The once empty void of the spacious room now felt even tighter than the tunnel as the air filled with the unnatural rainfall. Before long, water began rushing past Motonubu’s knees and threatened to go even higher (though the man was fairly short so Junko wasn’t too worried just yet). Junko turned to Motonubu for some type of guidance but for once the Agent didn’t appear to have an immediate answer to this dilemma. She did notice him slip something back into his cloak. Whatever he did was pointless, as moments later he pulled the lamp back out. He thrust it towards her and shouted with uncharacteristic volume so he could be heard over the roar of the storm. “HOLD THIS!”

Shielding her face Junko took the light from Motonubu, and pointed with one arm towards the canal. “WE NEED TO GO GET GEKKO!” Gone was the previous distance Motonubu and Junko kept from each other- the roar of splashing water made it impossible to keep that conceit up any longer.

The already miniscule amount of light the lantern offered was even more pathetic as the gray water continued to pummel them. What started as an upsetting amount of flow around their legs quickly became hazardous as the force pulling them towards the canal grew in strength. “I AM GOING TO GET THE BOY,” Motonubu screamed. “TRY NOT TO DROWN.”

“WHAT?” Junko’s now waterlogged hair was getting in the way, and she attempted to both hold the lantern and tie her loose hair back lest it remove even more of her limited vision. “DO YOU EXPECT ME TO SWIM IN THIS? IT’S BLOODY COLD!” The temperature wasn’t the only detail that concerned Junko; from the taste and smell, it was clear where the flood was coming from the sea. Being so far underground meant if the ocean wanted in, it was going to get in. Drowning in an enclosed space was one of those deaths Junko would have much prefered to avoid if possible.

“ARE YOU GOING TO- OH, OKAY.” Junko shouted after Motonubu, who had already taken off in the direction Gekko fled moments ago. The channel at their feet was already filling up but Motonubu leapt into it as if it were just a swimming pool. She braced herself against the wall with one arm while holding out the lamp in the other, with little to do but just endure the rising tide. The slick floor of the room was doing her no favors either and she felt the grip slipping as the force of the rushing water grew. How would Gekko or Motonubu find each other now? With no light or guideposts, and certainly no sound over the roar of this water, he couldn’t possibly locate the boy, could he? Maybe she should have gone after them, too. It wasn’t as though standing there was going to solve anything.

The water continued to rise but eventually tapered off right around her thigh, which was still quite alarming. It took a good deal of her strength to stay stuck to the far wall as the flood kept sweeping past her and into the canal. The deluge itself didn’t seem to let up but the pull of the water wasn’t getting any stronger. It was strange to call that a relief but her standards had dropped precipitously during her stay on Jinchi. A stable level of danger was better than an unknown amount of it! Still, the icy water robbed her of precious body heat, and the lamp’s protective glass coating meant little if her grip slipped and she tumbled into the water. Groping along in the wet darkness sounded like a terrible experience even if she could swim.

Well, no matter! Kiku-Ichimonji Junko wasn’t called the Iron Tower for nothing. She planted herself like an anchor and withstood that storm. The rushing water seemed to be getting carried ‘downhill’, as Gekko had put it, and even her limited engineering knowledge could see how the canal was supposed to work now. With a small boat or raft one would be carried quite easily down the artificial rapids. Had she more time or energy she could have pondered how the Jinchi people’s rode this current back up as well- this seemed like a very one-way method of travel.

Those thoughts were interrupted as something impossible floated by her. Junko blinked, thinking maybe that rum was just hitting her a bit later than usual, but the strange sight persisted. Then not just one impossible thing, but dozens, then hundreds began to sweep past her. The bscuring rain and white-rapids like turbidity of the water kept the anomalies concealed at first, but soon it became apparent this was no hallucination as their numbers started swelling and the ‘rain’ started to taper off. Her first thought was the most nonsensical.

Stars. Stars? Hundreds, no, thousands of stars, small pinpricks of light barely bright enough to pierce through the haze of falling water, but unmistakable now as they clumped up and grew in strength and number. How could there be stars in the water? No, no, they couldn’t be stars. For one, stars didn’t have the rainbow of colors that these things did. Yet at her feet and flowing around her was the unmistakable illumination of thousands of...starlets. She looked up from her feet and back towards the canal and it was unmistakable there as well. Like someone had dumped a bunch of tiny lights into the water she could now see the edges of the canal with much more clarity. Thousands of pinpoint light sources added together to give the barest outline of the structure, reaching farther even than the lamp had been able to illuminate. The entire cavern floor was rapidly becoming a kaleidoscopic galaxy. Were she not soggy and miserable, the surreal sight would have almost been breathtaking.

Any time something weird happened it could usually be attributed to the actions of an Agent. This, though, felt almost...harmless. Taking a risk Junko bent down to scoop up some of the water rushing past her that was laden with the shining specks, and although it took a few tries she eventually got a few of the tiny points of light onto her fingers. Holding up a pair of bright blue dots she brought them closer to her face before the falling rain had a chance to wash them away again.

They were mushy and deformed and up close and out of the water like this they looked like nasty boogers...but they were vaguely identifiable. Right before the deluge knocked them loose from her hand she remembered some of the sea life she saw on the beaches of Jinchi when she trained out there in between jobs. These starlets looked somewhat similar to jellyfish...albeit much more colorful and luminescent. Maybe they only glowed deep underwater?

The momentary wonder of the flooding animals started to erode away as the implications began to filter through. The saltiness of the water now falling on all sides gave away its oceanic origin but for some reason Junko assumed the water must have been coming from a cistern or some kind of ancient storage. If there were jellyfish or some other kind of animal in it, that meant it was tapped directly to the surrounding sea. That also meant that this ruin wasn’t isolated from the rest of the world. Any kind of animal might be able to get in.

That wasn’t a big deal though, was it? After all, the ocean was a huge place. The odds of anything truly worth worrying about getting into such a distant, impossible to reach location were astronomically small. Yet even with the growing light imminanting from the water everything felt so much darker all of a sudden. The turbid waters she stood in were nearly up to her thighs now. Not being able to see her legs (or rather, what might be swarming around her legs) was not a good feeling. Those enormous thumping she heard earlier was also concerning. She thought it might have just been some ancient machinery, but what if the source had been from something living? Fighting in a swamp was not something Junko exactly had a lot of experience in. Where the heck was Motonubu, anyway? Had he and Gekko just ditched her here?

All this added up to an increasing sense of dread. Junko doused the lamp light and placed it in her now completely waterlogged bag. Even without its pathetic glow she could see well enough by the light of the jellyfish to navigate again. Slowly she edged her way through the cold, still moving water, heading towards the edge of the canal (or at least where she remembered it being). Briefly the idea of swimming down along it entered her head, but that was insanity. Who knew if this canal was safe? It might end in a giant waterfall or death trap! Rather she was testing the waters in a more literal sense. Maybe Motonubu or Gekko were on the other side?

The decision would be made for her. Although Junko was very attuned to all of her senses, that skill didn’t account for much when it came to sensory overload like this. Without warning something enormous slammed into her from behind.

The force was equivalent to a person’s bodyweight, and not a manlet like Motonubu either. Caught off guard Junko stumbled forward but managed to slowly turn around in the water to face what struck her. Even in her head her reaction seemed over the top- in a flash she managed to pull out Hikiboshi as though she expected an enemy to be behind her. That sounded absurd and of course there was nobody standing there. Only the water, the glowing lights, and...

It swam away from her now but she could clearly see the outline of something enormous sweeping down with the water. The flecks of jellyfish stuck to its surface and gave her a very crude approximation of its outline before it disappeared completely from sight. From the size alone it looked like a weirdly shaped log- rather, given the limited number of things it could be, it had to have been a big fish. An unlucky straggler that got caught in whatever drain was pulling water from the ocean? It was already gone so the little collision wouldn’t be happening again. Maybe it wasn’t even alive at all. With her back to the canal Junko still held her sword out in front of her as if stabbing another fish would have done her any good. It was nerves. That weapon wasn’t going to help her here. In fact, having it out was even more dangerous. She might drop it. Or heaven forbid-

Even though the roar of the falling water came an enormous splashing from directly behind her. From directly in the canal. There wasn’t any time to turn around but Junko’s body still reacted instantly, as she was always primed at all times to snap into combat. Her arm twisted and rotated Hikiboshi behind herself to intercept what she assumed to be some other flailing fish. She wasn’t too far off the mark.

The blade caught something hard. That ‘something hard’ also nearly ripped the sword from Junko’s grip the moment the two collided. Rather than let the weapon be torn away she held on tight, which resulted in her getting tugged completely along for the ride. Junko slid along the floor, being pushed by the water and this huge unknown threat, before being thrown off balance entirely. As she quickly inhaled and prepared to get dunked underwater Junko caught a glimpse of the creature erupted out of the canal. This fish looked big- no positively massive. She was close enough to make out just enough details to understand the danger. Her sword (and by extension, her arm) had been caught between rows of its gleaming teeth, all arranged in its huge jaws in staggered rows. Like an apple in the mouth of a pig, her entire limb had plugged itself right into the maw of a fish bigger than most people. Bigger than Junko! The animal clearly didn’t take to having a sword in its mouth very kindly, and jerked its head from side to side in response, tossing Junko aside like a minnow. As she plunged into the canal and found herself submerged in water Junko thought it must have been some kind of nightmare.

A shark. It was a damn shark!

The tip of her sword slid out of its mouth as the current took carried her away, freeing her a moment before the animal’s wicked grin snapped shut around her arm. Junko’s senses became muddied as the rushing water entered her ears and eyes. In normal circumstances this wouldn’t have been so dire, as Junko always steadied her breathing and was perfectly capable of swimming. Unfortunately the breathing technique of her martial art didn’t line up very well with the kind of breathing one needed to do to prevent drowning. Turns out oxygen was a pretty vital component to not dying.

What now? Prepare for attack, or focus on not drowning? That shark attack must have been a fluke, right? A stupid coincidence? Maybe it was attracted to the food in her bag or something. In the wild shark attacks were incredibly rare. Animals didn’t just look for trouble like that! And how the hell had it found her in this darkness? Even if she had some blood on her, the flow of the current pushed opposite the direction the shark came from. It was as if the beast honed in on her and her specifically.

Already Junko’s free hand pushed through the water’s flow to pull out Sahori. The slow and sloppy movements couldn’t be helped, as the current impeded her usually snappy reaction times. Somehow she managed to surface again to just briefly to catch a gulp of air before the water overtook her. Fine. This was fine! She would make her way to the edge of the canal and find somewhere to get back up. It was no different than a day at the beach!

In that swirl of jellyfish speckled water Junko saw a rapidly approaching shadow. Any illusion of a quick getaway shattered. The absurdity of an underwater attack took a backseat compared to the reality of what was happening- the shark was undoubtedly targeting her again. Right before impact she recalled that encounter with the Maeda, and the dogs he somehow wrangled into his service. Were Jinchi animals just that much more unfriendly? That story Gekko maligned earlier sounded more probable than ever. As if she needed more of a reason to hate this dumb island!

Junko twisted her body underwater before the enormous jaws of the beast could shoot forward. Putting her blades in a scissor-like position she caught the edges of the animal’s maw and felt the tips of the swords bend slightly as they sunk into its tough flesh. The shark’s muscle wasn’t like leather or scales at all, but almost like cutting into tree bark. The weight of the animal upon impact ratted her skull and she almost expelled all her breath just from the shock along. The speed and power of the thing! Not only was it bigger than Junko, it probably punched way harder than her on top of that.

Its head jerked back and forth in an aggressive attempt to loosen Junko’s swords from its face, which was the only thing keeping it from pushing forward to lock its jaws around her body properly. The force easily carried Junko from side to side through the water as they both were swept up by the canal’s current. On land Junko might have been able to use a bit of redirection to get away but, well, right now her legs were more busy trying to keep her from drowning. Sharks weren’t that intelligent were they? Maybe she could just wait until it got tired and try to deal with it then?

As if answering her question the shark took a sudden sharp turn, carrying Junko with it. Before she could even realize what happened a strong solid blow landed across her back. Then the shark flung itself sideways, then back again, and the painful blow landed again. The sides of the canal! The dumb brute was slamming her against the smooth stone running along the edge of the man-made channel they were now both getting swept along in! What kind of hunting strategy was that?! Where in nature did a shark learn to beat its prey against a hard surface, like trying to crack a nut? Maybe turtles put up more of a fight than Junko gave them credit for.

As a third, then a fourth strike rattled Junko those thoughts got shaken loose and replaced by the immediate danger of losing hold of her weapons. Right now Hikiboshi and Sahori were keeping the beast's jaws from snapping shut around her and even apart from that, her muscles couldn’t hold out much longer at prying those teeth apart. The weapons embedded themselves to such a degree that pulling them out likely wouldn’t work either. There was no chance of simply inflicting a mortal wound on the animal from her current position. As another bone crunching slam contorted her body painfully, Junko cast aside the usual rules of combat. No point in trying to read her opponents breathing or footing here. If anything, those cerebral lessons taught to her by her clan would only hinder her. Only pure, beastial instinct would work here.

The next slam from the shark loosened her grip completely. Both her blades slipped from her grasp and she let out a gurgling gasp as the air finally got knocked right out of her lungs. Now there was nothing between her and the shark’s stomach. The predator seemed to sense her weakness instantly and surged forward again with jaws outstretched. Even in the limited rainbow light Junko could tell the giant mouth would be more than enough to encompass the entire length of her torso. It could probably snap her in two like a stick of celery.

Submerged, Junko still managed to blurt out an ‘idiot, which instead came out as a nasty thought and a couple of large bubbles. The animal closed its jaws, and the angled hilts of both her blades slammed into each other with perfect precision. Junko didn’t possess enough strength to pull the blades through the creature’s flesh. However, the shark was more than powerful enough to stab itself! When its jaws closed it forced both blades together, like it stepping on an exposed nail. The two weapons sank through opposite sides of the shark’s head, with Sahori on top very cleanly piercing through to the top. Even an animal as meaty as this one would feel such a blow! Reeling from its own damage, the shark stopped its might bite before it could fully close its jaws. That stopped the teeth from doing more than just slightly sinking into Junko’s flesh.

The dazed creature couldn’t really react as Junko thrust both her hands back into its gullet and grabbed hold of both her weapons again. Using the last bit of air in her lungs Junko pulled up and twisted herself backwards, lifting the giant animal straight up and partially out of the water. Then she slammed it behind herself, using gravity and the shark’s own weight to drive her weapons sideways through its tremendously tough skin. An enormous splash erupted from the surface of the rushing water as the animal was effectively slammed into the side of the canal, before Junko pulled her blades loose and severed its titanic head completely. The salty water around her immediately tasted bitter as warm blood poured out of the dispatched animal. Just like gutting a fish!

Sputtering and spitting like a miserable cat Junko managed to heave herself up back to the surface. She blinked rapidly to try and clear her eyesight before hearing a distant shout. The sandpaper voice of Motonubu for once didn’t bring her immediate disgust. She gave her best return scream over the noise of the splashing seawater.

“I’m over here, you stupid git!”

After a few tense minutes of waiting, something large on the surface of the water pulled into view. Both her blades were still drawn and Junko tightened up again, ready to behead any more sealife looking to pick a fight. Instead, as it drew closer, the jellyfish provided light revealed its true shape- not the long, meaty form of another angry predator, but of a rigid, long rectangular shape, with something slender standing atop it.

It looked like a raft. A raft! Here, of all places! Would the wonders of this Jinchi ruin never cease?

Motonubu, perhaps spotting Junko, finally called out. “Ah, Legionnaire Kiku-ichimonji Junko! Doing well despite it all, I see.” Junko did her best to hide her contempt as she gripped onto the long raft and began trying to pull herself into it. The usually distant Motonubu even almost made an attempt to help out. “No, no, it’s cool.” Junko wheezed as her waterlogged body clambered up onto the long sections of strange material that made up the raft. “I’m fine, everyone just stay where you are.”

“Certainly.” The excessively damp Motonubu watched warily as the exhausted Junko finally got the bulk of her weight onto the vessel. He braced himself as the sudden influx of the new load shook the raft precariously, but the large size of it kept the disturbance to a minimum.

A tiny, withdrawn voice near the back of the raft whispered out. “You smell awful.” Junko pulled some fibrous shark innards off herself as she struggled to even out her breathing. Even with the rainbow of lights provided by the still present jellyfish Junko couldn’t tell exactly what, or how, or why the raft existed- it appeared to be thin but quite long, almost like a canoe or kayak given how far back Motonubu positioned himself. Its surface felt as slick as the stone that the whole tunnel had been constructed with, but not nearly as heavy as rock or earth. As she wiped excess moisture from her face and shifted into a sitting position she got a better look at all the occupants as well. Both Motonubu and Gekko sat on the far opposite ends like children having been separated by their parents after a fight.

Both of her swords clattered to her side as she took a moment to compose herself after the ordeal. Around them the water still surged and flowed, pushing the raft farther and farther down the canal. The dim light provided by the aquatic wildlife only seemed to grow in intensity the farther down the waterway they went, or maybe that was just the speed they were going at? It was actually fairly brisk, almost like a sprint compared to how fast they would have been able to move without the water. A dozen different questions floated around Junko’s buzzed mind and she ended up picking the most irrelevant to go for first. “How did you spot me?”

Motonubu paused before answering, and when he did answer he instead completely ignored Junko's inquiry. “Do you still have my lamp?”

“What? That’s- yeah, good luck lighting it again.” Junko tossed the supply bag she carried towards the squatting Motonubu. There was certainly nothing left in there worth eating after that abysmal trip down the canal. The hourglass still rested safely on her own person, though she really wanted to check on it after that tumultuous trip. She would have to do it later.

Motonubu grabbed the bag and quickly fished out his lamp from within it. The entire interior of the glass body of the object was flooded with water, as evidenced when he opened it up and the contents came spilling out. Served him right! The surface of the glass looked particularly stunning though, given the amount of jellyfish that managed to cling to it during the short time Junko was submerged. Motonubu did not seem upset about this development. Instead he reached inside the lamp’s body and seemed to pluck something out from within.

“Wha- hey.” Junko squinted, trying to see what was in the man’s fingers in the odd lighting. “What was that? What did you just pull out?”

“Hm?” Motonubu rolled an object in between his fingers. Some of the jellyfish still clung to it in their globby, washed up way. “You don’t recognize it? I let you hold it for some time just a while ago, Legionnaire.” He held it up again as if that answered anything. “This is a Metsina Royal Family treasure, the skull which opened the way forward. I thought we might need it later.”

“Oh. That thing.” Junko gave a dismissive exhale and resumed trying to remove excess moisture from herself. “Afraid you might lose it if you carried it yourself?”

“Of course not.” The rainbow glow adorning the rock disappeared as Motonubu replaced it beneath his obscuring cloak. “But it is quite dangerous to carry so I left it in your charge. It attracts unwanted attention, you see.”

“Unwanted...” Junko took a moment to parse the phrase. The abnormally quiet Gekko, sitting in the far front of the raft, answered.

“Animals will chase after that skull.” His voice sounded more distant than ever, even considering the actual physical distance with which he sat from Junko. “Or anyone holding it. It drives them mad.”

“Drives them...wait a minute.” She pointed at Motonubu who seemed unworried by the reveal. “That thing opened the floodgates, and right after that I got attacked by a giant bloody shark. Are you telling me it’s responsible for both?”

“And,” Motonubu gestured at Junko, “for us being able to locate you. These luminescent jellyfish are quite easy to spot when they congregate around a single person.”

Aha! It became obvious now that he said it, not that it made Junko feel any less violated. As she continued wiping herself down she realized she looked positively clownlike with how many of the jellyfish had been clinging to her as well. It hadn’t been all that bad, either- the little creatures didn’t sting or anything, and having so many around her was likely the only reason she could see so well given the darkness of the cavern. With that mystery solved (and perhaps ignoring the implications of Motonubu saddling her with a dangerous artifact), Junko’s mind moved to the next least important question.

“Where on earth did you find a raft?”

That question ended up with a bit more of a pause as if both present parties were waiting for the other to answer. Eventually Motonubu spoke up. “Cadet Tanuma Gekko located it. It seems he knew right where to go when he heard the water coming.”

“Did he, huh.” Junko finally had time to replace both her swords back into their sheaths, and glanced up at the distant Gekko. He sat with his back to both of them. “So he saw some directions or something in that weird-ass language of his and just didn’t feel like sharing, I guess? Kind of rude but not unexpected. I told you the kid was a goblin.”

“It’s not a raft.” Gekko’s voice barely rose up above the din of the water churning around them. “It’s a coffin.”

The previous silence was replaced by a much more awkward one. It shouldn’t have been asked but Junko did so anyway as she ran her hand across the bottom of their apparently seaworthy sarcophagus. “Was it, uh, previously occupied?”

“It is occupied now.” Motonubu’s rumbling tone didn’t give away any hints one way or another, which just made it that much more unsettling. “I would wager the ancient Jinchi peoples transported much of their material this way. It could easily have been a barge for any number of types of cargo.”

“It’s a coffin.” Gekko stated with a much more firm sense of resolve. “Trust me. It is for dead people.”

“Well!” Junko gave her knee a wet slap, still running high from the encounter with the shark.“Not today it isn’t!” The excitement and energy was finally draining away from Junko’s blood as the group settled into an even pace down the canal. For a millenia old waterway system their progress was remarkably smooth. No debris or clutter blocked their path forward as the water continued to push them down the incline towards some unknown destination, despite Junko’s fear of getting hurled off a waterfall. They had traveled some distance from their starting point and no more salt rain fell on them either, so things finally seemed to be looking up. “So where does this thing lead, huh?” She strained to see down the path they were headed but the jellyfish only illuminated the water, and nothing surrounding the canal. “Some giant ancient Jinchi toilet?”

“I would hazard a guess,” Motonubu seemed to shrug, “that we are headed towards the old main hub of Jinchi civilization. Like a train station, of sorts.”

“He’s not guessing.” Gekko’s voice cracked out. “I told him that.”

“He might be lying,” Motonubu shot back.

“I wish I was lying.”

“Okay, cool it kids. Let's not rock the boat.” Fishing some more bits of glowing jellyfish out of her hair Junko finally began easing up her battle readiness. The absolute terror of the unknown was still present, of course, but the adrenaline from having decapitated a shark on its home turf was doing wonders for her morale. She went to take a swig from her gourd, but remembered she already drank the rest of her rum prior to the indoor rainstorm starting up.

Okay, so, morale was back at rock bottom. Junko buried half her face in her slimy hand and exhaled. At least if she died now, she would already be in a coffin.