Chapter 373: Whale Whale’s Wonderful Adventure (4): It All Began with an Accident
Kesuye had a very beautiful physique.
This had already begun to show back when he was a mermaid.
To hide his embarrassment, he lifted the hem of his thin quick-drying shirt. A narrow strip of his waist was exposed, revealing the natural contours of the body beneath the fabric.
Unlike land animals, Kesuye, who had transformed from a whale, had not a trace of body hair anywhere except his hair and eyebrows. Beneath his fair, smooth skin was an even layer of muscle. The muscles were lean and well-defined, their lines smooth and neat. They looked good without giving him an overly intimidating appearance.
After that brief glimpse, Everly quickly reached out and pulled the hem of Kesuye’s shirt back down. Then, like she was leading a little kid by the hand, she guided Kesuye back to the sofa and pressed down on his shoulders, making him sit properly.
Kesuye was still embarrassed. His face was flushed as he sat there foolishly, his mind seemingly completely overloaded. His reactions were noticeably slower than before.
Everly sat down beside him and served as a go-between, asking Kesuye questions on behalf of the two SAI agents.
“Kesuye, you can talk now. I’m going to ask you some questions. Don’t hide anything, and answer everything truthfully, okay?”
Kesuye nodded and quietly answered, “Mm.”
“Where did you get the clothes you’re wearing?”
“Found them.”
“Where did you find them, and when?”
“By the sea. This morning…”
With Everly there, Kesuye became much more cooperative. Through the back-and-forth questioning, the truth of what had happened finally came to light.
Simply put, it had all begun with an accident.
Two days earlier, Kesuye had been drifting aimlessly in the Pacific Ocean as usual, blowing bubbles out of boredom, when he suddenly heard some strange noises coming from far away.
Out of curiosity, Kesuye flicked his tail and slowly swam toward the source of the noise, only to unexpectedly stumble upon a fierce battle.
On one side was a bizarre-looking giant shark. On the other was a ship full of heavily armed mercenaries.
It was the first time Kesuye had ever seen such a strange shark. It was enormous, measuring a good five or six meters in length. When it opened its tooth-filled jaws as wide as they could go, they looked like a deep, pitch-black abyss lined with sawlike teeth.
But the strangest thing about the shark was its tail. Other sharks had only one tail, but this shark had a full five tails growing from behind it!
It looked utterly bizarre. Normally, such a bulky body structure would make it difficult to even maintain balance in seawater, let alone swim.
And yet the freakish shark was an excellent swimmer. Not only was it incredibly fast, but it could also change direction with remarkable agility.
It darted through the dark depths of the ocean, sometimes charging straight at the ship and sometimes lunging in from the side, repeatedly ramming the vessel and sending it rocking violently. Every so often, a mercenary would lose his footing and be thrown from the deck into the water. More often than not, before he could even cry for help, the shark would bite him in half and gulp him down with a series of crunching sounds.
But the mercenaries on the ship weren’t pushovers either.
The vessel had originally been a whaling ship before being converted into a seagoing vessel. It was equipped with a large number of mechanically operated harpoons, most of which had an effective range of twenty to fifty meters underwater. Once a harpoon struck the shark, the barbs on it would lodge firmly in its flesh. The whaling winch on deck would then kick into action, the capstan creaking as it turned and hauled the enormous shark toward the ship.
The two sides fought back and forth in a brutal struggle, blood and flesh flying in all directions. The surrounding seawater became saturated with blood, filling the air with a thick, coppery stench.
In the end, the cunning humans gained the upper hand and successfully dragged the barely breathing shark onto the deck.
Kesuye watched the spectacle with great interest. After flicking his tail, he turned around and was about to leave, only to discover that the people on the ship weren’t satisfied with capturing the shark. They actually turned their harpoons on him as well.
“Their harpoons hurt me a lot. I wanted to leave at first, but they kept chasing me. I got angry, so I charged over and capsized the ship. Then I ate everyone on board, along with the shark.” With his completely harmless-looking face, Kesuye calmly said something that was, frankly, rather shocking.
Upon hearing this, Remia and Gregory immediately turned to look at Everly, who remained completely expressionless.
This is the “gentle, doesn’t like killing, carefree” great whale you were talking about? Isn’t he being a little too brutal?
Compared with the two investigators, Everly actually thought there was nothing wrong with what Kesuye had done.
He wasn’t human to begin with. Holding him to human morality and values was unfair. Especially in the wilderness, he was a giant whale who hadn’t done anything wrong. He’d merely stopped to watch the spectacle, only to inexplicably have humans chase after him and jab him with harpoons. If he hadn’t fought back, was he supposed to wait until they’d hauled him onto the ship before saying, “Hey, buddy, it was all a misunderstanding. Could you please let me go?”
Yeah, right. The only thing that would get him was humans taking advantage of his weakness. If they didn’t capture him and take him away for research, he’d already be lucky.
If you dare to make a move, you have to be prepared to face the consequences. That’s the law of survival in the wild.
After swallowing the humans aboard the whaling ship and the strange shark, Kesuye soon realized that something was wrong. Something similar had happened to him several years ago. Back then, he had swallowed a child of the evil god named “Gary” in one bite. After successfully digesting him, he had gained the ability to transform into a mermaid.
This time, perhaps the mutated shark’s body contained some kind of special substance. Or perhaps the cumulative changes he’d undergone over the years had finally reached the point of qualitative transformation. Whatever the reason, after enduring a painful bout of digestion, Kesuye discovered that he had finally grown a pair of legs and could transform into a human.
“I wanted to find Everly and hang out with her, but my tablet and phone were both damaged when they fell into the water during the fight, so I had no way to contact you. I didn’t know where you were, and after I came ashore, I wanted to ask someone for directions. But then I suddenly remembered that ABChorse said humans have to wear clothes on land, otherwise the police will arrest them. So I looked around and found a dead body floating in the sea. Dead bodies don’t get cold, so I took his clothes…”
ABChorse was one of the educational apps Everly had installed for Kesuye. It taught children all kinds of basic social knowledge.
What happened afterward was exactly as Everly had seen in the video.
The clothes Kesuye had “found” belonged to a deceased contestant. After putting them on, Kesuye tried asking people for directions. Because he spoke a little strangely, the kind-hearted passersby assumed he was a contestant looking for the cross-country race venue and, one after another, pointed him toward the starting point.
In a bizarre yet somehow perfectly logical turn of events, Kesuye thus embarked on a cross-country run.
The ridiculous part was that despite running around in a completely haphazard manner, he actually managed to find Everly in the end. Looking at the whole sequence of events, one couldn’t help but marvel:
Even a dumb fish can have dumb luck!
“When you found that person, was he already dead?” Gregory zeroed in on the key point and asked for confirmation.
Kesuye ignored him.
Although he was an extremely obedient little angel in front of Everly, Kesuye wasn’t necessarily friendly toward other people. At times, he could even be downright nasty.
It didn’t seem entirely accurate to say this was because Everly had rescued him when he was stranded, either. Misha had also been there during the rescue, but Kesuye remained just as indifferent toward her.
During their seaside vacation, if Misha wanted to touch the great whale, she had to sneak over when Kesuye wasn’t paying attention. Otherwise, she’d be greeted by a barrage of water bombs from Kesuye, getting knocked off balance by the blasts of seawater.
Everly thought that the reason Kesuye was so attached to her might have something to do with the mermaid’s blessing she carried. Besides making the sea endlessly gentle toward her, the blessing also caused marine creatures to feel an innate affinity toward her. As a creature of the sea, Kesuye was naturally affected.
And this unique attachment had, in turn, unconsciously given Everly a special sense of responsibility toward him.
Seeing that Kesuye was ignoring Gregory, she leaned over, patted him on the arm, and gestured for him to behave.
“Answer Gregory’s questions properly.”
Hearing the slight coldness in Everly’s voice, Kesuye changed his tune in an instant.
“Yes, he was already dead,” he answered.
“What was the scene like? Did you see any other suspicious individuals nearby?”
“I found the body beside a rocky beach. There was no one around. The things that belonged to him were lying on the nearby rocks—some little bags containing powder, a lighter, syringes, and things like that.”
“If we take you back to the seaside, can you find the place?”
“Yes.”
After answering, Kesuye looked at Everly and added, “Everly has to come too.”
So did that mean he couldn’t find it if Everly didn’t come…?
Gregory nearly laughed in exasperation when he heard that.
Everly, sitting beside him, also almost lost her composure. She couldn’t help thinking that this chubby-headed fish looked innocent and honest, but apparently he had his own little schemes…
Then again, she was probably looking at him through rose-colored glasses. When she heard Kesuye say that, she didn’t find him dishonest or annoying at all. Instead, she thought he was rather adorable.
Adorable enough to make her want to reach over and pinch his chubby cheeks.
There was no time to waste when it came to locating the original crime scene.
After confirming the situation, Gregory immediately took Kesuye and Everly to the area near Gilosha Port. Along the way, he also gave Everly a brief rundown of the case.
It turned out that the body Kesuye had found belonged to the illegitimate son of a local councilman. A few days earlier, he had made a bet with someone and excitedly signed up for the cross-country race. He showed up on time to collect his race uniform, bib number, and other items, but when race day arrived, he never appeared.
That afternoon, someone taking a walk along the seaside happened to discover his naked body floating in the water.
The councilman father of the illegitimate son put pressure on the police department. The Gilosha police launched an investigation with unprecedented efficiency. They didn’t uncover much else, but they did unexpectedly discover that the dead man’s race number had been used by a man claiming to be “Everly.”
Impersonation was one thing, but this pretty boy had been incredibly brazen about it. Not only had he overtaken the other competitors all along the route, he’d even become a minor internet celebrity thanks to his looks, attracting quite a few male and female fans to the race venue to see him.
Wasn’t that practically a blatant provocation of the police?!
The police immediately became suspicious of Kesuye and decided to take him back for a proper interrogation.
Everly: “……”
What could we learn from this?
Never randomly pick up clothes from a corpse on the side of the road!
Fortunately, Kesuye had an astonishing memory. Once their car reached the seaside, he stood in the water and observed the tide for a while before stepping out and heading in a particular direction.
After walking along the coastline for about ten minutes, the group arrived at a secluded rocky beach where hardly anyone ever went. Guided by Kesuye, they soon found the powder, syringes, and other items he had seen.
Gregory was highly experienced. He promptly took out his camera and evidence bags, documenting and collecting each item before taking everything back to the lab for testing.
The results came back quickly. By that evening, Gregory received a response: the white powder they had recovered that day was an illegal drug, and biological traces belonging to the illegitimate son had been found on the lighter, plastic bags, and used syringes.
The next day, the autopsy results came in as well. The illegitimate son had not been murdered; he had suffered acute cardiac arrest caused by a drug overdose. He had fallen into the sea after his heart stopped, meaning drowning was not the primary cause of death. There were no signs of restraint, defensive wounds, or other indications of violent control on the body. Given his history of drug abuse, the initial conclusion was that his death had been an accident rather than a homicide.
Naturally, the councilman father of the illegitimate son was unwilling to accept the findings. But as time passed, more and more evidence was uncovered, and every piece of it pointed back to the illegitimate son himself. With no other choice, the councilman had to let the matter rest to avoid damaging his own reputation.
By then, Everly had already taken Kesuye back to the gas station in the desert.
Kesuye’s temporary identity had been approved.
With this identity, he could move freely within several designated areas, subject to certain restrictions.
As for his permanent status, it was still under review. After all, he was a nonhuman species, and a highly dangerous one at that. He had killed quite a few people. For someone like him to obtain permanent status and settle in the United States, he would have to meet various requirements and undergo a probationary period of at least two years.
Still, the temporary identity was more than enough, because Kesuye was a homebody. There was nowhere in particular he wanted to go. The only reason he had chosen to remain on land was because he wanted to stay with Everly.
After moving into Everly’s home, his daily routine consisted of taking various online classes arranged by Everly and cramming as much knowledge about human society as possible.
When he had free time, Kesuye had his schedule all figured out. Whenever there was business, he’d help Old John attend to customers at the gas station or mind the convenience store. When there was nothing to do, he’d either hang around the underground shelter and help Old John with odd jobs, or do absolutely nothing at all—simply staying by Everly’s side, running errands for her and watching her busily solve cases…
With his own hard work, Kesuye managed to secure himself a little pool in the expanded underground shelter, right beside the fish pond.
At Everly’s suggestion, the underground shelter had been expanded again, adding areas for aquaculture and cultivation, including a small fish pond.
Once the pool was finished, whenever Kesuye wanted to soak in water, he could go down to the shelter, transform into his merman form, and have a nice soak.
The pool wasn’t particularly large, though. Once the merman got in, if he soaked his head, he couldn’t reach the tip of his tail.
Every now and then, Everly would worry about whether a whale who had come from the ocean could really adapt to life on land, and whether staying away from the sea for too long would make him depressed.
After carefully observing him over a long period, she pinched the flesh on his belly and came to a conclusion:
Nope.
His monotonous life hadn’t made the fish depressed. If anything, it had made him gain a little weight. 🙂