Chapter 4
Never Seen or Heard of Before
Minamitsu looked at the fish demon in all its glory with wide open eyes and mouth. Even though she had seen several kinds of bizarre deep sea creatures while she was still bound to the ocean centuries before, she had never seen something as bizarre as this. For several seconds, she stared at the monster as it struggled to break free from Nazrin's chain without saying anything.
After a few more seconds of struggling, the monster grabbed the chain with some of its tentacles, but it reached some of them out of the water.
Those tentacles came out of the water and headed for Byakuren, and one of them caught the magician's feet. Though she saw it coming, she was unable to react in time, because it came to her at a relatively fast speed. The magician was quickly pulled underwater. Nazrin quickly let go of the chain before she got pulled down too far and then shouted in horror, "MISTRESS HIJIRI!"
Minamitsu saw her master being pulled underwater, so she immediately swam to her rescue. Striking that tentacle hard with her anchor, Minamitsu managed to make the monster let go of Byakuren, and then she carried her by her own shoulder and swam for the surface. When they both emerged from the water, the others quickly rushed over to them. "Mistress Hijiri! You're all right!" Shou said in relief and joy.
"Great going, Minamitsu!" Nue said as she slapped the ship ghost's back.
"No time to celebrate just yet!" Minamitsu said as she turned to look at the water. "That demon may come back up again!"
They looked at the water for several seconds and waited for the monster to make its return, but it never did. Reimu flew up to them and said, "I'm supposed to be the one fighting that demon, but I got left out instead!"
"That's because you didn't come over here to do something yourself…" Mamizou said to her.
Reimu cursed under her breath and then looked at the water. "So… is that demon still going to show up again?"
"Strange… It's not coming back up…" Minamitsu said. "Did it give up?"
"Guess it finally realized that it's no match for us!" Nue said. "That'll teach it to eat people again!"
"I can't say that we managed to defeat it… but for now, let's leave it at this," Byakuren suggested.
"Normally, I'm not fond of taking a break in the middle of solving an incident, but… this pain is killing me, so I think I should take a break first…" Reimu cried while looking at her burned hand. "Ow…"
"Me too… That water fired at us is really hot…" Minamitsu said while looking at her arm. "I may be a ghost, but because I can change into water, hot water is painful for me to come in contact with…"
No sooner after deciding to end the battle against the monstrous fish, the entire group went over to Eientei to get Reimu and Minamitsu treated.
"Second-degree burn, but it's not extremely severe," said Eirin while holding up Reimu's arm and inspecting its skin. "I have an ointment used for treating burns. That should make your skin look and feel better again."
"You sure have medicines and ointments for everything, don't you…?" Reimu asked her.
"Most of them," the Lunarian doctor said as she got up and headed over to a cabinet. "You'll never know what sort of problems your patients will have, so you need to have everything prepared. As long as my patients aren't dead, I have confidence in restoring them back to perfect condition."
As Reimu watched Eirin search for the ointment she mentioned in the cabinet, Minamitsu, who was sitting on a chair next to her, said to her, "Good thing we've got a great doctor like her here, eh? It's unheard of for there to be a doctor who can treat ghosts!"
"Yeah, Eirin is indeed talented," Reimu said with a nod. "Thanks to her, many lives in Gensokyo have been saved." Then she realized something. "Wait a minute, if she cannot treat dead people, then how can she treat you?"
"I can't bring them back to life, but I can still treat them," Eirin told the shrine maiden as she approached her with a small jar.
"Do dead people need treating…?" Reimu asked.
"Look next to you…" Minamitsu told her.
When she was done, Akyu put down her paintbrush and then held up the paper to show the residents of the Myouren Temple and Reimu the drawing of the monster. "Is this how it looks like?" she asked.
After leaving Eientei, the group went over to Akyu, hoping that she would know something about the monster. Since Minamitsu was the only who got a good look at the monster, she described to Akyu how it looked like and had her draw a picture of it. The ship ghost only looked at the picture for about two seconds before nodding and confirming that it was indeed what she saw.
"Wow… That's one ferocious-looking fish…" Nazrin commented. "Never seen anything like that before…"
"Same here…" Reimu said. "And I thought I know what all the demons living in Gensokyo are…"
Akyu looked at the picture herself and said, "I've never seen a demon like this before too… I've never even read or heard about something like this… But then, my knowledge of demons is really only restricted to those living in Japan, so maybe it's actually a demon from outside of Japan…"
"Can't say I know what this is as well…" Mamizou said. "I know a lot of creatures that people in the outside world usually believe don't exist, but this… Never seen or heard of anything like it before…"
"I'll go and ask Kosuzu to see if she has seen this kind of demon in any of her books," Akyu suggested.
"We can also ask Yukari and the folks from the Moriya Shrine," Ichirin suggested. "They all have vast knowledge of the outside world, so I'm sure at least one of them knows about this demon."
"Good idea!" Byakuren said. "We need to get all the information we can about it if we want to stop it from causing any more trouble."
"I'll draw another picture of it," Akyu said as she picked up her paintbrush and dipped it into an ink tray. "That way, you can split into two groups to get the job done faster."
After Akyu was done drawing the second picture, the temple residents went over to the Moriya Shrine to gather information on the monster, while Reimu went to Mayohiga to ask Yukari.
To Reimu's surprise, the demon of boundaries shook her head and said that she never saw a demon like this before. "What?! You really never saw something like this in all your travels?!"
"Nope," Yukari assured her. "I've traveled to many places in the outside world and even to other dimensions, but I've never seen anything like this before. To be fair, I've only traveled to a few dimensions. There are still a lot out there I haven't visited yet, so maybe this demon resides in one of them."
"Well, then I hope you can figure out where it came from…" Reimu said. "Speaking of different dimensions… If this demon really is from another dimension, then what is it doing here in Gensokyo?" Then she stared at the demon of boundaries.
Yukari looked at her and said, "You're not trying to accuse me of bringing it here, are you? I admit that I like to tease people and cause a bit of trouble when I'm bored, but I would never go as far as to cause one that would harm the residents of Gensokyo and Gensokyo itself! Bringing in a demon that eats people is something I would never do! We already have demons here that prey on humans, so there's no need to bring in more!"
"Let's hope that's the case…" Reimu said.
The answer from the folks at the Moriya Shrine was the same—they have never seen a demon like this before. Byakuren still thanked them for trying to help out, and then the temple residents left the shrine to go back to their place for the time being.
"No luck… I hope the Hakurei shrine maiden got a better result than us…" Byakuren said while leading the way in the air.
"Somehow, I have the feeling that she got the same answer as us…" Nazrin said.
While on their way back the temple, Nue suddenly said, "You know… I've been thinking about something…"
Mamizou heard her and asked, "What is it?"
"Minamitsu said that the demon doesn't have eyes, and I just remembered that the bug that came out of the portal created by that device I found in the outside world doesn't have eyes either…" Nue replied.
Realizing the point she was trying to make, Mamizou asked her, "You saying that the fish demon came to this place using the same method, aren't you?" When the others heard this, they stopped and turned to face the tanuki and the nue.
"Um… That's just a theory…" Nue said with a nod.
"So that fish demon came from the same place as that bug?" Shou asked.
"Well, that would explain its ferociousness…" Nazrin said. "Looks like everything from that bug's homeland is dangerous…"
"Makes sense if you think about it…" Minamitsu said. "That fish demon showed up all of a sudden, and nobody has heard of it before… Nue, did you create a portal using that device while on your way back to the temple?"
Nue thought for a while and then remembered something. "I think I know when that demon showed up! Remember what I said about the device creating a portal when I threw it at the wall? While on the way back to the temple, I accidentally dropped the device while in the air. After that, Mamizou and I came down to look for it. A portal may have been created when it hit the ground that time."
"I just remembered something too!" Mamizou said. "I found the device on a rock right next to the river. Is it possible that the device created a portal when it fell there, and that fish demon came out of the portal and fell into the river right away? From there, that demon swam all the way to Fisherman's Lake. That river is connected to that lake after all. This actually makes sense!"
Everyone was silent after hearing Mamizou's explanation of the monster's origin. Everyone then turned to Nue, and Ichirin said, "If that it's true, then you sure brought back one heck of a device…"
"Um… Sorry…" Nue said with guilt.
"It's all right," Byakuren said as she flew over to Nue and placed her hand on her shoulder. "You had no idea what that thing was. Still, let it be a lesson to you for stealing and bringing back unknown objects. Make sure that you never do something like this again."
"I'm very sorry, Mistress Hijiri…" said Nue. Tears slowly came out from the corner of her eyes. "I brought back something that made the people here lost their lives… It's my fault that this happened…"
Everyone looked at Nue in silence as she cried more and more, and then Nazrin said, "So… now that we have a possible explanation for that demon's origin, what do we do now?"
"If trying to kill it is too hard, then we can try to send it back to where it came from," Minamitsu suggested. "That would require getting that device to create a portal, and we still don't know how that thing exactly works, not to mention the risks of creating another portal…"
Deciding that they should quickly go and retrieve that device, the group continued heading in their temple's direction, and that was when they saw some tengus and kappas flying in their direction. "Good afternoon!" the tengu in lead, Aya, greeted.
"Good afternoon!" Byakuren politely greeted back. "Where are you heading? You have quite a few people with you, so I presume that it has to do with work?"
Ayas nodded. "Yep! We're on our way to Fisherman's Lake to investigate this demon that is reported to be living there and has taken lives! We're going to find out what that demon really is and perhaps try to see if we can do something about it. The kappas here brought some equipments that they believe will help locate that demon and hopefully capture it, and we tengus are going to record everything!"
"You're going to capture that demon?!" Minamitsu said in surprise. "It's very dangerous! You may lose your lives!"
"A reporter has to take risks and step into dangerous territories if he wants to reveal the truth to the world, and I'm the kind of person willing to take that risk!" Aya told her. "Plus, it's not like we're a bunch of helpless girls who cannot do anything against dangers, so you can be sure that we'll capture that monster on camera and also put it inside a cage or something like that! Anyway, we're excited to start this fast, so we're on our way! Wish us luck!" With that, Aya and her group flew in the direction of Fisherman's Island.
The temple residents watched them fly off into the distance, and then Shou said, "I think we should've told them that we encountered that demon. It's probably better than to make them go there to satisfy their curiosity at the risk of their lives…"
"Actually, I prefer not to get bombarded by tons of questions by Aya…" Nazrin said.
Ichirin turned to Byakuren and asked her, "What do we do now, Mistress Hijiri?"
"Being diligent with work is good, but putting yourself in danger for the sake of it isn't always worth it… We should head back to the temple and get that device fast," Byakuren suggested. "Hopefully, we can make it to the lake before anything bad happens…" So the group quickly returned to the temple.
Aya and her group arrived at Fisherman's Lake, and the kappas immediately went to set up the equipments necessary for seeking out the monster. One of them set up a laptop, and then another took out a robotic sea turtle from a backpack. After opening a part of it and pressing the buttons there, she put the turtle onto the water surface, and then it swam off a few feet before going underwater.
The kappa sitting in front of the laptop turned on a program that allowed her to see whatever the robotic sea turtle was seeing. Aya approached the laptop and looked at it. "Hope you can find something using this!"
"Don't worry," the kappa told her. "The Sea Turtloid 2000 can switch between various forms of vision to seek out anything that is well hidden. It is equipped with various forms of sensors that allow it to detect oddities in water currents and sounds too! Nothing can escape this thing's sight!"
"Good to know that! Let's hope it finds that demon soon!" Aya said.
While the kappa in front of the laptop stared at the screen, the others looked at the lake and hoped to find something. Three tengus scanned the lake by flying around above it.
While looking at the screen, the kappa in front of the laptop noticed something. "There are almost no fishes in the lake," she said in her head. "Perhaps that demon ate them all…" Suddenly, the footage of the turtle's vision shook, as if it bumped into something. "Eh? What happened just now?"
When she heard this, Aya went over to the kappa and asked, "What? Did you find something just now?"
"Don't know… The footage shook…" the kappa told her. "Looks like something hit it… I'm letting it look at its surroundings to see what hit it." Using a controller that resembled a video game controller, she made the turtle look in all directions for whatever it was that bumped into it earlier, but she didn't find anything. "Nothing… Guess it swam away already…"
"Probably just a fist that tried to eat it, but then realized that it isn't edible," Aya said.
"Even if whatever touched it swam away already, I should be able to see it swimming off into the distance, but I didn't see anything at all…" the kappa said. "It's as if something invisible bumped into it… Speaking of invisibility… Maybe I should switch its vision to a mode that allows it to detect invisible objects." Then she pressed a button on the controller that made the footage gray, black, and white.
When she made the turtle look behind itself, she saw a massive figure swimming away from it. "I see something!" the kappa said in surprise. "It… It appears to be heading in our direction!"
"Really?!" Aya said in surprise as she turned to look at the lake.
Suddenly, a tentacle came out of the water and caught the kappa that dropped the Sea Turtloid 2000 into the lake. She was pulled into the water before she could finish questioning what it was. The others saw this, and they were shocked at the sight of it.
"Nanako!" Aya gasped as she ran towards the edge of the lake. A tentacle came out again to grab the tengu, but she acted fast and flew into the air. "Whoa! The demon has shown itself, has it?!"
The same tentacle that tried to grab Aya rose into the air and then slammed down onto her, but she got out of the way. The kappa in front of the laptop was in its way, however, so she quickly ran out of the way with her laptop to avoid getting smashed by it.
The three tengus flew towards the tentacle, and suddenly, three more tentacles came out to catch their legs. Two of them were caught and instantly pulled into the water, but one managed to avoid it in time. "Aisa! Kameko!" that tengu gasped in horror.
The same tentacle that tried to catch her reached up and managed to catch her leg this time. Aya quickly rushed over to her and caught her hands and pulled her upwards as hard as she could. "I won't let it get you!" Aya said to her.
"I'm… I'm going to get ripped apart…" that tengu cried.
Another tentacle suddenly came out and caught Aya, and then both tengus were pulled underwater. "AYA! KARA!" the kappa with the laptop gasped in horror upon seeing this.
Underwater, Kara and Aya continued to struggle to break free from the tentacles, and despite their natural strengths as a tengu, they were unable to force the tentacles apart, as the monster had larger strength than them. Aya turned to look at the monster and was shocked at the monstrous-looking fish she saw before her eyes. The monster brought those two closer and closer to its mouth and then opened it to get ready to devour them, and the closer they were to the mouth, the more they struggled.
Suddenly, Minamitsu shot into the water like a rocket and slammed her anchor into the tentacle binding Aya, forcing the monster to let go of the tengu in pain. The ship ghost then turned to the tentacle binding Kara and hurled her anchor at it to make it let go of her. The two tengus quickly swam out of the water for air afterwards.
"Phew… That was close! Thanks goodness that ship ghost from the Myouren Temple showed up in time to rescue us!" Aya said.
The rest of the temple residents except Kyouko showed up in the air, and Byakuren asked those two, "Is everyone all right?"
Aya and Kara flew into the air to meet them, and the former replied, "Lost three of our members… One of your disciples saved us both in time, however."
"It's unfortunate to hear that you lost three of your members…" Byakuren said with a look of pity. "Don't worry; rest assure that we will not allow this to happen again, for we have a plan to make that demon leave this place once and for all!"
Underwater, the monster turned around and glared at Minamitsu, angry at her for what she did just now. The ship ghost glared back and said, "Bring it! I'm not afraid of you!"
TO BE CONTINUED
I originally intended for the monster to resemble the one found in the Korean horror/monster film, The Host, but I kept on changing its design until I settled with the current one. It was after posting the previous chapter and a picture of it did I realize that it resembles the fighting fish found in the latest arc of One Piece…
Also, the Kara here is the same one from Evil By Nature.