“ge is iable. You try to prevent it, but it es anyway. With the speed the antithesis evolve, samurai must adapt their fighting styles to keep up.

  Who knows what that’ll look like tomorrow.”

  Sharron “Humboldt” Brooks, Late 2056

  “What the fuck are you even talking about?”

  Evelyn “Teddy” Cire, in response.

  ***

  After I spend a little while burning off my giddy energy, I dive dowing closer and closer to the bottom of the o. About halfway down though, I pause, taking a moment to just s the sands below. I’ve been this deep before, but always in a submersible; It was quite different to experie myself. I don’t think anyone could prepare me for how disgusting we were to this beautiful pce.

  The absolutely humongous twelfth floor, infamous for its pipes and factories, was pletely split open. The many chemicals once used to make products for our pleasure freely leak out into the salty depths, marring the water with a ominous dark miasma. I am almost grateful that the Antithesis wiped out nearly all of the sea life over the st thirty years.

  Almost. I'm still angry that I'm never going to be able to see a whale.

  Whales were cool.

  I tinue my dest, but as I he city proper, I make sure my harpoon is ready to fire when I see movement around the hole iwelfth floor. I cautiously get closer, squinting the whole way, then end up just gawking at the sheer number of Antithesis funneling into the city out of a small hole in the ground.

  ‘Nyvi, this is absurd!’ I hiss, gring down at the hordes roving across the sandy seafloor, ‘Where are they even all ing from?!’

  sidering the Model Eighteen-A we entered, they likely have a mega-hive deep underground. This entire area might o be ned now. It’s best you go check the eleventh floor for now, the se that was breached might have survivors.

  I bite my lower lip, but nod as I rush towards the btant hole in the wall. My tail swinging behind me, I dive inside, a bit of relief filli the fact that seemingly no antithesis spotted me. I really don’t know if I could handle fighting that many at once, five was bad enough. After a moment of careful watch, I take a look behi the ramshackle faves that make the eleventh floor what it is.

  This entire floor of the city is dedicated to staffing the tenth and twelfth, and it definitely suffers for it. The multitude of buildings are just a mix of scraped together sheet metal and painted crete squished together into crooked towers that cover nearly every foot of the floor they . The pce is a veritable maze, the only way to get around the makeshift roads iween the walls of homes.

  At a snail's pace, I float into one of the haphazard gaps of the byrinth, the only noise arouhe pitter patter of my heart. I run my hand along the wall, trying my best to just focus on the coarse texture of the crete beh my fiips. Entering into a small pza, I spare a few g some ruined furniture, tables and chairs crushed against a wall, before I cautiously push myself up toward something that catches my i.

  inally only accessible through a dder, the tiny single room apartment I peer into is seemi up for a child. Or at least before the flood, as all of the faded yet still colorful bs and toys are pushed up against the wall. I slither inside, moving over to see a seemingly ue pleted meal floating around the kitette. Biting my lip, I dip out bato the streets, frantically swimming around in a vain attempt to find any sign of life. A twist, a turn, then many sharp ers ter, the reality of the situation begins to sink in.

  There’s simply nobody left.

  I decide to cut my losses, once agaiurning to the breach, looking down at the marg pnts below.

  ‘It just doesn’t make seo me,’ I breathe out, anxiously clutg then clutg the harpoon, ‘Where did they all go? There weren’t any Antithesis in the Faves.’

  Do you see how the breach is curved? It burst from the inside. If I had to guess, this is where that Model Twenty-Seven T formed, and the survivors fled to the other ses of the floor.

  Hugging myself, I try to push down the rising sorrow in my head.

  ‘Nyvi… I just…’

  Don’t like your home beiroyed?

  ‘I could holy care less about New Houston,’ I mutter, then gnce behi the flooded ruins, ‘Do you know hoeople lived in this part of the Eleventh?’

  I do uand that is a rhetorical question, but my info says the floor has about two huhousand residents in total. sidering there are four quadrants and this was one of the twer ones, I’d estimate forty pert of the total.

  ‘Yeah,’ I mutter, g my teeth, ‘Do you know who desighe floor?’

  …Prism, I get your point, I do. You just ’t-

  ‘’t what, Nyvi? I see the writing on the wall y’know!’ As the whirling mix e and sorrow collide in my chest, I ’t help but fil my tail. ‘It’s… It’s…’

  Take a deep breath, honey, you’re hyperventiting.

  I… am?

  I move my hand a bit, and sure enough, she’s right. My chest rapidly heaves up and down, my heart smming in my chest. Remembering what I read in New New York, I slowly breathe in, then out.

  ‘I’m…’ Shuddering, I inhale once again, then exhale. Ihen exhale. ‘Sorry Nyvi, I shouldn’t have snapped like that.’

  It’s a harsh situation, but it’s not over. There is something you do to protect the remainder as best we . You know the Stairlocks right?

  I slowly nod, then open my eyes a bit in reition. “We could destroy them, isoting the Twelfth so that the Antithesis ’t use them!”

  Good catch, honey. It’s not a perma solution, sihey easily just pile material or themselves up to climb in regardless, but it will slow them down enough to maybe make a difference.

  I ch my fist, colleg all the resolve I . ‘I’m i’s do it.’

  The ser isn’t going to be able to break in fast enough, but the Axonfin General Teologies catalog does have specialized depth charges within.

  ‘Got it.’ I shoot out of the fracture ieel, arg towards the closest stairlock. It takes a couple minutes, but I do eventually arrive, the drical pilr eg the two gigantic ptes of New Houston looming in front of me. ‘Shit, Nyvi, I just realized, how do we even know if someone is still in there?’

  Without purchasing something, it’s not possible. Thankfully, it would be rather simple to fix, thanks to the other Axonfin catalog you have. For five points you buy a Subaquatic Droh a detector built in that will be able to accurately detect what is beyond the steel.

  “That and the explosive please,” I grunt as I warily peer around, doing my best to make sure I caty stray Xenos that e at me.

  New Purchase!

  1x SAD (Detector fig)

  Cost: 5 Points

  1x DDEC-LCP Diode

  Cost: 5 Points

  Remaining Total: 15 Points

  Two things appear ier above me, one of which I reach up to grab, a rge glowing white orb apparently simir to the ones on my harpoon. The Subaquatic drone Nyvi was talking about turns out to be a series of sharp geometric shapes ected together with glowing strands of light, all arranged inth facsimile of a remora. The little fish immediately swims up to the pilr, attag itself to the steel before it suddenly begins to glow blue.

  If you had augments that I could dispy information on at the moment, I would be able to show you the inside in rather vivid detail, but for now I will just have to tell you. There is no one inside, but the Antithesis seem to be in the process of bashing down the door. It’s best you use the charge soohen ter honey, otherwise it won’t have the same level of strength.

  I nod, swinging my tail until I reach the pce where the stairlock meets the eleventh floor, then cautiously pce the ainst the metal surface. ‘So how exactly does this work?’

  You’ll probably want to get away first, so you aren’t sucked into the tiny hole it will create. Otherwise, just tell me when you wao use it.

  I shrug, then after getting a rather safe distance away, mime out clig a detonator. The sphere begins to spin, the white light shifting into a vibrant rainbow as it goes. For a moment I am unsure of when it’s going to pop, then the exaext sed it does. There is a deafened crack as the sphere fshes, then disappears pletely as the eairlock implodes in on itself.

  Before I cheer at the success though, there is a sed explosion, this o my fault.

  The other pilr I nning oing rid of literally bursts outwards from the middle, the now two distinct halves split into what sort of resembles a half peeled banana, just without the actually edible part. The shockwave ier hits me only moments ter, powerful enough to push me back a few feet through the liquid. I gape at the destru for what has to be a few seds, before I frantically swim over to see if I figure out what the fuck just happehe little Remora floats up to me, tg onto my back to stay close.

  Well, the SAD picked up a rather ludicrous amount of gravitational waves from that burst, which only meahing. It seems you aren’t the only samurai active in New Houston tonight after all.

  I let out a shocked chuckle, then murmur, ‘Who woulda’ thought. Nyvi, we tact them?’

  We should be able to with the SAD, but they may not answer.

  ‘They better, else I’ll, uh…’ I pause, then shake my head. ‘Doesn’t matter, I’ll get my revenge if they don’t.’

  Marvelous, let’s get started. you take the drone up to the bottom of the pte for me?

  I oblige the request, taking the Remora and spping it ft onto the steel. It lights up again, an agonizingly slow sed passes, then Nyvi cheerfully chimes up in my ears.

  Good news! They wanna talk, we just o go to a better pce to do so. There’s a rge porthole on the edge of the pte we use. Follow the SAD, if you will.

  I grin, putting my hand on my hip. ‘Really, you call it things other than ‘the SAD’ you know.’

  Bah, let me have my fun, Prism.

  I ’t help but snicker, but follow the drardless, and wheurn the er I immediately know where we are going. There aren’t many windows on this floor at all, and the ohat catches my eye is basically a spotlight in the murky deep. I begin to swim over, watg as the SAD Remora clicks onto the gss. I cautiously look inside from just beyond the gss, squinting to try and see anything inside despite my newly acquired short sightedness.

  I watch for a few minutes, w where they were, then smile when a blurry figure finally walks into view. Despite their fuzzy image, it’s easy to see the fidence behind their every step. When her radiant form finally bees clear, she actually pauses, letting me finally get a good look at my fellow samurai.

  The woman wears a seemingly fantastically well made crimson Maid dress, the lines of which atuates her rather nice figure in a way that makes my heart rebel. Her skin, the parts of which that I see at least, are incredibly pale, ated by her light gray hair, which stretches almost all the way to her hips. As a small red and blue bird nds upon her shoulder, despite my mind telliherwise, I ’t help but deeply i what I momentarily see.

  For just a split sed, ohat I ot possibly ignore, I swear I see a set of breathtaking sapphire through the blur that is her face. It vanishes before I know it, but I find myself spellbound, uo look away in the hope that I would see them once agaih slowly inch closer to the gss, then simultaneously reach out, our palms mirrored as they nearly e together, yet remain frustratingly separated. Naught but flimsy gss separating our reflected hands, we stare at each other, pletely entranced by the other for what feels like ay.

  Then the moment ends as a beautifully feminine, harmonious voice echoes out within my head, whispering with a awed tone:

  [“Beautiful…”]

  My face immediately turns into an inferno, and I ’t help squeak as I pull my tail up to hide behind. The voice giggles, and the woman takes a step back, then gives me a curtsy.

  [“It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you, Madam Mermaid,”] She says, thes the formal greeting as she states, [“My name is Emmelyn Seras, I only initialized around three ho. May I have your name?”]

  I blink a few times, fruitlessly waiting for the fire burning in my head to cool down, then start looking around for speakers. “H-How in the world I even hear you?”

  I am simply pying the audio from the SAD into your head in the same mahat I speak to you. She will be able to hear you the same way, though I will be filtering the audio to correct your voice for her.

  [“I dunno,”] She says, obviously absolutely eted, [“but I’m really gd you .”]

  I hold baother squeak, her sheer exuberance making my heart skip a few beats. It takes a few seds, but I mao stutter out, “M-My name… i-is Prism.”

  The girl cps, then exuberantly says, [“Prism! I love it! Do you perhaps have a family name?”]

  I freeze, then vigorously shake my head. “N-Nope! J-Just Prism! N-No samurai either!”

  You do know that’s going to cause problems ter right?

  I willingly ighat statement, watg as Emmelyn takes a sed step back, her hands behind her back. [“Hmm, well that’s very, very suspicious! We talk about that ter though! Actually, Achys, you get us a way to chat without having to get close like this?” ]

  To my surprise, it’s the bird on her shoulder who speaks. [“I , but it’ll cost a bit. Due to the unfortuure of where we are, it’s difficult to get unicators that work well.”]

  The Remora’s glow shifts to a nice lime-green as it vibrates, and I hear Nyvi’s voie out as actual sound, though it’s distorted by the water. “Prism currently is extremely low on points, so it will likely o be a purchase mostly shouldered by you, though in exge we offer use of our catalogs as well. Is that fine?”

  The girl scoffs, dismissively waving her hand. [“I have more than enough to spend a bit on a new friend! Ooh, we have it in an animal form like your body, Achys?”]

  The bird lifts its wing up to its as if thinking. [“I don’t know, Emme, to pull that off would probably cost a lot of your points. We could definitely get something for far cheaper.” ]

  Emmelyn hums, pyfully tapping her arm.

  [“Well, that’s unfortunate…” ]

  She suddenly snaps, then points a finger gun at me.

  [“I got it! Prism! If you let me give you a Samurai name, I’ll take that iment!”]

  I gawk, then quietly mutter, “I-I guess? I-I do wanna talk to you more, s-so I’d take whatever you give me.”

  Loudly squealing iement, Emmelyn jumps up, then walks back up to the window looking down at me.

  [“This’ll be great! I had a fitting name for you the sed I saw you!”]

  She gives me a thumbs up as she proudly announces:

  [“It’s o meet you, Samurai Ghost-Light!”]

  Aliapanacea