...
"So... what exactly is going on with this world?"
"This is my brother's cocoon."
"...Cocoon? Wait, you don't mean—"
"Perhaps they share some fundamental similarities... but at least within the context of our conversation, it is not the Cocoon you are thinking of.
"The Imaginary Construct's final act was merely to banish my brother into an empty sector of Imaginary Space. That space was completely barren and incredibly fragile. Even in his weakened state, with your presence beside him, it wouldn't have taken him long to break out and bring you both back.
"The reason things have escalated to this point is because someone was already waiting in that Imaginary Space—"
"The Herrscher of Delusion."
...
"The aquarium is actually at the ocean!!"
Standing before the endless stream of visitors, Kiana couldn't help but gasp in awe.
This looked absolutely nothing like the aquariums in her memories!
An aquarium was supposed to be a massive building. A huge portion of it was usually dedicated to the killer whale tanks and performance stages, and the rest of the space was divided into little rooms and tanks for various marine life.
That was how aquariums were supposed to be.
It wasn't supposed to be this dreamlike—
Underwater tunnel!
There were no individual tanks displaying living specimens. There was no whale pool surrounded by bleachers. There wasn't even an underwater viewing box for diving shows.
This aquarium was nothing more than an entrance leading directly down into the abyss of the sea.
There was a tunnel running along the ocean floor. The sea was above you, around you, embracing you from every direction like a lover.
From the very first step into the tunnel, the noise and chaos of the mundane world vanished instantly. Yet, it didn't feel entirely gone, because you weren't alone.
Everyone who stepped inside immediately fell into a stunned silence. The tranquil depths laid bare their most encompassing, gentle side to the visitors.
Footsteps, breathing... all the customary sounds of everyday life drowned in this boundless expanse of blue.
Dim lights lined the tunnel, but Shu noticed that the primary light source still came from above.
Sunlight stubbornly pierced through tens, perhaps hundreds of meters of water, eventually scattering into countless glittering fragments that rained down on the tunnel's glass dome.
The gentle motion of the waves shifted the dappled light, making it look like a cascading, inverted galaxy.
Tens of meters of water, countless schools of fish, and overlapping currents—none of it could block that light.
So... there really is sunlight at the bottom of the sea.
"Fish!"
Kiana's sudden exclamation startled Shu out of his daze.
He hurriedly followed the direction of her pointing finger and looked up.
"So many fish!!" The stars shining in Kiana's eyes were even brighter than the dappled sunlight filtering through the ocean!
Thousands? Millions?
Countless lives swirled around the tunnel. For this fleeting moment, you truly felt your own "specialness." You were surrounded by life—distinct, unique, entirely different from them, yet welcomed among them.
The sardines were small and numerous, swimming like a torn piece of the Milky Way. When they moved, you could see the entire collective breathing as a single entity.
Tuna rocketed through the sardine schools. Speed was their proudest talent and the reward for their effort. Racing them were the flamboyant sailfish, whose sleek bodies sliced through the underwater currents.
The lionfish, boasting the most extravagantly flamboyant forms, drifted lazily with the flow, swaying through the depths as living displays of lethal beauty.
The octopus truly lived up to its reputation as the ocean's little scholar. Plastered to the smooth glass of the tunnel with its suction cups, it seemed to be intently studying this "miracle of nature." Perhaps tomorrow, Professor Octopus would publish a paper on "The Anomaly of Transparent Voids in the Deep Sea."
Crabs dueled fiercely in the crevices of rocks and corals, raising their pincers high. Housing in the ocean was fiercely competitive, after all. If you wanted prime real estate, you had to fight for it. The victor claimed the coral's favor; the loser left their claws behind!
Butterflyfish, parrotfish, and vividly colored schools weaved through the coral reefs, some swimming in tight formations, others venturing out alone. Sea turtles and hawksbills paddled their flippers in slow, measured strokes, yet managed to glide vast distances with every movement.
The peace held until a shark swam by, baring its teeth in what looked like a goofy grin, as if eagerly wanting to join the ocean family. The fish immediately scattered in a panic. The relentlessly persistent shark lunged and snapped its jaws shut around the most colorful lionfish in the area.
Looks like the sharks here are very well-trained.
The sunfish drifted by like the village idiot; even the sharks couldn't be bothered with it.
Stingrays, with their bizarrely flat faces, pressed themselves against the glass right next to the octopus, seemingly putting on a show: Youth is priceless, but my coworker here melts in your mouth.
The clownfish were far smaller than most people expected. These thumb-sized bursts of color hid safely within their luxurious anemone mansions, secretly judging the conches inching along the sea floor.
The conches were currently mocking a sea slug for lacking a hard shell—until they caught sight of its fiercely vibrant, toxic warning colors and promptly shut up.
A starfish completely failed to catch a jellyfish because it was too busy giving its best friend a live demonstration on exactly how a starfish eats. The distracted jellyfish ended up getting swept away by a rogue bubble current.
Everything before their eyes felt like a lucid dream, pushing Shu and Kiana forward alongside the silently marveling crowd.
The tunnel was genuinely massive, yet to Shu and Kiana, it felt like they had walked halfway through it in the blink of an eye.
The ocean was truly immense... It could completely flood a person's mind with its purest blue and its primal, untouched ecosystem.
Only by carefully unraveling that overflowing blue could you see the true colors of the ocean floor—the corals, the schools of fish, the refracted light dancing everywhere.
The color of the ocean was a wildly kaleidoscopic blue. It was the most brilliant, vibrant blue in the entire world.
A massive shadow suddenly blotted out the light from above. Shu's gaze was instantly captured by it. He and Kiana tipped their heads back simultaneously.
A whale...
A baleen whale—the largest living creature on the planet—drifted aimlessly directly over the tunnel, carrying the majestic presence of an apex predator at the absolute top of the food chain.
The schools of fish naturally parted to make way for the leviathan.
They all knew that only when this titan eventually fell would they have a chance to feast in its grand, sunken palace.
Their descent into the deep sea finally came to an end. Shu suddenly realized they had reached the tunnel's exit. It was time for him and Kiana to pass through the doors and return to the surface world.
But Shu didn't really want to leave... He loved it here... For the first time in his life, he felt a genuine, profound attachment to a place.
If this place was empty... if it was just him, the fish, and that dappled sunlight...
He could stay here forever. Down here at the bottom of the sea.
Then, Kiana gently tugged at his hand.
"Let's go." She pointed toward the exit. "If you really don't want to leave... we can just come back tomorrow, right?"
...
No. Tomorrow, we have another place to be.