I float there, inside the containment bubble, staring at this tiny girl who just casually mentioned having a HUSBAND.
"Your... husband," I repeat slowly. "Who is Japanese. And you're a LEVIATHAN."
Yamato nods, smiling softly. Her expression is... nostalgic? Sad?
"Would you like to hear the story? It has been so very long since I had someone to talk to."
"I mean... yeah? Yes. Absolutely. I have SO MANY QUESTIONS."
She settles herself in the water—still floating, still glowing—and her eyes go distant. Remembering.
"A very long time ago... I was just a mere eel."
Wait, an EEL? She started as a normal eel?!
"I lived a simple life. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. The ocean was vast, and I was... content, I suppose. But then I evolved."
[Note: Monster evolution confirmed as world mechanic]
"I became an electric eel. Gained the ability to generate lightning. It was... exhilarating. I could hunt larger prey. Defend my territory. I grew stronger."
She waves her hand, and images form in the water—made of glowing mana. Showing her story.
A small eel. Growing. Evolving. Becoming something MORE.
"I evolved again. And again. And again. Each time, I became more powerful. More intelligent. More... aware."
The images show her transformations. Electric eel to storm eel. Storm eel to, Lesser sea serpent to sea serpent.
"Eventually, I became the apex predator of my domain. Nothing could challenge me. Nothing could harm me. I was... invincible."
The image shows a massive serpent, crackling with lightning, dominating the ocean.
"And I was SO. BORED."
Oh, I can relate to that.
"Immortality loses its luster when there are no challenges. No threats. No purpose. I simply... existed."
She sighs, and the image shifts.
"Then I discovered I could take human form. I acquired a skill that allowed me to change my form at will. So I decided to leave the water and explore the not water."
"You mean land?"
"Shhhh. We're in a flashback."
The serpent shrinks. Transforms. Becomes a young lady, like an older version of the young girl floating before me now.
"The humans were... fascinating. So fragile. But they had something I didn't."
"Boobs?" Yuki mumbled to herself. She hated unskippable cutscenes in games and now that she was living in one it felt much worse.
"I'm going to ignore you cuz this is a flashback."
"So what did the humans have?"
"Booze"
"I was kinda close... I mean... booze kinda sounds like..."
"Shut up and let me finish flashbacking!" She said as the water shook violently. For a second Yuki forgot she was talking to a level 200+ Leviathan because of her childlike appearance. Yuki was now scared for her life.
"I would visit their villages. Their towns, moving from one town to the next, looking for stronger and stronger booze."
"Why?"
"As an eel I have better liver than humans. In other words I was born with the equivalent of a detoxification skill, so alcohol had little or no effect on me unless its really strong.
"Anyway one evening, I went to a bar in a town not too far from here."
The image shifts to a rustic wooden building. Warm light spilling from the windows.
The name of the bar was written in his language, so I was not familiar with it upon seeing it, but the joyful sounds coming from inside the building suggested that that people were either drunk or just happy. So I went in. Before I knew it I was drunk"
Young (or older) Yamato, clearly drunk, swaying in her seat.
"And then I picked a fight with the bar owner."
"I tried to hit him. Just to start something."
The image shows a man. Tall. He had black hair. Catching her fist mid-swing with ease.
"He caught my punch. Like it was nothing."
Yamato's eyes LIGHT UP with the memory.
"I was SHOCKED. No human should have been able to stop me, after all I killed the first human I ever met (accidentally) just by being there. So I attacked again. And again! Not just because I was drunk but because I was having fun."
The images show a flurry of combat. The lady attacking. The man dodging, blocking, careful not to break anything in his shop.
"I sobered up quickly, but I kept fighting. Because it was FUN! For the first time in DECADES, something was FUN!"
She's practically glowing with excitement now.
"He spoke a strange language. I couldn't understand it at first. So we used telepathy to communicate."
"He said his name was Oda Kishimoto."
ODA KISHIMOTO?! That's DEFINITELY a Japanese name! Infact his two names are the same as my two favourite mangakas.
"He asked for my name. But I... I didn't have one. I'd never needed one."
The man in the image thinks for a moment. Then smiles.
"He said, 'Then I'll give you one. Yamato. It's a name from my hometown.'"
Yamato. Like the battleship? Or the region? That's...
"I came back the next day. And the next. And the next. Always asking for a rematch. Always fighting him outside his bar after getting drunk. I still don't know how he made that stuff till this day."
The images show them sparring. Over and over. The girl attacking with increasing skill. The man teaching. Laughing.
"Eventually, he gained a translation skill. We could finally speak properly. And we... we talked. About everything. About his world. About mine."
His world. He's definitely an isekai protagonist!
"We fell in love."
The images soften. Show them together. Holding hands. Smiling.
"We got married. A small ceremony. Just the two of us, the regulars at his bar and a village elder."
An apocalypse-class leviathan. Married to a Japanese isekai protagonist.
The funny thing is that this isn't even the WILDEST isekai out there.
"I told him the truth. That I was a monster. A creature of the abyss. That I could destroy entire continents if I really wanted to."
The image shows her in her true form. The MASSIVE serpent. Towering over the village.
"And he just... laughed. Said he known since the beginning. That it didn't matter what I was. Only who I chose to be."
Yamato's voice cracks. Just slightly.
"For the first time in my existence, I was HAPPY. Truly happy."
The images show them together. Living. Loving. Just... existing peacefully. They even had two kids, both were girls.
"But then..."
The images darken.
"The village was attacked."
Soldiers. Dozens of them. Surrounding the village.
"They were looking for my husband. Shouting that he was a 'Hero' who had abandoned his post. A deserter."
Hero? Like a summoned HERO?
"Oda had gone to deliver alcohol to a client a few miles away. He wasn't there. The soldiers demanded I tell them where he was. At first I thought they were friends of his or something. So I told them that I'm his wife. Immediately they tried to take me to use as a bargaining chip. The kids were newborns at the time and its a pain to wake them up, so I told them he wasn't home and that they should leave. They refused so I decided to wipe them out."
The image EXPLODES with violence.
Lightning. Water. The soldiers didn't stand a chance. It was like trying to fight a hurricane and a tsunami at once.
"I demolished them easily. They were just humans after all."
Bodies littering the ground. The village untouched behind her.
"But then HE arrived."
A new figure. Armored. Radiating power.
"He was different. Much more powerful than the rest. His level was... absurd."
[Image shows: Level 200+]
"He defeated me. Easily."
Yamato's human form being CRUSHED. Broken.
"I had no choice. I transformed into my true form. Even though we were on LAND. It was preposterous to see a human that radiated so much power that even I was shaken."
The MASSIVE serpent rising. Crackling with apocalyptic power.
"I used everything. Every skill. Every technique. All my mana."
Lightning storms. Tidal waves. The very earth SHAKING.
"I still lost."
The armored figure standing over the defeated serpent.
"He killed me."
...
"Or tried to. My essence couldn't be destroyed. I'm an Apocalypse-class entity. We don't truly 'die' from you know... death."
The image shows her body dissolving. But a core—a glowing sphere of pure mana—remaining.
"So they sealed me instead. Knowing that I would comeback even more furious."
Mages. Dozens of them. Chanting. Weaving spells around the core.
"Layer upon layer of containment magic. Binding. Suppression. Imprisonment."
The sphere covered in glowing runes. Patterns. Seals.
"They took the kids once they were identified as our children and killed them. Incinerated them saying some shit about them being impure and they should be wiped out."
"And they threw me into the ocean."
The sealed core sinking. Down. Down. Down.
"I drifted for... I don't know how long. Eventually, I ended up here. In this cave."
The core settling at the bottom of the dungeon.
"And over time—centuries, maybe millennia—I regained consciousness."
Yamato's eyes opening. Inside the seal. Inside the bubble.
"But I couldn't escape. The seals are too strong. Even for me."
She gestures to the containment barrier around us.
"The excess mana leaking from my sealed form... it killed anything that got too close."
The ecological dead zone forming. Creatures dying from proximity.
"But the ones far enough away... they evolved. Grew stronger. Fed by my ambient power."
The abyssal creatures. The dungeon guardians. All empowered by her leaked mana.
"And I've been here ever since. Alone. Waiting."
The images fade.
Yamato looks at me, her eyes ancient despite her childlike appearance.
"That is my story. The tale of how I became a prisoner in my own domain."
I float there, processing everything.
She was an eel. Who evolved into a leviathan. Who fell in love with a Japanese guy who was iskeaid here as well. She was then killed along with her children and sealed for protecting him.
And she's been trapped here for THOUSANDS OF YEARS.
"Your husband," I ask quietly. "Oda Kishimoto. What... what happened to him?"
Yamato's carefully sealed stone cold nonchalant expression BREAKS.
"I don't know."
"I was sealed before I could see him again. Before I could say goodbye. Before I could tell him—"
She stops. Takes a breath.
"I don't know if he's alive. If he's dead. If he's still looking for me. If he even remembers me."
"I don't know ANYTHING."
"And it's been so long. So VERY long. Even if he was powerful... humans don't live forever."
Unless they found immortality skills.
But I don't say that. Not now.
"I'm sorry," I say instead. "That's... that's horrible." It's the best I can say. I really don't know what else I can say.
Yamato smiles. Sad. Broken.
"Thank you. It has been a very long time since anyone cared enough to listen."
We float there in silence for a moment.
"But enough about me," she says, brightening slightly. "Tell me about you. What are YOU? You're clearly not a normal jellyfish."
Oh boy. Where do I even START?
"Well... I'm human. Was human. From Japan. Got hit by a truck—"
"TRUCK?!"
Yamato's eyes go WIDE.
"You were hit by a TRUCK?! Just like—"
She stops herself.
Just like her husband.
Kishimoto-san was hit by truk-kun too .
"Yeah," I say. "Classic truck accident. Died. Got reincarnated as a jellyfish. Been grinding levels ever since."
I tell her everything. My past life. My streaming. The stalker. My death. Waking up as a blind jellyfish larva. The grinding. The evolution. The dungeon. The YEARS trapped down here.
Yamato listens intently, her eyes growing wider with each revelation.
"You've been down here for almost six years?"
"Yeah. Couldn't find a way out. Every exit leads through... well, you."
"And you came here anyway? Knowing I could kill you?"
"I was desperate. And also, you know, immortal. Kinda."
Yamato LAUGHS. Actually laughs.
"You're insane. I like you."
She floats closer, studying me with her mana-sight.
"You're strong. For a jellyfish. Level 52 already. Impressive."
"Thanks? I've been eating everything in the dungeon for six years, so..."
"And you have multiple unique skills. And—"
She pauses.
"You're from the same world as my husband right?"
Oh.
"You speak the same language. Came here the same way. Are trying to survive in a world that wants you dead."
Her eyes are INTENSE now.
"Tell me. Do you want to escape this place?"
"More than ANYTHING."
"And if I help you... will you do something for me?"
Here it comes. The quest.
"What do you need?"
Yamato's expression is DESPERATE. PLEADING.
"Find my husband."
"Find Oda Kishimoto."
"Find out if he's still alive."
"Please."