"Catch him! We're lucky today!"

It was that day.

The day I was swimming leisurely, leaving the deep, dark abyss to head toward the surface.

The blue light pouring from beyond the water's surface grew closer. The moment I swam toward that light, slowly swaying my tail—

I heard an unfamiliar sound. ㅤ

Clank! ㅤ

Thick nets wrapped around my body before I could escape, and the voices of humans poured down from above.

And for the first time, I saw it. The face of a human laughing while looking at me.

—

'Shark, you mustn't be caught by humans.'

'Once you're caught... you can never go back to the sea.'

Those words finally came back to me, and I realized.

The scariest thing in the ocean isn't a shark, but a human.

ㅤ •

ㅤ • ㅤ

How much time has passed? ㅤ

Whoosh— Whoosh— ㅤ

The waves swept over the sandy beach, and something washed ashore.

A white body stained with blood. My fins, cut away. A limp shark tail.

The waves pushed me once more, and I was discarded on the sand just like that.

I was alive, but it was a struggle to even move a fingertip. There was no way left to survive.

Not knowing how much time had passed, I tried to open my eyes weakly, but I couldn't.

'I might just die like this—'

With that final thought, my consciousness sank into the deep abyss. ㅤ

• ㅤ • ㅤ And after some time had passed, crunch, crunch.

I heard the sound of someone approaching.

Who... are you...