The Sea Of Myths

*Crash*

*Splash*

The weather report said that the sea will be pretty calm today, nevertheless, the sound of waves crashing to our ship and the sight of the ever-darkening clouds hovering above our heads only highlighted the danger of a storm that we are in fact in. 

I never could have thought we would encounter a storm while sailing. I mean, the news report pretty much said that the weather would be pretty clear today, unless..

"Hey, boy! I know you're not obligated to help us here, but if you just stand there and do nothing, we're all going to die!" My thoughts got interrupted by someone who I presume is the captain of the ship.

The sound of the furious wind slapping our faces and metal chains clashing with the ship's cargo almost overshadowed his voice. 

"I know! I know! What am I supposed to do anyway? And isn't this a cargo ship? I thought cargo ships could survive most storms! That's why I paid you guys to take me on board!" I shouted as loud as I could, trying to overpower the chaotic ambience around us.

"Who would even pay to get on a cargo ship!? And also, do you see how big a storm that is? We won't survive for long if we keep doing nothing."

All of a sudden, as if to mock our little exchange, the storm that was literally above our heads suddenly disappeared, replaced by a thick fog that covered our entire ship, we also noticed that the water below the ship is getting darker and darker. As you can imagine, this caused a great deal of panic.

"W-what is happening? This couldn't be normal."

"Are the stories true? Do monsters really exist?!"

Funny how a mere fog and a change of the color of water caused such a drastic change in composure, yet the storm that can also kill us did not. Thinking about it I realized that It's normal after all; to fear the unknown, that is.

Contrary to the panic-stricken eyes of the people around me, mine are filled with excitement.

Is this it? Are they really true? Monsters?  creatures that cannot be explained by common sense?

Ever since that day, I've been searching for creatures—magical ones. I've been scouring the sea of myths and the oceans of mystery, wishing to see even one, at least one, of those creatures. Yet, even after 4 years of searching, I still haven't found a single piece of evidence that creatures such as the one I saw that day really exist.

'But now.. now there might be hope.' I said to myself as I clenched my fist into a ball, earnestly hoping my wish could be fulfilled even at the cost of death.

"Calm down! This is just a sea fog; there's no need to panic that much." The captain of the ship said, trying his best to maintain his calm.

"B-but the storm! Have you ever seen a storm disappear like that? This isn't normal, Captain!" a crew shouted back. 

"He's right, captain! A storm doesn't easily disappear like that, much less be followed by a fog this thick." another one added.

"Are we getting attacked by monsters?! Look at the damn water! How can you say that's normal?!" a younger crew shouted, clearly panicking over the situation.

"Shut up!  Shut up, you all! There is no such thing as monst-"

*splash*

*swirl*

Everyone turned their heads to the location of the noise and was instantly terrified when they saw what was making it.

A huge black and humanoid silhouette covered in thick fog with round and glowing eyes is slowly but surely approaching our ship. The upper part of its body, while visible, is blurry nonetheless. while the lower part, if it even has one, appears to have been covered by the now near-black waters of the sea. It moves like how a person walks in a swimming pool.

"W-what is that?!"

"A monster!  A monster's here to eat us!"

"What are we going to do!?"

Panicked shouts filled the surroundings. The silhouette appears to have heard the shouting and been annoyed by it, seeing how its rounded eyes quickly turned razor sharp and how it looked at the ones who were shouting.

"T-that.. That's an Umibozu!" I exclaimed. My eyes were filled with fanaticism as I stared at the horrifying silhouette.

'They're real! What I saw that day is not a dream!' I celebrated deep inside, contrary to the terrified expressions of the people around me.

The captain put his hands on my shoulders and shook me, yelling, "What's an Umibozu, kid?! And what's it gonna do?!"

"An Umibozu is a humanoid yokai stemming from Japanese folklore; it was said to be a sea priest or a sea spirit. The myth says it appears on calm seas, which will quickly turn turbulent and when it appears it will either break the boat entirely or just pass through it; it also says that a passing Umibozu can still kill the sailors if it is offended by drowning them." I said it in a matter-of-fact tone.

"But the storm calmed down, didn't it? and what does it plan to do? Is it just passing by or what?" The captain said with urgency, seeing how the Umibozu is getting pretty close to the ship.

I turned to him with a questioning look and said, "Does it look like it's just passing by? Ok, I admit, maybe it was indeed passing by, but it probably got offended by your crew, who called it a monster. After all, the Umibozu was said to be a former human."

"And also, myths aren't entirely true; sometimes you get the right information and sometimes the wrong one, maybe even a mix of both; that's why they're called myths, you know."

"Oh that's also why there are different variations of a certain myth or story." I added with a know-it-all look on my face.

"S-so based on what you said before, that thing will drown us?!" a crew member said while looking at the approaching Umibozu, who's only a few tens of meters away from us.

"I suppose."  I said while shrugging my shoulders to convey that I'm not entirely sure of what it's going to do next.

"Then why are we still here?! Why don't we escape?! Captain why are you still standing there?!" The young crew urged.

"It won't work either way; the Umibozu will just quicken its pace and straight up destroy this ship if it sees us escaping." I said, while also thinking of ways to escape the monster. 

'I need to escape this somehow; I know I was willing to die if that meant getting my wish fulfilled, but escaping alive and still having my wish fulfilled doesn't sound half bad, no?' Just then, while I was thinking of ways to escape..

"Barrel.." someone with a loud and grating voice said.

We all looked at the source of the voice and found Umibozu. It loomed over us and placed its head near the ship. It looked at us for a moment and said with that grating voice again, "Barrel.."

"W-what? What do you want?! what barrel?!" The younger crew stutteringly asked.

The Umibozu only replied with one word, however. 

"Barrel.."  Its voice starting to sound a bit irritated.

"Noelle! You and someone go and get the barrel located in our bathroom!" The captain told the young crew.

Noelle, or the young crew, said, "That's a drum container captain! Does that count?!"

"It's a barrel nonetheless! I think..? quickly! I'll try to speak to it first while you're getting the container." The captain urged.

"I'll go with him." I volunteered.

"Let's go; follow me." Noelle ushered.

*--in the bathroom--*

"There, that's the barrel the captain was saying to get." Noelle pointed at a blue container that appears to be made of plastic.

"Ok Noelle, listen to me. I know this might seem crazy, but I've got a plan to escape that thing." I said to Noelle while looking at the barrel.

Noelle turned to me with a questioning look as I continued. "You see, we offended it by saying it was a monster, right? One variation of the myth says if that happened, it'll ask for a barrel then proceed to drown the sailors with it. As you can see, it asked for a barrel, didn't it?"

Noelle looked a little horrified and shocked by what he heard but still managed to say, "I'll trust you as you seem knowledgeable about this, so I'm all ears, man."

"First, get me something that can cut plastic easily..."

*--Outside--*

"Barrel."  The voice of the Umibozu now contained urgency and a bit of anger.

"The barrels are on the way; please just wait!" The captain spoke quickly, trying to calm the monster, but it had little to no effect.

'Where are those two?! Why are they taking so long? It's just a simple container, for god's sake!' The captain inwardly thought

And just about as he was going to call another crew to go to the bathroom, the two arrived.

"Here's the barrel!" I shouted, running to the Umibozu while carrying the container.

The captain and the crews looked at me and saw the container. Dumbfounded, the captain shouted, "What are you doing?!"

Noelle shushed the captain, and the captain looked at him angrily.

Noelle just shook his head and whispered, "Just calm down, captain; he knows his deal."

The captain finally calmed down a bit after thinking back to what I'd said and done.

"You sure he knows his stuff?" The captain asked.

"I'm not 100% sure, but we have no other choice but to trust him; I'll explain it to you later." Noelle said.

The captain then proceeds to calm down the rest of the crew.

On the other hand, our little mc here, finally reached the part of the ship where the Umibozu is looming over. 

"Here! Here's the barrel!" I shouted at the Umibozu while rolling the barrel to its way.

The Umibozu picked up the barrel and then proceeded to try to fill it with water, but it failed. It tried again, but the same result happened; it grew increasingly confused by the fact that the barrel wouldn't fill up. It was so absorbed in trying to fill up the barrel that it began to lose focus of its surroundings.

I rejoiced as my plan worked, knowing that the Umibozu could never fill the barrel up; after all, how can you fill something bottomless? 

I smirked, took a few pictures and then quickly ran to the captain while shouting, "Start the ship!" "We'll escape while it's confused!"

The captain quickly got into the control chamber and started the ship. The ship started moving, quickly leaving behind the confused Umibozu and the fog that surrounded it. 

We looked back at the fog only to hear an ear-piercing screech, although thankfully, we were quite far away from it now.

Everyone only heaved a sigh of relief when the foggy area wasn't visible anymore. Clearly terrified of what just transpired, the whole ship was completely silent on the way back. The captain even increased the speed to the maximum, hoping to get off this godawful sea for good.