The commander raced after his men outside the bridge, towards the stern of the ship. They were up on the catwalk overlooking the stern pit where the fish lay rotting in the hot sun.
“Who’s shooting?” screamed the commander.
One of his sailors below ran back towards the officers and looked up at them from his location in the pit. He shouted up at them.
“Sir! I saw something at the stern ramp! A kappa! It was a kappa!”
The commander was livid at the spreading panic he could see in the men below, but was also wary of whatever could have massacred the crew with such ferocity. He stormed down the catwalk steps to the pit below and approached the terrified sailor.
“Kappa? You idiot! Tell me exactly what you saw!”
The sailor pointed to the stern ramp, which was in the down position, open to the sea behind them. The nets were still lying on the deck, full of decomposing fish and a few seabirds.
“Something was at the ramp. It looked human, but it wasn’t. It was standing on two legs, but, but…” He couldn’t form words.
“What?” screamed the commander.
“It was kappa, sir! It was a sea monster. It grabbed a large fish and started eating it. I fired at it.”
“Did you hit it?” asked Commander Ito.
“I don’t know. Maybe. It dropped the fish and ran over the side.”
The commander stared at the sailor. He knew him by name, and knew him to be a responsible sailor. Ito walked towards the ramp and looked around, slowing as he got closer. Then Ito spotted the wet footprints near the edge. He drew his sidearm and walked closer. Something had climbed up the ramp.
“Lieutenant!” barked Commander Ito. “Tell the XO to send a crew over in our inflatable. I want them to look around over here.”
The lieutenant glanced around nervously at the other crewmen, but called back to the ship and delivered the orders. The men remained where they were until a four man team in a small orange raft buzzed around the back of the trawler.
Ito walked back to the edge of the ramp and yelled over at the men in the raft. “Make a quick run up and down the hull and look for anything odd. Something was on this ship that went back into the water. Don’t get too close if you see anything, just report back to me immediately if you find anything unusual.”
“What are we looking for?” asked the sailor in charge of the boat.
“I’m not sure.” Ito made a face and thought, but you’ll know it when you see it.
The thing that had, in another lifetime, been Jim Lewis clung upside down to the barnacles below the water line. He stared with black soulless eyes as a small orange craft buzzed in the water over his head.