Work Text:
Few years later, in Tangier.
The heavens were high and the sky was blue, and the sun shined mercilessly. This city was unbearably hot and humid place. Frankly, it was terribly unpleasant. I had felling of gloom when I thought about why I was sent to such a distant place.
Since I was charged with a terrible case (that could be said to be the strangest case I had ever heard of) a few years ago, when a complicated and mysterious case emerged, I was always called up for the investigation. I had not to talk about that incident anymore, but I was sure that my involvement with "that ship" had caused a slight deviation my path of my life.
Anyway, it was hot and humid. I entered a nearby bar with some cold drink. The bar was full of sailors. When I talked to the clerk and received the ordered item, I took a seat in the corner of the bar and took a look at them.
The relationship with the men of the sea like them was inseparable, but at the same time, I felt like a resident of a distant world. Of course, I had been on a boat a lot. But the look of the sea I saw there was only a calm side, at least for now. And I knew the cruel and eerie side of the sea.
"What you should be careful about in the sea? Anyway, when you meet an odd-looking woman, ran away as soon as possible. That's what it is."
Young sailors and their boss, a sailor who seem to be, ware happily taking a meal. Young sailors were probably newcomers. It was a face that still has some innocence. They might be apprentices.
"Siren, Lorelei, and Mermaid …. If there is a man, who could meet them and survive, he is incredibly lucky. I can only say that."
What a coincidence! Just as I remembered the ship, I heard that kind of talk. I took a small breath and drank water.
It was at that time.
"Unexpectedly, the survive man might blame himself."
The words that would have been sent to sailors made me feel that time had stopped for a moment. A certain face crossed my mind and raised my face reflexively. I couldn't find the master of the voice right away, so I looked around the bar as if licking it. After looking around once, twice, and three times to the right and to the left, I stopped chasing. There was no face in the bar that matched my memory. The sailors continued to chat as if nothing had happened.
I took a big breath and stood up. When I put down my glass and passed through the gate, the pure white sunlight pierced my eyes. Probably, it was a daydream, but I was glad “he” didn't know my face. The encounter between those who knew the Obra Dinn probably mustn’t happen anymore. If I met knowing that, things that didn’t have to move would start to move.
I put on my sunshade hat deeply and put out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat around my neck. The previous event was a coincidence, a daydream or a mirage, or ... at best, a horrifying miracle caused by a mermaid. So much for fantasy, let's go to work.
The sky in this country, where sunny days continued every day, was so high and clear that it couldn’t be compared with that of the home country. I hoped it was not a troublesome case that I must use "this clock" for this case.
The End