Cuts to Mikurajima Port
The port was a ruin of destruction. Crates lay shattered, boats smoldered, and the air stank of brine and death. The bodies of fishermen and villagers littered the docks, their blood trailing into the sea like offerings. From the wreckage lumbered Kawako, the Kappa yokai, his jagged shell dripping with seawater, his beak stained crimson.
Kai and Umi stepped onto the broken pier, their eyes burning with fury. Flames ignited along Kai's arms, while streams of water curled protectively around Umi.
Kawako hissed, crouching low. He moved with instinct, not strategy, charging at them with frightening speed. Kai met him head-on, fists blazing, each punch exploding against the yokai's shell. Umi followed, her water strikes slicing across his limbs, driving him back with precise, fluid movements.
But the shell was impenetrable. Kai's flames left scorch marks that smoldered but refused to break through. Umi's water strikes staggered Kawako, yet each time he retreated into his shell, the blows glanced off harmlessly. The more they struck, the more the yokai snarled and pressed forward, claws lashing, brute force carrying him through the assault.
Realizing brute strength wasn't enough, Kai roared, his flames surging hotter, brighter. Fire wrapped around his fists like molten iron, and with a brutal strike he slammed into Kawako's shell. The impact seared through moss and scale, the hardened plates blackening and cracking under the heat. Kawako bellowed in pain for the first time, stumbling back, smoke rising from his scorched back.
Snarling, the yokai turned and fled, dragging himself toward the dark waves. "Don't let him escape!" Kai shouted, sprinting after him. Together, he and Umi leapt into the surf as Kawako plunged into the sea.
The moment they hit the water, everything changed. Kai's flames sputtered, steam rising as the ocean swallowed his power. Umi's control faltered, the vastness of the sea turning her precise streams into scattered currents.
But Kawako—this was his domain. He moved with terrifying speed now, weaving through the water like a shadow, claws darting from the depths, his strikes coming from everywhere at once.
"Kai...we didn't think this through" - Umi
"Yeah no shit" - Kai
The hunters had followed their prey into the abyss—only to become the hunted themselves.
Kai kicked hard, forcing himself upward, knowing his flames were useless here. He had to reach the surface, he had to get back to land.
But before he could break free, something clamped around his ankle. A crushing grip, claws like iron. Kawako.
The yokai yanked him downward with monstrous strength. The water tore past Kai's face as he plunged deeper, bubbles spilling from his mouth in a desperate gasp. He fought, thrashing, trying to shake loose, but the sea was Kawako's territory.
Above, Umi's voice pierced the darkness. "Kai!" Her scream carried through the waves, she's panicking. She reached out, hands trembling as she called the currents, the water spiraling around her in frantic desperation. But the ocean was too vast, too wild, and Kai's body was already vanishing into its depths, swallowed whole.
There was no answer. Only silence, bubbles, and the vast ocean of nothing.
Flashback
"Umi, come here. You still trying to use your powers? Hmph, I'll tell you a little secret ok. Just picture trying to hold water in a bowl with your finger, by focusing on balancing the bowl, you basically control the water from spilling out, it sort of acts like the base. So if you're having a hard time controlling water, remember this okay." - woman's voice
Flashback ends and Umi closes her eyes, and takes one deep breath. The waves begin spiraling around her and ocean starts to turn a dark blue hue all around. Umi then waves her hands trying to control the currents to make sinkholes, but ones that spiral out.
As more and more sinkholes begin manifesting, a loud sound begins echoing from one of them, then finally, Kawako spirals out of the sinkhole into the air, then from another one, Kai begins ascending onto the ocean floor, but he's swallowed too much water and is unconscious.
Umi hugs him in relief that he's still alive, then immediately turns her attention towards Kawako. She goes up and starts walking on the ocean and begins charging the yokai, Kawako dives deep preparing to launch an attack, but Umi predicts it, and counters by launching a massive tsunami catching Kawako in the depths sweeping him to the port, and with that final blow the yokai gets yeeted onto a building and lands with a heavy thud.
Umi then grabs Kai and starts swimming back to land. They make it and she immediately starts performing CPR on him. She tries everything, heart pumping, mouth to mouth, but nothing works, he was in the ocean for too long. Umi starts crying as she tries one last thing praying it works, as her mark starts glowing again, she places her hand on his mouth, and the water in his lungs starts pouring out.
"Cough! Cough!", he wakes up. Umi cries in joy thanking him that he's not dead and apologes for freezing up in battle like that.
"It's fine, I'm just glad your alright, and thanks for bringing me back. Where is he?" - Kai
They dust themselves off and begin looking for Kawako, and with little time they find him. Laying on top of debris, the yokai is pierced by construction equipmens, it's skin wrinkly as dried fruit and his shell slowly crumbling, the reptile has spent too much time on the surface and has inevitably dried out.
"What do we do with it?" - Kai
"I don't know, but we can't leave it here." - Umi
"..."
"Let's dig it a grave" - Umi
"...What" - Kai bamboozled
"I mean, it's dead isn't it, burying it seems like the most reasonable solution, like we can't just throw it in the dumpster" - Umi
"That's...actually a valid point. So you are smart" - Kai
"When I want to, c'mon let's find some shovels" - Umi
As the two lay a grave for the fallen creature, they close their eyes for moment, then begin spitting on it. They soon realised that this thing tried to kill them so they don't need to respect it, they didn't even put up a sign or warning for it, the grave wasn't even 6ft under, that's how little they cared.