Ears ringing and a cloud of dust smothering my entire body, I cough into the floor and try to find the strength to stand.

Something pierces my right thigh. It’s sharp and thin, and the change is instant. A foreign sensation moves through my bloodstream, taking control of my body like a thousand microscopic creatures breaking down whatever system keeps me alert.

I feel… weak.

My eyelids get heavy. My chest tightens. I feel the weight of the universe dragging me toward slumber, and I’m powerless to fight back.

I sink to the floor, and when I look up, I see the woman moving toward me, a silver gun aimed at my leg. All of the strength in my body vanishes like a cloud of smoke, and I feel my cheek press against the cold tiles.

I’m so…

… very tired.

The world starts to go dark.

Somehow, even in the haze, I see the woman’s eyes widen just before she’s thrown away from me by a supernatural force I can’t explain. Her body collides against the far wall, and the crack of bone against metal sounds like a faraway echo. And then someone kneels down, their eyes a deep, urgent green, and they tell me everything is going to be okay.

I fall asleep draped in their arms.

I’m swaying like I’m on the sea in my mother’s boat.

She named it after me—Nami. A wave. Always moving, always at their own pace.

Mom liked to set crab traps in the spring, and I always begged her to take me with her, despite how much I hated seeing them in their cages. It made me think of what it must feel like to be taken from your home, knowing the strange, unfamiliar creature in front of you was going to do something horrible.

Maybe the crabs don’t know they’re going to be eaten, but they must sense the danger. They must know they’re being taken from their families and friends and homes.

Mom always insisted crustaceans don’t have families like we do, but how does she know that? Has anyone ever asked a crab how it feels?

Still, I wanted to be there. I needed to be there. It made me feel like I had some kind of control—that if I’d manage to talk her into putting just one of those crabs back, then I’d be saving a life. That my being there would have helped the universe in some way.

I was silly back then, to think the universe ever needed my help.

My eyelids peel apart, and I feel the rumble of an engine nearby. The young man with green eyes is staring at me from the front passenger’s seat, the driver next to him focused on the road.