As they made their way through the Repository, Ragna suddenly stopped.
The others took several more steps before realizing she was no longer with them. One by one, they turned around. Ragna was staring down at the axe in her hand, "…I'll be right back."
Neera raised an eyebrow, "Where are you going?"
"I need to change my weapon", She lifted the axe slightly, looking at it with an expression of deep betrayal.
"I can't use this thing anymore. It got stuck in the ground, and then I couldn't pull it out, and then everything went to hell."
Mimi gave her a sideways glance, "Technically, you also caused a shockwave that scared the tortoises."
Ragna's eyes narrowed, "Do you want to keep bringing that up?"
"No, " A pause. "…Yes."
Ragna sighed. Neera's attention shifted to Mimi, "You should probably change yours too." Mimi blinked and asked why. Neera stared at her, "You accidentally shot Ragna."
Mimi's expression became sheepish, "…Fair."
"Maybe something less likely to accidentally become a projectile?"
Mimi nodded thoughtfully, "I could use a sword."
"You already have a bow."
"Or I could use a different bow."
"That is not what I meant."
Mimi shrugged.
Nearby, Nozomi and Midori had remained unusually quiet throughout the exchange. They walked beside one another without saying much, their earlier confrontation still hanging between them like an invisible thread neither seemed willing to tug. Nozomi occasionally glanced toward Midori, while Midori kept her attention fixed ahead. Neither appeared angry anymore. Just wary. Neera noticed but decided not to comment.
Instead, she turned toward Gumi, "You should change yours too."
Gumi looked at her whip, "…Why?"
"Because that thing clearly requires you to understand the laws of physics before you use it."
Gumi considered this and nodded solemnly, "Gumi…Skill issue."
Ragna and Mimi snorted. Even Midori's lips twitched. Neera raised an eyebrow, "Where did you...learn that phrase?" Midori stood up straighter, almost proudly, before replying, "My star pupil Gumi-chan has been learning well from the internet." Nozomi giggled gently, patting Midoris curls.
Rai, who had been walking beside them, suddenly spoke, "And while we're changing weapons…" She glanced pointedly at the rubber duck tucked securely beneath Neera's arm, "…You might want to consider getting something other than that."
Neera hugged the duck closer and shook her head. Rai sighed, "Neera."
"It works."
"It launched you across an entire clearing."
"It pushed the creature back."
"It also launched you across an entire clearing."
"It still worked!"
Rai closed her eyes. She seemed to be counting silently, exercising grounding techniques stored in her brain. "…Fine", She opened them again. "But when you eventually discover that your rubber duck has a fatal design flaw, I reserve the right to say I told you so."
Neera looked down at the duck. The duck stared ahead with its eternal expression of cheerful ignorance.
"I accept those terms."
Rai sighed again. At this point, she had apparently realized that arguing with Neera about the duck was a battle she had no chance of winning. She turned toward Ragna, Mimi, and Gumi, "I'll take you to the armaments archive."
Ragna nodded and followed. Mimi fell into step beside her. Gumi trailed behind them, still holding the orange she had somehow never finished eating.
Nozomi and Midori remained a few paces back. Neera watched the three departing girls for a moment before glancing at the rubber duck again.
An awkward silence settled between Neera, Nozomi, and Midori. It wasn't quite hostile. Neither was it comfortable, though.
The three continued walking together, their footsteps filling the space where conversation should have been. Nozomi kept her hands folded around the shaft of her naginata, while Midori seemed unusually interested in the ceiling.
Neera glanced between them. She opened her mouth. Perhaps she was about to apologize on behalf of Ragna and Mimi. Perhaps she was about to ask Nozomi what she thought her element might be. Perhaps she had already formulated some elaborate theory and was about to subject everyone to it.
We will never know. A peach-colored blur suddenly shot past them. Neera's mouth remained open. Midori's eyes widened, catching an opportunity to deflect an awkward situation. Then her entire expression brightened. She immediately skipped after Stella, "Stella! Wait a second!" She caught the back of Stella's cardigan and tugged gently.
Stella stopped. Very slowly, she turned around. Her expression was that of someone who had accidentally opened a chat from three weeks ago that she had been deliberately planning to ghost, "...Yes?"
Midori smiled brightly, "Can you take us to where Rai is going?"
Stella's expression turned to confusion, "...Where?"
"The place she's taking everyone."
Stella looked even more confused, "I don't know."
Midori's smile faltered, "You don't?" Stella shook her head. She glanced down the corridor, "I was in my room. I have no idea where Rai is going."
There was a brief silence. Midori looked towards Neera. Unfortunately, Neera was already looking at Stella.
Then she stepped forward, her face serious, "I have a question."
Nozomi stiffened. It was almost imperceptible. Her fingers tightened around the naginata. She had known Neera long enough. She knew what happened when Neera said those words. Questions from Neera tended to begin innocently enough. Then, somewhere along the way, they became socially catastrophic. Nozomi quietly prepared herself for impact.
Stella immediately raised both hands in front of herself in a defensive gesture, "No. You cannot take a skin sample." Neera stared at her. There was a long, bewildered silence.
"…What?"
Stella remained perfectly still, her hands still raised. Neera blinked several times before finally shaking her head, "No. I just wanted to ask what Nozomi's element is."
The tension vanished from the corridor almost instantly. Stella lowered her hands. Nozomi visibly relaxed, her grip loosening around the naginata. Even Midori placed a hand dramatically against her forehead and let out an enormous sigh of relief, "Oh, thank goodness."
Stella looked between them. For a moment, her expression suggested she was reconsidering every decision that had led to leaving the safety of her room. Then she composed herself.
"Psychic."
Neera's eyes widened slightly, "Psychic?"
"Yes", Stella said with such finality that there was nothing left to ask. Neera immediately looked towards Nozomi. Midori's eyes lit up, "That actually makes sense."
Nozomi tilted her head, "How?"
Midori opened her mouth only to pause with a pout.
"…I'll think about that later."
Meanwhile, Rai led the others deeper into the Repository. The armaments archive seemed somehow larger than they remembered. Weapons rested upon racks, pedestals, and recessed displays lining the walls. Some were recognizable immediately: swords, spears, bows, axes, hammers and halberds. Others were considerably harder to identify.
Ragna stopped almost immediately. Her eyes had landed on a massive hammer. It was enormous, its head covered in blunt spikes that looked considerably less likely to become embedded in the ground than her previous weapon. She walked over and picked it up, "…This is blunt enough."
Rai glanced at it, "That's your criteria?" Ragna nodded and gave it an experimental swing.
The weapon suddenly changed. Its dull grey surface began to glow with a soft silver light. Grey energy wrapped around the hammerhead, flowing outward in twisting strands before solidifying into several silver chains that coiled around the weapon. Ragna stared for a few moments before smiling slowly. A satisfied little huff escaped her, "…Perfect." The hammer suited her almost suspiciously well. Ragna lifted the weapon onto her shoulder, "I like it."
She barely had time to admire it before Mimi wandered toward another display. Rai noticed first and called out to her. Mimi stopped. In front of her was something that looked suspiciously like a lightsaber.
She reached for it. Rai grabbed her wrist, "I would advise against it."
Mimi turned, "Whyyy?"
"Because it's not compatible with you."
"That sounds fun."
"No."
Mimi pouted before immediately getting distracted by something new. The strange cube still hovered inside its transparent containment field, slowly rotating in place. Her eyes widened. Ragna grabbed her by the back of her jacket before she could approach, "Mimi, don't."
"But what does it do?"
"Probably something terrible."
"That's not a reason not to touch it."
"It absolutely is."
Mimi looked between the two of them, "You guys aren't fun."
Ragna sighed, "If you don't behave, I'll test my new hammer on you."
Mimi froze. Then her eyes sparkled like twin rubies. That was rarely a good sign.
"Ohhh?~"
Ragna immediately regretted her choice of words. Mimi wasn't looking at her anymore. She was staring over her shoulder across the room. There, tucked between several long spears and halberds, was a scythe. It was taller than Mimi herself.
"Mine, mine, mine!", She practically skipped toward it.
Rai opened her mouth, "Mimi, wait—"
Too late. Mimi wrapped both hands around the shaft and pulled. The scythe came free effortlessly. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the blade began to glow. Cracks of molten orange spread across its surface, transforming the metal into something that looked less forged and more like hardened magma. Heat shimmered around the edge. Tiny glittering embers drifted from the blade and disappeared before reaching the floor. Mimi stared at her new weapon. Her grin grew impossibly wide.
She planted the butt of the scythe against the floor, raised two fingers to her forehead in an exaggerated salute, and struck a pose, "Grimie Mimie!"
Ragna slowly turned away, cringing visibly. Mimi continued, "Here to reap away everyone's misery with the magic of cuteness and Kira Kira!"
Ragna's eyes closed. Her shoulders sagged. She physically looked as though she was trying to leave her body. Rai, meanwhile, examined the transformed weapon. She shrugged, "Heh. This could work. The weapon is compatible enough."
Ragna looked back at her, "…Don't encourage her."
Mimi hugged the scythe, "Too late."
Ragna sighed yet again. She had already learned the hard way that her weapon could kill her. Now she had to worry about Mimi's weapon being extremely Mimi.
They continued deeper into the archive, occasionally stopping whenever something caught Mimi's attention. Eventually, Rai noticed someone was missing, "Where's Gumi?"
Everyone looked around. Mimi pointed toward the far end of the room, "There."
Gumi stood before a long rack displaying an assortment of daggers. She stared at them with quiet fascination, her earlier orange apparently finished somewhere along the way. She reached out and wrapped her fingers around the handle of one. The transformation happened immediately. The rigid blade softened beneath her grip, losing its metallic sheen as it stretched slightly. Within seconds, it looked less like a dagger and more like something made from translucent chewing gum. Gumi tilted her head.
Ragna walked over, "No."
Gumi turned to look at her. Ragna pointed toward the weapon, "Put it down." Gumi reluctantly did so.
Rai watched the elastic blade wobble before returning her attention to Gumi. Her thoughts began running through possibilities. Slime was a non-Newtonian fluid. That meant conventional sharp weapons were essentially useless. The moment Gumi tried to cut something, the weapon would lose the very properties that made it effective. Rigidity would become flexibility. A blade would become a glorified piece of rubber.
A bow? Perhaps. But if the bow transformed as well, there was another problem. The arrow might do the same. A sword was out. So was a spear. Daggers were definitely out. Rai's gaze moved around the archive before they stopped on a certain collection of weapons. Of course. She had been thinking about this incorrectly. Gumi didn't need a weapon that cut with slime. She needed a weapon that could project it. A weapon that could take advantage of its properties rather than fight against them. Rai's eyes widened slightly. "Gumi, girl wait!"
Unfortunately, Mimi had already arrived at a conclusion of her own.
"Gumi!", She grabbed Gumi's hand, "Come on!"
Gumi blinked, startled at the sudden contact. Mimi began pulling her towards one of the enormous scythes she had just claimed. "You need one too! Look, they're basically twins!"
Rai moved quickly, "No, Mimi. That's a disaster waiting to happen."
She intercepted them before Mimi could reach the scythes. Mimi whined disappointed, "But..."
Rai gently turned Gumi around by the shoulders, "Guns." She guided her toward another section of the archive, mumbling, "Something that shoots."
Ragna followed behind them, visibly relieved. She glanced at Rai, "…Thank you."
Rai nodded solemnly, "I'm doing what I can."
Mimi crossed her arms, "You're ruining the fun."
"I'm preventing an incident."
"Same thing."
Gumi stopped in front of the gun racks. Her eyes moved slowly across the collection. Pistols, rifles, strange futuristic weapons, heavy artillery... Then her gaze settled on the largest weapon in the room.
A massive silver and glass cannon rested on its display stand. Gumi reached for it.
Ragna's eyebrow twitched, "Of course she picked the biggest one."
Gumi lifted the cannon. It was almost absurdly large in her hands.
Then the weapon reacted. Pink slime suddenly flowed through the transparent barrel. It filled the glass chamber completely, sloshing from side to side with every movement. The fluid shimmered faintly as it settled into place. Gumi stared at it, then at Rai who gave an encouraging nod, "Try it."
Gumi placed her finger against the trigger and pressed down. A massive glob of pink slime erupted from the cannon. It struck the floor several meters away and immediately spread outward into a broad, sticky sheet. Gumi's body flew backward from the recoil. She stumbled. Ragna instinctively reached out and caught her shoulder. Gumi steadied herself. She stared at the slime coating the floor. Her eyes widened slightly, "…W moment!"
Rai smiled, "It works."
Mimi leaned over the slime, "Can I try too?"
"No," said Ragna and Rai simultaneously.
Mimi pouted harder this time.
Gumi looked down at the cannon again. The weapon had worked, even if not perfectly. The recoil needed to be accounted for, and she would have to learn how to aim something that powerful. But unlike the whip... It actually worked with her element. Gumi hugged the cannon against herself. A tiny smile appeared on her face, "Time to... bring out... big guns."
Ragna smiled despite herself, "Of course."
Mimi's eyes sparkled, "Big guns!"
Gumi nodded, "Big guns."
Rai closed her eyes. For the first time since entering the archive, she had the sinking feeling that perhaps she hadn't contained the chaos at all. She had simply given it artillery.
As they made their way back through the archive, the girls spotted the others in the distance. Neera stood facing Stella with the unmistakable posture of someone conducting an interrogation, while Nozomi watched with such intense expectation that disappointing her somehow felt like a moral failure. Midori stood beside them, one hand firmly clutching the back of Stella's cardigan as though she had anticipated an escape attempt.
Stella, meanwhile, looked distressed. Her eyes darted from Neera to Nozomi, then to Midori, then toward the corridor behind them. She looked very much like someone silently calculating which direction offered the highest probability of survival.
Rai noticed. For once, she decided to be merciful. She stepped forward, intending to give Stella an opportunity to escape the interrogation before it could become another incident. Unfortunately, Gumi acted first. Perhaps spending too much time around Mimi had finally begun to infect her.
Gumi raised her newly acquired cannon, aimed it directly at Stella, and pulled the trigger. A massive blob of pink slime shot from the barrel. It struck Stella squarely in the chest.
"Wha—"
The impact sent Stella stumbling backward. Her feet slipped beneath her, and she landed on the floor with a bewildered expression, her cardigan now thoroughly coated in sticky pink slime.
Silence fell. Stella slowly looked down at herself. When she looked up, all three girls in front of her were staring back. Nozomi gasped. It was the sort of gasp usually reserved for witnessing an unforgivable social transgression, "Stella! Are you alright?!"
She immediately hurried over and helped Stella back onto her feet, frantically brushing at the slime clinging to her clothes despite having no idea whether that was actually making the situation better. "I am so, so sorry! Are you hurt? Gumi didn't mean to—"
Stella blinked. She looked at Nozomi. Then at Gumi. Then at the cannon. She seemed less concerned about the impact than she was with trying to understand why, after everything that had happened today, someone had apparently decided that shooting her with a cannon was a reasonable form of communication.
Even Neera had stopped. For perhaps the first time in recorded history, she had nothing to say.
After a moment, Gumi slowly lowered the cannon and on her face was the most innocent blank expression the group had ever seen. She had no idea she had just crossed a social boundary. And, somehow, she had crossed it far more spectacularly than Neera ever had.
Stella had apparently reached the absolute limit of how much interaction with this particular group she was willing to endure for one day. Without another word, she turned on the spot and walked away.
Then, after approximately three steps, she seemed to reconsider the speed at which she wished to put distance between herself and the seven girls. She almost sprinted. The others watched her disappear down the corridor. Silence settled over them again.
Rai cleared her throat. "Well," she said, stepping forward as though nothing unusual had just happened, "let's go."
Midori immediately seized the opportunity to fill the silence. "Where are we going?"
"The Echo Atrium."
Mimi perked up and hopped forward, "What?!"
Rai sighed, "The combat simulation room."
Neera's head snapped toward her with an alarming speed, "WHAT?!"
Her sudden interest was so immediate that even Rai paused. Ragna reached out and grabbed both Neera and Mimi by the backs of their clothes before either of them could launch themselves at Rai for further information. "You'll find out soon enough. Patience.," she said, dragging them both backward.
Mimi protested with a dramatic noise. Neera, meanwhile, continued staring at Rai with the focused intensity of someone who had just been informed that a previously unknown branch of science existed and would not be allowed to rest until she had dissected it.
"It might be exactly as it sounds," Nozomi added unhelpfully. If anything, Neera's curiosity had intensified.
Rai watched her blue eyes narrow as a dozen possible questions clearly began multiplying behind them.
The Echo Atrium had gained a new opponent. And judging by Neera's expression, it might have finally met its match.