Chapter Text
Prologue: Washed up
A black-tailed gull glided over Toyama Bay. One eye scanned for the shadows of fish beneath the waves. The other remained on the dark shape bobbing up and down near the shore. It had been there since the afternoon. Finally, an hour after dusk, rocks snagged the thing and held it. When the water receded and exposed it completely, the gull saw that it was a human.
Humans didn’t usually frequent the beach at night, and never on this side of the rocks, but the gull knew that where humans were, there was food. Perhaps this one had food too, he thought. He landed next to it and prodded it with his bill. There was no response. Was it dead? He hopped onto the human’s belly to get a closer look. One of its hands was wrapped around something in a fist. Food? He pecked at the fingers to try to loosen its grip, and was sprayed with seawater as his perch spasmed. He beat his wings, startled. The human turned over, clutching the algae-covered rocks, and threw up. Anything that smelled like that was definitely not food. The seagull squawked and turned tail, disgusted.
The human, a young man with long black hair and pale skin, rolled onto his back and lay still between coughing fits, gasping to get oxygen into his starved lungs. His hair and clothes were plastered to his body, and he was bleeding where the rocks had scratched him. The salt stung where it had soaked into his wounds. The cuts would not heal quickly, he knew, for though he had been crown prince of the dragon race just a few hours ago, he was now indubitably human. He examined the object he held in his fist. It was a pearl the size of a large marble. A film of seawater on its surface glistened in the filtered moonlight. Other than its size, it looked utterly unremarkable. There was no hint that it was the source of the Dragon King’s authority and power.
Keep it safe , his father had said.
And he had done it. He had snuck it out of the palace and into the Human World where Akuma could not get it, leaving the King utterly vulnerable should Akuma find out what he’d done. You have too much faith in me. Haku replied silently to his father’s voice in his head. He could imagine Shika’s dry comments upon seeing his pathetic state. Your first day as a human and you almost drown… and to think you were a water spirit in a past life. He groaned.