[FFML] [SYnY] [Lovecraft] The Shadow over Nishinomiya, chapter four

[Henry Cobb]

The Shadow over Nishinomiya, chapter four
By Henry J. Cobb

[My apologies to the obvious original authors, whose works should never be
combined.]

At the cafe on Sunday, Haruhi made me delete the photos of actual strange
creatures from the camera that Itsuki had given me, in order to make room
for our real work that day.

"Okay here are the two sectors we'll search this afternoon." Haruhi spread
out two maps of the city that were identical, except that each had a
different section outlined in pencil. "We'll split into two groups, one for
each sector, and search these areas for the likely victims of the
monsters."

"Yeah, yeah. So let's draw toothpicks again."

"No Kyon, you already messed up twice before. This time I'm putting you
under Itsuki, so you can finally learn something. You've proven you know
how to point a camera so you just take pictures, while Itsuki leads the
way, interviews the future victims and takes notes."

So my supposedly faked photos are supposed to show that I'm good with a
camera? Once again Haruhi's logic was so difficult to follow that it might
as well have come from different people mixed together.

"That leaves you two girls with me. Yuki, how's your vision on land?"

Wait, did Haruhi just admit that she knew of Yuki's non-human nature?

"My glasses correct sufficiently."

"No need to take the risk of misfocus. All those decades reading should
indicate some ability to write, so you'll be our note taker. Mikuru is too
clumsy to be trusted with the camera so she'll be the face for our team to
interview people. Well, any questions?" Haruhi looked around, but none were
offered. "Okay Itsuki, pick your map."

"I'll take this one." He picked up the map with the marked region closer to
his church.

"We'll meet back here at five." Haruhi set off with Mikuru and Yuki in tow.

We walked the other direction for a while, then I turned to Itsuki. "Do you
think Mikuru will be safe with those two?"

"I doubt they'll reveal their true colors so early. The stars are not yet
right."

"Haruhi knows everything, you know. She came storming over to my house on
Friday night and guessed Yuki's age to within one year."

"It's Yuki now, instead of Miss Nagato?" Itsuki checked the map then turned
right.

"Yeah, yeah. So she's a monster. She's also my fiancee."

"So what has your fiancee told you about her kind?"

"She's demonstrated a lot, but said very little. She's hinted that more
information will be forthcoming once I put out for her."

"Actually a rather tempting offer, but it is your soul on the line. Before
you accept I should tell you that they are all half-human widows."

"Widows?"

"Only daughters are born to the sea-witches, and their tradition is to devour
the fathers of their daughters, on the night of conception."

"Aren't I a little big for Yuki to wolf down in a single meal?"

"They invite their relatives to the party."

Itsuki led me to selected homes in the outlined area and he was welcomed at
them by people who knew him and tended to also wear Christian crosses. His
notes had little connection to the actual residents.

As we were heading back I asked him. "Do you feel okay about all this? What
happens if one of your friends gets attacked?"

"Wouldn't that be an interesting coincidence?"

As I walked back home later with my "sea-witch" fiancee, I decided to test
her against this latest fact. "So, what was your father like?"

"Papa was very kind to me. The first time I was ever told that I wasn't
entirely human was when he sat down with me and my mother and they
both carefully explained to me the things I had to do to keep from being
noticed for what I was."

"So, whatever happened to him?"

"I don't know. My last memory of him was when I was ten. The two of them
had been crying and then my mother took me and we traveled a very long way
on a train. It's been fifty three years, so I suppose he must be dead
by now, if he indeed survived the night."

"Your night vision is excellent. An adaption for living at the bottom of
the ocean? What's it like down there?"

"I don't know. I've never been to the ocean. Once we are closer, I will
burden you with the secret as to why that is."

I didn't know which way to respond at that point so I simply opened the
door to our house and stood aside so she could enter first.

Inside, my little sister was playing a video game and she invited
"Big-sister Yuki" to play with her. I had homework to do and so didn't
dwell on the loss of the final bit of my big-brother status. At least I
could take comfort in the fact that my sister wouldn't sever all ties to
Yuki's husband. Assuming that I wasn't devoured by sea-witches on my
honeymoon of course.

Monday afternoon in the clubroom, Itsuki was typing in the data we had
"gathered" as I read it out. Yuki was wearing her cat maid outfit, sitting
in her comfy chair (even Haruhi seemed loathe to take that away from her)
and reading another book from the library, while Haruhi sat at the table
and studied the maps. (Was she plotting quick getaway routes or what?)

The door opened and Mikuru said from outside, "This way please."

A girl in a sophomore uniform stepped into the room. She had green eyes and
also green hair.

I glanced at Yuki and then back at this new girl. If it was a dye job then
it was very good indeed. If it was natural, well at least she seemed to be
able to see her way around without thick glasses like Yuki's.

Haruhi quickly folded up the maps and turned to the newcomer. "Hello, how
can we help you, Miss?"

"Emiri Kimidori. And I hope you can help me, because everything else has
failed."

"You've come to the right place then. I'm Haruhi Suzumiya and you will find
that my SOS Brigade is very unusual. Please, have a seat." Haruhi clapped
twice. "And Yuki, some tea for our guest please."

"As you wish, Ma'am." Yuki put aside her book and rose to her maid duties.

Miss Kimidori said that her boyfriend had been missing for several days and
that nobody had taken her inquiries seriously.

"This is precisely the kind of case we've been preparing for." Haruhi
turned to me. "You see, my dear Watson, the game is afoot."

So now she thinks she's Sherlock Holmes? I may have sighed, but I said
nothing.

Haruhi turned back to our first client. "So Miss Kimidori, how did you find
us?"

"It was my boyfriend himself. You see, he would mention you in his, er,
sleep. He would suddenly shout things like 'the SOS Brigade', 'those eyes,
those monstrous eyes', and such. I would appreciate it if those details
were never released."

"Oh, we are the very souls of discretion. Still it seems a bit odd."

"But his computer club is just down the corridor. He's the president of
that club."

Haruhi sent Miss Kimidori on her way and led the brigade to the address
given us.  We followed her up the stairs to the apartment in question and
then Haruhi kicked the door in.

"Why didn't you knock first?"

"Oh, be sensible Kyon. The door was locked of course."

I stopped to look at the ruined door. It had indeed been locked, with even
the deadbolt in place. How had Haruhi broken through with just one kick?

"Kyon, quick take a photo of this!"

I went inside and saw that Haruhi was pointing at a large roughly circular
pattern. Was that drawn in blood with the outstretched fingers of one hand?

No sooner had I taken the photo than Haruhi grabbed the camera out of my
hands.

"Good job Kyon. See how it spells out SOS? This is going to be so great on
our homepage."

"What?" I assumed she must be kidding, or at least I silently prayed that
she was.

"What are you kids doing?"

I turned to the door. There was a middle aged man looking aghast at the
damage Haruhi had caused to the door.

"Are you the lazy, good for nothing, manager of this building?"

"Yeah, who are you lot?"

Had he even heard her question?

"One of your renters has been abducted! Just look at this message he left."

The manager wanted the police to arrest us all for breaking and entering,
but Haruhi managed to shift the suspicion onto him for not reporting the
abduction earlier.

The Tuesday morning paper's headline read: "Another North High School
student missing!"

"Big-sister Yuki, I'm so worried for you."

"Don't worry little-sister. Kyon will protect me."

My little sister turned to me for the first time in days. "Promise me
Kyon. Promise you won't let anything happen to Big-sister Yuki."

"I promise."

On the way to school, I tried to take my little sister's hand, but she took
my offered hand and put it in Yuki's, before taking Yuki's other hand in
hers.

When I got to the clubroom after classes I found a note on the door from
Haruhi that she had a meeting with the school authorities and so the
meeting for today was canceled. I turned away with Yuki following and saw
fellow club member Mikuru Asahina standing there.

"You went to the search on Sunday in your school uniform. Did Haruhi only
buy you that maid outfit?"

I turned to Yuki. I was so used to seeing her in her school uniform that I
hadn't even noticed that she really didn't have anything else.

Yuki nodded.

"Come along then and we'll get you some outfits you can wear on dates. You
are engaged after all." Mikuru reached for Yuki's hand.

"Sorry, but we're broke." I held up my hand to show my engagement ring.

"It's okay, I can pay. And Yuki, can we take Kyon along so that he can
carry the bags?"

"Of course."

Mikuru led us down the hill to the train station and then two stops later
we got off at the shopping district.

The sales lady noticed Yuki's ring, was about to ask about it, but then
spotted my ring. She nodded and began to make suggestions, which Miruku
joined in.

As Yuki was changing into the first selection that had been made for her, I
sat down next to Mikuru. "If the kappa are all female, then why spread the
rumor that they're all male?"

"Yuki won't look like that forever. Give her a few thousand years and
she'll be all scaly, with webbed fingers and toes. It took us a few
centuries to find out that young kappa could easily pass as human girls,
and by that point the folklore had already been set."

"So why are you being helpful to Yuki? Is this just a ploy to get her to
trust you, so you can destroy her?"

"It is the Western way to seek out and destroy all monsters. The way of
Shinto is to find a common existence with the kami. We have to judge each
case. Like men, not all kappa are evil. Yuki is an odd case. As far as
we can determine she has never gone to sea and she has never tasted human
flesh. But Kyon, there is one thing I'd thought you know by now. While the
kappa have poor vision on land, they retain their excellent hearing. You
finished changing a few minutes ago, so let's see what you look like,
Yuki."

The latch of the changing stall slid open and Yuki stepped out in the new
outfit, with a hurt look on her face.

"Oh poor thing. Did I just ruin one of the surprises you were keeping for
your fiancee?" Mikuru made a point of not raising her voice above the
whisper level I had initiated.

Yuki walked over and said in her usual hoarse whisper, "I am not a kappa."

"Then what does your kind call itself?"

I risked a glance over at Mikuru. She seemed really pleased about
maneuvering things to this point.

"Your ears would need to be underwater and my throat would need to be
filled with water, submerged together in a pond or something. And even then
most of our name would be outside the range of human hearing. The closest
translation in Japanese to our name would be The Deep Ones."

"We thought that only applied to the eldest of your race?"

"We make no such distinction."

"One final clarification, if you don't mind?"

"Go ahead." To anybody else, Yuki's huge eyes would seem as emotionless as a
fish, but I could see the hint of anger behind them.

"The cause of your mother's death?"

"She was hunted down as a heretic to our race. I learned later that her
sacrifice was to give me time to escape." Yuki turned to me. "And that
Kyon, is the reason I must avoid the ocean."

"So you see Kyon, just like you, Yuki has lost a loved one."

"Miss Sasaki was no more my girlfriend than Miss Asakura was. I thought
Sasaki was a close friend. I was the only student in our school who would
entertain her so-called "logical" reasoning. Eventually she decided on her
own that love was a cancer, and that she'd have to cut out the source, that
being myself. As far as I know she's still alive, if you call being locked
up like that living. So Yuki, do you want to cry on my shoulder? That's
what my Mom's hired me out for."

"No, I understand now. I will wait until you are ready. I was truly unaware
of your circumstances. Perhaps if we both survive what is to come... So
Miss Asahina, is this charade over?"

"What? No, cheer up! You look lovely in that outfit, doesn't she, Kyon? And
you've got three more to try on. You can have them all if you like."

In the end Yuki did take all four outfits, and some advice from Mikuru
about how to mix certain parts together for greater variety. As I carried
the packages I went over them all in my head and still couldn't shake the
impression they gave her of being a middle school student in casual
clothes with unusual hair and eyes. I would have suggested adding a hat and
sunglasses, but I didn't want that to be taken as a disparagement of her
looks, rather than a disguise to throw her relatives off the trail that led
to my house. So my "fiancee" was the blood enemy of human-eating
monsters. Did that automatically make her my friend? It was a point I'd
have to consider.

When we got home, my sister was overjoyed to be able to play fashion show
with her supposed future sister-in-law. As Yuki was changing my sister
leaned over and whispered to me, "If only you'd buy her a hat and some dark
sunglasses, she could even pass for human."

"What do you think she is?"

"She's a Deep One. That's why she sleeps in the bathtub. I go wake her
every morning before anyone else is up. Don't tell Mom and Dad
please. They'd freak out."

"So you don't mind having kappa nieces?"

"They're Deep Ones, not kappa. And wouldn't it be neat to be remembered by
somebody for thousands of years? Some of them are older than the pyramids,
you know."

No I hadn't know that. So there it was. My parents were the only people in
the entire world I was keeping this great dark secret of the war between
humans and monsters from. And knowing my Mom, I suspected that any day now,
she'd hand me a book on the care and feeding of kappa babies.

Wednesday morning, Yuki and I dropped my sister off at her school and
walked up the hill to North High then entered the courtyard.

"You monster!"

I turned to Taniguchi, but he walked past me to stand in front of Yuki.

"You're as cold blooded as a kappa. Getting engaged to Kyon right after he
killed my poor Ryoko. Grave digger!"

I put my arm between the two of them. "You don't have a problem with my
fiancee. You've got a problem with me, Taniguchi. So take it up with me."

"It's this fish eyed monster. She's the one who put you up to it. So I'm
going to get some answers out of her, here and now."

Yuki backed up and I moved between the two.

Taniguchi turned to me. "Stay out of this Kyon."

"I can't do that."

"Damn you!" He suddenly swung and hit me on the jaw.

Our Gym teacher grabbed him while I escorted Yuki inside.

"Does that hurt?" She asked.

"A bit. I'll go see the nurse."

I entered first period class ten minutes late, with a cold
pack for my face. Taniguchi's seat was empty.

After the teacher left, Haruhi said from behind me. "You got into a fight
over Yuki? I didn't know that there was all that many boys who went for her
kind."

I turned to her and tried to deflect the subject. "What happened with the
school authorities yesterday?"

"Oh, students shouldn't try to solve crimes. How are we supposed to change
the world if they won't let us do anything?"

"Has the computer club president been found?"

"Of course not."

And how would you know what was likely or not in this case, Miss Suzumiya?

At lunchtime Yuki came over to our classroom, dropped her bento on my desk
and turned to look for an available chair.

"Here." Haruhi picked up Yuki's bento and placed it on her own desk. "No
meeting of brigade members without the brigade commander."

Haruhi, if you follow us on our honeymoon, I'll ensure that you are the one
who is thrown to the hungry kappas. Well fine, put this bee in your
bonnet. "Yuki."

She brought a chair and set down next to us. "Yes, Kyon?"

"Do you have any plans for Friday night?"

"No."

"Then let's go out on a date. We'll set out from our house at seven
p.m. sharp. Agreed?"

"Yes," both girls said in unison.

After classes I waited for the girls to change and then knocked before
entering the clubroom.

Haruhi was sitting at the computer and pulled out a printed page. "You
messed it up, Kyon." The printout was of my photo from the crime scene.

"What?"

"You got the angle and lighting all wrong. There's no way we can put this
on our website."

"That's a relief."

"So I have to retrace the design in a graphics program. At least this way
I'll be able to use the proper colors and include a box at the bottom for
the brigade symbol."

I didn't ask her how she'd know what the proper colors might be.

-HJC