Swoooosh───
There was no longer any room to doubt it was the whale's stomach. No matter where I looked now, things that seemed to be digestive fluid were pouring down.
If they touched us, we'd be done for. They'd melt us down from the skin up... no, maybe they'd dissolve us quickly and turn us into nutrients.
We were running to avoid those liquids that were tightening their grip on our lives.
...Come to think of it, this is incredibly dangerous. Can we even make it to the next organ like this? Is there even another organ connected to the stomach in the first place?
I thought about it while swatting away as much of the splashing liquid as I could from Dante, but no answer came.
Haa... so this is where we have to rely on luck?
Either we move on to the next organ without any acid pouring down, or...
"Wow, this... is quite the sight..."
"Less fascinating and more suspicious, if you ask me."
"You were staring so hard that you made everyone look at us."
Maybe we'd get help from a survivor inside here, if there happened to be one.
The voice came from above. The anomaly had drawn people's attention, and following that gaze, three figures came into view at the end.
As we stared up at them blankly, the man who seemed to be their spokesman spoke in a slow drawl.
"You... can... talk."
"Mermaids... can talk..."
"We're... not mermaids. Have you ever seen a mermaid this good at talking?"
Their bodies... how should I put it? Parts of them had turned completely white? That seemed like the right way to describe it.
It was an extremely strange and astonishing sight. We had the power of the Golden Bough, sure... but how were they managing it?
"These ones have only undergone the white-flower phenomenon partially."
"Then what are they? Half-human, half-fish?"
While the prisoners murmured among themselves, the man who seemed to be the leader glanced around and hurried us along.
"We don't have... time, so I'll keep it... brief. This place... is where acid gets... pumped out every ten minutes. If your bodies were made of... steel, I wouldn't stop you... But you'd better... make a choice. Whether you grab the rope we lower and get out of here... or become soft... nutrients here and merge with this thing."
"Well, if you melt, we can just haul up your weapons!"
"Some of them have already melted a little."
An invitation to join them, huh... That's pretty strange. I don't think I could trust people we met in a place like this so easily. We don't exactly have a choice, though.
"Lower the rope! Now!!"
Right after Dante's answer, I heard Heathcliff shout at the top of his lungs.
Were they laughing at the sight of us swallowing our pride and all that? After muttering among themselves for a bit, they lowered down a bizarre-looking rope.
This is... woven from blood vessels? The color and texture are exactly like that. Considering the whale's size, maybe these were capillaries.
"This rope feels really weird."
Gregor asked that while climbing up the rope, and the humans above answered very kindly. Well, if he hadn't noticed, it would've been better not to ask.
"It's a... bundle of capillaries pulled from the lungs. It can... withstand acid for over an hour..."
"Greg... why would you ask something like that... eugh, disgusting..."
Along with Rodion's grumbling, we climbed that bundle of capillaries with all our might.
If there are blood vessels... then inevitably, there must be a heart too.
Then the whale's internal organs must bear a considerable resemblance to those of ordinary living creatures...
Which means it'll be easier to kill the whale by tearing it apart from the inside than by attacking from outside. No matter how you look at it, the mermaids should be easier to deal with than the main body.
...Huu. I don't know who you are, but... thank you.
"Wow, this fishing trip was a huge success. I'll probably get a reward of three gold coins when we get back."
"Hm, I think this ticking one might be worth more."
When the man's two companions, a man and a woman who seemed to follow him, said that, Ryoshu reacted with some confusion.
"Fishing? You mean you caught us?"
"We stop by here... regularly. But half of them are poor drifters... on the verge of becoming mermaids. A few minutes later, they'd try to... kill us. And the other half are... just mermaids..."
"Ahaha, so we were a special case."
"It's probably the first time I've met sailors who can talk and aren't... turning into mermaids."
The man who seemed to be the leader answered the prisoners' questions faithfully. His speech was a little frustrating, though.
Was that caused by the white-flower phenomenon? But the others seemed perfectly fine.
But why do you stop by here regularly?
"This clock-headed sailor just keeps... ticking. Are you even saying anything? You're not a machine, are you? Hm... I guess a lot has changed while we were here. Even if you replace your head with an artificial body, you should still be able to talk normally, right?"
"Uh... well, that one has some circumstances and can't communicate normally."
"Hm, I see... Everyone has their... own circumstances. Same with our crew. Talking is always... difficult."
"You should be glad you met us, punk!"
"We'll be getting out of here soon anyway!"
That said, they didn't seem to be having much trouble except for the one speaking, but... I decided not to think too deeply about it.
As he said, everyone has their own circumstances.
After the brief small talk ended, they began guiding us onward.
Since they mentioned gold coins, I could at least infer that there was a village-scale society here with a fair number of people living in it, and we were probably heading there.
Where are they taking us? If they're planning to hurt all of us...
"If they were going to attack us, they would've done it when we were climbing the cliff. That was when we were most vulnerable to a surprise attack. And..."
Ishmael seemed as though she wanted to say more, but then she turned her head away, as if she still hadn't finished thinking, and muttered,
"That harpoon... I've definitely seen it before..."
...That's ominous. No matter how paranoid Ishmael may be, she wouldn't normally memorize the appearance of a harpoon she only glimpsed in passing.
After walking through the whale's innards for quite some time, the man who seemed to be their leader asked us a question.
"So... which ship did you say you came from?"
"Um... it's called the Limbus... I mean, you probably wouldn't know it. Yeah..."
When Gregor tried to awkwardly dodge the question with a half-baked answer, one of the men who seemed to be his subordinate urged him on.
If he was going to act that badly, maybe it would've been better to just keep his mouth shut.
Or maybe that clumsy side of him is what makes him charming?
"Why are you stammering like that if you're not even mermaids? Say the captain's name! If you're from U Corp, we might at least know the name."
"Um... our captain is... who?"
"The title of representative does fit Dante best."
I've never even held a steering wheel, so can I really be the captain?
"If you mean the one who holds the wheel... then it's me! I know!!! Charon is the captain!"
Hearing our whispered conversation, the man who seemed to be the chief let out a small sigh.
"Ah... so it really is... a name I've never heard before. Looks like a lot of time has... passed."
I swallowed the follow-up thought that we weren't from U Corp in the first place. No need to hand over information for free.
Ah, it wasn't just us asking questions. Ishmael, who seemed to be piecing things together from them, had questions of her own.
"How long... have you been trapped here?"
"Eight months."
"No, idiot, it's been three years! The last time I counted was day 644, so..."
"I don't know. I stopped counting the days. There's no sunlight here, so even the concept of time... has gone away..."
"I see. As far as I know, there's only one person who ties harpoons like that..."
"This? It's called a desperation knot... Only a few experienced people in our village can tie it."
Desperation knot... Don't tell me.
"Then... that means they're here... I think I know your name."
Ishmael froze in place. At the same time, the others stopped walking too.
The reason had nothing to do with the name.
They had simply... arrived at their destination.
The destination was a village built inside the whale's innards.
Something you could imagine existing, at least once.
What was unusual, though... was that the village's name was one that felt deeply familiar.
"Now, welcome to Pequod Town."
Pequod... There's no way that name is just a coincidence.
Fate really is cruel. No, if I think back on everything Ishmael has said so far, maybe this was inevitable.
Come to think of it, given the flow I've been feeling, it would've made no sense for this to end here.
Pequod, Ishmael, no survivors besides us.
And gold coins...
I had a feeling the atmosphere was about to turn ugly.
It was obvious who the leader of Pequod Town was going to be.
There was no way this would pass peacefully.
My lot in life really is exactly what I'd expect...