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Aigis and her sister Labrys lived rather sheltered lives. They lived on a remote tropical island that held a small, but wealthy, community. Their adoptive ‘parent’ frequently kept the two sisters inside most of the time, subjecting them to seemingly endless hours of homeschooling, in order to prepare them for the future. But sometimes, on very rare occasions, the two were allowed momentary reprieve and allowed some free time to themselves to spend as they wish. Typically, this time would be spent together, using walking along the beach side; however, this afternoon, Aigis found herself walking along the beach alone. Labrys had informed her that she had apparently already made prior engagements, (with friends she had been unaware her sister had, nonetheless) and Aigis didn’t simply wish to completely abandon her walk. She loved the beach, and the ocean. most of her adoptive family didn’t think much of it, but Aigis loved feeling the sand beneath her feet, the salty, ocean breeze in her hair and on her face; and she especially loved watching the sunset on the horizon. She wished she had some friends of her own to share her love with.
She didn’t, however, love coming across unconscious bodies across the shore. She had stopped dead in her tracks she spotted the unmoving figure on the edge of the shoreline, the weak waves flowing over it every so often as the tide moved. Her immediate thought, however, was to run over to the body and check to see if they were alive. However, the closer she got, the stranger the person seemed to get. The first thing she noticed was the hair. Rather than any normal colour, instead, the hair on this person was a vibrant blue. The next thing was that they had glistening, light blue scales covering their shoulders and bits of their skin.
Somehow, it was only when she came to a stop next to the body that she saw the long, blue scaled tail. She stood, eyes wide and staring wordlessly at the unmoving tail that resembled a fish, or a dolphins. Is this…...a merperson? She had heard of them before, in the books she had read. Half-sea creature, half human beings that dwelled deep under the water. They had been called nothing but a silly myth, however! Yet…..there was no doubting what was right before her. She felt something cold wet her feet, and it snapped her out of her stupor as she looked down and found a piece of seaweed had found its way across her feet. Crouching down, she peeled it off. And in doing so, she managed to get a closer look at the person lying half in the sand, half in the water. They were face down, with their strange blue hair covering their face. Gently, she reached out and carefully pushed the figure onto their back, and she let out a small gasp. Their short wet hair stuck to their youthful face, and Aigis found herself staring intently at the closed eyed enigma. More of the blue scales adorned their face, coming down from their temples and spreading out across their cheeks. instead of regular human ears, there seemed to be strange, fin-like appendages instead. They had small cuts, lacerations, and bite marks adorning their skin, and Aigis quickly noted that these injuries were all over their body, including their tail, and she took a breath. She reached out again with two fingers, pressing them against the underside of their jawline, (also noting the gills that spanned across their neck) she checked for a pulse.
She let out a sigh of relief when she felt one. Yet it was short lasted as she realised she had no idea what to do. Lying in front of her right was a creature that was thought to be nothing but a fairy tale. Aigis briefly wondered if this was dream; but was quickly convinced it was not as another piece of seaweed slapped across her feet. They were injured, and Aigis felt pity for the creature, yet had no way of nothing what course of action to take. Should she simply throw them back into the ocean?? Perhaps not, it would seem that they got their injuries from the ocean. Should they take them to the local doctor? No, they would think she insane. She bit her lip. That would leave only one more option. Take them home with her.
This is truly foolish. Aigis kept thinking to herself as she carried the body through the back alley of town where she knew she would go unnoticed by people. I am going to get into a lot of trouble for this. Yet despite what her brain was telling her, she continued on, eventually reaching the back-gate of her home’s estate. Stealthily, she went in and through the garden, taking care to avoid the family gardener as she slipped by into the back door.
Somehow, she managed to make it up to her bedroom’s bathroom undetected, and she let out a breath that she didn’t realise she had been holding in as she entered and bolted the door shut after carefully placing the person into her bathtub. Their tail was slightly too long for the bath, and it twisted upwards off the edge, the thin flukes flopping down. She hummed, turning on the water and allowing the tub to fill up a good amount with cold water before nodding, proud of herself. She then turned, unbolting the door, she stopped and briefly turned to look at the figure still lying unconscious in the tub; before leaving and closing the door behind her to fetch some supplies.
The last thing Makoto remembered was exploring some sunken ship with his friends, looking for relics from the dry land. He also remembered them getting attacked by a really pissed shark that one of them had accidentally disturbed. He had stayed behind to buy time for his friends to escape, but he had….underestimated just how angry and strong that shark had been. And then it had all gone dark.
Maybe he was dead.
He supposed he wouldn’t really know for sure until he actually opened his eyes.
So he did, albeit rather slowly. But when he had opened his eyes, his vision blurred for a few seconds before finally his surroundings came into focus. He felt dizzy, but when he tried to lift a hand to his head, a sharp pain shot through him, and he hissed, dropping it down again instantly. Cringing, he looked down his body to find himself covered in red bite marks and scratches. Somehow, for having been in a shark attack though, they didn’t look quite as bad as he thought they might. He chalked it up his natural healing abilities. But that left the question of how long he had been out for exactly. He looked up further to examine his tail, it had a few cuts, but no deep bite marks, thankfully. Experimentally, he attempted to move his tail, breathing a sigh of relief when it responded accordingly.
He deduced that by some miracle, he was still alive.
It was then that he finally realised the strange position he was in and the foreign environment. He seemed to be in some sort of…..frustratingly tiny body of contained water. He barely fit into it, and he was rather uncomfortable, now that he thought harder about it. He attempted to shift himself, but instead only found himself slipping against the strange material the container was constructed from and his tail slapped against what seemed to be a wall. Gritting through the throbbing pain, he shifted himself back up, and found himself blowing his long bangs out of his face. Which, judging by the fact that his hair was dry alerted him to the fact that he must be out of water.
On dry land. The surface world. The world that he had always been told should be avoided at all costs.
Although he never really cared about any of the fear tactics his cohorts had attempted to drill into him in the past. In fact, he was rather fascinated with the surface world. That's why he and his friend had been in that sunken ship in the first place.
But he could only make the assumption that currently he was being held in this hell container because he was about to somehow be tormented into doing something for a land dweller.
He supposed that at least he would have gotten to see the surface world a little up close before dying. Resigned to his apparent fate, Makoto slid his body back down a little more into the meagre amount of water the container supplied him with. His eyes flicked briefly down to the silver shell that hung on a necklace around his neck. It wouldn’t do much good using it here, since he wasn’t anywhere near the shore, so his friends would have no way of reaching him anyway. He blew out a sigh and simply sat in silence and waited for whatever was to come next.
Which just so happened to be a girl of some sort suddenly appearing through some secret archway he hadn’t noticed. He lazily turned his head to look at her, and the girl froze, His Gray meeting her bright, bright blue.
Makoto’s gaze travelled down, and further down still, his gaze now locking onto the two appendages that seemed to be in place of where her tail should be. Weird…...they’re like flesh sticks. There was a beat of silence before he heard the girl (He was assuming it was a girl, at least) Spoke.
“you’re awake!” He didn’t really register her words though, as he was too fascinated by the two appendages attached to her body, appearing from underneath some kind of material worn around her body. The appendages seemed to shift and curl inwards as the girl continued to nervously speak. “-Can you stop staring at my legs, please?” Legs? Makoto looked back at to the stranger’s face, and tilted his head. Were those…things…...called…legs? At his silence, the girl didn’t say anything else, instead coming towards him (he instantly flicked his eyes back down to her ‘legs’) and she dropped down onto the ground to be eye level with him.
Another beat of silence.
“Are you…...feeling okay? I found you on the beach, unconscious and bleeding. What happened?” She had….found him? Had he washed up on some beach? Also, she had a very direct way of speaking. “I applied some medicine to some of your wounds, and you stopped bleeding, but you didn’t wake up, so I was getting somewhat worried and-“
“Did you….carry me here?” He finally spoke aloud, and instantly he found that his voice was rough, and dry. He started coughing, and the girl became flustered, scrambling to reach for something nearby.
“Here! Drink this! I assume you need water, correct?” she held out some sort of glassy material, which held more contained water. He took it from her, and quickly tipped the contents into his mouth. It wasn’t exactly much, but it would do for now. He already felt his body recovering itself slightly faster. “Better-“
“Did you…...heal me?” The girl nodded tentatively. Maybe my healing abilities still aren’t up to snuff after all. Reminder to study more with Yukari later. If I ever make it back to the ocean in one piece, that is.
“I…” He realised his gaze had fallen back down to her ‘legs’ and when he looked back up to her face, he found her skin was flushed red and her eyes were locked downwards shyly. “...I suppose I did? I just Applied the medicine, I didn’t really do much other than tha-“
“Could you take me back to the ocean?” The girl’s eyes snapped back to him, seemingly shocked at his manner of direct speech. Junpei had always told him he needed to work on his social skills.
“But your injuries-“
“They’ll heal better if i’m back in the ocean.” He answered plainly. It was true, after all. He was healing, but it was painfully slow. “There are people who are probably worried about me. So, if you wouldn’t mind, could you take me back?” The strange ‘leg’ girl bit her lip, eyes looking around the area. She looked….not upset, but….taken aback, seemingly. Taking a moment to steel herself, apparently, she stood back up, taking the glass dome thing from his hand placing it down nearby, she went to retrieve something else she had bought in with her.
“I’ll have to dry you off first. Is that acceptable?” Makoto didn’t know what a ‘towel’ was, but he supposed it was his only option, as he really didn’t want to be dropped at any point. So he nodded, and She set to work. Awkwardly manoeuvring her way around his tail, she unplugged something, and the water in the container drained out, leaving him lying in just the now dry container, she placed the ‘towel’ over his tail and wiped it down the length of it, he felt a brief jolt run through his body when she placed the ‘towel’ on his flukes, and he squeezed his eyes shut at the foreign sensation, only opening them again when he felt something soft wrap around his shoulders and upper chest briefly before he was effortlessly lifted out of the container. How strong was this girl?
“Please hold on to me. I don’t wish to drop you at any point.” He complied wordlessly, his arms coming to rest around her neck as her hands sat comfortably around his body. It felt…..strange. He’d never really been held like this before (he didn’t count earlier when he was unconscious) and as the girl snuck through the dark halls of the unfamiliar building, he found himself more and more fascinated by his surroundings, eyes looking around with subdued wonder at every little thing, every so often he’d reach out to maybe touch something, before being whisked out of range of it by the girl. Soon, they made it outside, and Makoto shivered in the girl’s hold, the night wind cold on his skin. On some sort of weird instinct, he pulled himself closer to the girl’s body. and he heard her let out a quiet gasp at the action. Once the two were walking through some sort of dry land community, the girl began to speak again, her voice quiet.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what caused you to wash up on the beach?” Should he tell her? She didn’t seem like she meant any harm to him; judging by how she’d apparently healed him and all. “Shark attack.” Was all the answer he gave her. She didn’t really need any other details. The less she knows the better.
“You were attacked by a shark!? You poor thing….” Her sympathetic tone made him feel a little embarrassed. What was he? a fry? “No wonder you had all those bite marks on you…..” That was the last thing she said until they made it to the edge of the community, where Makoto spotted a ledge nearby that would work perfectly for his intentions, and led her towards it, where she came to a stop by the edge. She looked down at him, a questioning look across her face, as he reached down to the shell around his neck, and blew into it, a quiet, melodic whistle coming out. They waited in silence as Makoto looked out on the horizon, watching, waiting.
Until finally, who heads popped out from the water at the same time.
“Heyyy Mako!!!! You’re alive!!!” One of them, Junpei, joyously greeted him, a wide grin spreading across his face. “Oo~ Who’s the babe? You manage to pick up a land-walker?” Makoto felt his face warm a little at the comment. “Nice catch, dude-OW, heyy, whats the big idea, Yuka-tan!” He was jabbed in the ribs by his other friend, Yukari, who combed her wet hair back with her webbed fingers.
“He almost died Stupei, and all you can think about is the weird girl carrying him?? What’s wrong with you!” She sighed, looking up at him with her wide brown eyes. “Are you okay? Come down here so I can check you over.” She called up to the cliff, gesturing him down, and Makoto looked up at the stranger again to find her staring in wonder at his two friends.
“Makoto…….” She whispered, quietly, and he tilted his head.
“What about it?” His voice seemed to snap her out of her stupor and she looked down to him in her arms.
"Ah! Sorry, I was just thinking….that’s a very beautiful name…..” She trailed off shyly, and Makoto felt himself blush again. “Um…..thank you….” He squirmed a little in her arms. “But can you throw me back into the ocean now?” There was that taken-aback expression again, except now he could detect a hint of melancholy behind it.
“Ah…..yes, of course….” And with that, she threw him over the edge, clumsily falling to her knees in the process of him leaving her arms, and she watched as he gracefully spin himself in the air, landing perfectly into the ocean below, before reemerging in between his two friends. Immediately, his female, pink-scaled friend grabbed his face with her hands, turning his head harshly towards her as she squished his cheeks to inspect him closely.
“Ugh, that shark did a number on you. Hold on….” She closed her eyes, and he watched the pink glow on her hands slowly seep into his skin, and instantly, he felt almost fully recovered. Her hold on his face loosened, and she smiled gently at him. “There….Feel better?” Taking her hands in his, he lifted them from his face.
“Yeah. Thanks, Yukari.” From above them, they heard a small gasp, and they looked up at the blonde girl, still sat up on the cliff looking down at them with amazement.
“That…..was amazing! You can heal people’s injuries?” Yukari faltered, blushing.
“Eh? Ah, y-yeah, I can….it’s one of my talents…Thanks, I guess….” Junpei, who had gone quiet while Yukari worked, finally decided to chime in again, waving a hand up to the girl.
"Thanks for takin’ care of this fragile little flower for us! He always has been a bit delicate” He slung an arm around Makoto, and Yukari rolled her eyes.
“Please. Mako could swim circles around you in terms of battles.” Her eyes hovered over to the girl on the cliff. “But, yeah. Thanks-uh…..”
“Aigis Ikustuki.” Something about that last name made a shiver run through Makoto’s spine. It sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t quite remember why……
“Uh, yeah. Thanks, Aigis.” Yukari awkwardly finished, turning back to Makoto and Junpei. “Well, We’d better get going. It’s already late, and everyone else is probably looking for us. Let’s go.” Yukari and Junpei gave Aigis one last look and wave before dipping down below the water, but as Makoto went to go, Aigis suddenly called out to him.
“Um! Please, wait a moment!” He stopped, staring at her in silence. “Will-Will I ever see you again?” What a strange girl…..
“Probably not.” He didn’t really want to lie about anything, it was very unlikely that they’d see each other ever again. In the distance, he watched Aigis’ shoulders sink, and her gaze turn downwards.
“Ah….I see……” He went to go again, but she called out once more, and he had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. She now stood, clutching something in her hand. “Please! Take this!” she threw something down to him, and he caught it perfectly, recognising it as a glittering necklace, adorned with a light blue jewel in the shape of a butterfly. Had she been wearing this around her neck? “Something….to remember me by.” How cliche. And yet…..he found himself slip his own shell necklace off his neck, giving it one last glance before throwing it up to her. She briefly fumbled, but caught it. “Is this…?”
“If you…..ever really want to see me again, I guess…...just blow into it….” It was contradictory to what he said earlier, he knew, and his face burned a little as he said it, but it was the least he could do, he figured. meeting her eyes one final time, he finally dipped below the water. Quickly slipping the new butterfly necklace around his neck and examining it with a small smile.
Aigis watched the glittering blue tail disappear under the murky water, and exhaled dreamily, clutching the silver shell necklace to her chest. She had just met not one, not two, but three merfolk in one afternoon. She stood, looking over the horizon, watching as the deep blue water moved serenely, and the cold nightly breeze swam through her hair. Perhaps there was a chance she could finally make some friends of her own.