Tsukasa Ayatsuji stirred with a start as she came to, waking from a nightmarish unconsciousness to slow wakefulness in long, painful seconds. This was followed soon after by utter confusion and a sense of dread when she was wakeful enough to make sense of her odd bearing and position. Looking up and around from her prone position sitting up with her back against a cold, hard surface, Tsukasa finds that she seems to be in a strange metal container or box of some sort, with built in light fixtures at the edges of the bottom and the ceiling, giving a warm and suffused lighting that was not too bright and easy on the eyes. But the size of the cell she was in gave her a slight paranoid sense of claustrophobia she didn't knew she had, so she worked her arms to get herself up in an attempt to get away from that feeling. Groggily, she stood up hurriedly, realizing now too that she was still in her Kibitou High School Uniform.
"Where...?" Am I, she finished asking the question mentally, and wondered as well how she ended up here in the first place. Her memory was faint but she last remembered working on a proposal for her class in her classroom late after school, which probably accounts to her still being in her uniform. What happened after that was vague but attempting to remember harder brought a dizzy spell so she resigned instead to figure it out later. Instead, she turned to study her erstwhile cell.
Turning around, she confirmed that she was boxed in on all four sides in an enclosed metal chamber that barely contained her full height, except for one side behind her was instead made out of what seems to be a mirror: her full body self was easily reflected in it. Besides for the square shaped outline in the ceiling that betrayed what could be a door, there doesn't seems to be any other noticeable way in or out. In the center of the floor was an ominous grill that hid several small holes underneath it.
She leaned closer to the mirror instead, suspecting something was amiss or very odd about the placement of the mirror. She tried peering close into it but saw nothing beyond the reflection of her own eyes. So she knocked the mirror twice, perhaps testing its strength and getting a feel of how fragile it could be. The resounding thud that echoed in her cell tells her that it was thick enough that there was no way she could break it. Which was just as well as the person standing outside wouldn't like it if the two-way mirror broke that easily.
Then came the sudden low groaning sound of something coming to life around her, rumbling and echoing in the cell, followed by the sound of flowing water. No sooner than Tsukasa heard it that water started flowing upwards from the holes under the grille in the floor, startling her with a jump. For a few seconds she stood watching curiously at the floor as the water continued to rise up and submerge her slipper, and it was only when the waterline was pass her ankle that she realized the eventual outcome if she stayed around any longer.
She hurriedly looked around once more, keeping her cool and knocking and pushing every inch of the walls that boxed her in the slowly filling death trap. Deep inside she was hoping that this was all just an elaborate prank, something to scare her silly like the ones she saw on TV. Maybe it was a test of some sort even. She leaned back and slammed her shoulder on the mirror but it wouldn't budge or crack an inch. Trying again only earned her a slightly aching shoulder so she abandoned the idea altogether.
The fast rising water was now over Tsukasa's thighs, the edge of her skirt now floating and rising in the water as well. Not caring perhaps that her lifted skirt was baring her panties under it for any welcoming eyes, she slams the mirror repeatedly with her fists desperately, her mask of calm slowly cracking under pressure.
"Somebody help me!" She cried out aloud hoping someone could hear her. "Anybody out there?"
In her growing frustration, she slipped forward as her slippers lost traction on the floor. Her hands wet and without any proper hold on anything uselessly sliding down the mirror surface, Tsukasa fell face first into the water, crying out in a flurry of bubbles with surprise. Her eyes went wide in shock as she then instinctively closed her mouth and pushed herself back above the water gasping and sputtering, now completely drenched in water from head to toe. Her thoroughly soaked uniform sticks to her, showing somewhat the shape of her body. Wiping the water from her eyes, she saw now that the water was now reaching up to her chest, and as the waterline continues to rise up to her shoulder, she was now forced to tread water, kicking herself up from the floor to stay afloat.
"NOOO! Somebody!" She cried out fearfully, her eyebrows furrowed in panic and her breath fast and erratic. She turns and turns around hoping once more to find any means of escape to no avail. Her own reflection in the mirror seems to smile mockingly at her in her mind's eye, enjoying every moment of her losing her cool if it's the last thing she'll do. She deserved it of course, being the two faced girl that she was. It wouldn't be surprising she had made enemies in her life, some maybe crazy or daring enough to get rid of her in such a sick way.
She lashed out with a weak punch at the mirror and her dark side reflection vanished into her panicked expression once more.
Looking down into the water, Tsukasa wondered frantically if there was something she may have missed underwater in all her panic. Taking a deep breath, she submerges herself into the rising water, pushing herself down with her arms. With eyes squinting, she tried to see if there was any difference or changes that may have been brought about by being submerged underwater, but only to find with a quick yet certain glance that the featureless bottom of the tank was the same as ever. She grimaced as a stream of bubbles escaped her nose as water entered and stung he sinuses, prompting her to kick back up to the surface to catch her breath.
She nearly bumped her head with the ceiling when she broke the surface as the water had risen higher unimpeded when she was under. Desperately, she tried pushing and knocking on the outline in the ceiling to no avail. It was locked shut from the other side to doom her in this watery trap. Crying with her tears mixed with the water swirling around her, she tried submerging herself once more and tried kicking at the damned mirror with all her might, but without and leverage whatsoever in the water, it was yet another futile and meaningless attempt that only served to tire her out.
"Somebody!" She bubbled furiously, air blooshing out of her mouth and forcing herself up once more to the dwindling air pocket above. "I don't want to drown! Somebody help me! Get me out of here! Somebody!" She cried in between gasps and wheezes. The water was now up to her chin, and in her desperate attempt to keep herself afloat, the churning water found her open mouth, causing her to gag, cough, and sputter which churns the already turbulent water even more and repeating the process of weakening her by depriving her of a proper breath.
She managed to inhale sharply once more and slipped weakly under the water to escape the churning surface, somehow finding refuge from the unsafe air pocket as the water was too high for her to take another breath safely without accidentally sucking water into her windpipe. She was exhausted to struggle much longer, her shoulders visibly shaking and her closed lips quivering as the realization that she would drown sinks in. She pushed herself forward towards the mirror once more and feebly beats on the mirror, pleading with whoever could read her thoughts to deliver her from this prison. Loose streams of bubble escapes her pursed lips, and her eyes were wide with fright as she tries to hold her breath. With her lungs starting to feel the burn of holding her breath longer than she was used to, she resignedly kicks herself back upwards to the air pocket, pushing her arms up against the ceiling to cushion her rise less she bumps her head on it.
Only except to her sudden dismay, she found the air pocket was already gone after she last slipped underwater.
She shuddered with dread as she frantically searched for the non-existent air pocket to no avail. She had unknowingly taken what was her last breath just thirty seconds ago. She unconsciously screamed in frustration and anger at the thought of it as she pounded on the ceiling, losing a massive burst of her precious air before she instinctively puts one hand over her nose and mouth to stop herself from losing what's left in her lungs. She shakes her head feverishly while grimacing in agony, her long black hair swirling around her face and hampering what vision she has in her state of mind to which she tried to push them away with her free hand. Her legs were kicking weakly with no coordination whatsoever, no longer concerned to keep herself afloat any more. The weight of her soaked uniform slowly dragging her down.
Her chests heaved as she fought against the growing urge to breathe. It pained her to see her struggling reflection in the mirror as if she was watching someone else in peril yet with herself experiencing the same thing: it was a pitiful sight to see. At least she had a bit of a false comfort of feeling like she wasn't alone. She heaved again, and the need to breathe was stronger this time but she forced herself to her limit to resist the inevitable. A sliver of air bubble escaped from her nose that was supposed to be clamp shut with her hand.
Looking at her own reflection once more, she finally realized that her panties was showing from her uplifted skirt, and she tries to reach down with her hand to push the skirt back down to cover what's left of her modesty even in the her last slow and painful moments.
Her chest suddenly convulses before she could even slip through the gaps of her skirt, forcing a burst of air out past her fingers. Her eyes went wide as air continued to dribble out of her mouth past between her fingers. She closed her eyes and shook her head in denial, unable to comprehend how could this happen to her. She tried to be a good girl all her life, didn't she? He body continued to heave with more urgency, her will to survive slowly being chipped away by her bodily needs to actually continue living. She was so cold and so tired, her senses slowly growing numb from the torture of just trying to stay alive.
Another convulsion wracked her body, harder and stronger this time, and in her weakened state, whatever air she had been holding in her lungs bursts out of her nose and mouth followed by her bodily natural reaction to inhale fresh air, but only instead to suck in a mouthful of water into her windpipes and stricken lungs.
Her eyes snapped open in shock at what she had done. She gurgled and cried while her arms and legs uselessly kicked with a sudden last spurt of frantic strength trying to swim up, with only her instinct falsely telling her that air was 'up'. She gurgled painfully again as she swallowed more water into her lungs which her body was trying to expel, jerking and convulsing in her dying throes as she thrashes about mindlessly. Her mouth opening and closing feebly trying to suck in air from somewhere, anywhere.
Her remaining air escapes her open mouth in another sickening gurgle, causing her to lose buoyancy and sink downwards. She came to rest on the floor with her knees bent back as if she was kneeling. Her arms splayed on either of her side suspended unmoving. Her hair swirled lightly around her face while her mouth was open slightly. The last thing Tsukasa saw before the creeping darkness in the edges of her vision overcame her was the peaceful look on her drowned face. Her body quivered slightly from the last of her nerve impulse trying to tell her to live.
Her black eyes glazed over as her life flickers out in them, and Tsukasa Ayatsuji saw and felt no more.