Guardian of the Abyssal Sea —A Sakamata Chloe Side Story— - The Liar from the Bottom of the Abyssal Sea

On the screen, I was smiling. " Everyone, thanks for gathering again today! It's your girl, Sakamata Chloe!" A one-room apartment, deep in the night. Only the bluish-white glow of the monitor lit the room. I, Sakamata Chloe, had started my stream as a VTuber, just like always. In the corner of the screen, the chat column scrolled by at high speed. Beneath the wig with its orange streaks, my natural black hair was slightly damp. The room, over-chilled by the air conditioner, was dry, and the scale-like patterns at my neck threatened to surface faintly. I picked up the humidifying spray at hand and casually misted my nape. " Huh, reading super chats already? Hold on, I just started the stream!" My voice was bright, bouncing. While my right hand moved the mouse, my left hand operated a second monitor. On the surface, it was just streaming software and a game screen, but in reality, a third monitor displayed different data. Water temperature data from the Pacific Ocean's Abyssal Sea region, freshly acquired by a deep-sea research vessel. Acoustic profiles. And displacement graphs of micro-vibrations. The waveform on the graph showed a slightly greater amplitude than last week. Deep within my heart, a thud pulsed. " Right, right, today I thought we'd take it easy with some casual chatting. How was everyone's weekend?" At my words, the chat column erupted in response. *'Good work!'* *'I want to be healed by Kuro-chan'* *'Tell us about the sea!'* *'Tell us about the sea!'*. I answered those innocent comments with a smile. The avatar on the screen wore a perfectly controlled smile. No one knew the true color of my eyes. A deep sea color—eyes like the abyss, between blue and green—were now dyed brown by contact lenses. The more the stream heated up, the more the tension deep in my chest grew. The data was warning me. The seal was wavering. Fifteen years ago, the capital of the Abyssal Sea, Iratis, was swallowed by a black current. Industrial waste and radioactive materials that humanity had discarded into the ocean. It annihilated the settlements of the sea folk. Nine thousand five hundred of my kin died. My parents, too. I was five years old then, and my grandmother Minashi led me by the hand as we fled. Along the way, I saw it. The bodies of my parents, collapsed, their bones blackened to the core by toxins. " Eh, you think I might actually be a sea creature? Ahaha, busted?" Laughing at the chat's jokes, deep in my heart I repeated my grandmother's words. (*Chloe, you are the Guardian of the Abyssal Sea. Protecting the seal is your duty.*) On my left wrist, a bracelet embedded with a fragment of a Tide Core glowed dully. A memento inherited from my grandmother. The previous Guardian, Minashi, exhausted her life force maintaining the seal and quietly passed away eight years ago. Her last words were, "I leave the Abyssal Sea to you." The stream ended after an hour. " Thanks for today, everyone! See you again tomorrow night!" I turned off the screen. Silence enveloped the room. I removed the wig and took out my contacts. My bare face reflected in the mirror. Black hair, deep sea-colored eyes, a delicate body. I looked human, but I was different. From my neck to my collarbone, faint scale-like patterns surfaced. Petite and slender, but a lean frame concealing supple muscle. Height: 158 centimeters. The sea folk are slightly smaller than humans. I changed clothes. A black turtleneck sweater easy to move in, and jeans. Clothing that hides my neck is a habit by now. A complete change from the neat white blouse and black ribbon I wear during streams. I headed to the bathroom. The bathtub is always filled with seawater. Drawn from the Abyssal Sea. I undressed and slowly sank in. The cold seawater enveloped my entire body. Thud. Deep in my chest, the Tide Core began to resonate. The patterns on my neck rose to the surface, and my pupils slightly split vertically. Proof that my vision had switched for underwater sight. I remembered the time I recovered my parents' remains. The cold, brittle sensation still lingers in my hands. With my small, five-year-old hands, I embraced my parents, who had become bones. The blackened bones seemed as if they would crumble like charcoal. I was scared, sad, but I couldn't cry. Because if I cried, Grandmother would worry. It's not for revenge. It's to ensure humanity doesn't repeat the same mistake. Two in the morning. I slipped out of my apartment and stood on the quay of Tokyo Bay. The winter wind was cold. No one was around. To human eyes, I probably looked like nothing more than a young woman gazing at the sea. I took off my shoes and stood at the edge of the quay. Thud. The Tide Core was calling to the sea. I dove in. Beneath the surface, my body changes. The scale-like patterns from my neck to my collarbone emerge clearly, and my pupils fully switch to underwater vision. Water resistance vanishes. As if walking through air, I glided through the water. Depth: twenty-five meters. I arrived at the container-type relay point installed on the floor of Tokyo Bay—the Junction. The container's interior was a pressure-resistant vessel, with communication equipment and first-aid supplies. And a passage to the Abyssal Sea. I heightened the resonance of the Tide Core. Deep in my chest grows hot. A bluish-white rift of light runs through the sea. This is a phase crack, undetectable by human probes. A tear in the barrier separating the Abyssal Sea from the human world, continuing since the Calamity of Naxor, when the founders of the sea folk sealed the evil god four thousand years ago. I slipped my body into that rift. Darkness. The depth, the pressure, changed all at once. The Abyssal Sea. Another ocean, spreading at depths of four thousand meters and below in the Pacific. Twice the area of the Japanese archipelago. Here, the civilization of the sea folk once existed. Now, it's mostly traces of pollution and devastation. First, I headed for the ruins of Iratis. The city that once shone with coral and deep-sea ore was now a mountain of black, murky rubble. The site of my family home. The place where my parents' remains are laid to rest. I knelt. The Tragedy of the Black Current. Thirty years ago, waste dumped in massive quantities into the Pacific by humanity struck the Abyssal Sea directly. On that day, eighty percent of the population died. My parents, too. While my grandmother fled with me, I saw my parents' bodies. Blackened to the bone. I recovered their remains with my own hands. The cold, brittle sensation left in my five-year-old hands. " ...Father, Mother." I touched the remains. It's not revenge. I am the Guardian. To prevent the same mistake from being repeated, I live. I stood up and headed to patrol the seal domain. The Trieste Knoll. The place where the seal's altar is. An octagonal altar. The deep-sea ore luminite faintly glowed bluish-white. The Tide-Binding Stone enshrined in the center. The crystallization of the sea folk's prayers, binding the evil god. As always, there was no abnormality at the altar. But the Tide Core sensed something. Thud. Thud. A different vibration than usual. I headed eight kilometers north from the altar, to the Voltea Rift. A crustal wound where the evil god's energy leaks most easily. The temperature was fifteen degrees higher than the surroundings. An abnormal electromagnetic field. And— I saw it. In the darkness of the deep sea, an artificial light was shining. A massive ship shadow. A deep-sea drilling vessel, roughly two hundred meters in total length, was anchored right near the rift. On the side of its hull, letters were inscribed in white paint. SEAVERSE - PROJECT ABYSSAL. The Seaverse Corporation. A giant enterprise in deep-sea resource development, headquartered in Tokyo's Minatoria district. On the surface, it's rare metal mining, but this is different. The seawater around the ship was swirling black. Spiral Spawn. Small black vortices, about three to five meters in diameter—more than ten of them swarmed near the ship's bottom. Entities formed from fragments of the evil god. The drilling activity was beginning to affect the seal. I approached the ship. There were figures on the rear deck. Several workers in black diving suits. And a young man standing in their center. He was giving instructions on a tablet device in his hand. Even through the helmet, I could tell. I knew the features of that face. " ...Kaito?" My childhood friend who went missing fifteen years ago. A young man of the sea folk. Rescued by human fishermen, educated in human society. He holds a doctorate in ocean engineering. And now, as a technical advisor for the Seaverse Corporation, he is drilling into the evil god's seal. The shock nearly stops my breath. We swore together to protect the Abyssal Sea. On the coral hills of Iratis. When we were still young, we held hands and promised. And yet, why? I began swimming toward the ship. I had to question him, even a second sooner. At that moment. *Bwooooom.* From the ship's bottom, a powerful ultrasonic pulse was emitted. " Ah...!" Deep in my chest, a violent pain as if the Tide Core had exploded. This is a resonance drill—it contains a frequency band that disrupts the vibrations of a sea folk's Tide Core, inducing a coma. A forbidden invention designed by Kaito. I pressed both hands to my chest and writhed. My vision blurred. Consciousness faded. (*Kaito... you...*) Memories of childhood overlap like a nightmare. Us laughing together on the coral hills. The Abyssal Sea we swore to protect. And now, him destroying the deep sea with a cold, inorganic expression. I shaved away my own life force and chanted the Prayer of the Tide's Murmur. " ...Tides of the Abyssal Sea... guide my body...!" A bluish-white light enveloped my entire body. In compensation, my lifespan is whittled away. Even so, I had to escape this place. I crawled out of the ultrasonic influence zone and surfaced toward Tokyo Bay. In the process, a sharp pain ran through my right arm. Looking underwater, the corrosion marks of the Spiral Spawn were coiled around my arm. Where it touched, the skin was turning black. I crawled up onto the quay before dawn. My breathing was ragged. I clutched my right arm. It hurts. Cold. Scared. The eastern sky began to dye with the first light of dawn. Kaito has become an enemy. He is trying to destroy the world I sought to protect. Why? What changed him? As the Guardian, I must ascertain his objective. Seaverse Corporation's Project Abyssal. The truth hidden behind deep-sea mining. " ...Why...?" My voice trembles. Tears spilled over. For fifteen years, I couldn't reveal my true self to anyone. Smiling as a VTuber, I protected the Abyssal Sea in solitude. All alone. Since my grandmother died, truly, utterly alone. For the first time, tears came. I didn't wipe them away. I just sat there for a while. The sun rises. The sea surface glows orange. The human world knows nothing. Not even that a single girl is crying at the bottom of the sea. My streams will continue today, too. Because that is the everyday life I want to protect. I stood up. Holding my injured right arm, I began walking toward my home in the Minatoria district. The first step of the investigation. I have to gather information on the Seaverse Corporation. To probe Kaito's aim. I am the Guardian. Protecting the Abyssal Sea is my duty. The Tide Core pulsed quietly. The bracelet sparkled, reflecting the morning sun.

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Episode 1

Name: Guardian of the Abyssal Sea —A Sakamata Chloe Side Story—
Author: Novelia

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