing it correct?” wondered Meifa Lee, standing in the corridor.

With an expression as blank as always, she took a fighting stance that seemed to give her a larger presence. At the end of the long pole she carried in her hands was a large blade, similar to that of a hatchet.

The Green Dragon Crescent Blade. . .

It was probably her Territory, first given substance to solidify it and then molded into a weapon. Zone Specialists like her had a patent on such abilities.

Still, what power. . . A single strike was all it took to instantly dispatch the creature. Minato’s knife didn’t even hold a candle to it.

For the time being, Minato heaved a large sigh in relief. “You really saved me there. . .”

“Don’t mention it.”

At around that moment, Natsuka finally made it up to them and asked, “What abut Saori?! Was she in her room?”

“. . .”

She wasn’t able to see inside from where she was standing.

Now that the immediate danger had been taken care of, Minato gradually started to feel worse.

One of the trainees. . . died.

“I don’t think you should look inside.”

“Huh?”

Was it that she didn’t catch on to my roundabout way of saying it, or was it that she simply couldn’t believe what I was trying to tell her?

Her eyes were wide open, and she started to ask, “What do you mea—”

Then with a large crash, the door to the wheelhouse flew off its hinges.

 

Minato moved himself in front of Natsuka in an instant to protect her and then started to survey the situation. Two monsters, just like the one he fought with prior, scrambled out of the wheelhouse. Inside the room, there were human limbs separated from their bodies, scattered all over the place. It was probably the production crew. . .

It seemed like the mysterious creatures’ front limbs were not only useful for pouncing, but for crawling as well. The two of them made their way closer and closer, looking as if they were desperately pushing each other out of the way in the process. They were only 5 meters away.

《MAI》※combat unfavorable ※recommend avoiding combat

Meifa returned to her fighting stance, Green Dragon Crescent Blade in hand.

Unlike previously, when she was able to land a surprise attack on the monster, however, now there were two of them, and the surrounding area was cramped. She wouldn’t be able to use a large weapon like that to its fullest potential in a narrow space like this one. There was also no time for her to create another one out of her Territory. These concerns visibly showed in her expression. Minato wasn’t sure he could protect Natsuka, who was as powerless as his single ineffective knife.

They were at a clear disadvantage. Running away wasn’t much easier, however.

There wasn’t any way he could put up a proper fight. . .

But there was one single thing he could do.

“Get down!”

The words hardly had the chance to come out before Minato grabbed the collars of the two girls next to him and pulled them to the floor.

The other option was not fighting at all.

The reason he did this was because of what happened three seconds earlier. He found himself unmistakably looking into the eyes of someone else.

So he decided to place all of his trust into her golden Territory.

At separate ends of the corridor, blond hair shimmered opposite the monsters. Chloe Knightley had ascended the stairs and arrived in the hallway. The second she saw Minato’s face, she gestured almost imperceptibly with her chin.

Arrogantly. . .

Briefly. . .

 

Get out of the way.

 

A set of ear-rending shrieks filled the space around them. It happened at virtually the moment Minato and the two trainees collided with the floor.

A flash of gold had been fired across the hall—a rending Territory.

In a mere 0.2 seconds, the monsters that had been right before Minato had their bodies shaved away without even the slightest hint of resistance.

Her Territory started to sparkle even brighter, gouging out their bodies even more. Ignoring the 20 meter distance between them, she slaughtered the creatures through a void. In the span of a single second, she tore the monsters apart seven different times. Instead of reaching Minato, the monsters’ torsos were now mere shreds, dancing about in the air.

Her’s was the ability to draw planes of weaponized pressure theoretically reaching up to 200 gigapascals (equal to half the planet’s weight), producing a razor sharp Territory. That was the power wielded by Chloe Knightley, famed Order Dictator—the ultimate weapon that solidified her genius.

A total of three monsters were eliminated. Finally, the interior of the boat descended into silence.

Fifteen minutes passed, and the boat disappeared completely into the water.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

The three members of the production staff and Saori Mizushima—as painful as it was, everyone that had been left on the boat was confirmed to have passed away.

It was 9:30 in the morning.

The surviving members had already left the boat and were floating at an unmarked location in the ocean. Every now and then, you could hear the tearful sniffing of one of the girls—Natsuka.

“Poor Saori. . .”

She and Natsuka were both Japanese and around the same age, and they probably knew each other fairly well too. Having someone die like that. . . There was no blaming her for being unable to hide her shock. Her roommate, Meifa, had her arm wrapped around Natsuka’s shoulder to comfort her.

On the inside, Minato was incredibly shaken up.

What the hell were those things, their corpses on their way to the bottom of the ocean? I’ve never seen nor heard about anything like them.

With a drawn-out voice, Michel mirrored his thoughts. “So we still don’t know what those nasty things were. . . ?”

Chloe shrugged, “Who knows? Something that absurd could only be a cryptid, right?”

“You know,” Minato interrupted, “it did remind me of those antarctic humanoids.”

“Antarctic humanoids?” Michel asked inquisitively.

Chloe nodded in agreement. “They’re also called Antarctic Ningen. I think the word originated on online message boards in former Japan? It’s a type of cryptid that supposedly lives in the sea. Now that I think about it, they also don’t have anything other than front legs. . . But this isn’t the North OR South Pole. We’re above Osaka.”

“Well, it’s not surprising that the legends aren’t completely true. We don’t even know for sure if that myth was based on these things in the first place. What is certain, though, is that they’re something you won’t find in books. I find it hard to believe that humankind overlooked their existence, so I think it’s safe to say that they came about recently. . . and suddenly.”

“If that’s the case—and this might be crazy, but do you think it’s some kind of mutation caused by Solaris crystals?”

“Could be.”

More than that. I felt that was exactly the case.

Ever since the Oceanic Calamity, the “living mineral” Solaris had been discovered in seabeds all over the world. The reason for that nickname was because of how, even in its crystallized state, it dissolved in the bloodstream. In other words, it was in its nature to fuse with the bodies of living beings. The point at which Solaris was mixed into the blood of a suitable candidate. . . that’s when the unique Territory that defines water manipulators is first brought into existence.

It wasn’t limited to humans. There were lots of cases in which areas abundant with Solaris deposits could be observed to have strange varieties of sea life. It was still a mysterious phenomenon. That wasn’t exactly to say that the sudden appearance of these twisted monsters was anything other than a shock for Minato and the others, but it was the only possible explanation.

We saw these unidentified creatures with our own eyes, after all. . .

I grew only more and more worried at Aishwarin’s disappearance.

 

“Look.”

Meifa suddenly broke the silence. With what had to be excellent perception, she expressionlessly pointed to the far reaches of the sky.

“Helicopter is approaching.”

At first, it was only the size of a small speck in the sky. They were clearly heading towards where Minato and the others were floating.

In no time, it was close enough to even hear the faint chopping of the propeller.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

The same day, ten minutes prior—above the ocean in the Osaka area, not 10 kilometers away from where the boat sank.

There, a light mist fell over the surface of the water on which rough whitecaps formed to the sounds of a rotating propeller. At the point where a silver, unmarked helicopter was slowly descending, there was a single woman clad in a diving suit. Water droplets suspended from her flaxen hair, she smiled with her gentle, childlike face up at her comrade. In no time, she was picked up and on the aircraft.

In her hand was a large waterproof case, seemingly made from aluminum.

It was the woman named Komaki.

“You sure took your time down there.”

“I know, right?”

Listening to the fully-armed soldier next to her, she dried her hair off with a towel soon after embarking and then slouched into her seat, recounting her experiences in an undaunted tone.

“Just listen to this! I was, like, in so much trouble! Who would’ve thought they expanded Blotch’s capabilities so much? Leave it to their ace in the hole—there was nothing even little ol’ me could do against it! Was this close to getting caught up in all of it myself! Right as I was about make an escape, I accidentally bumped into my ex-coworker, this water manipulator mercenary girl. . . Her name was Stella or something, and she was such a nice person! So it really sucked that I ended up killing her like that. So, you know, this and that happened, which was why I was late. Tee hee.”

After going on and on, she ended her speech by sticking out her tongue.

The soldier on the other hand nodded without a single change in his expression. “Did you recover the toy?”

“Feast your eyes!”

With a smile stretching across her entire face, she took the large waterproof suitcase she retrieved from the ocean depths and handed it over.

The soldier took it and opened it up immediately to check the contents. Inside were five small canisters containing cultures and three disks. Everything seemingly in order, the soldier closed the case back up without disturbing a single thing inside.

He then turned his gaze back to Komaki, who had started to change her clothes in the back of the helicopter.

“Were you able to take care of everything down there?”

With her diving suit already partially rolled down, she absentmindedly nodded while fishing for her panties out of a bag, half-nude.

“I took care of everything I was told to do. Oh, I did set the Unders in the facility loose.”

“That’s fine. Even if relief gets involved, we can slow down their operation.”

“Anything else. . . Oh, right. It looks like there are civilians in the waters near the facility.”

The soldier narrowed his eyes. “Civilians?”

“Mhm. While I was waiting for the rendezvous, I happened to intercept a conversation being transmitted via Territory. They seem to be promising youngsters with bright futures, enrolled in the Federation’s Academy. I hate to say it, but they accidentally got caught up in the whole thing. Shall I go rescue them?” Komaki offered with an inquisitive expression, to which the soldier expressionlessly shook his head.

“Don’t do anything you don’t need to. We’ve already kept the boss waiting long enough. If you’re finished here, let’s get back to Mother Goose already.”

“Oh my, what a shame.”

With a small smile that betrayed her words, she returned to her seat having finished changing into a gray suit and skirt.

After a moment, she spotted several people floating in the ocean. Among them was a young man that seemed to be around her age.

They were unfortunate victims who simply ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Would they be able to escape the cruel experimental organisms of this watery den and make their way back to the continent? Komaki didn’t have the ability to see into the future; she had no way of knowing. Had it aligned with the directive handed to her, there might’ve been a future in which she safely brought all of them to land. . . but that was just a simple fantasy of hers.

She smiled at this fantasy until the very end.

“People grow through their experiences.”

May they be fortunate experiences.

In this prayer that would never reach their ears, she poured her earnest desire.

After all, Komaki was the kind of person who couldn’t help but get attached to the characters in horror movies who never gave up until the end. She absolutely loved watching those who always tried their hardest. To her, there was value in humankind’s struggle to the very end.

It was because she had nothing to do with them, that her support was so nonchalant.

Who knows how it’ll turn out? She didn’t care enough about it in the first place.

The unmarked helicopter set course for the Orient Federation on the Asian continent and left the seas above the Osaka area far behind.

Episode.4 - Deeper, Deeper

“It’s gone. . .” Minato quietly muttered under his breath as he watched the helicopter fly away.

I wanted to get the trainees evacuated, but it looks like that plan ended in failure.

The craft seemed big enough to carry even ten evacuees, but for whatever reason, it flew off into the distance without so much as a reaction to their predicament.

Was it possible they hadn’t seen them floating on the surface of the ocean.

There’s no way, Minato thought.

The helicopter wasn’t flying all that quickly, and considering the route they took, they was no way the pilot didn’t notice Minato and the others at some point. The only feasible possibility was that they had intentionally left them there. Yet, he wasn’t sure why they would do that. Perhaps they knew about the existence of the monsters and were prioritizing their own safety, and perhaps if they did save Minato and the others, a certain inconvenient truth of theirs might become apparent.

At any rate, there was no point in trying to figure out the answer at the moment. It wouldn’t change that fact that they had been abandoned.

“We have to find Ms. Aish,” Natsuka Hoshino murmured, eyes swollen. Her pink Territory warped unstably.

Instead of worrying about her own future, his pure-hearted childhood friend voiced her concerns for someone else.

“She must be so scared. Let’s find her and all go home together.”

That became the consensus among the survivors.

Minato wasn’t about to give up on Aishwarin either. On the other hand, he also hoped that he could send the girls back to the artificial island ahead of him out of concern for their safety.

He was completely aware, however, that they would refuse. Instead of wasting time arguing over whether or not they should go back, it may actually be safer to go as a unit.

That’s why Minato chose to respect their wishes, and everyone decided to return to the underwater facility.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

They returned to the bottom of the ocean.

The red rope Aishwarin carried with her inside the facility and the underwater message board left for her remained in front of the entrance to the waterway.

It was time to finally enter.

The tunnel itself was constructed fairly narrow—to the point where only two people could barely fit side-by-side. There was no point in forcing that to happen, however, so they ended up going down the tunnel in a single-file line. At the front was Minato, and trailing after him were Michel, Natsuka, Meifa, and then finally Chloe, in that order. It was purposely like that in the event that they should encounter any more monsters.

“Um, sir?”

Aishwarin’s red rope was a total 500 meters in length. At around half that distance, the rope turned right at the second corner.

Michel, swimming directly behind Minato out of necessity, started talking to him in good nature. Impressive to him, she continued to talk like she normally did, not missing a beat even in these circumstances.

“What’s wrong?”

“Will this waterway really go all the way inside the facility?” She was unsure, that’s all.

“I’m not certain, but it’s possible.”

“But I’ve been thinking, you know, and like doesn’t water pressure have something to do with it? I don’t think you can just have it go straight there. You’d have tons of water going inside the facility. How would they stop that?”

“If this facility was built in line with the current theory on the topic, then inside there should be a bunch of layered areas to prevent that.”

“Whadya mean?”

Her voice was full of curiosity. As much as she came across the kind of girl who only cared about popular fashion, she seemed to be interested in the science behind things as well, surprisingly enough.

“At the gate, the waterway is split into a number of different levels and depths, and the water is periodically. . . It’ll probably be easier for you to just see it yourself.”

In no time, the party found themselves at an impasse. It was a wall made from a metal that resembled steel.

This was the first layer gate. It seemed this was where the red rope had been cut in two.

From behind, Natsuka stared at the scene. “Is it a dead end?”

“It’ll open in a little bit. Probably, at least. Oh, that’s right. When the gate opens, the water will rush into the next area, so the force of the current will be really strong. Everyone should use their Territories to anchor themselves into place. Let’s put some distance between us and the gate.”

After a moment had passed, a clicking sound suddenly echoed across the waterway.

Just as Minato had envisioned, the first gate started to rise. It was a thick metallic door about 5 meters in width. To lift something of this size would require a monumentally powerful motor and power source, and even now in the year 2145, an underwater facility of this caliber was thought to be a fever dream of both financing and construction.

At the same time the gate was opening, the pressure of the water at depths of 1,500 meters forced the liquid overwhelmingly into the empty space on the other side of the door. Had their Territories not been there to resist the force of the gushing water, each of them would’ve likely been torn to shreds in an instant. There was no room for error under the weight of these watery depths.

At last the first layer was filled completely with sea water, and the violent currents quieted with it.

“Let’s get going. Hurry before the gate closes.”

Minato and the others made their way into the area and the first gate started to close slowly behind them.

Unlike the pathway they initially came along, the width of the area around them now grew wider, and the ceiling above them became higher as well. To Minato’s eyes adept at perceiving measurements, the water contained in the room weighed a total of 5,000 tons. To put it a different way, the space was the size of ten 25 meter pools.

After a brief wait, the second gate began to open, and the water in the first basin where Minato and the others were started to flow into the next area. Furthermore, the second basin slanted downwards like a slide, and by the force of gravity, the water pooled at the bottom.

“I—I’m falling!”

I thought I specifically told her to hold onto the red rope before we came down here. . .

Natsuka, hopelessly clumsy and nonathletic, started to fall down the decline with gusto. This is straight out of a comedy show, Minato calmly thought as he grabbed the arm of his sliding childhood friend the second she passed him on the way down, stopping her descent.

She came to a halt. Inevitable as it was, she smiled uncomfortably at having herself held up.

“T-Thanks, Minato. Um, you know, uh. . .”

“No worries. You’ve gotten lighter recently.”

Her face reddened as if catching on fire. I guess that didn’t work out so well.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

They reached the interior of the facility. It had taken five more water gates before they finally arrived.

The red rope Aishwarin left behind was also severed at the gate behind them. From here on, all they could do was traverse the paths and search for her whereabouts on foot.

 

After going up a metal staircase, they left the facilities room and entered a corridor. The first thing their eyes fixated on was just how unbelievably white everything was.

It was almost like the interior of a spaceship in some low-budget sci-fi movie. The wide hallway seemed to ooze a faint haughtiness. The ceiling, walls, and even the floor were all unified by the immaculate white, and they gave off a harsh light that even strained the eyes. It could only be considered a stroke of good luck, however. Even though there was no unnecessary coloration, it was precisely because it was such that the monsters would likely stand out against it should they appear.

They spotted a number of doors along the hallway, but all of them were fitted with a card reader and had been locked tight. Even as they knocked on them and called out to the other side, there were no responses.

Out of options, they ventured deeper and deeper still.

“So, have we figured out what kind of place this is?”

In other words, just what purpose was this facility built for? No one could answer the question Michel brought forth with any certainty. Surely, however, the same unspoken thought flitted across the minds of most of them.

Meifa was the one who eventually vocalized that thought. “My prediction is monster-production factory.”

After a small pause, Minato nodded in agreement. “It sounds ridiculous, but it makes the most sense, so I’m not sure what to say.”

They were suddenly overrun with unidentified creatures. In those very same waters was a mysterious underwater facility. It was an only natural conclusion to arrive at after putting two and two together.

Even still, Michel seemed as if she didn’t fully agree. “Huh? You’re saying someone wanted to make those creepy things?”

“A destitute country that desires war,” responded Meifa. “Essentially, living weapons. Very common premise.”

Producing living weapons was of course against the law, but managing the feat would prove extremely lucrative. That was precisely why its research would be the perfect fit for an economically-inefficient underwater facility like this one, he thought. The ocean deep was the ideal place to get work done while avoiding the eyes of the world.

It’s possible Minato and the others found themselves wound up in something truly unfortunate.

 

“Shh. Don’t speak. Danger.”

They arrived at a fork in the passageway. It was when they stopped at the crossroads, wondering if they should go left or right, that it happened.

Meifa suddenly brought a finger to her mouth and told the others to be quiet. Minato tightly sealed his lips together and immediately started to survey his surroundings. All he could see were the forgettable white walls. He couldn’t figure out what she had noticed.

Meifa lowered her voice to a whisper and briefly explained the abnormality she picked up on. “Heard something.”

So she says, but no matter how much I concentrate, I can’t hear a thing.

“A repeating sound. Probably footsteps, but no shoes. Squish, squish. A wet sound.”

Minato gradually started to feel as if something was gripping at his stomach. They didn’t find anything in the hallway, and yet Meifa said she heard footsteps.

Where is it?

What is it?

There is nothing more terrifying than that which cannot be ascertained. This rumbling in my chest probably won’t go away until we find what’s causing the sounds that Meifa hears.

“. . .”

All of them instinctively moved closer to one other without muttering a word. The sounds finally reached Minato’s ears as well soon after.

—squish, squash

It was like the sound of dripping water.

Squish, squish. The mysterious sound continued to echo throughout the passageway. It seemed to come from around the left curve of the junction they were currently at.

Squish, squish. It was becoming ever so loud, ever so fresh—squish, squash, squish, squish, squi, squi, squi-squi-SQUI-SQUI! The interval between sounds grew short!

—as if the source of the steps was running.

That’s when Minato finally noticed the irregularity.

The sounds didn’t match what he saw.

“No way. . .”

They should have been able to see it by now.

“Everyone, get down!”

—It was an enemy invisible to the eyes.

The instant Minato came to this conclusion, he pulled out his knife and activated MAI.

《MAI》※detecting non-visible movement ※response difficult ※advise retreat

《MAI》※constructing virtual model based on movement sounds ※advise against relying on model

Similar to how sonar utilizes sound waves, it was possible to locate the enemy via the sounds it created. Using the reverberations of its footsteps as it traveled throughout the hall, MAI was able to pinpoint its approximate location and project an object in Minato’s vision that only he could see—an octagonal object, the likes of which you might have found in the retro 3D video games of old.

The approximate location of where the enemy supposedly was—

—was right before Minato’s eyes.

“Gaaah?!”

Although Minato was caught by immense surprise, feeling as if his heart were about to jump out of his mouth, he twisted his entire body as advised by MAI, avoiding collision with the octagonal object. In addition, as he performed this evasive action, he simultaneously drove his knife forward. At this point, Minato’s own will had little to do with what happened. This action was essentially an automatic counterattack performed by MAI. He didn’t even know where the enemy’s head was. The only option was to reach his arm out towards the center of the octagonal shape.

He felt the sensation of impact in his hands.

At that very moment, an unearthly shriek assaulted Minato’s eardrums. It was a beastly growl, yet one that defied comparison with any and all forms of life in this world.

And with it came an attack.

“—Huh?!”

Although he knew the approximate location of the enemy, he couldn’t follow its actual movements. As the monster flew into a rage, it must have come into contact with a part of Minato’s body as a huge force struck him in the temple and caused his consciousness to flicker in and out. By the time he came to, he found himself sprawled out on the ground, knife out of hand. Perhaps it was by a miracle that his neck hadn’t been broken by the impact.

The situation wasn’t over, however. In no time, he heard the squish, squash once more. The inorganic octagon came into Minato’s view, hanging above him.

《MAI》※high chance of target approach ※prioritize evasion ※evasion difficult ※be careful of attack

“Shi—”

His legs wouldn’t budge. The shock of the impact still lingered in his head; he wouldn’t be able to move very well for a while.

Then a strong gale swept across the area. With it was blood scattering in the wind.

The blood wasn’t Minato’s—rather it seemed to belong to the invisible thing in front of him. The liquid was a pale pink, as if it were blood thinned by water.

The Green Dragon Crescent Blade twirled around, and the one who held it, Meifa, had her head tilted with an apparent lack of confidence. “. . . OK?”

“It’s okay. I think so, at least. I’d like to hope your attack killed it.”

Hers was undeniably the finishing blow. Thanks to a single strike from her weapon, the invisible enemy met its demise. The evidence of such lay in the lump of white flesh on the floor sliced cleanly in two, its outline now visible enough to be seen by the naked eye.

It was different than what they had encountered while on the surface of the ocean—a completely new type.

Overall, the monster strongly resembled a crustacean in appearance, something like a lobster that was forcefully made into the shape of an Antarctic Humanoid. In the seconds following its death, the white of its body transformed into a mossy green. Perhaps that was its original color.

Minato let out a sigh. “You really saved me there, Meifa. . . You really are something else. Did you guess where it was?”

“Your knife, sir. Saw it. Cut there.”

“I see.”

The knife that Minato had driven into the monster moments before remained there, and apparently it served as a visual marker.

Thank god we were able to kill it right away.

Judging by the reactions of the other trainees, none of them had any idea what was going on. Their faces were still gripped with shock. Finally Chloe said, “There was. . . a monster? It’s amazing the two of you reacted so quickly.”

Meifa threw her chest out with pride.

“The footsteps were loud. Invisibility was pointless. Take notes, Predator.”

“Sorry to rain on your parade, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do the same thing next time.”

If two or three of them make an appearance, it’ll be a serious problem. It’ll be more dangerous than even I can imagine. Should we get out of here right away? I know that’s the right decision deep down.

“Minato.”

Natsuka came closer to his side. Clearly having worried her, he looked up at his childhood friend.

“It’s red. Doesn’t it hurt?”

The impact to the forehead from the monster earlier struck bone. It didn’t hurt—rather it was completely numb. It might be in a bad spot tomorrow.

It goes without saying, though, that he put on a strong face.

“Just a little. It barely scratched me.”

I want to use it to tease Aishwarin when we find her:

My face is all swollen thanks to you.

 

The existence of a monster that could become transparent suggested a single truth to Minato.

When the creature in question was moving around, not even the shadow of its twisting body was visible to the naked eye. A self-defense mechanism on that level didn’t exist in the natural world.

No, forget nature. Even with mankind’s advanced scientific knowledge, they couldn’t produce “perfect camouflage.” It defied science—a physical contradiction. Although at first glance it seemed like a phenomenon that laughed in the face of physics, there was a material in modern society that might make it a possibility.

It must be Solaris.

Defying mankind’s logic and reason—the power of a new age. In fact, there did exist water manipulators who possessed abilities similar to that of invisibility.

Because of this, Minato started to view the monsters up until now with the thought: “Couldn’t they be another kind of water manipulator?” If that was the case, then it lent further credence to the theory that they might actually be experimental lifeforms.

The strange powers bestowed by Solaris certainly had the capacity to be abused, but since it was such a rare material, the amount of it that existed had little chance to make a meaningful impact in war—that was how things have been. No matter how fearsome and useful Chloe’s all-rending ability was, there was no doubt she’d run into trouble when up against a hundred trained soldiers. After all, each soldier would be able to use one of the long-distance rifles or mortars produced en masse. And there was nothing limiting it to a hundred soldiers—it would be thousands, tens of thousands. Mass production capacity was the feature sought most among weapons of war.

On the other end, the chance of being compatible with Solaris was extremely low, under 0.1%.

Neither the number of human subjects necessary to make up for this statistical improbability nor the funding necessary to make it possible in the first place were enough.

—In that case. . .

Wouldn’t it be faster to simply make compatible organisms instead?

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

It chewed on the corpse like a stray dog might, staring into the void with emotionless eyes.

Immediately hiding himself upon witnessing it, Minato felt a gulp next to him. It was Natsuka, hand plastered over her mouth. Perhaps she was shocked at having seen the monster so suddenly, or perhaps it was because the ravaged husk of the human in which the monster’s fangs were buried had been brutalized in such a grizzly manner. It seemed to Minato that the corpse in white clothing was male, but in all honestly, it had already been torn into shreds too small to tell. Less a human, it was more accurate to call it a piece of one.

Up ahead was a large open space.

It seemed like a data room or something similar. As it was surrounded by large glass panes, it was easy to see in from outside. There were many machines—desktop computers, monitors, etc.—all throughout it.

In it were three monsters and twice as many human corpses. By sight alone, they knew it to be the aftermath of a tragedy pungent with blood.

The monsters within the glass panels were of the same Antarctic Humanoid type that had attacked them above the surface. Using their developed forelegs, they wandered aimlessly around the room.

There was no hope of using a different route as there had been only one path up until now. In order to proceed deeper into the facility, they would have to eventually pass through the glass-enclosed area.

What’s the best option?

In the brief time that Minato was considering this, one of the girls started to move.

It was Chloe—wrapped in her golden Territory.

“This is a waste of time. Do we really have to stop like this every second of the way?”

“Wait, sto—”

His words came too late. Her attack was frighteningly quick.

Whirling upwards like jewels, her Territory drew countless triangles and squares. Those two-dimensional pockets contained pressures of astronomical magnitude and were launched at dizzying speeds. They slipped through the glass and sliced through the bodies of the monsters. The Territory—colossal amounts of which were compressed to a thickness of under 0.1 millimeter—traveled through matter silently and without resistance.

Just as had happened back on the boat, the enemies’ lives were discarded with unbridled ease.

It only made sense to liken exemplary water manipulators to weapons. Chloe’s abilities were absolute in their destructive prowess. Be they zombies or monstrous abominations, likely all would be felled as equals under her power.

I think, however, that her tendency to do as she likes, made possible by her self-assuredness, is a dangerous habit.

“See? Dispatched with ease.”

It was cute, the way she turned around, face glowing with such pride after eliminating all the monsters.

And then, in the next moment, the glass started to crumble to the floor, no longer able to bear its own weight after being sliced through by her Territory—along with the thunderous noise that accompanied it.

That’s why I was trying to tell her to stop. . .

“Eek.” Because of the delay, even the girl responsible for the mess clenched her shoulders in surprise. “W-What brittle glass. You’d think they’d at least use the reinforced, non-shattering kind.”

“Don’t go all wild on your own like that. They might flock to the noise.”

“I’ll clean up after my own mess and take care of them if that happens. Come on, let’s hurry up and find Ms. Aishwarin already. I don’t want to stay a second longer in this blood-stench.”

She raised her hand as if proud of the path she herself had cleared.

No matter the situation, she always focused on the path forward.

 

After proceeding to the area with the glass, they found the room strewed with what used to be humans.

“Ugh, it’s too much.”

Michel covered her mouth with her hand at the intense sight and smell. There was one corpse dropped on the floor alongside the various scattered files, its head split open to let the gray matter spill out, and yet another had its upper half gnawed into a patty of minced meat on the administrative desk over which it was deposited. The mere fact that Michel and Chloe could face it head-on with their grimaces, however, spoke volumes to their mental fortitude. Even the male Minato felt his heart grow cold as he witnessed the gruesome spectacle.

Natsuka’s face was deathly pale, and her eyes were glued to her feet as she pressed forward. As he couldn’t have her trip, Minato took Natsuka’s hand and guided her through the room. He grew uneasy watching the Territory that enveloped her become unstable. It was losing its constitution, far more than normal.

Perhaps the mental trauma from this morning was starting to show itself.

“You feeling okay?”

“Yeah. . . I can walk. I’m okay. Let’s keep going.”

She lifted her eyes and showed a smile—such an awkward smile. It was precisely because I knew how hard it was on her that it became difficult to look at.

The distance from the entrance to the exit was a measly ten meters, and yet it felt like it was ten times that. And then seven meters into the room, Minato suddenly pulled out his knife.

“Everyone stop.”

He had heard the faint sound of crunching glass from a blind spot behind a desk.

Meifa, possessing senses superior to even Minato’s, had apparently also heard the noise, and in the same instant, she had molded her territory into the Green Dragon Crescent Blade, sinking into a deep fighting stance.

“On the right. Beyond the desk with the plastic model. Something’s there.”

With a moment’s delay, Chloe expanded her Territory. Fortunately, Chloe asked for confirmation before using it in combat this time. “Should I cut through the things in the way? But what if it’s a survivor. . . ?”

“I’ll go check.”

“It’s too dangerous. I’ll do—”

“Blind spots are my specialty. I’ll be fine. You stay here and protect everyone.”

He didn’t say it to sound tough; it was the truth.

Chloe, for example, had to go through the process of first identifying the target, then preparing her attack, and finally launching said attack, whereas the MAI born from Minato’s abilities took care of all of it at once. As a result, he was absurdly good at deciding whether he should evade or counterattack and so on in the face of an unexpected encounter.

However, Minato was all too aware of what that meant.

While his ability was masterful at protecting himself, it couldn’t necessarily do the same when protecting others.

That’s why he had to take the dangerous roles upon himself.

 

Leaving the trainees in the same spot, Minato went to scout the source of the noise. He inched carefully towards the tight cluster of desks and soon peeked into the hidden area that had inspired so many misgivings.

《MAI》※confirming existence of predicted enemy ※predicting incoming attack from same enemy

Their eyes met.

I knew it. The monster hid itself on the ground with its crooked maw agape, and just as it seemed to look up at Minato, it suddenly pounced in his direction, spewing spit as it did. It had clearly been lying in wait— You can’t mean to say that it made the sounds to lure me in? I may be thinking too far into it, but if that’s the case, it was pretty cunning.

As Minato had mostly predicted it’d be the case, however, he didn’t hesitate in his actions.

I won’t use the knife in this situation—it has hardly any effect. With Minato’s current gear, he had little hope of inflicting damage on the enemy. He didn’t intend on needlessly prolonging the fight.

Using Chloe’s expanded Territory was the most surefire way to finish it off. As a result, what Minato aimed to do was instead set the stage for her. Just how ideal of a situation could he create for her attack? —That was what he decided he must do.

The monsters fangs were right before Minato’s eyes.

With the smallest possible distance between then, he shifted his body to the side to dodge the incoming monster’s head. He then wrapped his arm around the monster’s neck and brought it close to his side, throwing the monster like before with aikido mastery.

It was almost like the brainbuster used in professional wrestling. The monster collided back-first atop the desk. All that was left was for Chloe to deliver the final blow—

—he thought, until a crucial miscalculation made itself evident. As soon as Minato noticed, he screamed with all he had.

“Behind you!”

It happened opposite to where Minato was fighting. Behind the trainees from his perspective, he saw two monsters emerging from their unseen hiding spots.

—emerging stealthily.

Using the one monster as a decoy, the others aimed to take advantage of the distraction; it was a hunting technique used by lions.

Immediately after Minato shouted his warning, one of the lurking predators made a beeline for the girls. Neither Chloe nor Michel were able to react quickly enough, and there wasn’t enough time for them to ascertain what it was that lurched at them from the shadows.

There was one trainee that noticed it, however.

Meifa, with her sharp senses, spun around even before Minato issued his warning, and readying her Green Dragon Crescent Blade—

—she launched an attack upwards with all her might.

The deformed creature’s head was sliced in two, and it fell to the ground. The blade-like Territory gouged deeply into the floor. With its skull cleanly halved, the monster’s arms convulsed wildly around. All of this happened in an instant.

Chloe noticed the creature behind her in the moment immediately following that. There was still one remaining.

“Shit—”

Chloe was obviously shaken.

She was pincered on both sides by the opponents Meifa and Minato were facing off against. She wasn’t sure which target to strike down first, and the hesitation came through in her attack.

《MAI》※detecting target A regaining form

In the other part of this fight, Minato clicked his tongue and hastily moved the knife he wasn’t intending on using to the other hand.

The monster on top of the desk got up from being tossed, and, with arms as thick as a bear’s and as developed as a human’s, it attempted to grab the prey in front of it. Standing there, Minato crouched down to avoid the lunge and then plunged his knife into the monster’s throat, but the damage it inflicted was but a simple drop in the bucket. The monster possessed frightening vitality.

Minato was far more concerned about the trainees, however.

Three seconds later, Chloe finally expanded her golden Territory to maximum output.

As she was possessed with worry, she set her sights on the monster that threated Minato and created a two-dimensional plane of high pressure— However, perhaps upon seeing how close the two were, she hesitated to release her attack once more. A further second later, Minato pulled his knife out of the creature and then leaped backwards. This was when Chloe’s finishing strike came and irreversibly decimated both the monster and desk. In total, this all took five seconds.

During that entire duration, Meifa was focusing with everything she had on the enemy behind her, and as a result—

—the Chinese girl, combat in her veins, grasped victory.

Before the second creature could move, she spun the Green Dragon Crescent Blade around her and pulverized the enemy’s forelegs. As it lost its balance, another strike came from below and mercilessly sent its head flying.

Chloe, Meifa, and Minato all executed their actions simultaneously.

In other words, this duration turned into a focus-fueled vacuum for the three of them.

“ABOVE YOU!”

Michel’s voice, approaching a scream, echoed throughout the room.

 

There was dome that capped the area walled in by glass—

It was much higher than previously thought, and in the heat of the moment, it turned into the ultimate blind spot. Unbeknown to any of them at the time, the monster had powerful suction cups on its forelegs, and it could scurry around at high speeds on both the walls and ceiling alike.

It was almost as if it were a third layer to the surprise attack. After making it this far, their intelligence shone through. Minato and the others had the initiative stolen from them and their openings thoroughly taken advantage of.

The fourth monster nesting up above pried open its jaws, large enough to swallow a human head whole, and set its sights on the trainees five meters below, making its descent. It was aiming for—

—Chloe.

This was right as she finished performing her first attack. Michel screamed her warning at this moment, but it happened too slowly, and there wasn’t enough time.

In the next instant, Chloe is pushed to the ground by the giant creature two meters across, and the monster buries its teeth into her small, delicate skull—things almost turned out just like this.

The reason it didn’t—the reason they were able to avoid this result—was because something stopped the monster midair in its tracks.

“Huh—”

Rather, it wasn’t that it was stopped, but that its descent was slowed down.

What looked as if could have been time manipulation was in fact the simple absorption of its kinetic energy. For example, if you were to drop a marble into jelly, it would either slow down or stop completely. It was exactly the same.

The monster landed into a mass of high density Territory—

—into a pink Territory brought into existence using all Natsuka Hoshino could muster.

“Above you, Chloe!”

To think she struggled so much at doing something like that in her training with Chloe. Sheer effort will bear fruit, and that was the moment that had saved her friend.

“Gah!”

Noticing the monster slowly descending above her, Chloe’s eyes were struck with shock, and in her panic, she created planes of high pressure and demolished the final creature along with Natsuka’s Territory until there was nothing left of either.

This twenty-second fight had felt far longer.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

After passing through the area with the glass, they immediately arrived at a large lobby-like area that branched into two other paths.

It seemed to be a rest area of sorts.

In addition to a sofa positioned against one of the walls, there was a decorative plant and ashtray in the space. It looked like they could continue deeper into the facility this way, and a quick peek down the right-hand path showed a short hallway leading into what appeared to be a meeting room. At first glance, there were no enemies in sight.

After thoroughly making sure their surroundings were safe, all of them collapsed into fatigue.

. . . This isn’t good for my heart.

“That was like way too close just now. Look, my heart is beating like crazy.” Michel, the only one standing, had her hand pressed tightly to her chest.

She was right, though. Had there been even one less person among them, someone would have undeniably died.

Especially Chloe. Her expression was uncharacteristically solemn.

“If Natsuka wasn’t here, I’d be. . .” she muttered, lips trembling. For someone who seemed unfazed by the monsters, this was how deeply her self-confidence had been affected.

All it took was a little carelessness and a dash of misfortune.

That was all it took to come face-to-face with death, she likely realized.

As she watched this younger girl shaking with fear, Natsuka brought a smile to her lips. What an awkward smile. “It was scary, wasn’t it. I’m glad you’re alright.”

Chloe returned the smile. “You really saved me. I guess you’re the kind that really shines when it matters.”

“You. . . think so?”

“I mean, I never once saw a Territory that dense during our training. It looks like I owe you one. I promise to return the favor.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

“There’s no way I could—”

“You’ll make me sad if you keep talking like that. I know I didn’t ask you first, but I already think of you as one of my best friends, you know.”

“Best friend?”

“That’s right. Even without favors and all that, I want to be there for you. As long as the two of us can continue being friends, that’s all I need. Is that alright?”

“Aherm.”

She was obviously embarrassed. He face was red as a beet, and yet she still continued her vain resistance.

“I’ll think about it.”

 

After careful consideration, he came to a decision and announced it to the trainees:

“I think we should call off the search for Aish.”

Hearing this, all of the students turned to their instructor with surprise. In particular, Meifa, Aishwarin’s pupil, showed some distress in her expression. “Already?”

“I know it’s cruel of me, but going any further is too dangerous. We got lucky last time and made it without any casualties, but had even one thing gone wrong back there, we could’ve easily lost someone.”

This was a decision only Minato himself could—absolutely had to—make. There was no way he could force these girls to choose abandoning one of their own.

Truthfully, these girls were powerful, and they had incredible courage. Against even man-eating abominations, they continued to fight and press forward.

That was precisely why Minato couldn’t allow the possibility of something happening. I absolutely need to get them back to the Academy safely. Not enough was known about these monsters. Not only were there ones that could become invisible, but there were some that could even work as a unit to hunt down their prey. There’s no telling what will come up ahead.

It’ll be too late if something happens.

I’ll treat my senior coworker as a lost cause.

—even if I’m branded a coward because of it.

Protecting these girls is the most important thing I can do, Minato thought.

“We’re heading back to the Academy. This is an order. If you disobey it, I’ll bring you back forcefully.”

When he said this in a stronger tone than ever before, the expressions on all the trainees’ faces fell dark. It’s possible rage and despair were taking ahold their hearts in response to the cruel resolution.

That’s fine.

Even if they resent me until the end of days, I won’t regret this decision.

Though, if there was something that he regretted—

—it was that the decision itself came far too late.

 

A shadow cut across the corner of his periphery.

“—H”

Watch out! Get back!—there wasn’t enough time for anything like this to escape his mouth. After all, by the time Minato reflexively put up his guard, that which followed them had already caught up.

Inhuman and white, it had a face like a mannequin’s.

All sound faded away as his panic rose.

It was a being with speed the likes of which they had never encountered, but fortunately, as the judgment handed down by MAI soon after Minato activated it was counterattack possible, he readied his knife automatically, mechanically, and initiated its plunge into the pale mask-like visage to save Natsuka.

《MAI - judgement》※enemy lifeform will proceed to ceiling

—I was off.

Clicking his tongue, Minato finally shouted.

“It’s above us!”

“Ugh, what is that?” Michel clenched her eyebrows in disgust as she looked up at the enemy’s grotesque form. The creature seemed to grovel upside-down as it gazed at Minato and the others from the ceiling.

No, more accurately, didn’t have eyeballs.

Different from the Antarctic Humanoid-type monsters they encountered up until now, possessing only their forelegs, this one had a much more human form, and its entire body was a waxy white, leading Minato to associate its appearance with that of a mannequin’s.

Looking at it a second time, however, it might’ve been closer to say it resembled a drowned body. In place of absent eyes and nose, its striking mouth pulled apart, allowing a long tongue to fall from it alongside dripping saliva.

Violet and gold lights filled the room. Both Meifa and Chloe had expanded their Territories to their maximum outputs.

“Disgusting. Sickening. Sentenced to death.”

“Let’s get rid of it, at any rate.”

Thankfully there was only one enemy. If it tried to approach any of the girls, Minato would be able to cover for them. And yet, the drowned-body creature showed no signs of movement. Instead, it displayed a transformation that no other monster until now had.

—a blotchy pattern about its body.

It was a striking color change. Red spots began to appear like lightning all over its sickly white skin.

That was all that happened from what Minato could see. Certain families of squid also displayed similar reactions to warn predators against attack, so there wasn’t anything too shocking about it.

Perhaps it was meaningless, perhaps it wasn’t.

“Be careful! It might be up to something.”

“It should be fine if I just shoot it down from here!”

Chloe prepared a medium-range attack and quickly fired it. The last battle likely still fresh in her mind, there were signs of tension in her expression, and she didn’t allow herself a moment of carelessness.

She immediately fired one of the slicing planes. It was a small triangle, probably created that way to avoid damaging the facility, but it was still an attack more than capable of cutting down an opponent of that size. She fired another attack from a different angle, and then did it yet again. She did it as to create a web that might cut off all possible escape routes.

Yes, that monster would surely be finished off with this initial attack.

If it didn’t—

“Huh?”

Chloe’s Territory dissipated just before impact.

Not only hers.

Meifa’s Green Dragon Crescent Blade too melted in its entirely and dispersed into thin air.

Witnessing this, Minato finally came to understand the enemy’s true nature.

I know this—

“H-Huh? Why? Wait, this doesn’t compute.”

“Why did my Territory—”

“Run.”

—It exists.

Back when the concept of water manipulation was still in its relative infancy, there was a manipulator, I believe, who possessed an ability capable of the same feats.

It was an erosion-type ability in the Order Dictator family—Territory Virus.

If it truly was the same type, then as long as it was activated, all outward-projected Territories in the vicinity would, without exception, lose their effectiveness. In other words, it was a Territory that killed Territories—the absolutely worst kind of ability for a water manipulator to go up against.

Like before, the blotchy monster didn’t move from its perch on the ceiling.

—as if it were calculating the scene below.

All at once, a horde of monstrous oddities began to swarm in from the right-wing passageway.

It was a truly masterful trap.

 

“RUUUN!”

 

Screaming beyond his limits, Minato immediately grabbed the hand of Natsuka next to him.

A fresh mob of monsters came from the sides. All they could do was run in the opposite direction. In doing so, they would get separated from the path they took to infiltrate the facility, but this wasn’t the time to be worrying about that.

Minato thrust Natsuka into the passageway and let go of her hand. He did so praying there weren’t any monsters up ahead. Praying was all he had left to him.

“Start running! Don’t look back!”

“But what about the others—?!”

“I’ll do something about it! You just focus on running!”

Clutching his heart that seemed to be on the verge of tearing itself apart, Minato let Natsuka run ahead of him, and he turned back to face the hellhole.

A familiar voice entered his hearing.

《MAI - warning》※detecting four lifeforms, correction: five, correction: six, correction: seven

I thought so.

Territories like Minato’s that expanded inside one’s self weren’t affected by the power. It was exactly the same as what he knew about the Territory Virus ability. Minato’s power wasn’t killed off.

He still didn’t have the power to salvage this hopeless situation, however.

“What’s going on?!”

Nearby, he saw Michel running around without a clue as to what was going on. Behind her was something else. She was being chased by one of the forelegged monsters.

“Hey!” Minato yelled with a ragged voice and ran past her, jamming the knife with a violent ferocity into the monster that was chasing her. Less so stabbing it, he pummeled the creature with the blade.

It didn’t fell the creature of course, but it bought enough time for Michel to get away. So long as he crippled the legs, that would be enough.

The monster seemingly switched its sights from Michel to Minato, and it directed its gaping maw towards Minato’s body.

“That’s right. Come and get me!”

Although shouting his provocations, he unfortunately didn’t have enough time to deal with the enemy. Once he made sure that the monster was fully fixated on him, he started to run once more. There were still girls here trapped in a tight spot.

Meifa then came into view. Standing in the hallway, two monsters surrounded her on both sides. One of them moved, much more quickly than Minato was able to arrive at her side.

“Mei—”

At first glance, it seemed like a hopeless situation, but it was none other than Meifa who refused to accept it. She ducked beneath the monster with its arm raised like a martial arts master might and then slipped past it with the precision of a stray cat. Yes, out of all of them, this girl was the one who used her battle-hardened body to its fullest extent.

She stayed alive. She made it to Minato. And then, when she finally arrived before Minato, she suddenly hid her face.

The words slipped out her mouth in a hoarse voice: “—I’m sorry”

“Huh?”

She continued to run past Minato, sliding past even the monster that was chasing after him, and then disappeared around the corner that Natsuka and Michel had taken.

Why did she apologize?

Minato realized why only two seconds later.

It was when he looked in the direction of Chloe.

“A—”

 

There stood a single girl late in her escape, surrounded on all sides.

 

The girl was left there, robbed of her powers by the blotched monster.

In front of her, behind her, to the right and to the left— There was nowhere for her to run. There was no salvation for her.

That’s why the best thing for Minato to do was to immediately start running away.

There was no hope for her. She would die. He needed to get away, sparing not even another second.

Yet, he couldn’t look away, not until the bitter end.

—for, between the gap in the monsters, he locked eyes with the girl and her frozen expression.

“. . . N-No. I d-don’t. . .”

Robbed of the power she relied on—

Eyes convulsing—

With a face that seemed to be both crying and laughing—

She didn’t want to believe it would end like this.

“Save m—”

As the trembling whimper left Chloe’s mouth, it happened.

The excited monsters piled onto Chloe one by one.

Their fangs plunged into her. Into her arms, into her shoulders, into her stomach, into her thighs. . . Sharpened fangs stripped away at the small girl’s flesh, layer by layer.

At the end, as they were finishing ravaging her body, she had likely even lost hope in the possibility of a swift end.

There was no way she could have retained her humanity under the searing pain of her tearing flesh, pulled apart and apart again before the life could leave her body. Her whimpering cries wormed their way sublimely into Minato’s ears, torturing their every subtle recess.

“I. . .”

I was wrong.

We should’ve turned back much sooner.

No, we should’ve never entered this underwater facility in the first place.

Every human has experienced loss—there is a certain phrase that goes along these lines, but there are also mistakes which must never be committed. They can never been taken back. I’ll never be able to apologize to her again.

In the end, they hadn’t found Aishwarin, and Minato’s pupil had lost all resemblance to how she once looked.

Episode.5 - Human License

After it happened, Minato had no recollection of how he had managed to group up with Natsuka and the rest.

Meifa, however, had recovered the use of her ability. It seemed they had finally left the effective range of the blotched monster’s Territory. She twirled round the Green Dragon Crescent Blade and used it to cleave the monster still pursuing them into halves, finally allowing herself to catch her breath. “This might be it. . .”

They were inside a room. It was a calm, dark place with heavy metal doors. Those doors were unlocked. Meifa poked her head out into the hall, likely making sure there were no other creatures on their trail.

With this, they secured a fortress to hole themselves up in.

“. . . Help me, Michel. Closing this door.”

“Yeah.”

“Pull on three. One, two, three.”

The door was incredibly solid and heavy. By their joint effort, they finally managed to get it to move.

Minato simply watched their physical labor, his legs devoid of any power left in them. The visual information didn’t even make it as far as his consciousness. Not a single thing ran through his mind.

His thoughts started to move only after he heard Natsuka’s voice.

“—Minato.” Her nose was running terribly, and her eyes were swollen and red. “When you start to feel better, okay? Let’s all get out of here.”

“Get. . . out?”

That’s right. They absolutely had to get out of here.

Minato tried to nod back, but he couldn’t summon the energy to do so. His entire body was shaking. Even the smallest thought only came after much hardship. He wanted to abandon his mind.

However, against it all, he managed to respond, “You’re. . . right. Let’s do that.”

It didn’t have to be anything productive—it was just important that he say something. If he didn’t, he would descend to an only deeper and deeper place and never be able to escape. He had a feeling it would happen like that.

“. . . What kind of room is this?”

Now that he thought about it, the answer was clear. He simply needed to form the words.

It was what they called a manual space, or in simpler terms, it was basically a storage room. They had something similar in the EU’s underwater facility. The room was equipped with hand-operated technology that allowed for the storage and retrieval of essential tools and food supplies in the off-chance that the facility’s power went down. These kinds of areas were commonplace in buildings that relied on a source of electricity for the majority of their security.

There should be a lot of useful stuff. That’s why he decided to search, with everything he had, for anything that might be of use—

—so that he didn’t have to think.

 

It didn’t take much to search the perimeter of the room.

There weren’t any monsters hiding in the nooks and crannies of the room fortunately, but instead of that were several corpses strewn about. Not a single corpse was in one piece—it’s clear none of this was perpetrated by human hands. It’s likely what happened was something along the lines of people running here for safety like Minato and the others did, only to let in the monsters by accident or otherwise.

Although he looked straight at the mangled corpses, Minato found himself not feeling anything in the slightest at the sight. Perhaps his feelings were finally starting to numb.

Natsuka’s reaction at having seen the corpses, however, came as a surprise.

“Do you think they have a card key?” As she said this, she started rummaging through the bodies. She stuck her hands into what could only be described as piles of flesh without a single change in her expression. Her hands were quickly painted the color of their blood.

“Hey, don’t force yourself. I’ll take care of it.”

“It’s fine. At least let me do this. . .”

Her face as she scavenged intently for items on the dead bodies seemed to have lost all traces of emotion.

A cold sweat quickly started to form on her forehead however, and in the next moment she vomited. Minato placed a hand on her back to ease the pain, and she started to break down into tears, repeating the same words over and over under her breath.

“I’m. . . sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. . . I’m. . . sorry, I’m sorry.”

Countless apologies. She continued to apologize over and over at the nothingness.

She then wiped her mouth shortly after and tried to resume her search, so Minato stopped her before she could. As the tears were streaming down her cheeks, she was desperately grasping for any way to protect her friends.

She was trying beyond all her capabilities to become stronger—and it was incredibly sad.

—Chloe’s name never once escaped Natsuka’s lips.

The fact that he couldn’t deliver this kindhearted girl from her sadness was far too painful for Minato to bear.

 

This time, Minato searched the bodies himself. In doing so, he discovered a card key on one of the presumably male corpses.

“Success, Natsuka.”

Rooms that required a pin code were probably out of the question, but they’d likely be able to access the shared rooms with this card. It would allow them to explore a larger area, so there was no harm in having it.

He continued his search.

In total, they managed to find things like long-lasting preserved food, various tools including a hydraulic jack, flashlights and batteries, etc—in other words, your standard fare emergency equipment.

In addition, they found a heavy-duty safe with a dial combination lock. The lock itself had apparently already been opened by the people in this facility, and the thick door was currently half-open. The safe was the same size as large home refrigerators.

He found it hard to believe they would hide their money here after coming all the way down to this underwater facility. He already had an idea as to what it was inside.

He pulled back the open door.

“Ah—” Natsuka let out a small gasp of surprise once they confirmed what was inside.

—Guns.

That’s what I thought. A large assortment of firearms were stored inside the safe.

“Wow, they’re amazing.”

Minato nodded at Natsuka’s frank observation.

It was like they could understand the gravity of the equipment even before taking them into their hands. They were clearly in another league compared to guns used solely for personal protection.

There were five of them, and all of them were the same type of assault rifle. That in itself wasn’t cause for surprise.

Rather, it was that the 12.7 millimeter rounds used in them were massive compared to the standard variety—in other words, .50 caliber. It was enough to make one wonder if the weapons were truly even considered assault rifles at that point. They probably possessed enough firepower to rip even through the monsters without much problem, but unfortunately, there was no guessing how much recoil it would present the one who pulled the trigger. They were short-range weapons that utilized anti-materiel rounds. Had it not been for the existence of the monsters, it would’ve been impossible to imagine what they might have been used for.

There were a lot of uncertainties surrounding the use of these incredible pieces of equipment, but, well, it was probably better than relying on that knife. If only I had this from the start. . . things may have turned out differently.

Minato pulled out one of the weapons along with extra magazines, which he stored away in his bag.

He inexplicably turned his head and found himself crossing glances with Natsuka. As he did, she smiled, as if trying to keep up appearances. She was clearly pushing herself to do so.

That’s why Minato did the same and showed her a smile as well. He rested the gun flashily on his shoulder and asked, “What do you think?”

“Yeah, you look cool. Coolest in the world.”

“Don’t exaggerate.”

It was such a painful exchange.

He never thought he would have to have such a careful conversation with his childhood friend.

He wanted to cry but refused to allow it. I can’t cry just yet. At the very least, Minato couldn’t allow himself to show the others any more weakness than this.

After all, the girl he should have been comforting the most was keeping her silence.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

There were still no signs of any nearby monsters.

The group decided to keep an eye on the situation for a little while in the storeroom.

“Sir. . . Sir.”

The way Meifa approached him silently like that every now and then did a number on his heart. She was already next to him by the time he noticed her approach, and her tranquil eyes gazed up steadily at him.

“What’s wrong?” Minato asked, but Meifa remained silent for a moment.

She continued to stay silent—and then continued some more. Finally, she muttered out of the blue, “Bathroom.”

“. . . Oh?”

“Bathroom, I said. Restroom. Toilet. WC. Urine. Pee.”

“Okay, okay, stop. Cease and desist. I hear you.”

There was nothing surprising about it.

They were human, after all. The call of nature didn’t care about their situation.

He wanted to ask why she didn’t take care of her business sneakily when they were still in the ocean but decided to keep quiet about it. The fact remained that it wasn’t her fault it happened now. Since they would need to separate for a moment to take care of it, it was important that she tell her allies.

That’s why Minato had absolutely no reason to waver.

“Come with me.”

Surely this was reason to waver.

“Me?”

Meifa nodded firmly. “Bathroom equals me defenseless. Scary. Also embarrassing. But necessary.”

Then wouldn’t it make you feel better if Natsuka went, someone of the same gender?

Even though Minato harbored these doubts, the fact that Meifa had asked him like this was a clear indication that she had put a lot of thought into it. Yeah, but still. . .

The top and bottom halves of her diving suit were connected, so in order to take it off, she’d need to start with the top. In essence, she would be basically naked. Of course, he didn’t have even the smallest inclination to watch it, but it would still take a good bit of mental preparation before he would be able to bring himself to do it.

“Hurry. Can’t hold it in.”

In the end, she basically dragged him off.

 

It should go without saying there were no bathrooms installed in the storeroom. That said, going out into the hallway was out of the question. It was far too dangerous to split off from the rest of the group.

“Here.”

With that in mind, she eventually decided on a spot behind one of the cabinets that had been stocked with emergency rations. Here they would be able to react immediately if something happened over where Natsuka and Michel were.

So. . . I’m just going to go ahead and face the other direction then.

Before he could open his mouth, however, Meifa started to speak. “Why. . . You said nothing. . .”

It was a soft voice—a voice that housed an unusual amount of emotion for Meifa.

“I said nothing? About what?”

Minato scrunched his eyebrows, and Meifa turned around to look directly at him. Her expression was incredibly tense, and she was trembling.

Her eyes were, her lips were—all of it was shaking as if on the verge of tears.

It all came out at once—

—“I let Chloe die. It was me.”

“. . .”

It was true. When Chloe met her end, it was this girl who had been closest to her right before.

“It was my fault—why haven’t you told them that? Had I been thinking straight. . . Had I only grabbed her hand, she would probably still be alive now. We could’ve gone home together. She might’ve had a smile on her face when we all escaped—and yet, only I. . . I was—”

“That’s not true.”

“—I was the one who lived.”

Large beady tears streamed down her cheeks. They ran down her face and fell in droplets on the floor.

“She was such a sweet girl. When we returned to the Academy, we would’ve definitely become friends. But. . . But I was too scared and ran off. . . I let her die. . . I’ll never be able to fix my mistake—”

“Meifa.”

I can’t watch this.

As the girl emptied her heart for the first time, Minato suddenly grabbed her shoulders—strongly enough to inflict pain.

Meifa’s face contorted slightly. “—That hurts.”

“Can you hear me. Will you listen to me now?”

He gazed intently at her tear-stained face, and with a hoarse voice, she nodded and said, “Yeah. . .”

“Listen, you—” Minato said to her.

He said it as if saying it to himself.

“It’s alright for you to grieve. It’s alright for you to blame yourself. But you cannot allow yourself to give into the despair. You still have things you must protect. You have to get a hold of yourself.”

Both Minato and Meifa did.

They would probably suffer for the rest of their lifetimes under Chloe’s looming shadow.

He had heard the anguished cries of her demise. He had seen her face as it was swallowed up by its bottomless despair. These would never escape his memory.

And yet, if he were to shut his eyes and cover his ears, forgetting to fight altogether, that moment would spell their ends. He would no longer be human—just a simple ball of flesh.

It was an ugly sight.

Even after leaving Chloe to that fate of hers, Minato couldn’t help but want to keep on living. In order to stay alive, he needed Meifa’s power. That’s why he couldn’t let her lose heart like this.

The both of them were at a loss for words. While enveloped by the oppressive silence, Minato could’ve sworn he heard the rhythmic beating of Meifa’s heart.

When he came to, it suddenly dawned on him how closely their bodies were pressed together. It seemed it was Meifa who had brought their bodies close, and after a moment, he could feel the weight and warmth of her body on his.

For a moment, Minato’s mind was thrown into disarray. He could feel her breasts through her suit.

“Um. . . Meifa?”

“Want to feel your warmth.” Her request was simple and brief—a short sentence that seemed like the Meifa he once knew. “Just a little. One minute. Mostly a minute. Then we go back. . . Even if it’s a lie, we go back.”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you. . . sir. Cooled off.”

I should be the one thanking you.

It was because Meifa’s grief mirrored Minato’s own feelings so closely that he was able to finally calm himself down. His sadness hadn’t been healed, but he had things more important to do than crying.

He had to stay strong until they were all able to return home safely.

“We’re going to set off once we rest up a little. And one more thing, Meifa—”

There was a certain something that Minato had wanted to ask Meifa—something that had been nagging at his mind.

“You don’t need to do your business?”

“Sexual harassment.”

“I’m well aware.”

He knew it was just an excuse of hers, but it was important, so he had to make sure. Once they left the storeroom, of course, there was no telling when they would be able to stop next.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

She was carefree.

“Hey, hey. Sir?” Michel seemed so carefree when she mentioned her discovery. “Isn’t this, like, some kind of sketching?”

She had found something with value that dwarfed even that of the greatest discoveries of the century. Although he assumed she had been simply resting silently by herself, here she was with a thick binder open on her lap. She removed one of the papers from it and held it above her head.

Minato was shocked at how sudden it was. “Where’d that come from?”

“Kinda just picked it up?”

She says like it doesn’t concern her. . .

“It was on the ground back in the room with all the computers in it. It’s just like me isn’t it? I was all thinking how it might come in handy.”

“You really don’t disappoint, do you?”

Even Minato was so entirely focused on the fight with the monsters that it never occurred to him to search for information on the facility that might become useful. From the bottom of his heart, he was truly grateful for this foresight on her part. They’d be able to toss aside any information that didn’t serve any purpose, so gathering anything they could find for the time being could only prove advantageous.

And, to top it off, Michel had seemingly picked up something huge.

“Show me those files for a sec.”

“No problem.”

Minato’s abilities allowed him to read things at lightning fast speeds, and part of that was the fact that he would never forget any of the visual input he picked up on. The folder, thick as a dictionary, didn’t take much time at all for him to finish reading.

It appeared to be something like a manual that explained the various installations in the facility. According to it, there were two routes that they could use to make their escape. The first route was the drainage shaft that they had initially used to make their way into the facility.

And the second was a contact gate made for submersibles.

Pinpointing the storage room they were currently holed up in, Minato determined that these routes were in the exact opposite directions. Either one of the routes would take around 200 meters to traverse.

“I’m worried.”

As for the former option, it was a path that they had taken before, so they knew what to expect and could plan accordingly. At the same time, they were fully aware how dangerous that route was. There was a high chance that blotched monster was still lingering in the area. He wanted to avoid running into it as much as humanly possible.

On the other hand, if they chose the latter submersible gate option, they would be venturing into completely unknown territory. It might be far safer than the drainage passage, and it might be far more dangerous. It would be an entirely unknown road ahead of them.

Minato eventually came to a decision, but first he wanted to hear what the rest of the group thought.

“I’m thinking. . . maybe we should keep going forward,” said Michel.

“Me too,” said Meifa.

Hearing the trainees almost unanimously choose the submersible gate, Minato secretly found himself comforted by their decision, as he had come to the same one himself.

—returning via the path they came. Essentially, it would mean coming face-to-face with their friend and her wholly changed appearance.

Of course there was a part of Minato that wished he could bring back the remains of his departed ally, but that would above all cause emotional turmoil in the girls, like Natsuka and Meifa. That was why Minato felt incredible relief at hearing them choose the submersible gate.

—a relief that took form by avoiding the ugly truth.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

At that moment, Meifa witnessed an incredibly awful sight.

Minato Yamajo, an instructor, had his hand pressed tightly on the bountiful breasts of Natsuka Hoshino, a trainee.

She had known the two were friends as children and were close even now, but watching the male desire take form like this came as a strange shock. And yet, having heard before that life-threatening situations could actually heighten one’s lust, could she really say it came as a surprise? Meifa was all too aware that Natsuka possessed breasts as superb as they were large, being her roommate after all. Even those of the same sex were attracted to them; men wouldn’t stand a chance. Situation understood. But still, what a shock!

—thought Meifa for the briefest moment until Mr. Yamajo sent Natsuka Hoshino flying backwards immediately in the next. Was it not sexual harassment, but rather simple violence?

No, he had saved her.

Immediately after he did so, something twisted around Mr. Yamajo’s arm. Slithering, it was long and thick—to Meifa, it looked like some kind of large snake. Upon closer inspection, however, there were countless suction cups along its surface.

A squid or octopus tentacle—that’s probably what it was. It was obviously a new kind of monster, and the appendage itself displayed monstrous force.

“Shi—”

Panicked, Meifa expanded her Territory and constructed the Green Dragon Crescent Blade, but by that time it was already too late.

Although it wasn’t incredibly large, it was able to pick up a man like Mr. Yamajo with carefree ease.

—quickly, violently.

“Minato—!”

As Natsuka Hoshino desperately screamed his name, he was dragged away to the ceiling at speeds faster than the eye could follow. It was horrifying—enough to think that he had already long-since died in the ascent.

—Then came the immediate sound of a gunshot.

He held in his hands the rifle that they had found only moments before in the storeroom.

The sounds that left the barrel were far more thunderous than anything Meifa could have imagined. The sharp bang was enough to force her hands to her ears. She heard three shots total in short succession.

It appeared that was enough to sever the tentacle.

Meifa quickly spotted Mr. Yamajo as he was launched into the air and ran as fast as she could to where he was about to fall, managing to help him land safely.

“OK, sir?”

“You really saved me there!”

As soon as his feet touched the floor, he immediately fired another shot. Two tentacles were in close pursuit behind him.

After coming this far along in the fight, Meifa finally started to realize what was going on.

The monster, some strange squid tentacle-possessing abomination, managed to sneak into the room via the air ducts high up. They were there as to circulate air throughout the entire structure. There were four of them in the storeroom, and from two of those were protruding a single white tendril each.

Against them, Mr. Yamajo’s shots were extremely precise. At the very least, every single bullet that he fired after landing on the ground successfully reached their intended target. Meifa herself had learned about it only yesterday—his observational abilities and calculations were as accurate as a machine’s. He was likely using those abilities now as well.

The rifle possessed tremendous firepower, and the tentacle was nearly ripped apart after only one or two shots. It withdrew as soon as it was injured however, and in its place appeared a fresh one to replace it.

“We’re leaving! Open the door!”

The one who moved first upon hearing their instructor’s orders was the somewhat dainty Michel.

“This might be impossible for only me!”

It was clearly impossible. Her grip was powerless up against the iron door. Natsuka, and then Meifa, ran over to lend her a hand. The heavy door started to slowly slide, inch by inch, and finally it was opened wide enough to somehow allow a single person through at a time. When that happened, Minato, still embroiled in his fight against the tentacles, also started to retreat towards the door.

“You listening? When you get out into the hall, turn left—”

“Ahh?!”

The girl next to Meifa suddenly disappeared from her vision.

“Natsuka!”

She had been pulled to the floor. Around her ankle was coiled another one of the same tentacles. Compared to the others, it was much more stealthy, seemingly thin enough to even fit through a small drainage pipe. It extended along the floor from some area further into the storeroom.

Minato also seemed to notice something was happened behind him, but the constant assault by the tendrils from the ceiling prevented him from taking action.

Meifa started to move, weapon in hand, but she was too slow, and Natsuka’s body began to lift from the ground, pulled almost instantaneously in the air to a spot in the storeroom that no one would be able to reach.

As she dangled like that, however, she managed to shout:

“—Run away, everyone!”

Forget about me, she was essentially telling them. Like hell they could. Meifa was unable to bear the weight of yet another victim, let alone a victim like Natsuka, her roommate and precious friend. She would save her, even if it cost her life, Meifa thought.

In a fit of panic, Minato held up the gun and fired a shot, but the bullet alone wasn’t enough to completely sever the tentacle, and Natsuka remained in its grasp. Even worse, he apparently ran out of bullets as the magazine fell to the floor with a thud, and Minato began to scream obscenities.

“YOU FUCKER!”

It would last a mere moment. They absolutely needed to save their friend as she was pulled to the ceiling.

“Michel, can you—”

“Okay! Leave it to me!”

The thought had barely started to leave Meifa’s mouth before the response came, which was why even she was surprised.

This is a girl who knows her way around people, was the thought on her mind.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

It happened at around the same time as the magazine fell from Minato’s rifle.

A Territory of light purple, the color of an iris flower, immediately began to expand through the room. It signaled the activated powers of a certain trainee, one by the name of Michel Oliver. Possessing a Territory in the Limit Operator class, her expanded ability was known as “surface gliding,” and it allowed her to move three dimensionally along any surface with enough room for her feet to take hold, be they walls or even the ceiling.

In a couple of words, you could call it wall climbing.

Thus, it was in this room enclosed on all sides by six surfaces that her abilities could truly shine.

As for why she activated her powers, there wasn’t any real question. At the present moment, the only one who would be able to reach Natsuka as she was quickly being stolen away was this girl.

“Time to go flying.” As soon as the statement left her mouth, she sped forward.

She did so as if with the vigor of a flying bird. She started to slide as if there was a skating rink beneath her feet, and when she came up against the edge of the storeroom, she quickly began to ascend up its walls. Though she looked like a doll, her powers were that of a ninja’s—and she was also one of the ones chosen specifically by the Academy to participate in the expedition alongside Meifa and Chloe. Out of all of those who possessed movement Territories in the Academy, she was one of the most eminent.

That was right when Minato finished attaching a fresh magazine to the gun.

After a brief moment, she had finally reached the same level as Natsuka Hoshino. “Now, Meimei! Like, go!”

“Who exactly?”

She did all of this in order to bring Meifa Lee to this point, who happened to be attached to her hip.

—in order to not simply watch as her ally died in front of her.

After reloading the gun, Minato aimed the rifle, and it was at that moment that he finally laid eyes on the results of the girls’ teamwork.

Meifa, carried up by Michel, launched herself off the wall and took flight. This Chinese girl, her body itself honed to physical excellence, flew into the air, and her violet Territory emanated a fierce light immediately after, the Green Dragon Crescent Blade constructing itself in her palm.

And then this cool girl let forth a fiery, high-pitched scream throughout the storeroom.

“GYAAAAAAAH!”

It was severed apart.

The tentacle was sliced cleanly in half, and the constricting force binding Natsuka’s body disappeared, allowing her body to fall freely to the ground. Minato lowered the rifle and caught the girl in his arms.

It was a flawless display of coordination—they had managed to save Natsuka. From the depths of his heart, Minato was in utter awe of these girls.

And as a result, Minato and the others were able to escape the storeroom without leaving a single person behind.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

According to the files documenting the facility, the section Minato and the others were currently walking through was called the administration center, and at the heart of it was a giant area called the Central Management Room, likely the place where they managed all the systems in the facility. There was a small documentation storage facility squeezed in the middle, but the contact gate used to allow entry and exit to the submersibles was placed right before the Central Management Room.

Firstly, they headed to the Gate Control Room used to open and close the gate. At most, it was 5 meters across in all directions. On one of the walls was a large glass window that allowed for vision into the pool that housed the submersible. Directly below the observation window was a digital operation panel that ran on some kind of operating system.

At the mere sight of it, Meifa pressed a hand to her forehead as if suffering from some kind of severe dizziness. “What kind. . . of contraption. . . Sickening.”

It seemed “sickening” meant something along of lines of “has so many buttons” in Meifanese.

It wasn’t nearly as hard to use as she made it sound. Most of the controls were binary, so compared to operating a helicopter, for example, the system was far easier to manage. It seemed to be capable of program manipulation as well, so he would probably be able to program it as to activate the gate at a predesignated time.

Minato exhaled a sigh of relief. In reality, the thought occurred to him that if one of them hadn’t made it as far as this point (namely Minato), all hope would’ve been lost. Thankfully, it seemed all of them would be able to escape.

“Now for when we get out. . .”

With a short pause in his typing, Minato decided to explain the escape process to the trainees.

“It’s essentially the same as when we used the waterways to penetrate the facility. The two gates will open one after the other with a time lag between them, starting from the one on our side. I set it to activate 10 minutes af—”

The lighting suddenly disappeared, and Minato went silent as a result. It wasn’t just the lights. At that very moment, the operating terminal’s screen also went black.

They were enveloped wholly in the darkness.

The power returned to the instruments shortly after, however. It seemed the facilities had switched to the backup power reserve, and the computer was in the process of rebooting.

“I-I was so surprised!”

“That couldn’t have happened at a worse time. . .”

It’s possible some of the power generators had failed because there was no one left here to maintain them. Thanks to that, he had lost all of the gate-operation settings that he was in the process of programming into the console. He’d have to start over from square one. If only that was all he needed to do, too. . .

“—This is seriously the worst,” he ended up muttering as he read the message that popped up on screen, his voice laced with irritation.

—Please enter your password—

All it took was a single shut-down to sign him out of the computer, apparently. There was no way Minato knew the password, of course.

As he spoke, Michel, who had been silent up until this point, then walked up next to him and gazed at the monitor. It seemed she knew quite a bit about computers. “What if we try overwriting it in Safe Mode?”

“I just tried it, but it’s not working. The OS is completely different than what’s on the market.”

“But, like, there’s no way it was all made from scratch. I mean, it should be possible to remotely operate it, whether it’s Macintosh or Linux. I’m sure I can make do in my own special way as long as the host computer still works.”

“You’re pretty amazing. I guess that means we’ll have to go next door at some point. . .”

The Central Management Room. It there was any hope left to them, it was waiting there.

It was nothing more than a guess of Minato’s, but if this place was truly a research facility, then that room was probably where the data pertaining to the research was shared. If that was true, then it likely meant that the area continued to receive power from a dedicated source, even during the blackout, in order to prevent the data from being lost.

Things were getting worse and worse, but there was no point in lamenting about it.

Minato and the others made their way to the heart of the facility.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

The Administrative Center, the Central Management Room.

The entire area was constructed with progressively ascending layers, like some kind of hina doll display, and the sight brought to mind a giant concert hall. The group stood at the highest level. Looking down at the room from where he was, Minato saw a dizzying number of computers that even he didn’t feel like counting despite his calculation-focused abilities.

Yet what stood out the most—

“How terrible. . .”

—was the human carnage present here as well. The bodies were scattered about the room in bloodied piles.

Scraps of flesh and bloodstains—they were enough to show just how many had met their demise here.

He looked towards the bottommost level of the room. Tiny monitors were assembled together like a honeycomb. On their screens were images of emptied culture tubes. Images of blood-soaked operation tables. Images of rooms and monsters confined within them. . . The monitors were apparently used to observe these.

And right next to it was a huge computer as tall as a person. I’m guessing that’s the main server. I’m glad it was easy to find. Finding what they had come to this room for, Minato walked down the gradual steps with the trainees in tow.

Michel came up next to him and placed her hands on the keyboard. “See, what did I tell you? It’s, like, based on an old version of Linux. It’ll be a piece of cake for someone like Michel!”

“Can you take care of it then?”

“No problem. It’ll go at the speed of sound.”

Her recovering the gate system would be a huge help. Minato would be able to conduct some business of his own thanks to it.

As he started to move, Natsuka muttered hesitantly, “Minato? Where are you going?”

“To see if I can find out what’s really going on here.”

Spotting a laptop already open nearby, he began to collect information. In no time, he chanced upon something intriguing.

“This is weird. . .” he muttered without realizing it, to which Natsuka responded from behind him.

“What is?”

“It looks like the security on the server has already been bypassed.”

“Huh. . . ? That’s a little hard to understand.”

“I mean that, even though the information is so confidential, anyone can see it at any time.”

“Uh, like it’s out in the open?”

Exactly.

When he tried to open a shared folder, he was prompted at first for a password, yet without doing anything, the message was automatically erased. It was like the system had been infected with a virus. If that was the case, then it meant this was perpetrated by someone who was working against the facility. It would make sense if the server was destroyed in order to make off with the research.

Thanks to this, even Minato was immediately able to examine the essential truth. With a single glance at a photo that popped up on-screen, he heard Natsuka gulp behind him.

“This is. . .”

—an Under.

It seemed this was the true name of those creatures.

Under Control of the Solaris—creatures dominated by the living mineral.

There were unwieldy volumes of text that could rival the content found in academic publications in its sheer density, but for Minato and his ability that allowed him to breeze through entire newspapers in mere seconds, he was able to digest everything written on the monsters in an instant.

“It makes me sick. . .”

Simply reading the content alone caused him to spit out the words.

Passages documenting human experimentation and weaponization appeared all throughout the files as if they were commonplace. The entire facility was something straight out of some kind of low-budget disaster film. He couldn’t comprehend what would drive someone to try and bring that kind of thing into reality.

“. . .”

What he wanted most was information on what the monsters were weak to, but unfortunately there was nothing written about what kind of offensive measures were effective. At most, there was a single vague passage that had in it written: They will cease to function if their bodies sustain considerable damage.

It seems all they could do to defeat the monsters was to thoroughly destroy them.

“Mi-ster Ya-ma-jo.”

Hearing Michel’s voice, he looked up. As her eyes met his, she gave a single nod.

“It’s done?”

“All done. I’ve overwritten the account perfectly. Once we get back the control room, a ‘0000’ is all it’ll take. And, like, we’ll be back in business.”

“You’re a lifesaver. Thank you.”

“No problem!”

She raised her fist with a smile. Just how cheerful was this girl?

“I can’t kill the uglies with my power. I’m happy to do something like this, you know?”

The ‘uglies’ she was referring to were probably the monsters. Perhaps it was better to call them Unders now. . .

At any rate, they managed to overcome the problem thanks to this girl. All we have to do is get back to the control room as quick as possible to open the gates, he thought.

A section of the ceiling then exploded apart in grand fashion.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

It happened right in the center of the room. Massive amounts of rubble began to break and fall from the ceiling. A cloud of dust particles erupted from the ground and enveloped the entire area in a thick smock screen. Within it was a shadowy figure squirming about.

“It’s here. . .”

—he said, fed up with it all. Immediately after, he could feel Meifa expanding her Territory in the next moment.

Minato wrapped the rifle on his back to his hands and took aim at the spot in the ceiling where the destruction took place.

—even as his vision was completely obfuscated. The shadow in the smokescreen didn’t show any signs of moving.

“Tch.”

Suddenly, Minato turned 180 degrees around in a hurry and then pulled the trigger, firing two shots in quick succession. The monsters lunging at them from behind had their heads blown cleanly apart. Minato’s expression only grew tenser, however.

“—Surrounded.”

Were they here from the start? Or did they sneak into the room silently?

As if telling him the creature coming in from the ceiling was but merely bait, Minato saw behind him the monsters lunging towards them one after the other. It wasn’t only from in front of and behind them. It was also from the right and the left. There was no end to them.

They seemed to be the type that only had their forelegs.

Powerless D-rank Unders. To the laboratory that produced them, their inability to expand their Territories made them worthless pieces of junk, but in numbers like these, they posed a tremendous threat.

At the very least, the blotched one was nowhere to be seen.

As soon as he dispatched one of the monsters with a bullet to the head, the rest sprang into motion. Letting loose an otherworldly scream, they threw themselves in droves towards Minato and the trainees, trampling over all the machines and equipment in their paths. There were only two rounds left in the gun’s magazine. Minato deeply regretted not reloading when he had the chance.

A violet Territory started to shine off in the corner of his vision.

Then came a single sigh, one as if to strengthen her will—

“Meifa is full of courage.”

As soon as she whispered it, her delicate little body thrust itself into the fray. With the Green Dragon Crescent Blade spinning around the length of her body, she cleaved through the monsters as they closed in on her. She immediately corrected her stance in the following moment, and using the creature as a shield, she drove her blade into the fangs of one of the oncoming monsters, then slicing through the throat of yet another one, following all the way through until its head fell from its neck.

And then—

“Hurry!” Meifa shouted. “While you still have the chance!”

There was no room for hesitation. Training his gun sights towards the door, he shouted a command towards Natsuka and Meifa:

“We’re leaving!”

“But Meifa—!”

“You think I’m going to just abandon her?! But we can’t let this opportunity she gave us go to waste!”

Grabbing Natsuka’s hand, he started to run, forcing her along when necessary. Michel followed closely behind them.

They made a mad dash for the room’s exit.

The majority of the monsters mobbed around Meifa as she expanded her Territory, but there were still two of them that blocked Minato’s escape route. After gaining the attention of one of them, Minato fired a bullet from his gun that passed through its skull. Yet, even as the top half of its cranium was blown away, it still continued to move. A second shot completely demolished the rest of it, and cursing the fact that he didn’t have enough time to eject the empty magazine, he pulled the knife from his belt to meet the incoming Under.

It was at that moment when Natsuka activated her Territory. Although it was clumsily done, the pink particles formed a protective wall and slowed down the Under’s movements. This gave Minato enough time to load another magazine, and he fired hot lead into the attacker.

Without even enough time to feel relieved, a new threat started to approach them from behind.

“T-The card key!”

“Here!”

Minato pulled the card key from his pouch and handed it to Natsuka, then returning to his trustworthy rifle. Without a moment’s delay, he sent a bullet through the pursuer.

Behind him, he heard the door open, and then—

“Natsukaaa!”

A scream.

In front of him as he spun around was a monster in front of Natsuka, standing just beyond the door she opened.

Just how stupid—Minato thought.

Just how stupid am I?

How could I have had Natsuka be the one to open the door?

In my panic, I’d completely neglected to make sure the path forward was safe from danger.

I would be slow to save her, no matter how much I regretted it. I wouldn’t make it in time.

The Under, with its vicious maw sloppily agape, lunged at Natsuka’s body.

At that very moment, however, Michel came in from the side and shoved her out of the way.

“Michel!!”

The fangs were buried deeply in her arms. The part of her from her elbow all the way up to the nape of her neck was gored by the razor-sharp blades.

Fresh blood spewed out. The girl’s mangled wrist rolled along the floor.

By the time Minato had killed the monster with a shot from his rifle, Michel had already crumbled powerlessly to the floor, the flesh in her body all the way through to her lungs stolen from her, only stopped mid-fall by Natsuka who cradled her in her arms.

Her voice was a trembling, hysteric scream.

“Michel, why. . . ! Why. . . this. . . !”

“Ah—” The girl smiled through to the very end. “I-I goofed. . . L-Looks like. . . I messed u-up. . .”

Minato lowered his rifle after using it to blow away the Under and took Michel into his arms.

“Don’t talk!”

“Don’t give up, I promise we’ll save you!”

Inside his head, however, his thoughts emotionlessly understood the truth. There would be no saving her from these wounds.

And yet, even then, Minato couldn’t leave the girl behind so long as she still had breath on her lips, and he carried her with him down the hallway. Blood warmed by her body continued to pour ceaselessly from her. His entire face writhed with the pain of his own self-loathing. His eyes and his mouth and his nose and his ears were all consumed by the pain, and his breaths grew haggard. Why didn’t he only make sure the path was safe beforehand? It would’ve been so simple! If only he had thought even a little more calmly about it, he would’ve been able to save her. He wanted to take it all back, no matter how many apologies it would take, no matter how much money it would cost, no matter how much punishment he would need to take upon himself. As the girl lay in his arms, the life gradually left her body.

He continued to press forward, forcing his legs along even as they desperately wanted to crumble under the weight of his own tears, and as he carried the girl who had lost her right shoulder, he and Natsuka made their way to the control room.

 

They entered the control room, and after making sure every nook and cranny of the room was free of danger, Minato lowered Michel.

As much as it pained him, he didn’t have any time to watch over the girl. “Natsuka. . . Stay by Michel’s side.”

Without waiting for an answer, he rushed back to the Central Management Room where they had left Meifa.

Was she still alive, even after taking on so many Unders by herself? Hope and anxiety, both emotions took root in his mind.

There was one thing, however, that he could say with certainty.

—Back then, when he peered into Meifa’s eyes, there wasn’t even the smallest trace that she had given up.

He arrived at the Central Management Room, and then he opened the fated door. It was at that moment—

“—YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Minato let loose a yell that seemed to tear his lungs asunder, and with his rifle he sent one of the Unders 30 meters in front of him flying.

In these last 30 seconds, Meifa had stayed alive.

She was still full of energy, though in saying that, she was far from safe. The second she seemed to be dangerously surrounded, she leapt back into the air using the desk as a foothold. She had managed to escape the danger, but even then, every aspect of her body continued to work with perfect form.

Minato, as he abruptly recovered his vitality, examined the state of the room in an instant.

There were seven Unders. Visibility was favorable. His surroundings were clear. His current position suitable to aim from. The maximum distance between the him and the targets was slightly under 40 meters. There was no need for a scope.

In no time, he fired bullets through the skulls of two of them.

Up until now, he had no time to think of anything remotely positive, but this rifle really did the trick. Even though it possessed enough firepower to down a helicopter, the recoil was shockingly suppressed. Why couldn’t they have abandoned their stupid “living weapon” idea and instead focused on something like this? —devoted themselves to this?

After that, he demolished the third and then the fourth Under one after the other, and unsurprisingly, it was at that point that the gun’s magazine was completely spent. Once their numbers diminished, however, was when Meifa could exhibit her true potential. By the time Minato was able to finish reloading, two of the monsters had already been cut down.

Finally, with his sights on the final target in front of him, he let loose a final bullet that tore the monster to oblivion.

“—All taken care of.”

Although the words came to his lips, he couldn’t bring himself to lower the gun as he descended the hina doll platform steps to reconvene with Meifa. Meifa, too, ascended the steps, still wary of her flanks.

Once they reached each other, they both turned their backs up against one another as to protect themselves and exchanged words.

“Back in one piece. Very surprising. Feel kind of untouchable.”

“Sorry for forcing so much on you. Thanks to you. . .”

—Natsuka was able to get away without injury.

But in her place. Michel had fallen.

It all happened as a result of Minato’s negligence. He was eternally grateful to Meifa’s courage.

“What happened to Michel. . . Unfortunate. . .”

It seemed she had also seen what happened.

“I curse this fate. Ever since this morning, only nightmares. It’s scary. It’s painful. It’s sad. That’s why I know. You being here saved me. I’m glad you’re here.”

“Meifa. . .”

“You may blame yourself every time something happens. But, because you were here, I lived. So don’t look so sad. . .”

“. . . Thanks.”

There was no time to be looking down. That was what Minato himself had told Meifa.

The sun would never rise at the bottom of this deep ocean. The nightmare would never end.

That’s why they absolutely needed to escape.

—in order to reclaim the sun as humans.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

Michel Oliver passed away as if in deep slumber.

“It’s so frustrating. . .”

Natsuka held the lifeless body of the younger girl preciously to her own; her face was stained with the dried trails of her tears.

She whispered in a raspy voice as Minato and Meifa returned, “Both Michel and Chloe. . . There was so much more I wanted to talk with them about. . . I wanted to see them tomorrow too. . . but they’re both dead. It’s so painful. So painful. . .”

The deaths of her friends had taken a toll on her.

Although it was completely understandable, Natsuka’s emotions were starting to crumble apart. The shape of her Territory was wavering severely, as if its contours were undulating like strong waves. It seemed like it would fall apart at any moment.

Meifa brought her body close to hers, holding her tight. “I feel the same way. But forget for now. We must live.”

Minato too was unable to forgive the culprits behind this facility. He wanted to do something. He wanted to inflict upon them suffering that dwarfed what Chloe and the others had gone through.

But, for now, all they could do was try to stay alive.

He activated the gate-control system that Michel had overwritten and inputted the password. This time there was no blackout, and he was able to successfully configure the settings.

“The gate will open in ten minutes. Let’s get down there.”

Paying special care to his childhood friend and her haggard expression, Minato stood at the front of the group and made his way down the stairs.

There were four submersibles. They seemed to be split into those meant for construction and those meant for patrolling. One of them was currently hanging from a crane, but the other three were already floating in the water. Next to one of the open hatches was a corpse, but Minato felt no need to point it out by this point.

The three survivors silently approached the edge of the pool. Beyond it was an arched water gate that was currently closed shut. In ten minutes, that gate would open, and once the water pressure stabilized, the next gate would open, leading them to the outside world.

“Hey, sir, Natsuka.” Meifa was the one who spoke first with their escape on the horizon. Just as he wondered what she was about to say— “Starving.”

It was approaching noon, now that she mentioned it. They did run into some preserved food back in the storeroom, but Minato didn’t touch any of it. The other two were probably the same.

She continued on that peaceful subject. “On the artificial island, next to the beach at the airport’s south exit. There’s a shop called Bayside Wagon.”

“Oh yeah, I know that one.” Minato went along with it. “I’ve been there a lot. The seafood curry is amazing.”

“Personally, the chili shrimp is unmatched.”

“Chili shrimp? I didn’t think they did Chinese food there.”

“They will if you ask. Big secret menu.”

“To think I could lose in a war of information. . .”

“I’m a regular. Face gets me a discount. Go with me for special price. You know, go with me for special price.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll treat you next time we go there.”

“Such kindness. On that note, what will Natsuka have to eat?”

Meifa was probably doing this in order to lift her friend’s spirits.

And Natsuka was aware of this as well.

That’s why, when Meifa asked her question, she pushed herself to create a smile on her face and tried her best to start thinking about what to eat tomorrow. “What do I want to eat. . . ?

Both of them were trying to take care of the other.

—in order to not give in to the despair, so that they may live on.

“I want—”

And as if mocking them for it—

—it showed itself in front of them.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

The ripples that formed in the pool grew larger over time and then eventually started to foam white. When the thing’s massive body finally broke through the surface of the water, it caused one of the submersibles to capsize.

Is it possible that the facility had connecting sewage tunnels running beneath the floor?

This was Minato’s second time laying witness to the creature.

The first time was back when it attacked them inside the storeroom. At the time, all he could see were its tentacles; however, he was able to find comprehensive data on it inside the computer in the Central Management Room.

An A-rank Under. Perception Specialist organism No. 02.

The size of its massive body rivaled that of a whale’s and it could freely extend any of its countless, wriggling tentacles.

Those at the research facility called it Giant Squid.

The upper half of its body, however, resembled a woman’s torso, and other than the fleshy tentacles it possessed, from it sprouted two arms with fingers at the end. And, as its body rose from the overflowing water basin, it stared at Minato and the others with vacant, emotionless eyes.

Why couldn’t it have waited only 10 more minutes?

Now, even if the gate opened, it didn’t necessarily mean they’d be able to quickly get outside. Between when the first and second gates opened, it would take time for the water to rush into the middle section and allow for the water pressure to equalize. If that monster got in there as well, it would be over for them.

Even if they wanted to turn back and run away, the creature was poised to take to the surface and cut off their escape from the control room.

They would have to dispose of it eventually.

“. . . Seriously, learn better timing.”

Meida crouched low like a feral cat might up against a dog and quickly put her powers on full display. She twirled the violet-colored Green Dragon Crescent Blade.

“A big one. But, if the head goes, so does it.”

“Stop, Meifa!”

Minato guessed that the girl was about to pounce forward, and in a moment of panic, he quickly yelled out to stop her.

“S-Sir?”

“Each of its tentacles can perceive sight and sound. It essentially has no blind spots. If you make any sort of mistake when attacking, it will counterattack without fail.”

On each of the squid’s appendages were what looked to be suction cups but were in fact fine-tuned sensors, so as a result, it could see in a 360 degree radius around itself. Even if you were to approach it without it realizing, it would still be able to capture you without question.

It was an enemy far too dangerous to take on without a plan.

“Still, going for the head is the best idea. In order to do that, however, we have no other option but to assign ourselves roles and be wary of its tentacles. At any rate, don’t go jumping in.”

“U-Understood. But. . .”

For some reason, Meifa looked white in the eyes.”

“It’s, uh. . . hand. . .”

“Hand?”

As soon as she mentioned it, he realized he was gripping her you-know-where. It was a truly regrettable moment. He had been so proud of the fact that he never initiated contact despite his reputation as a first-rate sexual harasser.

Stay calm, stay calm.

“My bad.”

“. . . It’s fine.”

They didn’t have any more time to waste on something like this, however.

Once the Giant Squid Under laid its eyes on the humans it considered prey, multiple tentacles launched out from the pool at around the same time.

Of them, six came flying at the three.

“Natsuka, make a wall with your Territory!”

“—Yeah.”

Before he could give her any more instructions, she expanded her pink Territory and produced a thick meaty wall in front of them.

It wasn’t his imagination after all. Her Territory seemed much denser than even before. Perhaps using her powers in real combat situations was spurring her growth. If anything, it was a fortuitous miscalculation on his part.

The sharply-aware tentacles picked up on Natsuka’s wall and their movement slowed. In the next moment, Minato used his rifle to fire a shot at them, near the base. He only had two magazines remaining. Including what he still had left in the gun currently, that put him at only 32 shots remaining.

In comparison, the Under possessed 18 tentacles, more than squids normally had in the wild. It would take around two to three shots to sever each tentacle, so it would be difficult to take care of each one before running out of bullets completely.

To make matters worse, according to the research lab’s data, it had the ability to regenerate those tentacles. In other words, taking time and exhausting his supply of ammunition would only put them further at a disadvantage.

There was no choice but to secure victory as soon as possible. Minato aimed the rifle at its head and fired two bullets into its human-like visage.

“..It’s not enough.”

It seemed the head was far thicker than the tentacles after all as there were no signs that the bullets had inflicted deep damage. In that case, all he could do was gamble everything on the final option left to him.

As he fended off the incoming tentacles, he explained his plan out loud. “Meifa, can you aim for the head on my signal?”

“Was the plan from the start. Ready to go. Perfect.”

“Okay. Natsuka and I will stop the surrounding tentacles. We will absolutely not let them get close to you. We’ll leave the juicy bit to you.”

“Meifa,” Natsuka stared, her face as if in prayer, “if things look dangerous, it’s okay to run away. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, if you’re okay, that’s all that matters to me.”

“No problem. I will win.”

Meifa Lee broke into a smile.

For Minato at the very least, it was the very first time he had ever seen her with an expression that matched a girl her age.

“There’s no way I can lose. I have you two, after all. With you here, I become invincible. There’s no way I can lose. Absolutely none.”

It was a beaming smile that refused to acknowledge even a hint of inauthenticity.

Her eyes dispelled even the faintest traces of the fear that resided within Minato.

—all for the sake of their final battle.

 

The time arrived.

“I’m going to count down from three.”

“Okay.”

“Three, two, one—”

Minato held up his gun to the closest tentacle to him.

“—GO!”

Simultaneously, he tore through one of the tentacles with a well-placed shot from the rifle.

Meifa also jumped up from the floor. Immediately, she put her genius on display for everyone to see. The second she leapt up, her supple muscles launched herself forward, taking her fearlessly to the part of the Under that possessed the head.

With its almost twenty tentacles, however, the Under was essentially an impenetrable fortress. There was no way she could make it past all of them.

Minato readied his rifle and pressed forward, giving Natsuka instructions as she prepared to give rear support as well. “Natsuka, make a wall on Meifa’s left!”

“Got it!”

“I’ll take care of the rest!”

It would be impossible for him to shoot all of the tentacles down at the same time, but by utilizing her powers, Natsuka would be able to limit the movement of several of them. It’s not ideal, but I’ll make do somehow. There’s no way in hell I’ll let you die, he thought. Overloading his each and every nerve, he blew apart tentacle after tentacle as they chased Meifa.

MAI was also running at its fullest capacity.

《MAI - judgement》※firing suppression shots at targets H, M, B in succession ※securing advance route for friendly ※advise retreat ※situation favorable

And with that, a single route undeniably opened up.

A route that would end their nightmare.

Unwavering trust in her allies behind her, Meifa never for a moment slowed her pace, and when she finally caught up to the colossal monster, she propelled herself forward using the tall submersible crane as foothold. She was high up—the sight was like the giant-slaying immortalized in fairytales. Meifa’s Territory—the Green Dragon Crescent Blade—and the violet light it emitted drew a magnificent arc in the air.

—and yet. . .

At that very moment same a single malignant appendage.

It was not a tentacle.

It was one of its massive arms that retained their human appearance.

“Tsk.”

A chill traveled down Minato’s spine. Just before, it had used its arm to block the bullet from Minato’s rifle in an attempt to protect the tentacle.

—as if it possessed the intelligence to do so. Because of the action, even if only for a moment, the support was delayed.

A terrible image ran through Minato’s mind.

As Meifa was in that moment, suspended midair, she had no options available to her. The single remaining tentacle started to take action and extended towards the girl like an arrow in flight.

What was going to reach what first? No, it seemed that before the girl’s blade would be able to reach the monster’s neck, the tentacle would just barely be able to piece her body.

And yet, even then. . .

“DIE!!!”

Even the surprise attack was thwarted. Meifa’s movements exceeded what Minato thought possible.

With the tentacle to her back, she managed to twist her body around and thrust the Green Dragon Crescent Blade into it, bringing her body close to the approaching appendage, and then turning the enemy’s attack into a foothold in and of itself, she used that to propel herself one more, even more quickly forward.

Minato felt as if he would never be able to erase that sight from his mind—not for an eternity. It was a maneuver that seemed as if it had the gods themselves in its devising.

Was it a miracle?

No.

It was a single attack born of her vast bravery and sheer strength of will. This time for sure, the monster’s unguarded neck was left to bear the full brunt of her impending attack.

—The battle was decided.

That’s what would have happened.

Yes, that’s what would have happened if the Green Dragon Crescent Blade hadn’t disappeared immediately before impact. She would have undeniably been the victor.

What actually happened, however, was the power she was supposed to have wielded vanished, and her bare hands swung emptily at the nothingness.

It should have been the deciding strike.

But she had been forsaken by fate.

It was likely that the girl herself had no idea what happened to her body, even up until her final moments.

“. . . . . . What?”

Immediately following the small, confused whisper that left her mouth, the tentacles in their pursuit of the girl finally caught up to her in her free-fall and destroyed her. They thrashed the girl over and over and over without ever letting up. Her flesh and gore flew in all directions like a popping water balloon. Her legs spasmed and convulsed as they remained on the floor. It was like a frog that had been run over. The Under withdrew its gore-splashed tentacles back into the pool as if to wash them off. Was it the kind of creature that liked to keep itself clean? Flies, for example, tend to worry about their cleanliness a lot, contrary to popular belief, so it wasn’t necessarily out of the question. True or not, however, both that monster and flies had something else in common—they were both shit-loving pests.

Meifa Lee died.

 

“—Huh?”

Minato suddenly glanced up at a high spot on the ceiling. It was right above where the Giant Squid was. Clinging there was a single Under, a red, blotchy patten over its skin.

“Was it because of you?” he asked, his voice a whisper.

The thing remained silent, but he didn’t need to ask it in the first place of course.

The only creature that possessed the Territory Virus, an ability that robbed water manipulators of their powers, was the monster this research lab named Blotch. Had it been here from the start? Did it just manage to make its way in? He had no idea. Had it only made its appearance sooner, they could have taken it into account when planning what to do. It hid itself until only seconds prior, and then chose that moment to interfere. Really. . .

“Hahaha, this is just too much, you know?”

Minato smiled faintly to himself, and pointed his rifle up at the ceiling, pulling the trigger without a moments delay. The nimble Blotch managed to avoid the shot, but the ceiling panel it was gripping onto was blown into pieces, causing the monster to fall downwards. He adjusted the aim and fired again. And again. And again. AND AGAIN! He pulled the trigger as to not even leave the smalled trace of its corpse behind. He pulled it with every single twisted emotion concentrated in his finger. This won’t do. It died way too quickly. Get back up. I’ll fucking kill you again. I’ll erase every last part of you.

“No, wait. . .”

It suddenly dawned on him that he couldn’t waste his bullets like this. He realized he wasn’t thinking straight, and so he slowly started to come back to his senses. The reason he did so was because he had noticed Natsuka Hoshino completely break down into tears behind him.

“Meifa. . . Meifa is. . . ! M-Meifa. . .”

She repeated her friend’s name over and over as if she were broken. No, maybe she was already broken by now.

By now, Minato was starting to feel like he wanted to toss everything to the wind and just take it easy. I’m tired. If the only person remaining hadn’t been Natsuka Hoshino, he might have decided to retire from this whole thing a long time ago.

But as much as it infuriated him, he still had fighting spirit left in his blood.

The Giant Squid was still going strong. Deaf to lament of humankind, the tentacles that had slaughtered Meifa rose up once more.

Minato moved in front of his childhood friend as to shield her from the danger and then finished ejecting the spent magazine, replacing it with his final backup. It didn’t matter how he felt about it—there were only ten shots remaining. This would have to be what secured their means of escape.

MAI had been recording the passing time.

There were about five minutes left until the gate opened. If they missed that opportunity, they would have no future ahead of them. There was absolutely no way the rifle alone would be able to take down that monster.

That meant there was only one way.

He would wait for the moment the gate opened and then try to prevent it from moving. He’d have to keep something that size in place for two minutes at the very least—there wasn’t much chance of it happening to be honest, but, well, he might as well try it if he was going to end up eventually dying anyways.

The biggest problem was the tentacles poised to attack them even now. There were far too many of them to deal with using only one rifle.

Strengthening his resolve, Minato decided to retreat into the pool for the time being. To that end, he grabbed Natsuka’s body, and then—

“Go to hell.”

—hearing unfamiliar words, Minato stopped dead in his tracks.

In the following instant, his vision in its entirety was dyed a sinister pink.

It was maximum expansion. What’s more, instead of it expanding like a balloon inflating, Natsuka’s Territory essentially exploded, and in no time, it had already stretched out ten meters from her body. She screamed at the enemy, letting her tears continue to fall even now without so much as an attempt to hide them.

“GO TO HELL! JUST DIE. DIE. DIE!!!”

—the foreign words continued to flow from her in a voice that he never knew she could have produced. The region her territory enveloped continued to expand even more, and its mass grew only ever denser. It was like her pure malice was itself materializing.

At this moment was when Minato first understood the ‘problem’ that had been plaguing his childhood friend. It was marked by a relative lack of power and sickly Territory.

From the very start, the water manipulator known as Natsuka Hoshino possessed a disease. It had been observed in only an exceptionally few number of cases, but it had precedent nonetheless.

It didn’t belong to any of the four types—Crystallization Specialists, Perception Specialists, Order Dictators, or Limit Operators. Their power fluctuated depending on their emotions, and it was difficult for them to control it—a fatal flaw for any water manipulator.

—the Emotion Dependent.

Colloquially, they were also known as berserkers.

It was a case related to the correlation between the human psyche and Territories. If the lid was blown off the jar of her pent-up feelings, it would be just like what happened in the most generic of shounen manga. The rage and sadness within her became the trigger that allowed her true powers to blossom. To counter that, her capabilities were below average normally. That’s why her peaceful Academy life led her into a slump, whereas the sadness and tension of coming down to this underwater facility caused her power to flourish.

And now, unfortunately, it was probably nearing 100%.

The true face of her expanded powers became clear.

—it was pressurized crushing. The forceful application of pure mass.

“I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS.”

One of the tentacles that had been flying toward them was engulfed by the pink, and in that instant, it was mashed, twisted, and torn apart like paste. Matter was compressed beyond its limits in the dense mass, like a kind of black hole. It was a power with destructive capabilities that could rival even that of Chloe Knightley’s. Even if she was just as worked up as Natsuka was, she probably wouldn’t have been able to output something with this much power.

It was a storm of blinding pink—the kind that would erase even her own life.

“I don’t care about anything else! I’ll give everything I need to, so please. . .! Please just save Minato!”

The rampaging waves of her Territory continued to expand outwards, stealing more and more of the Giant Squid’s body away. The colossal monster was probably only moments away from having its existence completely erased. It was a monumental power. An overwhelming one. Yet, her body was consumed by it faster than it could happen.

There was a squishing sound—

—as if her organs and muscles were being torn apart.

As the sounds made their way into Minato’s ears, he immediately stopped his childhood friend. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and brought her close to him.

“Stop, Natsuka! It’s okay now!”

In only a little bit, she’d be able to kill that goddamned Under! But there was a problem even more simple that that.

She would only destroy herself at this rate. Minato desperately begged her to stop. But it wasn’t easy to calm someone down once their feelings exploded.

“It’s not okay! It’s nowhere near okay!” She squirmed violently in his arms, continuing to use the power that drew from her very own life. “Unlike you, I’m dumb. I’m not strong like Meifa, and I don’t know a thing about computers! I couldn’t do a single thing right this entire time. So. . . so why am I the only one alive. . . Why did everyone but me have to. . . Just-Just this once. . . I want to protect you so much, and yet. . . This isn’t enough! If living means I’ll continue to feel like this, then I don’t care if I die!”

What she felt toward the Under that had killed her friend wasn’t simple rage. The dominant emotion that ate away at her core now was—

—regret.

It was the thought that, had she only done something more, she might’ve been able to change their future. The guilt in knowing that there was no way she could change what happened. It was exactly the same as what pained Minato so. Even more than the Unders, what she couldn’t forgive was her own self.

I know exactly how she feels, painfully so. But even then, it wasn’t reason enough for Natsuka to gamble her own life.

So these words will be a lie.

“Let’s die here together then.”

“Mi—”

Her resolve shook.

The shape of her pink Territory started to lose its form as if subject to a strong gale, and the expansion momentarily stopped.

She turned to him with a bewildered expression. “W-Why? Why do you have to die too? What are you saying. Stop screwing around.”

“If you die, then I’ll have no reason to go on.”

“No, please don’t say something stupid like that!” An entirely new anger sprouted forth from her. “Don’t talk about dying like that! Don’t make me hit you!”

I’m truly glad she’s such a simple, honest person. Does she have any idea what’s she’s saying right now?

A single sentence was all it took for her to finally revert back to her normal expression. Her pink Territory also dissolved as if mist before a sunny day. Hers was a power of historic strength, but it would likely never manifest again.

The girl in question, however, didn’t think about that in the slightest. “If you died, Minato, there would be no point. It would be like a mochi shop with no mochi.”

“Try to gather your thoughts a little before you say them. Let’s bide our time, find the right moment to strike, and then get out of this together.”

“. . .Yeah. That’s the best option.”

“Alright, leave it to me.”

At this moment, there is no longer an ounce of an instructor in me.

Minato Yamajo, Natsuka Hoshino’s childhood friend, once more faced their reality head-on.

Now that we’ve come this far, all we can do is accept what comes.

Had he only embraced these calm feelings from the start, who knows what kind of result they might have achieved.

There’s no point thinking about it now.

It’s time to resume our gamble at life.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

Fortunately, they had cleared the largest hurdle—time. There was only one minute left until the gates would open.

In addition to that, although Natsuka’s berserker powers didn’t manage to finish of the Giant Squid, it had dealt serious damage to a majority of its tentacles. It was accurate to say that most of the monster was in a sorry state.

Likely due to that, it showed no signs of continuing its barrage. It was probably focusing its efforts on regenerating itself. They planned to finish off the monster before it had time to collect itself, but the regeneration had progressed much more quickly than expected.

Once it finished regenerating several of its tentacles, it resumed activity again and entered the pool in order to corner the two.

Minato saw this from inside the submersible cabin floating in the pool. Feeling the low engine hum in his body, he carefully lined up his rifle sights. “The gate’ll open in 30 seconds.”

“M-Minato. . .” a begging voice came from inside the submersible. “Just to make sure, it’ll go forward if I push this lever, right?”

“That’s right. Just like that, three times. Take your hand off it for now.”

“G-Got it. . . I-I’ll do my best.”

I hope she doesn’t mess up.

He was a little nervous about the situation, but the Under was already beginning to move. They wouldn’t be able to make any changes to the battle plan at this point. From here on out will be nonstop action.

To make matters worse, the monster was almost incomparably faster in the water than it was on land, fitting of its squid-like appearance. Left to its own devices, it would probably be able to catch up to them in under ten seconds.

It should go without saying that he had no intention of leaving it to its own devices.

“Die already.”

Minato fired a shot.

However, that shot wasn’t aimed at the Under currently swimming beneath the surface. Not at the water, but near the ceiling. It was where the single submersible was hanging suspended from the crane.

Of the four supports holding it up, three had already been destroyed, and the fourth and final chain was blown apart by the rifle, allowing the submersible to fall directly down upon the Under’s head. Although it was admittedly designed to float, it was at the same time a 20 ton mass of metal.

That very mass became a deadly impact which broke through the surface of the water and made contact with the Under. In a further stroke of good luck, the craft’s hatch was open as it was undergoing inspection at the time and Minato’s 12.7 millimeter round-bearing rifle shattered the front glass into thousands of shards, so it would pierce the water on impact and continue to sink. If this impact finished the job and killed the Giant Squid by itself, Minato would have nothing left to say.

Unfortunately, it didn’t look like it was going to be that easy. The monster grabbed the vessel on top of it with its monstrous strength and threw it aside in no time flat.

“Unfortunate. . .”

Well, it bought time at least, and that’s all I wanted in the first place.

BZZZZZZZZT, the buzzer rang, and finally the first gate started to open.

If they went forward now, though, they’d only crash into the gate. They had to wait until the gate was sufficiently raised.

“Hold on a sec. Wait for my signal.”

“O-Okay.”

Having avoided the falling debris, the Under once more began its watery pursuit. At the same time, Minato gauged the gate’s progress. Taking the speed at which it raised into account, he started a mental countdown.

Three, two, one. . .

“—Now!”

The moment he shouted it, Minato jumped into the submersible’s open hatch. The vehicle sped forward at maximum power.

That said, maximum power for a mere research vessel propelled it forward at even less than 10 knots, but the motor moving the heavy craft was by no means weak.

They quickly passed through the first gate and proceeded all the way to the pressure-equalizing area. At the far end of the 20 meter space was the second gate. Once that opened, they’d be able to break free.

But before that, the first gate had to close. Not to mention, it would require two more minutes.

The Giant Squid Under wasn’t going to just stand by and watch that happen.

The difference in underwater speed between the two was overwhelming. and within moments, numerous tentacles had managed to catch up to them, wrapping themselves around the vessel’s frame as to not let it escape. Their forward momentum stopped immediately.

Minato hurriedly poked his head out of the hatch, and then he shouted to Natsuka who was still inside.

“Keep the lever pushed down!”

As it turned out, the both of them were actually in separate submersibles. They used two of them as to disturb the monster’s focus as much as possible.

Out of the two of them, Minato was hoping the Under would go after his own submersible, but he of course had a plan of action in case the reverse happened instead.

The vessel Natsuka was piloting was already working at full output, but the colossal Under possessed fearsome strength, and the vehicle slowly started to be pulled back as a result of it. From the side, Minato used the rifle to destroy one of the tentacles. The creature’s grip on the submersible started to weaken, but that only reverted the tug-o’-war to a standstill. It would probably recover its strength before long. With that maneuver, he ended up expending two bullets. Three shots were all he had left to him—he could afford to use one more.

As a result, Minato started to move himself towards Natsuka’s vehicle, well aware of the danger it put him in.

The Giant Squid’s tentacles were entirely made up of sensory organs. They perceived his approach, and one of the tentacles that was gripping onto the vehicle suddenly whipped around like a scythe, with his body as the target.

As it came near, however, it collided with a lead round. Two bullets left. I can’t afford to waste them.

Using the split-second opening he created with the shot, he slipped rapidly into the vessel with Natsuka inside and tightly closed the hatch door.

The interior of the craft was cramped. Seeing him enter the cockpit, his childhood friend flashed him a relieved smile as she held on unsteadily to the unfamiliar controls.

“I feel like my heart’s about to stop working.”

“You did a great job, Natsuka. The gate will start to close soon. Hang on for a little longer.”

Until it happened, there was no way they afford to lose in their test of strength against the creature. If they happened to be pulled back out, then that was their loss confirmed. From now on, it was a simple matter of perseverance.

Well, it’s not like suddenly having two people in the submersible would give it any extra power. . .

—But. . .

If this is the end for us, I want to be together with her. This was the thought that ran through his mind.

Minato activated one of the switches on the console and then finally leaned forward as if adding his weight to Natsuka’s in order to continue pressing the lever down.

Her body twisted around.

And then she pressed her head to his neck as if taking in his smell.

“You know, Minato?”

“Hm?”

“I love you,”

—she said with an incredibly tender voice,

“I almost can’t think straight right now, I love you so much.”

 

At that moment, the vessel started to shake more than ever.

It’s possible the tentacle he destroyed earlier, plus several others, had regenerated by this point. Their grip on the vehicle intensified, and it started to be pulled back at a now-visible pace. Can’t you give us some space already? he thought.

However, the buzzer finally sounded a second time. It was the sound that indicated the first gate was about to close in order to seal the pressure-equalization chamber.

It’s likely the gate would close at the same speed or possibly even faster than when it originally opened. If that turned out to be true, they would undeniably be able to hold out.

The descending gate would crush and sever the monster’s tentacles and the two of them would be able to escape—it would mean the end of their nightmare. They would be able to return to the outside world.

Their future was just in sight.

Minato, however, summoned all of the strength available to him and let out a shout:

“Let’s go! Let’s do this! This is really the end!”

Natsuka as well nodded with everything she had:

“Yeah, Minato! Let’s do it!”

There was no way they could leave and run like this, try as they might.

There was no sense in fighting any further.

This was the manifestation of their ego, however, and it demanded that they validate their humanity.

—We will defeat that Under.

Bringing Natsuka’s body close to his, he used his rifle to shoot through the submersible’s front glass without hesitation. The reinforced glass shattered into countless fragments, and water poured into the craft.

He then quickly wrapped his belt around the propulsion lever—

—and then firmly secured it into reverse.

CLUNK! came a loud noise in response.

The propulsion system immediately switched direction, and the submersible started to zoom backwards.

In response to that happening, the Giant Squid sprang backwards. It wasn’t a surprising reaction considering the prey it was pulling so desperately suddenly stopped putting up a fight. And then, when the creature stopped moving, that was when the submersible moving in reverse collided with its body. That, of course, inevitably caused it to retreat once more.

Minato and Natsuka had already escaped the vehicle and stuck their heads out of the strange-smelling water.

The true identity of that strange smell—

—was gasoline.

When Minato had originally entered the submersible, he had activated the switch that opened the gas hatch to the vessel’s dual diesel engines. The 400 liters of gasoline that continued to leak from the tank formed a fire trail all the way to the vessel itself.

In other words, all the way to the vessel that the Under was currently gripping onto.

“Let’s see here. . .”

Minato prepped the rifle with its final bullet and tried to think up a fitting one-liner.

Like something from the movies. Something good that people will remember.

Anything’s fine, really.

“These gloomy depths suit you just fine! . . . or something like that.”

1,500 meters below the surface of the ocean, at the sea floor of the Osaka Area.

Orient Federation Academy, expedition, day 4.

2 hours and 37 minutes following the sinking of the research cruiser.

It was like this that one of the nightmares came to an end.

 

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

 

“It’s all over. . . isn’t it. . .” she muttered as if giving herself into to a blissful midday nap.

Inside the other remaining submersible, Natsuka Hoshino was lying down with a thin smile on her face. Her head resting on his lap, he nodded without any strength to spare either. Large qualities of water were pouring into the room around their vehicle, sounding like a grand array of waterfalls.

The room was filling up in preparation for the second gate to open.

“Yeah, it’s all over. . .”

“Minato, it’s okay to cry now, you know? I’ll hold you tight when you do.”

“It’s not that easy to cry on command. . . And come on, you’re already crying before I get the chance.”

Natsuka smiled, tears running down her cheeks.

“It’s so weird, don’t you think? Even now, I keep thinking, what if it was all just a bad dream? What if we get back to the Academy, and Chloe and Meifa are both there, and they both welcome us back like nothing ever happened—? Haha. . . ha. . .”

After a drained chucked, she coughed violently.

“But you know what? Even if it is all just a dream, the fact that I love you will always be real. . . Oh man, it all happened so sloppily. Before we get married, would you go out with me?”

“Of course.”

Minato responded immediately, and her eyes opened wide as if in surprise. She tried to raise her head, but in the end continued to lie down.

“You mean it? You really, really mean it?”

“I mean it. In fact, let’s not even bother waiting on the marriage. Let’s do it right away. And right after, let’s start having lots of children—ten of them! That way we can make our own team of fishing fanatics with all of us in it.”

“Yeah! Where do we find the storks for it? Or wait, do you get them from cabbage patches?”

“. . . You’re going to have a tough time in the adult world, I mean it.”

“Hm? But. . . Haha, Oh jeez, oh jeez, oh jeez, oh jeez, I can’t believe we’re actually married!”

“Woah, don’t jump the gun, there. We can only submit the marriage registration once we get back to the Academy. If we try any sooner, we could get busted for marriage fraud, you know?”

“Come ooon, you won’t do that. I’m sure you’ll be a wonderful husband who buys roses for his wife every weekend.”

“You won’t find a version of me like that no matter how many parallel words you search.”

“Hahaha.”

Maybe it was because she was so happy that she took her childhood friend’s hand and pressed it to her cheek.

And then, in the softest of whispers,

“Does this kind of bliss really exist?”

The smile lasted only a second.

The more he looked, the more her expression twisted in anguish under endlessly flowing tears.

“I’m sorry. . . I’m so. . . I’m so s-sorry.”

She suddenly couldn’t stop apologizing.

Hearing her say it, Minato felt as if all the air had been squeezed from his lungs, and he started to frown.

“Why. . . Why are you saying sorry?”

“’Cause. . . ‘Cause I’m being so selfish. I’m asking you to go out with me and making it harder and harder on you. . . Even though I already know. . .”

“I’m the one that wants to get married. I love you too, Natsuka.”

“Yeah. . . Yeah, thanks. . .”

As water manipulators, there was no real reason for them to stay inside the vessel.

However, for a little while now, Natsuka’s Territory had started to lose its effect.

It was, without a doubt, because she had expended so much, so violently in the final fight.

But it was just a momentarily lapse in her condition, that’s all. She was just crying about how weak she was at the moment. If we just rest in here for a bit, she’ll be back to normal in no time—Minato continued to tell himself.

But. . .

“I know. . . what’s happening to my body,” the sobbing girl confessed. “I can tell that my heart is getting weaker and weaker. It’s like it’s running out of blood, I think I used too much. I’m so stupid. You did so much to protect me, but. . . I’m so stupid.”

“Stop talking about that kind of stuff!” he suddenly yelled, his voice growing intense without his realizing it. All he could do was refuse to accept it.

—but deep down, Minato knew.

He knew that in the few cases involving Emotion Dependent types, there were many situations in which something similar happened and the affected lost their lives. There was no damage to their internal organs, but rather, it was just as Natsuka put it—it was as if they had exhausted their own life energy, invisible to everyone else.

So what?

There’s nothing that says she has to follow the same pattern. We have the chance to get out of this alive; like hell I’m going to give up on her.

I will not let Nastuka die.

There’s no way. If she did—

“Oh no. . .”

Natsuka shakily lifted up her arm and gently brushed Minato’s cheek as his head drooped over.

“I went and made you cry. . . I’m sorry, it’s all because of me. But maybe I’m a little relieved. You’ve been holding it in for so long now. You should go and cry.”

“. . . I’mmot crying.”

“You liar. You are crying. Look at how many tears there are. How long has it been since I last saw you like this?”

Ba-dum

“Oh. . . no. . . I’m so worried about you, but I’m just so sleepy. . . I want to look at you so much more, but. . .”

Ba-dum. . . ba-dum, it went.

Under the watchful gaze of Minato’s Territory, her heartbeat grew softer and softer.

“Stop it. . . Don’t do it. Don’t go to sleep.”

“Mhm, I’m wide awake. I can still hear you.”

Her pupils were large and vacant.

Minato’s voice neared a begging whisper by this point. Gripping her hand growing ever colder, he continued to desperately try and pull her back.

“I’m begging you, please. . . don’t give up. Don’t go to sleep. You’ll be better before you know it, I’m begging you. . .”

“Mina. . . to. . . I know we got married. . .”

—the girl smiled, eyelids softly closed,

“but, still. . . someone important. . .”

She took in a deep breath of air.

And then smiled again.

“Promise me. . . Protect. . . her—. . . . . .”

The sentence was cut short.

“. . . Natsuka? Hey. . .”

And with that, there was no answer.

The girl slept, nary a breath in her—

—as if she were having the most blissful of dreams.

Last Episode - If You Start to Cry. . .

It might have been for a minute; it might have been for an hour.

Minato stayed at the sea floor of the Osaka area for some time after.

Having witnessed over the last two hours the deaths of all those precious to him, not a single proper thought drifted through his mind. And yet, at some point, his body started to move by itself, sitting in the cockpit seat and grabbing the lever to set the submersible in motion. It’s possible that in the absence of his thoughts, MAI took over everything in his stead. Minato lacked the life in his expression to do even that.

Then came an enemy attack. Its shadow flew across the front glass.

It was one of the random D-rank Unders that was wandering about around the facility. Upon spotting a vehicle with a human inside, it seemingly dropped all pretenses that it had been part of some larger group. It was like some country hooligan that just spotted a luxury car.

“. . .”

Neither panicking nor raising a ruckus, Minato went to open the submersible’s hatch.

Natsuka was still inside the craft after all. I couldn’t bear for her to be eaten. With that simple thought his only motivator, he went into the ocean. Well then, time to turn them into seaweed. This was all that drove him. His mind just wouldn’t function. That’s why, when he opened the hatch, he was taken aback by all the water that suddenly started to flow into the cockpit. This isn’t good. I have to take care of this and get back to land quickly or else my precious childhood friend will start to bloat from the water.

He quickly made his way outside, and there the three Unders were moving around intimately with each other. The three of them together might have seemed like a formidable opponent, but—come on, I’ve seen enough of these before. There’s nothing special about them.

With MAI active, it’ll be a piece of cake.

《MAI - warning》※detecting three E-rank Unders ※no defensive equipment ※extremely dangerous

“. . . Huh? Where’s my knife?”

Thinking back, I get the feeling that my knife was knocked off my belt at some point. It probably happened when I was jumping around during the final escape.

Even for the heroic Minato, returning alive after constantly toeing the line between life and death, picking a fight with a monster like that one empty-handed was a bad idea.

What should I do? I’ll end up dying after all this.

“—Whatever. . .”

Minato decided to give up.

 

“YOU DUMBASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!”

And then, a gust of wind swept across the bottom of this deep ocean. From out of the depths came a pair of jet-black wings as if soaring through the water. They came at lightning speeds, and after taking a dropkick (underwater) of unrivaled ferocity, the Unders before Minato were launched away as if in some kind of slapstick comedy. It happened with a display of force that rivaled what Minato’s rifle could produce.

The black wings in their underwater suspension were truly like that of a fallen angel.

The woman that appeared there folded up those very wings of hers and pointed a finger at the dumbfounded Minato.

“Are you that stupid, like are you really that stupid? The hell you doing, freezing up like that? What are you tryin’ to accomplish by not fighting back when there’s a monster right in front of you? You got a death wish?”

Yes, I do.

But enough of that. Minato, in a bewildered state, started to mutter something with quivering lips, half in denial—

“—Aish?”

“Yeah,” she responded briefly with a short nod, “Probably thought I went and got myself killed, didn’t you? I was scared out of my mind, you know? I got myself caught up in a tangle with some of those monsters right after diving. And it was nothing like those ones just now too. There were squids and sharks, I just kept booking it, hiding and fighting, and I finally escaped just a bit ago. Sorry, I made you search for me, didn’t I?”

“You couldn’t even call it ‘searching.’ It was harrowing.”

“Yeah. . . I’m really sorry. I really made things difficult for you. Dinner’s on me when we get back, so try to forgive me. Actually, you know that shop Bayside Wagon? That place is a real hole-in-the-wall, and it has a huge secret menu. Well, let’s forget about that for the moment. Is everyone still on standby back at the cruiser?”

—she asked without a hint of malice, oblivious to all that had transpired.

Minato couldn’t find a way to answer, and so she started to sing his praises in all her wishful thinking.

“They aren’t, are they. You really do piss me off sometimes, but man are you sensible. Sending the boat back to the Academy and staying behind yourself is just like you. Now that we’re in this mess, I really am glad that you’re the one I’m paired up with. Even if you can be such an insufferable brat sometimes! But if it were Muhammad, he’d just start praying the second we ran into trouble. Having you be the only one who stayed behind really puts me at ease. . . That’s what happened right? Come on, please say something.”

“The cruiser. . .”

He hadn’t planned on hiding anything. After a deep breath, he told her the bare truth.

“The cruiser was attacked by unidentified organisms and capsized in the aftermath. I am the only survivor among the passengers.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“I am not. All three members of the television production crew, as well as all five of the trainees. . . All of them have perished.”

“H-Hold on. . .” In a state of shock, Aishwarin pressed her hand to her head and moved backwards. “You can’t mean. . .”

She stumbled as if dizzy and murmured in a low voice—

—eyes trembling—

“You can’t mean, you went into the facility to search for me?”

Minato nodded only once.

“Yes.”

He should have never ever set one foot inside of it.

That was the truth.

Without a single ounce of help, Aishwarin had made it back outside in one piece. Minato and the girls should have gone straight back to the Academy, not even considering the rescue effort. Knowing it now wouldn’t change a thing. There was no way to take any of it back.

“All of it was because due to the mistakes in my judgment. I. . . I killed all of them.”

It was only natural for him to say that.

Had they only turned back at the start, Chloe would not have died.

Had Minato been the one to open the Central Management Room door, Michel would not have died.

Had he chosen a different plan to fight the Giant Squid, Meifa would not have died.

And he never should have brought Natsuka Hoshino along on this expedition from the start.

He had failed at each and every decision, and because of it, he had brought upon them the worst of all endings.

Say nothing of instructors, he was worthless as a human. Why am I still alive?

And yet—

“No you didn’t!” shouted Aishwarin in a raspy voice as she hugged him tight. He only saw her face for an instant, but it seemed racked with pain. “You didn’t, you didn’t, you didn’t! It’s not your fault! If the roles were reversed, I would have searched for you! If I’d only come back sooner. . . No, I shouldn’t have even come down to a place like this in the first place. I’m so. . . I’m so sorry. . . You had to go through so much because of me. . .”

She was crying.

“I won’t let anyone blame you for any of this. All of this rests with me. I will protect you, Minato, I promise. Please, I beg you. . . Let me protect you. . . If you don’t, I won’t be able to bear what becomes of you. This is all just too cruel. . .”

“Protect. . .” repeated Minato as he heard the words.

As he did, the tears began to well up from within him once more. He began to remember his childhood friend’s final promise.

“How could I possibly protect. . . Is it even possible for me?”

The tears that left his eyes dispersed into the sea around them and dissolved into nothingness—and eventually they transformed into a heart-rending wail.

In Aishwarin’s arms, Minato cried and cried until his voice ran dry.

It’s painful, so painful; it’s just all too much to bear.

Please, I beg of you, just this once, he wanted to be able to protect someone until the end.

Just once was all he wanted, but it was a wish that would never be granted.

No matter how much he apologized, the words would no longer reach the girls. He would never be able to see them again.

Yet in all of this, there was only one thing he could do.

—fulfill Natsuka’s final promise, even if it cost him the world.

“I. . . I. . . want to protect. . .”

This time—without fail.

Standing opposite a senseless reality, weakness was not an option.

“I need. . . I need to become strong. . .”

—I need strength.

—the absolute strength that would allow me to overturn our cruel fates and protect those important to me.

For now, he sobbed like a child in this place, a land enveloped in the darkness where no light might reach.

 

. . . . . . . .

. . . .

At the moment—

The curtains now fall upon the first tragedy perpetrated by the Unders, by the monsters born of Solaris.

They are living weapons.

Ever cruel creatures manifested from human greed, those very humans cannot know just what effect they will have on world after tomorrow. The tranquility that humankind has finally recovered 100 years following the Oceanic Calamity has started to crumble without a sound.

Many are unaware of this truth.

 

Those, however, who plan to use the Unders and scheme from the shadows are also similarly unaware.

—unaware that in these deep ocean depths was born a determination that would soon oppose them.

Back Illustrations

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Afterword

Thank you to everyone for picking up this book. My name is LuckyLuci.

Right away, I would like to extend my appreciation to everyone who has has reached this point with me. I’m very sorry for having you all take part in such a depressing story. Does Minato have a bright future ahead of him, or will it be just as dark?—I’d feel fortunate if I was at least able to pique your interest enough to wonder this. I don’t have much space to continue, so I’ll make it quick. Huge thanks to Asagiri for providing me with the wonderful drawings. I am eternally indebted to my editor for his patience. And to all those who read my works, I love you.

Translator's Notes and References

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