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V3 Story I – Part 10

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Translator: Kell

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“Mi… sa… ki…” he mumbled absently as he stared at the fish.

The fish jumped out. A huge white shape leaped into the air. The momentum slammed the fist against the wall. The room shook violently, and the sea poured in. Mayuzumi floated away with the desk, while Higasa and Akari disappeared into the waves.

I grabbed Makihara by his shoulders. “You’ve got it all wrong, Makihara-san!”

Words rang in my mind.

“When you kill someone, you incur a grudge. And you’ll never know when the curse will be lifted.”

She didn’t hold a grudge against anyone. There was no mermaid in that sea.

“She was annoying. So I walked faster.”

All he did was walk faster.

Why didn’t I realize that?

“Misaki didn’t hate you! Nobody hates you!”

Behind me, the fish shrieked. A cry that surpassed human limits. I could sense the fish breathing.

“You’re the one who created this thing. Because you think you killed Misaki-san!”

Silence fell.

There was a soft plop.

At that moment, everything was still.

I looked over my shoulder. The fish was frozen in mid-air. The surging sea had stopped, and the water remained around waist level. The silhouette of the fish was reflected in the mirror-like water surface. I heard water splashing. Mayuzumi had taken off her boots and socks and tapped her bare feet on the water. Her white feet shook the blue surface.

Mayuzumi turned to Makihara, who was wearing a blank look, and smiled. “He’s right. Misaki didn’t hold a grudge against you. I’ve seen a lot of grudges, and I can assure you, there’s none against you.” She smiled gently. “Good for you,” she added monotonously, as if reciting a line from some play.

The moment he heard her matter-of-fact tone, tears streamed down Makihara’s cheeks, falling into the sea. A crack appeared on the fish’s back. Flesh ruptured and skin ripped. A huge chunk of flesh fell silently. Exposed internal organs were swallowed by the water, sinking into the deep sea. Intestines, lungs, heart, pulsing and disappearing. And finally, a woman was spat out.

There was a splash as she fell into the water.

She remained there, the only one who wasn’t swallowed by the sea.

Looking puzzled, she opened her mouth. But no voice came out. A Little Mermaid who just arrived on land. She grasped her throat and tried to scream, desperately. But nothing could be heard.

Mayuzumi arched her back. Blue water slid down from her toes. “I see. The assumption that she resented him amplified the fear and guilt, creating something that returned from the sea,” she muttered indifferently. She stared at the trembling woman with cold eyes. “But why did it take such a concrete form? And what’s this thing left here?”

The sea heaved in answer. Slowly it began swirling and receding.

The mermaid that called the sea was no more. There was no reason for the sea to stay here any longer.

As the water receded, something else happened. The woman’s body began to crumble. Like the sand being scraped by waves, her body started disintegrating. She looked at her hands and screamed. An inaudible scream.

She died at sea.

And to the sea she must return.

For the dead can never come back to life.

“Mi… saki?”

Makihara suddenly stood up. Tears spilled from his eyes. Madness still filled his expression, yet it was the most human one he had shown yet.

A face full of love and sorrow.

“Misaki. Misaki! Misaki!!!”

Makihara rushed forward, arms outstretched. I reached out to stop him, but my hand grasped empty air. I tried to run to him, but my legs wouldn’t move for some reason. It was as if someone was grabbing my feet from the bottom of the sea. Makihara stumbled over and over again as he approached the woman. Then he embraced her as tight as he could.

“I’m sorry, Misaki. I’m so, so sorry…”

His arms were buried into Misaki’s back. Swallowed by the crumbling flesh, Makihara’s body began to fuse with hers. My eyes widened. He did not notice anything.

“Makihara-san! Makihara-san!” I shouted. “Get away from Misaki-san!

But he didn’t even turn around. He gently stroked Misaki’s hair and nuzzled his face against her neck. Tears slid down her disintegrating skin.

“I… I should have walked slower. I always… I always treated you badly… Saw you as a pest. I’m… I’m the worst scum there is.”

His face was a contorted mess, smudged with tears and snot.

“You’re just so nice,” he continued. “You listen to me no matter how selfish I get. I never… I never, ever wanted you to die. I never wanted you to die. But… because of me…”

I bit my lip hard.

Makihara didn’t stop crying his eyes out.

Misaki put her trust in him, but he couldn’t get help in time. Her death left him distraught. Those two facts alone should have been enough to know. I should have realized it. But no one paid any attention to them. The police ruled the case an accident. But rumors abounded among acquaintances that Makihara had killed Misaki.

As a result, Makihara believed that he himself had killed her.

He practically killed Misaki. That’s probably what was on Makihara’s mind. The tremendous stress and guilt were affirmed by others, resulting in him blaming himself for the death of his girlfriend. The shackles were terribly heavy. By putting a man in a coffin, you might as well have dug your own grave beside them. Only a few people don’t feel guilt.

He who kills must be killed.

And the stress gave birth to a monster. Makihara believed that he deserved to die. That, and his desire for her to come back conceived the mermaid.

He wanted her to return from the sea.

And so Misaki changed her appearance.

She changed herself into a fish, a creature that doesn’t drown.

But the feelings of guilt distorted her figure hideously.

“I… I wanted to stay with you… forever… But I…”

Makihara’s screams made me feel like my heart was being torn out of my chest. The child in my belly flailed. The thought of people around him affirming his guilt made me sick. It was like putting a noose around an innocent man’s neck and gradually tightening it.

“I… I… killed…”

And the latest one to condemn him…

“Don’t even think you can get away with this.”

…was me.

“Makihara-san! Please… Please come back!”

I fell to the floor. Soaking wet, I reached out to him. But Makihara was too far away. His body fused with Misaki’s and crumbled like sand. I raised my voice. Seawater flowed into my mouth, and I felt my stomach threatening to rip open. But I had no time to worry about that.

“Makihara-san! You still have a life to live. You can’t let the dead consume you. Come back! Makihara-san, please!”

At that moment, my voice finally reached him. Makihara slowly looked over his shoulder. A flicker of sanity glinted in his eyes. He glanced around the strange room—the wet floor, his crumbling body, Misaki in his arms, and finally, at me.

A smile slowly appeared on his face. Makihara turned his face back to Misaki and hugged her tight.

Then he stamped the floor hard.

The blue sea took them both without a sound.

“Makihara-san!!!”

There was nothing on the surface of the sea any more. The whirlpool intensified and the water retreated rapidly, leaving nothing behind. There was only me, collapsed on the floor. Higasa, holding Akari in his arms, opened his eyes nervously and looked around.

“What’s there in the sea is not a mermaid,” Mayuzumi murmured.

Patting her bare feet, she produced a piece of paper from her handbag and looked up at the ceiling.

There seemed to be more words on it. Mayuzumi smiled thinly as she read the longer text with her eyes.

And then she crushed it with her hands.

“What’s there in the sea are only waves.”

The sea was gone.

And there was nothing left.

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