Fanon Canon: Harbinger

The Mouth

 * Osaka Bay, 50 km offshore

The sea was unusually calm that night. As always, a stiff breeze was pushing against the stern of the sturdy fishing craft, but they cut through the waves without much resistance. The water was glassy and deep, and dull black as they made their way out of the bay and towards the open sea.

Kabuto, the ship’s navigator, drank deeply from his thermos of coffee as he stared bleary-eyed out the window. It was well past sundown, and not a shred of light could be seen on the horizon. Only the charcoal smudges of clouds were visible, barely caught in the illumination of an emaciated sliver of moon. Kabuto took another sip of coffee as he readjusted a dial on the panel. The lights in the dim, closed room shone off his skin eerily, casting a strange orange pallor over his face. He was not one for night fishing, but the fish were, and catches were always larger after midnight. That is how he found himself here, in the middle of the sea, and as usual, he would have preferred to stay on shore.

No one on the ship noticed it, but 1,770 meters above the surface of the water, the high winds were beginning to coalesce into a tight knot, followed by the crushing together of some unnamable force.

It was as if the sky itself was folding in on itself.

Without warning, without a single precipitous tremor, the sky burst outwards at that singular point of pressure. A black line cut across the canopy of dark blue, and from it a wave of unknown mass slammed down on the barge, pushing it further into the water and causing the navigation panel to scream. But Kabuto was no longer there to monitor the dials. Like everyone he saw it, and like everyone he rushed out onto the deck to stare up at the sky with open eyes and mouth.

Whatever calm there had been before was now completely forgotten as the wind screeched and howled all around them: its origin the rift above. Light poured from the fissure in strange, linear patterns. The colors of bright blue and purple and green mimicked the most spectral beauty in the natural world, but this was obviously not natural. Whatever it was there was something sinister to it, and an inexplicable primordial unease settled in the pit of Kabuto’s stomach. Narrowing his eyes, he thought he could see black movement against the light. A writhing of cephalopodic limbs reaching out to touch the sky.

“What the hell is that?” someone shouted above the noise of the wind, the groaning of the ship under pressure. Like the blotting of black ink, dark figures dropped from the sky. Kabuto watched their descent, and observed rather distantly as one of them crashed into the deck of the ship. The impact sent the entire craft reeling side to side, far enough where water spilled over the tall steel sides of the ship.

But none of that mattered now.

Kabuto’s eyes had locked with those of the monster. They appraised him evenly for a moment, glowing dots of red set within the amorphous black shape of its head. It seemed to Kabuto as though there was a flash of blue as it split open its jaw, in the toothy grin of a predator. And in that instant, he knew he was going to die.

Vaguely, he was aware of the other sailors screams as another monster appeared, this time emerging from the water to wrap serpentine steel coils around the body of the ship. The entire craft was pulled against its will, slowly, painfully, it was dragged beneath the water, offering little resistance as the hull began to buckle and fold.

Kabuto himself was rooted to the bridge, and he could only stare as the red eyes of the monster rushed towards him to pull him in...

To drown him in teeth and blood.

Only a few minutes later, the sea had returned to its former state, only one spot of black darker than the rest of the water to mark where the ship had even existed.

But 1,770 meters above the surface of the water, light and pressure still emanated from the black rift. For an instant the split seemed to draw its own forces back into itself, and the sky became still for a brief moment, in the stillness that came before death. Then there was an explosion, a violent outpouring of power, and its keen shockwave could no doubt be felt even in Osaka, some 50 kilometers away...

Premonitions
Michiyo tossed and turned in her sheets, unable to sleep. It could have been nothing more than the complaining of old bones, but she did not feel as though that were the case. At last she turned over onto her back, and staring at the ceiling thought: Perhaps some fresh air will do me good. With that resolved, she got up and went down the stairs to the kitchen, which was located at the back of the shop. There was a deep silence over the place that sent chills running down her spine. A few, soft blue lights shone over delicate flower sprouts, and the faint glow cast strange, dark shadows on the wall. Michiyo first poured herself a glass of cool water— her throat had suddenly gone dry, and then stepped out the backdoor to breathe in the fresh night air.

Salt from the sea was on the breeze that night, and the atmosphere was warm, calm, and almost balmy. Still, for whatever reason, she felt slightly ill at ease. Looking south towards the horizon, she drew in her breath suddenly, and the glass she was holding slipped and shattered on the concrete below.

Like the Garganta that heralded the arrival of demons from a hollow world, a black split had appeared in the sky. Strange lights were pouring from the fissure, and it was clear that the rift was miles away, and yet it was large enough to be seen clearly even from here, on the back patio of the Ikebana Shop. But what had startled her the most was the sudden wave of pressure that had slammed into her, throwing her back against the side of the building.

“What on earth?” she murmured.

Now fully alert, she could hear snatches of sinister howling above the wind. They were not the sounds of Hollows, of that she was certain, and yet they were no doubt similar. Narrowing her eyes, which were still sharp even after seventy-two years, she scanned the sky for signs of movement. Sure enough, black dots had appeared, making steady progress towards the shore— gaining steadily closer.

“Hmph,” she frowned deeply as she mused to herself.

It seemed a storm was coming.