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Credits
Title: SCP-3523-JP - There are Alligators in the Sewers
Author:roneatosu
Year: 2024
Item #: SCP-3523-JP
Containment Class: Pending
Special Containment Procedures: All SCP-3523-JP instances are to be stored in the Item Containment Zone in the Site-81KK Research & Containment Area. Lemuria, an occult magazine published by the Foundation front company “Shiga Central Publisher”, has featured SCP-3523-JP on two separate occasions and has been directing the information from the general public about the contents of SCP-3523-JP into irrelevant myths.
SCP-3523-JP is undergoing re-investigation in light of the recent incident. See Addendum.2 for more information.
Description: SCP-3523-JP is a book entitled "Sewer Alligator Dark Guide." All SCP-3523-JP instances are bound in a plain black cover with the title and a white symbol depicting a giant alligator, and the author is invariably identified as "the Japan Sewer Alligator Control Association."
According to its preface, SCP-3523-JP is a book about “the concealed real threat of sewer alligators and countermeasures against them," and is a nonfiction account of the events leading up to the discovery and exposure of the existence of alligators - presumed to be American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) judging from the description - allegedly inhabiting the sewers of the city of Osaka, Japan, written by Nozaki Yukihiro, the leader of this investigation project himself. However, SCP-3523-JP contains numerous inexplicable and unrealistic details that severely lack credibility; the noteworthy illogical contents of SCP-3523-JP are listed below.
- There is no evidence of crocodilians inhabiting the sewers of Osaka City.
- The book quotes “the fact that alligators inhabit the sewers of New York City,” which is an unfounded urban legend.
- Nozaki repeatedly trespasses into the sewers of Osaka City without permission, yet most people do not point this out.
- A police officer, the only individual who attempts to stop Nozaki from entering the sewers, is fatally shot by Nozaki. The persons involved who learn of this murder do not pay particular attention to it.
- Multiple persons involved, including Nozaki, are armed with rifles and handguns, both of which are illegal in Japan. Furthermore, one of the persons involved is already deceased (the book claims that this entity has returned to the mortal world with an “evident righteousness”).
- Nozaki's home is described as an unrealistically large-scale nuclear shelter.
- Multiple pseudoscientific practices, including telepathy and séance, are treated as common knowledge.
- There is no confirmation that Nozaki, any of his associates, or the Japan Sewer Alligator Control Association actually existed.
Beyond the details listed above, the book contains multiple inconsistencies, references to nonexistent locations and groups, and many other implausible descriptions. In the postface, Nozaki asserts, “I hope that even one more person will learn the truth from this book and take action to expose it."
Addendum.1 - Discovery
SCP-3523-JP was first recovered on August 21, 2012 by personnel of the Site-81KK Undefined Abnormalities Research Section when they intercepted a report that supposedly non-existent books were on display in a bookstore in Naniwa-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture. Following this event, identical items were found in bookstores in Fukushima-ku and Taishō-ku on the 24th, and a total of 223 instances were recovered throughout Osaka City by the 28th.
This incident attracted considerable interest on the Internet and caused a significant number of SCP-3523-JP instances that the Foundation failed to retrieve to circulate in the general public. Although the contents of SCP-3523-JP were disseminated on several social networking services and private blogs, large-scale suppression efforts were deemed unnecessary, as the majority of people did not accept it as a true story, but rather misidentified it as a prank or avant-garde art by an unknown party.
SCP-3523-JP received positive feedback from some occult and horror enthusiasts, which led to the establishment of a cult following within these communities. Mockumentaries inspired by SCP-3523-JP gained local momentum on literary fiction archive websites and achieved substantial notoriety when they were featured in several occult magazines. One of the most notable is Osaka Sewer Alligators, a short film adaptation of the book which was produced on February 19, 2013 by a group of amateur videomakers. The film was received with highly polarized reviews, including “a crime fantasy of phenomenal passion,” “a monstrous masterpiece that should go down in history,” “totally unfathomable,” and “37 minutes that your brain will refuse to comprehend." Although Osaka Sewer Alligators became one of the most successful SCP-3523-JP derivative works, it was gradually faded into oblivion within and outside the communities as the SCP-3523-JP craze subsided.
Addendum.2 - Incident-3523-JP
On August 21, 2022, Osaka City employees who were maintaining the sewer system reported to their supervisor that they discovered a strange entity on site. This report was detected by an undercover Foundation asset, who temporarily quarantined the civilian employees and dispatched MTF members to the scene. Several items were found and retrieved as a result.
- An unidentified human corpse.
- An extremely damaged SCP-3523-JP instance.
The corpse was subjected to forensic analysis by the Site-81KK Research & Development Section, which determined that the death was caused by fatal external injuries. These injuries were highly suggestive of large or aggressive wild animals, which would be unnatural in a sewerage environment. As part of further investigation, the Foundation attempted to interview the group that produced Osaka Sewer Alligators, which proved inconclusive, since Nozaki Kenichirō, the leader of the project, disappeared several years after the filming.
SCP-3523-JP has been temporarily redesignated as a Pending class anomaly. Since this incident, a series of wounded civilian corpses and damaged SCP-3523-JP instances have been found drifting in the sewers of Osaka City, which have been flagged as a potential ongoing anomalous event. Under the direction of the Stopper Section, control of the sewers in Osaka City is being discussed.