Gosunkugi led Nabiki to some of the more obscure and untouched parts of the library, areas where the books had actually been gathering dust for some time. Nabiki actually started to wonder if the reason she never found them was because the staff never bothered to put them into the database. Guess there was an advantage to having a guy like Gosunkugi around.
“Man, these look ready to fall apart.” Nabiki coughed as she knocked the dust off them.
“Yes, I was seriously considering sneaking them out and rebinding them. I’ve never been able to find a publisher either, so I assume they were from someone’s private collection.”
“Weird place to store them. Then again, if you want to hide a tree, you stick it in a forest.”
Nabiki opened one of the smaller books, its ancient bindings creaking as she turned the pages. Yes, judging by the handwritten style this definitely wasn’t a seriously published book. It had probably been someone’s personal journal. The kanji were a bit out of date, but Nabiki could follow it. This was why she always nearly fell asleep when dealing with classic Japanese literary courses. However, with this she had a purpose.
She scrolled the pages, making out the ramblings of someone who had seen something they weren’t supposed to.
August 9, 35rd Year of the Meiji
I write this late at night, having endured more than I could possibly hope to. I’m not sure how much longer I have. They know who I am, where I live. I suspect these might be my last days here. I’ll at least leave this to help any who might stumble upon it. Hopefully the words of Sergeant Subaru Akiyama will go on
I didn’t think I would find anything of note out there during the insurgence in China. I was stationed in a fishing town away from most of the action, serving as a guard. It wasn’t hard, most of the resident just trying to get through without conflict. It was actually a little weird how few concerns they had.
However, things grew odd in the first month. Ono, one of the rookies, went AWOL for a few days. When we found him again he was stripped nude and passed out in a shack. There were no witnesses as to what happened as there were no brothel in the town, not even a prostitute.
Eventually things came to a head when the Captain went missing. We questioned the townsfolk and one of the elders said.
“He’ll be back in a few days. The Deep Ones always give them back.”
I asked what that meant, but he refused to give a clear answer. He merely advised keeping away from the docks at night. I don’t know if that was a warning or a hint, but I went through with it anyway.
On the night patrol I took to the shore and walked among the boats. It was when the hour turned late that I heard something. On one of the boats there was our captain. He was having sex, completely nude and humping a woman.
A woman who was clearly not of this world. Her visage was forever burned into my mind. Even now when I close my eyes I can remember her every detail.
Nabiki looked at a sketch on the next page. She did a jump as she looked at the outline. It was clearly a woman, even beautiful, with long, lustrous black hair and a voluptuous figure but she looked like some kind of piscine hybrid. Gills liked her neck and her ears were odd, almost looking like fins. Scales lined her back, her throat, and the extremities of her limbs. Her feet were webbed with a kind of claw in the back almost acting like a built-in stiletto heel.
So she was a Deep One. Not as freaky as Nabiki expected.
She smiled at me, the Captain’s seed spilling from her. I couldn’t move, entranced by her alien beauty. And then she spoke.
“You want…to have me?”
It was only Aritomo coming in that scared her off. She leapt into the water and vanished. The Captain came to the next day, but remembered nothing. After that I advised everyone go on patrol in pairs. The insurgence ended shortly afterward, but my life was never the same.
“Man, one hell of a way to run into your boss.” Nabiki shook her head. “Anything on your end, Gosunkugi?”
“A little, but not much. Nabiki, what we have we run into here.”
“Something big. Sorry, but I might have roped you into a big problem here but I had no choice.”
“Well, I’ll help if I can.”
“You’re good people, Gosunkugi.”
She needed all the good people she could get. She kept flipping through pages, scanning them carefully to see if there were any hints. Nabiki knew her life would never be the same.
Tue Jan 08 22:52:50 2019
2 comments Last updated: Wed Jan 9 02:28:01 2019