Guardian of the Abyssal Sea —A Sakamata Chloe Side Story— - The Price of Resonance

Passing through the noren curtain of Orca Diner, the mingled scent of oil and tide enveloped Chloe. As she settled onto a counter seat, Urabe Takeshi poked his head out from the kitchen. A close-cropped head flecked with white, stubble on his chin. His small dark eyes, ringed by laugh lines, fixed on Chloe. The usual hand towel was wrapped around his neck. "Hey now. What brings you here at this hour?" Wiping his hands, Urabe set a glass of water in front of Chloe. The first joints of his left middle and ring fingers were missing. A fishing accident, she'd heard once, long ago. Chloe didn't touch the glass. She looked straight at Urabe. "I need to talk to you." The diner was empty of other customers at this late hour. The handwritten menu tacked to the wall looked faded and old under the fluorescent lights. Urabe studied her expression and nodded, as if he'd already guessed. He planted both hands on the counter and hunched his back. "It's about Seaverth Corporation, isn't it." Chloe drew a small breath. "I'm going to infiltrate Kaito's lab. I'm going to expose everything he's plotting." Urabe was silent for a moment. He scratched his head with his right hand and let out a small sigh. "...I figured. Ever since you first showed up, I knew this day would come." He took a plate of fried horse mackerel from the refrigerator and placed it in the microwave. A light *ding* echoed through the kitchen. "I've known Kaito for a long time." Chloe's shoulders trembled, faintly. Urabe retrieved the fried mackerel from the microwave and set it before her. "Eat. We'll talk after." Chloe picked up her chopsticks. The coating of the fried mackerel gave a crisp *crunch*. She barely tasted it. Urabe sat down on a chair and began to speak, his eyes gazing at something far away. "Me, I used to be on the same boat as a fisherman named Igarashi Genzou, way back." Igarashi Genzou. At the sound of that name, Chloe's heart gave a heavy thud. "That man truly loved the sea. One day, out on the water, he picked up a kid. That kid was Kaito." Urabe flashed a silver-toothed grin, just for a moment. But the smile vanished quickly. "Genzou, even after he retired from fishing, he kept looking after Kaito. Got him into school, helped him with his studies. Raised him like his own son." Chloe set down the fried mackerel. Her throat had closed up; she couldn't eat. "But, well. Kaito couldn't fit into human society, I suppose. One night, he ran away to the sea. Genzou took his boat out into rough waters and went after him." Urabe's voice dropped lower. "...That night, there was a collision with a poaching vessel. Genzou shielded Kaito. He got caught in the screw. He died." Chloe was speechless. Urabe placed a hand gently on her shoulder. His maimed fingers trembled, just a little. "Kaito, too, needs to be saved. But that guy... he can't forgive himself. He thinks he's not worth being protected by anyone." Deep in Chloe's chest, a warmth slowly spread. She couldn't see Kaito as simply an enemy. That hesitation sank into her, black and heavy. Urabe stood and pulled a sheet of paper from a drawer behind the counter. "Blueprints for the old maintenance ducts that lead to the underground sector of Seaverth Tower. I got them through some old connections, from back when I used to deliver materials there." Chloe accepted the blueprints. On the aged blue paper, narrow passageways were drawn like a maze. "For fifteen minutes starting at 2 a.m., when the security system cycles, all the sensors on the third basement floor go dead. Use that window to get in." Chloe tucked the blueprints into her bag and stood up. "...Thanks, old man." Urabe rubbed his nose, looking faintly embarrassed. "You're doing good for someone so young. Be careful." —————— 1:50 a.m. Third basement floor of Seaverth Tower. Chloe crawled through the old maintenance duct. The iron walls were cold, the smell of rust stinging her nose. The duct was so narrow that even her slender shoulders scraped against the sides. She advanced exactly as Urabe's blueprints indicated. Turn right, descend the ladder, take the third junction to the left. 2:00 a.m. precisely. The indicator lamp for the security system cycle, set into a corner of the wall, shifted from red to green. Chloe pushed open the duct cover and dropped down into the corridor. The underground sector was utterly silent. White walls, the sterile light of fluorescent lamps. A faint trace of disinfectant hung in the air. At the very end of the corridor, a plate was engraved: MARINE TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR LABORATORY. Kaito's room. Chloe held her hand over the electronic lock panel. A faint resonance from her Tide Core scrambled the lock's circuitry. The abilities of the sea folk were only useful at times like this. *Click.* The lock disengaged. Inside, the room was more cluttered than she'd expected. Printouts of deep-sea data covered an entire wall. Stacks of technical books were piled on the floor. On the desk sat three half-empty coffee cups. A small ache flickered through Chloe's chest. This was the accumulation of fifteen years of Kaito's life. Her eyes moved to the large monitor by the wall. The screen displayed a three-dimensional map of the Abyssal Sea, centered on the Voltea Rift. Twelve red points were arranged along the rift. Each point bore a label, from "RESONANCE DRILL #1" to "#12." The full scope of Project Abyssal. Chloe focused her Tide Core and began to inscribe the data within herself. The pearl-like organ emitted a faint glow as it absorbed the information. Then, a photograph hanging on the wall caught her eye. An old frame. A faded picture. In it stood a white-haired fisherman and Kaito as a boy, back when he still had both eyes. They were in front of a small fishing boat, both of them laughing. Kaito must have been around ten. An innocent smile. Igarashi Genzou. The man who had saved Kaito, raised him, protected him, and died. Chloe reached a hand toward the photograph. Her fingers touched the glass frame. (*Kaito... you've been carrying this feeling all along.*) Something deep in her chest tightened, painfully. A debt to humanity. Pride as one of the sea folk. Torn between those two things, he had been suffering for fifteen long years. Their conflict was far deeper, far more hopeless— *Clack.* The door behind her opened. "...Chloe." Chloe spun around. Kaito stood there. His long, deep-blue hair was tied back carelessly, and he wore a white lab coat. His left eye, a dark green, fixed on her, while the golden prosthetic in his right eye gleamed coldly. On his left ring finger, glimpsed through a gap in his coat, hung the engagement ring he had once prepared to give her, now strung on a chain as a pendant. For an instant, surprise flickered across Kaito's face, but he quickly regained his composure. "Project Abyssal enters its final phase the day after tomorrow." He approached the desk and pointed at the monitor. "The twelve resonance drills will excavate the seal. They'll partially release the evil god's power and harness it as energy. This will save both humanity and the sea folk." Chloe clenched her fists. "There's no way it can save anyone! Thinking you can control the evil god's power—that's nothing but your own arrogance!" "Arrogance, is it." Kaito repeated the word quietly. "You haven't changed at all in fifteen years. I told you before—an ideology that only protects is weakness." "Then let me ask you—why are *you* doing this?! That day, we promised to protect the Abyssal Sea together!" Chloe's voice trembled. "I've kept that promise all this time. And yet, you—" "You're the one who couldn't keep that promise." Kaito's voice dropped, just slightly. He raised his right hand and touched the golden prosthetic in his right eye. *Click.* With a small mechanical sound, the prosthetic came free. Chloe gasped. The socket of his right eye. The skin was twisted, deeply etched with scars. The place where a dark-green eye—the mark of the sea folk—had once been was now filled with machinery. "Genzou-san died protecting me." Kaito's voice quavered, faintly. It was the first time she had ever heard his emotions waver. "Twelve years ago. The night I ran away to the sea. Genzou-san came after me in his boat, through the storm. There was a collision with a poaching ship—and Genzou-san threw me into the sea. He himself—" He broke off. His hand, gripping the prosthetic, tightened. "He himself was caught in the screw." A small breath escaped Chloe's lips. "The will to protect... kills people." Kaito placed the prosthetic on the desk and took a step closer to Chloe. "That conviction of yours will kill someone someday. Isn't that right?" Chloe couldn't answer. Something inside her chest crumbled with an audible sound. Kaito's words pierced deep into her heart like a blade. Tears welled up, blurring her vision. "...Even so, I—" That was when it happened. A *vwoop, vwoop* alarm blared throughout the laboratory. On the large wall monitor, a crimson warning flashed. 【EMERGENCY: WHIRLSPAWN PROLIFERATION DETECTED】【LOCATION: TOKYO BAY - DEPTH 25M】【COUNT: 3 → 12 → 24 AND INCREASING】 "This is—" For the first time, Kaito's expression stiffened. "...This is outside the projected parameters. The residual vibrations from the previous night's resonance pulse are widening the phase fissures." The number of Whirlspawn on the monitor climbed with every second. Thirty. Forty. On the seabed of Tokyo Bay, countless black vortices were being born, one after another. "This is the result of what you've done!" Chloe glared at Kaito. Just then, another alarm sounded. "Security is coming. If they capture you, the project's delays become unavoidable." Kaito grabbed Chloe's arm and pulled her toward the window. "...Run." "What?" "Your tears are wasted on a life that can't be protected. This isn't the reality I wanted to show you—but go." Kaito opened the window. A cold night wind rushed in. Below the window was a quay facing Tokyo Bay. "This is the last time. The next time we meet—" He started to say something, then stopped. Chloe looked into Kaito's eyes. His left eye, the deep green one, was desperately holding something back. (*Kaito... you think your own life is one that can't be protected, too, don't you?*) A sharp pain squeezed her chest. But, for now— Chloe kicked off the window frame and leaped into the dark sea. —————— Out on the water, Urabe's small fishing boat was waiting. "Get in, quick!" Chloe scrambled aboard. Her soaked clothes were freezing. "The Whirlspawn are multiplying. The ships operating inside the bay—" Before Urabe could finish, Chloe had already dived back into the sea. Underwater, her body transformed. The scale-like patterns on her neck rose to the surface, and her pupils split vertically. Her Tide Core pulsed with a heavy throb. The bay floor was hell. Countless black vortices writhed, churning up the seabed mud. Whirlspawn. More than twenty of the smaller ones, three to five meters in diameter, were spilling out. In the center of the swarm, a fishing boat was sinking. Its hull had been corroded by the Whirlspawn, holes torn through it. Three crew members were desperately trying to transfer to a lifeboat, but the Whirlspawn blocked their way, keeping them from getting close. Chloe focused on her Tide Core. Heat surged from deep within her chest. She carved away at her own lifespan and chanted the prayer of the Tide's Lament. "Tides of the Abyssal Sea—take my body as recompense, and purge this calamity—!" A pale blue light tore through the water. The five nearest Whirlspawn were enveloped in the light, splitting apart, dissolving, vanishing. But the injuries from the previous night and the depletion of her Tide Core left her strength faltering. The scar on her left shoulder throbbed with sharp pain. Still, Chloe continued to chant. One by one, she decompose

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Episode 3

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

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