3rd Wave - Unsettling Waters [2]

The youngest heirs of the Palace of Corals were, more often than not, consulted more than the king himself.

That was not due to King Taon’s abilities or capacity in ruling his people. The merfolk of the Palace of Corals all respected their king greatly. They trusted him to always do what was best for Corals, alongside their queen.

Yet it turned out, his youngest children were real geniuses.

With their eldest daughter Kei, King Taon and his wife planned everything. From the day she would be conceived to the day she would be born. Yet with the twins, it was as if the universe was telling that no matter how much they tried, these two would never be controlled by anything or anyone. And before either the king or the queen could worry about them, the two merfolk showed just how much far ahead they were.

Soon, the merfolk of the Palace of Corals realized how brilliant their youngest heirs were, which would motivate many to seek out the twins to help them with their struggles.

And their cousin Eirin was no different.

“We don’t have an appointment with you.” Two voices replied at once, their timing and tone a perfect match.

“Haha, I know…” The forced smile was pulling and straining every muscle on Eirin’s face, her heart almost reluctant to race out of nervousness and be heard by the twins. “I simply missed you two so much, I wanted to see you.”

Princess Hin and Prince Tsun did not even glance her way as Hin mixed different tinctures and ink to create different paints, and Tsun finished his detailed model of one of his new building's designs.

“If you keep lying, we won’t help you.”

Eirin’s smile disappeared in a heartbeat.

Damn, these two are good.

“H-how do you know I need help?”

Though her acting skills were not part of her repertoire, Princess Eirin had been extremely careful to not raise any unwanted attention. She made sure to attend all meals with the family in the past few days, and to engage in simple conversations with the twins.

Yet, to both her misfortune and blessing, her cousins had incredibly sharp senses.

“Your swimming pattern has deviated 3.7% of its normal pacing and strength,” Tsun mentioned in a casual tone.

“And the pitch of your voice increased every time you glanced our way,” Hin complemented, unbothered.

“Since a few weeks ago, your behavior and schedule became even more erratic than normal.”

“Which made us conclude you would likely seek us today to ask whatever is eating you inside, like a can of cold worms.”

Finally, brother and sister shifted their gazes and locked eyes with Eirin, their expressions as blank and unreadable as their voices.

“So, what do you need from us?”

Scary.

These two, they are far too scary.

Eirin bit her lip, controlling the urge to bite on her nails as well. She couldn’t straight out tell them her song didn’t work with a human. Much less how she was trying to charm a deaf sailor. No, that information was far too shameful for her to share.

“I… Uh, recently, I’ve taken a new interest. About, er, human culture. And since you are both very, ahem, knowledgeable about things, I believe you could help me quench my curiosity.”The twins stopped what they were doing for a moment, and exchanged not only glances—

But a full conversation.

Do you believe all that nonsense, sister?

Not even a syllable, brother.

Should we pry further?

Why even bother?

Agreed. So let’s amuse her for a bit and send her on her way. We are busy today.

Agreed.

They finally let down their tools, deciding to spare the next few minutes of some undivided attention on their incredibly obvious yet unaware cousin, opening their mouths and speaking at the exact same time, in the exact same cadence.

“What do you wish to know?”

                                                                𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼

Hinomiya Ketsuya was on the verge of tears.

After all, he could count on one hand the few times his dearest colleague had approached him first, out of his own volition. And even rarer were the times when Okihiro himself asked something for Ketsuya.

Ever since the boy had joined the crew, even if unofficially, Ketsuya dreamed of the day he would share all the wisdom he acquired throughout years of life's struggle and perils with his adorable junior.

Yet he was quite taken aback when he read the boy’s question.

“Mermaids? You wanna ask me about merfolk?”

Okihiro could not hide his flustered expression, even though he did try by covering half his face with the notebook. So all he could do was resign to his situation and nod, which puzzled Ketsuya even more.

“Why? You planning to go mermaid-hunting with that old boat of yours?” The older man laughed at his own joke, surprised when he saw Okihiro furiously writing on the paper walls of texts that almost made his head dizzy.

'You know it’s not my boat, it's Tomi-san’s. Please don’t go around saying such things since others could easily misinterpret the situation and cause trouble for Tomi-san. And if she decides to stop lending me the boat, there’s no way I could ever refute or complain in any way—'

Before Okihiro could write further, Ketsuya desperately tapped on the page a few times to pull the boy’s attention once more.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you. I can’t believe you thought I was serious. Gosh kid, you should improve that sense of humor of yours,” he sighed, scratching the back of his head. “Well, what do you want to know about mermaids?”

Kojin Okihiro thought for a few seconds before putting his words on paper.

'Are they vengeful?'

Ketsuya frowned. “Hah? What do you mean?”

'Do they enjoy bothering people if they are mad?'

Ketsuya hadn’t a single clue where his friend was going with that. Still, the boy looked very serious [he was], and seemed quite distressed [desperately so].

“Hm…it’s been some time since merfolk really got involved with us, you know? I mean, way back then, before we even had cities, merfolk could be quite scary. There are many stories of how a mermaid’s song dragged sailors to the sea to have them drown.”

Okihiro turned pale. 

Drown...

“But nowadays, there’s not much they can get from us. I guess we bored them!” Ketsuya laughed loudly, a warm and cheerful sound that Okihiro could absorb by the way the man closed his eyes and relaxed his muscles.

Yet in no way did those soothe him.

Okihiro wrote again, tapping with force at his words.

'Please stop joking around.'

Ketsuya stopped laughing, clearing his throat once. “Fine, sorry ‘bout that. But like, no matter who you ask, anyone who works near the sea will tell the same thing; that merfolk is a pretty smart species, and you should just leave them be. ‘Cause in the end they are still fish, right? You don’t go worrying about a shark planning revenge because you upset them in some way, do you?”

Okihiro fell deep in thought. The older man raised his eyebrow.

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

Mermaids are still fish…

But what fish behaved in that way?

And the way Okihiro was referring to was, of course, the results of Eirin's hard work after getting some advice from the twins.

For the past two weeks—without fail—every time Okihiro sailed, at some point, the princess would appear. And every time, she managed to make the man even more befogged and lost.

One day, she stood beside the ship, staring at him. Nonstop. For hours.

She is really angry… She may really want to kill me, it was what he thought.
[That was Eirin’s attempt at telepathy.]

Then, there was the time she kept circling, twirling, and swimming around the boat.

Okihiro concluded that was her way of saying ‘You are dead if you fall in the water’.
[It was her attempt at dancing.]

There was also the evening when she suddenly appeared with dismembered tentacles stuck all around her tail, and dark ink covering her skin as if it was blood.

Clearly, that was a warning. ‘Look what I did with this octopus. Cross me again, and you are next.’

[Eirin’s flawed attempt at making a costume—ink, borrowed from Hin. Tentacles, theater props.]

And finally, something she had been doing with a lot of frequency, was climbing into the boat and targeting Okirin. Okihiro could never understand the words he read from her lips as she patted and engaged with his dog, yet since Okirin was always happy…

Kojin Okihiro was confused.

Does she really want to steal my dog? As in, ‘You stole my friends, so I will do the same to you’?[Actual attempt of communicating with the dog to have the animal steal the necklace instead.]

Okihiro thought a bit more before writing his next question.

'How smart are mermaids?'

His colleague pondered a bit before replying.

“Maybe as smart as dolphins?”

Okihiro lowered his pen, a new idea brewing on his mind.

If merfolk were as smart as dolphins…

…perhaps he could try to communicate and apologize?

⊹ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ˖⊹ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ˖⊹ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ˖
Okihiro's Thoughts vs Okihiro's Writing:

What should I eat today? ➝ is how Okihiro's thought would appear.
'Apples, baguette, 2x pickle jars, almonds, new rubber duck.' ➝ is how Okihiro would write his grocery list.

Narrator's Remarks:

Sometimes, though a character's feelings and thoughts are being expressed, the narrator can add a few comments [especially to remark on how disconnected from reality that character actually is].