Nastacula

Being something other than a human can be lonely at times. You would think enough people have drowned at sea that ghosts could keep each other company, but they can’t, which is why Funayūrei exist. These are the angry remnants of those who died in shipwrecks, and are trying to make others join them. This name is from Japan, but there are several different names that will mean the same across a variety of regions.

In addition to their names changing depending on which region of Japan you visit, their appearance also varies, likely due to the fact that the cause of their death or decomposition of their bodies would affect their form. They appear on rainy days, stormy or foggy nights, and on new or full moons. Their main goal is to drown you, so they’ll take any measure necessary to do so, whether it’s ladling water in spoonful by spoonful, stranding you in a reef, making your compass malfunction, or lighting a fire on the open sea during a storm to mislead boatmen into steering to their deaths.

The good thing is that they’re pretty easy to spot since they glow, for whatever reason. You can fend them off pretty easily if you keep an eye out, as just staring at them for long enough or stirring up the water is usually enough to keep them at bay. You can also throw them snacks as a deterrent, since people love food more than anything, dead or alive. There’s a good chance that while Nas and the Siren were having their kanoodling time underwater that a Funayūrei was getting a zombified boner nearby!~ Sadly that’s about all they can do though.