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Humans and mermaids can’t be friends, humans even do not know the mermaids are real, and the mermaids cannot be seen by humans. The mermaids can’t swim near the boats or the beach.
Since the mermaids were born, they always heard the stories about the humans that old, wise mermaids told. The wise mermaids talked about the clothes humans wear, their voices, their food and drinks… Jesse remembers when he was just a little mermaid who thought humans are not bad and some day, they could have human friends, but Jesse doesn't think the same now. Jesse knows humans are murderers, selfish, egocentrics, and miserable. He had seen how far humans are able to go to achieve something. He had seen the clean and pure ocean become dirty, with deadly traps to mermaids, fish and any creature that tries to swim in the surface. And sadly, Jesse had seen mermaids dying or been poisoned or hurted…
Jesse hates humans.
Jesse doesn’t try to kill humans, but he still hates them.
Jesse couldn't trust humans, not after all the damage they've done to the ocean for so long, and that's why now, with his tail tangled in fishing line that he can't break and one human looking at him, Jesse is so nervous and scary.
“Hey, hey, calm down…”
‘Calm down’? Seriously? Do you expect Jesse to calm down when that human is so close, and he's caught in one of his stupid human traps?
“I can help you.” he tries to take a step, but when Hanzo lifts a leg and Jesse growls, showing sharp teeth like a shark's, Hanzo decides it's best to stay put. “You won't be able to break the fishing line yourself… you need help.”
Jesse ignored him and tried to remove the thread with more force and desperation. He couldn't swim with his tail like that, hurting his fins and cutting his scales, but if he stayed longer among the rocks, more humans could see him, and maybe the crabs will try to eat it.
The thread did not break, but his fingers were hurt when he tried to put his fingers between his tail and the thread to remove it. His blue blood stained the threads. He hissed in pain, frustrated not only at not being able to free himself, but at being so close to this human who is now sitting in the sand, just a few meters away from him. He is looking at him like he knows that his tries are useless. Jesse feels so stupid…
“Let me help you before you hurt yourself more. I don't think entering the water bleeding is safe.” He is right. The sharks will be attracted to blood and Jesse doesn't feel strong enough to go against them.
The mermaid sighed heavily before looking at him. Hanzo noticed resentment with him, as if Hanzo was the one who did this to him in the first place.
Hanzo quickly stood up, to which the creature growled. Hanzo raised his hands, watching as the creature, still showing its sharp teeth, stopped growling. Hanzo understood that even if Jesse let him help him, he didn't trust him.
“I'm going to approach you slowly, okay?”
The sound that the mermaid makes now is not like the growls it made before, it is soft and less abrupt, as if it accepted his words. Hanzo goes towards him slowly as he promised.
His tattoo attracts the mermaid's attention as Hanzo takes off his backpack and long-sleeved jacket so the sleeves aren't in his way. Hanzo can feel those hazel eyes on his inked skin, trying to know what that tattoo is while Hanzo looks in his backpack for the scissors to help the mermaid.
But when the mermaid saw the scissors, he growled again and showed his sharp shark teeth. Hanzo knows why he reacted like that, but he can't don't use the scissors or he will be hurt with the fishing lines.
“Two koi swimming in the water. It is a good tattoo, right?” Hanzo decides to try to distract him by talking about the tattoo, which seems to work. “When I was a kid, my dad had koi on a big pond with rocks and flowers around in his garden. He loved to feed the kois and talk with them, they are like other sons for him. I never understood why my father spoke to them, but he always said to me 'I know they don't talk to me, but I know they can understand me and love listening to me.'” Hanzo smiled and started to cut the fishing line slowly, he didn't want to break the mermaid's scales or fins. “I got the tattoo when he passed away, you know? I could have tattooed his name, the family emblem, his face… But I think if he had been alive to see me get a tattoo in his honor, he would have asked me to be his beloved koi fish.”
Jesse didn't say a word, but Hanzo knows he understands him. For a moment, Hanzo felt like his father, and felt a pain in his chest. Hanzo missed his father very much.
“I’m going to get you out of here, okay?” To his surprise, the mermaid nodded his head. The mermaid's wet hair dripped onto Hanzo's hands, while those almond-shaped eyes followed his movements.
Hanzo let out a soft snort when one of the threads hurt his finger, moving his hand away quickly, fearing that the mermaid would somehow become aggressive at seeing him hurt, but he just cocked his head.
“Sorry… Once a shark almost bit me when I tried to help it back into the water... It wasn't his fault, it was mine for not hurrying and not being careful.” Jesse didn't know if the human was lying or not, but he gave him the benefit of the doubt, watching as he cut the fishing line again.
When there was almost no thread around his tail, Jesse moved it. The blood was circulating again in his poor and big tail, but the moisture on his body had dried in the sun and he was beginning to feel uncomfortable and the rocks and sand were not a pleasant place to be for a long time.
The mermaid stirred a little and tried to move, but Hanzo stopped her by resting his hand on her scaly tail. “I'm not done yet, please wait.” He grunted a little and then looked at the water, the waves lapping the sand before going back again. Hanzo looked back to see the ocean as well and sighed. “I'll try to be faster, okay? But try to don't move.”
It's hard for Jesse to sit still, but he tries. Jesse doesn't want to make Hanzo angry.
Hanzo wants to wish him a safe trip when he's done, but as soon as Jesse feels free, he crawls out as fast as he can and dives into the water. The Japanese sighed, feeling empty at that moment. He would have liked to say goodbye, but he knew that the mermaid was scary. Hanzo can't blame him. The main reason he volunteered to clean the beach of his town was precisely because he knows the damage that humans do and have done in the sea.
Hanzo doesn't want to be part of the problem, but part of the solution.
And because he wants to help, he has seen a mermaid, a creature that has probably never been seen before even though many people believe in them. Hanzo feels very lucky.
As Hanzo recognizes the broken fishing line that was previously on the mermaid's tail, he finds many scales in the sand. The scales have a beautiful color, shiny in the sun, and a soft touch. I shouldn't leave them on the beach, they're too big to be a fish, but would the mermaid take it well if Hanzo kept them?
Hanzo decided to keep the scales. I drink the little that is left of the red fruit juice in the canteen and then I keep the scales there. Maybe Hanzo could use them to make a necklace.
(...)
He shouldn't have returned to the beach, not when he had been discovered there, but Jesse felt an uncontrollable curiosity about the human who saved him. Old mermaids had always told him about human cruelty, but that human saved him…
Jesse wants to know why that human told him about his father and try to be nice with him. They are not the same species, humans don't even know of their existence and Jesse would never have saved a human if he needed help at sea, but that man did help him on his territory.
While Hanzo was busy filling a black garbage bag with things he found (tobacco, glass bottles, sunscreen bottles, glass plates and cutlery…), Jesse looked at him, hidden behind some rocks a little away from the beach.
The mermaid did not understand why while the other humans stained the beach and the water, this man was trying hard to clean it, but he felt warmth in his chest when he saw him.
Jesse wondered if he could help him, without Hanzo noticing. There was a lot of trash in the sea, too far from the beach for Hanzo to find it.
He nodded to himself and then sank into the water. His tail felt good, flapping quickly and easily, all thanks to that human who freed him.
Jesse found many things on the seabed; plastic bags, glass jars... Even a tire wheel. Jesse didn't know what those things were or what they were for, but he knew they weren't good for his home, and if he can get them out of here, he'll do whatever it takes.
He left the wheel floating in the water and the waves gently carried it to the beach before looking toward Hanzo. The man was very surprised to see the tire in the water, grunting before running to grab it to prevent it from blowing away with the waves again.
“How can someone throw a fucking wheel into the sea? They don't even worry that someone might be swimming and the wheel falls on them..” He left the wheel near the staircase and the bag he had filled with trash.
Just as Hanzo turned around while taking out a new bag to continue cleaning, he noticed something else in the water… Bags of chips? Hanzo runs to the waves to take it. Today he had noticed a lot more trash than other days, although he tried not to take it into account.
Jesse smiled hidden. Hanzo was cleaning up what he picked up and let go into the waves! He felt happy to see a human doing good.
Hanzo wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm. Today he was wearing a sleeveless sweatshirt, a swimsuit, black water shoes, and gloves to avoid getting hurt while cleaning. Jesse found it curious that humans change their clothes so quickly, he had only changed the color of his tail a couple of times with the dye that his friend Ashe made with seaweed.
Jesse let the boats go too, although it was difficult since they didn't float as much as the tire. Fortunately, The glass shone in the powerful morning sun. But unfortunately, Jesse hadn't hidden in time and Hanzo saw him.
Jesse looked at him with some fear and embarrassment, while Hanzo just smiled and waved his hand in greeting. Jesse raised his pink-webbed hand that linked his open fingers, waving too.
Jesse pushed the boats with his tail, watching them go towards the beach and Hanzo smiled at him as he approached to take them, throwing them into the garbage bag.
(...)
Hanzo the first time Jesse approached him. It was night, a month after they had been cleaning the beach and the water together, and Jesse had come to ask him something.
“Why are you cleaning up after other humans?”
Hanzo had never heard a voice like it. Soft, with a singing tone and obvious curiosity. Hanzo wondered if the siren song of the stories told in the city would sound just as appealing, soft and pretty in the voice of the siren in front of him.
The mermaid was also very beautiful, I had not had time to see him from afar and not even when he helped him, being more busy helping him than contemplating him, but boy, he was a very handsome mermaid…
Hanzo realized he had been staring at the mermaid for a long time when he raised an eyebrow. He coughed to clear his voice before answering:
“Not all humans are bad.”
It was somewhat obvious that there is no general rule in a species as numerous as humans, but Jesse felt ashamed for not having thought of that before. Hanzo could see, even in the dead of night, the mermaid's cheeks blushing a light blue color.
“How do you expect me to know that?”
Hanzo laughed and opened the trash bag, where Jesse dropped what was in his arms. Hanzo couldn't understand how there was still trash left after so much time spent cleaning.
"Thanks for… y'know…” He seemed embarrassed to thank a human for helping him.
Hanzo shook his head and smiled at him, friendly, like he always tried to be. “It was nothing, I like to contribute to clean up the mess that others make.”
It would be easier if there was someone watching to make sure people didn't litter, but no one was in charge of that, and Hanzo had a job to attend to, he couldn't clean and control the beach forever. Cleaning the beach was a job as honest as it was thankless, few people understand why he does it and no one pays him to do this... Hanzo won't stop cleaning just because he doesn't get money, but he would like to see someone more cleaning the beach…
“I’m hungry and a bit tired, would you like to talk a bit with me while I'm eating?”
Hanzo waited for a refusal as he put the bag aside (he had to throw the garbage he produced there anyway) and took out a vegetable sandwich. However, the mermaid did not leave, he stayed, lying on the wet sand while the water came and went in calm waves. Under the moon, that scaly tail shone like pure silver and the fins looked like the elegant and fine veil of a wedding dress.
Hanzo opened his mouth to introduce himself as he removed the plastic covering his sandwich, but Jesse stepped forward, curious:
“The paint on your arm… How did you do it? Did it hurt me to do it? Is it removed somehow?”
Hanzo liked his curiosity. He smiled before talking. “Humans can do these things to ourselves with needles and a special paint. There are ways to remove it if I want, but it hurts and I don't want to get rid of it.” while he was eating, he showed his arm. The mermaid seemed very interested in the drawing.
“Is what you said true? Is it a tattoo in honor of your father?” Hanzo nodded.
“His koi fish were important to him.”
Jesse seemed really interested in Hanzo and what he was saying.
“Was your dad like you?” Hanzo looked at him blankly. “He also cleaned the beach?”
“Sometimes” Hanzo took another bite of the sandwich, “but I'm not doing this for him. I clean the beach because it is not fair that the animals on the beach and the sea live among our garbage…”
Jesse felt heat in his chest again, he didn't understand why, but he liked it when he spoke like that. The gills on his neck and sides of his abdomen trembled a bit as he smiled widely, like little wings.
Hanzo didn't know what it meant when Jesse's gills fluttered like that, but he didn't comment. Jesse sat down carefully, slowly, it was evident that he was not used to being out of the water.
“Do you want me to continue helping you find trash to clean up?”
Hanzo was this time the one who felt warmth in his chest. It meant a lot to him that someone wanted to help him, that someone else shared his need to keep the place clean.
“I would really appreciate it!” he scratched the back of his head, smiling. “Between two people it will be easier…”