The climb back toward the surface had been considerably louder than the descent.
Weapons had a remarkable ability to generate conversation. Midori kept absentmindedly spinning her katana whenever she thought nobody was looking. Mimi had discovered that simply carrying a flaming bow made dramatic gestures approximately eighty percent more dramatic. Neera and Rai had somehow fallen into a discussion about whether elemental resonance altered muscle memory or merely accelerated adaptation, while Ragna walked ahead with the slow patience of someone who knew she was one inconvenience away from developing a permanent headache.
The spiral staircase wound upward through the pale stone walls, the embedded lights glowing quietly beneath their feet. Somewhere above them waited the unfamiliar world they had yet to see properly.
Halfway up, something changed.
Tiny lights drifted into view from above.
At first, they looked like fireflies. Dozen, no, hundreds of them.
They weren't floating lazily through the stairwell either. They were coming directly toward the group, moving with surprising speed. Conversation stopped.
Ragna's hand immediately shifted to the handle of her axe, her posture lowering almost instinctively.
"...Incoming."
The others followed her gaze.
Only Gumi remained perfectly still, tilting her head as the lights approached with quiet curiosity.
The glowing swarm poured downward through the open center of the spiral staircase like a living current, flowing effortlessly through the air as though gravity had quietly stopped applying to them.
As they drew nearer, individual shapes emerged from the glow.
Fish. Tiny ones.
Each no larger than a little finger.
A collective breath caught somewhere in the group.
They weren't biological. Every tiny body looked assembled from delicate translucent crystalline plates instead of scales, each plate glowing softly from within. Beneath the crystal shells, liquid light drifted through intricate channels that branched across their bodies like luminous veins, flowing gently from head to tail in slow golden pulses.
Their fins looked impossibly delicate, as though someone had folded sunlight into paper-thin sheets. Every movement caught the pale lights of the stairwell, scattering tiny geometric rainbows across the surrounding stone.
Even their eyes were crystalline, smooth amber lenses that watched the world with a quiet intelligence before the entire school shifted direction together in one seamless motion.
Not one fish led the others. None lagged behind.
The entire swarm behaved as though it shared a single mind, flowing around pillars, between railings and through the open center of the staircase with impossible coordination.
They reached the girls. Instead of continuing upward, the school broke apart.
Hundreds of tiny celestial fish streamed around them in wide spirals, weaving effortlessly between weapons, sleeves and loose strands of hair without colliding with a single thing.
Nozomi forgot to breathe.
"...They're beautiful..."
Midori turned slowly in place as dozens of them circled around her, their golden light reflecting across her green eyes.
"They're swimming..."
She reached out instinctively before stopping herself halfway.
"...They're swimming through the air."
On the opposite side of the staircase, Ragna had already raised her axe.
Neera lowered her spear into a guarded stance beside her.
Neither of them looked convinced that "beautiful" automatically meant "harmless."
Just before either weapon moved, Rai reached out and caught both of their wrists.
"Gently," she said.
Ragna glanced sideways.
"...They're rushing us."
"They're saying hello."
"...How are you so certain?"
Rai watched one of the tiny fish drift past her shoulder before smiling faintly.
Neera continued studying the swarm with narrowed eyes.
"They're autonomous," she murmured. "No... distributed. There's no central coordination. They're behaving like..."
"...A murmuration," Rai finished softly.
Neera blinked.
"...Yes."
Mimi, meanwhile, had completely abandoned caution.
Her eyes followed one particularly curious fish as it looped lazily around the tip of her bow before darting back into the school.
"...I want to pet one."
Ragna didn't even look at her.
"You want to pet everything."
"Correct."
Before anyone could stop her, Gumi quietly stepped forward.
She watched one tiny fish drift toward her face until it hovered only a few centimeters away, its amber eyes meeting hers without fear.
Gumi slowly lifted a finger.
Nobody breathed.
She gave the fish a tiny boop on the nose.
The little creature bobbed backward in surprise.
Then, after what looked almost like a confused pause, it spun once in place before darting back into the golden school, disappearing among hundreds of identical flashes of crystalline light.
Gumi lowered her hand.
Silence lingered for only a heartbeat.
Then Mimi gasped loud enough to echo through the entire staircase.
"IT LET HER BOOP IT."
Rai watched the group for a long moment.
More specifically, she watched Neera's increasingly analytical stare.
Then Mimi's expression, which had developed that unmistakable look she wore whenever she was seconds away from making an objectively terrible decision.
She sighed with the quiet resignation of someone who knew she needed to start explaining things before one person attempted to dismantle the tiny fishes and another attempted to determine whether they were edible.
"...Before either of you does something," she began. Neera and Mimi looked over.
"...They're robots."
The room went quiet.
Rai reached out, holding one finger beneath a nearby fish. It drifted down willingly, hovering just above her hand before circling lazily around her wrist.
"They're communication units," she explained. "When people are too far apart to talk normally, these little ones carry conversations between them."
Midori blinked.
"...Like flying phones?"
Rai smiled.
"...That's a very simplified explanation."
"I'll take it."
The tiny fish perched briefly on Rai's fingertip before swimming effortlessly back into the school, disappearing among hundreds of identical golden lights.
Neera was staring with renewed intensity.
"...They're autonomous communication platforms," she murmured, almost to herself. "Distributed processing... synchronized collective behavior... crystalline computational architecture..."
She looked back toward Rai.
"...I want to take one apart."
Rai had expected exactly that.
"I know."
"I'll put it back together."
"I know."
"I'll be careful."
"I know."
"...Can I?"
"No."
Neera exhaled through her nose.
"...Worth asking."
"It was."
Beside them, Ragna still hadn't lowered her axe. Her eyes followed the movement of the swarm carefully as they continued weaving around the group with effortless precision. Every instinct she had insisted that anything capable of surrounding people this efficiently probably shouldn't be trusted.
Then again... nothing had attacked. Nothing had behaved aggressively.
One of the tiny fish even swam past the blade of her axe before lazily looping around it, seemingly more curious than cautious.
After several more seconds, Ragna finally lowered the weapon, though not completely. Just enough that the tension visibly left her shoulders.
"...I'm still not convinced."
Rai nodded.
"I didn't expect you to be."
That answer, strangely enough, earned the smallest flicker of approval from Ragna.
The climb resumed.
This time, however, they didn't climb alone.
The golden school flowed around them as naturally as a flock of birds following a river current, sometimes drifting ahead through the spiral staircase before circling back again. Occasionally a few curious fish would break away from the collective, inspecting someone's weapon or hovering near loose strands of hair before seamlessly rejoining the swarm.
Nozomi smiled quietly as one drifted around the glowing runes on her naginata.
"They're curious."
"They're observant," Rai corrected gently, "They're constantly collecting information about their surroundings."
"...That somehow feels even cuter."
A few steps ahead, Midori had developed a hypothesis. It wasn't a good one.
She carefully pinched one of her pink curls between her fingers while watching a nearby fish with complete concentration.
"...I wonder..."
Nozomi noticed immediately.
"...Midori."
"What if they nibble?"
"They're robots."
"Exactly."
"...Midori."
She slowly lowered one curl toward the passing fish.
"I just want to see if—"
Nozomi sighed softly and, without even looking, reached over to swat Midori's hand away.
"No."
Midori looked genuinely disappointed.
"...You stopped science."
"I stopped you from feeding your hair to a communication device."
"...You don't know that it wouldn't have enjoyed it."
"I am almost completely certain."
The nearest fish watched the exchange for a moment, tilted slightly as though equally confused by Midori's reasoning, then quietly swam away to rejoin the rest of the school.
The last stretch of the staircase passed more quietly than the rest.
Their footsteps echoed against the stone while the school of golden fish drifted effortlessly around them, weaving between the girls in slow, coordinated currents. Somewhere above, the staircase finally leveled out, ending at the same simple wooden door they had burst through in blind panic only a short while ago.
This time, nobody rushed it.
Ragna stepped forward first, one hand resting on the handle while the other remained firmly wrapped around her axe.
"...Ready?"
Nozomi nodded.
One by one, the others murmured their agreement.
Ragna pushed the door open.
Cool air rolled into the stairwell. Everyone hesitated. Almost.
Then Mimi, apparently incapable of learning from experience, inhaled dramatically.
"...I can breathe."
Neera cautiously drew a deeper breath herself.
"...No chemical irritation."
Rai stepped across the threshold first, looking quietly relieved.
"It worked."
The group slowly followed her outside.
Nothing burned. Their skin remained untouched. Their lungs no longer protested every breath.
For a brief moment, relief settled over everyone.
Then they looked up. Complete darkness. But not the artificial darkness of the Repository, where clean white walls reflected hidden lighting.
This was natural and heavy. The kind that swallowed distance entirely.
The damp scent of old stone and wet earth lingered in the air, accompanied by the quiet, continuous sound of flowing water somewhere nearby.
The only light came from the tiny amber eyes of the celestial fish drifting lazily around them and the faint glow emanating from the pendants resting against each of their chests.
Nozomi looked into the darkness for several long seconds before speaking.
"...Perhaps we should go back."
Ragna nodded immediately. "We have absolutely no visibility."
"We could bring flashlights," Nozomi continued. "And batteries," Midori added helpfully, "Just in case."
Mimi looked between all three of them with visible disbelief.
"...Cowards."
Before anyone could object, she marched confidently into the darkness.
Three steps later, a squeal and a loud thud echoed through the chamber.
Followed immediately by a splash.
Silence. Then frantic splashing.
"I'm drowning!"
"Mimi," Neera said immediately, her voice cutting cleanly through the chaos, "nobody move."
Everyone froze.
"Stay exactly where you are until we have a proper light source."
Mimi continued flailing somewhere in the darkness.
"I'm serious!" There were more frantic splashing sounds.
"...Wait."
The splashing slowed.
"...Hang on."
A pause.
"...I'm sitting."
Silence.
"...The water's only this deep."
From somewhere deeper in the darkness came Gumi's calm, perfectly level voice.
"...Mimi. Fire."
Neera looked toward the sound immediately.
"...Right."
Rai nodded beside her.
"Mimi, use your bow."
"Oh."
Another pause.
"...Right."
A quiet rustle followed as Mimi climbed back to her feet. A moment later she drew an arrow and rested it against the string.
The familiar warmth bloomed instantly.
Flames curled around the arrowhead, casting flickering orange light through the darkness like the world's least conventional torch.
Shadows sprang to life around them.
The chamber slowly emerged. Stone walls rose high above their heads, ancient and weathered by centuries of flowing water. Massive columns supported a ceiling lost somewhere beyond the reach of the firelight, while carved patterns stretched across the walls, softened by age and moisture.
It felt like a temple. Yet something about it felt... incomplete.
There was no altar or statue. No place of worship. Only architecture waiting in silence. Mimi looked down.
"...Huh."
She was standing inside a perfectly carved stone circle recessed slightly into the floor. Narrow channels branched outward from it like veins, carrying clear water into the basin before letting it spill gently away again toward unseen parts of the structure.
"...That explains the splash."
"It does," Ragna agreed.
Speaking of Ragna... everyone turned.
She hadn't relaxed once. Even while the room illuminated around them, she remained standing near the far side of the chamber, axe already raised above her shoulder, body angled toward something the others couldn't yet see.
Following her gaze, the group noticed it.
Another door.
Unlike the wooden entrance behind them, this one was carved directly into the stone itself. Tall. Weathered. Shut so perfectly that it almost disappeared into the surrounding wall.
It didn't look sealed.
The only sounds were the gentle rush of water through the carved channels and the quiet crackle of fire dancing at the tip of Mimi's arrow.
Neera remained still for a few moments, her eyes moving slowly over the stone door while the others waited. The carved surface was worn smooth by time, but there were no visible locking mechanisms, no symbols, no hidden levers waiting to be discovered. She crouched briefly, running her fingertips along the seam where the door met the surrounding wall before straightening again.
"...I have a proposal," she said.
Everyone looked at her. She folded her arms thoughtfully. "Brute force."
A quiet beat followed.
Rai stepped up beside her and examined the doorway herself before giving a small nod. "That should work," she agreed. "It's not locked. It's only jammed shut."
Ragna didn't wait for further explanation. Neither did Mimi.
The two of them exchanged one glance. Some unspoken agreement passed between them.
"Oh no," Nozomi murmured, sensing a disturbance in the force.
Ragna planted one foot firmly against the stone floor, lowered her shoulder, and threw her weight against the door.
At the exact same moment, Mimi shouted, "Teamwork!" and launched a powerful kick toward the center of the slab.
Her foot missed Ragna's hand by what felt like pure divine intervention.
The door, unfortunately, had not been prepared for synchronized idiocy.
With a deep grinding groan, the stone lurched. Then it gave way all at once.
Neither of them had expected success.
The massive door swung outward far faster than either anticipated, carrying Ragna's momentum straight through the opening. She instinctively threw both hands forward to catch herself as she stumbled into the space beyond.
Mimi wasn't nearly as fortunate.
"...WAIT—"
She sailed straight past Ragna and landed face-first with an extremely wet splat.
Neera frowned, mumbling something about miscalculations. Behind her, Midori had already dissolved into laughter.
Nozomi hurried forward first, offering Ragna a hand while trying very hard not to smile.
"Are you alright?"
Ragna accepted the help with a long suffering sigh. "...My dignity isn't."
Midori reached Mimi next and crouched beside her.
"...You good?"
Mimi slowly lifted her face out of the mud and gave a thumbs up that Gumi eyed.
"...Tastes earthy", Mimi said.
"I knew you'd say that", retorted Midori with a grin.
Together they helped both of them to their feet.
Only then did anyone actually look beyond the doorway. The conversation died naturally.
Stretching before them was an immense wetland unlike anything they had ever seen.
Countless waterways spread outward in every direction, branching and rejoining in an endless maze of quiet channels that reflected the strange light above. Dense stands of silver mangrove-like trees rose directly from the shallow water, their pale roots arching gracefully through the mud before disappearing beneath the surface again. Between them stretched towering forests of brilliant red reeds, some reaching well above their heads, swaying gently in the breeze like fields of crimson silk.
Floating mats of vegetation drifted lazily across the wider channels, carrying clusters of unfamiliar marsh flowers whose pale blossoms glowed faintly beneath the dim sky. Ancient stone embankments emerged here and there from the wetlands, their edges softened by centuries of water and creeping roots. Half-submerged staircases vanished beneath dark channels. Weathered canals disappeared into curtains of reeds. In the distance, the broken silhouette of a vast harbor stood quietly beneath the horizon, immense pillars and crumbling breakwaters now serving only as resting places for what looked like birds.
It felt less like ruins abandoned by civilization and more like civilization that nature had patiently adopted as its own.
Above them stretched an unfamiliar sky.
The light wasn't quite day. Nor was it truly night.
It resembled that fleeting moment before sunrise, when the world held its breath waiting for morning, except no sun waited beyond the horizon.
Instead, shimmering curtains of colored aurora drifted slowly overhead, washing soft ribbons of blue, violet and emerald across the heavens. High above them floated two distant celestial bodies. One shone brighter than the other, though neither possessed the harsh brilliance of the sun they remembered.
And stretching across nearly the entire sky was a glittering band of light.
Countless fragments caught the dim glow above, forming an immense luminous ring that arced from one horizon to the other like someone had drawn a silver brushstroke across the heavens.
Nobody spoke. The wetlands breathed quietly around them.
Water trickled through hidden channels. Reeds whispered together.
Far away, something unseen disturbed the surface of one of the waterways before vanishing beneath it again.
For a long while, the seven girls simply stood there, silently absorbing a world that should never have existed.
It was Nozomi who finally broke the silence.
"...It's beautiful, but..."
She hesitated, searching for the right words as her eyes drifted across the endless marshland.
"...But everything feels... cold."
Her gaze lingered on the silver trees.
"The colors are here."
She looked back toward the violet reeds swaying in the distance.
"...And yet somehow it all feels... colorless."
The observation settled quietly among the group. Neera stared at the landscape for another thoughtful moment before glancing sideways.
"...Well," she said, unable to resist, "the only green thing around here is Midori."
A beat.
Midori blinked. "...Was that..."
Neera smiled proudly.
"...A botanical observation."
Ragna groaned. "Oh, we're really doing plant puns now."