Hatakeyama Natsuki [repack] -

He bowed, stiff and precise. “Hatakeyama Natsuki.”

The humming stopped. In the silence, Natsuki heard something else: the distant, rhythmic crash of waves where no ocean should be. hatakeyama natsuki

“And who exactly are you?” Natsuki asked. He bowed, stiff and precise

Natsuki looked down at her hands. They were still her hands—chapped from cold market water, nails short and practical. But a faint, silvery webbing had begun to grow between her fingers. “That’s disgusting,” she said calmly. “And who exactly are you

It was the same sardine. The one she’d been trying to sell at the Tsukiji outer market before a rogue delivery truck had introduced her to the hood of a Honda. But the fish was wrong. Its scales shimmered with a deep, auroral blue, and when she tilted her head, she could hear a faint humming from inside its silver body.

For the first time, the boy’s obsidian eyes widened. A crack appeared in his perfect composure—something like surprise, or maybe fear.

She smiled. It was the same smile she used when a customer tried to haggle her down to half price.