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Maya should have vetoed this activity when it was suggested for Pastel*Palettes.
Fish in the middle of the sea they said. It would be fun, they said. What could possibly go wrong on a fishing trip kilometers away from the nearest shore, they said. For starters, one thing that could go wrong on a fishing trip is to be stuck in the middle of a storm. Another thing was for the boat to capsize due to the resulting storm. But the cherry on top? Maya was separated from her bandmates while they evacuated the vessel.
Cold, scared, and alone while she hanged onto a piece of the boat that managed to survive, and an extra oar she managed to get her hands on, Maya thought to herself,
“At least this couldn’t get any worse.”
Then a grey fin began to emerge from the water. Upon closer inspection she realized it belonged to a shark. She felt a shiver run down her spine, unsure if it was due to fear or from being stuck in the water as she racked her brain for how to repel a shark attack.
“Think, think!”
She remembered having watched with Hina a few shark documentaries, and remembered how a diver had paddled slowly to their boat. Maya quickly scanned the area for a surface she can swim to, she saw what seemed to be a sandbar, maybe 300 meters away and decided that it was her best chance at survival. She steadily paddled towards the island and just as she could see trees she turned back.
The shark fin looked like it was coming closer to her, and she began to forget about the information she recalled as she panicked and paddled faster, she ran out of breath and decided to buy herself some time by attempting to fight off the shark. She tried to stand on the piece of the boat and readied the oar as a makeshift club in order to aim for the gills, when the fin was close enough for her to reach it with the tip of the oar she thrust it at where the gills could be. She may have put too much effort into it as she ended up slipping off the wreckage with a huge splash.
Maya was in the water now, her lungs began to burn as she tried to hold her breath, her vision blurry but she could make out the figure of a girl.
Wait? A girl? In the middle of the sea? With the little sight that she had she could see black hair and a human face moving close to hers, then she felt something touch her lips. A girl was kissing her. Is this her dying dream? Well, if this was a dying dream then it took an odd turn. Her lungs no longer burned and she could breathe normally now, she was also able to see clearly now and could see that there was indeed a girl in front of her. At least, the top half of her is, the bottom half resembled that of a great white, with a fin that looked like it belonged to the shark that was with her.
Wait? Was this girl the shark? Her head spun from the shock, and before she could ask any questions the girl said “Um, hi?”
~~~~~
Misaki was tired, she swam all around the area looking for food and found nothing, then she got caught up in a storm and had to dodge all sorts of objects from a human fishing boat. Then some human tried to hit her with something when she got a little too curious about her splashing around the water.
Said human ended up falling into the water and started flailing around. Misaki would have left the human then and there but felt guilty about it since she was likely to be the reason for the human to have ended up flailing around. She decided to help the human and swam over to them.
“Hey do you need help?” she asked.
No response, the human was still flailing around. Then Misaki remembered humans were unable to breathe underwater.
“Wait a minute you can’t breathe!”
Misaki knew that some humans would bring in these odd cylinders and could stay underwater for periods of time without having to go up, but she didn’t see any of these cylinders around and decided on a drastic course of action. She brought her lips to the human’s and kissed them.
The human stopped moving and looked like they began to calm down. Then when Misaki began to talk the human suddenly passed out. She panicked and tried to figure out if the human was still alive, so she shook them and heard them groan, she decided that this was proof they were still okay and brought them to her home to keep them safe until they recovered.
~~~~~
Maya slowly opened her eyes and saw two faces in front of her, one had orange hair and the other a blonde. Both had wide smiles as they stared at her, the blonde let out a “Hi!” That’s when Maya fully woke up and was bewildered at her surroundings. Around her were bright corals and she seemed to have lied down on a bed of kelp. Then there were the two who stared at her earlier, she saw that while they had human halves on top their lower halves resembled some fish. The blonde had a sort of tail that was striped with yellow and white with a small fin at the back while the one with orange hair had a grey tail with fins that looked like wings on the side. Confused, she shot out several questions to her two companions.
“Where am I? How did I get here? Are you two mermaids? And am I dead?”
The blonde responded “Yeah! We’re mermaids! I’m Kokoro, and this one right here is Hagumi, and this is Misaki’s home!” The latter answered, “Mii-kun saved your life by kissing you when you were drowning!” Maya’s face reddened at the last part, the two mermaids took notice of this, “Wow! Your face is turning red!” So she was still alive, thanks to a girl named Misaki kissing her. But this was the least of her worries, she would now have to figure out how to get home.
“Hagumi? Kokoro?” Maya’s thoughts were interrupted by a voice that called out to the two.
“Mii-kun’s back!” Hagumi excitedly exclaimed and swam out, she returned with a girl with the same black hair that she saw while drowning, she did have the shark tail, and now that she could see more clearly she saw that she had gray eyes.
“Hagumi, Kokoro, stay back.” Misaki told them as she gestured for the two to go behind her.
The pair looked at her and asked, “Why?”
“She tried to hit me with something.”
Maya stuttered out an apology “I-I’m sorry! I thought you were an actual shark and that you were going to eat me!”
“That’s silly! We don’t eat humans!” said Kokoro.
Misaki examined her briefly before she turned to Kokoro and Hagumi, “Alright you two, can you give me some alone time with the human?”
“Yeah!” They said at the same time, they then swam out and left Maya alone with Misaki, who slowly swam around her while she stood still, nervous at what could happen next. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to eat you.” She reassured her. After she realized she wasn’t a danger she asked, “Why were you out at sea in the middle of a storm? And how did you end up in the water?” Maya then explained how she went on a fishing trip with her bandmates, how they got caught up in a storm, how she was separated from them, and how she tried to swim to a nearby island when she saw Misaki swim toward her, and panicked thinking she was a shark. Misaki let out a sigh, “Well, I don’t exactly blame you for that.” She looked at Maya, “You must have been pretty nervous too since you’ve been separated from your friends.”
Maya nodded, “I kinda have a few questions to ask myself.” Misaki said, “Go ahead.” Maya took a deep breath, “So if you don’t eat humans what do you eat? How far are we from shore?” she paused and blushed, “A-and why did you kiss me?” Misaki reddened at the last one, “We eat fish. We’re actually not that far from shore, we just don’t go often because we don’t want to be seen. A-and, I kissed you so you could breathe underwater.” Maya still blushed but her eyes widened and asked “Mermaid kisses can do that?” Misaki responded, “Yes, it’s an old legend, and I wasn’t exactly sure it was going to work, though I have heard from Kaoru-san it is true.” She sheepishly scratched her neck. “And well, I am surprised it worked.” The two were quiet for a few awkward minutes, Misaki broke the silence. “A-anyway, I’m surprised you didn’t ask more about the whole mermaid thing.” Maya responded, “Well, I think I can figure that out soon enough, if I can manage to go home.
“I can take you to shore.”
“You can? But what if humans spot you?”
“It’s fine, it’s almost dark, by the time we get there it should be night time and not a lot of humans should be around.”
Maya was silent and was not sure what to say, “Thank you.”
“It’s no problem, I think if the roles were reversed you would do the same.” Misaki gestured for Maya to come closer. “Hold on to my shoulders, you can wrap your legs around my waist if you have to.” Maya felt her face heat up again as she held onto Misaki’s shoulders, which were quite strong. Misaki on the other hand was thankful that Maya couldn’t see her face right now, which was red from thanks to the close proximity between the two.
“Hold on tight.” Misaki warned. She then swam away, with Maya clinging to her as they made their way to shore. As they neared land Misaki slowed down, before she stopped at a depth around Maya’s height, “This is as far as I can take you, can you go from here on out on your own?”
“I can.”
“I guess this is goodbye then.” Misaki said, with a hint of disappointment in her voice.
“Thank you so much Misaki-san.” Maya smiled, “If possible I would like to see you again, I wanna give you something as a thank you gift.”
“A thank you gift?”
“For saving my life, for bringing me back to the shore, and as an apology for trying to hit you with an oar.”
Misaki blushed and laughed, “Alright then, meet me here next week, when the tides rise.”
Maya nodded, “I’ll see you then.” She swam until she reached the shore, the night at a beach never looked more beautiful, the full moon was out to greet her when she was out of the water. She then looked back and saw Misaki wave at her, she waved back and yelled her goodbyes as she swam back out to the sea.