The merman, my man

There were no lights in the canals around me, which kept the Aquatic Organisms Research Lab in the darkness. However, there were city lights not that far away, and boats of various sizes were traveling through the canals. The torrential rain which had yet to stop left me even more panicked.

Those Nazi bastards had chased us here again. I had no idea if Gary and Laura were still alive-did they know that Dicken was here? If they did, what were they going to do?

In truth, the entire city was under the mafia's control, and that German company must have formed a partnership with them. In the end, this was a territory belonging to humans, and would Dicken stand a chance if they worked together?

He was the king of the seas who could defeat even gulper eels, but this was not the ocean. In fact, he was in utter disadvantage and may well be a living target for the advanced weaponry of humankind. Dicken would know that, which was why he had disguised himself to infiltrate the mafia.

That only begs the question: why would he do something that grabs so much attention?

And did something happen to him? Did the Nazi get him? No, I will wait. If he doesn't return the next morning, I'd...

I paced around, unsettled, and ran upstairs for a better view outside, although I was left stunned when I opened the door above.

It was filled with a human's daily necessities, ranging from a bed, clothes, a closet, to a desk. What was more, it was what I used to have a long time ago, and I even spotted the water ball I used to play with Dicken. I was left spacing out at the doorway, before I dashed towards the ball and held it in my hand, an indescribable warmth filling my whole body that left me in a daze for a long while.

I truly felt Dicken's abundant and profound love for me then. There was no measurement for it, for that love existed beyond space and time, as it was conveyed to me.

I couldn't help bouncing the ball against the floor like a silly child.

That was when I heard a sound downstairs and became nervous. I rushed down nonetheless to see Dicken opening the door-his tail was gone and he was still wearing the black trench coat from before, and was closing a pitch-black umbrella. His movement looked utterly normal for a human, and he looked just like a visitor who had just arrived in the middle of the night.

I walked up to him, taking his black umbrella when I picked up the strong scent of blood from his body.

"Where have you been, Dicken?!" Worried that he was hurt, I promptly opened his collar and undid his buttons to check his body, but I saw that he was completely ungrazed beneath his open coat. It shocked me that his lower body was much more normal than the last time... Maybe save for that dangling object of magnificent proportions.

His skin was smooth and did not have a single scale, just as there was skin structure trying to connect his legs. There was only a tiny bit of translucent membrane on his feet, but it was a minute detail easily missed if one wasn't looking closely-it looks like a pair of human feet otherwise.

"If you want to impersonate humans, you'll need to wear pants under your trench coat, or people would take you for a flasher if they saw what's underneath, dear leader." I frowned and pulled his cheeks, looking into his eyes even as I continued, "Now tell me where have you been? What is going on?"

After I asked that question, I suddenly had the feeling that I was a housewife, interrogating a husband who didn't come home last night... Why would I think that? That said, I really want to know where Dicken had been last night, but despite my many questions, I was worried about his circumstances.

"I killed a few people I needed to consume their marrow to maintain my current form, " Dicken said quietly even as he breathed heavily over my nose. Then, he twisted and cracked his neck audibly.

I was still left in disbelief even though I had guessed that Dicken had done it. "So, it really was you... You sucked their marrow dry. Oh my god."

So that was how he had retained his human legs-he needed to consume certain human cells to maintain his mutation. It was inexplicable in biological terms and not easy to describe... After all, what would you name a process whereby an individual maintains its own form through fusion with selected human genes?

It was utterly unbelievable, and if I didn't know him or wasn't aware that those men were Nazi bastards, I wouldn't have deduced the logic behind the incident. And now, I stood before this callous murderer without feeling an ounce of fear.