My apologies if this is a repost, I don't think that my original attempt got
through. Note, for a number of reasons it is night impossible for me to
subscribe to the FFML, so please CC all C&C to kensu@pathcom.com. Thank you.
Begin - Mermaid's Bone Pt. 1
!
[Aerial shot of a seaside village. It is early morning, and the streets
are bustling with fisherman and merchants making their ways to their
respective jobs. But in addition to all this is another face, one who
is dressed neither as a fisherman or a merchant. It is Yuta, he is
dressed in period clothes, which suggests that this takes place some-
time in the 17th century. Yuta walks along, looking this way and that,
looking for someone. He notices a merchant on the side of the road
trying to right his overturned cart. Yuta walks over to him.]
Yuta: Could you use a hand?
Merchant: [Smiles] I certainly would appreciate it.
[Yuta walks over and helps him pull his cart upright.]
Merchant: Heh, I envy your youth. Sometimes the life of a merchant is
too much for these weary bones.
Yuta: No trouble.
Merchant: Rather humble for one so young. Is there anything I can do
for you?
Yuta: Ah, yes, as a matter of fact, you can. Have you heard of a place
called Haiotoshi village? I heard it was somewhere around here.
Merchant: Haiotoshi village?
Yuta: Yes.
Merchant: Well, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...a LONG
time.
Yuta: Is it around here?
Merchant: I imagine what's left of it is.
Yuta: [Eyes wide] What's LEFT of it?
Merchant: Yes. About fifteen years ago the village was burned to the
ground. No one knows what caused it, and the few survivors of the fire
never wanted to talk about what happened there. Why do you want to go
to the village?
Yuta: I was told there was someone there that could help me with a
problem I have.
Merchant: Well, they must have been pulling your leg. That village has
been ash since you were probably still a toddler.
[Yuta smiles a knowing smile.]
Yuta: Well, thanks anyway. Where exactly are the ruins?
Merchant: Walk west along the shore for about five miles, you'll
eventually reach it.
Yuta: Thank you.
Merchant: Don't mention it.
[Yuta walks towards the beach, the man watches him go in silence for
several moments.]
Merchant: What a strange young man.
-=- -=- -=-
[There is a montage of shots of Yuta walking along the beach. He reaches
the ruins of the village when the sun is high in the sky. Noon. Long
pan of the ruins of the village. It is terrible, there is nothing that
is recognizable as a village save for the worn stones which once
constituted the main street. All the rest is pure, white, dusty, ash.
Yuta stares at it for a long while.]
Yuta: <This couldn't have been caused by accident, the fires were
strategically located, EVERYTHING was burned. It had to be deliberate.
But what kind of monster could do something like this?>
[Suddenly, Yuta notices something moving out of the ashes towards him.
He stares at it for several moments, the brightness of the light
reflecting off the ash obscuring his vision. He is able to make out
that the figure is much larger than any human. As it gets closer, Yuta
sees the red glint of its eyes.]
Yuta: A soulless one!
[Yuta turns and starts to run back towards the beach, but he sees
another soulless one coming towards him up the beach. Yuta quickly
swirls around and sees that the one coming from the direction of the
village is still pursuing him. He turns to his right and sees a series
of mountains, he turns to his left and sees a forest. He breaks for the
forest. The two soulless ones meet and start to lumber after them. Cut
to a series of images as Yuta rushes through the forest. The soulless
ones are starting to move faster. Yuta climbs up into the branches of
a tree and waits for the two to pass by. They linger for a moment,
making snorting knows, perhaps looking for his scent. But their senses
of smell must not be that good, because they miss him completely.
Several minutes after their departure, Yuta shimmies down the tree and
begins to run in the direction of the beach. After several moments he
manages to get out of the forest and onto a steep cliff overlooking
the beach. He turns around to run back into the forest, but a third
soulless one <not one of the two searching for him> emerges from the
forest. Yuta scrambles away from it, and forgetting about the cliff,
flies right off it. He falls a good twenty feet and slams face-first
into a rock. Several moments pass, pull back to reveal about half a
dozen soulless ones converging on where he fell. Fade to credits.]
-----------
Mermaid's Bone
Part One
Written By: Chris Schumacher
Original Mermaid Series Created By: Rumiko Takahashi.
Author's Notes: The creatures who turned into monsters because they ate
mermaid's flesh have several different names; Poisoned ones, Lost Souls,
and Poisoned Souls. Since none of these are even close to the original
(narisookonai - Those who did not become), I've decided to adopt my
own name for them -> Soulless ones. This may not be entirely accurate,
because we have seen at least one which still had a soul, but it's
mostly accurate. Thanks to Anand Chelian for providing me with some
information about the original meaning of the word.
-----------
[Cut back to the last scene. Yuta is lying unconscious on the beach,
half a dozen soulless ones converge on where he is lying. As they
reach them, four of the soulless ones grab his limbs, and they start
to carry him off. Cut to an aerial view of the army of soulless ones
carrying Yuta. They go through a path up the side of the cliff and
start to make their way through the forest. After they travel several
moments through the forest, they come up near the edge of the village.
Nestled within the forest is a hut. The four soulless ones stop a few
feet away from the village. One of the soulless ones walks to the door
of the hut and softly knocks on it. Despite his careful knocking, the
hut shakes a little. A few moments pass and the door opens. The one
opening it is a middle-aged man. He is wearing a black tunic and
carrying a short white staff.]
Man: What is it?
[The soulless one beckons for the man to look behind him. He does so
and sees the soulless ones carrying Yuta.]
Man: Where did you find him?
[The soulless one motions in the general direction of the village.]
Man: In the village?
[The soulless one nods.]
Man: All right, bring him in, GENTLY.
[The man steps out of the way and two of the soulless ones drag him into
the house and lay him down on a straw mat. The man motions with the
staff and the soulless ones leave. He closes the door after them and
goes over to examine Yuta.]
Man: Poor sot...it's a wonder he didn't break his neck.
[The man goes over to a bowl sitting on an endtable. He takes a rag
from the bowl and rings it and the proceeds to place it on Yuta's fore-
head. Several moments pass, and finally Yuta comes around.]
Man: [Cheerfully] Welcome back to the abode of the living.
[Yuta looks disoriented]
Yuta: [Drowsily] Who are you? Where am I?
Man: I am called Aishou. As to our location, we're in my hut.
Yuta: How did I get here? When those things chased me, I thought I was
a goner.
Aishou: They brought you here. They know not to attack anyone unless I
tell them to do so.
Yuta: You act as if you control them.
Aishou: I DO control them.
Yuta: Impossible. No human can control the soulless ones.
[Aishou raises one eyebrow]
Aishou: You seem to know quite a bit about my servants. I have never
heard them called soulless ones before. But, that does sound accurate.
How is it that you come to know of them?
Yuta: If you tell me how you control them, I'll tell you how I know
about them, and what they are.
Aishou: Oh? Well, if all you want know is that, I'll be happy to
oblige. [Holds the staff] This is how I control them.
Yuta: What is that? Where did you get it?
Aishou: [Sigh] Well, that's a long story...
Yuta: We have all the time in the world.
Aishou: Or so you think. Never mind, then. I'll tell you.
-=- -=- -=-
[Cut to an exterior shot of the hut in the woods, showing that it's a
tad bit later, early afternoon. We see three soulless ones standing
guard in front of the hut. Cut to an interior shot of the hut. A table
now occupies the middle of the hut, and Yuta and Aishou sit on either
side of the table. In front of each of them sits a wooden bowl and a
goblet. Aishou has just finished filling his bowl with a ladle, and
he pours some Sake into Yuta's cup.]
Yuta: Thank you.
Aishou: No problem.
[He fills his own and they start to eat.]
Yuta: So, what about the story?
Aishou: Rather anxious aren't you? [Sigh] All right. It all started
about fifteen years ago.
[Cut to an aerial shot of a seaside village. It is around noon and we
see the fisherman and merchants walking back towards their huts for
lunch. We see a younger Aishou walking down the street. He is dressed
as a fisherman and looks hungry.]
Aishou VO: I used to be a fisherman in the village.
Yuta VO: Heh.
Aishou VO: What's so funny?
Yuta: I was a fisherman too.
Aishou VO: Oh. Heh. Anyway, Haiotoshi village used to be an extremely
prosperous and peaceful place. We worked hard, but life was good. There
wasn't another village for five miles, thus there were never any wars.
But, unfortunately, it wasn't as pleasant and carefree as I try to
remember it.
[Cut to a shot of the village at night. We see a soulless one walking
down the main road of it.]
Aishou VO: Every ten years or so, one of those...SOULLESS ONES, came
down into the village and kidnapped a little baby girl. Legend has it
that he took the baby to its mistresses, who lived in a secluded village
up the shore.
Yuta VO: Didn't you ever do anything to stop it?
Aishou VO: No. We were content to sacrifice one young girl a decade
because the Demon Women would leave the village alone.
[Cut back to the hut.]
Yuta: Demon women?
Aishou: The residents of the village up the shore. Horrible women who
have the ability to turn into monsters when enraged.
Yuta: <Mermaids...it MUST be mermaids!>
[Aishou finishes his bowl of soup and pushes it away. He leans back and
lights his pipe.]
Aishou: But, when my little daughter was taken by those things, I
couldn't simply brush it off as protection. She was my only child, and
her mother had died in childbirth. I became enraged and...
[Aishou takes a long drag from his pipe. Yuta waits in silence.]
Aishou: I am not proud of what I did then, Yuta. You must understand,
when you're a father, you'd much rather die than see your child harmed
or kidnapped. I called a meeting of all the men in the village...
[Cut to a shot of the end of the main road in the village. All of the
men are gathered and Aishou is standing on top of a rock, making a
speech.]
Aishou: We can't allow this to continue. Those demon women have been
invading our village for over fifty years. We have lost five little
girls because of them and their damn plots! We cannot allow this to
continue, we cannot allow one more of our daughters to fall into their
vile hands. We must take action, and we must do it at once!
[The men of the village scream in rage.]
Aishou: Are you with me?
Group: Yes!
Aishou: All right then, we invade the village of the demon women, and
we make them pay for what they've done!
[Cut to the beach, about an hour later. A huge mob is running along it
carrying torches, pitchforks, axes, and all the usual stuff.]
Aishou VO: We didn't know exactly where the village of the Mermaid's
was, but we kept running all night, we eventually found it nestled
within a small range of mountains a couple of miles away from the
village.
[Cut to a shot of a small village contained within a valley. Running
down the sides of the mountains is the same mob. They run into the
village. There is a montage of battle shots. Men attacking the mermaids,
mermaids attacking men. Mermaid's rising from mortal wounds and ripping
the men apart.]
Aishou VO: Although they looked like normal women, they were demons of
some sort. One of my friends ran one of them through with a harpoon,
it didn't even slow her down.
[We just saw this happen. The mermaid pulls the harpoon up and shoves
it through the neck of the man, virtually decapitating him with it.
He falls over, gasping miserably.]
Aishou VO: We didn't realize until it was too late they they were
herding us towards a cave near the sea.
[Cut to the dwindling number of villagers fighting valiantly against the
mermaids. Suddenly, all of them retreat. The men look startled, and
then they turn around to see a mermaid standing by the cave and holding
up a small white staff. Suddenly, small spots of red light appear in
the darkness of the cave. Several moments pass, and a virtual army of
soulless ones leap forth from the cave and attack the villagers.]
Aishou VO: The demon women were nothing compared to the might of the
creatures that emerged from the cave. They seemed to follow the orders
of the woman who held the white staff. We were being slaughtered by
the soulless ones, we finally gave up and fled over the mountains.
[Cut to a shot of about two dozen men fleeing over the mountains.]
Aishou VO: When we got home, we thought we were safe. [Voice cracking]
We couldn't have been more wrong.
[Cut to the village, early morning. Tired and surly looking merchants
and fisherman make their way to their respective jobs. Suddenly, the
army of soulless ones rushes into the village. Cut to a montage of
shots of the soulless ones slaughtering innocent men, women, and
children.]
Aishou VO: After those bastards killed everyone within the village,
they set light to it. Me and five others had managed to escape by
running into the woods. We spent the night in the forest and returned
to the ruins of the village. The other five decided that they should
move to the nearest village and start their life over. But I refused
to leave. I had a score to settle.
[During the previous sentence, we see six men standing in the center of
the burned out village. After they make what looks to be some kind of
pact, the other five pack up what remains of their belongings and make
their way down the beach. The last shot is Aishou standing in the
ruins of the village, waving good-bye to them. Cut back to the two
sitting in the hut.]
Yuta: I truly feel for you lost, Aishou. But that still doesn't explain
how you managed to get your hands on that staff.
Aishou: I was just getting to that.
[Cut to a shot of Aishou digging through the ash of the village.]
Aishou VO: It took me several days to dig out what was left of my
belongings from the ashes of the village. During that time, I attempted
to formulate a plan as to my vengeance. Originally, all I could think
of to do was sneak into the village at night and kill as many of those
bitches as I could.
Yuta: How did you plan on killing them? You weren't all that successful
killing them the first time around.
Aishou: But I had learned something valuable in the last few moments
of our ill-fated raid. One of my comrades discovered that he was able
to kill one of the soulless ones by severing its head from its body.
I assumed that this would be true of mermaids as well, since there
seems to be a connection between them.
Yuta: Heh.
[Cut to a shot of a darkened valley. We see Aishou, carrying an axe,
slowly making his way down the mountain to the valley floor.]
Aishou VO: A week after the initial raid, I snuck back into the village
of the demon women. Naturally, I wanted to take out their leader first,
and she was easy to locate, she's the one who owned the biggest hut in
the village.
[Cut to an exterior shot of Aishou crawling along the edge of the
village towards the Elder's hut. Switch to an interior shot of the
Elder's hut. Quickly but quietly, Aishou flies across the hut and
severs the head from the sleeping Elder.]
Aishou VO: I've always wondered if the Elder ever knew that she had
died. In retrospect, I think I should have woken her up first so she
would have known who had done it.
[Aishou boldly walks towards the entrance to the hut, but his eye
catches a sandalwood chest by the door.]
Aishou VO: I've heard legends that the demon women keep great treasure
in their village. So I decided to look into the chest.
[Aishou flips the lid of the chest and looks in. The camera is at such
an angle that the interior of the chest is lost in darkness. Aishou
reaches in, and his hand returns with the short white staff in it.]
Aishou VO: I remembered that terrible night when that wretched bitch
used the bone to summon an army of those things to kill us. Plans for
a much grander, and much more ironic form of vengeance entered my head.
[Cut back to the two sitting in the hut. Aishou holds the staff up so
Yuta can see it clearly.]
Aishou: This is that staff. I assume it's made out of some kind of
leg bone, probably from one of the demon women herself. It took me a
while, but I eventually learned to control the soulless ones with it.
Yuta: [Suspiciously] What is this PLAN of yours?
Aishou: [Laughs] It has taken me over ten years to perfect control of
the soulless ones. Once that was taken care of, I started to outfit
them with axes and throat armor. I'm going to use them to attack the
village of the demon women. [He holds up an axe.] Nice craftsmanship,
'eh?
Yuta: But...
Aishou: No questions. I believe you have a question that you promised
to answer. How do you know of these soulless ones?
Yuta: [Sigh] All right. May I see that axe?
Aishou: Uh...sure. [He hands the axe to Yuta. Yuta takes the edge of
it and cuts a gash into his arm with it.]
Aishou: What did you do that for?
Yuta: Wait...
[Several moments later, Yuta wipes away the blood to reveal that the
cut has healed.]
Aishou: How did you manage to do that?!
Yuta: Those 'Demon Women' in the village are in actuality mermaids.
I ate the flesh of a mermaid.
Aishou: But mermaids only live in the sea! Those demon women have
lived in that village for decades, maybe even centuries!
Yuta: Some live on land as well. I haven't aged since I ate that flesh,
wounds heal easily, and I don't die. I am immortal.
Aishou: Yes, that's very nice, but it doesn't explain how you know
about these soulless ones.
Yuta: Mermaid flesh is a powerful medicine, it completely transforms
the body of those who eat it. Some can't take the powerful effects of
the medicine, sometimes they die. Sometimes immediately, sometimes it
takes days or weeks to affect them. They are the lucky ones. The not
so lucky ones become extremely deformed, and sometimes they become
soulless ones; those who did not become.
Aishou: I have often wondered of the origins of those creatures. It
surprises me not that they're linked to those demon women, er, mermaids.
Yuta: I have been told that the only way that it would be possible for
me to regain my mortality would be to find another mermaid.
Aishou: Heh. That's a good one. Why would you ever want to stop being
immortal?
Yuta: It's something only a true immortal would understand. You
cannot attack their village before I have a chance to talk to them.
Aishou: I've been planning this for ages, I will attack tonight, and
I'm not going to put my plans off for you. My village can go unavenged
no longer. Besides, you might warn them.
Yuta: Believe me, I have no love for mermaids.
Aishou: So you say, but I can't risk allowing you to leave here. You
will stay. I've got a last inspection to make before tonight. The
three soulless ones will remain outside my door until the attack is
over. I'll let you out tomorrow morning.
[Aishou walks out and closes the door behind him. Yuta sighs and lies
back on the straw mat. He rolls over and closes his eyes.]
Yuta: <I guess I can't really blame him. After all, I've never been
a father. I'll never be able to understand what it is to lose a child.>
[Flashback FX: A hut, several hundred years earlier. Yuta and his wife,
in her early thirties, sit across from each other at the dinner table.]
Yuta's Wife: Why is it that I can't have children? All of the other
women my age have a child who is at least five years old by now.
Yuta: I don't know. I have heard that it is not possible for some
couples to have children.
Yuta's Wife: I hope that is not the case here.
[Cut to several years down the line. This is around the time of the
famous 'You must find a mermaid' scene.]
Yuta's Wife: Now I finally understand why we were never able to have
children. It is said that those who eat the flesh of a mermaid become
sterile as well as immortal. It's too late for us, Yuta, but find a
mermaid, become a mortal again and have a child. And while you watch
this child grow up, think of me.
[Cut back to the present. Yuta is still resting on the mat.]
Yuta: <No! I cannot allow this to pass me by, I may never encounter a
mermaid again for a century!>
[Yuta stands up and looks around the floor of the hut. His eyes chance
upon the axe that he used to cut himself with. He picks it up and sits
down facing the back wall of the hut. Slowly, attempting to be as quiet
as possible, Yuta slowly hacks away at the strung-together bamboo
shafts that constitute the wall of the hut. After about fifty hacks,
there is a hole big enough for Yuta to crawl through. He does so, and
rolls down the hill outside the hut and starts to run along the beach.]
Yuta: <I must get to them before nightfall!>
-End Part 1
-==>Kensu<==-
kensu@pathcom.com
"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a
slave."
-Roy Batty/Blade Runner
"Those who can, do. Those who can't, die."
-The Darwinian Expression/Me