Chapter 17

The next day, everyone waited in the dock for the submarine to arrive. They didn't dare to ask Yuudai about his scars since yesterday, he acted normal when they came back, like if nothing had happened.

"The submarine is here" Seiichi said.

A massive shadow on the water was getting close to the dock, it slowly raised, revealing the massive submarine.

"Damn, you did an amazing job Izanami" Seiichi said, very impressed.

A ramp lowered down and everyone entered. The inside was full of crewmates from the American WJO, in charge of the engines, weapons, and maintenance.

On the bridge, a woman stood in the captain's place, she wore a long black coat and a captain's hat. She turned around and noticed them.

"You must be Yuudai Yoshikawa, from the Japanese WJO" She said while she raised her hand. "I'm Nicole Key, from the American WJO"

"Pleasure to finally meet you" Yuudai said and shook her hand.

"I'd like to thank you for helping us, Seiichi has been very helpful" She said.

"No need to thank me, you should thank Seiichi, I barely did anything" He responded.

She stepped away so that Yuudai could be in the captain's place. The platform raised and floating screens appeared around him.

He cleared his throat and shouted. "Everyone in position!" he had powerful and enthusiastic energy. "And get ready to dive!"

Everyone on the bridge shouted. "Yes, sir!" and went to their places.

Mika and Emi were in charge of the weapons, Izanami of the engines, and the rest sat down.

"All the engines working completely fine" Izanami shouted. "As it should be"

"Ramp retracted and outside doors sealed" A crewmate shouted.

"Weapons functional" Mika happily shouted.

"Commence dive!" Yuudai shouted with excitement.

The submarine slowly dived down, slowly disappearing on the surface.

"Routing course to the middle of the Atlantic" A crewmate shouted.

"The rest of you go rest, we'll arrive in a few hours" Yuudai said.

Kenshin, Izumi, Nobuo, Mizuki, and Seiichi left to the living room, located on the top of the submarine.

"I must say, this place is quite nice" Seiichi said as he jumped on the couch.

Nobuo noticed a remote on the table and grabbed it. It had different buttons, some for the lights, some for music and one that said "Open/Close"

"What will this button do?" Nobuo asked himself and pressed it.

A wall raised, revealing a clear window where they could see the outside.

"Oh, we can see the outside" Izumi said getting closer to the window. "Underwater looks so beautiful, I should take a pic" she said as she grabbed her phone.

But before she could take a picture, her phone was confiscated by Mizuki.

"Remember, this is a top-secret operation" Mizuki reminded her and gave her phone back. Izumi sighed in disappointment, she couldn't do anything about it.

"We should sleep" Seiichi said. "I choose the couch!" he immediately said.

"I choose my wheelchair" Izumi said. "Well I wasn't going to sleep anyways"

"I'll take a nap as well" Kenshin said while he stretched. "I'll sleep in the armchair"

Mizuki and Nobuo decided to read a book and sat down on beanbags, Izumi kept contemplating the underwater beauty while Kenshin and Seiichi peacefully slept.

Slowly, they became sleepy, to the point that everyone fell asleep in half an hour.

Two hours later, the submarine was still exploring the depths of the Atlantic.

"Found anything yet?" Yuudai asked.

"No sign of human life" A crewmate said.

Yuudai sighed, he was starting to lose hope "Search for any underwater caves"

"Does this submarine have smaller submarines?" Nicole asked. "I can send some of my men"

"Yes, in the lower decks" Izanami said. "There's some for exploring and some are for emergency"

Nicole ordered a few crewmates to enter three smaller submarines and find caves that might hid something.

The crewmates left the massive submarine in a few minutes and went to explore the depths of the Atlantic.

"What do we do while we wait?" Mika asked.

"Nothing" Yuudai said. "Stay put everyone"

The platform lowered and he went to talk with Commander Nicole. She was doubting that something like a city was under the sea, that it may be just a secret American lab.

"But I'd be useful as well" Nicole said. "Finding one of the secret labs"

"Hey, Nicole..." Yuudai said "Do you trust WJO?" he asked with no hesitation and in a calm tone.

Nicole let out a sigh of exhaustion "Hell naw" she said. "WJO only cares about control, not the people"

"I see" Yuudai responded.

"The leader only considers us his chess pieces" She said. "The only one playing in this war is him and the world"

Yuudai showed no signs of anger against her, her points made him start doubting the WJO.

"Commanders, we got a message from one of the submarines!" A crewmate shouted. "They found a tunnel that goes deeper"

Yuudai snapped back to reality and walked back to the platform. "Well then, let's go" he shouted.

They headed where the smaller submarine was located, they found a massive hole piercing the bottom of the sea. They started diving down, their surroundings were getting darker, and the eerie silence made some of the crewmates shake.

"Any signs of life?" Yuudai asked.

"Only fishes" A crewmate said.

"This place creeps me out" Izanami said.

The submarine stopped diving, they had reached the bottom.

"Continue motion" Yuudai said.

The submarine started moving forward once more, a massive boulder fell in front of them, luckily they stopped in time.

"Circle around it" Yuudai said.

Some smaller rocks fell on the top of the submarine, waking Izumi up.

"Huh...? Where are we?" Izumi asked and noticed that the outside was pitch black and the only lights were from the submarine.

Suddenly something massive hit the side of the submarine, Izumi fell from her wheelchair and the others woke up.

"Izumi!" Mizuki said trying to help her stand back up. "Are you okay?"

"What was that?" Seiichi asked, a bit shocked.

"It's probably nothing-" Kenshin calmly said.

After he said that the lights turned off, including the ones outside.

"This is Commander Yuudai" He said through the intercom. "Something hit the side of the submarine, luckily there's no damage on the hull, but stay on guar-" But before he could finish his sentence, the submarine was hit once more, stronger this time.

"Leaks in the Middle Level!" Yuudai shouted through the intercom. "I repeat! Leaks in the Middle Level!"

"We need to go help" Nobuo shouted at the others and then rushed out of the room.

Izumi's chair turned into a robotic armor to help her run faster and be stronger.

"He's right, let's go" Izumi said.

They all ran out of the room to assist with the repairs. While on the bridge, Yuudai was trying to take control of the situation.

"What hit us?" Yuudai shouted.

"We don't know sir, there are no signs of life other than small ones" The crewmate shouted.

"No signs of life..." Yuudai thought and realized something. "Check if there's any technology nearby"

"Can we do that?" A crewmate asked surprised.

"Of course it can! I was the one who made it" Izanami pressed something and something massive appeared on the radar... and it was heading towards them!

"Brace for impact!" Yuudai shouted through the intercom.

The massive thing hit the submarine stronger than before, the submarine luckily resisted but there were still many leaks on the submarine.

"Damage on the Middle and Lower Level!" Yuudai shouted through the intercom and then looked at Emi and Mika. "Shoot it! I'll try to drive us away"

Yuudai now controlled the submarine's movement and engines. He maxed the engines' power and started driving off while Emi and Mika tried to lock on to the target.

The target locked and they shot the torpedoes, it hit directly hit it but it kept charging at them, they were able to see its face.

"It's a..." Emi said shocked.

"Massive robotic shark!" Mika shouted.

"Shiiiiiit" Nicole shouted.

Yuudai kept driving and Emi and Mika kept firing at the massive shark, they were terrified for their lives. They started to get further away from the massive shark, everyone was cheering for Yuudai, Mika and Emi.

"We're going to get away!" Nicole shouted.

Suddenly the submarine stopped moving, the submarine had completely shut down and the emergency lights turned on.

"What happened?" Yuudai asked while the platform started lowering.

"Something shut down everything" Izanami said. "Including the back-up energy"

"What about the core?" Mika asked. "Will it be okay?"

"Yes, but I'm more scared about the thing on the back" Izanami said.

"How long till the submarine start workin' once more?" Nicole asked.

"It might take 10 minutes" Izanami said. "Right now I can only turn back the radar and communications"

Izanami restarted the system and turned the radar and communications on, the shark was slowly swimming to them.

"We won't make it in time" Emi shouted.

Everyone was panicking, Yuudai was thinking of a way for everyone to survive, that's when a voice was heard through their communications, it was distorted but their words were understandable.

"Identify" The distorted voice kept repeating.

Without hesitation Yuudai presented himself, the next words shocked everyone.

"Are you from... WJO?" The distorted voice asked.

Yuudai was shocked, he didn't know if he should tell the truth or tell a lie, both ways could lead them to death.

"Answer or certain death will come for you" The distorted voice said.

"What do we do Yuudai?" Nicole asked, nervous.

Yuudai gulped and finally answered "WJO" he said in a shaken tone.

The voice went silent and the shark stopped moving, Izanami was able to restart the submarine and they continued moving.

"What was that?" Emi asked, still confused.

"The shark was controlled by someone" Yuudai explained. "I'm guessing the voice"

"How did you know what to answer?" Nicole asked.

"I didn't know" Yuudai said. "If we said that we were from the WJO they'll probably kill us or arrest us and if not they'd probably kill us"

"So you chose the option that had two probabilities" Mika said. "So a 50/50"

Yuudai nodded, he then heard instructions from the distorted voice to continue moving forward.

"So what do we do?" Nicole asked.

"Follow their instructions" Yuudai responded.

The way was peaceful, no rocks were falling, no massive robotic sharks were following them and the leaks were fully repaired, Nicole was even peacefully drinking some coffee she asked a few minutes ago.

"Stop" The distorted voice suddenly said.

Yuudai stopped the submarine, they were surrounded by the dark and silent void. Suddenly lights surrounded their submarine and then their submarine was raised to above.

Their submarine had been parked in some sort of old dock, it was in a very bad condition.

Seiichi and the others ran back to the bridge.

"Where are we?" Seiichi asked.

Yuudai didn't answer and ordered to lower the ramp and open the door.

"Huh? Are you sure Commander?" Emi asked, a bit worried.

Yuudai nodded and left the bridge, outside a group of people awaited them, holding rifles that he had never seen. A girl that looked to be in her adolescence stepped to the front and bowed, she seemed to be the one controlling the soldiers.

"Welcome fellow WJO members" The girl said with a smile.

Those words shocked and confused Yuudai, how could WJO be influenced there?