Brine and ozone laced the air as Eli turned and left the deck.
She hated it. The constant lurching, the constant dampness, and of course, the constant fear.
The rusted-eaten grating of the stair protested loudly as she stepped down to their so-called "mission control". Knowing Nozomi, though, she knew better than to question the value of making light of their situation.
The girl in question turned back from the doppler-sonar, saying, "Down here again, Elicchi? I told you I'd come get you if anything happened."
From the other end of the pentagonal room, Nico piped up, "This thing is practically a goddamn dinghy; I wouldn't want to be up there getting sprayed either. Not that I'm partial to this dungeon."
"Anyway," Nozomi continued, "I don't think anything will happen. We're around thirty kilometers from the shore; unless they spontaneously decide to bomb Numazu, we're pretty safe."
Eli wrapped her arms around herself, scarcely able to believe she would ever be in position to hear something like that.
The hull groaned slightly as she looked around the room. Grey, slightly rusted, dimly lit by the glow of the monitors and equipment, all their provisions and bedding piled in the center.
She wished mankind had never split the atom.
Opposite Nozomi, who was staring at the navigation equipment, Nico, bleary eyed, was fiddling with their radio.
"AFN Tokyo isn't broadcasting anymore," she said, "which means either satellite radio stopped working, or, well, you know." She paused, frowning at the thought before looking up and gesturing to the display on the floor next to her. "The satellite video is just about good, though."
The blonde girl nodded, muttering, "let's not use it just yet," and paced back up to the deck.
Another bomb was dropped a last night.
She hadn't watched it happen, none of them had. The three of them had been in their bedrolls, on the verge of sleep, when the light slipping under the deck door cascaded red.
For a second, she swore she had heard Nico whispering, "No, no, no..."
Then came the sound, and sea was whipped into a frenzy and she could do nothing but curl in on herself.
Nozomi had pulled the two of them close and they clung to each other until morning, exchanging hushed reassurances waiting for the tremors to stop.
It was a small consolation, but the mushroom cloud had long dissipated. She wasn't sure if she would be able to bear it looming as she did another circuit of the deck. It was all she could do to stave off the cabin fever. Her turn to navigate wouldn't be for at least an hour yet, and she dared not interrupt Nico's progress and flow.
Sure, there was open sky out here, but it was a bunker nonetheless. She was as stuck as anyone in the shelters under Akihabara.
With a sigh, she turned and went back inside.
This time she found Nico and Nozomi huddled around the radio. The former flagged her down, "Someone took over the frequency; check it out."
A female voice was intelligible, if somewhat distorted, through the static, "...I'm not gonna bother listing what's gone when it's easier at this point to list what isn't. I don't want to believe this either. Hopefully though, once I'm done, I'll be able to make you smile in spite of all this, even if it's only a little."
Nico laughed bitterly.
"Ridiculous. Doesn't she know? The world's already over."
"If it bothers you that much, let's finally check out the video instead," Eli replied.
Nico turned down the radio until the singing was background noise and oriented the laptop around its mess of cables to face them.
Within a moment they were staring down at a broader view of Japan. Slowly, they zoomed in on blasted surface.
They knew the war was happening. They had seen the evacuation, heard the sirens, felt the tremors. Yet, none of them knew what to say upon seeing it all so directly.
"Tokyo...was here."
There was no detail to be discerned, only a black expanse, like a yawning shadow.
Nico had an idea, and wordlessly zoomed back out and moved towards Akihabara.
"N-Nico, wait, what if it's-"
Intact, despite the odds.
The lights were out, but their home was still standing. Eli let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.
"I had to know, sorry," the smaller girl said.
It wasn't in very good quality on the monitor, but Eli could see it clearly in her mind's eye. Down here on Earth, the sun was setting. The amber light would be filtering down through the buildings, countless panes drinking it in, scintillating warmly. A city that large wouldn't sleep under ordinary circumstances, but evacuated, maybe it would finally get its much-deserved rest.
She wasn't about to lie to herself; everyone knew the peace talks were failing.
She knew that this might be the last time her home ever stood proud and beautiful.
Still, she was glad she saw at least this much.
A/N: I think I'll do the obvious thing and wrap this up with a chapter about the first-years. Still though, it's a nice change of pace to do a mini-series, especially when I'm STILL writing the Umi and Kotori-centric one of I've been working on for months. Anyway, I hope you're enjoying this.