Chapter Text
A familiar cold ocean once again wraps around Little Mermaid.
…
No.
This time it wasn’t familiar at all.
The coldness of this water was very different.
It was something strangely sinister, a cold that could penetrate even Little Mermaid’s usually warm bubbles.
Little Mermaid opened her eyes, but couldn’t see anything.
Little Mermaid: Uhhh…
It was way too dark.
Little Mermaid had reflexively enclosed herself inside a bubble as she was swallowed by Gluttony.
That single instinctive act saved her from being digested, consumed like so many other things that Gluttony had eaten, but it could not save her from the nothingness beyond the walls of that shimmering orb.
It could not protect her from the silence.
It could not protect her from the stillness.
And specially,
It could not protect her from the cold.
Little Mermaid: Levi…
Despite it all, Little Mermaid’s first thought was not of herself.
It was of Levi, the scared little girl she had tried to protect.
Had she escaped?
Had she been swallowed too?
Was she… alive?
These were Little Mermaid’s thoughts and worries.
Little Mermaid: Levi!! Levi!!
Her voice echoed inside the bubble, then fell flat, devoured by the beast’s flesh.
She pounded the walls of her bubble with trembling hands.
Little Mermaid: Levi…
I shouldn’t have let Levi carry such a big responsibility…
She is just a little girl, of course she would be afraid…
I’m still afraid myself…
And that’s why…
I need to get back to her!
Using her guilty and frustration as fuel Little Mermaid gently touches the walls of her bubble, concentrating her powers into her fingertips.
She formed a dozen smaller bubbles and flung them toward the darkness.
They popped like droplets against something she could not see.
She repeated the act.
She launched an even larger number of bubbles in hopes she could still reach Gluttony’s core…
She tried again,
And again,
She kept trying up until her body shut down by itself from the strain and when she got up again, she continued to try.
…
But nothing she did seemed to work.
…
Little Mermaid: OPEN YOUR MOUTH!!
…
…
…
Little Mermaid: OPEN NOW!!
…
Little Mermaid: MOVE!!
Nothing moved.
Nothing happened.
Even using her Kotodama didn’t seem to have any effect, or maybe it did, but Little Mermaid, simply couldn’t tell.
Moving Gluttony, moving herself, or moving her bubble, no action she did appeared to have any effect.
In the end, it mattered little if Gluttony’s mouth was opened or not.
There was something right outside of her bubble, something with a mind of its own, trying to reach her, trying to consume her.
It wouldn’t allow Little Mermaid, nor the bubble that encased her to move.
It wouldn’t allow for light to reach Little Mermaid no matter what.
Little Mermaid: AHHHHH!!
Little Mermaid screamed… Out of despair, out of fear, out of anguish.
But,
No matter how long she screamed.
No matter how hard she fought.
There was nothing she could do alone, just by herself.
…
Eventually, Little Mermaid curled into herself, her forehead against her knees.
Little Mermaid: No! Don’t let me behind…
Little Mermaid: …
Little Mermaid: Cinderella… Abe… Hansel… Gretel… Levi…
She whispered their names like a prayer.
Little Mermaid closed her eyes thinking about those she had left behind.
Her friends she failed to reach.
And, the little girl she failed to save.
Little Mermaid: Everyone… I’m sorry…
Little Mermaid closed her eyes. For the first time, the sadness in her heart finally overcoming her determination.
Little Mermaid: *Sob*… Ugh…
Tears rolled down on her face.
However,
Despite being overcame with such despair and sadness,
…
The lone little mermaid still refused to let her bubble burst.
Little Mermaid: I still want to meet you all again…
Little Mermaid: So…
Little Mermaid: Someone… please… come and…
Please…
Find me…
…
That single bubble surrounded by a sea of darkness, had become an unbreakable sphere.
An impenetrable wall that protected Little Mermaid from the hazards of the outside world, as well as of her own heart.
***