Tides of Change

**Tides of Change** is the name of Yui Suzuki's execution, as featured in Cornucopia of Hope.

## Sequence

*Excerpt taken from Chapter 53 of Cornucopia of Hope*

[ Tides of Change ]

The screen flickers to life, as it has done so many times before now, and I immediately see Yui standing in what appears to be a huge glass box.

She looks confused, reaching out with her arms to press her fingers against the glass. It is about as wide as her wing span, and twice her height, but there doesn’t seem to be any imminent danger--or escape.

It doesn’t take long for the danger to present itself, however. From the top of the glass container, water begins to pour down the sides. Yui’s eyes widen as her feet get wet, and she stares up at whence the water came. My eyes follow hers, and I see that besides some small tubes where the water is pouring from, the lid is apparently sealed.

Yui begins casting about for an exit as the container rapidly fills. The water is at her waist by the time she finds something promising; a panel hidden from our view set into one of the walls of the container.

The camera pivots, revealing what she’s tinkering with.

It looks like...a puzzle? There are long sentences, and a 4 by 4 grid, and buttons to press. As Yui presses a button, a color fills one of the boxes in the grid. She presses another, and the color disappears.

She stomps her foot and tries again.

The water is up to her shoulders now, and the panel is much lower than that. She’s hunkering down, trying to keep her head out of the water, desperately peering at the indecipherable text.

Two boxes have been filled, now.

Three.

She presses a button, and they empty again.

The water is above her head now; she’s having to swim to get gulps of air before ducking back down to try to solve this puzzle.

The water keeps rising, and she has to swim further and further to get air. She’s a clumsy swimmer, and she’s spending longer and longer on the surface of the water, desperately gulping at the limited air supply.

She tries to dive back down, but her swimming form is weak, and she’s already out of air by the time she gets to the panel. She swims back up, her face pressing against the lid of the tank.

She’ll be entirely out of air soon. She knows this.

She takes the last breath she’ll be able to and manages to swim all the way to the bottom, to try to tackle the panel puzzle one last time.

There’s a moment, just a moment, where she seems to locate the camera and look directly into it. The expression on her face is indescribable. It is panic, it is anger, it is the most rage and despair boiled into a single look I’ve ever seen in my life.

She parts her lips and mouths a word, maybe two, letting bubbles fly around her head.

Her fist bangs against the class of the container one last time before her eyes roll back in her head.

Her body goes limp.

Her hair spreading out behind her, she begins to drift to the top, more bubbles releasing as she goes, when the 4 by 4 grid lights up all as one.

The bottom of the tank twists out of sight, and all of the water--Yui included--is sucked away.

Yui Suzuki, the Super High School Level Personal Assistant, is dead.