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Rita Ma      "One year ago, on the same day the leviathans came looking for Rita, the other five largest settlements came under attack too. Akroma sank, but some of their refugees made it to us. Their Harpoonists still want to fight, but... it was so quick, most of them couldn't even get to their weapons. The compressed air swords we use can't be replaced. That's why we have to go back, even if it's risky."

     That's how Bota explains it on the way over. The Union Busan is anchored in the distance; the little repurposed fishing boat you're in is crewed by him, Kana, and a couple of other local Harpoonists- a tall buff guy wearing pneumatic fists, and some weirdo who hasn't taken off their opaque diving helmet. The weather is clear with no winds, and yet waves already pound its sides with worrying ferocity.

     Out in the distance, something small protrudes above the waves. It'd take a lucky glance to find it, and a keen eye to make out any details.

     Belowdecks is an extremely extensive selection of diving suits, including some that must have been recently custom-modified for exotic body types; one can more or less have any color and style one wishes, though the local bias seems to be towards form-fitting unarmored suits with spherical helmets that reveal the face and offer good peripheral vision. The improvements are visually subtle, but anyone with a knack for technology can tell that this world's diving equipment is surprisingly quite advanced.

     "The sun's out," Bota says while suiting up in charcoal gray, "but that won't keep them at bay below a few hundred meters. There's a strong current near the surface, so we've dropped a guide-line to rappel together. Once we're below the thermocline, it should be calm again. Vajra is long gone, but... with that many bodies, I'm sure smaller sea monsters live there now."

     Kana, adjusting the gloves on her purple suit, scans the group one by one with her uncomfortably piercing gaze, probing everyone's resolve. "Fighting in the water is the true test of a Harpoonist's skill. It means to leave our domain and enter theirs. Brune and Seamonkey are staying behind to guard the ship. If you have any hesitation, then do so too."

     "Kana..." Even Bota looks a little unsettled by proxy when she does that. "I'm sure they'll be fine. Is everyone ready?"
Kale Hearthward "Do my hesitations count?" grouses Kale's medic as she jams a syringe into his arm.

"Well, that's why we brought the meds, right?" asks Kale, the hawk shaking his arm out a bit. "So it'll be easier to fight?"

"So you won't immediately literally burn through all of the oxygen in your tank the moment any fighting starts. Which your lungs *will* try to do since they don't know you're underwater."

The medic meets Kana's gaze with an expression suggesting that if Kana wants to strike her boss from the mission, Kana can go right ahead. Kale himself doesn't catch the piercing gaze since he's distracted with getting the rest of his equipment setup - which involves fitting a bandolier of glass ampoules over the top of his suit, and an extra device on the hilt of each of his swords.

"You're worrying too much. I had to do lifeguard training for the S&R certification..."

"That's - lifeguard training isn't anything near SCUBA - you know, whatever."

She tries a different tract - going over and appealing to Lilian and Tamamo. "If you could just... drag him back up before he ends up drowning, I'd appreciate it."
Cantio "If they can't be replaced, can they be reproduced?" Cantio's first question to Bota is a functional one as she sits at the edge of the boat, wrapped up in her thoughts for longer than necessary. "I haven't seen anything like these before, but if I can get my hands on an intact one, I might be able to help with reproducing them."

She doesn't go as far as suggesting she'll improve on them. Not yet. She'll need to be surer about herself and how they work before she goes quite that far.

It's only when Bota and Kana start suiting up that Cantio realizes she's still dressed in her usual white and purple getup.

"I haven't fought in the water before, but I'll manage. If it's anything like fighting while flying with more resistance, then it should be..." She pauses, then strokes her chin. "... Well, I'll find out sooner than later, I bet. I won't let you down, though." She declares firmly, then heads belowdeck to get her own gear (in black and red, oddly enough).

Before Cantio changes into it, however, she transforms with her usual bright flash of light that could very well light up the underside of the boat briefly. When she's suited up and back with the group, her hair is considerably more pink, her metallic plasticky sword considerably larger than before, and she has a pair of white... Thrusters?  Floating behind her.

"Alright, I'm ready. Should we be leaving the ruins intact as we leave in case we need to come back? Or is this a one time search?"
Candy      Belowdecks, Candy goes for one of the form-fitting suits, opting for a purple color.

    Slipping it over his tight pants and striped sailor's shirt, Candy's jaw sets in determination. "Well," he says, fastening a glove (this isn't his first time wearing a suit like this), "If they're down there thinking we're on the menu, they got another think coming." Though he'd said it in response to Bota, Kana's piercing gaze should find his resolve in ample supply.

    That being said, the look perplexes him. "What?" he asks, cluelessly. Before the helmet seals over him, he self-consciously rubs at the corners of his mouth. "Do I got something stuck in my teeth?"

    He glances towards Ishirou, seeking a vibe check, then--

    "Yeah, Bota, I'm just about good," he says. "I just need to whip up something special."

    No time seems to pass--but there is a muffled cacophony of industrial angle grinders, riveting, welding, and who knows what else. The pinnacle of early twentieth century manufacturing, compressed into an impossibly small timeframe. Candy coughs and nudges a bulky power drill with a questionably exposed battery out of view.

    He holds what might look like a heavy machine gun, were it not for the tubing and the lack of any apparent magazine or belt feed. The bulky weapon is attached by rubber hose to a heavy-looking backpack with a fleet of sharp-looking, precisely machined impellers. "Fighting underwater's a pain in the ass," says Candy to Cantio. "But don't you worry! You learn real quick what works and what don't when one of those ugly motherfuckers down there is bearing down on you."
Tamamo     Tamamo again arrives, her outfit for this outing soon proving immaterial, as she replaces it with an appropriately shaped diving suit. She only really needs one tail space, if she bunches hers up, which is only about as uncomfortable as 'wearing tightly restrictive clothing' is, generally. Her preference proves consistent -- dark blues and blacks, with hi-vis gold and white markings so she won't be entirely impossible to spot. Bubble helmets are good for letting her tall ears not be forced flat all the time, though she still has to have hers touch the clear surface. That might be good for hearing, but it does feel a little off, more so than putting on something body-hugging would, otherwise.

    "Truly unfortunate that I have no suitable swimwear prepared. Ah, I did go and look for something for diving, but what I had found, before now, was of less quality than this seems and, given the danger, I suppose it would be best to trust in local expertise. I shall see as to what adjustments might be necessary, should there be time before another excursion, if there are those as may be able to assist in such."

    '...but that won't keep them at bay below a few hundred meters.'

    "Though there is much that I do that shall be slowed by greater pressure, or else, rendered impossible, I have done all my inking aforehand, and made some preparations as shall still be effective beneath the waterline. Furthermore, know that where I go, one may find the Sun. This is my nature, even should I walk into the depths of another's domain." With a trace of wry displeasure, she adds, "Even where that domain should be that of Susanoo-no-Mikoto."
Ishirou Ishirou was around for the trip, taking his time and actually enjoying the time on the water quite a lot. The sea was a peaceful place, when it wasn't storming, even if the waves were choppy. Maybe he only thought it was peaceful, but it could be because it was also /large/. Of course, he also knew what was beneath the waves too, a different world alien to those who mostly lived on land.

Though once they get to where they need to, Ishirou spent his time on the deck actually trying to take time scanning the boat itself, the area around the boat, and looking out for anything dangerous. There would obviously be danger /HERE/ but he wanted to at least make sure they weren't caught off guard by the types of sea monsters.

When offered a suit, he waved a hand. "I have something just in mind for this.." he says and brings both hands back. "POD! R.E.S.C.U.E. up!" a pause, "See I dunno about that one.." he says, and the POD, who is a small floating box with arms, makes what appears to be a helpless shrug. However, it traveled to the back of Ishirou. Folding out across him in what appeared to be a black outfit. Much more like light battle armor than the usual comfy sweaters or other loose-fitting clothing he wore. It eventually covered his face, with a helmet-like outfit that was very similar to POD's own head, but more rounded.

Detaching, and sliding down his head to have a more large neckline than the helmet until he was ready to dive in.

"Working underwater is nothing like flying, even at high speeds. Imagine fighting in space, but /everything/ resists your movement. It's pretty awful," Ishirou agrees with Candy. "That's why..." he says, and leaps up into the air. "Water unit!" he calls out, which out from his dimensional pocket appears a medium-sized machine. It seems to be more wire-like as if it was missing something. Well, something besides a more definite shape.

It breaks apart, and Ishirou moves, jumping into each piece, and sometimes literally jumping off the air, and letting each piece snap onto a part of his new armor. Both arms, both legs, and his back. His helmet comes back over his head, as the 'Water Unit' snaps over it and seems to connect in a manner that appears to be like a rebreather or scuba gear.

Landing again, Ishirou moves his arms and legs, testing out the weight. "Not exactly finished, but enough to do their basic function...the data will be invaluable." Then considering, "Well, if we're going to need to produce more of those weapons, we could also see about improving them," Ishirou considers.
Lilian Rook     Bored and on a boat (again), and unwilling to bring anything she couldn't handle going overboard, Lilian spends the whole ride uncomfortably staring out over the edge of the fishing boat that has clearly been repaired a worrying number of times.

    Given the way her gaze occasionally drifts down to stare at the water nearby, before snapping back up to the horizon, someone sufficiently familiar could loosely surmise she might be thinking about the Semitone again, and everything that happened after. Then that person would promptly not ask about it. She is distracted enough to say "Of course they can be replaced. All you have--", subtly flinch, and trail off. "Well, I certainly hope we have a plan for sending them back to the surface. They won't exactly be buouyant."

    When the time comes, Lilian already has her hair double folded for helmet-wearing, but stares at the diving suits on selection with some level of misgiving. "I really should have reviewed these before leaving, but who'd have thought . . ." she mutters under her breath, glancing a tiny bit nervously towards Kana-- specifically her head to her toes and back.

    And then Lilian has probably misinterpreted Kana as paying more attention to her than she was. "Don't get the wrong idea. Anyone would have misgivings about fighting in a place humans definitively aren't designed to exist. But if they're underwater, then they're underwater. We can't make them come up here, so there's no point in hesitating. The very nature of a monster is that you never get to fight them on your own turf." Then she turns back to the suits, muttering again "Oh well. It's not as if something else will appear out of thin air if I fret over it . . ." She settles on the darkest black she can find.

    Thinking harder than usual about why she even brought it, Lilian removes her sidearm and leaves it on the boat. She takes the pendant from her neck before suiting up, because she won't have the opportunity later. While pulling the suit on over her clothes, she offhandedly says to Cantio "Water pressure is about one atmosphere per ten meters. Resistance doesn't compare. You don't look very tough, so I think you'd probably just be crushed the instant that suit breaches." Fastening her helmet seal, a wry smirk goes through the faceplate to Kale's employee. "I'll take care of it. It's not as if I'd ever go to the bottom of the sea without an exfiltration plan you know."

    Fondly beholding Tamamo, she thinks to add, "I verified last time that they're weak to sunlight in an overall sense. It might not keep them from swarming anyways, but bringing sunlight down there should make things dramatically easier." This is Lilian's cue to dispel the glamer and produce her Tremendous Sword, and stop just short of slamming the point down into the boat, out of last-instant respect for someone else's ancient property. This is so that she can bless it like last time by invoking Amaterasu.

    "I presume you have a map."
Rita Ma      "Do my hesitations count?"
     Kana meets the medic's eyes. "Do they? I've made the risks clear. He decides the value of his own life. And where it may be spent."

     "If they can't be replaced, can they be reproduced?"
     "Huh. I don't know. Probably?" Bota rubs the back of his head and glances to Kana for guidance, but she doesn't notice. "They're just advanced technology we don't know how to make anymore. We probably wouldn't have the means, even if we did know. If that doesn't matter to you, we'll let you take a shot."

     "... Or is this a one-time search?"
     "Do as you see fit with the ruins. I'd like to respect the dead, but we may not be able to afford that."

     "Furthermore, know that where I go, one may find the sun."
     "More miracles, huh? That'll be a huge help-" "As long as we don't kick up too much sediment." "Even if we do, probably. You saw it, didn't you?" "Maybe. But thank you, Tamamo-no-mae."

     "I just need to whip up something special."
     "Whoa! That's amazing, Candy! Is that some kind of hydraulic cannon? Can I-" "No. Leave the boy alone, Bota." "I just wanted to try it..."

     "... we could also see about improving them."
     "Maybe. But mind the ergonomics. I've been using these blades for nineteen years." (Wait, how old is she?) "If it doesn't feel exactly the same, we don't have months to adjust."

     "The very nature of a monster is that you never get to fight them on your own turf."
     "I wish. But I'm glad to hear you're ready. We have gas firearms here, if you'd like a replacement." So they do, courtesy of the helmeted Harpoonist- something like a submachine gun built to fire pencil-sized needles. The compressed air that propels them is under a hideous, mechanically improbable amount of pressure.
Rita Ma      Kana plunges overboard when everyone's given the all-clear, with Bota not far behind. It's important to grab the cable before submerging; the current is immediately harsh and buffeting, clouding one's vision with bubbles and tearing at the body like a hurricane-force wind. For an ordinary person, it'd be a bitter test of strength to hold on with both hands. Both of the Harpoonists make do with an arm hooked around it.

     The sunlight overhead grows uncomfortably dim. What feels like minutes later, everyone breaks through into an abrupt transition to cold, clear, calm water, with the currents still roaring overhead. Below is a dark, vast shape, resting crookedly on a submerged mountainside. It's barely recognizable as what used to be an oil rig, piled on with expansions in life and then mangled horribly in death. Bota and Kana let go of the cable, entering 'freefall'.

     Bota's voice crackles over local radio. "Akroma... I never got to see it before. It's even bigger than the Union Busan. Hard to believe it could ever have sunk."

     Kana follows, her voice lent a harder edge by the electronic buzz. "On that day a year ago, the Seven Devils of the Sea lashed out at humanity, all at once. Union Notre Dame was destroyed. Akroma sank. The Trade Port and Port Oasis were ravaged. The human population fell by thirty percent in one night. I don't think Rita knows. If she did, she'd blame herself."

     Of course, sea monsters sense the disturbance. They emerge from the metal crevices of Akroma and surge upwards- tentacled sharks, loathsome wormlike things with snapping jaws, ghoulishly empty-eyed anglerfish.

     Off in the distance, a little point of soft white light descends towards the ruins too.

     Kana shoulders her gun and points it downwards; Bota flushes the gas tubes on his sword with a rush of bubbles. "Don't take hits. You're no tougher than your suit down here. If it breaks, you break."

     That's only one complication. Fighting in three dimensions, you can be surrounded in six directions rather than merely four; since preserving your suit is of utter importance, that possibility is practically a death sentence.

     Those without special water mobility find it nearly impossible to be as quick or agile as the sea monsters, making the only reliable defense against encirclement to kill them faster than they can approach, while somehow still avoiding harm.

     The physics of fighting in underwater freefall are deeply disorienting too- merely swinging a sword can send one completely off-balance. It's a stomach-turning novelty in an environment that permits zero room for error.
Ishirou Ishirou goes over the edge without much more discussion. There were plenty of monsters down there, but it seems that nothing really stands out as a major threat. That or could subvert scans if there was...which there was only one way to find out! With the sea creatures being woken up, Ishirou checked what weapons he had on hand again. This system would have a light spear, and a laser beam designed to work underwater. Oh, and he had torpedoes.

He sees the light, but before he could start focusing on it, the monsters stirred first. "Something came down here with us..?"

He also notices that others would have a harder time of it...he takes a breath and starts by barraging with a swarm of torpedoes, each one firing from the sides of his legs. He aims to get their attention. He then swims, thankfully assisted, around the group to try and draw them in an arch instead of directly at them.

He turns, every once in a while aiming to spear up, the bits of the Water Unit on his hand use pneumatic pressure to boost his thrusts, overcoming the water resistance. He also fires lasers and things closer, but still out of reach of his spear.

"Calculating course...alright, giving you a course that I'm traveling!"
Cantio Candy's tips get a grateful nod from Cantio just before she slips that big helmet ball on, resulting in her hair just kind of getting jumbled up in here face. "That's good to know. Even after fighting them on land, doing the same underwater is... Er. Not the same."

A moment later, and the helmet ball comes off so she can just tie it into a ponytail instead.

Lilian explains water pressure, and Cantio purses her lips briefly before letting out a self-satisfied grunt. "You'd be surprised. The transformation isn't just for show, and the suit..." She pauses, staring at a spot on her arm briefly. It /is/ rather skintight, but that's not much different from her transformed getup, anyway.

"... It works for the people here, at least." She doesn't sound nearly as confident about the suit compared to herself, especially after the further warnings given by their guides here.

No preference is stated as to whether the Akroma should stay intact following their search, getting a slow nod from Cantio. "Understood. It'll give us some more breathing room to work with if we know that ahead of time." She replies, not sounding nor looking particularly excited about that fact.

Sheathing her own blade against... Nothing? Cantio holds her weapon behind her back as it seemingly attaches to nothing, just descending with her as she follows Kana and Bota down with one hand on a cable to steady herself against that harsh current.  Perhaps in defiance of the elements or simply not realizing it, Cantio just goes right on down with one hand on the cable and the other hand free, ready to grab her weapon should something try and attack the group this early.

Her caution proves worthwhile, then, when the monsters start coming up towards them from the sunken Akroma. Drawing her sword, she takes aim at the oncoming swarm as the sword spreads itself out until it looks more like an oversized fork, and it fires off...

Not a lot. The lasers don't work quite so well underwater as they do in the air, and Cantio might sound like she's dictating notes to herself even as she taps on various parts of her sword's handle. The prongs change shape, and the formerly-sword rearranges itself again to look more like a giant tuning fork before she points it forward again.

This time, the results are considerably more obvious. Vibrations can be felt coming from Cantio's direction as she assaults the oncoming monsters with harsh sonic blasts to take advantage of the water itself.
Tamamo     'If she did, she'd blame herself.'

    "Why would she?" Tamamo asks, curious. "She was not residing within any of these places as they were assaulted, yes?"

    Tamamo carefully grabs onto the provided guiding cable before leaping over, not trusting too much of anything below the seas.

    Though she said the Sun would be here, it remains that Amaterasu and Susanoo were not divinities with a good relationship. Even if no curses are forthcoming in her trespass, the associations remain in her mind, mostly indistinguishable from the awkward nervousness of inexperience. That this place has clearly been invaded from without actually brings her a little solace, knowing that it's a fully alien force that truly opposes their efforts.

    The paper talismans she pulls out still do work underwater, and the ones she's specially prepared neither soak nor crumble. They do, unfortunately, move much more slowly than she's used to, forcing her to limit either her effective range, in guiding them to their targets, or else the rate at which she can launch them, as she can't effectively control more than a few at a time, once they're moved to some distance from her.

    Their effect, at least, is not at all diminished for the environment. Sudden explosions of deathly ice are both physical threats in their blooming spines, and thermal hazards, letting her protect herself and others by creating trapped areas at any point within reach, sucking the life-heat from anything that so much as brushes against them. They're more resistant to the current than is visually reasonable, and much more than Tamamo herself is, but will eventually be pulled away, as well.

    Her own progress, physically, is relatively meager, not having much in the way of superhuman strength to call on.
Kale Hearthward "I swear, getting elite status seems to be synonymous with a death wish, or something......"

"Alright! Let's do this then!" says Kale.

It doesn't occur to him to grab the line till the last second, and there's a few bad moments before it occurs to him that he probably should be using both hands.

Down, down they go... Kale kicks his heels together, and his boots fire off. In the water, the effect is considerably muted, but they still provide a little bit of mobility... mobility that comes with a fuel gauge, which Kale eyes warily.

While he's nowhere near as mobile, his sense of 3D space is easily on par with the harpoonists - possibly even sharper, as he keeps instinctual track of magnetic north and up and down no matter which direction he's oriented in - leading to him frequently fighting 'upside down' as that's a bit easier to reduce his profile and drag. The enemy nest is down, after all.

"This is a lot trickier than it seemed on the surface," he complains, trying to fend off one monster with his sword, while grabbing and flinging one of his bandolier ampoules with his other hand. (It explodes like a depth charge.)

When Tamamo comes forth with her ice, he takes the opportunity to take some cover, letting the others take the vanguard, for once.
Candy      "Kana knows best," Candy says with a wink at Bota. "Ishirou gets jealous when other people try my cannon, ah? Hahaha."

    The alterations Candy had made to his body in imitation of Lilian have since faded--something he finds most frustrating on the way down. It's fraught with swearing and colorful metaphors every time his two-handed, thigh-assisted grip is vigorously tested.

    Eventually, though, he makes it into the calm darkness, releasing at last to drift down, albeit much less expertly than the harpoonists.

    *A third...* Candy's brow furrows, his lips pulled into a grimace. Both hands clutch the cannon in a mix of anger and sadness. *She better not. I won't let her carry that bullshit. If it's anybody's fault, it's these things.*

    "Don't have to tell me twice, Kana."

    It *is* nearly impossible for Candy to be as quick or agile as the monsters. They don't fight fair, after all--but neither does he.

    One Candy becomes a cluster of several. Details are off, here and there, and he expects the smarter monsters among the rising tide may catch on.

    But this is a shell game Candy has played many times before. His reaction times come not from harpoonist training, but from out-and-out cheating, with the impellers of his water cannon leaving their imprints at erratic points across the yawning downward expanse.

    "You ugly motherfuckers don't make this easy, do you? Well, neither will we."

    Sharp disturbances pull themselves into nothing in a chaotic mess; there always seems to be a powerful lance of extremely pressurized water ready for any monsters seeking to ambush the real Candy--even when his cannon is pointed in a completely different direction. His descent, and that of his illusions, is made in uneven jitters, roughly following Ishirou's plotted course in stop-start motions.

    The only positive here is that he's used to this nauseating emptiness--but his earlier assertion to Cantio is an opinion he absolutely still holds.
Lilian Rook     "Sediment is it? I hadn't considered that. Your expertise is already appreciated." Lilian says to Kana, and means it. The ocean is not exactly her usual theatre, and so she's already thinking on it. "Candelario, watch your fire. Don't go spraying wildly into anything with loose particulate. Keep your feet down and aim at a slight upward angle if you can. That goes for you as well Cantio. We very much can't afford to restrict our visibility down there any more than we already are."

    Lilian audibly coughs into her helmet. "Ninetee-- good lord. You've . . ." She then pauses for a moment, considering ways to salvage this sentence that don't sound like flirting. "Certainly managed to keep in shape by fighting that long." Fuck. She coughs on purpose this time. "Unfortunately, that's always how it is. The hero always has to enter the dragon's lair. Braving a swamp or a mountain or a cave or the sea or the dead of night isn't just set dressing; monsters don't become terrifying by hanging around in plain sight where they can be safely shot."

    She stares at the gas gun. She really, really considers it. Almost longingly. Or perhaps reluctantly. Slowly, Lilian says "Thank you. But considering the territory we're entering, I think I'd prefer to fight with a minimum of unbalanced weight. I'm satisfied with my marksmanship, but I only trust my life to my sword." She slings it over shoulder for now, being most of her height. "Though, once again, I'm quite thankful I don't use steel." she says, staring down at the water.

    It's helpful ballast like that too. Lilian clings to the rappel line single-handed, but it's only so that she can keep the other on the hilt. She looks far from comfortable in the raging current, angling her forearm to try and block the wind from her eyes by pure habit. Much of the descent is spent using her 'flight' magic to correct herself as much as possible, getting in as much practise as she can on the way down. "This is even worse than the Cryptark." she huffs through the comms in frustration, followed by "Space." a moment later. Reaching the bottom is a relief, but even then, Lilian jumps lightly, once, twice, three times, to get a feel for both her buoyancy and the water resistance, and frowns, clearly thinking about how she can compensate for it. "I see why the gas canisters are so ubiquitous now." she says, flicking on her helmet lamp and conjuring up a handful of will o' wisps that spread over the surrounding areas.

    Her fists clench so hard that the suit audibly creaks through the mic's internal feedback, at the words 'thirty percent'. The raw, seething bitterness isn't hidden from either Harpoonist. Her voice is cold. "Because they were after her. Tamamo." She looks ahead. "I look forward to the day it makes her angry instead." she says.

    "The suits. Right. I wasn't entirely sure how well-armoured these things are, but I suppose there wouldn't be much point to design them to be anything more than impervious to being ripped open on jagged salvage. Tamamo, could you help me out?" Lilian says, before reaching into her carry belt buckled over her diving suit's waist and producing her own copies of Tamamo's talismans, making sure to apply the protective charms to each person she can reach. She trusts Kana and Bota, but not so much anyone else. At least, not enough to avoid being bitten even once down here.
Lilian Rook     Once the sea monsters come out, Lilian already has Night Mist in hand, etchings glowing sun gold rather than blood red. Her three dimensional awareness is adequate enough, from her training in aerial combat, however she's still worse at looking up than down. What makes up for it is the way that she suddenly becomes aware of each monster the instant it locks on to either her or Tamamo, and is able to face it just as it begins its attack run, regardless of her blind spots. The first few are met in her traditional style, where she fully puts her back and shoulders and waist into massive, hacking swings, essentially adequate to cleave ribs, pierce vital organs, and cause massive amounts of fatal bleeding, but she quickly grows frustrated with the exertion, the offput center of gravity, and the slowness of her movements, not to mention the way she has to 'fly down' during each swing so as to remain grounded and not spin frictionlessly.

    She resorts to thrusting down the throat and up through the brainpan of the next lunging shark, which is better, but not enough to satisfy her. So when the next writhing, fanged worm comes at her, she tries something else.

    Lilian's helmet light winks out. For a moment, she is a black, smoking shade with four burning eyes, and she move like lightning, as if the water isn't even there. Just the second before the burning extrusion of her sword meets its mark, the off-shape flickers back to her ordinary self, and Night Mist cleaves right through the monster's entire body, rapidly slowing down from hydrodynamic drag only just after the creature is dead.

    "This works. Let's advance quickly. We're on a time limit; they're not. We have limited stamina and they have a thousand times our numbers. Where are we going to-- No, I'll find it." She buys herself a spare moment to consult the future in reverse to find the exact path to trod towards the sunken armoury.
Rita Ma      The two Harpoonists' gas blades prove their effectiveness in the melee. Their various nozzles allow for a burst of directional force to be added mid-swing; Bota uses that primarily as a lunging mobility tool to keep himself from getting surrounded and hew through the edges of the swarm, while Kana uses her double blades in blender-like fashion whenever the monsters close in. They both fight with a certain conservative canniness, though; the sleekly confident risk-aversion of soldiers who intend to survive a hundred more battles.

     They quickly adapt their approach to take advantage of both Ishirou's kiting and Tamamo's traps, the latter of which are also extremely lethal in the more thermally-conductive medium. Ishirou's torpedoes, Kale's ampoules, and Cantio's shockwaves also prove super-effective, albeit with a heavy risk of friendly fire; the water not only boosts their effectiveness but also their blast radius. Otherwise, simply impaling them with weapons or shredding them apart with a water lance is predictably lethal; none of the smaller gribblies have much by way of a defensive gimmick.

     Soon the biggest hazard is the water beginning to cloud red with leviathan blood. In the relative calm of the latter part of the descent, each of the Harpoonists answers a question.

     "Why would she? She was not residing within any of those places as they were assaulted, yes?"
     "This was just after Dr. Foid made her worse," Bota says, echoing Lilian. His voice is low, almost washed out by the static. "Whatever he did to her convinced them that she was 'our Queen'. They attacked all those places- and the Union Busan- trying to hunt her down. That's why."

     "You've . . . Certainly managed to keep in shape by fighting that long."
     "I'm only thirty-three. Don't sound so impressed."
Rita Ma      "Hey, what is that light?" "Stay focused. If it's a monster, it'll come to us. There are two armories we need to hit. See the radar mast? It's next to the first one. Aim for it." I think we can get in through that hole in the roof. It's right between... are those bullet holes?"

     Akroma has been shredded. Everywhere above the waterline is blackened by flame, but the physical damage doesn't look like it was caused by a giant monster. It looks like it was caused by some kind of enormous machinegun. There are thousands of hand-sized punctures in the north face, some of which score through the steel city for hundreds of feet.

     By the time the group's descended to the charred and rusted roof, the pursuing monsters have slowed somewhat from their first push, although the steady stream of new awful gribblies never truly stops. But here a new hazard presents itself: silvery, chitinous things are embedded all throughout Akroma's hull wherever they came to rest, thousands in number, maybe one every five square feet.

     They're living bullets, left dormant where they lay, but as they sense nearby motion, they start to open their unearthly cerulean eyes and groggily wiggle to life. Bota tenses up. "Are these... Vajra's spawn?" "Get inside! Now!"

     Kana grabs Bota's arm and drags him through the hole in the roof into the sunken city's labyrinthine interior, holding open a heavy bulkhead door just long enough for everyone else to get in. Her appraisal of the urgency is correct. A chain reaction of the knife-like larvae awakening is already spreading across the ship, and personal stealth can only mitigate the unfolding disaster, not prevent it altogether.

     Soon a silvery cloud of living blades doggedly pursues anyone still outside, too many and too small to effectively fight through most means, each comparatively weak but still more than enough to fatally compromise a diving suit. In the absence of some enormously effective AoE options, following the Harpoonists' lead and simply running like hell is likely the optimal choice.

     Lilian's precognition uncovers that Bota and Kana have already hit on a good path to the first armory by themselves; the second armory is halfway across the city, but there's a more or less straight shot to it along a network of corridors that still improbably contain air.
Kale Hearthward "Living bullets...?"

"- Oh those are- okay, running!" Kale doesn't need to be told twice. (He does need to be told once, though.) His boots burn more fuel, kicking into a higher gear, following on the harpoonists' trail...

... Though if/when Lilian shares her precognition, he turns and starts heading for that path. Not least because...

"Air!"

He beelines for the first air pocket like a man in the desert who's just seen an oasis - and instantly as he breaks through it his boots transition from dull impulse speeds to the blazing rockets they truly are.

"Alright - I got this now!" he says, helmet popping open and the wind mage taking a deep breath, and then exhaling - the stream of air flowing into the hilt of his sword, which unfolds and transforms, revealing a long thin mirror core suspended between two halves of the blade.

"Keep moving!" he calls over his shoulder, as he resumes advancing - and swinging his mirror sword wildly as he goes. With each swing, a trail is left in the air - a series of afterimages of the sword's blade, each as sharp as the original.

And so Kale goes, stopping briefly at doors or natural chokepoints to attempt to create yet denser thickets of blade images, to slow the advancing horde down even more.
Candy      The descent becomes much more urgent with the discovery of Vajra's spawn. Lilian's advice had helped with visibility, but Candy doesn't bother shooting at all after Kana's ultimatum.

    He blinks through what monsters might still be on the approach, crossing past the bulkhead just in time to narrowly avoid a skewering. Any stragglers find that the spawn, determined though they may be in their pursuit, suddenly have much more targets to filter through--knockoff versions of whoever may be lagging behind muddy the figurative water.

    Once inside, Candy accompanies the harpoonists. "Take point. I got you," he says over the radio, patting the side of his water cannon with a palm. "Anything else we wanna grab from here besides the weapons, better think of it quick."
Cantio Their attacks are working! Cantio has to adjust her aim on the fly, though, as she realizes the increased risks of friendly fire along with the water itself being a little/very weird to fight in in general. Lilian's advice to aim higher works wonders, but it takes Cantio a while to finally nod towards her in disgruntled acknowledgment of that tip.

"The armories... If it's a monster, we'll handle it if it approaches. Chasing after it now would risk bringing more our way. If it's not, then..." Cantio furrows her brow slightly, then shrugs. "Same risks, different result. Maybe. We'll have to keep an eye out for if it approaches, though." She warns, taking one more look in the direction of that light before focusing on the armories indicated by Bota and Kana instead.

She sees the bullet holes, and she lets out an uncertain noise. "That's not a normal bullet hole... But a gun that big would have had to have come from... A ship? Some kind of giant mech suit?" Cantio looks towards Ishirou briefly, then back to the damage on the Akroma. "If we see something like that..."

She won't have to wonder for long. The living bullets opening up and the warning afterwards is enough to get Cantio to focus on getting in along with everyone else. The rapid spread of the tiny monster blades is of great concern considering the diving suits being the group's general lifeline here, but she does in fact have AOE options well suited to handling them!

Taking a position in the rear with Kale, Cantio keeps her tuning fork-ized sword aimed behind the group as she adjusts the output of her weapon. "This is... Kinda weird, isn't it?" She comments with a light chuckle, waiting until reaching those various choke points and for Kale to back off before firing off those shockwaves again to buffet those pursuing creatures the sheer (figurative and literal) volume of sonic blasts. "Aren't feathers usually.. Er. Don't they usually have problems functioning in water, though?"
Kale Hearthward "You're thinking of ducks," says Kale, who didn't really understand what exactly Cantio is saying.
Ishirou "Right it was Dr. Mute's fault. This seems to be a running theme here..." Ishirou says, not at all sad that he hacked his brain very specifically. The light is brought up again, "Once we're not fighting to the death with monsters I can try and find out," Ishirou says to Bota. "Right now she's right we gotta focus on being alive and getting what we're here to."

Ishirou's eyes focus on the hull itself when attention is brought to it. They do look like bullet holes. Was there some sort of infighting near the end? He is about to start investigating /that/ when the silver things open their eyes and reveal they're living bullets. That they also work like bullets, which is even worse.

Tamamo and Kale come up with a plan, even while Kana tries to get people inside. Ishirou dashes off first, attempting to head off the Living Bullets and try and distract them away from the pair so they can set their traps. Ishirou watches his fire but is not affected by the blood and dirt in the water. His eyes don't need visible light to see, so when he comes back around and through the blood, he dives for the entrance into the boat.

As he dives in, he leaves torpedos along the way, aiming to move slowly, and explode when bullets get too close, aiming to be more disruptive than damaging. The goal is a distraction, and to let others set up traps.
Lilian Rook     'I'm only thirty-three. Don't sound so impressed.'

    Lilian mutters a little bit of total fucking nonsense to herself. It goes "That's . . . twenty three point five. Hmm. Just barely." Then, more conversationally, "Humans don't often fight for nineteen years and live, never mind retain their full mobility, never mind still look good. I've only regularly fought for four, so please excuse my respect." The words are a little sarcastic, but somehow Lilian still conveys her sincerity through tone.

    Lilian stops over the bullet holes as well. "I've seen this kind of damage from human strongholds before. You find as much weapon damage as monster damage in places where people fight to the last. Often more. But . . ." She kneels down, helmet lights focused on one of those holes, pressing her hand over it and sweeping the dust from its edges, comparing to side. "These can't be bullet holes. You'd never fire anything this large with gas. It's . . ."

    "!! Move!" Lilian doesn't waste any time appearing next to Tamamo and almost arm-barring her away, diving straight for the nearest door. "Inside! Bottleneck them! There's too many and they're too small to risk being surrounded by! There won't be so much blood and dirt indoors either!" Lilian sends out her will o' wisp lights to point a trail along the route she's divined. "Here! Come on!" Kana and Bota know where to go, but the others need it. Moving fast enough to stay on vanguard with the Harpoonists, Lilian drops runestones at major junctions where the pursuing critters should swarm together, staggering efforts with Kale so that anything that slips through the blade trails will complete a living circuit with runes of thunder, having a limited amount of magical charge per stone to fry numbers individual spawn that swarm over it.
Cantio "Is that a duck thing?" Cantio pauses, furrowing her brow. "But they're in the water so often... Really? Although being able to float like that so easily must...! Erk. Later, later." She shakes her head to refocus herself, but she's definitely going to be thinking about duck feathers later.

This is definitely not going to factor into her future work.
Tamamo     At the sight of what seems, strangely, to be some enormous firearm's damage to the area, Tamamo moves to touch one of the 'bullet holes,' thinking to read its past, in the sympathetic connections left by a traumatic event upon even near-spiritless, worked metal. She has only a moment before this, before her attention is drawn away by Kana and Botan, and what occurs immediately around then.

    When the word 'spawn' is mentioned, Tamamo alights on a particular idea, and trusts Lilian not to allow her come to harm in enacting it. If Ishirou is in position to cover her, so much the better. With so many of Vajra's progeny about, and just waking up, and with their very visible eyes, she goes right for one, drawing something from where it's strapped to her thigh.

    It might be a predator's glint in her eyes, or it might be the calm surety of one who has put in ample practice in such domestic duties as spreading open hand-sized fowl in the kitchen. In any case, Tamamo's knifework is perfectly practiced, the utility blade no doubt heavy for most edible fowl, but appropriate enough for finding a softer line within one living bullet to work inward with an unhesitating thrust and lever. She pulls out again, wiping the blood over a talisman in the same motion. Her voice is low, throaty and distant, but the ritual language still translates, if only just, for those present.

    "Neither mercy nor redemption await these sacrificed young. Though many seeds are sown, their origin is as one, tangled skein. Let their fate be shared, blood flowing unto blood, confusion and madness, eyes burned by a light beyond withstanding. Yours is a harsh judgment, fairness found where none are spared."

    It's neither a trap, nor an attack, nor a miracle. It's a curse that follows lines of family, familiarity, and similarity, tracing back and forth along the threads that bind the spawn to one another, as well as to Vajra -- whomever or whatever it might be. The light that flares but briefly around Tamamo as she speaks, distorted by more than the water's depths, isn't carried into the watery sky, but seared directly into the eyes of every spawn reached by her curse. It doesn't stop there, but passes through, a light that would, in other creatures, force a frantic clawing to be rid of it, before it reaches the mind behind.

    Afterward, Tamamo allows herself to be taken down to relative safety.
Rita Ma      Air pockets are scarce here, in part because of Akroma being riddled with those bullet holes, but Kale can find one or two. The proper air-filled rooms that Lilian saw are deeper in, away from the shrapnel and wreckage of Vajra's attack.

     In the moment before the spawn begin to awaken, Tamamo's psychometry can catch an impression of the event. Something in shape not unlike its namesake, perhaps a grotesquely mutated squid, rises halfway out of the water. It is nearly half the length of the city itself. It opens its starfish-like jaws, and the petal-arms of its mouth bristle with countless silvery teeth that are not teeth. They launch with an electric wail.

     The knife-larvae are thinned out by Cantio's concussive blasts and Kale's blade trails, electrocuted by Lilian's rune traps, and waylaid by Ishirou's and Candy's diversions. This grants the group enough reprieve for Tamamo to work her ritual: though the progenitor that links all these larvae together isn't present, it still conducts nicely along the sympathetic link.

     Within seconds, most of them are fleeing; some lunge and swoop at imaginary targets, or turn on each other, or simply convulse and then go slack, effectively brain-dead.

     Bota sighs in relief when the threat is neutralized, but Kana still waves the team towards the armory: there remains ample reason not to stick around. "That was incredible work," he says when the team regroups. "I thought we'd just have to avoid them for the rest of the mission. Everybody's still okay?"

     The armory itself is a flooded vault filled to the brim with needle guns of similar principle but different make, gas swords and a wide variety of other compressed-air melee weapons in similarly slightly exotic styles, and bombs- the latter of which Kana regards with significant unease.

     "Bombs are forbidden relics. They might be useful in the war effort, but one of you will have to remove the fuses completely before we even think about bringing them onboard. I wouldn't be surprised if they doomed Akroma," Bota says. "What were they thinking?"

     He unslings a folded-up yellow pack from his belt and unfolds it into a big net with what amounts to a balloon and gas canister attached- a crude but effective way to get things back to the surface. "For the rest," Kana says as she helps load it up, "take anything you think will help you. The rest will go to Akroma's surviving Harpoonists. There's still one more armory after this one."

     "... never mind still look good."
     Kana looks over at Lilian, as an afterthought. "Thanks," she says. "You look good too." It is entirely sincere, but it is also soul-crushingly oblivious. One sees where Rita gets it from. "I think you'll handle the next fifteen years fine."
Rita Ma      There's an air-filled corridor just down the hall, which Kale would likely appreciate quite a bit, which Lilian can point him to, and which is on her precognition-derived optimal path to the next armory anyway. It is perhaps eighty feet long, only slightly dented by the water pressure, with numerous hatches lining its sides that would be unwise to test.

     Bota and Kana are still busy loading up the aquatic extraction device. Whoever opens that door first, they aren't there to see what's down that hallway.

     There is a little blonde girl with brown eyes and white clothes at the far end, glowing faintly white. She looks to be maybe seven or eight years old, and her hair is a mop that doesn't yet reach her shoulders. Aside from her age, the resemblance to Rita is striking.

     She stares at the group with wide-open eyes, and then she wordlessly turns and scampers further in, shutting the hatch at the far end of the hallway behind her.
Ishirou Ishirou comes to a halt once they're inside properly. Taking a moment to brace himself on a wall to catch his breath. "Yeah, thanks just fine, not used to all of this effort still," Ishirou says between breaths. Though he gives Candy a look at his impersonation of him. Though he doesn't need to look behind him or towards the door, his scanners tell him everything he needs to know about the fate of the minions.

Pushing himself up, he sees the weapons that they've managed to reach. "To your earlier question, I can see what I can do about improving the design, or optimizing it. Though your desire to make sure the balance and weight is unchanged is noted. I can probably work out a longer-term design upgrade, but that's after this battle."

Bota's explanation about bombs gets a nod from him, though he side-eyes Candy, "Well, I'm not the demolitions expert here..." he says with a wry smile. "Though in the right place they can be very effective against hardened targets. You'd definitely want to handle them with extreme care...and likely for the reason why you consider them forbidden relics."

With that Ishirou sighs, "Just...hate that they're called 'relics' though I guess if everyone has died that knows how they work, it'd make some sense..." he says, sadly. Dangerous knowledge is still knowledge, and being lost is bad.

With that, his sensors and POD's indicator see a path to another armory. Once collaborated with Lilian, Ishirou goes to open the way forward. The blonde girl which seems so familiar that it's impossible causes Ishirou to call out. "Hey, guys I think I just saw..." a pause as he looks at the two harpooners, "Someone... I'm going after...them..."

He does just that.
Tamamo     With her curse laid and the threat dealt with -- whatever further threats may exist between them and the armories, and between the armories and the surface, and between that particular point above them that touches the sky and the Busan Union -- Tamamo has more time to think about the appearance of Vajra, and what it might be to deal with that, later. And whatever worse things might be in the way of their later goal. She'd rather not think about what would become of people like Bota and Kana in fighting that sort of 'queen,' but of course, now, she can't not think about it.

    She doesn't think very much about the array of weaponry, because she is nearly perfectly innocent of any knowledge concerning guns produced after the 12th century. She can only idly marvel at their designs, or what of their designs she can make out through the water, in what light is available. (Where necessary, she produces her own.)

    'I think you'll handle the next fifteen years fine.'

    "Oh, you believe so, as well? I would see to it, but I am prone to being overly concerned in some things." Tamamo reveals, in the moment, the full attention she'd still managed to pay to Lilian and Kana's exchange.

    Not having much to do in the armory and without an immediate threat, Lilian is the only one who might, if she tries, hold Tamamo back from continuing on forward to see what the next hall or chamber holds. Someone else (potentially Ishirou) is still likely to reach it before her, if only because she isn't used to moving quickly under ocean pressures.

    "Oh, my, hello -- oh? No, I suppose she could not have heard me. Oh, bother."
Lilian Rook     Once they're clear of Vajra's spawn, Lilian takes a breather to decompress (heh) and regard Bota with interest. "You know, you're a certain kind of positive that I never see anywhere near a battlefield. I thought you'd be a little goofy or inexperienced, but you're actually very sharp. You really just appreciate everyone around you, don't you?" She drifts off, turning to the armory. "Now I know where Rita got it from."

    The mention of bombs and fuses has her simply say "Candelario." out loud, as if the rest is simply implicit, which she expects it is. She begins collecting weapons in short order, hesitating with only a moment of almost sentimental reverence at the custom nature of each and every one. "I see what you meant. I can tell by just looking at them. Each of these is irreplaceable to someone, isn't it?"

    She chokes off a little at Kana's reply, looking back with confused, slightly widened eyes, scanning the Harpoonist's expression for the slightest hint of comprehension. "Ah, thank you? That means a great deal, coming from you." She glances at Tamamo, then breathes a sigh of relief that betrays that she doesn't know how loudly it'll echo inside the helmet. "Careful." she says to Ishirou. "Even strengthening the material can throw it off. I'd feel a two percent weight difference in Night Mist easily." She is, of course, engaging in rapid precognition to determine which of these weapons is connected to a surviving Harpoonist, and returning them to the underwater fulton first.

    "Tamamo, where are you . . . ?"

    Lilian stops dead at the sight of the child. As they, and Ishirou, rush off, Lilian pursues. "Wait!" she says. "Stop!"

    She isn't talking to the child.

    "Kana said this place sunk a year ago!"
Candy      "I'm alive," says Candy to Bota. "'Okay...' that's gonna take a couple beers topside, ah? Me, I'm more impressed that you guys do this kinda shit on the regular. That drop made my head spin."

    "That'd be me! Hi, I'm the 'expert.'" Candy happens to be a purveyor of forbidden treasures himself. He grins at Ishirou, before offering his opinion on the Akroma's fate. "Bad luck, you ask me," he says. A toolkit appears before him. Screwdrivers, wire cutters, even a few confusing tools specialized for the underwater environment. "A big asshole that shoots a shitload of bullets, one of them is gonna hit the bombs."

    A specialized pipette jets a small stream of water between the threads of the fuse casing, rinsing out any residue. Candy shrugs. "What you want... it ain't 'no bombs,' trust me." The resistance fighter shakes his head as he works. "You always want at least one in the back pocket. So what do you do when those dickhead monsters could fuck it up with a lucky shot? Easy--make it so it's only dangerous in the water, and only for them," he says, using pliers to pry loose the now-unsecured fuse housing. "Well," adds Candy with a grunt of effort, lifting the inert bomb. Laughingly, "I guess it's easy if you're used to fucking around with explosives. HEY CANTIO!" He seems to have forgotten he doesn't have to shout what with the radio connection.

     "Sorry," he sheepishly says. "Hey, Cantio, I wanna save space on the floaty thing for stuff that's not bombs. You mind loading this one up into that thing of yours?" In a move that probably gives anyone who didn't see him defuse it a heart-stopping scare, he slaps the side of the inert bomb proudly.

     He doesn't see the girl. But he does hear the hatch. Cluelessly, "Who closed the door? Nice of you to be polite and all but it's not like we're staying for dinner."
Cantio With the knife-larvae seemingly thwarted, Cantio breathes a relieved sigh into her helmet as well before moving to regroup with everyone else.

"Running the whole time would have just made collecting things later more of a hassle, anyway. Besides, considering our group, I... Don't really know anyone here to be the sort to run for long, anyway." She explains to Bota with confident little laugh, nodding once about her own status before checking on the others. "It doesn't look like anyone's exploded, but if you feel anything... Let me know."

She's got healing magic for that if it's needed.

Otherwise, it's time to head to the armory! The bombs don't catch her attention nearly as much as the guns and gas swords especially, probably because of how they were brought up earlier. "If you're sure it's okay, I'll take a few of these." She gestures at the compressed-air melee weapons and a gun, binding three of the former and one of the latter together with a simple rope and tying them to one of her thrusters afterwards to avoid the risk of stabbing herself with her finds in the process.

The bombs are still an issue, though, and Candy brings up a potential solution via unnecessary yelling! "Oh! Yeah, I've got something for that!" Cantio follows suit with her own yelling, giggling a moment later at his realization. She totally did that on purpose, too.

"Good plan. Yeah, I've got just the thing!" She shifts around a bit as she pulls a cube out of her... Somewhere that unfolds into a Concord-branded briefcase that she has a bit of trouble opening and keeping from floating away at first. Once she gets it down, though, she hurries over to Candy and just sort of stands on top of each end of the briefcase to hold it down while he gets the bombs set inside.

Somehow, they just fit in there. There's visibly not enough space for the bombs to all fit, but they just do somehow thanks to Concord-proprietary tech! Once they're in, she closes it up, then slings the briefcase over her shoulder with one hand while offering Candy a fist-bump with the other.

After passing the normal-sized briefcase off to Kana and Bota, she starts exploring the armory a bit to try and find even more stuff, and that search takes Cantio to the hallway that's actually quite a bit of a relief compared to the stuffy air inside her helmet. She doesn't keep the helmet off for long, though, slipping it back on before joining Ishirou in scoping out the joint further.

"Is that...?" No, that girl's too young to be Rita. A trick of the light, perhaps, but a bit too strange to leave up to chance. "I'll keep an eye on him. It looked like there was a little girl over there." After her explanation, Cantio gives (slow) chase, not quite running after them, but certainly moving faster than she had just getting her stuff together moments earlier. Lilian's warning about the place sinking a year ago raises more questions about the girl than it answers, and that's enough to get Cantio to keep moving!
Rita Ma      "I... Don't really know anyone here to be the sort to run for long, anyway."
     "You should." Kana looks over at Cantio. Her gaze is like the cold needle fixing a butterfly to the board. "You're still young, so I'll tell you this. If you allow a one percent possibility of death, you will not survive a hundred battles. There are times when you must stand firm and gamble with your life. But before rejecting retreat, ask yourself: is this one of them?"

     "Easy--make it so it's only dangerous in the water, and only for them."
     "You can do that?" Bota cranes his neck to raptly watch Candy work. "I guess there's more than one kind of miracle-worker here, huh? Is there any chance you could write down the steps for that?" Kana was not paying attention to the defusing, but when he goes to slap it, she sees him in her peripheral vision and casually grabs his wrist.

     "I guess if everyone has died that knows how they work, it'd make some sense..."
     "We still mostly know how they work," Bota says with a hapless little shrug between loading up armfuls of swords. "We just can't make them anymore. Do you think we'd put a bomb factory on a boat?"

     "Oh, you believe so, as well?"
     Kana shows a complete and utter lack of comprehension under Lilian's probing gaze; not even confusion, but failing to comprehend that she has failed to comprehend anything at all. "I do," she answers Tamamo, not finding the latter's rapt attention suspicious at all. "She stays alert, but doesn't press her limits. That's the type that lives. Most of the time." For some reason, she gives Bota a meaningful Look.

     "I thought you'd be a little goofy or inexperienced, but you're actually very sharp."
     "Oh, thank you? Haha. I can't really take credit for that! I used to be both of those things. Kana spent a decade straightening me out." He returns Kana's Look with a slightly sheepish smile. "Being sharp doesn't come naturally to me. But it's easy to appreciate people when everyone's so great."
Rita Ma      "Wait! Stop! Kana said this place sunk a year ago!"

     There is an apocalyptically enormous sound of groaning metal. Then something crunches the armory in on itself like a bowtie. Bota is cleanly on one side of the pinch; Kana ought to have been crushed, but leaps out of the way with preternatural agility. Everyone else is on the other side. The meager air-filled spaces begin to flood.

     The whole city shudders dangerously, as if in an earthquake.

     The Harpoonists' voices crackle over local radio. "KANA!" "I'm fine. What was that?!" "Maybe Vajra's-" "No. Something else. Is everyone else still okay? We can't go forward here. We'll extract the weapons, then try to regroup."

     For the rest of the party, there is now only one clear way forward: to follow that child.

     Amid the creaking of steel in the aftershocks, quiet girlish laughter echoes down the halls.