So I’m a Fish, So What?

Earth, Japan.

By the edge of a certain cliff located right outside the city where Violet used to live.

Under an oddly placed light pole, a lonely figure was seated on a picnic blanket.

The full moon was shining brightly like a peacock spreading its feathers, and the countless faraway stars faithfully acted as its background.

Despite such a dreamy scene being presented right in front of their eyes, the figure’s attention was wholly elsewhere as can be gleaned from their dull, unfocused eyes.

Looking closer, the figure appeared to be a young woman in her early twenties with long, silky black hair, twinkling black eyes, and a beautiful, young face.

Unfortunately, her delicate features were all concealed by her current haggard appearance.

That wasn’t nearly enough to mar her presence though, as even the masterpiece of a night sky drawn by mother nature herself was but another decoration that emphasizes her sickly beauty.

Yet the truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

The woman– Kaori Ito Grant, is actually in her mid-thirties and a mother of a lovely teenage girl.

Sadly, it has been almost nine months since she has last seen the aforementioned daughter, and she doesn’t know when their next meeting will be.

In fact, she doesn’t know whether a ‘next meeting’ would be possible.

Her daughter was supposedly dead, after all– even if she personally didn’t believe it.

The entire class was involved in a bizarre terrorist incident, and what could only be called a bunch of ridiculous excuses were the only explanations she was given after intensive police investigations.

However, neither she nor her husband believed any of those words.

The events of that day and even the events of the few months before it are still vivid in their minds.

Just as Kaori thoughts were drifting to unknown places, the muffled sound of footsteps on grass pulled them back to reality.

“You really oughta take care of your health, you know? She would go on a long furious rant if she saw you right now.”

Just as the words fell, a long black coat was draped around Kaori’s body and a brown scarf was gently wrapped around her neck shortly after.

The owner of the voice and her husband, Leo Grant, then proceeded to sit down beside her and hug her body to his chest.

His movements were filled with overflowing love and care, yet it felt as if he was treating a very fragile and crack-filled piece of porcelain.

“....She would, wouldn’t she?” Kaori's eyes drifted to Leo’s handsome face as she replied with a weak smile.

“You betcha.” Leo chuckled lightly before his face turned serious as he looked his wife dead in the eye. “It’s fine if you want to relive memories of our time with her, but you can’t hurt yourself, Kaori. If anything bad happened to you, neither I nor her would ever be able to forgive ourselves.” He stated in a pleading tone.

Upon hearing his words, Kaori’s body stiffened and her eyes went out of focus– as if she was imagining such a future.

For Leo who was intently watching her, it was as if she suddenly lost connection with reality– like a puppet losing its strings.

Yet he remained silent and didn’t take any further actions except for slowly and softly combing through Kaori’s hair with his free hand.

It was only after a few minutes had passed that Kaori came back to her senses.

“....I see–” Kaori started before tears began falling down her cheeks uncontrollably. “–Ah, I’m… hic…sorry. I-I thought….hic….I had l-lost…hic…h-her.”

Leo just strengthened his grasp around Kaori’s trembling body, letting her vent out her grievances while opting to keep his silence until the right moment arrived.

It wasn’t long before Kaori’s already haggard and sleep deprived body finally collapsed.

Her cries turned into faint whimpers and her unconscious hold of Leo’s body relaxed.

It was then that Leo finally began speaking in a shaky tone.

“I know how hard it is for you, my love. Even I almost lost hope when our connection was cut off for nearly two months, but it’s back now, isn’t it? Our daughter is still alive and well, isn’t she? We should rejoice instead of wallowing in our despair.”

Although his words were spoken to Kaori, it felt more as if he was trying to reassure himself and harden his withering will.

Feeling just how shaken her usually strong-minded husband was, Kaori struggled to raise her hand and caress his face even in her weary state.

“Yeah…. Our daughter is a…very strong girl... She’ll come back….. We just need……..to be patient…. and trust her.” Kaori mumbled weakly before dozing off in Leo’s arms with a soft smile on her face.

Looking at his wife’s sleeping figure, Leo didn’t dare to move and even went as far as to suppress his breathing sound as much as he could.

“She’s a strong girl, you got that right.” He whispered to no one in particular. “But asking us to not worry is just asking the impossible, isn’t it, Tomoko?”

Slowly adjusting his posture, Leo leaned backwards until his back rested comfortably on the picnic blanket with Kaori still huddled in his arms.

It was now his turn to stare into the night sky with unfocused eyes.

“Where are you, my daughter? Where did you go, Tomoko…?” He mumbled as his eyes involuntarily closed.

It wasn’t long before the sounds of his own breathing became even.

The usual peace and quiet returned to this lonely cliff once again.

And although the painting was restored to what it originally was, the loneliness and sorrow depicted inside was replaced by a healthy pinch of hope.

---

 

The void in between worlds,

A mature female figure shrouded in an aurora-like brilliance was strolling in between the numerous world bubbles.

The word bubbles surrounding the figure were as numerous as the stars in the universe– if not more.

Regrettably, not many creatures had the chance to witness this scene with their very own eyes, not now and not in the future.

Yet despite being in an environment that most gods have a hard time just surviving in, the figure astonishingly seemed to be leisurely window shopping.

Once in a while, a particularly shiny world bubble would catch her attention, leading her to examine its insides more closely for a few moments.

Other times, a world bubble would suddenly pop and all of its contents would be rapidly decomposed by the void matter.

Yet the figure remained unfazed by what would drive most beings out there mad and erode the sanity of those whose will is strong enough to handle this ordeal.

Or was it already insane…? The figure did not know, nor did it care.

It has witnessed both the evolution and destruction of worlds countless times over the span of her incredibly long lifetime, and their ‘novelty’ has long since ceased for her.

Suddenly, the figure stopped and its eyes moved to a certain direction, its head tilting in a gesture of doubt.

Its inhuman vision crossed countless light years of space until its eyes rested on a certain marked world bubble.

Seemingly confirming its doubts, the figure made a gesture of surprise then proceeded to teleport away immediately.

In the blink of an eye, the figure materialized in the middle of a large, majestic hall.

There were hundreds of obsidian statues depicting what could only be described as eldritch horrors scattered around, all facing the other end of the hall.

Paying them no heed, the figure made its way to the other end of the hall.

What appeared before its eyes was a set of ten stairs leading towards an elevated podium with a crystal black throne sitting atop of it.

With each step towards the throne, the aurora-like brilliance clouding the figure slightly faded away.

The moment it finally reached the throne and slowly took her seat, its true appearance was fully revealed.

Instead of the expected bombshell of a woman, the person who sat on the throne was in fact a child whose adorableness was out-worldly.

She had waist-length silver hair and a pair of shiny, amethyst eyes.

She carried herself with the utmost grace and dignity, like a supreme queen overlooking her subjects.

However, after her eyes scanned over the motionless statues, she suddenly puffed her cheeks like a hamster and began tapping the throne’s armrest restlessly while complaining out loud.

“Aaaahhhhh, what the hell! Although the plan wasn’t dashed, it won’t be as fun as I envisioned it to be! I was supposed to be the one to awaken my cousin’s true form!” She whined in a manner befitting of a child.

The more she thought about what happened, the more annoyed she was and the more frequent her tapping became.

“Stupid! Spoilsport! Annoying! Bastard! I will make sure you pay me back ten times for ruining my fun!!”

Her tantrum became so violent that she even stopped restraining her powers for a moment.

But just that moment was more than enough for the entire hall, including the statues, to get erased from existence, leaving the girl’s lonely figure l drifting in the void.

“And now I’ve gotta rebuild this crap from scratch– again! Fucking dammit! You better be ready for when it’s time to repay this grudge, D!!” She yelled with all of her might, but her voice was more cute than intimidating.

The little girl– cough, loli– COUGH, Goddess Alkreya kept droning about how she’d make those who ruined her fun regret it for all eternity for a while before she was interrupted by an unexpected visitor.

Right next to her, the void itself cracked, giving way to a scene that’s even more madness-inducing than the surrounding void.

It was a scene directly from a nightmare.

Countless eyes, tentacles, and even mouths containing razor sharp teeth could be seen inside, each moving as if it has a mind of its own.

No human eye could ever make sense of what this… thing is, it was an existence of a higher-order.

An existence that is truly worthy of the alias: The Crawling Chaos.

Completely unfazed by such an existence, Alkreya stared right into the gap.

“Did you perhaps come to gloat at my misfortunes, Nya? If so, then you should knock it off and leave already. I’m not in a very good mood as you can see.” Alkreya addressed the being with narrowed eyes, giving off a dangerous aura.

“AAaaAaaAA. AAaaaAaAaA—”

The being began to speak in a distorted tongue only it could understand, but was promptly cut off by Alkreya.

“Stop-STOP IT! You know I don’t speak the spooky scary AaAAaaa language and hearing this shit only serves to give me a severe headache! Just use your human form already!” Alkreya shouted in exasperation, her face scrunched up in displeasure.

The being stopped, indicating it understood Alkreya’s words and was willing to accept them.

First, the countless eyes disappeared except for a pair of emerald green human eyes.

Then, the numerous tentacles twisted and merged together until only a humanoid silhouette remained.

Lastly, the mouths were shut except for one below the eyes.

What appeared in front of Alkreya was a beautiful woman that was basically an adult version of herself.

That only visible difference between them was the color of their eyes, but that was meaningless considering it wasn’t difficult to change their appearances at their power levels.

“Oh, dear. Is that how you should speak to your mother, my dear little Alkie? Is my daughter going through her one million and sixty-ninth rebellious phase already?”

The being, or Nya as Alkreya called her, spoke in a lamenting tone while wiping away fake tears from the corners of her eyes.

“Stop it already! The plan is still nowhere near its finale, so why are you here now? Or did you just want to watch me suffer?” Alkreya pouted while showing strong dissatisfaction with Nya’s actions.

“Ah, while that is definitely part of it, I’m actually here to check on how my adorable niece is doing. She’s practically a baby right now, after all.” Nya answered with a cheshire smile.

Her eyes were fixed on the marked world bubble stranded in the middle of the endless void.

“Well, that girlfriend of hers actually took away my cousin’s long awaited awakening! That woman is truly unforgivable!” Alkreya complained while gnashing her teeth in frustration.

“She doesn’t know of my little niece’s true identity though, does she? Which means you can still have fun by informing her of that. Or rather, watching her reaction to that is where most of the fun lies anyways, fufufu~!” Nya giggled mischievously.

“Tch– I guess you’re right. Even if that woman knows of my cousin’s true identity, she’d never dare to mention it casually anyways.” Alkreya mused. “I’m still gonna make her regret it though.”

“Indeed. When someone reaches her power level, just the act of mentioning my sister’s name might very well lead to their world getting destroyed, after all.” Nya stated indifferently. “ You can do what you want, just make sure your cousin doesn’t hate you for it afterwards.” She added.

“...Okay, you made your point. You can leave already. Hmph.” Alkreya harrumphed, clearly not interested in any more interactions with Nya regardless of how short this one was.

“My daughter doesn’t love her mother anymore, wooooo~” Nya cried dramatically, even going as far as to create fake tears for her drama.

Immune to her mother’s antics, Alkreya just ignored Nya and focused on rebuilding her hall.

Nya soon realized that her act wasn’t having the effect she desired, so she just clicked her tongue and stopped.

“Tsk. To think I could only get a few hundred thousands' years worth of fun out of you. Maybe I spoiled you a little too much.” She mumbled knowing full-well that Alkreya could clearly hear her words.

Alkreya’s lips twitched upon hearing Nya’s words, her reaction instantly eliciting a smug smile from Nya, to which Alkreya responded with an exasperated groan.

“Well, I’ll leave you to clean up then. I still have to work hard on concealing my niece from my sister. Wouldn’t wanna spoil the surprise now, would we?” Nya remarked, getting a curt nod from Alkreya in return.

Snapping her fingers, Nya teleported away.

“.,,..Drama queen.” Alkreya mumbled upon making sure her mother had truly left.

But she promptly got a hard bump on her head in response, which led her to squat down unwillingly while struggling to hold back the tears building up in her eyes.

Right above her head was another concealed space crack where a tentacle was slowly retracting.

Never underestimate a mother’s intuition, it seemed to say.

This millenia's results: Another win for Nya.

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