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It had been a wonderful and beautiful day under the sea as Josuke swam around to his heart's content. He was visiting the coral reefs today, loving to look around at all the pretty colors. Plus it was a great spot to find any herbs that he'd need to take back to the village as well, which was why he was here today. He hummed softly as he weaved his way through the coral, carefully picking any of the plants that he needed, placing them in the seaweed basket he had brought with him. After grabbing everything he needed, he started to head back to the village, when suddenly he swam into someone, dropping the basket of herbs to the sea floor.
"I'm so sorry-'' He began to apologize, before opening his eyes and seeing who it was. "Oh, it's you." He said in a disappointed tone, crossing his arms over his chest with a frown. It was Rohan Kishibe, the mershark that lived just outside of the village in seclusion. The two of them didn't run into each other very often, but when they did they never really got along. It made sense, seeing as Rohan was a great white mershark, and Josuke was a bottlenose merdolphin. Their species never got along for obvious reasons.
"Tsk, watch where you're going, will you?'' Rohan scoffed in reply, moving his hand to readjust a strand of hair that had been knocked loose from its proper place when they collided into one another.
"It's not my fault that you just came out of nowhere." Josuke replied snarkily, not wanting to deal with Rohan's dumb accusations right now. It was bad enough that their species naturally didn't get along very well, but Rohan was apathetic, egotistical, and stubborn, which made him a major pain in the ass to deal with. Josuke had been ready to just turn around and head back to the village, not wanting to deal with Rohan any longer, when he spotted something off in the distance behind Rohan. He squinted slightly, trying to see what it was, his eyes widening as it swam closer. It was an actual shark, and it was huge. His face paled slightly when he noticed it was swimming straight for them.
"Uh, Rohan-" He muttered softly, pointing behind the mershark to alert him to the incoming danger. If they didn't start swimming away fast, they'd be shark food.
“What?” The mershark snapped back in annoyance, before turning around to see what Josuke was pointing at, his own face going pale as he spotted the incoming shark. “No sudden movements, Josuke. Just follow my lead.” Rohan instructed in a low voice, before slowly turning around and swimming away from the shark. Josuke's instincts were telling him to just bolt the fuck out of there, but seeing as Rohan was more closely related to the predator in front of them, he figured it'd probably be best to listen to him. Plus he didn't want to just abandon Rohan. They might hate each other, but Josuke was too kind to just let someone get eaten by a shark, no matter who they were. He gulped softly and nodded.
"Y-yeah, ok." He replied as he also started to swim back slowly, following after Rohan. The shark steadily grew closer, though for now it didn't seem to be particularly interested in them given how casually it was swimming. That could easily change in an instant though, so Josuke was still very afraid. If the shark caught sight of them, it would most likely try to eat them, even if they did swim slowly to avoid catching its attention. Josuke just hoped that didn't happen. He would like to live, thank you very much. So far everything was going relatively well, but even then, Josuke kept an eye out for potential hiding places just in case the shark did decide to attack. Up ahead, not too far away was a small cave opening, big enough for him and Rohan to fit through, but small enough that the shark wouldn't be able to reach them. Speaking of the shark, Josuke carefully looked over his shoulder to see what it was doing, horrified to see that it was starting to swim towards them faster now, definitely having spotted them.
"Fuck, Rohan-" Josuke said urgently, trying to get the mersharks attention. They needed to get the fuck out of there right now, or else they'd probably end up dead. This wonderful day had steadily gone from great to horrible. Rohan looked back over his shoulder, his face paleing once again when he noticed that the shark had spotted them.
“Into the cave!” Rohan yelled, pushing Josuke in front of him. If the shark did catch up to them, Rohan would be better suited to deal with it than Josuke was. Josuke just nodded, not needing to be told twice. He immediately bolted towards the cave, occasionally looking back to make sure Rohan was close behind him. Even if it ended up getting them both killed, Josuke wouldn't hesitate to go back if Rohan was too slow. Josuke was indeed a quick swimmer, which was good because the shark was starting to close in, definitely moving a lot faster. Josuke swam in far enough that Rohan would have enough room to follow him in, before turning around to make sure that the shark wouldn't get to Rohan before Rohan could make it to the cave. Josuke sighed with relief when they had both made it in safely. The only problem now was that there was a big hungry shark lurking outside the cave, waiting to eat them.
"Well, this certainly wasn't in my plans." Rohan mumbled to himself as he wearily eyed the shark swimming outside the cave, wishing it would just go away already.
"I mean, things could be worse. At least we're still alive." Josuke replied, trying to focus on the bright side of things as he always did. Being stuck in a cave with Rohan of all people definitely wasn't what he had planned on doing today either, but at the moment he was just grateful he was alive right now - rivalry be damned. Needing to swim around to breathe and everything, the shark didn't stay completely still just to watch them, but it continued to circle around near the entrance of the cave, clearly not leaving anytime soon. Just great. What were they supposed to do until then?
"I suppose so" Rohan mumbled in reply, not really having that same optimistic spirit that Josuke always seemed to have. "You aren't hurt anywhere are you?" He asked after a few seconds, slightly concerned for the young merdolphin, even if they weren’t on the greatest terms. Being thrown into a life or death situation could humble someone real fast he supposed. Josuke was a little shocked by the question, not used to being shown even an ounce of kindness from the other man.
"No, I'm perfectly fine." He replied, sitting down in the middle of the cave as he watched the shark continue to circle around outside. He wondered how long they would be stuck here. He hoped it wouldn't be too long, cause he wasn't sure how long he could stand having to deal with Rohan's attitude, but he figured they'd probably be waiting a lot longer than either of them really wanted to. Sometimes that was just life for you. A few minutes went by in awkward, tense silence, and Josuke was just about to say something, when all of a sudden the cave shook violently. Looking through the entrance, you could see the shark swimming away slightly, before it came back at full speed, ramming into the entrance once again, shaking the cave even more. By the looks of it, the shark had grown impatient waiting for them to come out, so now it was trying to force its way in. It rammed into the entrance again, causing a few pebbles to fall from the ceiling. If the shark kept it up, they would either end up eaten, or buried under the rubble. The 4th time around was the kicker. The shark rammed its weight into the entrance again, giving the cave a thorough shake. And then the entrance collapsed in on itself, blocking their only exit. Now they were stuck in there.
"Fuck, no no no-" Josuke mumbled, rushing forward to assess how bad the cave-in was. Unfortunately, it was pretty bad. He tried pushing some of the rocks out of the way, but they were far too heavy to move, even putting all of his strength into it. They were officially stuck.
“Tch, well that’s just great.” Rohan mumbled, looking around the cave to see if there were any other ways out. There was a tunnel at the back of the cave that went further in, but he couldn’t be sure that it led anywhere. But without any way to move the rocks blocking the entrance, they didn’t really have too much of a choice but to see where it went.
“Josuke, come here. This might lead out of the cave.” Rohan instructed as he waved for Josuke to come over to the tunnel entrance. Josuke stopped trying to move the rocks out of the way, and quickly swam over to join him.
“Are you sure? It could just lead even deeper underground.” Josuke replied skeptically, not quite sure he wanted to risk getting lost down there.
“Well, no, but it’s not like we have much of a choice. It’s either we see where this tunnel leads, or we sit in this cave staring at a pile of rocks until we eventually starve to death.” Rohan shot back. He would much rather at least try to get out of here, instead of sitting in a cave with Josuke for gods know how long waiting for his inevitable death.
‘When you put it like that, the tunnel definitely sounds a lot better.” Josuke mumbled in reply, though he was still slightly skeptical of the entire idea. But as Rohan said, they didn’t really have much of a choice if they wanted to get out of there. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Josuke swam into the tunnel, Rohan following closely behind. They swam in a straight line for what felt like hours, but eventually they managed to find a fork in the tunnel system. Though, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“Well that’s just great! Now we’re definitely going to get lost!” Josuke whined, starting to feel like they would never get out of here. Maybe they should just head back to the cave entrance and try to move the rocks again.
“Don’t give up just yet, Josuke. We’ve barely even started.” Rohan replied, swimming a little closer to the two paths, trying to figure out how they could explore the tunnels without getting lost. An idea popped into his head, and he started looking around at the cave floor, before finding a suitable pebble. He swam over to the left-hand tunnel. Using the pebble to draw an x on the wall of the entrance.
“There. By following these x’s we should be able to find our way back here if this tunnel doesn’t lead anywhere. Come on.” Rohan explained, before waving for Josuke to follow after him as he started swimming down the tunnel. Impressed, Josuke followed after him without much complaint. After a few more hours, a couple more forks, and a lot of dead ends, they were eventually able to find their way out of the cave system and back into the open ocean. Looking around, Josuke was able to see the coral reef off in the distance, meaning they were close to home too, even if it was a good couple of miles away.
“We did it! We made it out!” Josuke exclaimed with excitement, hugging Rohan and spinning them around in the water, despite the mersharks' yelps of protest.
“Josuke!” Rohan yelled as the merdolphin spun him around, wanting to be let go of as soon as possible. Eventually Josuke did let go of him, grinning brightly.
“Sorry.” He replied sheepishly. “But we did it! You're pretty smart, huh?” Josuke said with a bright smile, glad that Rohan had been with him. He probably would have never made it out of that cave without the grumpy mershark.
Rohan blushed softly at the compliment, not used to receiving them. “Yeah, well, thanks for staying with me. You could’ve easily just swam off and left me for dead, but you didn’t.” Rohan mumbled in reply, avoiding Josuke’s gaze.
“Of course I stayed. I’d never leave a friend behind to deal with a shark all by themselves. And that includes you, grumpy tail.” Josuke replied jokingly, smiling brightly. He was just glad they were alive, really.
“Yeah, well, thanks. Again.” Rohan mumbled, not used to anyone ever really being nice to him. “I guess I’ll see you later, or something.” He said in farewell, before turning to swim back towards his own home.
“See you Rohan!” Josuke yelled after him in reply, before swimming off towards his village, ready to see everyone again after such a long and unproductive day. Maybe Rohan wasn’t such a bad guy after all.