Hatakeyama Natsuki [NEW]

The humming from the sardine grew louder. Natsuki looked at it—this ridiculous, luminous fish that had saved her life by killing her a second time. She thought of her grandmother’s stall in the market. The way the old woman would slap a mackerel down on the cutting board and say, “Even a fish knows when to fight the current, Natsuki. The question is: do you?”

“We share a name,” he said, straightening. “A rare resonance. That’s why I was sent. I am the Fune no Mono —the Ferry’s Keeper. My duty is to guide souls like you to the Mirror Sea. But you… you’re not a soul anymore. You’re a hybrid. And you have exactly eighteen hours.”

The boy stepped forward. “You died at 8:47 AM. Your soul, however, refused to leave. You grabbed onto the first thing you touched in the moment of impact.” He nodded at the fish. “A kuro-sardine . A creature that swims between the living world and the Utsushimi —the Mirror Sea. By clinging to it, you’ve become a Sakana-Bito . A Fish-Person.” hatakeyama natsuki

“All right, Other Natsuki,” she said. “Lead the way to your Mirror Sea. But I’m not going there to return a fish. I’m going there to find out why a dead girl with my name is the only one who can help me.”

She smiled. It was the same smile she used when a customer tried to haggle her down to half price. The humming from the sardine grew louder

She blinked. “No. I’m Hatakeyama Natsuki.”

“You’re dead,” said a voice.

Natsuki spun. A boy her age—seventeen, maybe—leaned against a dumpster. He wore an immaculate navy school uniform, not a single crease out of place. His eyes, however, were not human. They were polished obsidian, reflecting the alley’s single flickering light like two dark moons.