The ocean was calm.
Yukie was asleep in a hammock she'd built from sails. OTG1234 was fishing with a broken spear and singing off-key.
Biji sat at the bow, silent as always, staring at a distant cloud that didn't seem to move.
Then the water lurched.
No tremor. Just a sudden, unnatural stillness — like the sea itself was holding its breath.
> "Yo," Tiny said, standing. "That's not a fish."
Yukie snored louder.
The water exploded upward.
And from the deep came… A BIG CRAB.
But not actually a crab.
It had tentacles. An eye the size of a cabin window. Its shell shimmered with hundreds of belief scars — burnt-in runes, shattered names, and one massive sigil on its forehead that just read:
> "A BIG CRAB"
In blocky, hand-carved letters.
---
> "That's not a crab," Biji said flatly.
"He believes he's a crab," Tiny muttered.
"So the Veil gave him crabness," Yukie added, now awake and upside-down somehow.
It attacked.
---
Tiny moved first. He blurred — rewrote gravity under his feet — and struck the side of the creature with a kinetic leap that shattered lesser beasts.
It barely twitched.
Yukie raised a hand from her nap-pose and whispered:
> "Go away."
The crab froze for half a second… then screamed. Not a roar — a psychic screech that split the air.
Biji stepped in, hands loose at her sides.
She didn't attack. She didn't defend. She just moved — with a presence that mirrored the creature's belief energy and bent it just enough.
For a while, it was even.
Tentacle against human. Belief against silence.
But slowly, the tide shifted.
Biji began to sweat. Tiny's leg bled. Yukie's nap magic was flickering. Their movements slowed.
The boat cracked down the middle.
Water rushed in.
> "We're losing," Tiny coughed.
"He's not even serious," Yukie muttered, horrified. "He's just mad we didn't call him 'Crab King.'"
The last blow came like a storm.
One massive slam. Their ship splintered in half.
They were flung into the sea.
Biji's body skipped across the surface like a stone before she righted herself. Tiny clung to a barrel. Yukie floated like she was napping, arms crossed behind her head.
The creature — A BIG CRAB — screeched once more… and then sank back into the deep, as if bored.
Gone.
---
Hours passed.
No ship. No help. Just sea.
They swam — bruised, quiet, shivering — until they spotted it:
A jagged mountain, half-drowned, rising out of the ocean like a broken tooth.
They climbed.
Salt stung their skin. Muscles screamed.
But eventually… they reached a ledge.
Collapsed.
Breathed.
No fire. No food.
Only wind, the stars, and the silence of defeat.
---
> "Well," Tiny muttered, voice hoarse.
"Yeah?" Biji said.
"I hate crabs now."
"It wasn't even a crab."
"Exactly."
Yukie curled up in a rocky nook, eyes half-lidded.
> "Wake me if another sea monster shows up."
And just like that…
Night fell.
On a mountain in the middle of nowhere, three students of belief sat alone — beaten for the first time.
And in the deep…
A BIG CRAB dreamed of war.
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