Through the crevice again, avoiding sharply pointed rocks that could stab someone if not careful, the two ladies swam through the darkness carefully and stayed close. Bubbles could be seen in some parts of the cave, while others had small air pockets that led into other parts of the cave.

Not too far ahead did they see a no-crossing sign floating and blocking off a path. The girls both looked at each other with questioning faces, then nodded to each other. That sign was further ahead past the spot where the anglerfish was at earlier. "Take it easy on our way over. We don't know if those fish are still lingering," Kuro warned over her mic and saw Menya nod in return.

Very cautiously did they swim, keeping their eyes open for those fish as they got past the spot where they were once at. Anticipation, uneasy, they felt like they could show up at any minute. Luckily seeing in the dark made it easier for them to spot anything; though upon getting much closer to the sign, the larger anglerfish from before had charged at them from around a corner and tried biting at Menya. "AH!" the friend screamed. Her arm was pulled out of the way in time and she quickly swam behind Kuro, she was clearly not a fighter.

Kuro, on the other hand, put an arm up to keep her protected from the fish. Her green eyes piercing the darkness as she glared daggers at the toothy creature.

It came back for more after taking a sharp U-turn and went to try and bite at Kuro, only to stop in mid-swim. It calmed down when Kuro's eyes focused heavily on it. In the fish's vision, all it saw was a much smaller anglerfish swimming away behind them.

It stared at it, then followed after its illusioned form around the corner. Kuro whipped her head around to Menya and pushed her as hard as she could over to the sign and over it. "Hurry, before it realizes it was a fake!" she rushed and watched her friend acknowledge her words with a nod, then swam under the floating sign. Next, she too, followed after, moving the sign above her head more and swimming faster.

Once the anglerfish came back around the corner, it just floated there; it must have been very confused. Through that path the sign blocked off, the girls sighed heavily from relief; it was too close for comfort... "You okay, Menya?" Kuro questioned her friend, then lifted her arm for inspection.

"Yeah I'm fine, really," The blue-eyed girl chuckled lightly and saw her friend let go of her. Menya's hand lightly rubbed her forearm and calmed herself down a bit; she was in a panic, she didn't think they were going to get away from the fish. "Thanks," adding to her words, Kuro had put a hand on her shoulder with a quick nod.

"Now, come on, we need to find the source of the floods before-" Veiga was about to answer until she saw a strange substance floating on the other side of the sign that they crossed. She only glanced at it, but it finally registered that it was blood when she looked closer. "Blood..." Nothing but urgency raced through her mind. Quickly she swam ahead, pulling on her friend's wrist to force her to tag along.

"What's wrong Kuro?!" Menya didn't see it, her confused eyes squinted with worry as she was being dragged along in a rush.

"Blood, there's blood, Menya! Something either killed that anglerfish or someone's in the water with us! Come on!" Kuro whisper yelled through the mic and felt Menya pick up her speed to keep up with her. Faster and faster they swam, trying hard to follow along the paths and to avoid whatever caused the blood to waft through the water.

"You think it might be a deep-sea shark? Or maybe something worse?!" Menya exclaimed through her whispers, panting and trying to keep at a steady pace.

"I don't know! But whatever it is, I'm not sticking around for much longer. I can't fight underwater, so we have to avoid it!" Replying to Menya, her whisper-yell reached the other mic and her friend understood.

"Let's hurry, then!" The blue-eyed woman agreed and hurried along. Next thing she knew, some miniature harpoon shot through the water and nearly scraped Kuro's shoulder, zipping between the girls. Menya screamed and Kuro gasped, then pulled on her friend to get her out of the way of the next one that came soaring.

Two at a time, those miniature harpoons whizzed past them when they tried swimming away again. This time, the girls rounded a corner and tucked themselves into a small hole, hidden from sight. "Shh..." Kuro tried calming her panicked friend who was breathing heavily.

Menya managed to take deep breaths; she closed her eyes and eased her breathing until it became steady. Though still fear-struck, she chose to get behind Kuro seeing that she wasn't capable of combat.

They both sat there, waiting for something to happen or for the culprit to show. Kuro's green eyes were fixated on the path to the side where they came from, keeping her hand behind her to reassure her friend.

Slowly a faint engine sound was getting louder by the second. Two males were swimming, wearing diving suits much like them only they had boosters on their backs for an extra hand at their swimming speed. It was Mauve and his buddy, holding harpoon guns out before them. Violet and yellow eyes gleamed through the darkness as they swam, both searching for the two hidden girls.

It's them from before! Menya mentally spoke to Kuro with fear in her eyes, she tried her best to stay quiet. Seeing Kuro nod and peek over her shoulder at her, Menya gulped.

The two males slowly swam past their little hole, they were close enough to be overheard and what they talked about was surprising, to say the least. "We have to kill them, they'll expose us Mauve!" The yellow-eyed one exclaimed with anger and Mauve sighed in defeat.

"Yes, but I hate this. I know, we have to get rid of any threat that shows up, but why those girls of all people? The one with blue eyes was pretty; she's too pretty to kill," Mauve answered and reloaded his harpoon gun.

"Pretty or not, they can't find out about our plan... Flooding the cities is becoming harder by the day when new people keep trying to dive deeper into the caves!" The gleaming yellow-eyed one explained rather harshly with a furious face.

Kuro recognized the two from earlier when her friend mentioned it, she took a mental note of one of their names. Mauve, so she decided to try and record them through one of the built-in sea cameras. With a press of a button to the side of her head, a faint click ensued and it showed on a tiny screen that it was recording. Weapons were not permitted unless they had a license, so she hoped this recording would be enough proof to get them in trouble with their kind's law.

On the camera, her breathing could be heard, it was faint and almost heavy. Her own heartbeat in her ears, she was scared that much was true but if worse came to worse she'd have to fight somehow. Sneak up... Take them by surprise and disarm them of their harpoon guns... her mental voice echoed. Sneaking up on someone would probably get her in trouble too, seeing that stealth is frowned upon among her kind.

Closing her lips and tried to keep herself calm, she let out a breath and slowed her heart that raced a mile an hour. Her green eyes glanced over to her friend and her hand rose to signal her, to stay put until the coast was clear. Hand gestures of disarming them and making them defenseless were motioned to Menya so she'd know why.

With a hesitant nod, her friend curled up a bit and pressed herself even closer to the cave wall behind her, in the said hole.

Knowing that- Veiga nodded back and looked over to the males again, seeing that they were passing them. Very slowly she peeked her head out of the hole, watching their backsides grow more distant.

Those green eyes of hers focused real hard and she took a deep breath, then exhaled gradually. Suddenly, her very body became invisible and Menya watched with interest. "Where could they have possibly gone? The hole's up ahead. You think they might've found it, Jahz?" Mauve questioned and looked to his buddy, keeping the harpoon gun steady.

"Maybe... I doubt it though, it's well hidden," The male with yellow eyes, now known as Jahz, reassured with a smirk forming. "Besides, it'd be stupid if-" before he could finish, they both freaked out when they felt a cord on both of their suits being unplugged. Instantly they let panicked, reaching behind them in a rush to try and reconnect the cords.

Their harpoon guns were let go of, they floated down to the bottom of the sea cave's floor and made a faint clunk sound in the water. "What was that?! Who did that?!" Jahz questioned and managed to reconnect the cord.

"I don't know! Jahz, help me I can't reach mine!" He panicked and was about to turn around so he could help, but a large rock was smashed to the back of his head. He was rendered unconscious, which frightened Jahz to no end.

"Mauve!" Quickly Jahz reached for him, catching the unconscious male with one hand, and turned around. There was nothing there... Complete empty space behind them, it was almost as if a really sneaky fish or something came by and was messing with them. As swift as he could, while being slowed down by the water, he lifted his friend and tried to hurry back.

Retreating, that's what he was doing; he left the harpoons there on purpose since he had to carry his friend back to safety. Once they passed by and rounded the corner, heading back to the cave entrance, Kuro and Menya both sighed. Kuro was visible, she was, to begin with; just in men's eyes, she wasn't there.

Kuro grumbled and held her head tightly, leaning over from the slight sting. "Thanks, Kuro!" Thankful for the saving again, her relieved face turned into a concerned one almost instantly. "You okay?" With worry in her voice, the blue-eyed friend questioned and put a hand on her bicep.

"Y-yeah... I'm just...in pain," Veiga explained with a slightly cracked voice. "I can't use my power very well on more than one person. It hurts my head," mumbled that last part, she breathed in and out to try to ease the pain.

"Well, let's get out of here soon. I can't have you passing out on me," Menya was concerned, Kuro saving their butts twice in one day made her feel awful.

It wasn't long until they were on the move again, continuing on ahead where they recalled the hole being at. Further through, past giant rocks and tight squeezes, they saw a small glimmering piece of metal behind a large boulder against a cave wall. Kuro pointed to it and Menya nodded, soon following after her when she swam over to it.

With so much effort, she and her friend both pushed with all of their might to get the boulder to move. Dust wafted through the air as it rolled to the side, thankfully the things over their faces kept them from choking over it. When the boulder was finally out of the way, the girls were panting heavily.

It took them a few minutes to catch their breaths and when they did, they looked up only to see a large gaping hole, with a sheet of metal that just now floated down to the bottom of the cave floor. "You seeing what I'm seeing?" Menya asked with widened, unbelieving eyes.

"Obviously! So, they're the reason for these floods!" Kuro fumed angrily and clenched her fists. "Come on, let's go back and warn everyone else!" adding to her words, they both headed back after she stopped her recording. The recording was saved into the suit, she'd have to extract the recording at the front desk when they get back.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter!~ Don't forget to leave a comment, I'm always happy to hear from my readers! \o/