Ultraman cubs begin to wreak havoc.

But the task had to be completed.

I can't leave!

Ah... how pitiful are the working class.

Just as Gen Subaru was internally complaining, his body began to move. He turned around and said softly:

"Excuse me, please turn the boat towards the direction of 1:30."

"Can you see anything?"

"Maybe it's that one."

The "Dragon Palace" slowly turned its direction of travel to the right.

In front of the searchlight, you can see raised objects in the sand.

"That's it."

'Minamoto no Subaru' didn't answer immediately, but he felt that it was probably true.

We must retrieve the item from this coordinate point.

Gen Subaru's gaze began to follow the searchlight of the mobile lighting, watching the shadows cast on the sand, which seemed to be dancing.

As they approached the bulge, a trembling urge surged through Gen Subaru again, and the first mate noticed Gen Subaru's groan.

"What's wrong?"

Subaru felt confused, but his body still translated what he saw into language.

"Around there... have you seen anything that looks like footprints?"

"Hey? Are you awake?"

The first mate spoke with a smile.

"You see it that way because of the light. Look, the seabed sand here has a pattern. It's formed that way because of the ocean currents."

That's a very reasonable answer.

Would someone be walking on the bottom of the deep sea, where there is hundreds of atmospheres of pressure?

This time, Subaru sensed a smile. It seemed the person being replaced also realized how foolish they had such an idea.

However, Gen Subaru felt his throat was parched, and his lips, so dry they twisted into a smile.

This is not normal.

Meanwhile, the first mate skillfully maneuvered the "Ryugu's" telescopic arm and grabbed the "thing." If it were to surface like this, it might break due to changes in water pressure, so they transferred "that" to the pressurized chamber they usually used when collecting deep-sea creatures.

"Oh dear, oh dear. Now we're back to work. We've been sent to collect some strange things."

The first mate, probably relieved after the successful recovery, started talking nonsense.

"Speaking of which, do you know what interesting things the 'Deep Sea 6500' discovered while exploring the trenches of island nations?"

"Ah, that one."

"—What is it?"

"The severed head."

"Clam....?"

A human brain in the deep sea? Even if it's incredibly difficult to decompose...

"It's just a doll. The head of a mannequin. It was discovered by a team from the University of Tsukuba in 1991 while observing the epicenter. It's quite famous, isn't it?"

That thing is at the bottom of the ocean trench in the island nation, in a depth of six thousand meters...

Wait, who exactly am I replacing? What is the purpose of my visit?

Hearing this past conversation, Subaru felt a sense of doubt, but it was quickly answered—

I was transferred from a national research institution to a position at the Deep Ocean Research Society, which was established as a third sector.

It's more like a "government agency" than a company, but it has private funding. Nevertheless, this is the first time such a task has been assigned to it.

The mission is to retrieve "something" from a specific coordinate 20 kilometers off the coast of Ogasawara.

The object discovered by satellite was presented before our eyes as a computer-enhanced and exaggerated image, but before seeing it with our own eyes, it was hard to believe that such a thing could be showing its face in the wilderness at the foot of the underwater mountain range.

However, that thing is now in my hands.

..........

"Thank you for your hard work."

The man, who identified himself as Uchihara, wearing light black hair, examined the inside of the aluminum sampling container and said this to me.

'Gen Subaru' was ordered to personally bring "that thing" that he had salvaged from the seabed back to headquarters. Then, six months later, Gen Subaru became a land-dweller again.

The new urban center by the sea, though it's essentially the headquarters of the deep-sea research company in a brand-new building built in Chiba Prefecture. Since there are people there to do general affairs, people like me who do practical work go to places like Yokosuka.

At headquarters, the person who was waiting with the minister for 'Minamoto no Subaru' appeared to be a diplomat from a trading company that had invested in deep-sea research.

The crew of "Ryugu" referred to the contents of the sampling container as a "plate".

It was indeed disc-shaped, but calling it a disc would be too thick; it was 5.3 centimeters thick. The diameter was exactly 72 centimeters.

"Thank you for not retrieving it damaged."

"May I ask you a question?"

This time, the person being replaced asked the only question that Gen Subaru wanted to hear.

"what?"

"What is this? It looks very old, but its roundness is extremely high. Although its hardness hasn't been investigated yet, it must be quite remarkable. Yet it doesn't have the specific gravity of metal."

Uchiharado stared at Gen Subaru with his slit-like eyes, his expression completely blank.

"There are patterns carved around it. I'm not educated, what language is this?"

"—What does Mr. Katsumi think this plaque is?"

Uchiharado countered with a question.

"It was something that fell from a ship belonging to a country that is not very friendly with this country."

This is uncertain. However, judging from the fact that the "plate" is made of ceramic-like material and was not buried but exposed on the seabed, it is probably something recent.

The existence of mobile deep-sea work vessels that violate underwater territorial waters is well-known. 'Minamoto no Subaru's' answer was based on that deduction.

However, Uchiharado refers to this as a "plaque," and Gen Subaru has already realized that "he" has answered incorrectly.

The minister answered on behalf of Uchiharado:

“This is a lost item from an artificial satellite, Katsumi-kun. It belongs to a country with good relations with this nation. But it would be troublesome if many people knew about this. So we carried out the salvage secretly.”

lie.

Subaru immediately noticed the problem, but the person being replaced didn't say anything about it.

As for what that "plaque" actually was, Gen Subaru sensed that the person being replaced was trying hard to forget it.

He boarded a bus bound for Kisarazu, on the opposite side of Tokyo, to take care of some miscellaneous salary-related matters at head office. He didn't want to be swayed back to Yokosuka by train, even though it would be a long detour, but he still wanted to take the ferry across Tokyo Bay. He wasn't the kind of "sea man" who couldn't calm down without the sea breeze. He'd just majored in marine biology in university and was someone who couldn't even swim well.

The bus was running on the national highway, but there were very few passengers even though it was afternoon.

Gen Subaru gazed out of the window at the Boso's inner sea.

The inland sea was calm. Under the leaden sky, the sea looked like a giant piece of agar, sticky and solidified together.

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"

Ok? !

Yuan Mao heard something strange and suddenly perked up. The person being replaced was also quite surprised, not understanding what the incomprehensible language he had just spoken was, as it was a language he had never heard before. Yet, he had unconsciously uttered the sound.

Nothing is more unsettling than realizing you've done something beyond your control, especially in front of others...

Other people—

When he noticed the passengers sitting in front of the bus staring motionlessly at the person being replaced, Gen Subaru felt a cold sweat run down his back.

Aside from the driver, the middle-aged man who looked like the shop owner, the seemingly retired old man, the woman who looked like a housewife, and the boy who looked like a high school student... they all turned their faces toward them, staring at them.

Was it because I suddenly spoke in a strange language?

That's what the replaced people thought, but their eyes seemed to tell me, "No."

Their ages and other characteristics vary, but the only thing they have in common is that their eyes are all the same.

What's a good analogy...? Right, a mackerel's eyes, or rather, dead fish eyes, those wide-open, murky eyes.

The person being replaced desperately looked away, lowered their head, and turned away as if they had lost all interest in me.

But Gen Subaru could feel that the heart of the person being replaced was beating erratically, as if his pulse was irregular, and he couldn't calm down.

Then, one by one, the passengers got off at the bus stop, and the noisy middle school students got on, making the air inside the bus brighter.

The replaced person, who had finally regained his composure, kept thinking about what those words had just been said.

Subaru was also trying to understand and analyze, but it did not belong to any universal language. At this moment, the person being replaced took out documents and folders from his bag and took out a large-format photo book to look at.

That was a photo he took of the plaque. A strange language was carved around it. Archaeology wasn't the specialty of the replaced people, so he probably couldn't determine if it was language, but he couldn't help but feel that the phrase I just mentioned was the result of reading aloud the words written here.