〈Entry Detected—-Floor Level: 2〉
Omariro, Zaria, and Gakuto landed on a rock in the middle of a vast ocean.
"Well," Gakuto remarked. "Guess she's not the Sea Beast for nothing."
〈Rule: Collect the Three Flags.〉
Zaria pointed to a flag in the distance. "Hey, look! There's a flag right there! I've got it, Master! Hold on!"
She jumped into the water, attempting to swim, but the moment she did so, she sank beneath the waves and reappeared on the rock. "What?"
Gakuto took a step into the water, and he fell victim to the waves as well. In the next moment, he was right beside Zaria. "That's odd! Guess there's no swimming!"
"But how do we get the flag?"
Omariro dragged his staff along the water until eventually, an ice path appeared to the left. He stepped on it, and the ice held.
〈Navigate to the *Flag.*〉
"Must find ice," Omariro told them. "Water not suitable."
Zaria and Gakuto stepped onto the path as well, which held up under their weight.
"Oh!" Zaria realized. "You're so smart, Master! I think I got it now!"
She took a brave step forward, and the path formed beneath her feet. She took another one, and the same result came about. As she prepared to turn, no ice emerged beneath her feet, and she fell into the water.
The ice below Gakuto and Omariro shattered as well, forcing the group back into their original positions.
"Path reset if failed," Omariro warned. "Must tread light."
"I'm sorry, sir," Zaria apologized. "I've got it this time! Promise!"
She walked along the same path as she did the first time, with ice forming to carry her stride. Once she got to the same point as before, she slowly lifted her leg and placed it forward. Sure enough, ice emerged from the seas.
"Phew," Zaria sighed.
She formed her spear, poking around, but she didn't get any results. Taking a deep breath, she tried to turn in the direction of the flag, but yet again, the ice shattered, sending them back.
"Damn it!"
"Calm, girl. Path not linear."
Gakuto looked between the flag and the rock. "Could this be a case where we have to take the long way? Every attempt we make to nab that thing head-on gets met with a face full of water!"
"So, you mean we have to go away from the flag?" Zaria questioned.
"Possible."
They followed the same path once more, reaching the moment of truth. Zaria turned towards the right instead of the left, and ice emerged to catch her. "It worked!"
"Continue path," Omariro ordered.
Zaria kept walking away from the flag as more ice formed. Once she got to a certain point, an ice platform with spikes formed, catching her off guard. The moment she touched it, all the ice shattered, and the flag got further away.
"The hell?"
〈*Penalty* Triggered.〉
"Spike trap platforms," Gakuto commented. "She sure does love her surprises, doesn't she?"
"Redo," Omariro commanded.
They advanced yet again to the area they failed at, and this time, Zaria waited for the spiked platform to appear. She turned towards the right again, which formed ice for the group to walk on. She continued in a straight line for a while, moving past the rock.
Another spiked platform appeared, forcing her to make a hard stop. She looked around, debating. "Master? Which way should we go?"
"Girl decide. Use head."
"Umm…"
She moved to the left, which resulted in another path forming. They walked along it for a while until one of the platforms began moving, and Zaria fell into the ocean.
"UGH!"
Kaitansha HQ—-
Hayate was busy taking calls from various sources at his desk while Marin supervised him.
"No, we don't just take job applications. To join, you have to be a capable Jugen User."
"I cannot send agents for trivial matters like bankruptcy, ma'am. "If you have a monster issue that we're not aware of, please let us know."
"Giant Kaiju Monster rampaging across Japan? Hmm. Haven't heard of that, but I'll send someone to check it out."
He politely hung up the phone, only for Atsushi to enter the room. "Director. We need to talk."
Hayate rubbed his face. "Please, Atsushi, if it's about raising your pay, I don't really have the means right now."
"Not that. My recruit, Isamu Shidou. I haven't seen or heard from him since Kagoshima, so I'm here to place a report."
"No clarification on his status?" Hayate asked.
"No. His body wasn't found."
"Well, we can start a search effort, but since we're still dealing with monsters across the country, it may take a while before we find him."
"As long as we find him," Atsushi told him. "I made a promise to his mother."
Hayate began typing on his computer, pulling up a file labeled "Shidou, Isamu."
"Age, 19. Class, Tōshi. Time spent in the organization, 5 months and counting. Hmm. I remember this kid. He's that quirky one, no?"
"Indeed. Do you have the ability to locate him? Even my daughter has failed."
"We'll do our best."
Unbeknownst to the two of them, a shadowy creature was listening in on their conversation before quietly sneaking away.
Floor 2—-
Zaria, now exhausted, navigated spikes, moving platforms, and illusory ice until she finally crawled her way to the flag, grabbing hold of it.
〈*1/3* Flags Acquired.〉
The ice shifted into a massive rock platform which had a staircase that led them deeper into the sea.
Gakuto helped Zaria up. "Nice work, kid! I definitely couldn't have handled all that as well as you!"
"Thanks…"
The three walked down the stairs, reaching a ruined shipwreck domain under the sea. Before them stood a flag trapped in a glass case, and below it were five totem pillars, each with a different colored mask: blue, red, white, black, and green.
〈Face all Totems the Correct Way.〉
"Now what is this crap?" Zaria groaned. "Where's the combat stuff? Not all this puzzling bullshit!"
Gakuto cracked his neck. "I'm sure this is light work. How do we adjust these things?"
He touched the blue one, which caused the green and red ones to spin around, their eyes glowing. When he touched the black one, it caused the green one to spin back around, lighting the black one but reverting the green.
Zaria pointed to the white one. "Maybe try this?"
She smacked the white totem, which caused all the totems to rotate at once, misaligning them.
〈*3* Failed Attempts. Enforcing Penalty.〉
The water level began to rise to just below their knees, and Omariro stepped forward. "Pattern. Must watch."
"Pattern…" Zaria mused. "Okay! I'll see what the red and green ones do!"
She touched the red one, and it caused both it and the white totem to spin. When she touched the green totem, it caused every totem but itself to spin.
"I don't understand…" she lamented.
She hit the green totem again, which caused the blue and red totems to light up.
〈Enforcing Penalty…〉
The water rose to just around their hips.
Gakuto stepped forward. "We've got to be missing something. Let's take a step back and really read it."
Zaria's eyes passed over the totem. "Blue spins Red and Green…Black spins itself and Green, White spins them all…Red spins itself and white, and Green does it for all but itself…"
Omariro pointed to the totems. "Steps simple. Logic must be sound."
Zaria pivoted to the blue totem, touching it. Red and green flipped off. Omariro nodded. "Continue."
She looked at the state of the totems before hitting Black, which flipped both it and green on. "Is that good?"
"Girl must finish it."
She took a deep breath, before finally walking over and hitting the red totem, which flipped itself and turned the white one on. All of the totems' eyes glowed, and the glass containing the flag shattered, lowering it.
〈*2/3* Flags Acquired.〉
"I did it!" she bragged. "That's two down! You seen that, Master?"
"Girl adequate."
"There he goes again," she sighed. "With his vague old man praise."
A tunnel opened behind the flag, leading deeper into the ship. The group followed it, where they reached an eerie river, with coffins scattered apart from each other.
〈Avoid the Crimson Waters.〉
A large boat floated toward them, and they hopped in it, with Gakuto navigating. "Riding a river. Ain't so bad, right?"
The boat began to drift forward, but as it sailed past the first coffin, the water suddenly shifted red.
〈3…2…〉
"Shit! Uh…!"
Gakuto pointed to a coffin. "There!"
They squeezed into the coffin as time ran out, and from the tiny hole inside, they could see a large, shark-like monster devour the entire boat.
"Goodness," he realized. "That was close."
Another boat emerged from the waves as the water returned to normal, and they got inside, moving further toward the end.
The boat bumped along the coffins a few times, right before the water turned red once more. Gakuto hid in a coffin as Omariro carried Zaria into a separate one, just as the boat got devoured.
"We—we're kinda close sir," Zaria blushed.
"Hmm."
Omariro waited for the water to shift before he and Zaria got into the new boat, with Gakuto jumping in as well. "It almost got me there! Shark-food is not on my to-do list!"
The boat kept moving, this time even faster as it zipped past coffins. The water abruptly turned red, forcing Omariro to drag them into a coffin in just the nick of time before the boat was destroyed.
When they got out, they noticed the river began to lead up to a gigantic waterfall, which had rock platforms every few hundred feet up.
"We have to climb up that?" Zaria questioned. "So glad I didn't bring Rika."
The boat formed, speeding them up the waterfall. The water began to flicker from clear to red before finally settling on red. The group jumped to the nearest platform as a predator tore through the boat.
Shockingly, more predators emerged, tearing through platform after platform before the water turned clear and another boat came.
"They're upping the difficulty," Gakuto warned. "Gotta stay sharp!"
The boat traveled upward, but this time, all the platforms shattered and predators began zipping through the crimson waterfall, forcing Omariro to use his Jugen to move the boat from left to right.
"Sir, look out!"
One tore through the side of the boat, causing the trio to scoot over. Another attempted to take a bite out of the back, but Zaria kicked it away. Using her foot, she pulled off the rocks behind the waterfall, accelerating them further.
Up ahead was the flag, which was floating over the edge of the waterfall's cliff. Zaria took it upon herself to climb to the tip of the boat, reaching out and grabbing it. "Got it!"
〈*3/3* Flags Acquired. Totem Seal Granted.〉
A totem appeared, turning into a sigil in Zaria's hand. "We got one! Closer to unlocking the door—-!"
Suddenly, a predator shark lunged at Zaria, but Omariro pushed her out of the way, and the shark snatched him up and dragged him through a gate.
"Master!"
Zaria tried to jump after him, but Gakuto kept her from falling out of the boat as it floated through a separate gate.
Floor 1—
They returned to Floor 1, where a wave of water washed them over to the others. Rika looked around. "Huh? Where's Mr. Nyugawa?"
Zaria got up, lashing at and shaking Gakuto. "Why did you do that? He's in trouble! We have to go back!"
The gate to the second floor closed, and Gakuto gave a sad sigh. "We can't. He's on a different path now. All we can do is reunite with him as fast as possible."
He turned toward the sealed door. "And that means collecting the rest of the seals."
"Wait," Nonoka realized. "You guys LOST him?"
"How could you let that happen?" Rika questioned. "What if something happens to him?"
"He'll be okay," Gakuto assured them. "For whatever reason the Sea Beast separated him, it must have been a good one."
The sealed door briefly flashed light blue before returning to its dormant state.
——