Kadowaki Saori, gripped by a primal need to survive, suddenly remembered something.
—This place is Mermaid Island.
Could it be… mermaids can't leave the island? Maybe "island" literally means just the land part?!
Emboldened by this logic leap, she scooped up a handful of seawater and chucked it at the mermaid.
The mermaid's expression went from mildly annoyed to full-on offended. She very nearly swatted Kadowaki Saori into the ocean with her tail then and there.
But… she remembered what Jiangxia had said earlier. So she held back.
The seawater splashed over her harmlessly.
Kadowaki Saori watched with barely contained delight. She's not afraid of seawater! That means she isn't going into the ocean… because she physically can't leave the island!
She regained a sliver of courage and bolted across the shallows toward the shrine, shouting for Shimabukuro Kimie and the dugong arrow.
But the shrine was a good distance from the sea, and the wind and crashing waves drowned out her voice. She shouted and shouted, but there was no answer.
Only the mermaid appeared—perched casually in a tree, tail swinging, watching her like someone enjoying a reality show meltdown.
Kadowaki Saori didn't dare set foot on land. Realizing Kimie couldn't hear her, she ground her teeth and changed course.
She ran a little, swam a little, finally reached the docks, and scrambled onto a small boat, frantically trying to row toward a nearby island to escape the cursed island. It wasn't far.
Behind her, the mermaid's tail flicked in a self-satisfied wiggle. Everything had gone exactly as Jiangxia said. No effort, and the human just sailed herself right into the sea.
The mermaid glanced upward.
A humanoid figure hovered in the sky, watching like a supervisor doing ghostly QA checks.
She flicked her tail, scattered her puppet props, and melted back into ghost form—drifting quietly after the boat.
…
High above, Jiangxia was piloting the puppet of Tengu, trailing her like an aerial cameraman. With a sigh, he lit another ghost mint.
It burned out nearly instantly, puffing a small cloud of smoke down toward the sea.
And right on cue, the waves beside Kadowaki Saori's rickety little boat surged larger and larger, until—plop—the boat tipped over.
She landed in the sea with a splash. The mermaid circled the overturned boat cheerfully, swimming loops like a goldfish on a sugar rush. She didn't strike. She just floated nearby, watching the human flounder.
Faced with the ghostly mermaid, Kadowaki Saori finally broke down completely. "I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to lose the arrow! I didn't mean to hurt you three years ago, I just wanted to see if you were really immortal! Everyone else lost their arrows too—why am I the only one you're after?!"
The mermaid sprang up from the water, perched daintily on the side of the boat, cheek in hand, as if watching a particularly juicy soap opera.
Kadowaki Saori's brain was a soup of fear and confusion. Why is a mermaid who supposedly can't leave the island... now haunting me at sea?!
But then, suddenly, the moonlight dimmed.
She looked up, stunned—and saw a young man in a traditional kimono, flapping his wings and descending toward her like some kind of mythical creature.
Her thoughts short-circuited. Okay… this has got to be a dream. The mermaid I can handle—it's Mermaid Island after all—but why the hell is a tengu flying out over the ocean?!
Under her dumbfounded gaze, the Tengu reached toward her.
She stared at the elegant outstretched hand and instinctively reached up.
Then realized—he wasn't here to rescue her.
He was holding a cell phone. Her cell phone—the one she left on the bed.
The Tengu said, calmly, "Password."
Kadowaki Saori: "…"
Yup. This is a dream. Has to be. Two monsters show up, shove me to the brink of death… just to unlock my phone?
But after all that, she weirdly stopped caring.
Shivering, she latched onto the Tengu's arm and whispered a string of numbers.
The Tengu, still hovering, entered the password one-handed. Unlocked.
He then casually lobbed the phone toward the mermaid, who caught it without blinking.
Kadowaki Saori watched this unfold with growing dread.
And then—whoosh—the arm she clung to vanished like a puff of steam. The Tengu dissolved just like the mermaid had earlier.
…They're in cahoots!
Kadowaki Saori clutched herself in horror, eyes wide. She pinched her cramped leg and let out a desperate yell—
—and a wave rose up and slapped her straight into the sea.
She flailed and floundered, sinking like a stone—just like the mermaid who burned in the warehouse three years ago.
Gone.
A few seconds later, a figure surfaced beside the wrecked boat.
Jiangxia reformed the Tengu puppet and reached out toward the mermaid.
She tilted her head, then shyly raised her hand to meet his, giving him a little high-five—something she'd seen the local teens do now and then when they were happy.
Jiangxia got a faceful of water.
He flicked it off and held his hand out again. "Phone."
The mermaid blinked.
Then remembered. Sheepishly, she handed him the phone.
Then turned back into a ghost and dived beneath the waves.
But Jiangxia was faster. He grabbed her tail mid-dive and hoisted her up like a fish at a village fair. "No hiding. We've still got work to do."
He also grabbed the half-burned cigarette butt from earlier, then took off—mermaid in one hand, phone in the other—back to Mermaid Island.
…
The next morning.
Shimabukuro Kimie got up early, found a piece of rope, and prepped it as a murder weapon.
She cleaned the shrine in silence. After living on this island for over twenty years, her heart was a tangle of knots.
Once she killed Kadowaki Saori, there'd be no turning back. Whether she succeeded or failed, caught or not, she would leave this island forever.
What gnawed at her even more was the presence of a certain someone—a psychic who made her stomach twist.
Can I really pull this off with Jiangxia around…?
After cleaning, she walked down to the beach. She stared at the sea, sorting out her thoughts, trying to steel her nerves.
But then… something felt off.
Something was wedged between the reefs.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 17/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*