Chapter Text
Nene yawned as she stretched out her tail, her purple eyes adjusting back to large amount of light that the palace allowed. She removed herself from the soft bed that still called out to her, yet she still had duties as part of the guard. "NENE, NENE!" A loud knocking came from the large rotting wooden door across the room. The sound startled Nene, but not as much as the owner of it, the youngest princess known as Otori Emu. “NENE! I know you’re awake! You promised me that we would go out and explore more of the ocean today!” The last sentence was said with so much excitement than Nene expected to hear from her, but the way she said it made it sound like that she would never forgive her if Nene didn't accompany the young princess.
Nene groaned and rubbed her eyes, turning off the lamp, leaving her only source of light by her window. The windowsill had been hollowed out in order to make space for a small table and chair. The chair wasn’t very comfortable, especially when the currents were flowing through the small opening. However, it was a place where she could sleep in near peace without worrying about being disturbed by anyone. "Shall we sneak into the kitchen to grab a snack?" Nene closed the door behind her, fastening the belt hanging off her waist.
"Do you think they'll have shrimp? Oh I really hope Mrs. Honami managed to get more shrimp today!!!" Emu clapped her hands, swimming faster towards the grand hall.
"H-Hey! Lady Emu slow down!" Nene raced after the young jellyfish mermaid. "Emu watch out for your tentacles, they'll sting me if you're not careful." The last thing she wanted was to be stung again, the last time that happened she was incapacitated for weeks, and Emu ended up locking herself in her room for more than double that time.
"Oh right! Sorry!" Emu stopped abruptly, her body turning around to face Nene. “We should head there anyway though, right? We can check on Mrs. Honami's cooking first! She always makes us the best fish!” Emu smiled, her long bright bubblegum pink hair moving freely as her head tilted side to side. Her bright pink eyes shined brightly in the sunlight streaming through the water, reflecting her happiness.
“Yeah… sure.” Nene chuckled, shaking her head, trying to clear away her thoughts. "Eat as much as you can if you want to head further then the gardens today, or else you might not get away from the evil sea witch!"
Emu made a little sound, "No! I don't wanna meet the evil sea witch!" Nene laughed watching her reaction.
"You know she's not actually evil, Emu." Nene reminded the young princess.
"I know...oh! There's Mrs Honami!" Emu's attention was grabbed by the young girl with brown hair swimming past the guard and princess. "HONAMI!!!!!" Emu bolted towards the startled mermaid, wrapping her arms around her waist and squeezing tightly. "Mrs. Honami!! I missed you~"
"Ahh! Emu! You shouldn't run over people!" Honami struggled against the tight hug, giggling at Emu's sudden appearance.
"Sorry!" Emu finally let go, giggling. "Um, do you mind getting some shrimp for me? I'm heading up so I'll look out for those yummy apples that you love so much!" Emu pleaded, pulling her best large, cute, and pleading eyes. “Please?”
“Of course!” Honami took Emu's hands in her own, "I'll make the best apple pie if you get me some apples!"
“Thank you, Mrs. Honami!” With one last smile, Emu turned her attention back towards Nene. “Let’s hurry up! I wanna eat all my shrimp!” Nene nodded, grabbing onto the younger mermaid's hand as she followed the other mermaid, Emu still swimming excitedly ahead of them.
As usual, Nene found herself wondering how Emu was such an enthusiastic ball of energy. "Here you go, Lady Emu! Please don't eat so fast that you get a stomacheache again..." Honami warned Emu, her voice filled with worry.
"Don't worry Mrs. Honami! I won't, I learned my lesson! Cross my hearts!!" Emu saluted Honami. "Come on Nene! We have so much to explore!!!!" Emu grabbed Nene's hand, swimming through the vast yet empty halls of the palace. Even the castle itself was silent with just the sounds of the two of them swimming past. It was almost eerie, but not that uncomfortable.
After a few minutes, they reached the gates that lead away from the palace. Nene couldn't help but stare at the massive expanse of the ocean that lay beyond the gate. The waters were dark, black with an ominous undertone to them. If one looked far enough, they saw the faint outlines of some of the other kingdoms. "What are you looking at, Nene? You're staring off into the depths again," Emu pointed out, swimming in front of her. Nene blinked and rubbed her eyes, focusing once again on Emu's smiling face. "Are you okay?" Nene sighed.
"...yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Let's continue our adventure." Nene nodded, using her hand on the smooth wall of the castle to push herself further. As they swam, Emu began humming a tune as she held her bag of shrimp in one hand, arm shoving shrimp by the handful into her mouth.
"Let's go this way!" Emu pointed towards the surface, further off into the distance. Nene nodded in agreement, following behind Emu as they swam through the darkness towards the horizon. Nene tried to ignore the feeling of dread and fear bubbling within her. No, it was wrong to dwell on such things when you were on an adventure. Just keep going forward. Keep swimming. That was what they always told her, what they did every day.
"It's not far now." Emu spoke.
“Lady Emu, get away from there!” Nene grabbed the hand of the jelly-maid next to her as she kept trying to swim closer and closer to the surface. She yanked the pink jellyfish further down into the murky depths of the sea.
“Whaaaa, Nene you’re no fun!” Emu pouted, using her spare hand to loosen the guard's grip on her wrist.
“I’m just trying to look out for you, I can see a boat up there.” Nene huffed, rubbing her wrist from any marks that Emu’s hand may have left.
“Come on! Just for a few minutes? A quick five-minute poke above the surface and we won’t be caught, alright?” She was already a few seconds ahead of the older siren as the younger girl swam further away from the comfort of the deep sea.
Nene hesitated for another minute but followed in close pursuit. 'We need to keep moving forward.'
Nene thought to herself, her heart pounding as she forced herself to keep swimming even faster, hoping to catch up with Emu and convince her to stop swimming further and further away from the safety of the deep sea. She took a deep breath and broke the surface of the ocean. The bright sun burned at her large eyes, causing her to yelp and go back underwater. Nene took a minute to compose herself and broke the surface again. "Lady Emu?"
Nene looked around, trying to find the pink haired girl. "Emu!" Nene spotted her near a small boat, white in color with a large net attached to the back. "EMU!" Nene dunked her head back underwater and swam towards the boat. "Emu!! Get back here!"
Emu waved her free hand in the air, a big smile forming on her face, "Nene-" Nene pulled Emu down back underneath the surface.
"...you scared me…" Nene heaved a sigh of relief.
Emu pouted and looked back to the boat. "I smelled something really tasty...I wanted to check it out before we explored more."
"I understand to an extent, but this is a fishing boat, Emu. We can get caught..." Nene shuttered at the thought. What the surface might have in store for merfolk is enough to make even the hardiest of warriors scared.
When she received no response, Nene opened her eyes and found Emu near the boat again. "EMU!"
Nene swam back up near the boat, watching as Emu's tentacles wrapped and stretched around the boat, through the window to grab whatever she though smelled so good. Nene swam around the boat, trying to figure out how to tip the boat to get Emu safely out of the boat, without stinging herself. She could try one of her songs but...
No, a song when in distress won't be that useful. Ideas, Nene needs ideas and now damn it.
That's it!
"Emu, stay right there! I'm going to get Luka!" Nene watched as Emu's tentacles floundered around. Nene was nervous leaving Emu alone for who knows how long, but Luka was their best bet. They needed someone who could help guide Emu safely out of the boat. Nene quickly swam away.
'Go through the coral reef...'
Nene dove through the sharp edges of the reef.
'The cave on the right'
Nene made a sharp turn, her back hitting the cave walls. She winced, but continued on her way.
'The large anemone and there you shall find...'
"LUKA!!" Nene grunted as she struggled getting through the anemone. "Luka!! Emu needs your help!!!!" At the mention of Emu, a large face came out.
"Princess Emu?" The large body moved the large tentacles of the anemone, allowing Nene to safely enter. "Where is she?"
"She's near the surface! She's attached to a large...white fishing boat near the coast and she got stuck and she can't get out!!" Nene explained, her arms waving around.
"Got it." Luka nodded, moving her hand over the entrance to close it once more, preventing anyone from entering. "I'll help her out! I know a shortcut from here, follow me!" Luka led the smaller mermaid through the coral reef, occasionally stopping to wait for Nene to catch up.
‘Why am I even listening to this crazy giant sea creatures? I shouldn't have dragged her into this but...if I go to the other guards then they wouldn't be able to do anything without also harming themselves.' Nene shook her head, deciding that she was going to be mad at Emu later.
After swimming for what felt like ages, Luka came to a halt and motioned for Nene to stop as well. "You stay here and wait for me in case there's any danger. Just watch out for anything strange, ok?" Luka commanded.
"Wait, don't leave me! I might not be the biggest help, but I can help you either way! Don't leave me here!!" Nene protested, reaching out and gripping onto Luka's tail.
Luka shook her tail lightly and Nene flew off. Watching Nene crash into a nearby wall made her feel slightly bad, but if this is the same boat...
Luka swam further to the surface, her head poking out so that just her eyes were visible.
There it is. Some slight modifications could be seen, but there were some marks on the hull that she could see, even from far away.
Luka swam closer to the boat, being careful as to not disturb the ocean around her. She slowly made her way to the side of the boat. It looks pretty sturdy. The ship was quite big, but there wasn't much movement coming from it. The boat seemed to be stationary in the water with no sign of movement coming from inside. She could faintly hear footsteps, though. She frowned and gently knocked onto the side of the boat.
The footsteps stopped and the figure went out to investigate. "Luka?"
"Kaito!" Luka grabbed Kaito by his waist and took him from the boat, like he was a little rag doll. "Oh, Kaito, I have missed you so much!!!" Luka nuzzled his face, covering him with kisses.
"Luka! Luka can't breathe...." Kaito gasped, hitting her hand to try and let him go.
"Oh right! I’m so sorry.” Luka put Kaito down as gently as she could, doing her best as to not tip the poor boat. “Anyways, as to why I’m here. Was your boat attacked by a mer-jellyfish?”
Kaito looked surprised at the question. “Yes actually, we were. Poor Tsukasa got stung and so I had to drop him and Rui off at the shore. Rui took the jellyfish in a barrel to see if he could make an antitoxin to help." He explained.
Bad news. “Oh dear….”
“What’s wrong?”
“That jellyfish….belongs to me….” Luka replied, not exactly revealing the whole truth.