The air, already unbearable from the heat, now became even more unbreathable as it turned absolutely suffocating. A crushing force pushed in from every side, every location, making even basic movement impossible. Every nerve across every inch of skin screamed out in shock, a total sensory overload of which no intelligent reaction could be mustered.

The iron taste of blood washed away as the sourness and bitterness of ash flooded Gekko’s mouth. Dying like this was without a doubt the most agonizing, terrifying experience he would ever suffer.

Then a strong force pulled his weightless body upwards. Behind blackened eyelids he saw a distant light. Was this it? Could it be?

A booming, commanding voice trembled down at him, barely piercing the veil of the surrounding environment. “At least kick your legs, you dumb brat, or we’ll both drown!”

With her own heaving breaths Junko finally managed to pull the boy out of the salty seawater with her one remaining hand, hurling his limp body back onto the main platform as water continued to flood the chamber. Already it was rising too fast to keep up with, and the cracks along the wall were only growing by the second as the water pressure pushed inwards. Even the bodies of the animals provided no help, as the orange flames from before all but reduced their corpses to grimy, muddy char. The only source of light now came from the hole above, which was still absolutely packed with rocky debris. Apparently some of the jellyfish must have still been in good condition, but who knew how long that would last.

That much couldn’t be said for Junko and Gekko. She sat the dazed boy up so he wouldn’t fall back into the black water, but already it had risen up to his chest. The rotation of the glass wall likewise came to a complete stop as larger chunks of it kept breaking off and shattering, which put Junko on edge knowing the whole thing might collapse at any moment. That her own body functioned at all was amazing given how long it felt like she held the cannon against the glass- at the very least she was sure her hair failed to survive the encounter unscathed. Though to be fair, it was unlikely any of her would survive if an exit route was found in the next couple minutes.

Try as she might Junko couldn’t see a way out. As long as the water poured in, there would be no way to swim against it. Giving up on Gekko for a moment, Junko grabbed him by the arm and carried the boy on her back as she sloshed over towards the large barrel that held Gou’s ammunition. A large quantity of material still lay in the cask. She upturned and tossed the whole thing into the water, pouring out an entire mess of cylindrical gunpowder charges and heavy iron balls. What was left was just the wood- good old fashioned buoyant wood! She slapped Gekko across it like it was a life preserver, then set it afloat as she started treading water. Maybe, when the water rose high enough, she could dislodge some of the rubble blocking the exit. At the moment her frazzled mind barely kept up with the rapidly worsening situation. They made it out of the frying pan only to end up in the toilet bowl, it seemed.

As larger chunks of the room crumbled inwards the water level rose enough for Junko to start probing the ceiling for weaknesses. Using her one good hand she prodded at the chunks of stonework blocking the way back the way they came, up the single central chute running along the length of the Arkspire. That damned General Gou aimed so precisely! It was impressive the man managed to fire a cannonball straight upwards and hadn’t destroyed any of the glass tubing on the way down. Try as she might, Junko couldn’t get a good grip on any of the jagged stones preventing them from escaping. Not only were her fingers slippery from the water, but with only one hand left and nothing solid under her feet for leverage, no progress could be made. On top of that her breathing was all screwed up, probably from having spent several excruciating minutes inhaling air so hot that her lungs were probably now sunburned.

Soon the water rose to such a level that her head bumped up against the stone ceiling. Junko couldn’t keep it up without abandoning Gekko, since he was about to smack up against the top of the chamber as well. She gave up trying to push the rubble aside and instead grabbed onto his makeshift barrel floating device, positioning both of them as close to the fallen stones as possible. To his credit Gekko seemed to come to his senses, perhaps because the immediate threat of drowning stirred him from his stupor. “Am I dead? What’s happening?”

“You’re going to be dead soon if you can’t get yourself together.” Junko sputtered slightly, treading water as best she could with two legs and a stubby arm. “Here’s my plan: wait for the water to flood upwards some more, then try to push through the stone. I’m guessing...” Splashing a bit she smacked the rocky blockade with her elbow. “It won’t work. This stuff is really wedged in there.”

“I can see- there’s light!” As his senses returned Gekko started squirming some more to get a better view. “There can’t be that much to push through! Just, like, punch it really hard!”

“That’s not how it works.” Junko tried to mediate her breathing as their bubble of breathable air continued to shrink. “I need to save my strength, once the water rises enough-”

“We’ll be dead by then!”

“We’re already dead.” Junko, finally getting distracted by Gekko again, turned to look at the soot-covered boy. He looked almost unrecognizable. “But we’ll be already dead...faster, if I get tired too soon. Come on, I got us this far, you just gotta have some faith!”

“Don’t act proud! You’re getting us both killed isn’t something to be smug about!”

Junko let in a salty breath, then turned back around to ignore Gekko once again. Maybe dying wouldn’t be so bad. For a moment the two just floated there, the cold filthy water surrounding them with a crushingly oppressive inevitably. There couldn’t be that much time left.

“Well,” Gekko let out a tiny, almost imperceptible wheeze. “You could at least apologize to me before I drown, you know. That would be the proper thing to do.”

“What?” Junko broke out of her meditative breathing to look over at the kid with an expression of disgust. “How about you apologize to me? You’d have died so many times if I didn’t save your butt.”

“I did die!”

“Yeah, well, I saved you from that too!” Junko reached up to grab onto one of the looser pieces of rubble, using it to anchor herself to the ceiling and give her paddling feet a rest. “If you’d just cooperated from the beginning none of this would have happened.”

“If you hadn’t been a criminal for hire working with a murderous psychopath none of this would have happened either.”

“It was a simple job!” She spat out another mouthful of nasty water. “Escort a kid, get some ruins translated, get out with a rare death-reversing artifact. You think I wanted to navigate a bunch of ancient tunnels and fight a bunch of bloody maniacs? I had to wrestle a shark!”

“Why did you, then! You could have left whenever!”

“Yeah, you really would have been fine if I’d left you alone.” Junko watched warily as Gekko struggled to keep himself on the barrel, ready to snap out and grab him if he slipped. “Motonubu would have killed you the second you became a burden. Hell, Annitou almost succeeded in offing you because of your little stunt!”

“Monotubu did kill me!”

“Exactly my point!” Junko started taking out her frustration by batting away the meatier chunks of animal corpses with her stump arm. “Everyone on the island wants you dead, apparently. Even this god forsaking tower. A little bit of gratitude would be nice.”

“Gee, thanks, Ms. Thoughtful. I really like being used as a bargaining chip so you could make it up to your dumb sisters.”

Junko didn’t have the energy to whip around and be cross with the boy, instead choosing to just release a defeated exhale. “Were you even paying attention? Sahori and Hikiboshi are...gone, already. I poured the only thing that could have given them back to me on your lifeless body. Glad to know the artifact I fought so hard for actually worked, in the end. If you’d just died earlier I’d of gotten them back. Really makes it all worth it.”

The two continued to float in silence some more. The sounds of flowing water could still be heard, and the imminent threat of losing the last of their air seemed more dire than ever. Even so Gekko’s tone shifted to something less accusatory. “No rational person would feel gratitude for being saved by the kidnapper. I’m sorry your family is dead, but that’s kind of...not any of my business.”

“No rational person joins an army when they have the attitude of a brat, either.” Junko continued staring out into the bleak darkness around them, finally taking her eyes off Gekko. “Do you believe in anything, kid? Or are you planning to die without an ounce of forgiveness in your heart?”

“I’m still waiting for that apology.”

“I’m sorry it had to be you.” Junko brushed away some filament of burned jellyfish, or maybe a chunk of her own crispy hair. “I was thinking it’d just be some...bloodthirsty kid, like how Annitou cadets usually are. Happy to kill for their country. Little balls of hostility you can't feel bad for, like a feral cat. Your whole country is full of nutcases. You don’t have any business being in the military. Go open a bakery or something.”

“To be fair,” Gekko grunted and splashed a bit as he tried to get more breathing room. “That’s not such a bad assessment. I also wish you’d taken someone else. Wasn’t like it was my choice to be here anyway. Annitou conscripts all Bossa speakers...guess fate just has it out for me.”

“Are you going to make fate apologize to you too? I think you’ll be dead long before that happens.”

“I feel like I should be dead already.”

“Hey, try to stay optimistic. I’m telling you, once this water gets high enough-”

“No, I mean, literally.” Gekko lightly paddled with his feet to spin around, eyes straining to get a better look at the dark water that surrounded them. “There was plenty of water in that chamber to flood us out by now. We’re still in an air pocket. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Doing her own rapid evaluation Junko realized Gekko was right. The tiny amount of light filtering in from above didn’t pierce far enough into the water to see very far, but by all accounts their breathing room hadn’t shrunk in the last few minutes. It wasn’t as though there was an airtight seal there, either. There was plenty of space for the air to get pushed out, as evidenced by the filtering light. Junko was at a complete loss.

Gekko, however, wasn’t. After a bit more examination he let out an entirely new kind of exasperated gasp. He seemed so surprised he slipped completely off his barrel, which then slid out from under him and bobbed away into the darkness. “Hey, hey!” Junko almost let go as well, just to go after him. “Take it easy! Don’t panic!”

The boy remerged a bit later, clambering and flapping his way closer to the plugged hole. “I’m not panicking! I think I know- move out of the way!” He shoved past Junko, and thrust his head up as close to the blocked opening as he could.

“This is Cadet Tanuma Gekko! The- oh god, what was it- the seagull hatches at dawnbreak!”

Junko stared absently at the crazed looking Gekko as he continued to splash around. This certainly looked like panic to her. Then he swore under his breath, and shouted “I mean, the seagull...feeds at moonbreak? Come on, Ringo, I know that’s you up there!”

A very distant, slightly squeaky voice answered. “You’re going to get me in trouble if you don’t recite the code phrase correctly, Tanuma Gekko!”