Days became weeks.
The Rust Room became routine – wake up before dawn… The Underworks didn't have a day-night cycle. But you could figure out the time by the hiss of pipes, working more or less, depending on the time above.
After eating Takeshi's… Forgettable cooking, Raizen dragged his aching muscles through corridors, get destroyed by diverse training equipment, then repeat.
But something was changing.
Raizen dodged three rods before the fourth almost dislocated his shoulder. A week ago, he'd been lucky to dodge one. They tried more equipment, and every time, Kori seemed overjoyed to torment them with any weird mechanisms the Rust Room had.
"Speed thirty!" Mina shouted from the booth.
The rods blurred faster. Raizen's feet moved without thinking - slip left, duck right, parry with his forearm. Still got clipped. Still went down, but later. Harder to hit.
"Reaction time improved by eight percent" Mina noted. "Heart rate recovery faster. Still slow, but..."
"But less like a wet potato" Kori finished, grinning from the sideline. "Indeed, progress."
Beside him, Hikari moved through the storm like water. Every rod missed. Every swing just hit empty air. Kori watched with sharp eye – because the other one was covered by her hair - and an expression that looked almost... concerned.
When the session ended, Raizen collapsed against the wall, chest heaving.
Kori tossed him a small pastry bag and a towel. "You've earned a break. Don't waste it."
✦ ✦ ✦
They found Obi at his forge, surrounded by metal parts and incomprehensible enthusiasm.
"BEHOLD!" He thrust his arms skyward like a stage magician. "My MASTERPIECE!"
On the workbench sat a contraption of springs, cables, and a wicked-looking hook.
Raizen eyed it warily. "Uhm - Sorry to misinterpret your masterpiece, but… What is it?"
"A grappling hook!" Obi beamed. "Chrome Vanadium spring launch, retractable cable, kinda calibrated for vertical movement across the Tangle!"
"Will it explode?"
Obi's grin faltered. "...Probably not?"
"Mhhm…" Hikari mumbled quietly. "That isn't very reassuring."
"Your face isn't reassuring!" Obi shot back, already strapping the device to his arm. It had eight straps that looked more like a torture device than a functional tool. "We're testing it. Now. Come on!"
"Obi-" Raizen started.
Too late. Already being dragged toward the door.
✦ ✦ ✦
The stairs were narrow and rickety, bolted to the sides of buildings and climbing higher with every turn. The air grew cooler. The sounds of the market below faded into a distant murmur.
When they emerged onto the iron walkway, the sight stole Raizen's breath.
The Tangle.
A massive lattice of suspension bridges, cables, and pipes stretching across the cavern above the Underworks - woven together over decades into imperfect, impossible geometry. People crossed it like it was solid ground. Children jumped between beams. Traders pushed thin carts across swaying boards.
Chaos suspended over chaos.
"People actually use this?" Raizen breathed.
"Use it? We live on it." Obi spread his arms wide. "Down there's the stomach. Up here? The lungs. The heart. The-"
"We understand" Hikari interrupted.
Obi grinned and aimed his grappling hook at a distant building across the Tangle. "Watch and learn."
He planted his feet. Adjusted his aim. Double-checked the spring chamber.
"This will revolutionize vertical movement! I'll be like a spider… boy… No, that doesn't sound right. I'm a man, so… Spider-man!"
Raizen took a step back. "…Or blow up and kill us."
"Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Safe. On the ground." Raizen muttered, unimpressed.
Obi counted down, finger on the trigger. "Three... two... one-"
He pulled.
The hook fired with a mechanical "BANG" that echoed across the Tangle. The cable unspooled in a beautiful arc. The hook sailed through the air - perfect velocity, perfect trajectory, perfect form, yet… Completely wrong direction.
It wrapped around a support beam behind them. Raizen's stomach dropped. "Obi-"
The beam cracked, its old steel barely holding together. The cable snapped taut, and Obi got yanked forward off the platform. Obi shouted, as the little mechanism's power was far more than he had anticipated.
Raizen's first instinct screamed grab him - so he lunged, and caught Obi's waist. He also got yanked.
Hikari's first instinct screamed grab Raizen - she caught his legs.
All three got launched into the air.
Wind screamed past, The Tangle was now all above them, and Raizen's stomach tried to escape through his throat.
They swung like a comet through the Underworks - cable whipping them in a wild arc beneath bridges, over pipes, through the dangerous lattice of the Tangle.
People dove out of the way.
Someone's laundry line snapped - a shirt wrapped around Raizen's face.
"I CAN'T SEE!"
"I'M A GENIUS!" Obi shouted, wind whipping his short curls.
"YOU'RE AN IDIOT!" Raizen managed to throw the shirt off.
Hikari made a sustained sound somewhere between a scream and excitemeny. They spiraled under a bridge - narrowly missing a merchant's cart. Then over a steam pipe - a blast of warm air sent them spinning. The cable swung them in a tightening arc. And directly below, growing larger with terrifying speed:
A fruit vendor's stand: Mountains of tomatoes, old apples, berries stacked in precarious pyramids, specially arranged so nobody could steal easily.
Raizen eyes went wide. "Oh no."
Obi saw their trajectory. "OH NO!"
Hikari: "..."
SPLAT.
✦ ✦ ✦
They landed in an explosion of fruit. Tomatoes BURST under impact. Melons rolled in every direction. Berries painted the ground in shades of red and purple.
Raizen lay face-down in squashed produce, world still spinning in his head.
Obi was tangled in cable AND somehow wearing a watermelon on his shoulder like an armorpiece.
Hikari sat up slowly. Half a pumpkin rested on her head like a helmet. She stared at it, removed it carefully, and set it down with dignity.
From the wreckage, the vendor emerged. Big man. Stained apron. Broom clutched in both hands like a weapon. his face cycled through emotions: confusion, recognition, absolute fury.
"MY GOODS!"
Obi, still tangled in rope, raised his hands in surrender as much as he could. "I'll pay! I swear!"
"YOU'LL PAY IN BLOOD!" The vendor charged.
Raizen scrambled upright - boots slipping on fruit pulp.
They ran through the market, Obi commenting something almost at every step. Almost knocking over more stands - "Sorry!!" - ducking under bridges - "Out of the way!" - the vendor behind them like an avenging god of fruits.
Obi laughed despite the terror. "This is amazing!"
"What is wrong with you?!"
Someone threw a piece of scrap. It sailed past Raizen's ear, making the hairs on his hands rise.
They dove into an alley. Obi grabbed both collars, and pressed Raizen and Hikari against the wall. They all held their breath.