[SDU] [Chapter 64 – Kallen – A River Full of Yokai]

[SDU] [Chapter 64 – Kallen – A River Full of Yokai]

After the horrible mess that happened at the arena, everyone was resting back at the hotel. But something doesn’t seem quite right. That is, both White and Ethereal wasn’t at the hotel at all. We even waited until the moon was on top of the sky already. By that time, we know something definitely happened with those two.

Lin who was waiting by the entrance spoke to me as I was walking toward the entrance, “Where are you going?”

“Looking for White and Ethereal, of course.”

Lin stopped me and said, “No. It is too dangerous, Kallen.”

“I don’t get you. What do you mean by its too dangerous? There’s no such thing to be afraid of.”

“She must be talking about the Yokai…” Hemrietta suddenly appeared from room next to us.

I replied to him and said, “It’s just a Yokai what are we supposed to be afraid of anyway?”

“Don’t you know that there’s many type of Yokai? There aren’t really just your run of the mill monsters you see back at forest at our campus. Lin is just making sure that none of us will do anything stupid. I’m sure White and Ethereal don’t want that to happen as well.”

“You’re not making sense, Hem. Our friend hasn’t returned yet and that means something is not right! We have to find them!”

Then out of the blue, Zenith steps forward, “Kallen is right…I’m worried about White…”

“See? Even the lady is worried of our friend. Can’t we at least do something?”

Hemrietta was at a loss for words but Lin suggested, “Hear me out, we will go out and find those two BUT everyone must come. It is better that way.”

Hemrietta then said, “Then I’ll go get Aspye, Azreal and Yumiko.” He then went away to call for the others to get ready.

“Thanks for considering, Lin.” I thanked the Kunoichi.

“As much as I don’t look like it, I’m also worried about them. I promised Lala to keep an eye on him and Zenith. And that is we will do.”

-

10 minutes later, everyone was finally ready to get out of the hotel. We’ve packed up some food just in case White and Ethereal hasn’t eaten their dinner yet.

“Has any of you seen Yumiko? I can’t seem to find her at all.” Said Hemrietta.

Zenith then said, “She wasn’t in her room either…”

“Yumiko is the blonde girl, am I right?” asked Lin.

Zenith nodded.

Lin then said, “She’ll be fine on her own. We don’t have much time to wait for her now. Let’s get going everyone.”

We got out of the hotel and traced our way back to the arena and we begin our search from there.

-

Several minutes have passed and somehow we found ourselves exhausted from all the searching across the area.

“I’m thirsty…” said Azreal.

“There’s a river nearby.” Said Lin. She then suggested, “Let’s go over there.”

Everyone followed to where she was leading us to and just a few seconds later, Azreal just went past us and immediately headed to the river that was right in front of us. He quickly drank the river’s water.

Aspye then asked, “Shouldn’t we check first if the water is fine or not?”

Azreal was pouring down a lot of water to his stomach.

“I think its fine” Concluded Lin.

We took a short break for the night until suddenly; Lin heard a weird splashing sound.

“That’s not a splash from here…It’s from the other side of the river…” said Lin.

Hemrietta, “Why don’t we check it out?”

“Just stay behind, guys…” Lin prepared herself as she made her way to the other splashing sound.

As she finally approached toward the sound, she notices that a bunch of silhouette can be seen from a distant. With her sharp eyes, she was able to tell what it was.

“A group of Yokai. They are bathing…” Lin told us.

Hemrietta wondered, “Do you know what kind of Yokai it was?”

“It’s a group of Kappa.”

“Kappa?” Azreal didn’t know what she was talking about.

Kappa is an aquatic reptilian humanoids that inhabit the rivers and streams found all over Nihon. Clumsy on land, they are at home in the water, where they thrive during the warm months. Kappa are generally the size and shape of a human child, with scaly skin ranging in earthy hues from deep green to bright red, even blue. Their bodies are built for swimming, with webbed, thumb less hands and feet, and a turtle-like beak and shell. Their elastic, waterproof skin reeks of fish, and is said to be removable.

Kappa forearms are attached to one another inside of their shells, and pulling on one arm will cause it to lengthen while the other one contracts. They are excellent swimmers, and despite their small size they are physically stronger than a grown man. A dish-like depression lies on top of their skulls. This dish is the source of a kappa’s power and must be kept wet at all times; should the water be spilled and the dish dry up, the kappa will be unable to move and may even die.

“Those things can eat almost anything. But it mostly prefers, raw innards especially from humans” explained Lin. She then added, “We better be careful of those guys.”

As we were preparing ourselves for anything, Lin stopped us once again.

“What is it now, Lin?” I asked.

Lin then said, “There’s more than just a group of Kappa…”

“What is it then?” Aspye wondered.

“Funayurei. It’s the spirit of the dead who died at sea and turned into a vengeful spirit.”

They are the shadows of drowned sailors, remaining in this world to find their former friends and comrades, to bring them down into the sea with them. Like many ghosts, funayurei usually appear as dead bodies wearing white funerary robes. They can be seen at night, when the moon is new or full, or on particularly stormy or foggy nights. They appear as an eerie, luminescent mist at first, which gets closer and closer until it forms into a ship with a ghostly crew.

“They are mostly corpses but we must tread carefully.” Lin reminded us of the dangers of what is to come.

Then out of nowhere, Aspye was seen right behind one of the Kappa. He touched the Kappa and the Kappa suddenly scratched it’s head, wondering why was it at the river. Aspye used his ability to remove the Yokai’s short term memory temporarily. He quickly flipped the dish that was on top of the Kappa’s head and it immediately fell down to the river and died instantly. Aspye then gave us thumbs up and smiled.

“I’m not sure if you’re supposed to be brave or just plain stupid.” Hemrietta commented on Aspye, “That was reckless.”

“I did the job. I killed one of them.”

Lin then added, “At least we know that we can kill the Kappa discreetly. But the Funayurei on the other hand, those thing doesn’t have any obvious weaknesses.”

Azreal then said, “But they are just corpses, right?”

Zenith intervened and told him, “They may be corpses but they come in numbers way beyond our current group.”

“I see…” Azreal understood.

Then, Hemrietta asked Zenith, “Hey, why are you still bringing that fairy over here? Isn’t that just slowing us down?”

Zenith shots him down with her blunt words, “No. Recordia isn’t slowing us down. There’s only a few minutes left before she returns to us from her searching. It’s not like you are always with your roommate. She is more of a roommate than you are, Hem.”

Hemrietta fell down on his knees. I tapped his shoulder and said, “You really shouldn’t have picked a fight with a girl, you know that?”

The rest of us smiled at Hemrietta’s defeat while Lin was still unsatisfied of something. Her face tells me that she was still being cautious.

I asked her, “Is there something else, Lin?”

Lin replied, “I don’t know if it’s just my gut feeling but all of these Yokai seems to be under control of a leader Yokai over here…I mean, look at their positions…”

I looked at them and noticed that they were aligned perfectly to keep on guard of something.

“They seem to be guarding something past the river; I wonder what it is…” I said so in curious manner.

Then, Azreal pointed it out to us, “Is that their leader, then? That one looks different.”

Lin then said, “That might just be it…That’s a…”

“Nure onna.” I finished her sentences.

Nure onna or literally wet women are vampiric sea serpents who haunt shores and rivers, looking for humans to eat. It resembles an enormous sea serpent with a woman’s head, and one with human-like arms. Its face was hideous and often betrays serpent-like features, such as a forked tongue. They have long black hair which sticks to their dripping bodies.

With that thing leading this protecting something on the other side, we have no other choice but to find that out through our own might and guts…

TO BE CONTINUED