With naught but the passive glow of the jellyfish to keep the uneasy truce company, the ride down Jinchi’s ancient canals continued. The wide room slowly funneled itself into something more narrow, but nothing so claustrophobic to put Junko on edge. It felt, in its own way, almost like casually floating down a stream. If not for the ever present danger of being attacked by another shark Junko might have been able to relax a bit.

“No other creatures should harm us.” Though most of Motonubu’s face rested in shadow Junko could make out enough to tell the man wasn’t letting his guard down. “The artifact seems to only draw attention when it is held closely on the person of another. I have placed it within our vessel to be safe.”

“Gee, thanks.” Junko drew Sahori just to watch Motonubu’s reaction, then began slowly cleaning it. “Any idea how long this is going to take? We’ve been cruising for a while now.”

“I cannot even hazard a guess.”

“Great.” Checking behind her, Junko noticed the tiny form of Gekko curled up on the far end of the coffin-raft. Was he sleeping? It wasn’t as though he had anywhere to run now. “At least we don’t have to worry about running into Daisuke down here. Care to share why that guy picked a fight with us back on the docks? You were a little sparse on answers last time I asked.”

Motonubu’s tone suggested reluctance, but he replied anyway. “Same reason you want it. The Tears it contains may bring back the dead. It is a prize that can drive many to...irrational decisions.”

“Seems like he had a bit more motivation than the normal treasure hunter. He got a dead wife or something?”

That comment almost seemed to make Motonubu smile. Or maybe it was a smirk. “Please. General Hashimoto Daisuke is known as the Green Ghost for a variety of reasons. One of those is his complete physical detachment from human life. The man keeps no close company.”

“Aren’t all you Garion types total emotionless robots, though? Daisuke seemed friendlier than you, at least.”

Apparently with Gekko napping, Junko was seeing fit to slot into the unwanted commentary niche of the party. Perhaps it was a mistake not to bring more rum. Motonubu waved his hand dismissively at her suggestion. “You fought him yourself. Do you believe that statement to be true?”

“Hm.” Junko stayed silent for a bit apart from the sound she made as she cleaned her weapons. Eventually she spoke up again. “So who does he want to revive? A demon or something? Has he been the bad guy this whole time?”

“Does everything need to be so dramatic?” Motonubu scoffed. “It is impossible to know what any one person’s motivations are. I can only speculate.”

“Well,” Junko held her sword up in the jellyfish light, not examining it for damage but rather just admiring the glow. “Either you can speculate or I can start singing some old war songs. I hate waiting around doing nothing.”

“I would guess,” Motonubu gave a relenting sigh, “that General Hashimoto Daisuke wishes to revive his former teacher. The late General Kurosawa was the original owner of the Sixeyes, you see. It was inherited by his pupil.”

“Oh yeah? So it’s some dumb honor thing.” Junko replaced her weapons in their sheath and gave her a disdainful cough. “I thought you Agents were above all that. Nothing good ever comes of worshiping something as pointless as honor.”

“I would not call it honor.” Motonubu’s gaze departed from Junko for the first time in a while. It would have been a good time for a surprise attack but she was quite over those temptations at this point. “General Kurosawa became a traitor to Garion when he tried to acquire some Tears of his own.”

That earned a little sputter of surprise from Junko. “So the student follows the teacher, eh?”

Motonubu shrugged. “Perhaps in more ways than one. General Kurosawa was killed for his ambition.”

“See? What I tell you, honor is stupid.”

“Garion, and myself, share that sentiment.” Motonubu finally brought his attention back to Junko, though his face looked imperceptibly different. “General Hashimoto Daisuke was not quite on board with the execution of his mentor. I wager he still holds some bitterness over it.”

“It is not terribly productive to hold a grudge in this line of work.” Motonubu tapped the side of the raft with a thin finger. “But some facets of human nature are impossible to be rid of. Even if you are a ghost.”

“How philosophical.”

“I do not believe a disgraced, patricidal Legionnaire from the City of Kings can claim much of a moral high ground here.”

“Unlike some people,” Junko pointed the hilt of her blade at the crouched Motonubu. “I’m willing to let bygones be bygones. Otherwise I would have cut you in half the second time we met.”

“Which is why you wanted the hourglass yourself so much, hm?”

“Everyone wants this thing. I’m hardly unique there.”

“Yes, that is right.” Motonubu’s voiced dropped as he brought the discussion to a close. “We all want the same thing. What a pleasant world to live in where that is the case.”

For what felt like hours their raft continued unabated. As the winding canal took them from place to place Junko could make out what looked like other ruins, but without more light the most she could see were the outlines. Some rooftops, some staircases, some dock-like protrusions, and even a couple of statues. Neither Motonubu nor the napping Gekko even acknowledged the structures, leading Junko to surmise their final destination was some ways away.

Eventually after passing under a large arch, the artificial waterway became much bumpier. The fairly level and steady flow down the canal changed without warning as the incline turned drastically downwards. The path became less of a river and more like a chute, tossing both Gekko and Motonubu onto their butts as their coffin raft tilted in response.

Gekko let out the first cry of distress, letting out an unintelligible “What!” as he was stirred from his sleep. Motonubu fared a bit better, biting his tongue and retreated to the safety of the center of their vessel. Junko managed to maintain her balance and clung with both hands firmly on the floor of the raft as all three suddenly found themselves shooting down an unknown waterslide at an incredible speed.

“Oy!” Junko’s entire focus was now on the back of the raft where Gekko was struggling to right himself. “Hold on, you idiots! You don’t want to get tossed out when we hit the bottom!”

“The bottom-” Motonubu either didn’t finish or didn’t get to as splashing rapids from all sides surged into the raft. Now they were being thrust side to side and twisted in multiple directions as the water became exceedingly turbulent. The canal itself was shrinking! Walls on both sides closed in as the pathway funneled back inwards. There was no telling how deep the water was here, nor how this thrill ride was going to end. There was nothing for the passengers to do bit grit their teeth and hold on, though Gekko yelled out a high pitched obscenity once or twice on the most terrifying turns. The nauseating twists in the path kept up for several excruciating minutes and for a moment it felt as though their wild trip would all end in a horrible crash. It would only take one small roadblock in the canal to toss their bodies off the makeshift boat and into a one-way trip down an ancient Jinchi sewer system.

Then as suddenly as it began, the world opened up again. Somewhat like when the group entered the ruins, their ride entered into another unimaginably cavernous and spacious abyss.

Except this time the black abyss did not greet them, but something else entirely. The raft shot itself out of the tunnel and into a grand, mesmerizing galaxy. It happened with so little warning that for a moment Junko thought she must have hit her head and was hallucinating. The raft continued to zip along at a furious incline but now its trajectory could be clearly seen in the massive amounts of illumination present in this new location. Junko almost called it a new ‘room’ but that would have been vastly understating it. It was more like it delivered them to another ocean.

With a splash they landed into the new cavernous expanse. A spray of multicolored water erupted as they landed and for one sickening, lurching moment it felt as though the large rectangular coffin would plunge under and sink. However the natural buoyancy of the material pushed back up and the trio resurfaced with only slightly more soggy than before.

In his standard fashion of ignoring advice Gekko hadn’t held on and was nearly tossed overboard after landing. Instead of flying off the raft he bounced back and collapsed into a tangle right as they were starting to settle down. Neither Junko nor Motonubu moved to assist the child, perhaps for different reasons. Junko barely even noticed as she was taking in their new surroundings. The canal had delivered them to an expansive, impressively well lit area. All the illumination came from just beneath the surface of the water where the glowing jellyfish congregated and now she could see an uncountable number of the luminescent creatures spread out over the wide pool of water that covered the floor of this room. It wasn’t an even coating, through, and all the creatures seemed to be spiraling towards some focal point in the distance.

This time she could say for sure this was definitely a room. The churning surface of water that extended out in all directions might have been mistaken for a sea if not for the distant rock walls just barely visible through the misty darkness. Her homeland, the City of Kings, possessed only a handful of similar megastructures within its borders, but the sheer scope of something like this existing on an island as barren and uncivilized as Jinchi stunned her. It was like a giant had scooped out a huge pool out of the earth and filled it with a rainbow of galaxies, constellations, and suns.

On the opposite side of the spectrum sat Motonubu, who’s attention fell onto one thing and one thing only. Right around the middle of the underground sea stood some kind of long, twisted citadel, surrounded by numerous black rooftops and other dwelling-like structures. All the light in this artificial sea seemed to be slowly orbiting around that location. The other buildings surrounding the citadel hid its base from view, but the vaguest shape of a twisted spire or column extending out of it and towards the unseen ceiling of the artificial sea could be made out. At once Motonubu was moving towards the back of the raft where he sidestepped the still fallen Gekko.

With a groggy groan Gekko did eventually right himself to take in the new vista. His reaction differed entirely from Junko’s and Motonubu’s. Rather than stunned or eager, he looked positively confused. “This can’t be right.” He rubbed his tender cheek and turned his head around to take in the whole sight. “This isn’t...I don’t get it.” Rubbing his eyes he looked over towards the still unraptured Junko. “It’s supposed to be a city...”

“Is it not?” Motonubu didn’t turn to speak directly to Gekko. Instead he seemed preoccupied fiddling with something on the back of the raft. “The water here must be quite deep. I imagine the rest of Jinchi’s ancient civilization is far, far below us.”

“Are you stupid?” As Gekko’s senses returned, so did his bitter tongue. “Are you trying to say that dumb children’s tale about the flood-” His comment was interrupted as the raft suddenly jolted forward, nearly knocking him on his face again. This time he was much more prepared and gripped the sides of the raft. Junko, in the meantime, had already drawn her weapons and was retreating to the front of the raft with a wide stance and an agitated look on her face.

“I can’t believe- is it another goddamn shark?” Gritting her teeth she carefully peered over the edge, wary of any teeth that might breach the surface. “Motonubu, your cursed rock is going to make us capsize! That thing is going to draw the attention of-”

“-some large beasts, I know.” Junko was too preoccupied to pay attention to the Agent, but Gekko’s attention snapped back to Motonubu with immediate suspicion. A brief bright flash of orange sparks shot out from the rear of the vessel, but otherwise no other action appeared to happen. As he finished his ministrations to the coffin he turned back and looked quite pleased with himself. “I would recommend everyone move away from the sides. The rest of the ride might be fairly bumpy.”

“Yeah, because so far it’s been smooth sailing-URK!” Another one of Gekko’s comments got cut short as Motonubu’s prediction came true and the raft jerked savagely again as something rammed them from behind. Junko wavered but remained standing with both blades ready to impale whatever sea life decided to try and pick a fight. The raft moved again from the force and began drifting towards the distant citadel.

“What did you do?” Junko remained on high alert but the real anger in her voice was reserved for that insufferable Agent. “The hell did you do, Motonubu?!”

“Doing as the locals do. Or did, I suppose.” Motonubu sat down now and gave Gekko a very smug looking smile. “Using the animal friends of Jinchi to carry us to our destination. Yes, Cadet Tanuma Gekko, just like in the story.”

Another large strike shook the raft again, followed by a lot of sailor-like swearing from Junko. Gekko held on for dear life as an entire cascade of collisions began to push their raft forward inevitably towards the central structure. Soon larger shadows floated behind them, parting the jellyfish as they rose to the surface. Gekko could identify some of the creatures that were enthusiastically ramming into their vessel: a couple of large sea fish, a human-sized squid, what looked like a dolphin...it was a veritable parade of marine wildlife. Yet strangely their actions looked devoid of any real intelligence. As an Annitou native he had an idea of what these animals should be acting like if they were trying to attack them. Rather they looked like...thralls of some sort, or puppets. These weren’t the animal friends from the old stories. These creatures were controlled by something else.

The ever watchful Junko noticed it too, though for a different reason. “Oy, this ain’t right.” She pointed with one of her swords at a dead looking large tuna that now lay motionless on the surface after ramming them. “What in the blazes is happening? Did you curse the boat, Motonubu? I told you, I’m not going to put up with voodoo.”

Motonubu almost looked like he was reclining with how casually he was sitting back on the boat. It wouldn’t have looked out of place if he had taken out his pipe and started smoking. “It seems the Jinchi people had little regard for life themselves, if this was how they got around. Still, it is easier than rowing, isn’t it? I would recommend you relax, lest you be thrown out of our transportation if something bigger decides to give us a push.”

“That’s-ugh, that smell.” Gekko turned up his nose as he looked away from the animals throwing themselves against the raft. “That’s not right at all. Godless Garion goons have no business judging other cultures.”

“Now suddenly you feel like defending those old fairy tales? What a twist!”

“You are just spitting out nonsense- oh, urk.” Gekko lurched again as the boat continued its uneven movement. This seemed to amuse Motonubu even more. Junko, now paying slightly less attention to the repeated strikes to the boat since it seemed to not be an immediate threat, realized what was happening.

“Really, kid?” Her voice was a mixture of surprise and subtle disappointment. “You’re getting seasick? An Annitou cadet can’t handle a bit of turbulence?”

“It’s- ugh.” Gekko let out a little groan of discomfort. “Come on, you guys can smell it too, right? Sea water mixed with fish guts...urk.”

“Try and hold it in.” Motonubu, having exhausted his interest in watching Gekko suffer, instead put his attention on the large citadel now growing in size as they approached. “It would be a shame for all that food we gave you to end up back in the water.”

“I’m not going to throw up because of this awful raft-” Gekko stopped mid sentence to let out a very worrying hiccup. “I just can’t stand people who act like they know everything when all they spout is garbage. You don’t understand a thing about- huuurk.”

Any further conversation died out as the halting, rocky movement continued to slowly push the raft across the otherwise placid rainbow sea and towards their final destination.

The pushing and thrashing of the enthralled wildlife carried the raft all the way to the edge of the partially submerged Jinchi city. As their raft slid between the large remnants of stone buildings the animal assistant grew weaker, letting Gekko regain some of control of his stomach again. “Look at these ugly things.” Junko scoffed, squinted as they passed by numerous windowless stone structures with a variety of interlocking concentric circles carved onto their surface. “Where are the doors? The windows? These dudes must have been living more miserably than the population of Garion.”

“These are just the tops of the buildings,” Gekkoe gurgled as he steadied himself. “Look, you can see- there’s so many more below the surface. It would take a decade to explore all this!”

“I doubt the Jinchi people had much to look at down here, anyway.” Motonubu’s attitude only seemed to grow brighter the closer they drew to the central tower. “Living underground in fear of divine retribution...a shame, they might have found much in common with Garion in this day and age.”

Gekko reached out to touch something, but then drew his hand back into the raft at the last moment. “That would be a first.”

As the sealife pittered out and the raft floated closed and closer to the tower, it became apparent that the free ride was coming to an end. At first Junko worried there would be nowhere to land the raft. After all, at a distance the structure looked impenetrable, with no clear harbor or docking area to take advantage of. In fact a significant chunk of it looked as though it extended underwater, as if all its proper entrances had been flooded over long ago.

However as they drew closer a series of long, shadow slits running along the perimeter those sheer walls came into view. Like threading a needle Motonubu very gently began to sweep the water with what looked like a broken piece of pottery. It wasn’t as though there were a lot of options here either- Junko couldn’t exactly jump off and start swimming in shark infested waters, and getting out and pushing sounded extraordinarily risky.

But, surprisingly, the room that awaited them beyond the wall’s opening was actually very mundane. The fluorescent jellyfish still lingered here as well, as they seemed to be gathering in numbers around the boat like moths to a flame. As soon as the raft entered a large inclined ramp came into view at the base of the tower’s interior, one that ran up and out into some other unseen location. In this spot they could even see the large vaulted ceiling above them, which was decorated much like the first mural they came across was back before they turned on the water works. Junko nudged the recovering Gekko and pointed upwards. “Yo, kid. That garbage up there say anything? Are we gonna get rained on again?”

With a beleaguered expression Gekko forced his head to look up. He blinked a few times, then resumed looking down at the water below. “It says ‘All the treasure is underwater, don’t bother looking here. And kidnappers should go to hell.”

“Ah, good to hear.” Junko resumed scanning the open room for somewhere safe to land. “If you’re healthy enough to backsass, then we can try and find someone to...throw anchor, or something. Anything to get us out of this water.”

Without a word, Motonubu saw something he liked, and he leapt out of the boat. All three were sufficiently waterlogged already from their thrilling canal adventure, so a little bit of extra moisture didn’t feel like something worth worrying about anymore anyway. The raft continued to move very slowly as Motonubu rushed to be the first to make landfall, abandoning the other two in his wake. Motonubu’s eagerness put Junko on edge. Despite having supposedly revealed his whole plan (or rather the plan of Garion, which Motonubu so loyally served), she felt almost certain there was some important information the man wasn’t sharing. The only reason she stuck around, obviously, was to try and squeeze out just a bit more of a payment from him. Maybe he was telling the truth and there was a boat off Jinchi she could hitch a ride on. If not, she still had the hourglass, with all the wondrous power it possessed. She could just zap herself back to the surface at any time...assuming Annitou hadn’t set up camp in the graveyard, anyway.

That was the only reason she was here. It definitely wasn’t because of another rationale. Junko kept telling herself to believe that.

Motonubu, after much splashing about, seemed to find his footing and comically scrambled up the side of the ramp leading up to dry ‘land’. It looked more like a roof than an actual landing port, as tiled shingles ran along its whole length, but Motonubu was able to wiggle his way up it nonetheless before he disappeared into the darkness. Moments later he came waddling back into view with a very pleased look of satisfaction on his face.

“There is a window-like opening this way.” His shouting voice carried across the water’s surface and reverberated through the large structure. There were clear tones of pleasure in his voice, which was very offputting. “Legionnaire Kiku-ichimonij Junko, grab the child and bring him over. We can abandon the coffin.” He began wringing excess moisture out of his cloak. “The prize awaits inside.”

“You make it all sound so appealing.” Junko glanced over at the recoiling Gekko. Despite his nausea the boy still seemed more than capable of putting up a fit if needed. “Do you want to wait in the boat, kid?”

“I want to go home.”

“Well, the boat ain’t taking you home.” Junko held out her hand to Gekko. “And without a translator we ain’t finding an exit. Didn’t you tell me I was gonna work for you? Can’t really give me orders sitting in a coffin like this.”

After some more hesitation, Gekko finally got back onto his wobbly feet. “I can swim. Don’t touch me.”

“Suit yourself.” With that Junko departed, hopping into the water and easily navigating her own way towards the makeshift entrance to the citadel. The tall Junk made shorter work of closing the distance compared to how much Motonubu struggled to swim across. Even Gekko didn’t waste nearly as much time, as the boy (even with one arm heavily bandaged up) easily swam the distance twice as fast as the man twice his age.

“Do they not teach Agents to swim in Garion?” Gekko’s chest was still heaving from exhaustion as Junko helped pull him up the incline, but he did seem to be wearing a slight look of superiority. “The more time I spend around you, the less impressive Garion’s military seems.”

“Garion is a desert wasteland, Cadet Tanuma Gekko.” Motonubu as usually looked unperturbed. In fact the expression he wore almost looked too excited to register the boy’s usual slights and insults. “But your point is duly noted. Shall we move along?”

The citadel-like structure sat so far from their original entry point that the water pouring in couldn’t even be heard anymore. Instead the only thing that reverberated through the tall stone walls of the huge tower were their own footsteps and the occasional drip of water from their still soaked body. Motonubu seemed to have cast off his eternal wariness of Junko and now easily walked with his back to her as he led the way. There wasn’t much of a choice- Motonubu was the only one with a lamp.

However before the daunting journey could even begin, Gekko already began to complain. “What time is it, anyway? It’s gotta be way too late to keep going. I’m hungry and tired, man.”

The party stopped on the winding spiral staircase, and Motonubu set his lamp down by a small slit serving as a window. “If you want to rest, we can rest. But it would be prudent to continue on.”

“Let the kid get some sleep.” Junko leaned back and stretched, having by now lost any sense of threat from Motonubu. “I’ll watch him. You could even go back down and get us some fish. I think there’s enough freshwater left in my bag that we could take a break. It’d give our clothes time to dry too.”

With narrow eyes Motonubu seemed to consider the option, then one of his arms flung out from behind his cloak in frustration. “Fine. Do as you wish. But I will watch the boy.” In his hand he held a small notebook, which he immediately scribbled something in. “You can go get food, if you are so inclined.”

“What, because I’m a woman, I should do all the cooking?”

“Because you have the appetite of a great ape and eat twice as much as either of us.” Motonubu finished his writing and then slammed the book shut. He gestured towards one of the dark halls nearby. “Boy, take the bedroll and rest, if you desire. There is nowhere here for you to run to anyway.”

“Gee, thanks dad.” Gekko aggressively snatched the supply satchel from Junko, then shuffled his wet self back towards one the the tower’s winding halls. He cast a suspicious glance backwards before disappearing into the shadows. Junko gave Motonubu a wary look.

“How unexpectedly generous.”

“We have a long walk,” Motonubu intoned. “And it is quite late. A small rest can be permitted.”

“Hmm.” Junko sat herself against the wall opposite of Motonubu, and got herself comfortable. “Come to think of it, I’m not very hungry myself. Gekko is going to eat the rest of the food you brought anyway. I hope you’re okay not eating for a while, Mister Agent.”

Another awkward quiet settled between the two as they stared at each other with hardened expressions. Then Motonubu’s shoulders sagged, and he sighed. “Always so distrustful. Fine. I will go and procure my own food.” Apparently defeated, Motonubu began to descend back into the shadows, leaving the lantern entirely. It felt bad to let such a scheming rat go off on his own, and yet...

Junko was quite tired herself. Without even realizing it her own eyes began to feel heavy. It felt strange, to be in the bowels of such an ancient ruin and in the midst of so many unknowns, and yet the relative peace of the moment was intoxicating. Annitou couldn’t reach them down here, nor could any sharks. Motonubu posed no real threat, and Gekko actually seemed somewhat cooperative. Safety was never guaranteed but...

Something about the tower made Junko feel at ease, even though by every metric its ominous architecture and forbidding corridors should have made her feel exactly the opposite. As Motonubu’s steps faded into nothing and for the first time in a while a dead silence settled over her, Junko forced herself to stay vigilant. Gekko was right- people were animals too. If that skull artifact could control sealife, then who knew what an entire tower of Jinchi artifacts might do.

But, dang. A nap sounded absolutely perfect right then and there.