To Lyger 0: "Under the Sea"? Or perhaps "Jaws"?

Aqua Noir kicked hard, descending lower and lower into the depths, scanning the water around him for any signs of the ruins that Neptune and Poseidon had discovered on their initial survey. Fish scattered from them in all directions, schools separating in front of them to rejoin after they had passed. Below, an entire ecosystem thrived on the seabed. The water around him was so clear, he could see for a kilometer or more in every direction. A little in front of him, Aqua Bug gave a kick, the movement drawing his attention to her backside. She took the yo-yo from her side and held it in one hand, poised to strike, and Aqua Noir blinked, shaking his head to clear away the distraction. His staff sprang into his hand, and he quickly scanned the area around him, searching for threats.

The water around them remained silent.

Below them, Neptune and Poseidon made a direct beeline a little north from where they had anchored the boat, toward a slight depression in the seabed just barely visible in the distance as a slight variation in the floor. Aqua Bug swam after them, a look of intense concentration in her eyes. A little above them, Aqua Noir caught a glimpse of Peregrino del Mar, circling slightly as they descended after their two guides. Olivet and Hato Gozen, their faces encased in magical air bubbles and propelling themselves through the water with jets of air, brought up the rear.

"How much further?" Aqua Noir called, giving an extra kick to catch up with Aqua Bug.

"We're almost there!" Neptune replied. "Just over that ridge is where the statue is."

Aqua Bug glanced over at him with an impish grin. "Getting tired there, Kitty?" she teased, bumping his shoulder.

He smirked. "Well, you know what they say about cats and water…"

"Aww… does my Kitty need me to dry him off?" she cooed, scratching him behind the ears. Leaning over, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulled her in close, and whispered something in her ear. Almost at once, her cheeks turned bright red. "Well, M. Agreste," she stammered, "aren't you forward?"

He wagged his eyebrows at her. "Just giving us some incentive…"

"Are you two done?" Hato Gozen demanded, rolling her eyes.

"Look down there!" Poseidon announced, pointing his trident down at the seafloor just on the other side of the ridge ahead of them.

A minute later, Aqua Noir crested the ridge side-by-side with Aqua Bug and paused, treading water above the steep drop beyond, looking over the mass of stonework visible all around the depression below them. Neptune and Poseidon had already dived for the bottom, angling directly toward an upright column standing near the center of the bowl-shaped area. Behind Aqua Noir, there was a sharp intake of breath as Peregrino del Mar swam over the surrounding ridge and spotted the ruins below. Scattered around, Aqua Noir could pick out straight, squared-off stones that appeared to have been arranged in lines, though several were missing or out of place. Where the sediment had been disturbed, the corner of a stone foundation shone through, smoothed down and rounded off by the water current. Glancing back at the column, Aqua Noir started, his eyes focusing on another column nearby, this one leaning at a sharp angle and with a cross piece protruding off of it to form an "L."

"Does that look familiar?" Aqua Noir asked Aqua Bug, nudging her and pointing to the two columns.

She cocked her head to one side, studying them intently for a long moment. Finally, she nodded. "Now that you point it out, it's definitely possible," she agreed.

"We uncovered a couple statues in this area!" Neptune shouted back to them, pointing toward the far side of the underwater valley. Aqua Bug gave Aqua Noir a look and jerked her head toward Neptune. Aqua Noir nodded, pointing down at the column. Brushing his arm with her hand, Aqua Bug kicked away from him, taking off after Neptune.

With a last look at Aqua Bug, Aqua Noir spun around, kicking hard and swimming down toward the two columns, around one of which he could see a series of brilliant grey statuettes. Muck surrounded the second column, piled to a depth of almost two meters above the seafloor. As Aqua Noir descended, the water current swirled above him, and he glanced up to find Peregrino del Mar shadowing him from above. Off in the distance, Hato Gozen and Olivet were just barely visible, floating about ten meters above the ground on the far side of the depression. Aqua Noir raised an eyebrow, as Peregrino del Mar drifted down to meet him.

Peregrino del Mar quirked an eyebrow at Aqua Noir. "Probably not smart to go off alone down here, right?" He snorted. "Never know what a shark could come along looking for a meal…"

Aqua Noir grinned. "We probably should stick together," he agreed, nodding toward the columns. "Something about that formation looks vaguely familiar."

"Oh?"

"Do you see how close the one looks to the other in height and diameter?" asked Aqua Noir. Peregrino del Mar nodded slowly. Aqua Noir furrowed his brows. "They could be two parts of the same whole. Last year, we visited another miraculous temple – or former temple, rather – and it had a gate at the entrance to the complex."

"You think this could be that?" Peregrino del Mar raised an eyebrow dubiously, looking the columns up and down. "It doesn't really look like much."

Aqua Noir shrugged, stopping just in front of the leaning column and extending his staff. "Maybe not right now, but after we get done with it…" Gritting his teeth, he carefully ran the staff along the column, peeling away the dirt and grime caked against it. The first stroke barely showed any progress; the second removed a single piece of caked-on dirt. Levering his staff into that small chip, he pushed harder, scraping down half the length of the column and separating more and more of the mud and sediment, revealing the marble underneath. As he worked, ridges began to appear in the marble, straight and even albeit worn down substantially by the water. After a minute, Peregrino del Mar sighed and joined him, digging his fingers into the muck and pulling it away. The sediment settled in the air around them, obscuring their view of the column, until Peregrino del Mar pulled out his slingshot and spun it tightly in front of him, propelling the sediment away from them. Slowly, Aqua Noir worked his way around the column and progressed down to its base, while Peregrino del Mar tried to dislodge the meter of sediment that had settled around the base. Finally, they unearthed ten silt-encrusted mounds ringing the pillar. Furrowing his brows, Aqua Noir extended his claws and began digging away the mud.

"Cat! Check this out!" Peregrino del Mar had floated up higher and drifted away, toward a spot three meters away where the edge of a marble figure just barely protruded above the level of the sediment. He waved a hand, beckoning Aqua Noir toward him. "What do you make of this?" he asked. All of the figure's facial features had been worn down by time – the head itself had nearly disappeared, though it still retained enough of its shape to be recognizable. Carefully, Peregrino del Mar peeled away seaweed from the top of the figure, revealing the remains of a human-looking face. Bracing his legs on the seafloor, he gave a tug, and the statue slowly emerged from the ground, scattering sediment in all directions. The debris hung in the water for a long moment, obscuring Aqua Noir's view of the statue. Eventually, it was visible: the statue, which at first appeared to be of a human, gradually gave way at the waist to a fish tail. Peregrino del Mar nearly dropped the statue and looked up, staring at Aqua Noir. "Is–is this a–a merman?"

Aqua Noir's eyes widened. "I–I think so…" He shook his head ruefully. "I didn't think there were any merpeople in Atlantis, but I guess we don't really know much of anything about Atlantis, do we?"

Peregrino del Mar shrugged. "I'm pretty sure you know more about Atlantis than I do," he pointed out.

"I doubt that," Aqua Noir replied. "You found the sextant, after all. Plus that girdle. And those coins. Meanwhile, all we have to go on is what our Kwamis have said, and they haven't been overly forthcoming with information."

Peregrino del Mar hummed. "Really, I've just been trying to go where Perry tells me to go, looking for the artifacts that Atlanteans had left behind. Before this, I only knew about Atlantis from the movies!"

Drifting a little away from that statue, Aqua Noir scanned the seafloor beneath him. After a moment, he glanced at Peregrino del Mar, raising his eyebrow meaningfully. "Until now, I think that's all any of us had. But now…" Aqua Noir dropped lower to stand on the seabed, directly above a large mound that appeared to be another buried stone. Gently, he dug away the sediment from around it, revealing a figure of a horse's upper body, ending in a fish tail.

"Is that supposed to be a… seahorse?" demanded Peregrino del Mar, cocking his head to one side. "It doesn't look like any seahorse I've ever seen…"

A blast of swirling water struck the statue and rotated around it. "You found a hippocampus!" Hato Gozen's voice was somewhat muffled by the water as she swam toward them, waving her hand and propelling another gentle swirling eddy around the statue to rinse away more of the mud and sand that still clung to the marble. The ears and nose had been worn down by the centuries, but still retained their equine shape. Hato Gozen glanced back and forth between them. "What are you doing over here? Everyone else is off in that direction," she informed them, gesturing.

"I think this could have been the other part of the gate," Aqua Noir explained, gesturing toward the two columns a few meters away from them. "If we uncover them, he would learn so much more about the city – and especially about the miraculous."

"That sounds like it could take a while," she pointed out wryly.

"We really could stay down here forever, just excavating the ruins," Peregrino del Mar mused, raising an eyebrow.

"Come on," Hato Gozen told them. "There's a lot more over this way. Including what might be the top of a palace."

Following Hato Gozen further into the depression, Aqua Noir's eyes widened in shock. Between them, Olivet and Poseidon had already managed to clear the sediment and seaweed away from much of the city, revealing large square stone outlines on the seafloor, many of them broken apart. Houses, storehouses, even a large oblong amphitheater with several of the columns and part of a wall still standing. More columns lay along the floor, scattered and broken into segments. Aqua Bug floated above a statue wearing a long toga, the facial features only faintly visible, and tapped her chin, her brows furrowed.

Near the base of a tall buried building with a vaguely-domed roof, Poseidon crouched, gently rinsing the gunk away from an inscription with a steady stream of water. "I need to come back here with some proper equipment one of these days," he observed. "Zoi would love to see this…"

"Any idea where the temple might be?" Aqua Noir asked.

Hato Gozen shrugged. "If Paxx's map was correct, it might be over that way," she replied, pointing a little to the west. "But that's assuming that things settled in roughly the same configuration. Although if those–" she indicated a cluster of a dozen large rectangular foundations "–are the storehouses that Tikki said they built to withstand the siege, then they really should be a little further that way in comparison to the amphitheater and gate. And probably facing a different direction."

Aqua Noir hummed pensively. "No one ever accused Plagg of using half-measures…"

Hato Gozen shook her head ruefully. "Apparently not."

"Hey! Come and check this out!" called Neptune from much further away, close to the edge of the depression. "I think – I think this building might have survived intact!"

"What is it?" Aqua Bug kicked away from the statue she had been studying, veering around a couple columns and swimming in his direction. At the same time, Aqua Noir left behind Peregrino del Mar and Hato Gozen and raced toward Aqua Bug.

"I'm not quite sure what it is," Neptune answered. "But it's big. It might even be two or three buildings all joined together."

Leaving behind the column she had been cleaning, Olivet swam up higher and started. "Not just that; I think that might be the Academy!"