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Kiyoko was seven when she first encountered a mermaid.
When her family visited a popular aquarium, there were mermaids on display. Actual mermaids. They were swimming inside a tank, their tails gracefully moving in the water. There was something about them that just made them so beautiful.
There were two guppies and an adult. According to the little plaques in front of the tank, one of the guppies was the daughter of the adult, and the other guppy was a rescue case. The adult mermaid was absolutely gorgeous, her tail looked like it was made of pearls. She had light, flowing fins that complimented her wavy blond hair.
Her daughter was a lot smaller, but she had matching blond hair that confirmed their relationship. Kiyoko wondered why the little one’s tail was so… dull. Don’t get her wrong! It was still really cute, but it looked like that of a mudfish.
It was a brownish color with wavy, pale yellow patterns. Her fins weren’t anything great either, but that can probably be excused by her young age. The plaque said she was just four years old.
Kiyoko approached the glass, amazed by the creatures swimming before her eyes. The little blond guppy noticed her there and approached the other child, staring at her with adorable, curious eyes. Slowly, Kiyoko put her hand up against the glass, and the guppy mimicked the gesture. They stared into each other's eyes, as if silently communicating with each other. The guppy’s eyes spoke of wonders that Kiyoko couldn’t begin to understand.
They only separated when another child banged on the glass and the guppy swam away, startled. She rejoined her mother’s side and they flitted away to the other side of the tank.
Kiyoko remembered how she kept talking to her mother about how much she wanted to know more, to learn more, to help more.
Shimizu Kiyoko studied marine biology for four years, then continued for two more years to earn a master’s degree. She was now in her early twenties and already had her dream job ready in the palm of her hands. It’s been her dream job ever since she was a child.
As a marine biologist, she was given official authorization to work with the famous aquarium that cared for mermaids. After sixteen years, she’s finally back to the place that inspired her to pursue this career.
Though she was very excited to start on her first day, she had to wait while they fetched the former caretaker of the mermaids so he could give Kiyoko a rundown on everything she needed to know about the magnificent creatures.
Right now, she was back at the mermaid display, and now that she was bigger, she noticed just how small the tank really was. When she arrived there, it looked empty, so Kiyoko took a cautious step closer, curiously tilting her head to look from different angles.
A mermaid flew into view, bright orange hair bouncing in the water. Kiyoko startled, jumping back in surprise. The mermaid— pardon, merman, rather, smiled widely and laughed, then swam up at an impressive speed.
She… recognized that merman.
He was a guppy the last she saw him. So where was the other guppy?
“Are you looking for the other mermaid?”
Slowly, Kiyoko turned around to face a man a little taller than her. They had similar hair colors, that was the first thing Kiyoko noticed. “I, um, yes.”
“They moved her.” The man says casually and Kiyoko freezes, “Ah, no. She’s still in the vicinity, but they had to transfer her to another tank because that one isn’t large enough to hold two adults.” He then bows forward politely, “My name is Kageyama Tobio, you are?”
“Shimizu Kiyoko .” Kiyoko returns the gesture, “This place usually isn’t open to guests on Sundays…?”
“Ah, no. I’m gonna start working here today. I’m a marine biologist.”
Kiyoko tilts her head in interest, “Is that so? What a coincidence, because I am as well.”
Kageyama acknowledges the information with the nod. Then he tilts his head back to the tank with the merman inside, “That one’s named Hinata.” He informs smoothly, “From his fin type and colors, he’s probably a tropical mermaid. The first thing I’m gonna do here is add heaters into his tank so he's more comfortable.”
“Hm?” Kiyoko says, rather interested in the information being relayed to her.
“That’s why he’s moving around a lot.” Kageyama points out, “He’s keeping himself warm.”
“Amazing.” Kiyoko says in genuine astonishment, but her face does a good job at concealing her inner excitement, “You know so much.”
“Thank you.” Kageyama bows his head.
A door on the other side of the room opens and a man steps through. He has a mop of unmistakable grey hair on his head, but his face definitely shows that he isn’t actually an old man, he looks rather young actually, maybe Kiyoko ’s age. “Hello! Are you Shimizu and Kageyama?”
After getting the affirmative, the man approaches them with a smile. “My name is Sugawara Koshi, I’m the assistant caretaker of this section. Unfortunately, my senior is very busy right now, so I’ll be the one to tell you guys about everything!”
Afterwards, Sugawara leads them through another door that brings them to an area that doesn’t allow visitors. He shows them an air conditioned office where they’re supposed to take breaks and stuff, then there’s the freezer that has all of the fish and other seafood that the merpeople may want to eat. There’s also the technical room that controls all of the lights and filters in the merpeople tanks, Kageyama takes note of this room.
“And that’s pretty much it!” Sugawara says, after a solid hour of walking around the compound. “Let’s head back to the office and we can talk about the actual merpeople.”
And that they did. The trio returned to the office, Sugawara gestured to them to take a seat wherever they liked while he opened a desk and pulled out a folder. He slid it onto the desk and opened it.
“So, let's start with the little orange one.” Sugawara smiles fondly, “Hinata Shouyo is a nineteen year old male, he used to be part of the makeshift pod that included himself, another guppy and her mother.” His eyes travel a little further down the page, “His diet consists of mackerel and halibut, but he sometimes eats parrotfish if he’s in the mood.”
“ Tropical fish .” Kiyoko notes in her mind, “ Just like Kageyama had predicted .”
“You’ll notice he swims around very often,” Sugawara notes, “He seems to have this unending supply of energy. Eleven am to three pm, we open a pathway in between his and another mermaid’s tank so that they can interact. You’ll have to make sure that they don’t end up fighting, but I doubt it’ll happen! They’ve been together since guppy-hood!” He brushes back a clump of his grey hair and clears his throat. “More specific instructions are here. He really likes company, but don’t try to take things too fast, he gets scared just as easily.”
He then removes Hinata’s paper from the folder and moves on. “Next we have Yachi Hitoka. She is an eighteen year old female, and was the daughter of the late Yachi Madoka. Unfortunately, she passed away due to unexpected circumstances, but to be honest,” Sugawara’s lips twitched downwards slightly, “I think it was stress.”
Kageyama and Kiyoko glance at each other cautiously, then nod simultaneously.
“Anyways, anyways.” Sugawara waves his hand around in a dismissive gesture, “Yachi likes almost anything we give her, she seems to favor groupers wrapped in seaweed.” He taps his lip absentmindedly, “Yachi’s really shy, so she might not want to approach you first, but that’s alright. She’ll get used to you, and she really is the sweetest thing I have ever seen.”
“We promise we’ll take good care of them.” Kageyama says immediately, Kiyoko nods in agreement.
“I don’t doubt that!” Sugawara says confidently, “Alright, I’m gonna have to get back to work, but you two can head on over up those stairs I showed you so you can get to the top of the mermaid’s tanks.”
Another pair of simultaneous nods and the two are just about ready to get on their way, but then the door opens up and an unfamiliar face sticks their head through. He has a square-looking jaw, contrary to Sugawara’s rather chubby cheeks, “Hey, Suga. I can’t find the salmon in the freezer, could you help me out?”
“Sure thing, Daichi.” Sugawara smiles, “I’ll also place an order for a new stock just in case we’re out.”
“Thanks a bunch.” Daichi smiles, glances at the two newbies, waves then leaves the room, probably in a hurry.
“That was Daichi.” Sugawara introduces the man for him, “He handles the dolphins.”
“Oh.” Kiyoko says.
“Alright, yeah, I’ll see you guys later! Come back here at closing time so we can talk!”
Kageyama nods, then bows gratefully, Kiyoko follows right after him and they both leave the office. They find the stairs that Sugawara had shown them earlier and ascend up to the next floor that served as both the roof deck and the openings for a lot of the aquariums.
“Can we see Hinata first?” Kageyama asks after a brief silence.
“Of course.” Kiyoko says, it’s not like they’re in a rush. They’ve still got a few hours. Kiyoko follows the younger man as he leads her to the opening of Hinata’s tank. Looking down, you could see the merman swimming around in circles, his bright orange tail making it a little hard to lose where he’s going.
Hinata stops swimming for a moment, looking around the tank then looking up. He spots the two humans looking over and beams, swimming upwards to greet them. He breaks the surface of the water and stares at them in wonder, Kiyoko wants to cry because this is the closest she’s ever been to one of these magnificent creatures.
Then Hinata spits water at Kageyama’s face.
Kageyama reels back, his hands flying to protect his eyes from the salt water.
Kiyoko ’s eyes go wide, she checks on Kageyama first then looks back to Hinata in surprise. The merman is laughing, the gills on the side of his neck contracting and expanding rapidly. When he’s done with his laughing fit, Hinata looks at Kiyoko and she stares back, too amazed to realize that she might be spit at as well.
Hinata swims slightly forward, still staring. Then he points to his left, to another tank. He makes a thrilling noise. The knowledge from Kiyoko ’s classes come rushing in, that was the noise mermaids made if they wanted to signal for a mate. Kiyoko cleared her throat, then pointed to the tank as well and tried to imitate the thrill.
Hinata nods happily, swimming in circles excitedly.
So, Hinata wants to mate with Yachi?
Kiyoko might have to talk with Sugawara about that.
“Kageyama, are you still alive?” Kiyoko leans over to check on her coworker.
The man groans, wiping the water off of his face with his shirt. He gets up from his position on the floor and glares at the shrimpy merman. He sends a glare that could’ve shaken anyone, but Hinata only smiles even wider.
Kageyama sticks his hand out and ruffles Hinata’s fluffy but totally soaked orange hair, the merman stays still enough to appreciate the movement. He raises his hand out of the water and places it on top of Kageyama’s hand, it’s at that point he realizes that Hinata’s water is really cold .
Then the hand is gone, and Hinata’s pointing at the other tank again, making more noises, like he’s telling them to go there.
“Okay, okay, shrimp.” Kageyama says, removing his hand, “We’ll come back.”
Hinata nods, then sinks back into his tank peacefully.
“I think Hinata’s in love with Yachi.” Kiyoko says once they stand up from Hinata’s tank. “He was making the thrilling noises and pointing at the tank.”
Kageyama doesn’t say anything at first, his expressions clearly showing that he’s thinking, pretty harshly at that. “Oh.” Is all he ends up saying. “Okay.”
They make their way over to Yachi’s tank. She’s at the bottom of the water, resting against the floor peacefully.
“Is she asleep?” Kageyama asks this time, raising an eyebrow.
“I think so.” Kiyoko whispers under her breath. Even if she couldn’t see her clearly, she can see that Yachi has grown up so much. From the little guppy with the stubby tail, Yachi was now looking more like her mother, with a longer tail, excluding the colors. She still retained the brown tone that she had when she was still young. Kiyoko wanted to see her more, so she subconsciously reached into the water and made a slight movement.
Kageyama didn’t stop her, wanting to see what the woman was doing.
The mermaid in the water rose from her slumber, doing the same thing as Hinata did. She looked around, then up. At first, she didn’t rise up immediately to meet them, but when she did, she did it very slowly, her movements making it seem like she was going to run away at any given moment.
Then she broke the surface of the water and Kiyoko gasped sharply, covering her mouth to muffle it in an attempt to not startle the mermaid away.
Yachi was so beautiful.
They stared at each other for a long time, Yachi cautiously watching the two humans, not making any sounds or showing any signs of moving any closer.
Another merman made the noise for her though. Hinata emerged from his tank again and was happily making the thrilling call, Yachi looked over to him and a blush (Kiyoko did not know mermaids could blush) took over her pale cheeks. She shook her head then dove back down into the water, trying to hide her face.
She didn’t come back up after that.
They stayed with Hinata for an hour after that, the merman splashing water at them occasionally was enough to show that Hinata liked them. After that, they explored the other areas once again, memorizing certain aspects. They came across a few other employees, like a man with white hair and black roots styled upwards, it made him look like a horned owl. There was also another employee with a more serious haircut (serious as in, a darker shade and slightly spiky), but he seemed to have a scowl eternally etched into his being, when Kageyama greeted him though, the scowl melted and revealed a friendly smile.
They even crossed paths with Daichi once. They finally got some proper introductions into their brief interactions.
Closing time came at seven in the evening, and Kiyoko and Kageyama had seen all they needed to see. They returned to the office to find Sugawara reading a book at his desk.
“Oh! Hi, welcome back!” Sugawara gestures for them to take a seat, “So starting tomorrow you’ll have to come in by seven am to check on the mermaids, then you need to stay until seven pm, but don’t worry, you can take lots of breaks in between. You just need to be here in case something goes wrong or the mers are feeling a little out of it.” Sugawara says, “You’ll also have permission to stay later than that, but only up until ten pm, everyone except the guards outside leave the place.”
Sugawara explained a few more things, like how he was so happy to find a pair of enthusiastic, young people who are eager to help with the conservation of mermaids or something. Then he let them go, telling them not to be late the following day.
Weeks went by and Kiyoko’s days became a bit of a cycle. Wake up early, get to work, say hello to Kageyama and offer him a sandwich if he had forgotten to eat his breakfast. Then go to the tanks and start working.
That was what it was to everyone.
To Kiyoko and Kageyama, it was a little more complicated.
As days became weeks, they both grew closer with Yachi and Hinata respectively. It all began at the end of one of the week when Hinata reached out of his tank and grabbed Kageyama’s pants, whining sadly. Kageyama told Kiyoko to go ahead, deciding to spend a few more hours there with the merman.
The same thing happened to Kiyoko a few days later. As she bid her goodbye, Yachi didn’t go back under the water immediately even as Kiyoko walked away. As she was about to walk down the stairs inside, Yachi crooned.
That was all it took for Kiyoko to fall into Kageyama’s habit of staying late.
At some point, they both decided to stay a little late and were almost caught by a guard. So they decided to take turns. Kageyama got to stay late on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Kiyoko got every other day of the week, she didn’t know the reason behind this generous schedule.
A few months after she first began working here, Kiyoko found herself with his pants rolled up to her knees. She’s sitting at the edge of the water with her legs dipped into the tank, Yachi was propped up, her upper body leaning against Kiyoko’s legs.
Yachi’s body was a little thin, Kiyoko saw her spine every now and then, but she didn’t think of it too much. Maybe she just needed to increase her food slightly.
Never in her life had she expected to be in such a close relationship with a mermaid, it was almost like a dream. But here they were, Kiyoko’s hand slowly stroking Yachi’s rapidly drying blond hair. It was as long as her mother’s probably, Kiyoko thought her hairstyle when she was a guppy was much cuter. Maybe she could get permission to cut it.
But even if she didn’t get the permission, she wouldn’t care. Yachi would still be the most beautiful, and gentlest, most kind hearted creature Kiyoko had ever come across.
“Yachi.” Kiyoko mutters, and Yachi tilts her head up to look at the human, “I love you.” She whispers, knowing it wouldn’t matter because Yachi can’t understand humans.
Then Yachi surprises her once again.
“Shee—mi—zoo.” Yachi thrills, trying to sound out the syllables of Kiyoko ’s name, “Shee—mi-zoo.”
Kiyoko’s eyes go wide, and Yachi panics for a second but calms down after realizing that nothing was actually wrong. “Shimizu?”
“Shi-mi-zoo.” Yachi repeats, pointing to Kiyoko, then she points to herself, “Yach-ee.”
They can speak.
Oh my God, Yachi can speak!
Kiyoko wants to jump up and squeal, but with Yachi still on her lap, she has to just reach over for her phone. She dials Kageyama and waits for him to answer, when he does, he greets her with a tired ‘hah?’.
“Kageyama!” Kiyoko exclaims in a whispered tone, “Yachi spoke!”
Kageyama is silent for a moment, “Hinata talks too.”
“Wait, what?”
“Yeah, he started calling me ‘bakageyama’ last week. He likes to copy words he hears floating around, but he learned how to combine words and I hate him for it.”
“Oh.” Kiyoko sighed, “Kageyama, were you sleeping?”
“No, I was eating dinner.” Kageyama answers, “Why?”
“I wanted to ask you a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Why does it seem as if you and Hinata know each other?”
Kageyama fell silent again, then he sneezed, and answered, “I first saw him when I was ten, right at this aquarium. I kept coming back, and he eventually learned to recognize me. I think he was happy to see me not behind the glass on our first day.” He explains nonchalantly, “Mermaids have extraordinary memory.”
“Oh, yes. I’ve heard that.” Mermaids need to have good memory, they have to take the same paths every year to go back and forth from spawning grounds and back home. “Mhm, well, that’s all I had to say. Good night, and thank you, Kageyama.”
“Good night, Shimizu.”
Kiyoko ended the call and set her phone aside.
She put her hand up, keeping her fingers together and held it in front of Yachi. The mermaid stared at it drowsily, then put her own, webbed hands against it. Kiyoko’s heart practically melted.
“Shii-me-zu.” Yachi tried to say, looking to Kiyoko expectantly. The human smiled, pet Yachi’s hair peacefully until the mermaid fell asleep and Kiyoko slowly slid her off of her lap and back into the water. It was really late.
The next time Kiyoko spent her night with Yachi, she brought a children’s book with her. Sugawara sent her a curious glance when he saw her holding it on their way into work, but didn’t comment on it. Kageyama just stared at it, shrugged then moved on.
The book was about mermaids. It told the story of a mermaid searching far and wide for a mate, she encountered other mermaids who had guppies and those who were still expecting. The story ended with the mermaid finding a handsome merman and they lived happily ever after.
There were lots of pictures in the book, illustrations of mermaids and other things in the ocean, like seaweed and corals. Kiyoko showed them all to Yachi, and she read the book to her, trying to teach her more words in hope that they might be able to actually communicate in the future.
“O-cean.” Kiyoko pointed to the word printed onto the book.
Yachi started at it, “Oohh-shan.”
Close enough, Kiyoko admits.
“Did you live in the ocean, Yachi?” Kiyoko asks, Yachi stares at her in confusion. Kiyoko hums, then snaps her fingers. She points to Yachi, then to the illustration of the ocean in the book.
Here’s the thing, Yachi is actually incredibly intelligent. She’s a quick learner too. So it was no surprise that she managed to understand Kiyoko, it was the answer that shook the human.
Yachi pointed to the ocean, then herself, and shook her head.
Kiyoko’s eyebrows furrowed, “What?”
Yachi flipped the page, pointed to a picture of mermaid eggs, then to herself, then pointed downwards into her tank. It took Kiyoko a second to register it. “You were born here?”
Yachi nods slowly, then she flips the pages again to point to a mermaid with a rather large stomach, “Mam.” Yachi says, “Here.”
“Here? Your mom was brought here?”
Yachi nods again, sinking a little bit under the water. She frowns and Kiyoko hates seeing Yachi like that, but they end up not continuing the topic. Later that night, in the comfort of her own home, Kiyoko thinks about the new information bestowed upon her.
“Kageyama.”
The man was just about to enter the building when Kiyoko called his attention. He turned around, his bangs sweeping aside. “Ah, good morning, Kiyoko.”
“I need to talk to you about something.” Kiyoko says with a slight frown, “It’s about Yachi.”
They discuss what Kiyoko learned last night, Kageyama keeping silent except for the occasional grunt and nod to show that he was listening. When they’re done talking, they both decide to head back up to the roofdeck and check on the mers.
Hinata is already floating up by the top, enjoying the little sunlight that was on his tank during early mornings. He waved his tail at Kageyama and Kiyoko as they passed by. While Kiyoko went to wake Yachi up, Kageyama went another direction to open up the door between Yachi and Hinata’s tank.
With his head sticking out from the water, Kageyama could see Hinata’s confused expression, because they never opened the doors this early. Kageyama made a gesture for Hinata to come over to Yachi’s tank, and he followed quickly, appearing in front of Kiyoko rather suddenly.
Yachi rises up a minute later with a yawn, she greets Hinata with a groggy croon. Hinata replies with his own set of noises, swirling around Yachi happily.
“How much does Hinata know?” Kiyoko asks, standing up next to Kageyama.
“What?”
“You said he can talk, right?”
“I mean, yeah. But not much, he just copies whatever I say.”
Kiyoko bites her lip, then reaches into her bag for the little children’s book she showed Yachi the previous night. She bent down, showing a picture of the ocean to Hinata and Yachi, then she pointed to Hinata. Yachi blinks, then slowly nods. That proves that at least Yachi knows. Kiyoko vaguely remembers that Hinata was a ‘rescue’ case.
“Do you think you can teach him how to talk?”
Kageyama, taken aback by the sudden request, makes an unintelligible expression, but a few seconds later, he nods. “I will try.”
“Thank you.”
It took a year, but Yachi and Hinata finally understood and were able to speak human language up to the level of a middle schooler. Kageyama and Kiyoko learned more and more about their mer-partners.
Hinata told vague stories of other, colorful haired merpeople from his dreams. He tells them how it feels so real, and that sometimes he thinks they are somewhere out there. Yachi doesn’t have any of these stories to tell.
One day, Hinata finally tells them his memory of how he winded up here. He’s holding Kageyama’s hand while he tells the story. The waters were warm and clear, Hinata tells them he was alone when the humans arrived to take him. He had lost sight of his pod because he was moving too slow, his tail was too short for him to move as fast as the other merpeople.
“That’s why I practice!” Hinata exclaimed, animatedly pointing to himself, “I want to go to the ocean and go fast!”
Yachi just watches, and listens, and Kiyoko can see how a similar desire to be set free sparks inside of the little mermaid.
It’s around the middle of summer when Kiyoko and Kageyama make their decision.
They’re going to free Hinata and Yachi, whatever it takes.
Fortunately for the duo, Kiyoko is ridiculously intelligent. She makes their plan almost fully proofed, and Kageyama takes care of the other things, like clearing their path for the plan itself.
The plan doesn’t sound complicated, but it is.
Everyone leaves the building at ten pm. The plan will take place at midnight.
Kiyoko and Kageyama plan to hide out in the office, they’ve built up enough authority to brush off any of the guards anyway, but they decided to lay even lower. Once the coast is clear, they’ll spring into action. They have two stretchers set aside, near the mer’s tanks. Yachi and Hinata will be placed into those stretchers and they’ll be carried out of the vicinity. Thank god for the nearby beach, or else the plan would’ve been so much more complex.
Unfortunately, everything fell apart the second they entered the office at 9:55 pm.
Sugawara was in the office, looking at them expectedly.
“Shimizu, Kageyama.” Sugawara tilts his head, “Don’t take me for a fool, I’ve seen how you two have been whispering to each other and staying even later.” Their senior sighs and drops his head into his hands, “Please tell me your plan involves setting those poor mermaids free.”
“Wait, What?” Kageyama says, Sugawara stands up.
“I can’t believe it took me so long to realize it.” Sugawara says, eyebrows furrowing in guilt. “Hinata and Yachi aren’t meant to be here, I want them to be free as much as you two do. I don’t know their full stories, but that doesn’t change the fact that I want to help them.”
Kiyoko and Kageyama stare at Sugawara in astonishment and in adoration. They bow simultaneously, expressing their gratitude. Sugawara smiles, patting their heads. “I will do whatever it takes to help you guys.”
Sugawara serves as their watchdog. He lets them hide in the office until the right time, and when the clock finally hit midnight, they moved.
Sugawara followed the duo upstairs, making sure there wasn’t anybody following them. Yachi and Hinata were waiting in their respective pools, both of them wore a similar expression of surprise when they saw Suga.
“Hello, Hinata. Hi, Yachi.” Sugawara greets them with a nod, “Let’s get going, shall we?”
Kiyoko and Kageyama come into view with the stretchers in hand. They lift out Yachi first, then Hinata. Sugawara grabs a bucket of water from their tanks, just in case. The merpeople aren’t too heavy, thank god, but they had to work out a system.
Sugawara handed the bucket for Hinata to hold, while he grabbed the front of Hinata’s stretcher. Kageyama grabbed the back and he was also gripping onto the front of Yachi’s stretcher, Kiyoko took care of the back.
They safely made their way down the stairs and to the exit closest to the beach.
They were stopped by a pair of guards.
“Hey, what’re you—?”
“Please let us through!” Kiyoko whispers, eyes pitiful. “We need to— we’re—“
The two guards stare at the group of three, uncertainty covering their features. Kiyoko can see them a little clearer now. One of them is quite short, but his eyes have this fiery spark in them, he has a tuft of bleached hair on his forehead. The other is quite taller, and he has a shaved head.
“We need to set them free, please.” Kageyama continues for his senior, “We’ll make sure nothing happens to you two, we’ll take all the blame.”
They share a glance, then suddenly they’re looking at Kiyoko.
The woman only says one thing, “ Please .”
And that’s enough.
They make their way outside and to the beach, setting down the stretchers in waist deep water so Yachi and Hinata can swim away. Hinata squirms around a bit, trying to fight the incoming waves so he can pull Kageyama towards him and into a hug. Kageyama gladly accepts it, and his eyes look a little moist.
Then the orange haired merman swims off after muttering something to Kageyama, but he’s still a bit visible in the distance. He’s waiting for Yachi.
The blond mermaid is staring up to Kiyoko.
“Shimizu.” Yachi says.
“Kiyoko.” The human corrects her gently.
“Kiyoko.” Yachi repeats, then points to herself, “Hitoka.”
Kiyoko nods, bending down to be level with the mermaid. Yachi— no, Hitoka reaches her arms forward and hugs her human companion. “Thank you,” She says, “I love you.”
The human isn’t sure if it’s water or tears dripping down her face, they’re both salty. She hugs Hitoka back, but she knows she has to let go. “Please come back to me.” She says.
“Yes.” Hitoka responds immediately, “I come back. Only for you.”
They have to separate after that, Hitoka gives Kiyoko one last smile and then she’s gone, her mudfish looking tail is splashing away. Hinata and Hitoka swim deeper and deeper into the ocean until they’re out of sight. The three humans walk back into shore, Kageyama and Kiyoko are a lot more wet than Sugawara.
Their senior smiles, “Come on. There’s a shower area inside the building, just make it quick and we’ll be done.”
They got fired, obviously. Even if they didn’t admit that they set the merpeople free, they would’ve been fired anyways because they lost the mermaids. Kiyoko’s pretty sure that the two guards they encountered didn’t get fired, but she didn’t see them whenever they returned by the area to go to the beach.
Finding a new job wasn’t difficult. Kiyoko worked with a more eco friendly research facility that observed mermaids from afar, they also did other things like preserve endangered species. Kageyama apparently spent the past two years getting a master’s degree so he could become a freelancing marine biologist.
Even after two years though, they didn’t forget.
Kiyoko returned to the beach every night, waited until half an hour after midnight, then she would repeat it the following night. Kageyama would accompany her whenever he was free, and Sugawara would ask to come along every now and then.
It was around late summer, Kiyoko was wrapped in a thin jacket and a scarf, her feet pushing away the little rocks that replaced the sand of the beach. She made it to the edge of the water and sat down. A few minutes later, Kageyama arrived, muttering a soft greeting to her.
They sat together in comfortable silence, watching the steady income of waves and the ripple of seawater in the distance, the moon shining beautiful against the dark blue ocean.
“What if they forgot?” Kageyama suddenly asks, “What if they can’t find their way back here? What if they don’t want to?”
Kiyoko pat Kageyama’s back comfortingly, “Don’t worry. I believe they’ll come back, and you should too. After all, you were the one that told me merpeople have extraordinary memory.”
Kageyama leans back, sighing. He did say that to her. So they continued waiting.
Thirty minutes later and the two are set to leave in a bit, Kageyama had already fallen asleep, leaning against Kiyoko for support, but the woman is still watching, her eyes accustomed to staying up so late.
She sees something jump in the distance.
It could’ve easily been mistaken as a dolphin, but Kiyoko saw it wave.
She immediately woke Kageyama up, standing abruptly without giving him time to get up so he ended up falling to the floor. She pulls up her pants and urges Kageyama to do the same. Sleepy and confused, Kageyama follows her orders anyway and rolls up his pants.
When they’re ready, they walk into the water, both of them shiver at how cold it is the deeper they go, but the surface is just a little bit warmer.
Now they can both see them.
Two, beautifully colored tails stand out against the dark water because of their vivid colors and patterns. Soon they’re meeting halfway and it’s the orange haired merman that leaps out of the water to tackle Kageyama.
Kiyoko drags her eyes away from them for a second to face forward and see Hitoka emerge from the water. Kiyoko barely recognizes her, but she will never forget those stunning eyes that held the stories untold.
Hitoka’s hair is long, extending past her shoulder blades, she has a little side ponytail, using a clam to hold it in place. She’s a little bigger now, at least her body looks fuller. She looks happy and healthy, and Kiyoko looks down to see the most beautiful thing in the world.
From a murky, brown color, Hitoka’s tail had become a combination of pearly white and other pastel colors, the majority of it being a nice shade of pink. Her fins had become just as white as her mother’s, they flowed gracefully with the water, but she was able to match with Hinata’s speed earlier, so there was no way it was fragile in any way.
In all of her life, Kiyoko had never seen such beautiful colors.
Kiyoko doesn’t have to bend any lower, because both She and Kageyama threw away all caution and walked into chest-deep water. Hitoka hugs her, pursing her lips to create crooning noises that served as music to Kiyoko’s ears. Then Hitoka pulls back a bit and Kiyoko is just about to ask why, but suddenly Hitoka’s lips are on hers and Kiyoko doesn’t think twice before she kisses back.
In the meantime, Kageyama is trying to wrestle out of Hinata’s death grip hug to prevent himself from drowning, but he’s really happy to see the merman too.