The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 889: Katerina's End

Eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

"Katerina."

In the silent world, the Deep Ones shook their grotesque, fish-like heads. Their piscine lips, lined with cracked teeth, muttered something as they released their tight grip on the Book of the Apocalypse.

Lu Li was the first to let go.

Katerina tried to hand the Book of the Apocalypse back, but she saw Lu Li point to his ear.

"I can't hear anything. You hold it."

The chaos in the port square gradually subsided, the rain extinguishing the flames.

Once they left the square, Katerina immediately handed the Book of the Apocalypse back to Lu Li.

As Lu Li's fingertips were about to touch the Book of the Apocalypse, a pale hand gently settled over the back of his own.

"Are you really going to take it?"Anna lifted her clear eyes.

"I'll disappear if you do..."

Lu Li's gaze fell. He brushed aside the illusion's feeble resistance and grasped the Book of the Apocalypse.

As Katerina released her hand, the illusion of Anna shattered like a mirage.

Katerina looked at Lu Li, her expression a mix of complex emotions.

Neither of them was a pleasant sight. Katerina's skin was a sickly gray-green with a white underbelly. It was slick and damp, her back covered in scales. Constantly trembling gills flanked her neck, her long, clawed limbs were webbed, and her fish-like head featured enormous, bulging eyes that never closed. Lu Li's own pale, grayish-green skin bore the clear marks of Innsmouth's influence. The skin on his neck was creased into folds, and his eyes were nearly identical to Katerina's, though they had not yet bulged far enough to break free from their sockets.

But after taking the Book of the Apocalypse, Lu Li's human side began to reassert itself.

The deep-sea hue faded from his skin. His eyes seemed to melt back to their original black, and the folded skin on his neck smoothed out, becoming taut once more. The aura emanating from Katerina, once a mixture of reverence and superiority to his altered senses, now registered as nothing more than a strong, fishy stench.

An unbearable itch suddenly flared deep within his ears, as if something were growing and repairing itself. Soon, a flood of different sounds poured into Lu Li's ears.

The Book of the Apocalypse had allowed Lu Li to become human again.

On a bench along the coastal street, far from the clamor of the port square, Lu Li and Katerina gazed at the plaza where the sacrifice had taken place, and out at the surface of the sea.

It was as if humans and anomalies were coexisting in harmony.

"I can hear."

Lu Li wiped a crust of dried blood from his ear. The sensation of his hearing returning was like breaking the surface after being submerged; even the grim coastal town seemed to become brighter.

"Why are you here? Why did you... become like this?"

Katerina asked, her questions tumbling out impatiently.

"We came looking for you after you disappeared," Lu Li said succinctly.

"I should have left a note..." Katerina muttered to herself, then continued in a coarse, barking voice, "Where are the others?"

"If they entered Innsmouth, they would have been discovered. I came alone."

Lu Li briefly recounted his experience, explaining how he had accepted the taint to get closer to the townsfolk and the port.

"That's incredibly dangerous... Most of the infected who accept the grace turn into hideous monsters, like something out of the sea."

Katerina was relieved that the Book of the Apocalypse had restored Lu Li's appearance and hearing; otherwise, she might have been forever mired in self-reproach.

"Ophelia is waiting outside of town. We're going back."

Katerina shook her head in refusal. Still sitting on the bench, she slowly recounted her own adventures, from Vinnelag to her plunge into the nightmare, and then her return to the home of the Deep Ones, Y'ha-nthlei.

The ceremony in the port square was nearly over. Many of the Deep Ones were retreating into the sea, swimming toward that black line on the horizon—Devil's Reef.

"Lu Li..."

She announced her decision, her voice laced with guilt and pain.

"I want to stay..."

Lu Li remained silent, waiting for Katerina to continue.

"The bloodline of the Deep Ones flows in my veins... My mother and grandmother are here, and my ancestors. I can't fit into the human world anymore... This is where I belong."

Katerina's bulging eyeballs secreted a foul-smelling fluid. It was difficult for her to hide her sorrow, and just as difficult to hold back the tears that welled in those unblinking eyes.

"But this isn't a bad end, is it?"

"Don't lose yourself. Hold onto your reason."

Lu Li did not presume to tell Katerina what to do. Perhaps for many, becoming a Deep One was not such a bad choice.

"Thank you... I'll remember this journey. Give my farewells to Prusius and Ophelia."

Katerina finally moved to hug Lu Li, but he held her back, refusing.

"Try to change..."

Katerina knew he held no ill will toward her; Lu Li simply disliked physical contact.

She stood up and said goodbye to Lu Li.

"We'll meet again."

Lu Li watched in silence as Katerina returned to the port square and blended in with the other Deep Ones. She soon became impossible to distinguish from the others and vanished into the sea.

Lu Li rose from the bench, picked up his hat, and put it on.

It was time for him to leave, too.

...

Lu Li made his way back through the collapsed ruins of the houses and called out for Ophelia, who was in hiding.

Ophelia emerged from the burnt-out ruins where she had been concealing her body and aura.

"Did you... find... Kate... rina...?"

"Yes."

"Katya... where is she?"

Ophelia looked around.

"Is she... hiding... trying to scare me?"

"She decided to stay."

Lu Li did not say much more. He and Ophelia walked out of Innsmouth, a place where life and decay were intertwined.

On the coarse, sandy beach littered with broken shells and fish bones, the waiting group met Lu Li and Ophelia and learned of Katerina's fate.

"Why... didn't... you... stop her?"

"It was her decision."

Perhaps becoming a Deep One was not so bad. One would no longer have to worry about survival, and would even possess a near-eternal life.

"So, can we visit her later? Or will she come visit us?"

Prusius was saddened that another companion had departed.

"She said we would meet again."

But whether they would be meeting Katerina, or a Deep One bearing Katerina's name, no one knew.

Upon learning that the Innsmouth incident was over, Bishop John and his followers were relieved that Lu Li would not have to risk himself any further.

The tentacled cultist, however, felt the complete opposite. He believed Lu Li had betrayed them by not destroying the nest of heretics as promised.

"Our original goal was to find Katerina, not destroy the town," Lu Li replied.

So the tentacled cultist could only vent his anger at Lu Li.

The tentacled cultist, eager to please his god by destroying the town, decided to leave Lu Li's group. He and the other believers left the coast and headed inland.

Once he was sure they were not coming back, Lu Li called for Andrea, who was hiding at the edge of the fog, to approach the shore.

Andrea let out a low sound as Lu Li and the others climbed aboard.

The Elder Sister, having scrambled up Lu Li's back and into his hood, said, "She's asking where Katerina is."

With Prusius, in his dejected state, relaying the story, Andrea left the coastal waters, heading toward the outer fog and the Eternal Night.

Just as they were about to leave the area, a fish-like, frog-like head surfaced in the waves of their wake, quietly watching them depart.

Lu Li, standing on the deck, saw it.

Whether it was a Deep One keeping watch or Katerina bidding them farewell, it vanished into the depths of the sea as they sailed away.