We'll I haven't updated this in ages! I still have no new stuff, but I am interested in OberNoWriSu, and that way you shall get new stuff!!!! It will be interesting to see how it compares to my old writing!
I have managed to find a pretty lame, and somehow 6900 word story from Year 8! Can you believe that! It was about a superhero that I created, don't even ask what was going on in my head during Year 8, I had some strange ideas. This is the LEAST conventional superhero ever, I don't even know if it is a super hero. Clearly you can see some of my 'environmentalism' coming through. Don't judge too harshly since I was 13-14 when I wrote this, and warning, it's probably going to bore you to death. So settle in if you can! Also please note that while I don't want this to get political, I oppose the killing of whales, but this is in no way an attack on Japan, I love the country, I've been there and I have learnt some of the language, so this is not an attack on a wonderful country, that I love!
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It was one of the more stormy days of the expedition. But that means it was the perfect time to strike. With ten-foot waves crashing over the port and starboard of the big, threatening, green ship. It was also the worst time for hunting, especially since all the animals would be almost invisible in the dark blue water. The crew of the ship were mostly hiding down below in the cabin, praying for the storm to finally end. There were only one or two unlucky souls that were relegated to the deck. They were swaying around violently and trying to grab on to anything stuck down, but they were mainly unsuccessful and slipped off numerous times, and were thrown to the other end of the ship. Even in the treacherous conditions the men would hold their gut, as all of them were hardy, seafaring men. The captain of the ship, Kenwa Mahihadou, was at the wheelhouse battling to keep the ship afloat and still on its course to the St. Vincent Fracture Zone, over 7,083 Nautical Miles from Japan, where they first started their expedition only a few weeks ago.
The Spirit of Life decided that he would board, a few minutes later, as it would be the best time to come on. The men manning the deck were too tired to be there, so snuck inside, and everybody else were hiding in the cabin below. Though it didn’t really matter when The Spirit of Life came aboard because it was chameleonic and could become invisible in any place or time, and was so for most of its time.
The Spirit of Life glided down from way above, and landed soundlessly on the boat deck and could hold its footing perfectly and never faltered or stumbled. It was as if it was one with the boat, an inseparable pair. It was something that even the most seafaring man would be envious of.
The Spirit of Life walked across the deck towards the wheelhouse, it wasn’t worried that it might be spotted, and even if it wasn’t camouflaged it would have been almost impossible to be seen in the pounding rain. The Spirit of Life reached the wheelhouse and soundlessly opened the door. The Spirit of Life would only be observing the captain’s emotions and thoughts to see whether or not it should pursue a psychological attempt to alter the captain’s mind to a more aligned, respectful centre. That observation would only take a couple of days at the very most, because it was extremely easy to see whether the captain, Kenwa, enjoyed what he did or whether he felt regretful.
At the present moment the captain absolutely hated the conditions, but also accepted that it was quite normal for these waters to be unforgiving. The captain was also hoping that the conditions would ease so that the real hunting could begin, as the hunt so far had been quite unproductive, seeing that they had only collected a measly 100 whales. Their target was around 1500 hundred whales to bring a good season of “researchâ€.
The Spirit of Life was extremely shocked, that even Kenwa, the captain of the largest whaling ship, believed that killing the whales was for “researchâ€. It deducted that only a select few at the Institute of Cetacean Research, and possibly in the government that knew the true reason for hunting whales. The Spirit of Life had also unveiled the true reason on a previous encounter with the head of the Institute of Cetacean Research, Ms. Tomoko Kuba, for issues with her moral disregard for caring or at least acknowledgement about poor, disadvantaged countries and individuals. During that encounter The Spirit of Life uncovered the reason for hunting whales, but had no time to confront her on that issue.
The true reason for hunting whales is that the Japanese first of all sell whales to individuals, usually individuals with cooking connections; secondly they are using the oil from the whales’ fat and skin to produce a “bio-oil†that claims to be extremely eco-friendly, but really is worse than coal, oil, gas, and methane combined. They have “independently†tested the oil to say that it reduces their country’s carbon footprint by 20%, and will reduce it further once they improve the formula, by another 5-10%. All of which are lies, and will increase their carbon footprint by as much as 1000%, and the worst news is that they want to export this “bio-oil†to every country, to help reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels. And finally the Japanese are stuffing the remaining whale skin and displaying them in the Imperial Palace.
There really is barely any research that is going into these animals, apart from the fact of wanting to improve the oil production and efficiency.
The Spirit of Life had been so caught up in other affairs that it had forgotten all about these startling revelations, and knows that when it returns it will pursue the matter with Ms. Tomoko Kuba and the other relevant persons.
But first The Spirit of Life will have to deal with the mind of the captain, to stop the whaling at the front line.
The Spirit of Life decided to continue monitoring the mind of Kenwa, and also the rest of the crew, and work out a plan to begin emanating regret, sorrow and compunction. Before it did anything, it would have to see what the captain and the crew thought when they were actually killing a whale, and hopefully a cow and calf to really see whether anyone cares enough to feel sorrow for them, or if anyone with enough guts and would try to oppose the captain and stop them. That of course would be a very long shot, as for most of these men it is their livelihood and their only job, and they need this job to provide for their families.
But for the meantime The Spirit of Life will have to sit out the storm so the whalers can do their job. The Spirit of Life chose to sleep in the engine room, to avoid accidental discovery.
The next day, the conditions had eased, so much so the whale hunt has already begun before The Spirit of Life had even woken, and that was at around 5 A.M. Immediately The Spirit of Life sprang into action, gliding through doors and up stairs to reach the deck, all noiselessly.
Once The Spirit of Life reached the deck he could smell the blood and guts of a couple of freshly killed Southern Blue Whales. It could hear the twang and splash of the harpoon hitting the defenceless whale and the wail of the mate, a bull, and the cry of the hit whale, which was a cow. Then the little calf whines at his mother’s death and brings the whalers attention on to it. The whalers take aim and get ready to fire the harpoon, when The Spirit of Life springs into action and sends the harpooners a message of regret and pain. It doesn’t stop them in time, and they only become shocked, but they misfire and the harpoon lands into the water. The harpooners are shocked, scared and puzzled by the bizarre voices in their heads. That warning shot for the bull and the calf were all they needed to know to just get out of there. They both dived down and went under the boat, so they could eventually go behind the boat and out to relative safety. To make sure they got away The Spirit of Life sends a message to the captain that the storm is behind them, so they shouldn’t turn around.
The harpooners were so shaken up by the mysterious voice that they had to stop the day’s hunt, and rest. The crew were also shaken because the captain refused to turn around and hunt down the bull and calf or any more whales for the whole day. The Spirit of Life noticed that most of the whalers were quite disappointed and angry that the hunt was ended but there were only one or two good souls that actually cared enough to be glad that the hunt for whales had ended for the day, and were extremely solemn about killing the cow and were holed up in their rooms to depressed to come out. The Spirit of Life was surprised that a couple of whalers actually cared about killing the whales that The Spirit of Life gave feelings of relief and joy to those that cared.
The Spirit of Life concentrated on the captain, Kenwa’s, emotions of killing the whales to see whether or not Kenwa actually had feelings of remorse of killing of the cow, and happiness that the hunting had ended for now, even though it was he who, under the psychological influence of The Spirit of Life, commanded that the killing stopped.
Kenwa’s thoughts were focussed on why he himself had issued the order to stop killing any more whales indefinitely. He was mystified by these unusual thoughts that included lament, remorse and sadness, when usually after a kill he would feel great pride and self satisfaction in killing a whale and maintaining the governments “research†with the pride of the country behind them. This time though there was no satisfaction in the successful killing of the whales. Kenwa was shocked by this and thought that he wasn’t himself and decided that he should lie down for the night even though it was only 12:00 noon. Most of the crew, except those on duty for watch, hid in their own cabins and got extra sleep, time for reading or just relaxation and reflection.
The Spirit of Life spent the rest of the day gliding around the boat, noiselessly, observing the thoughts and emotions of each and every crew member. There were only an infinitesimal number of surprises, which included only a couple of thoughts of regret and sadness of the whales, but most were just dismissed soon after a couple of moments. But there was one poor fellow that was extremely distraught at the fact that he himself witnessed such a barbaric act of callousness on a poor defenceless cow. He was crying and depressed and couldn’t get a grip on his emotional state. He was also ashamed, as he knew that at least somebody could hear him crying and would think him to be a sissy, coward, unpatriotic scum that was unworthy to serve such an “important†national service.
Even through all this The Spirit of Life could see something deeper to his emotions of sadness and regret. Beneath them lay an extremely passionate, angry, conniving person that would plot an inside attack of sabotage on the whaling vessel. In a way this was an extremely good thing for The Spirit of Life, but this fellow’s actions could hinder the actual transformation of the current whalers’ mindsets and attitudes about the killings of these poor, vulnerable whales. This fellow’s plans to physically affect the whaler’s vessel, and possibly their own lives, lacked a deeper essence that would send a message higher up the whaling ladder that they have to change their ways. But this fellow could be useful for The Spirit of Life, in a way that he could use a crowd mentality to minimally change the whalers’ ideas slightly to make them more susceptible to change and attack psychologically. So The Spirit of Life would use this fellow to his advantage and to do that he would first have to reveal himself.
The Spirit of Life decided that he would reveal himself as soon as possible, but first he would have to wait for the precise moment that this unnamed fellow is completely alone and unlikely to be interrupted. The best time to do this would be just as his other fellow bunkmates were called up for watch and that was right now.
So The Spirit of Life opened the door of the unknown fellow and appeared in clothing that was similar to the other shipmates’ attire. Luckily the unidentified fellow didn’t notice the split-second between there being nothing to the appearance of another being, and no-one else was around either. But the fellow acknowledged this newcomer to the room nonchalantly. Then taking a second glance and after further consideration and consternation, he realised that his fellow bunkmates were supposed to be on duty. After his consternation, he took further glances to the newcomer and became conscious of the fact that he had never seen this face before and that this new face looked slightly non-Japanese and funnily transparent. Before he could even utter a word of astonishing alarm, The Spirit of Life interrupted him and simply said, “Yes.â€
The fellow was so shocked that he just mouthed words of disbelief and stupefaction, this meant that no words were actually audible but of course The Spirit of Life could hear his thoughts, which explained every ounce of his befuddlement and the answers to those befuddling questions could be summed up in just one answer, “Why of course.â€
This of course was the answer to the question of, “Are you really reading my mind or was it just all coincidence? Nah it must have been a coincidence.â€
With this unusual realisation now known, the unnamed fellow was again startled and now was reassured enough to verbally ask questions. The first question he asked was plain and frank, “Who are you?â€
The Spirit of Life replied, “I am the Spirit of Life.â€
“Well, what are you doing here, “Spirit of Lifeâ€?â€
“I am here to alter the mindsets and attitudes of this vessel’s crew and captain away from hunting whales to protecting them.â€
“How do you think you will achieve such an unattainable feat?â€
“With your help of course, but I could do it by myself. But it might be less successful and convincing.â€
“Pfft! My help! What makes you so sure that I will help you do anything?â€
“Because, it is your true nature and I could see that you were extremely distraught about killing the cow this morning.â€
“Pfft, my true nature. If it is my true nature than why would I have taken a job to be a whaler in the first place?â€
“You did not understand your true potential and you were pressured into this job by your ancestors, such as your father and grandfather.â€
“How did you know about that?†The fellow answered abruptly.
“I know because you know and I have delved into the reasons you were here, when you have such a naturalistic spirit.â€
“So what, you know everything about me then?†The fellow retorted cynically.
“Yes, I know what I need to know about you.â€
“So, who am I?â€
“You are Mr. Hiatu Etsuya, with Hiatu being your first name, to your family and superior elders. But to your fellows you are known as simply Etsu. You were born on the 13/2/1984 at precisely 3 o’clock in the morning, making you 25 years, 4 months, 17 days and 11 hours and 45 minutes old, exactly. You are 185 centimetres tall and weigh 85 kilograms. Your father is Fimati Etsuya and is 54 years old and is born on the 25/5/1955, he is shorter and heavier than you. Your mother is Yukiko Etsuya, with her maiden name being Yahama, and is 49 years old, being born on the 29/10/1959; she is shorter and lighter than you. You have no siblings, but wish you had a younger brother so you could pick on him and teach him all you know. Basically so you could be a role model to someone and make them look up to you. Do you wish for me to continue?â€
“No.†Etsu replied hesitantly.
The Spirit of Life spent only a few moments letting him take it all in and stop being bamboozled.
Once Etsu had overcome his bamboozlement, he asked another question, “What do you have in mind?â€
So The Spirit of Life relayed his plans in detail to Etsu and only rarely had to repeat himself. Etsu had only a few questions that needed to be clarified before the plans could be slept on and then put into action.
The plan started the next morning with Etsu going about his day normally and turning up to watch duty on the stern of the whaler. He would act as if nothing has happened and continue to search for whales but he would personally ignore any whale(s) he saw and just prayed that none of the other watchmen would notice the whale. Once his shift was up, he went to the engine room and told the engineer that the captain wanted to meet him it the harpoon room. Though the engineer thought that it was extremely odd that the captain would meet him in the harpoon room he went quite easily, with no hesitation, as the captain doesn’t like to be kept waiting.
Once the engineer arrived at the harpoon room, it wasn’t the captain waiting for him but an old man in an old tattered trench coat and gumboots carrying the harpoon like in the olden day sea-monster movies. But luckily for the engineer it was no such serial killer but merely someone who would knock him out cold and lock him in the room. That old man was simply The Spirit of Life transformed to add dramatic, defencelessness to the situation, so the man would never suspect an old man to suddenly knock him out which he did.
Since the engineer was locked safely in the harpoon room, out cold, The Spirit of Life joined Etsu in the engine room to set their next part of the plan into motion.
Now they had to destroy the engines without making them explode, which is a pretty difficult task on its own, but they also had to make it almost soundless and be safe from interruption, which made it almost certain that something would wrong. But of course, no great plan goes unchallenged.
To destroy the engines they were going to pump the tanks of oil and the engine itself full of lots and lots of honey, to make it so saturated of honey that it couldn’t possibly move. They already had the jars of honey needed in the engine room, thanks to The Spirit of Life transporting honey all hours of the night to a secret hiding spot inside the engine room. All they needed to do was to pour the honey into the fuel tanks and then into the fuel lines and hey presto the engine would almost be inoperable for a couple of days to possibly almost a month.
They had to move as fast as they could to quickly pour the fuel tanks full of honey and so they could get out of the room quick enough to avoid capture, suspicion and blameworthiness. Of course The Spirit of Life could leave or even stay in the room unseen but Etsu would have to get out of there without any possibility of being seen even in the general direction of the engine room to avoid all suspicion. But they would worry about that in a moment.
First they had to open all of the jars and that only took them a couple of minutes because they were in shape enough for it not to be a hassle. Then they opened the fuel tank and started pouring the honey into the tank, it was somewhat a rather tedious, time-consuming job. Thankfully, the opening to fit the pump nozzle was quite large, and they could to a certain extent, easily pour the honey into the tank.
Before long there was enough honey in the tank to spread over millions of pieces of toast, and it was time that Etsu leave very inconspicuously from the engine room. The Spirit of Life had to quickly check if the coast was clear of human life so Etsu could leave and arrive at either his room or the bathroom facilities, as both options had feasible alibis.
The coast was clear, so Etsu swiftly exited the engine room and continued down one of the numerous galleys. Etsu arrived at his bunkroom and quickly assumed his position in his bed reading an innocent, innocuous novel. He assumed that position without a moment to lose as almost immediately after his arrival there was a couple of taps at the door for someone to come in. It was just one of his bunkmates but if he had arrived any earlier, suspicions could have been raised. Etsu began some mundane conversations with this newcomer to avoid any further suspicion.
Meanwhile The Spirit of Life was finishing off pouring the last of the honey into the fuel lines and almost immediately it could feel the effect of the honey taking place, slowing the ship down knot by knot, until the ship held at almost an standstill. The Spirit of Life didn’t expect anyone to be so quick at immediately arriving at the engine room, but he heard it only an instant early enough, just as another person was opening the door. The Spirit of Life quickly turned invisible and headed towards the door, so he could continue finishing this stage of the plan, incapacitating the ship.
A few moments before the ship started slowing down Etsu was continuing his mundane, repetitious conversation with his bunkmate. As the ship was grinding to a standstill Etsu and his bunkmate immediately knew that something was wrong and that the captain expected everyone to be present on the bridge the precise moment of understanding of the emergency. They both hurried up to the bridge, with Etsu silently smirking and happily celebrating in his mind.
The Spirit of Life escaped undetected from the engine room just as the emergency sirens were blaring. It obviously ignored them and continued back to the harpoon before either the man woke up from the loud hullabaloo or someone else walked in on the unconscious man and raised a secondary alarm.
The Spirit of Life arrived at the harpoon before anyone else and just before the engineer awoke, asking questions. Luckily The Spirit of Life had already planned for the accusations of, making the man unconscious, and had rebuttal against the condemnation against him. As the man was questioning The Spirit of Life it told the man that he had slipped on the wet, hard deck of the room and that there even was the water marks to prove it. The man thankfully believed his cover story and even forgot to question the person about its identity but happily acknowledged the alarm and raced off to the deck, leaving The Spirit of Life to hide away without any suspicion or accusation.
The Spirit of Life joined the crew up on the deck but was invisible to everyone, but Etsu had a sneaking suspicion of where it was hiding. The captain, Kenwa, was briefing the crew on the situation of the ship’s engines. He told them, “Fellow crew mates, we had come into a bit of a predicament with our engines, they have simply stopped working. Our engineer is down there at this very moment investigating them. We will call for assistance to the Japanese community but it will continue to remain hidden from the International community. This however, will mean that rescue will be over a month away unless of course we can fix the engines. We will continue to hunt the whales with as much vigour and vivacity as possible. Of course it will be impossible to chase any whales so we will have to make do and hope that they find our ship interesting enough to come investigate. And then we will pounce, HURRAH! Any questions, everyone?â€
“Captain, what are we going to do about ‘Greenpeace’? I am sure that they will come nosily around and spread the word to the internet communities.†One inquisitive sailor suggested.
“Good point! So we will issue a letter around to the newspapers that we have intentionally stopped because of medical difficulties and we will issue a further statement when more information is known.†The captain refuted.
“Good idea captain!†The crew chorused together.
“Okay everyone get back to work!†Ordered the captain, and with that the crew when back to work including Etsu and even The Spirit of Life.
Etsu went back to his bunkroom whereas The Spirit of Life followed Etsu all the way to the galley but veered off towards the engine room, where firstly he would alter the engineer’s mind of what is wrong with the engine and secondly where he would later meet Etsu.
Once The Spirit of Life arrived in the engine room he was tremendously thankful that there was only the one engineer or else things could have become exceedingly tricky, though of course one person was hard enough to control. The Spirit of Life could immediately sense that the engineer could see what the problem was, that there was honey in the fuel tanks. He was going to go and report this anomalous finding to the captain, but before he could do anything he was stopped by this niggling feeling that he had missed something. He was so concerned by this feeling that he gave everything the twice even thrice over, but still he had thought that he had missed something and the feeling was intensifying. This odd feeling wasn’t happening by any mere chance, but The Spirit of Life had begun putting in thoughts and feelings of dissatisfaction in the job he had done. The engineer also thought that the idea of the fuel tank being filled with honey was absolutely incongruous and complete gobbledygook.
The Spirit of Life decided to start the lengthy task of altering the engineer’s mind about the true reason of the engines not working, but it was a lot easier as the engineer had already began doubting the truth of this thought. It began with the addition of a more plausible reason into the engineer’s mind, which was that one of the parts had failed and that there were no more of those parts on the ship. Then The Spirit of Life convinced the engineer that that was the true, real reason and that any other thought or information was false. This was no mean feat as the engineer’s mind was strongly opposed to that suggestion as it hadn’t seen or received any other sensory information that that was the case.
In the end the engineer’s mind had succumbed to the capacity of The Spirit of Life’s mind and now willingly believed and argued for the reason that The Spirit of Life had implanted.
The engineer had left and gone to report the reason to the captain and convince him that that was the true reason. This left The Spirit of Life to his own devices until Etsu arrived, so it decided to spend this time meditating and regaining strength after the numerous hours’ long mental battle against the mind of the engineer.
After a couple of hours Etsu arrived and quietly called out the secret codeword, “Tassel†which was the closest word to TSoL(The Spirit of Life). The Spirit of Life replied with “Less at†which was simply the secret codeword backwards. The Spirit of Life glided to Etsu from his secret hiding spot and made its presence known. Etsu asked The Spirit of Life, “So, did the plan work so far?â€
“Yes our plan is working, now we just have to begin the real challenge, changing everyone’s mind. We will be starting with the captain and work our way down the ranks until we reach the Seaman recruits.â€
“I know that you can obviously change each person’s mind but how am I going to help, I have no superpowers.â€
“Just because you have no “superpowers†doesn’t mean that you can’t change somebody’s mind, maybe not the more intellectually capable, but still, you could change the lowered ranked crew once I have altered the captain’s and vice-captain’s mind. You should start only after the power holders’ minds have been changed, because firstly they will have no-one to report their suspicions to and secondly they would be less challenging if the ship’s psyche is less aware and easier to topple.â€
“When do you think that you will have the captain and vice-captain’s minds under control?â€
“It should be around about in 2 days at the utmost, but if anything goes wrong I will contact you, if everything is going to plan you shouldn’t hear from me again.â€
“Okay so once we have full reign on the vessel’s captain’s I will start with the lower classes until I reach where you have got up to and assist you checking the mind’s a second or third time to be sure that whaling will never happen in this ship again. Then hopefully that will give a solid message to Japan and the rest of the whaling countries that are not indigenously doing so, that whaling is not acceptable. Will we reveal to the world the true reasons behind whaling in Japan?â€
“Of course we will! That part of mine is the final “killing†blow to the Japanese whaling community. And what you have just told me is absolutely one-hundred percent correct. If we achieve full control of this ship we will have started something almost unstoppable.â€
“Yeah, I guess we shall say goodbye until the next meeting in a couple of weeks.â€
“Yes, goodbye.â€
“Goodbye.â€
Etsu left silently after those final parting comments waiting for two days until his part in this element of the plan, going on as if nothing unusual has happened. The Spirit of Life began straight away on the captain’s mind, as it was night time, and the captain was going to asleep, and that was a time where the mind is at its most prone to influence and susceptibility.
The Spirit of Life arrived at the captain’s cabin, which in comparison to the rest of the crew’s sleeping and living area’s was exceptionally more luxurious and comfortable. The Spirit of Life opened the door to the room and glided in silently, already aware that the captain, Kenwa, was in the dreaming states of sleep, the most susceptible state of sleeping. The Spirit of Life began by making his dreams morph into a dream which contain very bluntly, himself, Kenwa, being chased down by firstly whales, secondly his country and family who were disgusted by his whaling behaviour, and not only that but he was drowning slowly. This mixture of dreams had a most profound effect on him and quite quickly arose from his light slumber in slight agony and in a pool of his own sweat. He was even too shaken to scream or make a noise. The Spirit of Life purposely had not made itself invisible and this made Kenwa scream almost inaudibly, but The Spirit of Life shushed him up quickly.
Instead of waiting for the inevitable question of its identity, The Spirit of Life quickly and bluntly said, “I am The Spirit of Life and you have ignored pleas from the international, scientific and environmental communities about your continuance of whaling. I am here to change your ways and remove you from such a demoralizing act of inhumanity against other lives.â€
“I have done no such thing and my country is proud of my doings and supports them wholeheartedly.†Kenwa replied feebly, almost as if he didn’t even believe his own words coming out of his mouth.
“Are you sure that your country truly supports whaling, or is that what your superiors want you to believe?â€
“I don’t know, I have never thought of that before.â€
“You have been conned and fooled into believing that this is research, but this too is false. Consequently so you cannot spoil anyone’s plans for anti-whaling, you will forget exactly what I have said but believe that you yourself have come up with these words and you will believe them and accept them. You will now fall asleep but awaken with a new mindset and a brand new attitude that takes in environmentalism, respect, forgiveness, conservation and especially anti-whaling. Goodnight.â€
“What… do you…?†Kenwa replied sleepily as he was pulled back into unconsciousness.
The Spirit of Life didn’t leave but merely awaited his return to consciousness in the morning, with hope and encouragement. In the meantime though he too “slept†but not in the conventional sense of the word, but in a deeper more controlled and meaningful sleep that cannot be explained or taught through words but only through experiences.
Before Kenwa had even began to filter back into consciousness after the best sleep of his lifetime, The Spirit of Life was awake monitoring any thoughts and emotions of Kenwa and awaiting his awake, all concealed in invisibility of course.
After a few more moments, Kenwa had tiredly awoken from his deep, deep slumber, and he merely awoke normally until he was truly awoken. Then he remembered his epiphany about his brand new attitudes and simply sat down and thought all about them. The Spirit of Life was monitoring his thoughts through this period and saw that there was absolutely no thought, trace or suggestion of disbelief or rejection, which was an extremely pleasing sign. The Spirit of Life saw that there was, at the moment, no need to alter any more thoughts and just see whether his mind stayed in this state for the rest of the day. But as a precaution, The Spirit of Life would accompany him around until it was certain that he truly believed his new attitudes.
The day slipped by without any rejection or hint of his old ways and that made The Spirit of Life pleased enough to remove itself from Kenwa and leave him be, and move onto the vice-captain.
The vice-captain’s mind fell even more easily than the captain and already The Spirit of Life could tell that the psyche of the ship had altered dramatically and the rest of the ship would fall a whole lot easily. The Spirit of Life decided that he would rest up for the next day’s events.
The next day The Spirit of Life could tell that all the rest of the crew could already tell that something was happening and it was pretty big. The Spirit of Life was confident that it alone could change 3 minds in 24 hours and that Etsu could change possibly 1-2 minds in the same period of time, and that would reduce the ship’s negative psyche and make it even easier to topple the corrupt centre of the whaling ship. This would also mean that they should finish the ship completely, in only a week instead of two weeks, which could mean that they would be able to return to port and reveal the news to the world earlier.
The Spirit of Life actually managed 4 minds in 24 hours and was quickly seeing that it would become a whole lot easier than it had planned.
The routine of changing minds continued for 3 more days and on the 4 day Etsu and The Spirit of Life had both arrived at the same person. Before they could chat and tell each other of their own successes, they had to change the mind of the man caught between them. It took only a couple of minutes between them to sway the man’s mind, and they quickly moved to the secluded engine room to find out the news.
Once they had arrived both Etsu and The Spirit of Life were about to speak and both stopped and insisted the other person speak, so The Spirit of Life said, “The mind changing has been tremendously successful and a lot less tiring and strenuous than I had planned. How has everything been going on your side of the crew?â€
“My side has been the same, pretty easy. Now I guess that we both have to check each other’s side to be sure of complete success, is that correct?â€
“Yeah that is correct and then we will check each person together.â€
“Can we rest for one day, even though it has been easy, it does take a lot out of you? And that would enable the new attitudes to set in and we can see whether or not the attitudes are still holding.â€
“I guess you’re right, we will rest for one day and then we shall begin checking everyone.â€
“Good, if that is it I guess I will go and rest up.â€
“Yes, goodbye.â€
“See you later.â€
Two days later The Spirit of Life and Etsu both checked each and every crew member to be sure that they were truly changed in their attitudes and thoughts. It only took them the one day but it was needed because one crew member was returning to their old ways and needed a quick fix up.
At the end of the day they again met in the engine room and they both reported that the day had been a complete success and that they could begin the arduous task of emptying the fuel tanks of the honey-petrol mixture, so they could begin filling the tanks up with the clean petrol that they had secretly hidden away to use so they could return back to Japan. It took them a couple of hours to empty the fuel tanks of the unusable honey-petrol mixture. They decided that they wouldn’t fill the tanks back up with petrol now, and would fill them up at a later stage. They also decided that they would again call it a night and rest up for the next day, as it would be an eventful day returning to Japan.
The next day the Spirit of Life quickly went around the ship checking each person’s attitude and thoughts to see whether there were any cracks in their new implanted attitudes, which there weren’t.
Meanwhile Etsu was filling up the fuel tanks with petrol when suddenly he heard almost silently muffled footsteps, which could have been made by one of the crew walking around the galleys, but it sounded like it was inside the engine room. The footsteps furthermore sounded as if they were purposely being muffled with great care and patience, like someone was purposely sneaking up on Etsu. Etsu looked around but couldn’t see anyone, but the engine room had many blind spots and hiding places, so it was likely that this intruder couldn’t be seen. Etsu returned back to his task of filling the petrol tanks with an added sense of unease and uncertainty. Etsu strained his hearing to see whether the noises returned but they never returned. Etsu purposely remained in the engine room after filling up the tanks and silently looked around again and was thinking for the assistance of The Spirit of Life. As he was doing so he again heard more muffled footsteps and looked around the room and again saw no-one. He walked around looking for this mysterious intruder when he saw The Spirit of Life floating in front of him. Etsu was about to tell it about the mysterious noises when The Spirit of Life put his finger to his lip to silence Etsu. The Spirit of Life glided towards the direction of the intruder and uncovered who this intruder was.
The intruder was a stowaway that had accidently stumbled onto the ship when it left port and ever since, had been hiding in the engine room and venturing out of the room at night to purloin some food from the ship’s kitchen. The Spirit of Life and Etsu decided that they will keep the stowaway on board and will remove and alter any thoughts, memories, experiences and believes of his time on the ship once they had almost arrived back at the Japanese port.
They went back up to the bridge and started the engines back up to see whether they would start up and take them back to Japan. When they turned the engines on they started up with a loud roar, it filled an unusual silence. They, with the help of the real captain and navigator, set off towards Japan.
It took them, nine days to arrive back at the Japanese port, with hollowed cheers coming from the ever dwindling crowds gathered to welcome the whaler’s home. Before they could front any press conference they needed to go through the Japanese customs. The Spirit of Life advised Etsu that it was leaving the ship and leaving Etsu and Kenwa were to face the media and reveal to them what had transpired and what the true reason for Japanese whaling was and why the rest of the world should end as well.
Japanese customs cleared them in only a couple of days and saw that there was an even less whales in this year’s catch. As soon as they began departing from the ship they were surrounded by a couple of inquisitive journalists asking them what had happened. Etsu fronted the media, with the captain, and told the world that the whaling ship had had engine difficulties and decided that they would end whaling in this vessel forever and that they were hoping that the rest of the world’s vessels would end their time as well.