Chapter Text
Bare feet met wet sand.
Ocean waves crashed onto the rocky shoreline, loud and harsh, yet still an oddly calming white noise. The moon was bright, shining silver onto the wet ground that Rui walked on, and stretching across the endless body of water in front of him.
He… Really had no idea why he was out at such an hour.
His eyes burned, the pain sitting in the back of his head not unfamiliar to him at all.
Of course he couldn’t sleep. What else was new, really.
Rui’s hands rose to his eyes to rub at them, and he blinked away the static that followed. Sleepless nights weren’t exactly rare, but it was especially difficult to shake off on nights when the rest of the ship’s crew was a little too rowdy. They were docked in town for a short time, and while there was still quite a bit until they had to set off again, Rui wasn’t exactly free of his own work. He liked what he did for a living, and he was lucky to have secured pay and shelter with his crew, but things seemed to just get busier for him whenever they docked somewhere new.
This didn’t really match up very well with the others’ schedules, which seemingly cleared up as soon as they set foot off-deck, alternatively. And more free time meant more shows to perform, or watch. More shows meant more drinks. More drinks meant more needless chaos that he was somehow always roped into.
Rui was a respected alchemist, for God’s sake. Would it kill them to let him do his own thing? Maybe then he could finally get his work done and maybe get a single good night’s sleep by the time they left this time around.
Branching off one day to settle down in the countryside sounded like a better idea each passing day. Devoting his own time to researching whatever he pleased certainly seemed more appealing than dealing with drunk sailors coming back to the inns from live theatre every weekend.
He sighed, and breathed in as the salty, warm air touched the back of his neck. The sound of the ocean crashing onto the shore really was therapeutic.
But only when Rui closed his eyes to focus on that sound, did a lull in the waves cause him to pick up on something else.
…
The unmistakable sound of whimpering.
Rui’s head perked up, and he turned to face the rocks to his left. The more he stared, the louder it seemed to get above everything else.
Something was wrong. Clumps of sand kicked up behind him as Rui ran over to the scene, slowing cautiously as he approached. The whimpering evolved into sniffles the closer he came, and sniffles evolved into hiccups. Whoever it was… They were crying. Hard. It sounded… Pained. Afraid. His hands touched damp, jagged rock, and as Rui peered over to the other side, all he could do was stare.
And bright, practically bioluminescent eyes stared right back up at him from the sand below.
It was a girl, leaning against a rock, hair wet and messy with bits of sea grass caught in the strands. But the further he looked down… Her body wasn’t that of a human, not at all.
Glistening in the moonlight was the bell and tentacles of a jellyfish, as white as the lunar rays above it in color. A net coiled around her body, and red liquid leaked down her torso, staining the top on her chest and the round bell below; it was then that Rui realized she was holding a gash on her flesh.
The girl looked downright terrified.
“Y-You’re hurt,” Rui spoke, voice cracking over the sound of the waves around them. The girl nodded hesitantly, a wet strand of pink hair falling against her cheek as she did so. Her hand shook, but she carefully peeled it away from the wound to show it to him.
The sight of it made Rui’s eyes widen, and he immediately leapt over the rock to carefully inspect it further. A dirty, somewhat large fishhook was stuck in the girl’s arm. Upon coming closer, he could clearly see that her entire being was shaking.
“I-It hurts,” she whispered, speaking for the first time. Her voice was small and soft, like she was anxious to open up but had no other choice. “I-I don’t know what to do, I–”
“It’s going to be okay,” Rui interrupted her before she could scare herself even further. He gave a smile, making sure to meet her eyes. “I can help. My name is Rui.”
“...I’m Emu.”
“Emu… That’s a wonderful name. I’m going to help you out of this net, before anything else. It’s important that you try to stay still for me, alright?”
Emu nodded meekly. That was as good a response as he was going to get, it seemed. Rui breathed in, then reached into his pocket for his folding knife, flicking it open. God have mercy if he accidentally injured her any further trying to cut this thing off. It's not like he’s ever confronted… Whatever she is, before in his life. Jellyfish were fragile creatures as it was, nevermind something that was half-human as well.
Even then… The bell and frilly tentacles were a mess of their own due to the net tangled through.
Rui wondered how she could manage to swim back to wherever it was that she came from in this state, let alone how she even got herself onto shore.
He shook his head.
Just focus on cutting her out.
He sliced, and sliced, and sliced away, cutting each square of the rope as fast as he could with his arms shaking as much as they were. Hurting her was one thing, but it wasn’t like he was really looking to find out what would happen if any of those tentacles made contact with his skin; now wasn’t the time for any amount of scientific curiosity.
“You’re doing great, I’m just going to lift you out now,” he encouraged, but it was almost more so for himself. The top half of the net covering her front was flipped off as far as he could manage, and Rui moved to stand behind her; but that was when the girl’s head lolled, falling back into him with a wet thud. “E-Emu–!” Rui shouted over the ocean’s crash, letting himself stumble onto his backside in order to catch her in time.
“...I-I’m sorry, I–” she mumbled out, speech slurring. He could see her consciousness start to fade in and out, breath shallow. Her body was shivering, and she blinked through soaked eyelashes slowly. “I… can’t s-seem to–to see y…ou very w-well…”
Rui could feel his blood run cold upon hearing that. She sounded so scared... Her voice was weak, and she could barely keep her head up. The hand that once desperately gripped the fishhook wound was starting to grow limp, and Rui knew he was running out of options.
Throwing her back into the ocean wasn’t one of them.
“W…here are you, R-Rui…?” she asked through a trembling voice, head unmoving against Rui’s chest as they lay on the sand. He was drenched, and the salt and sand was starting to rub into his skin and clothes.
“I-I’m right here, Emu, I’m with you,” he tried to reassure her, but he was sure those words fell on deaf ears. She couldn’t be entirely there, not anymore.
Emu’s eyes rolled as she tried to keep them open, truly straining to stay awake, trying to process any light or any sort of familiar shade of blue–purple–she wasn’t even sure what hair color he had… S-She couldn’t–remember… She couldn’t think about anything beyond the blinding pain shooting through her arm, the swirling feeling in her head making everything blur together…
Was she… Being lifted? Her head bounced, and it was such a foreign feeling, she could only assume she was moving…
Emu’s vision went black, and the last distant thing she was able to hear was a flurry of curses hissed just above her ear.