Cool air circulated lazily through the room, slipping beneath collars and sleeves with enough persistence to make Ragna pull her jacket tighter around herself. She sat with her axe resting nearby, looking deeply offended by the universe in general.
"We need better weapons, to begin with," she said. "I died because my axe was too sharp."
Mimi, seated beside the food synthesizer with the unmistakable stillness of someone who had consumed enough alcohol to enter a new and mysterious spiritual dimension, slowly turned her head toward her.
"You died because you were stubborn."
Ragna gave her a playful glare. "Excuse me?"
"You embedded your weapon into the ground."
"The tortoises attacked me."
"The tortoises released spores because you attacked the ground next to them."
"I did not attack the ground."
"You created a localized earthquake."
Ragna opened her mouth and then paused for a few seconds. Then narrowed her eyes. Mimi stared back at her with the calm confidence of someone who had absolutely no intention of moving for the foreseeable future.
"…I hate that you're technically right."
Neera, meanwhile, had detached herself almost entirely from the conversation. She sat nearby with the rubber duck resting in her lap, absent mindedly patting its tiny yellow head with the concentration of someone comforting a traumatized animal. No one questioned it anymore.
The bottle of vodka sitting on the table was nearly empty. Mimi had somehow managed to finish half of it despite becoming progressively quieter with every passing minute, while Rai had consumed the other half through what she continued to insist was "scientific curiosity."
At the moment, Rai was staring very intensely at absolutely nothing. Then, without warning, she shot upright.
"YASSSSS QUEEN, YOU'RE SO RIGHT!"
Everyone jumped. Mimi blinked. Neera's hand stopped midway through patting the duck. Ragna actually sat upright.
Rai slammed both palms dramatically onto the table, her expression filled with the kind of conviction usually reserved for revolutionary speeches and extremely questionable 3 a.m. decisions.
"Better weapons!" she announced. "That's literally what we need!"
"…That's what she just said," Neera pointed out.
"Yes!" Rai nodded enthusiastically. "And she was right!"
Ragna stared at her, "I was right five seconds ago."
"Exactly!"
"That doesn't explain why you screamed."
Rai appeared to think about this, then she pointed at Ragna, "Supportive enthusiasm." Mimi slowly raised one thumb. Rai beamed at her.
The moment of triumph lasted approximately three seconds before Rai turned toward the holographic display on the wall and began tapping through its interface. Her movements were enthusiastic, though increasingly lacking in coordination. She swayed slightly to one side.
Mimi immediately reached out and caught her arm, "Careful."
"I am perfectly stable," Rai said. She nearly walked directly into the table.
Neera sighed, rubbing her temples in a way that made her look like Ragna for a few seconds. Even Ragna's expression shifted slightly as she watched Rai stumble backward.
"Sit down."
"I don't need to sit down."
"You're standing like a baby deer discovering gravity."
Rai gasped, "Girl, that is sooo rude!"
"It is also accurate," Neera said.
Rai ignored them and finally managed to pull up a holographic map of the Repository. The structure unfolded above the interface in glowing lines, rooms branching into corridors and unfamiliar sections. Rai leaned forward, squinting at the display with intense concentration.
Then she pointed dramatically toward a circular room marked with three blinking dots.
"The others…" She paused, squinting harder. "Seem to be at the…". Her finger moved closer to the text. "The…". Rai narrowed her eyes, "The Room of Liberty."
For several seconds, nobody spoke. Neera first looked at the map, then at Rai.
"…That's the library."
Rai blinked, "The what?"
"Library."
Rai leaned closer, "Oooooooooh."
Another silence. Ragna dragged a hand slowly down her face and lay back down on the floor.
"Nope."
"Ragna?"
"No."
"We need to find the others."
"I have died twice today."
"Once," Mimi corrected quietly.
Ragna turned her head toward her, "I died emotionally several times."
Mimi considered this, "…Valid."
Neera pinched the bridge of her nose.
Rai, apparently deciding that the matter had been settled, suddenly stood again.
"Library!" she declared.
Her legs immediately betrayed her. She took one step. Then another. The third step looked increasingly theoretical.
Neera moved before she could fall, placing a steady hand against Rai's lower back and guiding her upright, "Okay. We're walking now."
"I was already walking."
"You were negotiating with the floor, which was winning."
Mimi made a small noise that might have been a laugh. Rai brightened, "See? She agrees with me."
Mimi blinked slowly, "I don't know what we're talking about."
"That's the most honest thing anyone has said today," Ragna muttered.
Rai began moving toward the doorway again, legs trembling with the determination of a newborn fawn attempting its first migration. Neera stayed close behind her, keeping a hand ready to catch her if gravity decided to become personally involved.
Mimi followed in complete silence. Ragna remained on the floor. For about approximately two seconds before Mimi reached down, grabbed her by the wrist, and started pulling.
"Come on."
Ragna went limp immediately.
"No."
"Yes."
"I have accepted the floor."
"The floor doesn't accept you."
"I am one with the ground."
Mimi kept dragging. Ragna's other hand reached desperately toward the table.
"Neera."
"No."
"Rai."
"The lib...libra-"
"Actually, nevermind."
And so, with Rai wobbling ahead under Neera's supervision, Mimi silently dragging a deeply unwilling Ragna behind her, and Neera trying to ensure that at least one member of the group reached their destination without falling over, the four of them made their way through the Repository toward the library.
The library was quieter than the rest of the Repository. Or at least, it had been.
Gumi sat at one of the PCs near the far wall, staring intently at whatever page had been pulled up on the screen. Her eyes moved steadily across the text, following it with an intensity that suggested she was actually reading rather than simply pressing random buttons, which was probably more than anyone would have expected from someone who had only recently learned how to walk.
In one hand, she held the orange she had caught during Stella's spectacular fruit based breakdown.
She was eating it. With the peel still on. Every few moments, she took another thoughtful bite.
Behind her, Midori sat comfortably in a chair, grinning so widely that she looked like she had just been given front row seats to something entertaining. Nozomi stood behind her with a green ribbon in one hand while the other carefully worked through Midori's curls, attempting to bring some form of order to hair that appeared to possess the same chaotic enthusiasm as its owner.
"Your hair is very pretty," Nozomi said patiently, carefully separating another curl. "But I genuinely don't understand how it gets this tangled."
Midori's grin widened, "Talent." Nozomi sighed.
The library doors suddenly burst open, making everyone jump.
Rai stumbled through first with the dramatic momentum of someone making an entrance she absolutely could not physically support. She nearly pitched forward immediately, only for Neera to catch her from behind with an embarrassed sigh.
"Rai."
"I had it."
"You were falling."
"I was leaning."
"You were leaning toward the floor."
"That doesn't prove anything."
Neera stared at her. Rai stared back. Neither of them appeared willing to concede.
Behind them came Ragna, whose entire expression suggested she had already regretted every decision that had led to her waking up that morning. She looked exhausted. Spiritually defeated. One step away from simply finding another patch of floor and returning to it permanently. Mimi followed last.
She had somehow positioned herself partially behind everyone else, her face barely visible from the shadows near the doorway. A wide grin stretched across her face. It would have looked cheerful. Unfortunately, the lighting made it look deeply unsettling. Midori slowly turned toward her.
"…Why are you standing like that?"
Mimi blinked, "Like what?". Nobody answered.
Rai suddenly stepped forward. Or at least attempted to. Neera caught her elbow again. Rai dramatically pointed toward the three of them, "WEAPONS!"
The word echoed through the library.
Gumi finally paused. She slowly moved one side of her headphones away from her ear and turned toward Rai. Her expression remained completely blank. Orange peel hung slightly from the corner of her mouth before she slurped it up like a noodle.
Nozomi looked over the group once. Then, without thinking, she lifted a hand and pinched the bridge of her nose, mirroring Ragna's gesture unconsciously. Ragna noticed. For the first time since entering the room, she looked mildly offended. "Hey!"
Nozomi glanced at her. Ragna narrowed her eyes.
Nozomi returned her attention to the increasingly suspicious group standing in the doorway.
"This," she said calmly, "is why I advise people not to drink alcohol."
Rai immediately stumbled toward her. Neera made a failed attempt to stop her. Rai reached Nozomi and placed both hands dramatically on her shoulders. "But Neera!" Nozomi blinked in confusion. Rai leaned closer, her eyes wide with sudden seriousness.
"New weapons! We need…", She paused. Her face scrunched in concentration. "Strategy!"
The room fell silent. Nozomi looked down at Rai's hands and face. Then toward Neera, who had closed her eyes and appeared to be reconsidering several life choices. Rai waited expectantly.
Midori finally reached forward and tugged gently on Rai's sleeve.
"Rai-Chan..."
Rai turned, "Yes?"
"You're talking to Nozomi."
Another silence followed. Rai slowly looked between Nozomi and Neera, before holding her head as the movement made her dizzy. Her face went completely still.
"Oh."
Mimi's shoulders began shaking. Ragna covered her face. Neera looked toward the ceiling as though asking some higher power for patience. Gumi took another bite of her orange. Midori's grin returned in full force. Nozomi, still standing there with Midori's half-finished ribbon in one hand, simply sighed.
"Perhaps," she said gently, "we should begin this strategy discussion after everyone has had some water."
Rai immediately straightened.
"Yes."
Everyone stared at her. She pointed toward herself.
"I am very water."
Ragna glanced toward the nearly empty vodka bottle still being carried somewhere behind them.
"…You are approximately forty percent vodka."
Rai gasped.
"That's an estimate."
"It's a generous estimate."
Mimi finally broke. Her laughter erupted through the library, loud and wheezing, and Midori immediately joined her. Ragna groaned. Nozomi went back to attempting to tame Midori's curls.
And Gumi turned toward her computer again, apparently deciding that whatever was happening behind her was significantly less interesting than the page on her screen. The orange peel remained uneaten only in theory.
Nozomi eventually decided that the only reasonable response to the situation was hydration. She quietly excused herself from the library and headed toward the kitchen, leaving the others behind with the kind of expression usually worn by someone abandoning a room because they knew that whatever happened next was no longer their responsibility.
Ragna remained where she was for a moment before her attention drifted toward Gumi. The lavender haired girl was still sitting at the computer with the same unnervingly serious expression she had worn since the others entered. Ragna stepped behind her and leaned slightly over her shoulder, expecting to find something useful. Research, perhaps. Information about the Repository. Maps. Historical records. Anything that might justify the level of concentration Gumi had been giving the screen.
Instead, a mukbang ASMR video was playing. Someone on the screen was loudly eating something crunchy. Ragna stared. Gumi's eyes continued moving across the screen with deep concentration.
Then Ragna noticed the comments. That was what she had been reading. A long list of increasingly bizarre comments scrolled beneath the video, and Gumi appeared to be taking in every single one with the solemn dedication of a scholar studying ancient scripture.
Ragna slowly looked toward the browser tabs. One was YouTube. Another was Reddit. The Reddit tab was open to what appeared to be an elaborate conspiracy theory discussion.
Ragna stared at it for several seconds before she turned toward Rai.
"…Why can she access YouTube?"
Rai looked at her. Ragna pointed at the screen, "And...Reddit...?". Her expression tightened slightly. "I thought humans weren't around anymore."
Under normal circumstances, Rai would probably have launched into a detailed explanation. There would have been context. Technical terminology. Perhaps a surprisingly passionate tangent halfway through. These were not normal circumstances. Rai was very drunk. She simply giggled. Then she raised one finger to her lips, with a wink and whispered dramatically, "It's a secrettt~."
Neera stared at her. Slowly, her grip tightened around the rubber duck. Rai smiled innocently. Neera raised the rubber duck threateningly, "I swear to whatever God is out there—"
Before the rubber duck could become a projectile weapon, Midori suddenly stood.
"I know how to sober Rai up quickly."
Every head turned towards her. Ragna's expression immediately changed.
"No."
Midori ignored her, "Trust me."
"Absolutely not."
Midori was already walking away. She returned moments later with an ice cube held triumphantly between her fingers. Neera lowered the duck. Mimi leaned forward.
Midori approached Rai, who swayed slightly, looking at her confused. Midori started smiling widely, which was never a good sign. Then she pulled the back of Rai's shirt slightly away from her skin and dropped the ice cube inside.
For one glorious second, nothing happened. Then Rai screamed. The sound tore through the library.
She launched forward. The chair behind her nearly toppled over as she began running around the room, twisting violently and clawing at the back of her shirt.
"COLD! COLD! WHY IS IT COLD?!"
Midori immediately doubled over laughing.
"GET IT OUT!"
"Now where's the fun in that?", Midori replied. Gumi stared at Rai, before making an observation, "Rai...go round and round..."
"BECAUSE IT'S FOLLOWING ME!", Rai continued spinning.
Mimi watched for approximately two seconds. Then something ancient and terrible awakened within her. She started screaming too and began running after Rai. Rai screamed louder. Mimi screamed louder in response. Nobody knew why. They simply ran around the library, sometimes between shelves, other times past computers. One blue-haired girl desperately attempting to escape an ice cube and one blonde girl chasing her while screaming like she had been possessed by the physical manifestation of chaos itself.
Ragna stared. For several long seconds, she simply watched them silently. Then she turned towards Gumi. Without a word, she reached down and removed the headphones from Gumi's ears. Gumi looked at her startled. Ragna placed them over her own. Then she walked toward the nearest wall, turned around and faced it. The mukbang continued playing faintly through the headphones.
Neera, meanwhile, raised the rubber duck threateningly, "Both of you stop running."
Neither of them stopped.
"I'm warning you."
Rai screamed again. Mimi screamed after her. Neera's eye twitched. Her grip tightened around the rubber duck.
That was the exact moment Nozomi returned. She stood in the doorway with a tray holding seven glasses of water. She stared at the commotion going on.
Rai was running. Mimi was chasing Rai. Neera was holding a rubber duck in the air like a weapon. Then she looked at Midori. Midori was laughing so hard that she was barely standing. Nozomi didn't need anyone to explain. Of course Midori was involved.
She set the tray down before calmly stepping directly into Rai's path. Rai nearly collided with her. Nozomi caught her by the collar, making Rai freeze. Her breathing was heavy, eyes were wide.
"The ice cube," Nozomi said patiently, "has already melted."
Rai blinked. Another second passed. Then her entire body slowly relaxed. "Oh...I was...caught in the moment."
Her expression shifted. Embarrassment arrived. Along with a remarkable amount of sobriety. Rai looked around the library. Midori was still laughing. Neera still had the rubber duck raised. Nozomi was holding her by the collar.
Ragna was standing in the corner facing the wall.
Gumi was staring at everything with her usual neutral expression. And Mimi had stopped running. The blonde girl frowned.
Her premium entertainment had apparently been cancelled.
With a disappointed pout, she wandered over to Gumi and simply sat down on her lap.
Gumi stiffened. Mimi looked perfectly comfortable. For a brief moment, it seemed like Gumi might push her off. Her arms hovered uncertainly. She looked down at Mimi, her head tilted like a birds. She studied Mimi and thought something.
Finally, she raised one hand and gave a thumbs up. Mimi immediately looked pleased.
Across the room, Ragna continued staring at the wall. The headphones remained firmly over her ears. She had made a decision. This reality did not exist. The screaming did not exist. She did not exist.
Finally, Neera decided that someone had to restore order. She raised the rubber duck. Squeak.
A thin trail of water shot from its beak and landed directly against the back of Ragna's head. Ragna jerked around, "What the—"
Her hand flew to the back of her hair. The damp strands clung slightly to her neck as she stared at Neera with complete confusion. Neera lowered the duck. Cleared her throat, "…As we were saying."
Everyone looked at her.
"We need a strategy."
The library gradually settled. Mimi shifted on Gumi's lap, still looking mildly disappointed that Rai's ice cube induced breakdown had ended. Midori finally managed to stop laughing long enough to sit properly again. Rai straightened herself, her expression noticeably clearer than it had been several minutes earlier. Even Ragna reluctantly turned away from the wall. Neera continued.
"Before we go outside again, we need to make sure we actually understand what we're working with."
She gestured toward Ragna.
"And that means identifying everyone's elements."
Ragna's hand was still resting against the damp back of her neck. Neera pointed at her wet hair, "Mine is clearly water."
Ragna stared at her and looked away.
"…Gravity."
There was a brief pause. Midori slowly tilted her head. Neera lowered the rubber duck, "Gravity?"
Ragna rubbed the back of her neck. A faint flush had begun creeping across her cheeks.
"…The axe."
Understanding gradually crossed everyone's faces. Mimi's lips twitched,
"The shockwave."
Ragna looked increasingly interested in literally anything else, "Yes."
"The one that startled the tortoises."
Ragna narrowed her eyes.
"Yes."
"The one that got your axe stuck in the ground."
"..Mimi."
Mimi covered her mouth. Midori immediately failed to suppress a giggle. Ragna's face became noticeably warmer.
"…I figured it out under unfortunate circumstances."
"That," Mimi said solemnly, "is the nicest possible way to describe what happened."
Ragna shot her a glare. Mimi shot back a grin. Neera, sensing that the conversation was rapidly approaching another opportunity for everyone to clown Ragna into the next geological era, continued before it could escalate.
"Fine. Gravity." She mentally rearranged the information.
"Midori is nature."
Midori lifted one hand.
A small leaf sprouted briefly between her fingers, "Present."
"Mimi is fire."
Mimi straightened slightly, "Obviously. Can't help being a hottie."
"Gumi's is…"
Everyone looked toward Gumi. Gumi remained seated. Mimi remained on her lap. Gumi looked at the group. Then pointed toward her whip, "Slime."
Neera nodded. Rai smiled faintly, "And mine is electricity."
She lifted one hand slightly. Golden sparks briefly danced between her fingers before disappearing.
Neera looked down at the rubber duck, "And mine is water, again."
That left only one person. Every gaze slowly moved toward Nozomi. Nozomi blinked and looked down at the naginata resting nearby. Purple light had run through its markings when she had first chosen it. Runes had appeared along its handle, glowing with an energy that none of them had understood. Nozomi folded her hands together, "…That remains a mystery."
Mimi immediately sat upright.
"In video games, purple is usually electricity, poison, psychic…"
She paused, "Or darkness."
Neera nodded thoughtfully.
"That is actually a reasonable starting point."
Mimi looked delighted. Ragna raised an eyebrow, "You sound surprised."
"I am capable of being reasonable."
"Debatable."
"Bruh."
Midori leaned forward. "Poison would be cool."
Nozomi looked mildly alarmed by the enthusiasm suddenly directed at her.
"Let's not imagine too much until we actually know."
"Coward," Mimi whispered. Nozomi gave her a look. Mimi immediately looked away.
Rai, who had remained unusually quiet throughout the discussion, suddenly stepped forward. Her posture was steadier now. The dramatic wobbling had mostly disappeared, though there was still something slightly sheepish in her expression whenever anyone looked directly at her.
"I know a place where we can test it."
Everyone turned toward her. Neera's eyes immediately lit up.
"A controlled environment?"
"...Mostly."
Ragna's brows furrowed, "What does mostly mean?"
Rai smiled, "Come on."
Ragna stared at her.
"That did not answer my question."
"It'll make sense when we get there."
"That is exactly what people say before something terrible happens."
Mimi finally climbed off Gumi's lap.
"Something terrible happening would at least be entertaining. I'm bored already."
Nozomi immediately turned toward her, "No. Most of you just died a while back."
Mimi sighed, "Worth trying."
Rai was already moving toward the door.
Neera tucked the rubber duck securely beneath one arm and followed without hesitation. Midori stood next, curiosity immediately winning over whatever remained of her earlier amusement. Gumi quietly rose from her chair and placed her headphones back over both ears before following them. Nozomi gathered the glasses of water that had somehow survived the chaos. Ragna looked at the group, sighing deeply, "…If this place kills me again, I'm haunting all of you."
"That's the spirit," Rai called from the corridor.
Ragna stared after her.
"I hate you."
"You don't mean that."
"I might."
And with that, the seven of them left the library behind, following Rai deeper into the Repository toward another room, another experiment, and hopefully an answer to the last mystery hanging between them.