11th Wave - A Brand New Melody [1]

Swimming without her tail was odd.

Not only odd, it felt unpractical and counterproductive. For that precise reason, Risei had to pull and drag Eirin since she could barely move.

“Gods below, have you never seen humans swimming? You need to move both legs. Separately!”

“And why would I keep staring at human’s legs if I spotted them swimming?!”

“You are the one with the bizarre tastes, you tell me!”

As they approached the pier, Risei groaned and mumbled to himself as he left the shell. He wouldn’t be able to climb the thing otherwise.

“Hold this for a bit—and you better not try anything funny,” the squid whispered as he squinted his eyes, dropping the shell in Eirin’s hands. And as she watched her friend climb the wood pillars with his tentacles, two things crossed her mind.

The first was how…larger Risei seemed, somehow. Even though her size hadn’t actually changed much, it felt different.

The second was her song. How Eirin could sense it in that shell, making her hands tingle, trying to resonate with her. She felt so…small. So vulnerable and barren, an empty husk with no purpose.

“Here.”

Suddenly Risei was back, holding human clothes. In a heartbeat, the squid made the exchange himself—dropping the clothes on top of her while he retrieved the nautilus shell. A piece of her.

“You can’t surface here, but I think I saw a place with no humans nearby. Come.”

For a moment, Eirin felt the tears burning in her eyes again. That void within growing inside, trying to swallow her heart and self. But then—

She saw a face. Heard a laugh. Recalled that presence.

And that void grew smaller, lesser, until it was just an ache.

The princess clenched her fists. This will soon come to pass, Eirin…

As soon as I have that trinket in my hands, this will all be over.

With the squid’s help [by using him as literal stepping stones] she climbed the wood ladder after putting on the sailor’s clothes. True to Risei’s words, there were no humans close by, yet she could already hear the many voices.

“I can take it from here, Risei. Thank you for the help!”

The squid’s cries were lost as she turned her back without giving him a second glance, managing to take one step and a half before falling to the ground.

Princess Eirin had both knees and elbows scraped after falling at least six times before she got used to the feeling of moving each leg independently, and even after she finally managed to ‘walk’ by herself, the news legs kept shaking as if they were two scrawny jellyfish.

Risei did try to follow the “former mermaid” as long as he could, yet it took her no time to leave his field of vision and get lost in the swarm of humans.

Almighty forces and gods below…

Please, protect that child.

So all he could do was pray.

Eirin, however, would not even dare to blink.

At least at first.

So this is the dry land…

Whoever glanced her way simply assumed she was either some orphan or homeless person, due to her unkempt state.

Though she was nervous and excited at first, Eirin soon felt overwhelmed by all the noises and stenches coming from every direction, and everything she heard was the same alien tongue. 

A new sense of dread washed over her, as again and again she searched amidst the crowd, only to be met with unfamiliar faces and odd glances.

Then she recalled seeing some anchored boats nearby. And indeed, Princess Eirin found the boat—the figure of the octopus and their charming hat was, as always, exquisitely distinguishable. However, the sailor was nowhere to be found.

She bit her trembling lip.

He must be nearby. This place is likely where sailors sleep and have their meals, by the way it smells.

And yet the more Eirin looked around, the more lost she felt. She tripped, her feet and legs bumping and mingling either with each other or with whatever she had the displeasure to bump into. Needless to say, Princess Eirin was failing to see the appeal of the additional limbs.

Yet before she could completely despair in an unknown place, she felt a touch on her shoulders.

Eirin turned with a gasp, her heart jumping to her throat.

Only to meet a pair of clear brown eyes.

“Are you…from Pearls?”

And hear, for the first time since she climbed that ladder, words she understood.

                                                             
                                                                  𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼

The person who rescued Eirin called herself Tomi Seina.

Seina had heard some strange things as she returned home. And when she saw the seemingly human girl—legs trembling more than a twig in a storm—looking like an abandoned pup with amnesia, well. Didn’t take long for the old woman to put things together.

However, all she shared with Eirin was a cup of tea and some sympathy.

“Here, you poor thing. You must be cold.”

The princess took the tea, eying the drink with curious eyes.

“How do you know of the Palace of Pearls? And why would you know how to speak—”

“Ah, those are old tales, girl, old tales. Would take too long to explain.”

Eirin blinked, even more confused. “Still, even if it takes long, I wanted to—”

“Listen here, dear, you stay here while I go fetch you some proper clothes. We can’t have a young lady walking around like that!”

As the princess tried to stand up from her seat, she forgot her legs were crossed and almost fell over. Tomi Seina grabbed her, a gentle smile matching the warmth of her gaze.

“Stay here, and once I’m back, we will talk more over tea. Can you do this for me, dear?”

Somehow, Eirin found herself nodding. As the front door closed, the thought of breaking her word and leaving the house crossed her mind only once. Yet curiosity and the alluring scent of the tea were stronger than her desire to be rebellious—to everyone’s fortune.

Therefore, soon enough, she was alone. In a stranger’s house. With a hot beverage in front of her. And when the teacup became empty, and all she could hear were the faint noises coming from outside, the princess raised her head and stared at the ceiling.

…This is tiring.

And soon grew bored with it all.

The dry land is tiring…

So the former mermaid decided to explore the house. She entered Tomi’s room, happy to find some familiar objects like combs, tiaras, and rings. She had plenty of those in her collection. For a split second, she felt the urge to take them. Or even more, to part her lips and sing the moment the old woman came back.

Yet where she usually felt her power, there was a festering hole.

Princess Eirin felt her throat hurt as if its muscles were contracting and recoiling at the thought of singing without a song. Then, for some reason, she recalled something her cousin had said.

“…every creature have their own way to communicate. To reach others with their real intentions.”

In that moment, she could feel it. The pain of being robbed of her ‘way’. The very thing she used to reach out and connect with the world.

…I wonder if that is how he felt. How he feels.

And if it was, she wondered how lonely it would be. To carry that pain, without being able to communicate it to others.

Before she could get even more lost in her own thoughts, however, Eirin heard the main door opening. Yet to her surprise, it was not the same woman who went in.

Her eyes lit up, her cheeks flushed. The man never glanced her way, his eyes way too focused as he walked toward one of the drawers.

Eirin had no idea what she was going to say to him, much less what she planned on doing. Regardless, her new feet walked on their own while her mind still struggled to connect coherent thoughts and ideas into actions.

And even after Kojin Okihiro fell on top of her and brought both to the ground, Eirin was still struggling to find the right words. It had been so long since they had seen each other. And that time, though she couldn’t say exactly why, he was different [he was not].

His face was brighter. His scent was stronger. His eyes were clearer [again, he was exactly the same]. And her heart, it was beating louder than it ever did.

Okihiro was having very similar thoughts himself, yet contrary to Eirin’s, his did not differ from reality. There were no more scales covering her arms, and though she still carried the scent of the sea, he could feel her legs beneath him instead of a tail.

He didn’t know if he was dreaming. He was almost sure he wasn’t, yet the opposite made little sense to him.

「Hi.」

Kojin Okihiro was the first to break the silence. She signed back, still in a daze, yet unable to look away from those eyes.

「Hi.」

It was as if his heart was about to burst from his chest. What if she was not really there? What if she left again?

More than a simple wish or a desire, the word left his lips as if they were being compelled. A pull being its own reasoning, something without any logical explanation. A word that was but a fading whisper.

“E-eirin.”

She lost her breath. Her heart faltered.

Okihiro licked his lips, gathering courage once more.

“Eirin. Your…name…Eirin. Yes?”

He spoke each word slowly, carefully, doing his best to remember everything he had seen with Tomi-san. There was more strength in his voice, though still faltering with uncertainty.

And while Eirin tried to process and understand how she was able to understand him, the door opened once again.

She heard the woman’s voice and the door opening. He felt the ground’s vibration as the door opened and closed, followed by steps.

“And I thought you were one of the modest ones, boy. Guess you prefer to go straight for the kill, huh?”

Tomi-san, true to her word, was holding a bag with a dress inside. On her other hand, Okihiro’s dog.

Then her gaze shifted to Eirin.

“Ready for our talk, dear?”

And neither of them knew what was going on anymore.