Chapter Text
Salt. The overwhelming smell of salt. A smell Giorno was used to, having been on a boat the past three months, since his ”mother” sold him to a crew of ‘Mer-poachers’.
Said crew had been hired to “find a big, pretty fish.” for a rich man. (Giorno didn’t know what they meant when people referred to mer-folk as “pretty” or “Beautiful”, the few times he’d seen one in person were scary. They had mostly flat noses, sharp teeth that can bite people in half (something Giorno had seen more than he should), and their hair is not hair, it’s long fin-thing).
And that is how he found himself on the open waters of the Mediterranean Sea with six other men, about half the crew having called sick, including the ones who were kind to him. Leaning against the railing of the ship, his long blonde hair blowing in the wind. The only thing worse than the smell of saltwater being the smell of fish guts, being thrown into the water to attract a Mer, and the ‘mewing’ of the gulls following them. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t already been three days , he was pretty sure he would die of dehydration before they found a mer, or maybe burn to death, he was a lot paler then most or the others.
It was about late midday when something was attached to the bloody fish-soup being thrown into the water. All giorno had seen was a few pink fins dipping in and out of the water while the other crew mates lowered a large net into the water. After a few minutes of the mer thrashing in the water as it was caught in the net it was raised up in the air as water and blood dripped off its body. Rightaway Giorno noticed three things about this mer. 1: It was pink. Very pink and much brighter than other mers he’d seen. 2: It had armor. Not hardened platings on its skin, but real metal armor on its arms and Abdomen. 3: it was BIG . Its tail alone folded on top of itself as hung in the net. One of the crew members tugged on the back of his shirt to pull him away from the net as the captain himself walked right up to it, grabbing hold of the near its face and announced “ain't it beautiful.”
Beautiful. He called it “beautiful.” Giorno didn’t know this thing could be “beautiful.” Its entire body was covered in blood, cuts, and scars. ‘Was it because it was pink?’ Giorno couldn’t see how it being pink made it “beautiful.” He didn’t know how anything could be “beautiful.” The only thing his mother ever referred to as “beautiful” was father, and she spoke of him with hatred.
The mer snarled as the captain touched its face to get a better look at it. A decision he would immediately regret as the thing had snapped its jaws and bitten off most of his hand. A bloodcurdling scream followed as the captain ran to the door of the ship before yelling “get that thing in the haul!” So that's what Giorno and the other five men did, unlock and open the hatch to the haul in the inner part of the ship. The locks were three, metal bars on the sides of the hatch, it took all five of the men to open the hatch, giorno tried to help but his small, thin arms couldn’t do much. Finally, the pink mer was lowered into the haul and landed with a wet *thuk* as the net was open. They quickly closed and locked the hatch right before it began banging on it. And With that, they were ready to start sailing home.
“Thank you, Shiobana, we really do appreciate you here.” The captain said, gently patting Giorno on the shoulder with his good hand. The man’s other hand only had a bit of the palm and thumb left. Giorno (having been called the crew’s ”doctor” shortly after joining.) carefully pressed a rag to the bloody nub of the man’s hand and carefully added disinfectant, while pressing the rag to his hand, he slowly activated some of his ”ability”, enough so the golden glow of his palms wasn’t noticed, there was little to no pain from it, and enough so the the captain’s fingers wouldn’t grow back. It's not he didn’t want to, it’s that he was afraid to. He got his ability last year when his hair changed, and when his mother saw him and what he could do, she was angry. She was screaming and yelling about how much he is like his father, who he never even met, yelling how “such a useless child could look like a beautifully disgusting monster.” Giorno learned quickly that he had to be good for something to be like, he wasn’t good enough for his mother, but at least he’s good enough for the captain. Carefully wrapping up what was left of his hand in bandages as he finished up. ‘Maybe he can get a hook-hand like other poachers.’
“Get Some rest, Shiobana, our job is done”
He couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned in his bed, but Gioron couldn’t sleep. So he hopped out of bed and silently made his way down the hall of the inner part of the ship. Careful not to make a sound, he opened the door to the haul, and wanted to know what made it “beautiful” to others.
As he entered the room, he saw that the mer was eating some of the fish the crew used as bait. The gray-blue fish were about the size of Giorno’s arm and this thing was eating at least 12 at a time. ‘Maybe this was a bad idea.’ He thought as he walked right up to the pink mer anyway. There were a few things he didn’t expect to find about the mer, especially not tentacles. Bright pink tentacles on its head that wriggle angrily like medusa, and a pair of squid tentacles with red at the ends on its back. It had on a piece of purple clothing, with a large hole in it, covering its chest. And it had strange, tattoo-like marks on its shoulders. As he followed the tattoos down the arm closest to him, he saw cuts and openings that the thing had got from the net. Most of them had stopped bleeding, but still looked deep enough to cause an infection.
Slowly crouching down, Giorno placed his hand on the back of the mer’s larger, webbed one as it dug its claws into the wood floor with a growl. A soft, golden glow spread from his hand to the cuts mer’s hand and a bit up its arm. With a pained Shriek, the mer yanked its hand back away from the boy. The mer looked between its hand and Giorno, the hand was healed with little to no scarring. The mer’s mood changed, its head tentacles pulled themselves back into some kind of ponytail, except for one that hung to the side of its face. Giorno Could now see that the mer’s eyes were a bright, amber color and it had dark pink speckles under them.
The mer repositioned itself so its tail in front of them. Giorno placed both hands on the tail (which was wrapped up in more tentacles) and started healing it. Quickly, Giorno began to feel dizzy and his vision started to blur, using too much energy healing the mer. He didn’t even notice the mer using one of its back tentacles to push him to the door of the haul.
After catching his breath, he left the haul, closing the door behind him and he Slowly made his back to bed
Giorno slept in the next morning. Nobody woke him. Gently rocked by the boat and lulled by the soft rain.
All he could think of was the mer in the haul. It helped him after he tried to heal it. He didn’t think merfolk would show kindness to a human, let alone him, and they were going to sell it. It felt wrong. He was going to do something about it.
Getting out of bed, Giorno made his way to the deck of the ship. The sky was gray as light rain fell from above. Most of the crew members were just standing, idly talking with each other about whatever, the captain stood at the helm. He walked up the stairs to the wheel.
“How long until we reach land?”
“We should get there by midday tomorrow. Looks like a storm will arrive tonight. Make sure to stay inside, Shiobana.”
And Giorno did go inside, but he did not go to his room. Instead he goes to see the mer to try and heal it again. When he opened the door, he saw the mer holding a large shell up to its face and was talking into it. He didn’t know what it was saying as merfolk speech sounds like singing with no words. It smiled at Giorno, with sharp teeth that were Surprisingly clean, as he walked in. Placing his glowing hands on its tail he began to heal it as it continued to sing into the shell. ‘What kind of crab lives in a shell that big?’
After about 15 minutes Giorno started to feel dizzy again. He leaned on the mer for support so he could catch his breath as his eyelids become heavier, sleep ready to take him. He almost didn’t feel the mer place its hands under his arm, nor when the mer tensed as it wrapped its hands around his small body. It raised the tired boy up to its face and began to slowly lick his head. Its tongue was grayish blue and sticky and its breath smelled like fish and an too familiar copper smell. Giorno tried to get the sticky saliva out of his hair and push the mer’s face away, he failed at both and was gently placed on the mer’s chest. He gripped on the purple fabric of its top. He may never know what people see as ”beautiful”, but he did value kindness and this mer more kind to him then anyone else. He was going to repay it.
It had been several hours before nightfall, the storm had grown bigger, and Giorno was… nervous, to say the least. He didn’t know if his plan to free the mer would work, and he certainly didn’t know how the other crew members would react. Would they leave him on land and abandon him? Would they throw him overboard and leave him stranded in the mediterranean? Would they just kill him? All things didn’t want the answer to.
Looking back at the mer (who was mostly healed now) that stared at him with a look he couldn’t read. ‘Curiosity, maybe?’
“I’m going to let you out now.” He said quietly, his voice a rasp, not expecting any sort of response.
He certainly didn’t expect its expression to change to that of relief. “Can you understand me?” A quiet shout filled with surprise as he stood next to the mer, could they all understand humans? Was it just this one? Giorno had so many questions and so little time for answers. “I’ll open the hatch” he said, pointing up at the hatch above then. He left the haul and made his way to the top deck.
Up on deck, the storm raged. It was cold and windy and not someplace safe for a small child like Giorno should be, but he didn’t care. The rock of the boat didn’t bother him.
Most of the crew members had retired to bed, except for the captain who stood at the wheel. He shouldn’t be able to see Giorno from that angle so if he was quick, he wouldn’t notice. He walked over to the hatch and began to pull out the locks, they were heavy but inch by inch, Giorno pulled out the first lock. He moved onto the second lock, it took longer to pull out, the rain made it hard to hold and Giorno was beginning to tire but he eventually undid the lock. Moving to the lost one, Giorno tried his best to undo it, it took longer than the second. His arms hurt and started to weaken, he was almost done and the mer could leave and go home.
“SHIOBANA! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?”
The captain.
The captain ran down to the deck as everyone else came up, spearguns in hand. Still holding the mostly undone lock, giorno began to shake. One of the crew members grabbed him by the shoulder and tried to pull him away from the hatch. It hurt.
Suddenly, with a loud *BANG*, the pink mer burst out of the haul, boards of wood breaking apart. Crawling onto the deck with a deep growl, the mer used one of its tentacles to wrap around the men holding Giorno and throw him to the other side of the ship. A few shots were fired, one grazed the mer’s shoulder. Some of its tentacles lashed out, its tail shielding Giorno. After a spear pierced the back of the mer’s tail near Giorno. It quickly leapt into the water, but stayed near the ship circling it.
Giorno ran up to the railing, blood dripping off it. He could see the mer’s back and tail fins cutting the waves, its head poking out the water a few times. The other crew members ran over to the rail, the pounding rain, blood, and sway of the ship making it difficult.
A life preserver was roughly shoved into Giorno’s hands.
“If you’re such good friends with the thing…” The captain says in a low voice. “THEN YOU CAN GET IT BACK!” And with that, the captain used his good hand and threw Giorno over the railing.
The water was cold and burned his eyes. He could barely see. He was sure one of his boots fell off into the water. What he could see was the pink mer stare at him for a little while before diving under the water completely. Had it left?
The captain had a pistol pulled out and aimed at Giorno. Giorno had trusted the captain and now he was willing to use him to get the back. The others did nothing to help.
While everyone was focused on one side of the ship at Giorno no one was able to notice another, much larger mer had approached until it slammed its large, webbed hand onto the deck and shattered the wood. It crawled onto the ship like a cat stalking a mouse. Long red tentacles slithered across the floor and began tearing into the ship.
Stumbling into the railing, the captain drew out his pistol, aimed, and fired to the mer’s head. It made contact but there was no damage. All it did was force its attention onto him, he took a few more shots. Now it was angry and was coming towards him. He tried to leap over the railing to Escape into the water, but he didn’t make it, he was caught and swallowed whole by the sea monster before it went after the others.
The storm, waves, and rock of the ship had caused the life preserver to drift away and could just barely see the ship. He saw it Break apart and sink in the distance.
He was alone. He was alone and was going to die at sea. He was tired and alone, lost at the Mediterranean Sea. The salty water irritated his eyes and everyone was dead and-
Something rose from the water and stared at him. It was the larger mer. The top half of its face stuck out of the water and a big red fin in the distance. Its face was a light pink, both of them. It had two faces. Its eyes were green, and his head tentacles were long, pink, and red. Two of them stuck like horns.
It stared at him with an unreadable look for minutes before diving back into the water again. And Giorno was left alone again. He was getting tired of holding onto life preserver. He was getting too cold.
Suddenly, Giorno feet as if the water around him was… draining? Or was he rising? Both? He didn’t have time to think about it for long as it became pitch black. It was squishy and warm, and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness he realized why. Surrounding him almost completely were dozens of lager, shape teeth about as big as he was on most sides of, and he did not dare to turn around.
“O-oh…oh no.”
To be continued —>