Chapter Text
Deep blue diver, with our hopes in your hands
Won’t you take me with you to another land?
Pure sapphire hiding in the sands
Of the darkest depths ever known to man
Jointly there is nothing we can’t do
~Hunting for Pearls
Their trip to the small island had gone rather smoothly so far: their plane had left perfectly on time from the airport in Japan, and upon arrival they had managed to find a driver willing to shuttle both their crew and their equipment to the small ocean-side village where they would be staying.
As a professional scuba diver living close to the university that offered Japan’s most well-known marine biology program, Kagami received many job contracts like this one to take professors, students, and sometimes entire research teams out diving to observe the marine life they were currently studying. This was his first time travelling to the Philippines, however, and he was rather excited to be taking part in a long-term project for once.
There were only two of the team members who would actually be diving with him, however. The project leader and professor, Riko, and her assistant professor, Hyuuga, had decided it would be safest if only those with actual diving experience, Kiyoshi and Mitobe, went out with him during the dives.
The other students, Izuki, Koganei, and Furihata, would take care of organizing and analyzing any data collected, as well as operating the monitoring equipment they had brought, while Riko and Hyuuga would worry about writing the periodical reports to their faculty and coordinating with the Philippine crew from a university that was performing similar observations on the opposite side of the country. The two groups would eventually combine and compare their data, and hopefully work things out to write a joint paper to be published in international scientific journals.
Riko also hoped that their findings would help promote the establishment and strengthening of anti-pollution and anti-fishing laws, as well as provide reference material for conservation groups who were also concerned about the subject of their research, the silvertip shark, which was a species of reef shark that was becoming increasingly vulnerable due to over-fishing and shark finning.
Upon arrivial, they immediately settled in. Their group was renting two houses at the edge of the village nearest to the ocean. The main house would be used to store their equipment and would be used as the headquarters for most of their work, since it had the most space and the biggest living room and kitchen.
Riko had claimed the master bedroom right away, and they were all wise enough not to contest it. Kagami was to be the only other one to sleep in that house, partly because he was almost like a guest on this expedition, but mostly, he suspected, because of his culinary skills. He had been warned by the others that Riko was not to be trusted in the kitchen. It probably also didn’t hurt that Riko knew he was gay, so she wouldn’t have to fear any unwanted advances coming from him. She had apparently been on a previous research project with his old diving mentor, Alex, who had gossiped endlessly about her students, meaning Riko already knew much more information about him than he would have liked.
The rest of the guys would be staying in the second house under Hyuuga’s supervision. From the looks of it, it was more of a dormitory than anything, though Mitobe seemed pleased at the small kitchenette, and the rest of the students were just generally excited at having finally arrived and were currently fighting over sleeping arrangements, laughing as they ran from room to room.
Kagami did not envy them though, as he was much more accustomed to living on his own and would rather stay in the main house than with a group of relative strangers who had all known each for a few years already. Besides, his room had quite a large bed and came with its own bathroom, complete with a huge bathtub and perfectly functioning shower head, and since they would be staying here for a matter of months, he’d much rather be comfortable than anything.
The next week was spent setting up their base and making sure all of their equipment functioned properly. Kagami also talked Kiyoshi and Mitobe through a quick refresher of diving safety rules and made them practice all of the diving communication signs until he was satisfied they knew them by heart.
Their entire group then did some snorkeling together as they scouted out the local coral reefs, trying to pinpoint some good spots to focus on later for their research. Kagami also took the two other divers out for a few test runs to get them back into the groove and to also test how experienced they were. He was satisfied that the two knew enough that he didn’t have to babysit them at all times, but made them promise him never to go out alone, always either with him or with each other, to which they readily agreed.
Luckily, the area they had chosen seemed to be a pretty good spot for observing the silvertip sharks, and the research team quickly fell into a routine. Kagami would wake up and prepare breakfast for everyone, which they would eat before heading out to the beach. (It had taken them a while to stop gaping at the mounds of food Kagami shovelled into his mouth at every meal, and they were still far from used to it.)
Then he, Kiyoshi, and Mitobe would go diving, doing whatever Riko and Hyuuga had instructed for the day. As silvertip sharks generally liked to stay in shallow water, they never had to go terribly deep, which meant that they could stay out for longer and go diving more often without fearing for their health as much.
They would place tracking tags on any new silvertip sharks they came across, as well as film their swimming and hunting patterns, and take up-close pictures of every part of the sharks. They also kept track of the general condition of the reef, noting the movements of different schools of fish and the general cleanliness of the water and surrounding shoreline.
When they were done for the day, they would pack up their stuff and head home, where Kagami would make them lunch. The afternoons the researchers spent analyzing their data and going back over any new footage, but some days things were quite slow so they’d simply take the afternoon off.
Kagami had his weekends to himself, as he was only being paid for the weekdays, but Riko made him take a break from diving on Wednesdays as well, just to be cautious and to not over-work her divers. He used those mornings to do a second grocery run down to the bigger village that was further inland and thus closer to the agricultural part of the island. In addition to his weekend grocery run, the Wednesday one turned out to be quite necessary given the amount of food Kagami went through, on top of all that the others also ate.
In general, the afternoons he was left to do as he pleased, since the science stuff went completely over his head and he wasn’t actually a part of their university’s research department.
He spent a lot of that time with their young guide, a local boy of seven or eight years of age who had quietly welcomed them on their first day in the village. His father, who was in fact Japanese, had been their contact on the island and had helped them make the arrangements for their stay, but had fallen ill shortly before they’d arrive and been taken to a hospital one of the bigger islands by the boy’s mother.
Since the boy, Kuroko, also understood Japanese, he acted as a sort of translator between their group and the locals, though the kid seemed a bit shy around others and not eager to talk. Kagami later learned from the boy’s maternal grandmother, whose Japanese was broken at best but whose expressive face always spoke volumes, that due to the child’s unusually pale skin and hair, so very unlike that of the local population, he was generally treated as an outcast by the others who were reluctant to go near him. Kagami himself would have mistaken the child for an albino if it weren’t for his bright, icy blue eyes. His lack of presence and ever-silent way of moving about also seemed to scare the villagers, and a few apparently even feared that he was some sort of apparition.
The only thing about Kuroko that scared Kagami, however, was his dog, Nigou. Kagami did not like dogs, even small ones like the young… whatever breed it was supposed to be. Kagami didn’t think Nigou looked like the kind of dog that would usually be living in such a warm tropical climate, but the… thing always seemed happy as it ran about, barking joyfully, so he shrugged and let it be. Plus, it acted as a sort of guard for Kuroko, something Kagami was quite thankful for after beginning to notice the leery looks some of the other villagers gave his young friend.
That Saturday, he’d asked Kuroko if he knew a spot without sharks that would be safe for him to go swimming. In general, if they were respectful and didn’t make the sharks feel threatened, they were always moderately safe during their dives, but reef sharks were known to be some of the more aggressive sharks, especially the silvertip ones, so he’d rather go fishing and relaxing in an area that they didn’t frequent.
Kuroko had pondered his request for a moment before giving him a decisive nod, grabbing the tall man’s hand, and leading him off down the road, in the opposite direction of the beach where their group usually went to collect data.
A twenty-minute walk later, Kagami followed Kuroko off the dirt road and into the forest. They walked for a bit in the dense jungle before heading off towards a small cove that was almost completely secluded by the rocks and the surrounding foliage. The winding path along which Kuroko was taking them seemed to be the only way down to the shore, and Kagami suspected that the young boy had been here many times before, as Nigou also seemed to know exactly where they was headed. The redhead felt touched that the boy would trust him enough to share with him what was probably some sort of secret, special place for Kuroko.
The last part of the path left a bit of a jump down onto the sand, so Kagami tugged on Kuroko’s hand to stop him. As he dropped down onto the beach, the man worried at how the boy had been doing this countless times before on his own, but was glad that so far he hadn’t gotten hurt. He lifted Kuroko up, his strong hands placed carefully underneath the boy’s arms as he swung him down, earning him a soft giggle and a smile. Though he cringed all the while, he gave the small dog the same treatment and it thanked him with a small yip.
Kagami had to admit that the cove was exceptionally beautiful. He was glad he’d brought an empty rucksack as he spotted a number of fish lazily swimming nearby, and licked his lips as he imaged what dishes he could make that evening if he caught enough of them.
Kuroko mostly stayed on the beach playing with Nigou as Kagami snorkeled for a bit, exploring the reef, before he came back and shared the lunch he had packed for the three of them. After eating, Kagami took out his knife and sharpened a stick into a deadly point so that he could try his hand at spearfishing.
“You can come into the water, Kuroko, but don’t get too close, just in case,” Kagami warned him. “I don’t want you getting accidentally hurt; I won’t be able to keep my eye on you.” The light-blue-haired child nodded solemnly.
Kagami got the hang of it pretty easily, and quickly filled his sack with plump fish from the reef. He’d left his metal spear back at the house, so he’d been unsure how well he’d manage with a makeshift one, but apparently he had worried for nothing.
Afterwards, Kagami decided to take Kuroko out with him a bit farther into the still-shallow waters for a swim. He lent him the small mask and snorkel he had bought for the boy in town a couple of weeks ago and sat him up on his shoulders as they waded out together. Nigou kept running out into the water for a few feet, giving a small happy bark in their direction, but for the most part he stayed on the beach, gnawing on the stick Kagami had left behind for him.
Water had always been Kagami’s element; as a child he’d taken to swimming with unexpected ease, and always felt more relaxed when he was weightlessly drifting in the ocean. He could tell, however, that Kuroko was not so comfortable with swimming, so they didn’t go very far, and Kagami kept his grip on him the whole time as he helped him snorkel.
Things were going well until Kagami spotted something bright moving quickly in the water, further out from where they were now. It could just be any kind of harmless fish, he knew, but the farther away from the reef it was, the higher the chances were that he was dealing with a shark. He spotted the flash again, sunlight reflecting off of a fin, and knew right away by the speed of the movement that it couldn’t be a fish, and that the flashes he’d seen could only mean one thing: a silvertip shark.
Trying not to let his worry show for fear of making Kuroko panic, he slowly started to guide him back through the reef to the shore. When Nigou started to bark a warning, however, Kuroko began floundering and splashing about as he realized that something was wrong, so Kagami grasped him tighly around the waist, lifting him out of the water as much as possible. He tried running back towards the beach, but the water slowed him down so much that it felt no faster than walking.
He looked back once, trying to spot the shark, but he only glimpsed the end of its tail whipping around the edge of a reef, entirely too close for comfort. Kuroko had seriously started to panic and was crying as he pulled at Kagami, yanking his hair and leaving small red hand marks where he’d gripped at the man’s arms.
Kagami stumbled over something underfoot, and time seemed to slow as he lost his balance. When he started to fall, he tossed Kuroko as hard as he could towards the shore where Nigou was waiting for him in the shallows, still barking. Right before Kagami hit the water, he heard the splash of Kuroko’s landing, satisfied that he’d gotten him far away but with enough water left underfoot to cushion his fall. He took a deep breath and his head went under, arms vainly trying to reach out for something to help him push himself back up. Suddenly, a strong force barrelled straight into his back, expelling all the air from his lungs as he cried out in shock and in pain.
Kagami felt like he was being crushed, pinned against the sandy bottom by the unknown weight above him. He briefly wondered just how big the shark must be as he spotted the silvery end of its tail slicing the water around them, felt the smooth muscles of its upper tail whipping about near his legs. Generally these sharks grew no more than 3 meters, but this one had to be huge if just its tail was nearly that length.
He was torn from his musings as something sharp raked itself down his back, leaving gashes that were no doubt seeping blood into the water. His lungs burned, desperate for oxygen but finding none as he started to choke on water. Pain blossomed in his shoulder when a razor-sharp pair of teeth sunk into his flesh. As he started to black out, it occurred to him that a silvertip shark’s mouth would have been able to take his head clean off in one bite, and that most sharks did not have clawed fingers, let alone arms to help it pin down his own.
He was suddenly pulled from the water by the grip of the teeth still deep in the muscle of his shoulder, and the moment his head broke the surface Kagami started gasping and coughing up water, trying to simultaneously rid his lungs of the unwanted substance and fill them with sweet, sweet oxygen.
As he worked to recover his breath, he took note of the form that surrounded him. A strong shark’s tail coiled around his lower body and legs, immobilizing him, while what felt like strong hands gripped his upper arms, sharp claws digging into his flesh. He quickly fought to escape the creature, trying his best to ignore the pain in his back and in his shoulder, but only managed to free one arm, which brought back to grab at whatever the hell was biting his shoulder.
He was completely surprised when his hand met soft, damp hair, the skull beneath his fingers feeling oddly human-shaped. Its teeth let him go as the creature turned to growl directly in Kagami’s ear, the low tone resonating in the firm chest that was pressed against Kagami’s back.
“—mine, Aomine!”
Kagami suddenly became aware of Kuroko’s voice yelling at them from the beach. Cracking open his eyes, he spotted the boy holding a trembling Nigou, worry plastered on his face. He didn’t seem as terrified as he should be, however, considering how some kind of sea monster had just tried to take a chunk out of Kagami’s shoulder and still held him in a death-like grip.
“Aomine! Let him go!” the boy frantically cried out. “Stop hurting him!”
Kagami was caught completely off guard when a deep voice emanated from the creature, sending shivers down his spine:
“Oh? And why should I do that?”
“He’s my friend!”
“He can’t be a friend if he was hurting you,” the voice hissed unpleasantly.
“No! Aomine, he was just taking me swimming!”
“He was holding you underwater! I saw it! HE WAS DROWNING YOU!” the creature, apparently called Aomine, roared angrily, bringing a hand up to Kagami’s neck and starting to strangle him. Nigou began to bark agitatedly.
“I was fine! I swear! I had a snorkel!” the boy cried, waving the plastic mask for him to see. The grip around Kagami’s throat eased up as the creature’s body lost a bit of its tension.
“What… is that?” Aomine asked, finally letting go of Kagami. The diver dropped to his knees as the creature left him, swimming towards the shallows where Kuroko stood. Kagami distantly noted his dark blue hair, the rippling muscles of his tanned back, and the long silvertip shark’s tail that connected to the upper body where a man’s hips would have been. A… mermaid?
Or merman, to be more accurate, but Kagami was beginning to lose focus as pain flared up from his injuries, his lungs still hurting from his near-drowning just moments before.
He saw Kuroko hand the snorkel to Aomine, who inspected it suspiciously as the boy explained its purpose. His last thought before blacking out was that Kuroko must be safe if Nigou was being friendly with the merman, and that perhaps this entire episode had simply been a misunderstanding.
Losing consciousness, Kagami dropped face-first into the water like a stone, and completely missed the frantic yelling from the shore and the strong arms that pulled him out of the water and up into the sand.