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Tokoyami was part of a long line of harpies. His mother was a pure blooded harpie, who has fallen in love with a human man. They came to this island and Tokoyami has lived on it ever since, being the only one who survive past the age of five.
He does not mourn his dead brothers of sisters. Or his mother or father.
Tokoyami is alone with himself and he feels just alright with that. He spends a lot of his days wandering the island in a self tailored piece of clothing that covers his entire body besides his messy black hair. He makes sure he's always hidden away, it doesn't matter if any other humans pass by his water or not. Safety over comfort.
He wears the black cloak to hide away his arms, his bare chest, and the way the silky black feathers have long since matted together and are a disgusting mess to look at. He doesn't have wings of a harpy, or the exact bone structure. The only thing he carried on from his mother was the black feathers, yellow eyes with black slit irises, and the pale skin. The rest of him is human, just like his father.
Tokoyami does not know how old he is. But he knows he's passed his award adolescent stages, he's rather tall, slim, and lonely.
He glances around, stopping in the middle of one of his well visited spots. A single rounded rock in the middle of a patch of soft green grass surrounded by trees. He sleeps here sometimes, if he doesn't feel the urge to go and sleep in his nest deep inside one of the dozen of cave systems on the island. The island isn't huge, but it isn't small either.
Shrugging he keeps walking.
The one thing he truly likes about this island, was the black sand. As long as he could remember, the sand had always been black and soft in his fingers. It flew away like ash at times and he imagined all the reasons why the sand was black. Of course, there was no one to tell him any of his reasons were wrong so he just sticked to them.
He'll just go sit at the beach again. Like he does nearly every other day.
The waters were a dangerous place to swim around in with a full pod.
But when you're alone, you're chances of being ripped in half and eaten up were trippled and suddenly you're the only one swimming in the water for as far as the eye can see.
That's what happened to Aoyama.
He was ripped up because he had taken the chance of swimming off alone to fetch a snack. His stomach had started grumbling and the pod he had been traveling with for the past few months weren't the best. So he got up and swam off.
Aoyama regrets that decision when his heart is beating and his breathing hard. His tail goes as hard as the muscles allow, ducking behind coral and rocks, hidding away before swimming off only to be spotted and caught up with once again.
Teeth, sharp and cold nipped at the edges of his luscious tail. His iridescent white scales and fins forced him to stand out. His blond hair didn't help either, he wasn't made to swim for hunts and much less swim away from huge predators like a shark.
A very hungry shark.
Aoyama was crying. Not out of pain but out of pure fear and dread. He wasn't going to make it out into safety, he was going to die and all he could do was slow down the process by swimming as fast as his tail allowed. He was meant to show off, his tail and fins, their shapes, and the way they waved in the water was enough to tell everyone off he was meant to shine.
Soon enough, he'll be covered in blood. Eaten away raw by a shark, a common predator to merfolk.
Aoyama spots earth far ahead. It begins to grow in size and he just hopes there's land above the water or else he is going to die.
Teeth, sharp cold pain, and suddenly blood is mixing within the blue of the water. Aoyama yells out, his eyes burn and his sinuses inhale his own blood. He continues to scream, the pain is unbearable but now it's the one thing keeping him from immediately passing out. His sharp nails dig into the sharks nose, he tears into the tough skin and he continues until he feels the sharp teeth slowly pull out of his tail. He jolts away and swims, his tail screams and a long trail of blood follows behind him.
The shark is still following, though not as fast. It's still right on him, and one screw up will cost Aoyama his life. His tail was already injured, he can't tell yet if swimming as hard and fast as he could right now is hurting him more.
The earth gets closer. Teeth sink into his the ends of his long fins and rips. He cries out but keeps swimming. The water is beginning to clear up, his eyes blink several times and with a last push of energy and strenght he shoots up from below the surface of the water and onto a black sandy beach.
Blood begins to pool around his tail, and he struggles to breath for a few seconds before he's taking in mouthfuls of oxygen. Aoyama coughs, rolls onto his back and cries out again when his tail is red and black with the undertone of his white iridescent scales.
Will he bleed out? Here on this beautiful beach?
Maybe. And maybe, he just hopes that some kind person finds him and berries him somewhere just as pretty as his scales—
A branch snaps and Aoyama relives the panic from moments before within a second. Before his eyes widen and he's staring at an all black figure, pale skin covered with the faintest freckles, yellow eyes with slit irises.
Aoyama breaths in, lower lip trembling as tears pool in his eyes.
His muscles begin to relax and he tries to force them back awake.
"Help... ple...lease..." His human words are rough around the edges, and he begins to cry as the pain becomes overwhelming and he's thinking about his first ever pod and how nice they had been to him. A little mer lost in the middle of the ocean all alone.
And look at him now.
The first thing to do was get help. The issue with that was that, Tokoyami was the only other living being on this island and he was the only help.
Second thing to do is rip apart his cloak and start tying it around the bleeding to help stop it. The issue with that was that there would be no more cloak for him, but at the same time he was trusting this very obvious not common sea creature to not shame him.
Third thing to do, was make sure the very vibrant looking merman was alive and breathing. There was no issue with that, his chest would rise and fall.
Now Tokoyami was well into the dark of the night.
The moon was high above and the stars were bright as ever.
He had made a little temporary shelter out of leaves, rope, branches, built in with a little fire that kept alight throughout the night. The bleeding had indeed stopped, but the wounds were large and deep. It looked like a huge bite and extremely painful in general. Tokoyami spent most of the night tending to the mysterious injured creature, at the same time dunking small amounts of water over his chest and uncovered part of the tail that wasn't injured.
It was the only thing that genuinely kept him busy and got him into a small routine throughout the night.
When the sun began to rise. Tokoyami checked up on the other and sighed in relief when he saw the rising chest.
Eyes blinked open and he was met with soft purple eyes staring right into his.
It was silent for a good few minutes, were purple eyes took in every features. From the messy matted black hair to the matted black feathers on white arms and legs.
"You're pretty..." It was whispered, and the second coherent thing said from the other.
Tokoyami blinked and his cheeks warmed. Against his will he settled on his knees at arms distance. "What are you?" His voice wasn't as low. But it wasn't confident either. He barely speaks, and when he does he ends up finding himself talking to a wall for hours on end.
"I'm merfolk?" His tail twitches and he winces, remembering that he was still severely injured. Tokoyami notices, dotting down things to do later. "And you? I've never seen feathers before," His arms press garden against his side before he notices the other isn't taunting or laughing.
He was just curious.
"Part harpy. I'm suppose to have wings... but I never grew them." The merfolk looks fascinated, at the mention of wings he gasps and smiles.
"My names Yuga Aoyama, call me whatever you want." Tokoyami feels the corner of his lips twitched. Yuga. "Tokoyami... nice to meet you." Yuga smiled. Bright and wide. For someone who popped up on shore bleeding and asking for help, he's all smiles.
"I'll be leaving for the day, to get you medical supplies... you're still hurt."
And with that. Tokoyami went off that day and came back two days later with supplies and a nasty bruise on his cheek. Yuga has pointed it out, and he only brushed it off.
Stitches were applied, cloth was wrapped, and ointments were applied. The scales around the wounds had been shattered and had taken Tokoyami ages to carefully pull out from inside the wound.
Yuga looked brighter though, the numbing for the pain must be doing its magic because he had dragged himself across the sand to sit across the fire Tokoyami had made again.
"Don't you need water or... something?" Yuga shrugged, touching the scales around his waist. "From time to time, might need to go back for the night though."
Tokoyami dug a hole and filled it with water with a bucket he had bought(stolen) from the nearest island with human population.
Yuga got to stay there for the night beside the fire in a little hole filled with water.
They spent their days together. Tokoyami tended to Yuga's wounds and Yuga would go on and on about stories, the two would talk and learn about each other's species.
They spent a total of five months together. The summer heat dwindled.
"You're all healed, can you still move it?" Yuga lifted his tail in the water. He grunted with the strenght it took and he sighed when it plopped back onto the water. "It'll be easier to move under the water, I probably can't even swim that well anymore either." Tokoyami put a shoulder on Yuga's shoulder.
"Go back. You can't just stay here forever." The silence was painful. Yuga began to slowly push himself farther into the water, the water lapped at his skin and he began to relax when he felt his muscles shift. His tail moved easier under the surface, but he still struggled to stay afloat.
Yuga turned and looked at Tokoyami. He waved and smiled, before slipping under the surface and taking a big gulp of water.
Tokoyami felt his chest hollow when Yuga went under the surface. His first and only friend and companion was gone, and he'll be alone forever again.
The last month's of heat passed by achingly slow. Autumn passed, the leaves dwindled and the water dropped in temperature. Tokoyami rarely left his cave, already stocked up on food. And then the cold harsh winter came, and going outside was out of the question.
Snow covered the entire island with white. Tokoyami went deeper into the cave were the only cold air came from his own lungs. Wrapped in thick coats of animal hides, opening his eyes when the cold howling winds stopped before picking back up. Hibernating for weeks on end.
And then winter passed.
Early spring began and the island flourished in greens, the colors of flowers and fresh fruits.
Tokoyami ventured out of the cave for the first time in what felt like a year. His eyes were tired and his entire body was weak, he was paler than usual and the skin below his eyes had grown darker.
He went through his entire stock of fruits within two weeks in the winter season. So he slept the rest on the brink of death and frostbite.
He knew better, but something deep down just felt utter loneliness.
The one empty hole was half filled with sand, the leaves were rotten away and the branches had fallen onto the sandy ground. The physical memories were gone.
Its been two seasons since Tokoyami has last seen Yuga and his surprisingly shiny face.
Two seasons and he's feeling utterly alone.
A shrill whistle. It echoed through the island and Tokoyami whipped around, he saw a hand pop out from below the water before he saw Yuga's bright smile.
And then four more heads popped out from the water.
Yuga had found himself a home.
Tokoyami ran to edge of the water, dropping to his knees and being guilty of having the biggest smile ever. Yuga seemed to jump out the water and crash into Tokoyami, knocking the two down.
Tokoyami hid his face, the hollow pit overflowed and he hugged as hard as he could. Yuga couldn't stop laughing.
The four other figures popped out. Not getting fully out of the water and keeping their long tails in the water, upper bodies held up by their arms.
"I came back!" He did. He came back. Yuga did not forget about him. Yuga didn't forget, the way Tokoyami usually forgot about himself.
"Wooa, this is such a pretty island. And the coral coming in was to die for!" It was a high pitched voice, and Tokoyami remembered that there was more figures here. He patted Yuga, who huffed and rolled off of I'm. Sitting up, Tokoyami took in the four other figures. One short bobbed haired girl with round cheeks and a beautiful pink tail, a boy with wet green hair, freckles and iridescent green scales. And then the other two looked much older, one had the longest blond hair with a sunny yellow scale colored tail, and the other was all black, hair, eyes, and tail were black.
"Tokoyami, this is the pod I found. They took me in, and have allowed me to stay." Yuga leaned in to whisper into his ear. "Even if I'm now the only disabled merfolk around in the pod, I get to help with injuries." Tokoyami smiled. The two older ones must be the ones leading them, he can't remember what Yuga called the leaders.
"HI, I'm Midoriya Izuku! Yuga has spoken so much of the harpy friend that saved him you're so cool!" And Tokoyami couldn't help but feel embarrassed. Yuga had spoken about him?
"Uraraka Ochako, nice to meet you!" He smiled and waved. They seemed really nice, Yuga knows how to attract just as bright people.
"So you've been here all alone for how long?" Tokoyami cleared his throat. Rubbing the back of his neck and feeling his fingers rub over the feathers there. "All my life, never had a family. Everyone died even though I was the runt." Tokoyami does not know why he admits it all. So freely, so carelessly, and somewhere deep down he knows but he just can't pinch it out yet.
"Shou." It was the blond talking this time, a smile came onto his face and Tokoyami felt his shoulders fall.
"You're not bad then."
Why does he feel like he just got approved by a family, and is suddenly a part of one?