A strong wind threatened to tear the white bonnet from the woman’s head. With a gasp, she whipped her hands up and clutched the brim just before it was lifted away.

“Goodness…” The woman let out a sigh, planting her hat back on her blonde hair that shimmered in the daylight. She stretched again, trying to get comfortable on the reclining beach chair that overlooked an ocean view on the deck of a luxury sea liner. As grateful as she was to have afforded the opportunity to go on this cruise, odd weather and restless seas seemed more and more frequent. They had an ominous flavor; she could not shake the feeling something terrible was soon to happen.

But for now, for the moment, anyway, the seas were calm. As far as the eye could see, there was little to no activity on the watery plains. Even though the shore was within sight, it felt as though it were miles away. Leaning back, the woman closed her eyes and tried to let the soft rolling of the deck lull her to sleep.

Rummmbbluummmm…

A deep bass rumbling coursed through the water, journeying up through the fluid and releasing itself to the air in ripples without a source, crisscrossing across the ocean blue. The woman’s eyes shot open and widened at the odd sight and sound, standing up to join her fellow passengers in looking over the edge, down at the water to investigate what the source potentially could’ve been, much to the nervousness of the various cruise attendants.

The woman peered down, gazing into the inky navy of the open sea. They were far enough from the shore that a trip overboard was almost certainly going to land one at the very threshold of the beginnings of the Pacific Ocean’s most unfathomable depths, a death sentence for those who were unable to swim. It was fearful staring down in that void, her eyes practically crossing in her hypnosis, so much so they failed to register just what the approaching blotch was, rushing upwards at a steady speed, too fast for comfort. Blocked by thousands of tons of water but growing by the second.

The surface of the waves was beginning to shift. So much displaced water that a hill in the ocean was forming, bulging, sending the ship to its side, forcing the passengers to suddenly grab onto whatever was bolted down. The woman gasped, clutching the banister, now forced to stare at the horizon as the vessel slanted twenty degrees.

Until –

SPLOOOOOOOSH!!!

The bulge burst, and a wall of white, foamy water erupted in a shockwave, showering the flabbergasted passengers in salty spray. They were forced to blink the water out of their eyes, in the chaos and confusion of the boat’s erratic movements all but unaware of the fleshy pink pillar that had just jutted through the water’s surface.

A segment of the onlookers began to clap, cheering and whistling at the foamy fleshy appendage as it hung there, a spire that looked strikingly like a breaching whale in a particularly dramatic photoshoot. It was only after a few moments passed and this three-segmented pillar remained there, dripping, stationary, that they began to notice something was amiss.

SPLA-SHOOOOMMM!!!

This one rocked the boat. The passengers collectively turned, seeing another such three-segmented, pale, lithe, dainty pillar jut out from the water. Like the first, it too was at least as tall as the massive ocean liner was long. And it was accompanied by another, and yet another, each one causing the group to become progressively more panicked, mumbling and muttering to one another about krakens and sea monsters.

There was a massive thump, a blow that hit the bottom of the boat, sending the guests to the ground as the vessel was launched into the air. Men and women began to scream. The woman in white shrieked, the G-forces gluing her arms to the banister, shutting her eyes tight to keep from seeing the various individuals unable to hold on, flung overboard and down hundreds of feet to the churning depths below, where a creature was awakening from a deep slumber.

The demented fair-ride reached its apex. Momentum drove several passengers upwards, many tens of feet above the deck boards. The lucky ones landed back down with grunts and sharpened exclamations of pain. This pain was pierced by the sinking, terrifying, world-upending realization that whatever things had surfaced from the water and sent them hurtling into the sky, those same creatures, those pillars of flesh…

They were one creature.

It was clear now. Five. Five fingers, clutching the boat in its palm. A massive palm, an utterly gargantuan hand, five digits. Water cascaded out of the rivulets formed by this entity’s heartline. Jittery passengers sought to look over the edge out of a morbid curiosity and desire to know exactly what situation they were currently in, their hearts and minds breaking as the boat rocked, shifting in the entity’s own jittery hands as its head – her head – rose from the depths to greet them.

Her hair was raining down in streaks the color of hearty birch, each strand like vines that barely touched her shoulders at their longest. Her eyes burned a bluer blue than any sapphire could ever aspire to be. She was even dressed properly for her setting, wearing a form-fitting two-piece swimsuit and flashing a brilliant, blindingly white smile, so insultingly genuine and earnest that it struck the utmost terror into the hearts of those cruise-lining passengers whose lives were being held in her hands. The girl rocked and shifted, an indication that deep beneath the waves, hundreds of feet down her toned swimmerly-legs were pumping in synchronized tandem, allowing her to stay afloat so far out from the mainland. Though surely to a humanoid of such unimaginable size it was no different from a quick traipse in the deep end of the county pool.

You Watanabe looked out to the horizon, sighing. “Ah! It’s been a long time…!” Then her gaze narrowed to the deck, populated with mostly indiscernible specks. “You people should’ve been a bit more careful! Imagine if I bumped into you!”

She didn’t pay any mind how her voice hammered into their heads, creating quaking ripples for miles. She stretched her momentous arm outward. This briefly blotted the sun out from the passengers as they all stared, awestruck. There was a fear – farfetched it may have been – that even the slightest whisper of dissent could carry up to this gorgeous young lady’s ears.

Until –

Grrrrwwwwwllllll…

“Oh…” You used her other hand to rub her bare midriff. It seemed to have been the source of the sound. “To be honest… I am pretty hungry. Looks like it’s a good thing I ran into you after all!” You smiled and bared her fangs as the cracks in the social order spread, followed by literal cracks as her pillar-like fingers squeezed further inward, clutching the cruise-liner as though it were a bathtub toy. And her fingers from her free hand came in, care and precision guiding You as she stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth.

Even with all the care in the world, avoiding damage to the ship would’ve been impossible. Regardless, avoidance of damage didn’t seem to be a concern for You, as her slicked index finger rammed through the deck, taking dozens of people with it as her finger buried itself into the lower cabins and kitchen areas, ripping out shrapnel and electronics and condemning hundreds of people to being torn apart in the carnage. All of this was negligible to distant onlookers or any creature of You’s own size, who wouldn’t have even registered the debris on You’s finger, just as milky-white perfect as the rest of her enormity.

“C’mon… I’m being as careful as I can!” You said exasperatedly, removing her finger. Various pieces of wood, metal, and glass were caught within the grooves of her fingerprint, as well as the discarded pieces of viscera and bodies of passengers – some still writhing.

On the blown out deck, many were running aimlessly, some trying to break down the doors to the stairway, others seeking to scale the newly formed cliff face of the sinkhole that was now digging into the hull of the vessel. And still others remained, still on the deck, unable or unwilling to move. One such woman, still clutching the railing with her eyes shut tight, hazarded a quick glance to her side, finally laying eyes on the girl-shaped monstrosity that clutched them as well as the damage she’d wrought with only a single light brush of her digit.

The woman shook her head, and in the rush her white brimmed sun-hat flew off her halo of hair once again, flying through the air, catching a stray ray of sun as well as the attention of You Watanabe.

“Ahhhhh…” You simply breathed, and the hot air lifted the hat off on its current, sailing away for hundreds of feet. She watched it go, then turned back to the ship in her hands, judging from the angle where it had been plucked from. “Someone here has good taste in fashion!”

Looking up from the deck of the ship, the few who chose to stand their ground practically shrank as You’s glossy blue orbs scanned it, searching for someone who was almost indiscernible. The hope was that from this distance, the titanesque teenage girl would be unable to tell any of them apart, giving at least a semblance of safety in anonymity. So when her eyes fell on one, terrified, blonde young lady with absolute accuracy, the horror was only exacerbated by her unfathomable focus.

The fingers were coming. Her nails were freshly trimmed, allowing her just enough precision to bite off port side of the ship, taking a heaping helping of the boat’s infrastructure with it, metal and wood and glass and plastic, all crunched up into a tiny little crumb in comparison. Dozens of people were trapped within this crumb, swept up unintentionally.

You licked her lips as the mangled concoction of people and building materials shuddered in terror and fatigue. There at its apex, perfectly resting between the tips of her two nails, a lone woman struggled to escape, thick blades clutching her with the perfect amount of force to not slice her in half. In any other scenario, a view from this height would’ve been an unforgettable experience. As it was, it would still be unforgettable, but for the worst reasons imaginable.

You parted her lips, granting a view of the pulsating reddish interior of her mouth. Its hot air was an organic, familiar scent, yet on her breath the faint smell of sea-salt lingered.

“Say ‘Ahn’!” cheered You, plopping the mangled-up patch of ship onto her tongue. She closed her mouth. Its cavernous depths sealed shut as You giggled a deep, throaty groan that emanated from the depths of her diaphragm. Few were still alive, and those that were got swept away from massive globules of You’s saliva, seeping out of every surface. Her tongue was its own brand of horror, a colossal tentacle beast dotted with pulsating taste buds that wanted nothing more but to violate every organic and inorganic entity it had the good fortune to taste. Death abounded and was finalized when the few meager struggling lives that remained were methodically marshaled between You’s teeth, each one the size of a small islet, no longer shining in the light. Their dark, obelisk shapes were an industrial marker of the routineness with which she undertook the task of consuming human life.

You crunched, reducing wood, metal, dinner plates, backpacks, and human lives to the same homogenous mush. She sighed rapturously.

“You taste even better than I remembered…~”

You swallowed, delicately gracing her finger on the bottom of her throat, drawing a line as their remains descended into her stomach and breathed in contentment

Then she looked down at the ship in her other hand.

It was practically in pieces from having a hole broken into it and being pinched apart. Many of the passengers had either fallen into the kicking waves or been immobilized by the increasingly collapsing infrastructure. Still, many had remained hunkered on the deck where they could, hiding behind tables and overturned chairs and collapsed pieces of debris. There were no good options either way, and their fear of what would happen if they escaped was difficult to compare to their fear of what would happen if they stayed.

But when You turned her gaze back to them, many were struck by an immediate and intense regret of their decision.

“Well, that was quite a good appetizer,” You said. She licked her lips and glared devilishly at the ship. “But now it’s time for the main course!”

You lifted the crumbling ocean liner up high. Wooden planks fell from its hull, spinning into the ocean. The people trapped within the ship grabbed ahold of whatever they could as it shifted even more dramatically before turning over altogether. You now held it with its bow pointed downward, aiming directly at the back walls of You’s exposed gullet. Her uvula gyrated in a giggling fit as several passengers were unable to hold on, falling off and out of the vessel and into the pit below. Her tongue caught them, moistening them up before dragging them down into her throat like the mythical Charybdis.

“You couldn’t wait to join back up with your friends? Don’t worry… I’ll reunite you all soon enough. Ahhhhhhh…!”

The boat became a screaming orchestra of desperation. Some sought to leap overboard, only for their miniscule sizes to land them in the same moist pit they would’ve ended up in anyway. You aimed the boat for her mouth, landing her lips around its midsection. Her incisors gummed at the hull, slightly grinding its already-fragile frame until it split in two. The bow fell in her mouth, almost big enough to fully be enveloped by her left cheek.

You clutched the other half of the ship like the remainder of an ice-cream bar, crushing it in her palm. Those not crushed by the shrinking metal tried fruitlessly to climb up through the one point of egress they could detect, where her titanic teeth had chomped off the entire front half of the vessel. And as they saw the brilliant light of hope through their ascension, that light was cast in shadow as You’s tongue dragged itself against the ship, picking up dozens and dozens of remaining civillains, magnetizing them to the fleshy moist prehensile muscle. You, smiling a lovely, charming smile, peered down her nose at the multi-colored dots pricking her tongue like Dorito dust. And, like Dorito dust, as she retracted her tongue and swished their screaming masses in her mouth, You could only gush with hearty satisfaction at their sweetness before swallowing them whole. You chomped down on the rest of the cruise liner, pushing it between her lips like a Twinkie as it made its final voyage to the bottom of You’s stomach, the seal it made in her throat condemning the last of the hundreds of survivors to a watery, acidic grave.

“You were a nice snack!” You smacked her lips, feeling so massively in love with herself. “But I think it’s time for a real meal…” She set her sights on the distance, where the outline of land formed only a slightly off-blue ridge against the horizon. You wondered what it was they saw from that distance… when a whistling noise pierced her own ears, until –

KA-BOOOOOOM!!!

A slight stinging sensation seemed to pierce her backside, somewhat singing the bottom of her swimsuit but otherwise leaving her unharmed.

“Hm?” Intoned You, lazily turning her head. Her legs continued their work pumping and pumping to keep her afloat.

There, on her starboard side, a mottled-gray ocean vessel was listing closer and closer in her direction. It was slim and constructed of wrought iron, and was lined to the brim with colossal guns, each one aimed in You’s direction.

“I mean… I’d love to have more fun with you guys…” You said nervously, remiss to abandon anybody that wanted to hang out with her. Several volleys of ammunition exploded against her chest, neck, and face, eliciting mere tickles. “But I think I’d like to finally hit the beach a bit more. You guys understand, right?”

Another shell whistled in You’s direction, combusting harmlessly against her cheek.

“Well, you don’t have to be so rude about it!”

Then, she lowered her colossal head beneath the waves, unbothered as her face and nostrils were completely submerged. An expert swimmer, she was certain of her ability to persist in the water. Her legs spread out parallel to the surface of the sea, and she engaged in a breast stroke, sending massive amounts of water away from her with each repetition of the movement.

On the military ship, the personnel were barking orders to one another, full steam ahead as the inexplicably huge teenage girl lowered her profile, breaking into a swim. Command was already being radiod, but the message would be interrupted as the vessel was struck by a phenomenal wave that shook the boat to its very hull. Everybody who could, grabbed onto something. Those who couldn’t were sent to the steel floor – or worse, thrown overboard.

They waited.

The boat’s wobbling slowed, then stopped.

Then –

KRA-SHOOOOM!!!

You’s pale, beautiful ankle burst through the water, sending out a misty spray in addition to the hundreds of pieces of the ship it decimated with one stroke. Trained seamen barreled into the air, many perishing in the impact, some surviving the flight and perishing upon hitting the water. Others still land in the water, trying meagrely to find the surface, only to be smashed into a misty red goo, mingling immiscibly with the ocean deep.

“Ah-ha!” cheered You as she glanced behind her. “And that’s what happens to people who can’t wait their turn.”

That out of the way, You was more than ready to swim to shore. Taking a deep breath, she buried her head beneath the water, swimming with such learned grace and precision that her profile on the surface was an unnoticeable ripple, practically identical to that of a migrating pod of dolphins.