A Huge City Beneath the Sea?

"Is the monster dead?"

The monster's heaving belly had gone still, and even its breathing had stopped. One of the combat personnel voiced the question.

"Get over there and check."

The captain urged him on through his earpiece.

Their orders from above had been to capture it alive.

Pressed by the captain and convinced the monster was dead, the man finally worked up the courage to approach. He had taken only two steps when the creature on the ground suddenly changed. Its bloated body shrank rapidly.

In moments, the monster had become a delicate-featured young man.

What?

He froze, then quickly reported what had happened to the captain through his earpiece. The captain passed the news up the chain until it finally reached Norio Kitagawa.

"The monster turned into a person after it died?"

Norio Kitagawa, who was directing operations from far behind the front line, was stunned by the report. He turned to the experts on the call. "Gentlemen, the monster turned back into a human after it died. Do you know what's going on?"

The priests, Onmyoji, and Mages exchanged looks.

A monster turned human after death?

None of them had heard of such a thing.

Granted, in the folklore of the Eastern Isles, many monsters liked to take human form, including Shuten-dōji, the ubume, and the otter-tanuki.

But those monsters took human form while alive and reverted to their original shapes after death. No one had ever heard of one becoming a monster while alive, only to turn back into a human when it died.

"Chief Kitagawa, from your description, this monster seems to have once been human. Perhaps you could investigate his identity. You might find something," one priest suggested.

The priest's reminder made Norio Kitagawa realize the obvious. Of course—he could start with the man's