Chapter 6

“Ray, did you know we know more about space than we do the ocean?”

“Now that can’t possibly be true.”

“It’s true!” Nolan said, pointing at the screen of his phone where a video of a giant squid was playing to some cheeky music. “The ocean is harder to explore than open space, so we’ve only seen a small percentage of it so far!”

“..........Okay, sure.”

“You’re not fascinated by this!?”

Nolan really loved the ocean and all those ugly abyssal fish.

I didn’t care for it, so I shook my head.

“It’s kind of creepy… I’d rather not think about it.”

“Wooooow. Whatever.”

He sulked, turning his phone screen away from me as he continued to fiddle with it.

I sighed.

Even if I didn’t like the ocean, I liked that he liked it, so I inched closer to him on the bench we were sharing that day during summer break.

“I like space, though. If I were smarter, I would’ve liked to be an astronaut.”

Nolan looked at me and scoffed.

“You? In space? Hell no.”

“Huh? You don’t think I would be a good astronaut!?”

Nolan shook his head with a smile.

“Nah, it’s not that. I just think you’d get lonely.”

“...........”

“You hate being alone, right? Up there, it’d only be you, and maybe a handful of other awkward nerds. You’d cry yourself to sleep every night.”

“Hey!”

“Hahaha”

“Not like the ocean is any better!? In fact, I think diving in the ocean would be much, much lonelier!”

“Man, Ray, you are stupid.”

“Wha—”

“The ocean is full of animals! Like, crazy full! You’d never be alone, ever!”

Nolan said this with a smile, but I knew he was serious.

“..............You’re the stupid one.”

That was my brilliant comeback.

***

I woke up underwater.

Everything in my room was floating casually around me, including the sheet I was using to cover myself on my bed last night.

I immediately started gasping for air.

But I didn’t have to.

I clawed at my neck for a bit before I felt my gills right there, moving, breathing.

I was a merman—or something like that.

I caught a glimpse of my new self in the mirror, which was… bizarre.

I looked human, that means I didn’t have a fish tail, but I had gills, and clothes, and my cat ears and tail from before. Sort of like a swamp creature but with the bright yellow uniform and cat-like appendages.

At this point, I was used to all the weirdness, so all I could do was sigh, go downstairs, say goodbye to my swamp creature-looking mother, and leave.

The entire world was underwater, as expected, even the school campus.

My classmates all looked just like me, cat ears and gills, and they were all acting like nothing was wrong.

I sat next to Sam as usual, and tried to get his attention.

“Psst.”

“Huh?”

He looked my way with his cute ears twitching.

“...Sorry if this is weird of me to ask, but… do you remember our conversation from yesterday?”

“...About the time loop?”

“Yes! You remember!”

Oh, man. That was a relief.

For a moment there I thought anything I did that involved talking about Nolan would disappear the next day, but that didn’t seem to be the case. It was a great feeling.

It was as if slowly, little by little, I was bringing him back.

“Um… Ray?”

“Yeah?”

“...Did things change again today?”

“Haha. They sure did.”

“Really…”

Sam sounded skeptical. Of course he would.

I wasn’t expecting him to acknowledge just how fucked up it was to suddenly be underwater, or to even realize it, but that didn’t matter. I had proof now that something strange was going on, and that there was a way to create permanence.

All I had to do now is find out where “Nolan” was today.