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Synopsis

Hinako Yaotose is consumed by the memory of a fatal accident that claimed her family, often fixating on the idea of being swallowed by the sea herself. She maintains a fragile outward calm, relying on her sole friend, Miko Yashiro, to keep despair at bay; when Miko is absent, Hinako’s sorrow deepens. One summer, Hinako becomes captivated by a strange girl whose calm, sea-like eyes stir feelings Hinako has not felt in a long time. During a distracted search for this girl, Hinako is dragged underwater by a monstrous deep-sea being, only to awaken as the mysterious girl—Shiori Oumi—shifts into a terrifying form and kills the attacker. Despite saving Hinako, Shiori’s nature is not benevolent: she intends to consume Hinako like any other predator. The next day, Shiori appears as a transfer student in Hinako’s classroom, and Hinako greets her arrival with a smile, seeing in Shiori the presence that might finally answer her quiet longing for an end. The story retains an undercurrent of melancholy, the tension between a yearning for oblivion and the unsettling intimacy of a being who both rescues and threatens her life.