“Kin, are you sure…?”

“Yes, Mion. I’m sure. There’s only one place where the damn ruler could have gone, and that’s back down. I wish I could leave it, Mion, but I can’t. It’s a useful tool, and it can--it can do stuff for us, and it might tell us about what this place is.”

“It’s a rangefinder, Kin. That’s all it is. A laser ruler.”

Kin realised the irony of arguing with an intelligence matrix and decided to make his way down.

“They’re still down there…”

“...Good point.”

Kin swam back up to the little hole in the ceiling and decided to nestle in there until the ghostly wails of the Sirens faded.

“Happy?”

Without waiting for Mion’s indignant reply, Kin pushed off the edges of the hole. His flippers stirred up infinitesimal motes of dust as the boy descended back down.

Nothing accosted him on his dive and Kin made good time, his flippers impacting the bottom about five minutes after his descent began.

This hall is huge. How am I going to get the rangefinder?

Kin drifted gently above the floor, using his ankles to push himself slowly around on his flippers. He decided that using the flashlight or headlight would be detrimental to his chances of not getting found by a Siren and chose to conduct the search aided only by the wispy blue lights.

Kin started by swimming to a wall. He then crossed its length, looking down, searching for the device. When he hit the other end of the wall, he moved slightly to the side and repeated the process.

One...two...one...two…

After what seemed like an eternity, Kin’s eyes finally rested upon the sleek black item.

“Finally, something goes right for once…” Unable to resist a grumble, Kin tucked the rangefinder back in his pocket, and then turned to go.

Click. Click click.

His torchlight had died.

“Oh for…” Kin couldn’t even muster up the strength to grumble.

So he continued upwards, using the rangefinder to pinpoint obstacles, working in the pitch black, surrounded on all sides by gaping maws of torn steel.

Sonorous wails resonated in the distance, and, for the first time since the adrenaline rush that he had experienced while getting lost, Kin felt totally and truly alone.

Alone, surrounded by kilometres of abyss on all ends, truly cut off from the outside world.

It was there, in the total darkness, that Kin made his first goal that had any meaning beyond eking out a miserable existence in this miserable place.

He wanted out.