Short Fiction Friday: Headwater LLC

Headwater LLC by Sequoia Nagamatsu, Lightspeed Magazine #56

 [no synopsis supplied]

I have recently found out that there are several well reputed Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines out there that offer a great wealth of short fiction. Lightspeeds Magazine is just one of those magazines, I read a anthology by John Joseph Adams last year, Dead Man's Hand, that blew me away, I got the same feeling of some of the stories that I read in this magazine so far! 

The story of Headwater LLC picks up directly with a very interesting introduction, the protagonist of the story, Yoko collects water from a special creature called a "kappa" these are creatures from Japanese folklore. Yes Yoko is collecting water from the head of a kappa as it is said to have special powers. She is currently Yoko grew up in a small town village and that has been transformed to serve as the base of operations for Headwater LLC, who bottles the magical water of the kappa and sells it for big profit. This water is said to help with all illnesses. Yoko and Masa, the kappa she has befriended kept the secret of the magical water secret for a long time, but one day at school Yoko desperately wanted to belong to the popular kids at school and she made a bad decisions. She revealed just what kind of power the Kappa have. This is what you read in the remainder of the story. Seeing just how Yoko was used by the other girls, and how she was pushed towards the background and they taking over the company and only using it to exploint and make profit. Yoko is determined to set things right, no matter the cost. 

The story that Sequoia Nagamatsu is really cool. I am a big fan of folklore and like fairytales. I read a few other Japanese inspired stories before this one and I have to say that somehow this just inspires a really mythical feeling to the story. Added to this comes a very clear writing and a interesting setup of the story. It is divided into small chapter wherein everything is explained bit by bit. What completely finishes the story the protagonist Yoko who was captured very nicely by Sequoia Nagamatsu.


Read the full story here