Chapter Two

Yuta's only day off during the week was Sundays, and so Mana and him got up early to get on the train the following Sunday. Mana had looked up Natsu Ai on Wikipedia and saw that her hometown was Okutama. They didn't know if she had still been living there, but they felt that was a good place to start.

We need to find her family, Yuta said. We need to know if she's still alive…and where in the hell she got mermaid's flesh from.

Natsu Ai's "bizarre" stream was still buzzing among Japanese youths, and it had started to draw international attention as well. For the most part though, people thought that her stunt had been a hoax, and were dismissive of the fact that she was missing. Because she was a streamer and influencer, a lot of people felt that her stream had been an attention-seeking tactic and she would resurface once she got the attention she craved.

But Yuta knew better. Mana knew better. They knew what happened to most people who ate mermaid's flesh. Mermaid's flesh offered the promise of immortality, but it was nigh impossible to achieve. Most people who ate mermaid's flesh immediately died, or they turned into a monster. They turned in a Lost Soul exactly how Natsu Ai had transformed during her stream.

It's almost impossible, Yuta reflected. He glanced at Mana, who was asleep in her train seat and her head leaned against his shoulder. Mana was the first person I encountered who gained true immortality from mermaid's flesh. And that was 500 years after I did.

While Yuta was pleased that it was dismissed as a hoax, Mana and him knew that it wasn't a hoax. And he knew they needed to find out where Natsu Ai got mermaid's flesh from.

When they arrived in Okutama they immediately set out to speak to locals and ask questions. They knew Natsu Ai's real name and so they asked people in shops and passersby about her family and her, but unfortunately no one seemed inclined to speak to them.

"Why do you want know?"

"You're filming me, aren't you? Disrespectful kids, living your lives online!"

"Keep to your own business!"

"I know you from somewhere, don't I?"

The last one was an elderly man they spoke to sitting on a bench, and he was peering at Yuta closely. Yuta grabbed Mana's arm and pulled her away. "Please excuse us, sir."

They spent several hours walking through Okutama trying to speak to the residents, without any luck. Nobody even gave them information about old stories or local legends. Yuta and Mana ultimately had to relent in their wandering as the temperature rose. And Yuta started noticing a police officer following them at a careful distance.

"We'll head back to Tokyo after lunch," Yuta said, shaking his head. They were sitting in a café and Mana was loudly scarfing down food as she always did. "This turned out to be a waste of time."

"Everyone was 'do rude 'do us," Mana said with her mouth full. "Why?"

"Because of our appearances," Yuta explained, gesturing between them. "It is getting harder being taken seriously as the years go by. Decades ago I could ask questions out of curiosity and people would give me information. Now? I'm dismissed as a "nosy kid"."

"But you're not a kid," Mana said after she loudly swallowed her food.

"No, I'm not," Yuta said softly. "Neither of us are. But nobody else knows that."

Mana sighed heavily. "So what do we do now?"

"We go back home and look for any info online I guess," Yuta said. "Nobody will second-guess our ages that way."

"So we should ask around the internet about mermaid's flesh?" Mana asked.

Yuta shrugged. "At this point we don't have any other option do we?"

"Let's make our location Paraguay again," Mana said eagerly. "Paraguay. That's such a cool word! Can we visit there?"

Yuta shook his head at her sadly. "I checked a map, Mana. Paraguay is in South America, which is on the other side of the world. And we're not able to leave Japan currently."

"Oh. Right." Mana's shoulders drooped in disappointment.

The afternoon train was had many passengers, but Yuto and Mana were able to find seats. There were many different types of people on the train; several couples, a few families with small children, and even a handful of solo passengers eating bento box lunches. Mana took the window seat and Yuta idly looked around the train car. A small boy and girl were running up and down the aisle laughing loudly. A familiar, almost forgotten twinge of pain vibrated in Yuta's core and he had to close his eyes.

Immortality. I've lost so much because of this. I gained it so early in life that I never got to have children. I will never have children. Neither will Mana.

He opened his eyes and looked at Mana, who was eagerly looking out the window. Yuta managed a smile. It's okay. I have Mana now. I'm not goin to be alone again.

The train left the station and they traveled in silence. Muted conversations filled the train car. Yuta started to drift off to sleep when a loud scream startled him awake. He quickly jumped up, and several passengers stood up and looked up in confusion towards the screaming. Down the train to Yuta's left he saw a middle-aged man in suit clutching at his throat, his face reddening and his eyes going wide as he made several horrible noises. Passengers near him were tapping him on the back thinking he was choking, but Yuta's eyes fell to the floor. A bento box was turned over, rice and pink fish strewn on the floor.

Fish—

Yuta's eyes widened with horror. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!" he shrieked, rushing forward.

The passengers looked up, but then the man threw his head back—and the flesh burst off his body. Exclamations of shock filled the train, quickly followed by shrieks of horror as the man transformed right before everyone's eyes. His clothes falling into tatters to the floor.

A Lost Soul.

Before Yuta could reach the Lost Soul it swung its massive arm out, and its claws raked across the throat of the woman who stood next to him. Blood geysered from her body before it hit the floor, and the screams rose in volume in the car. Passengers frantically rushed to the opposite side of the car, trampling over each other as they tried to open the connecting door. The children were screaming sobbing, and their parents held them protectively and shielded their eyes.

Yuta leapt onto the Lost Soul's back. He yanked a pocket knife out of his back pocket and began frantically stabbing to the creature's massive neck and the back of its head. "Mana!" he shouted over his shoulder.

"I'm coming!" Mana shouted. She roughly shoved past a youth who was filming with his cell phone and raced forward. She held her backpack in front of herself as a shield, and the Lost Soul obliged and sliced her backpack open. With the momentary distraction she raised her left hand, revealing a can of bear spray. Yuta ducked his head as Mana sprayed the Lost Soul directly in the face, the foam collecting in its eyes and mouth. The creature shrieked even louder and surged backwards, slamming Yuta into the train glass and filling it with hundreds of cracks.

They hadn't known what to expect on the trip, and they had known that it was against the law to carry a knife and bear mace while concealing it. But the pair had lived for too long to risk ever being caught off guard.

The Lost Soul pitched forward and collapsed face-first to the floor, but Yuta didn't ceased with his stabbing. The back of his shirt was soaked with blood from the slam, but he didn't notice. Mana knelt down beside the Lost Soul and rapidly slammed the bottom of the can into its temple. The creature shrieked and thrashed, and at one point it managed to swing its arm up and slash Yuta in the right shoulder with its claws. But they didn't stop. Blood was everywhere and all over the pair, but they didn't stop their assault until the Lost Soul moved no more.

The passengers that hadn't been able to escape the car remain huddled on the opposite side of the car, crying and trembling with horror. More than half a dozen of them were filming Yuta and Mana on their cell phones.

The train stopped at the next station, and police flooded the car. Other than the Lost Soul there was only one fatality; the woman who had been attacked by the creature. The rest of the injuries were from trampling. Witnesses spoke in raised voices as the train car was quarantined and people were hustled out. Those who filmed the attack showed it to police. No one knew what to think, and the police covered the body of the monster with a black tarp. Everyone was accounted for except for two people.

"Are you okay?" Mana asked softly, hovering over Yuta. They were sitting in an underpass. In the chaos of the arrival at the station, they managed to slip away without anyone noticing. At the time Yuta was bleeding heavily from his wounds and leaned on Mana for support. They were aware that people had filmed the attack, and that many people had witnessed the transformation and attack. But at the moment, there was nothing they could do about it.

"I'm fine," Yuta said, nursing his shoulder. "Check my back, that will heal first."

Mana carefully lifted his shirt, and though it was soaked with blood his back was clean. "It's good."

Yuta pulled back his collar. The slashes on his shoulder had also faded. "I'm okay now. We got the mermaid's flesh, right?"

"Right," Mana said grimly. She held up the discard bento, with two pieces of flesh inside.

"Spray it," Yuta said, fumbling for his pocket. Mana sprayed the box with bear spray and Yuta produced a lighter. He clicked it on and held it to the box. Very quickly it engulfed in flames. The pair watched the inside and watched the mermaid's flesh blacken and shrivel up. Yuta sighed with relief. "We don't know where it came from, but it's gone. It won't hurt anyone else."

"So this is where you ran off to."

But Yuto and Mana quickly looked up when they heard that voice. They stood up and turned to see a man in a black suit with sunglasses standing a few feet away from them. The man was smiling, but it was not a kindly smile. "Starting a bonfire with bear spray?" the man asked him. "Didn't you know that carrying bear spray and a knife on your person in public is illegal?"

Yuta nudged Mana, encouraging her to move behind him. "Who are you?" he called out cautiously.

"Just a curious passerby," the man said, slowly approaching him. "Very curious."

Yuta narrowed his eyes. "What do you want?"

"You know," the man said, reaching into his suit coat. "For all that blood soaked into your shirt…you don't look injured at all."

Then he quickly drew his hand out, revealing a handgun. Before Yuta could react the man pulled the trigger, and shot Yuta in the head.

"YUTA!" Mana shrieked, but before Yuta's body hit the ground the man shot Mana in the head as well.

Night had fallen and it was after hours. Only the graveyard shift was working. This was his only opportunity.

He slipped into an office and locked the door behind. His breathing was unsteady as he hurried to the desk. The desk phone was waiting for him. After a moment's hesitation he picked up the phone and dialed 1-1-0. After two rings the operator picked up. "Emergency services."

"I-I need the police," he stammered helplessly. "I need—"

"What do you think you're doing?"

It took him only a moment to realize that he recognized the voice of the operator. A scream of terror quickly started building in his throat and he slammed the phone down on the cradle. He took off running for the door, unlocking it—

And came face to face with a beast.

"I promised you immortality," the beast said, his deceptively youthful face a cold, deadly mask. "And this how you repay me?"

The man stammered, but before he could reacted bright flashes filled his vision. He collapsed to the floor shaking violently, and he realized in the moment that the beast had used a stun gun on him.

"You offend me with your betrayal," the beast told him. "Do you know what happens to those who offend me?"

His eyes widened. He tried to stand to flee, but a small hand grabbed his collar and the other pressed the stun gun directly into his chest. His body jerked violently and he flopped helplessly to the floor. He couldn't move. All he could do was stare up into those dead eyes, his mouth moving soundlessly as he tried to form the words to beg for mercy.

The beast smiled coldly at him. "It's time to feed them. You will do just fine."

Horror and fear filled his body, and he found the energy to scream in terror. But he could not move; his body was weakened from two shocks of the stun gun. All he could do was scream and beg for mercy as the beast waved someone inside the office. He could not fight back or flee as his ankles were seized and he was dragged across the floor and out of the room.