Chapter Text
Ryuji had decided to visit the beach that day on a whim, it was a Sunday so he didn’t have any school to occupy this time and the sky was deep blue and clear of clouds as far as the eye could see, the air temperature was a little on the warm side but there was a light breeze coming from the ocean to keep him cool.
He’d arrived at the beach just after the low tide had finished had ended so he had spent most of the morning walking up and down the shoreline, collecting any cool looking shells he saw and investigating any exposed tide pools he came across, he saw many of the usual occupants in said tide pools, crabs and slugs, sea urchins and starfish, and the various small fish that populated the rocky crevices. He also saw one very unusual addition to the tidal community.
The blond had found and quickly decided to explore an area near the water’s edge where the rocks curled protectively around a particularly large pool of water.
When he had first approached the pool, he had been surprised to see what had at first appeared to be a man with tanned skin and fluffy black hair curled up in the water with his back to the entrance effectively hiding any other features from view. Ryuji had been so surprised to see someone in a location like this that it took him a moment before he noticed the man had several long gashes most of which still seemed to be bleeding to various extents.
When he finally did notice this fact, the blond rushed forward quickly pulling out his phone with the ambulance already dialed and his finger hovering over the call button, when he got close enough to the man to take in a few more very important details, the first and arguably most important of which was that he had a tail and fins in the place of legs and feet. The tail was long and covered in dual-toned black and red scales the tail fin itself was completely red. The next was that it didn’t react at all to the humans approach so the blond assumed that the mer was either asleep or unconscious.
Ryuji stared at the body in front of him failing to process what exactly he was seeing. It wasn’t until he heard a voice coming from his phone that he was startled back to reality. He quickly reassured the operator on the other end of the line that his call was for a false alarm, he came up with a story about how one of his friends had been suffocating but after he had called they’d managed to cough up the food they’d been chocking on, and that he actually didn’t need an ambulance. It took a few minutes but eventually, he was able to convince the operator of the tall tale but eventually they relented, and the blond was able to return to the creature in front of him.
‘holy shit,’ was all the ever-eloquent teenager could think as his brain came back online. taking advantage of his rediscovered mental facilities he quickly leaned down to get a better look at the mer. The first thing he did was check on the injuries to its back. He observed that there was a total of four gashes looking similar to the gashes one would see on manatees that get struck by boat motors. the first one placed over the shoulder blades and the last near the small of the back. Those two were relatively small and had mostly scabbed over at this point. The third one located about halfway between the first and the last one was about the same length and slightly deeper them it also wasn’t completely scabbed over yet but had all but stopped bleeding.
The one he was the most worried about was the second one down, it was both the longest of the for and the deepest, so it made sense that it was the one that was bleeding the heaviest and while heaviest was a relative term, in truth the wound was barley even producing a trickle of blood, Ryuji was still concerned about it and given that he had no idea how long the mer had been laying here nor how much blood it had already lost he didn’t want to take any more chances than necessary which meant that stopping the bleeding was his top priority.
Unfortunately, the blond hadn’t brought any first aid supplies with him, not having expected to run into anyone with a major injury during his trip to the beach. Thinking quickly Ryuji pulled off his shirt and used it as an improvised bandage wrap. Luckily for him, the mer was on the thin side so the bright yellow t-shirt easily managed to wrap around him. it also appeared that Ryuji's earlier assumption the mer was unconscious was the correct one as during the entire time he was being shifted around the only time he moved of his own accord was when he flinched away from the bandage making contact with his open wound.
With that problem temporarily solved, the teen was faced with a new one, what exactly to do with the injured mer in front of him. he briefly considered just walking away and leaving the mer to its fate, but tossed it aside almost instantly, the thought leaving a foul taste in his mouth. He considered his other options and diced that the best course of action would be to somehow get the mer back to his place and figuring things out from there. the only problem with that plan was that the blond had taken the bus to get to the beach and for some reason, he figured that carrying a merman onto a bus would not end well. So he pulled out his phone and texted the only person in his friend group who could actually help him.
RS- Yo, Makoto your car has a big trunk, right?
MN-Yes, why?
RS-Hang on I’ll send a pic
RS-Fishman.img
RS-I found this guy and he’s injured, I need some way to get him to my house and you’re the only person I know with a car.
MN-And why are you taking him to your house and not say an aquarium?
RS-Because who knows what’ll happen to him if I do t theyll probbly just use him as some kind of cash grab.
RS- Or theyll give him to some science-y types and have them run all kinds of test on him.
RS-They might even just decide to cut him open and see what they can learn from that!
RS-Is that what you want makoto, is it?
MN-Alright, alright, I see your point, just give me your location and ill be there as soon as I can
Having received the confirmation that his friend was on her way Ryuji went to sit at the mouth of the rock formation and settled himself in for the wait.