"No, Suzuki! I wasn't the one who abandoned you... it was-it was Shimazaki!"
Having seen a mermaid who looked remarkably like Suzuki Kimie surface in Wakasa Bay with her own eyes, the already paranoid Yukako was scared out of her wits. She collapsed onto the beach, a suspicious liquid leaking from between her legs.
"Shimazaki?"
"Yes! Shimazaki! Back on that deserted island, you rejected his confession, and he held a grudge. That was why he squeezed you out of a seat on the lifeboat. I was just afraid of him and didn't object."
Yukako spoke in a panic, washing her hands of all responsibility.
"Suzuki, if you're going to bring disaster down on someone, go find Shimazaki. I'm innocent!"
"Did my sister have to die for you to survive? Not one of you six was innocent!"
The mermaid's voice began to crack with anger. Yukako's dazed, terrified expression changed as she realized something was wrong.
Only then did Yukako notice that, although this mermaid had blue eyes and scale-like markings on her cheeks and arms, her lower body was not a fish's tail, but a pair of long human legs.
"You're not Suzuki. You're her sister? No... don't!"
The mermaid suddenly lunged at her, and the two grappled.
Still weakened by her earlier fright, Yukako could muster less than half her strength and quickly lost the upper hand.
The mermaid grabbed Yukako's short hair and forcibly dragged her to the shore. The rising tide had already submerged their calves when she pushed Yukako's head facedown into the sea.
"No, glug-"
Seawater poured into Yukako's mouth and nose. She struggled violently, but the mermaid pressed down on her back with a cold expression, keeping her face submerged.
Her once-pretty face was now hideous and frightening, her eyes glinting with a chilling