Guardian of the Abyssal Sea —A Sakamata Chloe Side Story— - Envoy from the Deep Sea

The seawater in the bath was drawn from the Abyssal Sea. It was cold, and carried a scent that was somehow nostalgic. Sakamata Chloe soaked up to her shoulders in the tub, her eyes closed. Deep in her chest, her Tide Core throbbed — a deep, steady pulse. The damage she'd sustained that night, from the ultrasonic pulse emitted by Seaverth's deep-sea drilling vessel, still hadn't fully healed. (*Kaito…*) The figure she'd seen that day, at the Voltea Rift, was seared into her mind and wouldn't leave. The boy who had sworn alongside her, when they were young, to protect the Abyssal Sea — that face had vanished beneath the mask of a cold-hearted scientist. Chloe traced her fingers over the bracelet on her left wrist. A fragment of a Tide Core, passed down from her grandmother Minashi. Her grandmother, the previous Guardian, had exhausted all her life force maintaining the seal eight years ago, and quietly breathed her last. Until her final moment, she had spoken of the Abyssal Sea. " …Grandma… what am I supposed to do?" There was no one else in the bathroom. No answer came. She picked up her humidifying spray and misted it over her neck. When she stayed in a dry room for too long, the scale-like patterns would faintly emerge on her skin. They were the mark of the Sea Folk. The secret of a solitary Guardian, living hidden among the human world. Chloe stepped out of the bathtub and dried her body with a bath towel. She stared at her own face reflected in the mirror. Deep, sea-colored eyes. No one on the surface knew these eyes. During her streams, she tinted them brown with contact lenses and entertained her viewers with a cheerful tone. That was her face as a VTuber. But now, she was different. She pulled on a black turtleneck sweater and a pair of jeans. Clothes that were easy to move in. Her destination was the Minatoria district. The headquarters of Seaverth Corporation. She had to find out what Kaito was after. Why was her childhood friend, who had sworn to protect the Abyssal Sea with her, now trying to destroy the seal? Where had the promise they'd made fifteen years ago gone wrong? Through the Tide Transmission, Chloe had reached out to the few surviving remnants of her fellow Sea Folk. But all that came back were fragmented warnings. (*The name Kaito is taboo. Do not touch it.*) It was proof that even among the Sea Folk, he was no longer considered one of their own. From her apartment window, Tokyo Bay was visible in the distance. The morning light glittered on the water's surface. At the bottom of that sea, at depths exceeding four thousand meters, lay the Abyssal Sea. The former capital, Iratis, was now a mountain of rubble, stained black by toxins. Her parents' bones slept in those ruins, too. " …Time to go." Chloe put the humidifying spray into her bag and left the room. —————— The Minatoria district was a redevelopment area along the Tokyo Bay waterfront. High-rise buildings stood in rows, and businessmen came and went along the clean streets. Five kilometers southeast of Shinagawa. A city of thirty-five thousand, built on reclaimed land. Chloe entered a café called "Shiosai," directly across from Seaverth Tower. She secured a seat with a full view of the tower's entrance through the glass-paneled window. She hadn't touched even a third of the iced coffee she'd ordered. Today marked the third day of her stakeout. 10:00 AM. The automatic doors of Seaverth Tower opened, and employees in suits began to stream in and out. Chloe set down her coffee cup and stared intently out the window. (*That silhouette I saw on the drilling ship that day… it was definitely Kaito.*) Her Tide Core resonated faintly. That unique vibration — her body remembered the wavelength of Kaito's Tide Core. Two hours passed. A little past noon, the café door opened. Three men walked in. The moment she saw the tall man leading them, Chloe's heart leaped. His long, deep navy hair was tied back in a single tail, and he wore an impeccably tailored, impersonal suit. The hair that had once been the same black as Chloe's had faded, perhaps from stress, to the color of the deep sea. His left eye was the deep green characteristic of the Sea Folk. And his right eye— A golden, mechanical prosthetic eye reflected the café's lighting with a cold gleam. It was Kaito. Her childhood friend, who had vanished fifteen years ago. Now the technical advisor for Seaverth Corporation. A man with a doctorate in ocean engineering, positioned at the very heart of the project to drill into the evil god's seal. Chloe held her breath. Kaito didn't seem to notice her. He sat down at a window seat with two men who appeared to be his subordinates, discussing something while looking at a tablet device. She couldn't hear their voices, but his expression was serious. " …Kaito." Chloe stood up. Her legs were trembling. For fifteen years, she had wanted to see him. But she never imagined it would be like this. She walked slowly over and sat down in the seat across from Kaito. " …What is the meaning of this?" Kaito's voice was cold. His golden prosthetic eye fixed its gaze on Chloe. His subordinates looked at her with puzzled expressions, but Kaito stopped them with a single hand. "Step aside." The subordinates obediently moved to another table. Chloe and Kaito faced each other across the table. The face she was seeing for the first time in fifteen years still held traces of the child she once knew, yet he seemed like a completely different person. His cheeks were gaunt, and deep lines were etched around his mouth. His expression was blank, as if he were suppressing all emotion. " …It's been a long time, Kaito." Chloe spoke, feigning calm with all her might. But her voice trembled slightly. " What did you come here for? If you're playing ghost of the Abyssal Sea, do it somewhere else." Kaito delivered the cold remark as he lifted his coffee cup to his lips. " …Playing ghost, huh. You know what I've been living for, don't you?" " Of course I know. You inherited the Tide Core from the previous Guardian, didn't you? You're still whittling yourself away to protect the seal, I imagine." His golden prosthetic eye gleamed, as if seeing right through to the depths of Chloe's chest — to where her Tide Core resided. " Your Tide Core is weakening, isn't it? The ultrasonic pulse did its work." Chloe bit her lip. " …Did you design that?" "I did. A resonance drill. Technology that cancels out the Tide Core's vibrations with an inverted phase. There's no more efficient method to neutralize the physiological functions of the Sea Folk." His tone was matter-of-fact. There wasn't a shred left of the boy who had once sworn to protect the Abyssal Sea alongside Chloe. " …Why? Why are you trying to destroy the seal? Kaito, you're one of the Sea Folk too." " You're still saying things like that?" Kaito placed his coffee cup on the table. Was it her imagination, or did his fingers seem to tremble ever so slightly? "The Sea Folk are on the brink of extinction. You're whittling yourself down to protect an Abyssal Sea that has no one left in it. What value is there in such a meaningless act?" " It's not meaningless! The seal is still in the Abyssal Sea. If the evil god awakens, humanity will also suffer—" " That's exactly why." Kaito cut her off. " The damage to humanity. That's the problem. With your ideology of simply protecting, the seal will collapse sooner or later. Ocean pollution won't stop. Seawater temperatures keep rising due to global warming. In that kind of environment, how many more years do you think it will hold? A hundred? Two hundred?" Chloe was at a loss for words. " I've found a way to control the seal using human technology. To utilize the evil god's power as an energy source. That way, both the Sea Folk and humanity can be saved." " …There's no way you can control it. The evil god isn't something so simple—" " It can be done. With the resonance drill I designed." Kaito stood up. " Let's leave the shop. We're in public." —————— A briny wind was blowing fiercely across the wharf in the Minatoria district. Kaito placed his hands on the breakwater, gazing out at the horizon. Chloe stood beside him. In the distance, a Seaverth cargo ship was anchored. " …Do you remember Coral Hill?" Chloe spoke in a small voice. A hill on the outskirts of Iratis, made of coral and deep-sea ore. That had been their secret place. Young Chloe and Kaito would often talk about the Abyssal Sea there, atop that hill. Chloe said she would become the Guardian. Kaito said he would help. " I'm not interested in old stories." " …I've lived all this time on that promise alone. I thought that if I became the Guardian, if I protected the Abyssal Sea, I'd be able to see you again someday." " …You haven't changed." Slowly, Kaito raised his hand to his right prosthetic eye. " Do you want to see?" Kaito removed the prosthetic. The eye socket revealed behind it was hideously inflamed. There was no eyeball, just a large, dark, spreading scar. It looked as if something had corroded it. Chloe gasped. " During the Black Tide tragedy, I was swept away. Do you know what that toxic current does? It melts skin and rots eyes. I survived for nine days, tossed around in the muddy torrent. My right eye was destroyed then." Kaito spoke dispassionately. " The one who saved me when I was near death was a human fisherman. An old man named Igarashi Genzou. He didn't even know the Sea Folk existed, but he saved a complete stranger like me and raised me. Humans aren't the evil beings you think they are." " …It's not like I hate humans—" " You do hate them. Nine thousand five hundred people died. Your parents were killed. It's only natural to hold a grudge. But acting on emotion changes nothing. What's needed is a rational solution." Kaito reattached his prosthetic eye. The golden light gleamed coldly once more. " The Abyssal Sea you merely protect had no power to save us. So I acquired power. I learned human technology and joined Seaverth Corporation. I am the director of Project Abyssal." " And you intend to awaken the evil god with it?! If you do that, both humanity and the Sea Folk—" " You're the foolish one." Kaito's voice carried emotion for the first time. Was it anger? Or sorrow? Lost in the wind, she couldn't tell. " The Sea Folk now number fewer than thirty. At this rate, we'll perish in less than a hundred years. As the Guardian, you keep whittling away your life force to maintain the seal. Your natural lifespan should be two hundred years, but it's probably less than half that now. What will be left if you cling to a meaningless mission, killing yourself in the process?" " …Even so, I—" " You can't answer, can you?" Kaito looked at Chloe's chest. " Your Tide Core is weakening. You're shaving off your lifespan to maintain the seal, and on top of that, you took damage from my drill's pulse. At this rate, you won't last even a few more years." Chloe pressed her hand to her chest. Her Tide Core throbbed faintly. In that instant, Chloe's Tide Core sensed something — an alien vibration from deep within Kaito's chest, from his Tide Core. A wavelength that had been artificially controlled and amplified. It was no longer the natural rhythm of the Sea Folk. Some other force was intervening with Kaito's Tide Core. " …Kaito, what have you done to your Tide Core—" " This?" Kaito loosened the collar of his suit slightly and revealed his chest. Near his heart, a small metallic device was embedded. A Tide Core control unit, engraved with the Seaverth Corporation logo. " I'm already free from the old constraints of the Sea Folk. I can even control the power of the Tide Core and operate it efficiently. Come with me, Chloe. Your Tide Core's resonance ability will be the key to the project." " …No. I have no intention of becoming a tool for humans." " …I see

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Episode 2

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

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