Earthly. Hokkaido, near the Nemuro Peninsula. Hokkaido is home to many islands and is home to a growing fishing and tourism industry.

Hokkaido's fishing industry is located along the Nemuro Peninsula to the east, and the waters here are home to a variety of fish, as well as extensive fishing grounds and abundant fishery resources.

And one of the islands in the sea east of the Nemuro Peninsula. Locals call it here

"Little Harbour", there is a small wharf on the island, and occasionally fishing boats come in and anchor. Centered on the fishing wharf, there are a few housing facilities scattered on the island, but that's about it.

The island is sparsely populated, and at night, the island is rarely lit except for the lights of the pier and lighthouse.

The northern coast of Xiaogang Island. It's a bit further away from the marina. It's past nine o'clock in the evening, but there are lights on the shore.

It was a night fishing light with a very stable light source, which looked quite professional and expensive, and at first glance it was a device that only experienced anglers would get.

On either side of the night fishing lantern, two men are sitting. The older one is in his thirties and his surname is Aria. The younger ones are about twenty-four or five, and their surname is Nakao.

They are all employees of a club in Akita Prefecture, and Ariga joined the club several years earlier than Nakao, so it is a relatively hierarchical relationship between seniors and seniors in the workplace.

It's hard to be a friend of a colleague, especially in a workplace like Japan. But the private relationship between the two is not bad.

And the reason why they are fishing here today is because they are both on vacation. And they are all single, and the rest time is relatively free, as a senior, Ariga took the initiative to invite the junior Nakao to come to Hokkaido to relax for two days.

It's summer, but the islands of Hokkaido are still a little cold at night, especially if it's raining in the evening.

However, at night there are no deserted beaches, and the temperature is ...... None of these things are a big deal to a fisherman.

The two of them sat down, paying attention to the float of their respective fishing rods, and chatting softly with each other.

Ariga: "Nakao, Xiaogang Island is an excellent fishing spot that I have found in my years of sea fishing, and you are here this time. Especially for night fishing, the conger eels and salmon that can be caught here are not small, right? ”

"yes, I think it's going to be a great time fishing tonight." Nakao echoed. To be honest, this time I came to Hokkaido with Ariga seniors, and Nakao felt a little regretful at first.

Because when Ariga invited him to go out to relax with him, he squeezed his eyebrows and said with a strange smile that he would take Nakao with him

"Be merry and happy". Nakao was originally a little excited about this. I thought that my senior, who was also a bachelor, was going to take him to Kabukicho, or something like Okubo Park in Tokyo...... In the end, we just came to Hokkaido for sea fishing.

This kind of happy way is inevitably too healthy and serious! But with tonight's night fishing begins, this kind

The "regret" was diluted. This coast of Little Port Island is indeed an excellent place for sea fishing. As the float fell frequently, there was a heavy pulling sensation from the fishing rod in his hand from time to time, and the psychology of Nakao was gradually as holy as a sage.

Women only affect the speed of the swing! The two of them have only been sitting for more than two hours tonight, and the harvest is already not small.

I fished two conger eels and three salmon, both of which were quite large. In addition to this, there are several Far Eastern pseudosardines.

Conger eels are a popular target for night fishing in Hokkaido, inhabiting the bottom of the sandy and muddy areas along the coast, and are active at night and come out to feed. Salmon will also come close to the shore at night in search of food.

Ariga Senpai had a good idea of how to catch these fish. Anyway, as far as fishing is concerned, the younger Nakao just loves it, but Ariga is definitely obsessed.

Follow him. After a while, another catch was caught on the side of Ariga-senpai. It's a live sardine.

As the live fish emerge from the water, the delicate pale blue scales struggle and sway under the illumination of the night fishing lights, shimmering with a shimmering light.

Ariga took the sardine off the hook and shook it in front of Nakao a little proudly before putting it in the folding bucket.

After doing all this, while re-hanging the bait, he began to gossip about it irrelevantly: "Nakao, have you ever heard the story of Taro Urashima?" ”

"Ah, it's impossible not to hear about it, right?"

"Taro Urashima" is a well-known story in Japan - the protagonist of the story, Taro Urashima, is a young fisherman.

One day, he returned from a sea trip and rescued a turtle on the beach. And this turtle is the turtle in the Dragon Palace.

In order to repay the favor, the turtle took Taro Urashima to the underwater dragon palace. There, the young fisherman meets the beautiful Princess Ryugu and is treated by the Dragon Maiden.

Taro Urashima spent some of his happiest days in the Dragon Palace, and then returned to shore because he missed his parents.

At the time of parting, the dragon girl gave him a jade box, but warned him that he must not open it. When Taro returned home, he was shocked to find that the outside world was a matter of people, and his parents and friends were long gone.

It turned out that in the few days he spent in the Dragon Palace, a hundred years had passed in the world. The grief-stricken Urashima Taro finally chose to open the jade box given by the Dragon Maiden, and the white smoke that erupted from the box turned Taro into a gray-haired old man.

is such a legend with a certain fairy tale color, and even some strange stories. Ariga continued in a joking tone, "We should be fishermen now, and if we're lucky, we might be able to have an adventure like Taro Urashima." ”

"Forget it, then. I don't want to be happy for a few days in the Dragon Palace and come back as an old man who can't walk. ”

"No, no, Nakao, you're not right." Ariga senior shook his head,

"That's all Urashima Taro's fault. If he hadn't chosen to leave the Dragon Palace, then he could have stayed in the sea and stayed with the Dragon Maiden all the time. ”

"Uh......" Nakao did not refute the seniors on this topic. Although they usually have a good relationship, seniors are seniors after all, and there is no need to disagree with him in such indifferent matters.

So, Nakao just said, "That's what I said." But this is also just a story for children, the dragon palace full of treasures, and the beautiful dragon girls are also ......."

"Nope! No. Ariga shook his head again, and directly interrupted what the junior hadn't finished speaking,

"The dragon girl exists. The dragon girl is very beautiful. There seemed to be a sense of longing and obsession in his tone.

The light of the night fishing lantern hit the sparkling sea, and Ariga's expression at the moment was blurred by the light.

However, Nakao didn't take it to heart either. I just thought that my seniors were joking again, so I smiled casually, didn't answer, and returned my attention to the float.

After a while, Nakao, who had just drunk a canned coffee, suddenly felt a little urine. Of course, there are no toilets on such remote shores, and it is impossible to urinate in the sea where fishing is located.

So he said hello to his seniors, got up and walked towards the back of the beach, intending to find a nearby place to solve the problem at will.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. The sound of the strong water faded away, and Nakao shook his body with pleasure. Just as he was about to lift his pants, suddenly an old and unfamiliar voice came from his side—

"That's good, little brother." On the dimly lit beach, I don't know when a figure was standing. And it's extremely close to the middle tail.

"Wow!" Nakao was taken aback by surprise and almost didn't pull the chain of his pants. Standing beside him was an elderly man with pale hair and a wrinkled face.

Relatively speaking, the old man is dressed with a youthful feeling, a hooded sweatshirt and a pair of washed jeans.

I can't say it, but it feels weird anyway. Is it someone from the docks?

"Little brother, it's all here, don't you want to be happy?" The old man looked at Nakao, who was still in a panic, and said to himself.

As he spoke, he frowned, and the smile on his face was so strange that the folds of his face were huddled together.

Seeing this expression, Nakao thought of the expression on Ariga Senpai's face when he invited him out.

"I'm sorry, my companion is still waiting for me." He didn't want to entangle with this strange old man, so he turned his head and walked briskly towards the location of the night fishing lantern.

The old man didn't catch up with him. Just a few more steps, when Nakawei glanced back, he couldn't see the old man's figure again.

"It's weird. Senior, I saw a ...... over there, "Nakao returned to the position of night fishing, and with palpitations, he told Ariga senior about the strange person he had just met.

The latter didn't seem to care about this, but said, "Maybe it's someone from the dock, or maybe the lighthouse keeper is patrolling, and they're attracted by our lights." Although he met a strange person, Ariga-senpai was obviously unmoved.

But that's not the case...... Normal. There was a lot of fishing tonight, and the catch in the second half of the night may be even more abundant.

As a senior and avid fishing enthusiast, the seniors are probably reluctant to leave now unless something big happens.

So, Nakao also plans to stay here. Two big men stay together and take care of each other.

It's better than him packing up his things now and walking at night back to the little hotel on the other side of the docks. What if you meet that weird old man who likes to watch people pee on the road?

Just after calming down a little, Nakao heard Ariga senior sitting on the fishing chair speak again: "Then again, Nakao, isn't it really happy and happy?" ”

"What do you mean...... Predecessor? ”

"I, ah, I met her when I was fishing here before."

"She?"

"That's right! She is the most beautiful, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. It's so beautiful, it's so beautiful! Ariga-senpai sat quietly, his eyes still staring at the float on the sea, but his tone brought that sense of longing and obsession.

"Women?" Nakao was a little confused, and even felt a little panic inexplicably. At the beginning, when his seniors invited him to go out together, he was still looking forward to what peachy development would happen next.

But when I came to Hokkaido, I realized that it was just a healthy fishing activity. But now, now what Ariga's predecessor said, plus what the strange old man said...... How do you feel that there is an eerie peach color again?

However, this desolate and remote island doesn't look like it has developed a custom industry, no matter how you look at it?

"As long as I can continue to be with her, no, no! It's always with her, it doesn't matter if you grow old or die! That feeling, that happy feeling, as long as you experience it once, as long as you experience it once, you can't again, you can't ...... again" The voice of Araga's predecessor became louder and louder, and his body swayed with his speech, and the amplitude became larger and larger.

Caused the fishing chair beneath him to creak. At the same time, the fish on the surface of the sea floated, and the connected fishing line trembled, and along with the fishing rod in Ariga's hand, it was bent into a heavy arc.

"Senior! What's there...... In the sea, there is something! Nakao was so frightened by the sudden situation that he was speechless that he saw something churning out on the surface of the sea.

In the sparkling waves, there are long silky and shiny waterfall-like hair, fair and delicate naked skin, and tight, shimmering scales.

"Dragon Maiden! Dragon Lady! Amid the sound of the sea raging, Ariga jumped wildly.

"No...... No! The frightened Nakao retreated and knocked over the standing night fishing lantern. The light of the fishing lantern hit the whole body of Araga's senior, stabbing his screaming and jumping figure.

At this moment, Nakao finally saw the other party's expression clearly-his facial features were distorted, and the corners of his mouth were grinning in a strange manner, like a fresh fish that had been caught.

And his eyes, the left and right pupils are separated to the maximum extent and squeezed to the corners of the eyes. From that face, you can see the weird, as if the ultimate joy.

It's really not like a human expression. Ariga raised his arms and shouted, "Lord Ryuma, I've brought a new person!" Let me go back to you, I can't take it anymore for a moment, a moment! Immediately afterward, Nakao saw that this senior, who was usually quite calm, had his body shriveled down as if it had been drained.

His hair turned gray rapidly, and his somewhat fat face was instantly covered with wrinkles and furrows. Almost instantly, Ariga Senpai became an old man on the verge of death, just like Taro Urashima in the story.

But he seemed so contented, and he crouched in the sand, moaning with pleasure. He raised his hand again, wanting to touch the white skin and scales that had been rolled up from the sea.

Immediately after, Araga-senpai disappeared in front of Nakao. At this time, Nakao can finally see what is emerging from the sea.

It was a naked woman, and her upper body and even the base of her thighs were indeed feminine.

But further down, there is a giant tail with smooth and delicate scales, I don't know how many meters long!

That's definitely not a dragon's tail. It's the tail of a sea serpent! Bang! In a panic, Nakao fell to the ground, struggling with his hands and feet to escape.

But at the back of the beach, it was blocked by another terrible thing that appeared at some point.

It was a stitched monster, swarthy in front of it. It had a large horned head like a cow, and in front of it was a pair of terrifying claws that looked like some kind of arthropod.

Its torso, like an octopus or a squid, is a bulging pouch of meat with slippery tentacles with suction cups!

Sarcomas like human faces could be seen bulging and swaying over the monster's torso. Nakao even saw the face of Araga-senpai after getting old, and the face of the eccentric old man just now!

The old men all smiled and gasped. They hooked up and looked at the middle tail densely: "What a pity...... It's a pity......"

"Don't, don't come here!"

"It's a pity...... Nakao said the same words behind him. It's just a young woman's voice as pleasant as a serenade.

He turned back and saw the banshee of the sea, the snake's tail still coiled above the sea, stirring the water. And the upper body that belongs to women is already softly wrapped around her side, opening her arms and holding the middle tail into her arms.

You can feel the touch of smooth, moist and plump bare skin.

"What a pity......," she said, softly and with a hint of disgust, her long wet hair blown away by the sea breeze.

Nakao saw the eyes of the Kraken. It was a pair of charming, breathtaking eyes. The moment they met their gaze, Nakao fell silent.

She's really, so beautiful...... The waning moon hangs high, and the waves are swelling lightly. The beach on Little Harbour Island soon returned to calm.

It's as if nothing strange has happened. The night fishing lights are still on the ground, steadily illuminating a small area of sea and sand.

In the folded bucket, a fat conger eel flapped its tail and jumped, but it still couldn't jump out of the edge. Unable to fall back into the cage, there was a loud noise, but only a few useless bits of salty water were splashed.