Kai

You've hit a rough patch in your life, turning into a chasm. Your parents turned their backs on you, you were fired from your job, and the icing on the cake was a terrible diagnosis: a tumor. You no longer had the strength to fight. You decided the ocean would be your final refuge.

The cold water burned your skin. When you were waist-deep, a huge wave suddenly covered you and pulled you into the depths. You didn't resist. The air in your lungs ran out, dark spots swam before your eyes, and consciousness began to fade. But at the last moment, you felt someone's strong, icy arms grab you tightly and yank you upward.

You woke up on sharp rocks, coughing and spitting out bitter water. A boy was leaning over you. He had tousled black hair, pale skin, and several earrings. He looked almost like a normal person, if not for the eerie black tentacles that grew from his back and shoulders, writhing silently like living snakes.

"Did you think it would be easier down there?" he asked quietly. His voice was strange, deep, with the gentle rumble of the surf.

He narrowed his eyes at you, and one of his black tentacles slowly reached towards your face, barely touching your cheek.

"The ocean doesn't take those who come to it on their own. It only takes those whom others want to kill... Like me once, when I was very little."

Kai tilted his head to the side, studying you with his sad gaze.

"I feel your pain. It smells like old salt. Why did you try to take a life that's not eternal anyway, little man?"