Creatures From the Deep

Chapter 1: Day of the Cephalopod

Yotsukaido, Chiba, Nihon

8:00 am

"Beep beep beep... Beep beep beep..."

I could feel my arms start to twitch left and right, letting out a big groan from me. "Airim," I said as I opened my eyes, "what are you doing?"

A flashing alarm clock could be seen right in front of me, being held up by my brother two years older than me. "Rise and shine, little brother!" He said with a grin. His neon pink hair was clearly seen in the dimly lit room, acting as some sort of night light in the room. His neon green t-shirt didn't help my slumber either. "Gotta hit the alarm clock, big day today."

"Okay..." I said laying back down. One of my hands reached for a random pillow on my bed before throwing it at Airim's chest and the alarm clock. "There, I hit the alarm clock. Good morning." My eyes closed once again, trying to get back some of the seconds my brother wasted.

"Do you even know what today is?" He said turning on the lights in my room. My eyes recoiled from the sudden change in brightness before relaxing back to normal again.

"It's uh... Sunday?"

"No, dude, it's Day of the Cephalopod."

My eyes immediately opened to his sentence. "Wait," I said sitting up from my bed. "...Did you say it was 8 o'clock?"

Airim could only nod.

"Fuck!" I said, hopping out of bed. "I overslept!" A loud creek could be coming out of my worn-out bed. It's really been the only bed I've slept in my entire time in Nihon. "Go change! Your clothes are hanging on your hangar."

"Uh, yeah speaking of which," he said as I started shoving him out of my room. "Do I really have to change my clothes into those bland ones? I mean I wanna be as presentable but couldn't I–."

My door slammed shut, completely cutting him off. "Not the time, Airim!" I yelled while opening up my closet.

It's been three years since the day that those creatures came to the surface. We actually named this species based on their origins: Smokkfiskur, which means squid, and Kolkrabbi, which means octopus. Did I expect what events followed after that day? Absolutely not. Here's a quick TLDR:

Riots happened. Discrimination. A loud minority started committing genocide against them. The government sided with the new creatures. Laws passed. Equality–somewhat, we'll get to that later. The Cephalopod Civil Rights Act was passed two years ago today. Smokkfiskur and Kolkrabbi were now able to live in a society here, free from being outcasted. Some of them actually work in legislation now!

Back to the present. Today is the "Day of the Cephalopod." Celebrates our welcoming to those squids and octos. Airim is the head of security for the event, and well... Me? I'm MC'ing the event.

I opened the door to see Airim scratching the back of his grey suit jacket. It was clear he was uncomfortable with the new clothes he was given. I couldn't really help him with that, though. Hopefully, this event goes quickly as he can so he can take it off. "Oh, Rin!" He said freezing up a little bit. "You're wearing... Dad's suit."

I nodded slightly, feeling... unpleasant about myself. "To be honest," I admitted looking down at myself, "I... I don't feel right wearing this."

"Really?" He said looking at the time quickly. We had to be heading out soon. "Is it cause Dad's clothes haven't really been touched since that day?"

"No, no... It's like... I don't feel like myself wearing this, you know? Maybe it's cause we only saw Dad wearing this. But I look in the mirror right now, and it's not me. Like I have some sort of... disguise, you know? Do you kinda get what I'm saying?"