Chapter Text
From her perch, Umi inspected the ship. Everything seemed to be in perfectly normal order, Rin was sweeping the floors, Eli was in her quarters, reviewing the route she had planned for her, and Honoka was steering the ship. As for the ocean, it was perfectly at peace. Not a threat or difficulty in sight. For the first time in a long while, she could actually relax. After a little deliberation with herself, she decided to come down from the crow’s nest. At least briefly, everything was under control, so she thought she should take the opportunity to rest while it was there.
She went below deck to her quarters and collapsed onto the bed, allocating herself an hour of lazing about before going to check on her crewmates.
Unfortunately, like all time Umi intended to spend lazing, it was cut short. An incessant creaking seeping through the ship and into her room. She recognised it quickly, it was the stairs down to the cargo room. A sound that shouldn't exist. The cargo room was to be checked at certain intervals by whoever was in charge of it that day. And for that day, it had already been checked. Honoka had been down there and stated that there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Umi ran through a few possibilities of what it could be. Just the movement of the ship causing it to creak, a stray bird having landed and deciding to explore the ship, or possibly even a rat. She prided herself on having a clean ship, but she couldn’t deny it was possible for one to be there.
But those were all pleasant possibilities, and the mind didn’t deal in those, preferring to focus on the more worrying potential outcomes. Umi was no exception, and worry set comfortably in. The possibilities changed from birds and rats to attackers or escapees. Or perhaps just one of the other two away from their post. Whatever it was, Umi couldn’t leave it uninvestigated, so she rose from the comfort of her bed to track down the source of the creaking.
Once she got the top of the stairs, the answer was clear. Rin. Very, very, very slowly. Sneaking her way down the stairs, completely oblivious to the creaking that gave her away. “Rin, what are you doing?” Umi snapped coldly.
“N-nothing, nya!” Rin squeaked, standing to attention, her arm nearly re-positioning itself into a salute.
“Aren’t you supposed to be cleaning?” Umi glared.
“I-I finished!” she replied in a high-pitched panic.
“Well what about going and checking the cannons?” Umi pressured.
“Uh…”
“And counting our food supply?”
“Uhhh….”
Umi sighed. “You have work, go do it.” she said curtly, preparing to turn and leave.
“But Umi! I want to see the mermaid.” she complained. “The Captain and Honoka got to already.”
“And you’ll get your turn to check on her tomorrow.” Umi responded tiredly.
“Yes but, don’t you wanna know what she’s like?”
“It’s just another thing to sell” Umi insisted.
“Aw c’mon, don’t you wanna at least find out if they’re friendly or not?” Rin pleaded.
“Not really, no.” she gave a dry reply. “Besides, she nearly killed us. Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know?”
“Uhhh.” Rin struggled to think of an argument, looking down at her feet and thinking. “Hey! What’s that!” she exclaimed, pointing behind Umi and running down the stairs.
Umi didn’t react to Rin’s attempted ruse at all, simply running after her once she started down the stairs. “Rin! Stop!” Umi growled, reaching out to grab her, only for Rin to duck under and dart away.
In no time at all they were at the door at the bottom of the stairs, Umi still swiping at Rin to try and stop her. She restrained Rin’s arm, but the other managed to snake to the doorknob and push it open, causing the two of them to embarrassingly tumble out into the mermaid’s room.
Nozomi peered out of the bath, smirking at them, it seemed as if she had been waiting for them, her smug look prepared in advance. Umi shot a glare at her, standing up and dusting herself off. Nozomi remained unphased, despite the daggers Umi had given her, the same pair that left most enemy pirates quivering before she had even drawn her sword.
“So, what’re you two doing here?” Nozomi asked nonchalantly, treating her captors as she would anyone else.
“Nothing.” Umi snarled, grabbing Rin by the arm and starting to drag her away.
“Visiting you!” Rin chirped, slipping out of Umi’s arms and rushing over to her. Umi started over to grab Rin again, but the shimmer of her knife kept her back. Umi sighed, she knew that Rin was good with a knife, there was no point risking an unnecessary injury on stopping her.
She was curious about the creature anyway, maybe it was a good idea for the two of them to talk with it.
“Huh?” Nozomi said, tilting her head, completely mystified by the two of them.
All of a sudden, Rin’s knife was pointed toward Nozomi. “So, do you eat people?” she asked, unusually chipper.
“Nah.” she shrugged. “They taste bad, and there’s plenty of fish out there for us to eat instead.”
“I see…” Rin nodded. “Can you do magic?”
“Nope. But I can read your fortune if you get me some cards.” Nozomi gave what could be described as a shark-like grin, although it’d be more apt to say that sharks wore a siren-like grin. “
Rin looked over to Umi quick with excitement, however Umi responded with a solemn shake of her head. “Sorry, we don’t have any, nya.” Rin said, frowning with her head hung.
“Ah, no worries.” Nozomi responded, dismissing the issue with a handwave. “Maybe some other time.”
Umi shot them both a cold glance, chills ran down their spines. They were being too friendly. Rin let Umi’s coldness flow through her, attempting to use it for herself. “What do you lure ships in for anyway?” she said, slightly more aggressive than her previous questions. She looked back at Umi who gave an approving nod, Rin swelled with pride.
“We don’t. We just sing.” Nozomi said plainly. “You humans are the ones who drive your ships toward us.”
Umi grumbled something under her breath and stepped forward. She didn’t intend to speak directly to the siren yet, just hear what she was saying. And frankly she didn’t like what she was hearing, the siren acting so innocent bothered her. She refused to vocalise it though, merely glaring at it as Rin continued her conversation.
“Ummm…” she struggled, attempting to come up with another question. “What are catfish like?” she exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at her with anticipation. She had been wondering this for a long while now, and she was hyped up for the answer.
Nozomi snickered, not wanting to ruin her dreams, she simply answered. “Different than you’d expect.”
“What about tiger sharks?”she asked next, her excitement not fading.
“They’re pretty nice.” Nozomi said, she recalled them being rather relaxed and docile around sirens, despite them being the apex predators.
Rin grinned. “I’ve always wanted to catch one!” she confessed. Umi could be heard sighing in the background. “Are they hard to catch?”
“For a human, probably.” Nozomi said plainly. “But not impossible.” she smiled, Rin’s eyes lit up. “So, you like cats then?”
Rin nodded so enthusiastically her head seemed it would fly off. “But we can’t get a ship cat because I’m allergic.” she grumbled, side-eyeing Umi.
“It’s a health hazard.” she replied. “I can’t jeopardize your health just for some cat.”
“It’s not even that bad though!” Rin whined. Umi gave her a cold stare, Rin knew she was keeping her safe, but in all honesty she valued cats over her own safety by far.
“Who are you two anyway? A double act?” Nozomi questioned, flipping over in the bathtub and looking at them upside down.
“I’m Rin! I’m good at knives! This is Umi, she’s like the boss but not.” Rin explained simply.
“What Rin meant to say is, she’s our combat specialist and I’m the first mate. But I also perform a lot of our management tasks, navigation, observatio-”
Nozomi snickered, she already knew who they were, but it was interesting hearing them describe themselves, it gave her a real idea of their personalities. She figured she could get along with them, if their circumstances were different at least.
“Basically Umi does everything! But she’s bad with people so she’s not the captain.” Rin explained.
Umi shot her a dark look. “I don’t do everything, and you’re not giving the captain enough credit.”
Nozomi slowly nodded in acknowledgement. “Yeah, I can already tell that the captain is better than you at a lot of stuff.” she teased, half expecting Umi to draw a sword on her. However she hardly moved, her eyes widened and she looked away, and that was all.
Rin looked at Nozomi with awe, she’d never seen someone shut Umi down so effectively. It was an absolutely incredible achievement in her eyes.
“Wh-what do you know about the captain anyway?” Umi retorted.
“Hmm. That she’s hot.” Nozomi’s sharp teeth displayed themselves in a large smile.
An incoherent mess of Ws and vowels emerged from Umi’s mouth. “Y-y-y-you can’t say that!” she shouted. Meanwhile, Rin was collapsing with laughter.
“Why not?” Nozomi asked innocently.
“Because!” she growled, struggling to think of a coherent answer. With every second she was losing more and more dignity. “I-I’m telling the captain about this!” she grumbled, storming off up the stairs.
“She already knows!” Nozomi called after her, noting the red blush that was consuming her face.
Rin hadn’t left yet. She sat across from the siren and beamed at her. “That was amazing, nya.” she praised.
“Aw, nah. It’s quite a simple thing. It works for all girls like her and the captain.” Nozomi explained, leaning back and relaxing in her bathtub. It was getting surprisingly homely.
“Do… You know a lot about girls?” Rin asked softly, looking at Nozomi with wide-eyed curiousity. Nozomi nodded confidently. “If you don’t mind, could you teach me?” she asked, her eyes nervously glued to the floor, her hands fidgeting in her lap.
“Of course.” Nozomi smiled, patting her on the head with a wet, clawed hand. “What do you wanna know?”
“Well-” Rin began.
“Rin! Get up here!” Eli called, Umi clearly wasn’t bluffing when she said she would tell the captain.
“Aw…” Rin whimpered, rising to her feet and looking anxiously at the staircase.
“Hey, it’s alright.” Nozomi smiled. “Just come by another day? Then we’ll talk about girl stuff all you want, okay?”
Rin’s yellow eyes sparkled like the sunset reflected on the ocean, she nodded excitedly and rushed off upstairs, waving wildly as she did.
The siren’s room was then locked, sealing her in a lonely darkness for another day. Despite the conditions, she felt a little giddy to help Rin.
Thirteen days remain.