The water flow increased more and more as he moved forward.
"The ground seems to be disappearing bit by bit," Kage Ou muttered, his legs slowing under the water's pressure as he tried to find solid footing.
"Cursed water… it burns on my tongue." He coughed as the water nearly reached his mouth. He lifted Lìngxi carefully in his arms, holding him higher.
The path stretched like a forbidden cave — no light, no visible escape, no sense of direction.
He froze when he felt something heavy crash into the water behind him, violent enough to send waves surging through the narrow passage.
A stone. The one that had sealed the doorway.
"Another surprise~" Kirihito's voice echoed through the cavern. "You will really love it, black‑gold insect~"
"Now this thing is following us too?" Kage Ou glanced back. "I will decide your place once we are out."
Then he felt something grab his feet — and he was pulled under.
Not a hand. A thick lock of hair. Kirihito's.
Kage Ou's eyes widened. He took a long breath before he was fully dragged into the water, raising Lìngxi higher to keep him from the murky depths while he himself sank.
He could not free his legs. The hair was impossible to tear with bare hands.
'Let us see if this works here.'
He drew his sword underwater. The owl eye on the hilt opened — black iris against gold.
The blade moved on its own, severing the hair with brutal efficiency. Water splashed everywhere. A scream of pain echoed through the cave — but beneath it, a mischievous laugh.
"It kind of hurts," Kirihito said, as if speaking directly to Kage Ou. "But it is okay not to be okay. I was never okay from the start, was I?"
"You are completely fucked up," Kage Ou hissed as he pushed forward again.
The current grew stronger. He yelped when his feet lost their grip and he began to drift — carried wherever the water wanted.
He held Lìngxi close, keeping his nose and mouth above the surface as best he could.
"Leaving already? But I am still not done yet~" Kirihito's voice followed him, unhurried.
'What does this creep even want from us? He is not even attacking properly. I should just follow the current. There must be a way out.'
Kage Ou drifted. And drifted. He lost track of whether he was still inside the mountain or somewhere else entirely. The tunnel seemed endless, dark, and now — strangely warm.
His chest tightened when he saw a drop ahead. A waterfall.
He straightened himself, paddling harder.
"You forgot the place is supposed to be forbidden," Kirihito reminded from behind.
Then something shot past his face — close enough to cut.
Blades. Designed to guard the passage.
Kage Ou could not slow down. He called his sword back from where it had been blocking Kirihito's hair and slammed it against a rock fold, halting himself just in time.
But his stomach dropped when he saw the gap was much farther than it had seemed. The path ended mid‑way. The water plunged into darkness below.
And there — spirit‑eating fish. Their heads tilted, watching. Skeletons littered the water, their torn robes draped over rocks like the fish had made homes of their bones.
"Oh no." Kage Ou looked at Lìngxi. "I hope you will not scold me when you wake up — for what I am about to do."
He decided to jump. But smartly.
First, he slipped past the blades. Then he created a shadow clone that fell into the water below — exactly where a reckless man might land.
The fish hissed and lunged at the clone all at once. The water turned black with their frenzy.
Kage Ou held his sword and slid down carefully with Lìngxi.
'Now I just have to catch the right current.'
He landed in the water again, watching the flow split into ten different paths. He chose the third — the most controlled one.
"You are sure you will succeed?~" Kirihito called from above, standing at the edge like he knew every inch of this place.
Kage Ou's jaw tightened. He did not answer.
But the situation did.
The fish realized they had been fooled. They grew more aggressive, spreading out again, hunting for real flesh and soul.
"Shit."
Kage Ou tried to pull himself into the current — but his feet stuck in the mud. Something held his legs so tightly it felt like his bones might break.
He bit back a groan, his eyes reddening.
He summoned his shadow owl. It split into a swarm of small bats that lunged at the fish, blocking their path. They were so many that the fish could barely move toward him.
But one small fish slipped through. It leaped and bit at him.
Lìngxi was unharmed, but Kage Ou's brow was torn open. Blood ran down his face.
He screamed through clenched teeth, kneeling in the knee‑deep water. He grabbed the fish and crushed it until it burst. Anger and anxiety had finally overwhelmed him.
"Get lost!" He threw the remains aside.
The other fish froze. They stared at their dead companion.
Then they began to leap frantically, trying to escape the bats.
Kage Ou realized the mud had softened when he stopped fighting it. Carefully, he pulled his feet free and caught the third current.
"Ah… at least a little more breath."
He drifted again — unable to tell where he was going. His owls kept the fish at bay while following him out.
Kirihito chuckled, watching him leave. Then he jumped down from above, landing squarely on the head of a larger fish.
The fish hissed, tensed — then fell silent, as if it recognized him.
"The right path… the rest might be more romantic than fun. But no problem~"
Kirihito pushed his long black hair behind his shoulder and lightly kicked the fish. "Move, move. What are you waiting for?"
The fish carried him toward the fifth current — the one that twisted and doubled back on itself, waves rising and falling beneath him.
He remained calm.
He just went — perhaps to see the rest of the show.