Synopsis[]
At the start of her first winter on Aqua, Akari meets her first Snow Bugs (hand-sized flying woolly aphids) while collecting firewood with Alicia. One returns with her to the city, staying with her as the weather turns colder before leaving for its winter home in the forest just before the first snowfall.
Aika hears Akari has never been to a hot spring and suggests they visit one on their next day off. Alicia invites herself along, and when Akari feels guilty for not practicing, tells her trainee that rejuvenating the spirit is as important to an undine as gondola practice.
A series of single-page comics depict episodes in President Aria's daily life.
Akari and Aika meet Al, a novice gnome (regulator of Aqua's gravity) visiting the surface on a shopping trip, and offer to help him return underground with his purchases. Al shows them his workplace, and Akari compares the sound of the gravity-augmenting machinery to Aqua "singing with the voice of a star".
At the New Year's Eve celebration in San Marco Plaza, Akari learns that Neo-Venezia has adopted the Italian New Year's customs of eating beans and throwing away something that has been used. As she tosses her undine cap in the air at midnight, Akari regrets leaving the old year, with all its new experiences, but vows to do her best in the new one.
During the Carnival, Akari and Aika catch a glimpse of Casanova, the mysterious masked master of ceremonies, but get separated while chasing him. Akari is invited to join Casanova's masked procession, and in the end he gives her a jasmine flower before revealing he is Cait Sith and President Aria is one of his attendants.
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