Beneath Jujutsu High, in the Tombs of the Star Corridor.
Suguru Geto walked at the front, with Riko Amanai following behind him. Their footsteps mingled, scattering faint echoes through the narrow passage.
The passage was long, its walls bare of decoration, with only exposed rock and the occasional wooden pillar. The lighting overhead was dim. An old paper lantern appeared only at long intervals, casting a weak, yellow glow.
Riko couldn't help looking back.
The passage behind her had already vanished into darkness. She could no longer see the way they had come, the sunlit ground above, or the figures of that white-haired idiot and that radiant girl.
"Wana..."
She murmured the name so softly that only she could hear it.
"We're here."
Suguru Geto stopped and stepped aside, clearing her view.
Riko looked up.
For an instant, her breath caught.
The main hall of the Tombs of the Star Corridor was far larger than she had imagined, so vast that the first sight of it made her forget to breathe. There were no walls here, and no ceiling overhead-when she looked up, her gaze passed through a hazy halo of light to the enormous dome above the underground cavern. Light shone from the dome, though she couldn't tell where it came from, spilling down softly and evenly to illuminate the entire space.
And at the center of the main hall stood a tree.
It was a tree she had never seen before, never even imagined. Its trunk was impossibly thick; by her estimate, it would take at least several dozen people holding hands to encircle it. Its bark was a deep, almost black brown, covered in vertical cracks and raised knots. Every line looked like a mark left by time, recording the passage of untold years.
The trunk rose