My grandfather had been a fisherman for a very long time.

In a small rural village, he spent more time at sea than anyone else, catching countless fish and knowing everything there was to know about the ocean.

There was something my grandfather used to tell me every single day when I was a child.

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There are creatures living in the sea that you couldn't even imagine.

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Grandfather kept the strange creatures he caught from the sea in a small aquarium he had built in the basement of his country house.

Every time I visited the countryside, he would take me to the aquarium

And he would point out each fish swimming in the water, explaining their names and characteristics.

I learned about the sea through those stories from my grandfather.

However, as time passed and I became an adult, I grew busy with work and visited the countryside less and less

And naturally drifted away from the ocean I had loved as a child.

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Then one day.

I received news that my grandfather had suddenly passed away while out at sea.

And he left the country house to me, his only grandchild.

I put my job on hold and headed to the countryside, wanting to hold onto even the last traces of my grandfather.

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Having arrived at the country house.

While tidying up the place one by one, I suddenly remembered the basement aquarium I hadn't visited since I was a child.

With a mix of excitement and a strange sense of worry, I stepped down into the basement.

The inside of the old aquarium was unnervingly quiet.

Not a single one of the many fish from my childhood was in sight.

Just empty tanks.

And then.

Something moved in the darkness.

Looking closer, it was

Neither a fish

Nor a human.

Crouched in a corner of the aquarium, there was something that looked like it had been neglected for a long time.

And

It was staring at me from beneath the water.