Chapter Text
“This is a great idea!” Hizashi said while swimming through the water. “Yeah, I saw some other mermaids coming by here. They brought a whole stash of cool stuff!” Oboro exclaimed.
Yesterday, Oboro told Hizashi about a coral patch where a lot of clams with pearls are at. It is a little away from where their city is but there are a bunch of unique items that no one has stolen yet and even some human objects!
“Oboro wait up!” Hizashi shouted. Oboro was one of the fastest mermaids in their pod with his long blue scaled tail and bigger fins that make it easy to lose him in the vast ocean. Hizashi has a little shorter tail that shines gold.
“I’ll race you!” Screamed back Oboro. “That’s not fair!” Hizashi exclaimed back while kicking his tail faster.
The two come up at the little intersection of things. There are a lot of shells, clams, fish, and if you look close, you can see a couple of pearls littering the sand.
“Ha, got here first,” Oboro said. “That wasn’t even a competition,” grumbled Hizashi.
“Hey look,” Hizashi picks up a red tinted pearl, “Bet I can find more pearls than you.”
“Oh you’re on!”
The competition for the most pearls begins with the two going as fast as they can to collect, especially the more unique ones. Then the two hear a snapping sound.
“What was that?” Asked Hizashi. “Maybe a fish or… a clam?” Oboro said.
Then nets sprang up from under the sand and trapped the two mers.
“Oh … Shit Shit Shit Shit SHIT!” Oboro screamed while trying to fight the net off of him. Hizashi, also stuck, started panicking. Mermaids all hear the tales of how humans capture their kind and are never heard from again. A couple from their hometown have been captured before and none of them except one have made it back. The only reason that one mermaid came back was because the human who captured it was just a kid who panicked after catching them and releasing them immediately after. This does not feel like that situation.
The net keeps going up closer to the surface where a ship is above them.
‘How did we no see that’ Hizashi thinks. Hizashi looks around rapidly and spots something sharp. Quickly, he grabs it and opens it up. It looks like a small knife but not one a mermaid made. ‘Better than nothing’ Hizashi thinks.
“Oboro! Use this!” Hizashi tells him while handing the knife over. Oboro looks at him, nods, and grabs the knife and starts trying to cut the net. The knife slowly cuts through the strings in the net. The net goes up even faster.
“Hurry up Hurry UP HURRY UP!!!,” exclaims Hizashi. “I’m TRYING!” Oboro screams back. Then finally the net is big enough to go through!
“YES!” Oboro screams. He swims through and back to the freedom of the open waters. Hizashi tries to follow him but then realizes something.
He has another net around him.
This one is thinner than the last one and colored silver making it hard to see at a glance.
“Fuck! Oboro help!” Hizashi screamed while trying to fight the net off of him.
Oboro looks back at him and soon realizes what’s wrong. In a flash he swims back to Hizashi.
Oboro gets the knife and tries to cut this net too but it doesn’t cut through. The net is about to break the surface.
The net breaks through to the water and a cold breeze hits Hizashi. Oboro in a panic, abandons the knife and grabs onto the net while swimming as fast as he can towards the ocean floor. The net stops and makes a jerk down but slowly goes back up again. Oboro tries to hold on but the net cuts through his hands and jerks back up, ascending to the ship. “OBORO!” Hizashi screams for him. Hizashi leaves the water.
“FUCK!” Oboro screams in the water. “HIZASHI!” His hands were bloody and most of his energy depleted.
Hizashi keeps descending all the way up to the deck of the ship. Then the net stops at the top of the wooden crane, a bunch of men pulling the rope of the net. Hizashi gets moved onto the deck and dumped onto the ground. The men start to surround him, all with amazed and greedy expressions. Hizashi is petrified and tries to get away from them but everyone is surrounding him on all sides.
“Well this is a one hell of a catch,” says one of the humans. He has one of those big pirate hats that you would see on a captain and a short black beard. He crouches in front of the little mer. He looks him over and grabs onto Hizashi’s golden tail. Hizashi, who can't move away, whimpers and tries to get his tail out of the man’s grip with no avail.
“Isn’t this a pretty one,” comments the pirate, running his thumb over the scales and fins. He lets go and looks at his crew. “Looks like we’ll be getting rich after all,” smiles the captain. The group cheers. People start to high five each other and give each other pats on the back. “This calls for a drink!” Someone exclaims. The captain turns back to the mermaid.
“Take it to the cages,” sneers the captain, “and make sure you tie it up and muzzle it. We don’t want it to escape.”
Some of the pirates nod and cut the net apart. They grab Hizashi and tie his hands and fins up. Hizashi tries to fight them but there are too many and too strong. Hizashi screams out in his attempt to fight and some of the pirates drop him and cover their ears. He was always a loud fish. One of them grabs him and puts a metal muzzle to his mouth to muffle him. They tie it tightly around his mouth and pick him back up again. They bring him inside and down the stairs. Hizashi sees the bright sun and beautiful ocean one last time before being taken under.
Oboro, still in the water, not knowing what to do, peek out above the water trying to hear what is going on. One of the pirates, a young boy with short black hair, looks over the edge and sees Oboro. Panicked, Oboro goes back under. He sees the boy look at him then back at the ship and leaves. A minute later the ship starts to sail away. Oboro tries to follow it but never catches up. With nothing else to do, Oboro swims back to the city hoping someone will be able to help him.
‘Why him?’ Oboro asks the universe.