–What shall we do with the drunken sailboat♪-
Down in the deep, deep ocean, where no human ever dared to go, there was a castle; bright and huge, amazingly shimmering in the few sunrays that cut through the water. In its endlessly labyrinth-like alleys a crab was running in panic, sweat pearling on its forehead if it had one.
“Yabai. Yabai. Yabai.”
It cursed, scanning the environment for something until it found a familiar, purple colored fish.
“Matsuken!” the crab shouted, grabbing the fish’s tail when he reached it.
The fish stiffened and turned.
“Oh-chan” the fish tried to smile, but it didn’t come quite naturally.
“It’s still Maestro Ohno for you” he scolded, “Where is Ninorielle?! The time for her singing-lesson is almost over.”
“Fine, so she could easily skip it.”
“Funny. Tell me where she is.”
“Ah, you know, you go down there straight, you turn left first, then sharply right, three times left, take another right turn, go straight, then you walk through the golden door, having passed that area you have to swim northwards, after that you take another left turn, turn left again at the pink anemones, finally you swim southbound and maybe you’ll find her then.” Matsuken ’s bright smile turned immediately into a rictus when he noticed Ohno ’s non-changing mood.
“… Do you see me laughing? Ha. Ha. Ha.” He replied with the most serious expression a crab could have. “I know she’s always with you so she is near, isn’t she?”
The fish sighed.
“Ohno, you know her, she manages to sing everything perfectly without even practicing. Why don’t you just leave her alone?”
“She’d be far more amazing if she exercised a little. By now even you should know, that being a princess, she needs to care about the people of the kingdom which she will probably do great one day. Furthermore, a princess should be able to impress with her flawless voice if not with her beauty and if the king got scent of her trips to the surface- … Don’t tell me she went again… No, she didn’t…”
The fear in the dark brown fisheyes told Ohno that he was right.
“She went up to the surface again?! I’d be dead meat if the king knew” the crab whined.
“It’s your entire fault! Incredibly stupid fish! Help me finding her before the king becomes suspicious!”
“Why shall I-OUCH!”
Ohno tweaked him before Matsuken could finish his protests which lead the small, purple fish to follow him.
Ninorielle was the only daughter of the king and as such she was supposed to take over her father’s throne and rule over the mermaid folk one day. But due to several reasons, she didn’t feel like she would ever be able to assume such a huge responsibility. It was not just that she was not as beautiful as a princess is actually supposed to be. Having a far too flat breast, and an almost non-curvaceous body, she was often mistaken for a boy. Even though her plain black hair gives her a unique look, other mermaids in the sea keep mocking at the princess. (Not that Ninorielle would even care about what other people were thinking about her, she actually didn’t give a shit on that.) Besides her unique look and her quirky charisma, she was also anything else than interested in staying in the boring sea. She got fed up even staying in her father’s castle. Ninorielle already saw too much of that area. The short grown mermaid was more curious about the humans’ world, with the people living up there, walking on “legs” (as she heard they were called).
Leaning on her favorite stone, she watched a little sailboat drunkenly rocking from wave to wave.
Nino knew she should be at her singing-lesson by now but after all a singing voice couldn’t make it up for lacking beauty. Why does a princess have to be pretty anyway? It’s neither a thing to learn nor to achieve with your own strength.
For the princess, it was hard to find true friends among the other mermaids. They we’re all like Mimura-kun. She had asked him for a date but he rejected, stuttering something about ‘unsexy’ and ‘Yamada’. Well, she didn’t get the Yamada part, but just by the mention of her unfeminine body she got somehow pissed and her mood for mocking ‘Oh-chan’ was blown away. Right now, she didn’t even want to see her best friend and partner-in-crime Matsuken.
The only thing she wanted to watch at the moment was the little boat, which was shaking its passenger from left to right. It was questionable who was navigating who.
“That human surely doesn’t know how to sail. I’ve never seen such a tiny boat coming till here” she laughed, watching the human trying to get control of it. The human’s pitiful situation caused Nino bursting into laughter and her depressive mood about her rejection almost forgotten.
“Kuuuuuh~” she cheered when suddenly a bigger wave threw the sailing boat over with the human being hurled into the water. She waited for the human to come up and grasping the hull in desperation. But the human kept her waiting.
Being a little worried by the time passing by, she dipped under water, recognizing that the human was sinking like a stone. Without thinking she swam in a hurry into the human’s direction. Nino finally caught him and brought him to the surface where he’d be able to breathe.
Being arrived above the sea, she wondered what she should do with the apparently unconscious man. “Damn, I’d never thought that hooking a man would be more fun!”
“Maybe I should take him to the beach” Nino said to herself (with shimmering eyes –comparable to a starry night sky- having an excuse for finally getting closer the human world).
The little mermaid swam in full speed, the beach practically pulling her (thank Neptune that radar traps didn’t exist on water). With some difficulties she heaved the human to the dryer area and watched his features while catching her breath.
‘How cute, he looks almost like Mimura-kun’ she thought, taking softly a wet strand of hair out of the man’s face. ‘His hair is a bit shorter though, I wonder how it might look when it’s dry’
Nino couldn’t take off her eyes, trying to imagine how the human would look being awake. She dreamed of the guy walking on his two legs (even though his left one was hurt, they were beautifully shaped), with his hair freely dancing in the wind, laughing- he surely had a nice laugh. Nino started to hum a soft melody, expressing the warm feeling spreading in her chest.
Her fingers traced along from the amazingly strong collar-bone to the soft skin on his neck and finally, she kept her fingers hovering above the plushy lips. They were beautiful, really. How’d they feel? And without further thinking, just following her instinct, she leaned over him closed her eyes and-
It tasted salty, probably the ocean water he swallowed when he drowned. But they were unexpectedly hard. Really hard.
With a frown she opened her eyes. Nino recognized deeply disappointed that she actually didn’t kiss these plushy lips she longed for… Instead of those, she kissed an angry looking crab.
“Oh-chan!”
“Maestro Oh-chan! Uh, I mean, Maestro Ohno!!” the crab corrected.
“Princess! Really! You should be careful with your image! It’s not just that you skip class regularly; you’re actually spending more time over the surface than you ought to, besides that you are strongly obsessed with human artifacts and by now, you’re even in contact with a human being! Just imagine what would happen if your dear father knew what you’re doing! It’s our duty to avoid him getting a heart attack! Not to imagine how to get out of the situation if the human would actually see you-“
The crab was ranting wildly, running back and forth, not noticing how Ninorielle slipped back into the water, approaching her bosom buddy the fish.
“Matsuken, you’re such a bubblehead! You couldn’t have kept him away a bit longer, huh? I almost kissed that handsome looking human~”
“Yeah, I saw that. How disgusting. I’ll never get that kind of mermaid-thingies. Urgh Urgh”
“Well, Neptune didn’t make you to understand that way of showing tenderness…poor lil’ fishie.”
“Shut up you mischievous little brat or I’ll call my cousin! He’s a piranha. You know, he would be very pleased to taste a bit of a virginal flipp-“
“HEY! ARE YOU LISTENING?!”
After some rumbling, Ohno forced the little mermaid back into the deep ocean before the human would awake and see her (wonder he didn’t already at the noise they made).
Nino throw a last glance at the human (‘Woah, even his profile is pretty’) and went with a heavy sigh back into the deep sea, returning to her father’s castle.
–For Sale Ad: “Giving away tiny sail boat. For free.”-
The country prince Sho lived in was small, but at the same time it was the most developed country all around. Its people were living in wealth, hygienic standards were high, everyone had chance for education and high-technology was widespread within the kingdom. With the growth of living standards and more political democracy, the monarchy slowly lost in importance and influence. People were convinced that a monarchy wouldn’t care at all about the needs of the common people.
Even though his parents were not quite delighted with the idea, the prince was incited to change the reputation of his family through his studies about politics and the people themselves.
Sho stroke with two fingers the area between his brows, desperately trying to dissipate the headache forming in his head.
“Aiba?”
The tall man turned to him, tousling his black hair and beaming a smile that could even dazzle the sun.
“What’s up, Sho-chan?”
Squinting his eyes and deepening the frown, he scratched at the back of his handsomely cut, brown hair before speaking up.
“There is a squirrel sticking on the back of your shirt.”
He pointed to the shirt forming small circles with his index- and middle-finger.
“Nah, don’t you think that I would get it if a squirrel crawled on my neck?” Aiba laughed.
“Well, apparently you do not.” Sho replied dryly smiling. “Oh, look! Do you see the pink rabbit?” he pointed awkwardly into a random direction behind Aiba.
Sometimes, (Well, rather often) Aiba was a bit dense not saying stupid. But he was Sho’s best friend. He might be a bit too light headed (Well, more often), too idiotic sometimes (Well, far too often) and not even a laughing owl would react on his lame jokes, but he was everything Sho had. They grew up together, and Sho knew, he could always count on him. Aiba would always be there and cheer him up when he was stressed for another time by the 5 women his parents make him meet twice a week to finally choose a bride and to marry off. Although he did his best at following his parents’ wishes and customs, Sho would never get along with those arranged meetings. By now, the prince felt that his political duties were more important than marrying a girl who probably didn’t even like him but who would be affected by his wealth.
The life of a prince being all busy with politics and caring for a proper image was hard and severe, but with Aiba close to him, he came off being himself and turned into ‘Sho-chan’ again.
Now, though, it was half-private, half-political. They were at the opening ceremony of the new rescue centre for tortoises (unknown by his parents, they wouldn’t allow it at all and rather put him into some nun chuck-training he’d never need anyway). Aiba who sat next to him grinned from ear to ear. He was clapping his hands excitedly with a small tear blinking in the corner of his eye. Aiba has been fascinated by tortoises ever since he could remember. And as far as Sho knew, Aiba was also very involved with the protection of these animals.
Sho wondered when his friend put on that hoodie sweater, a pink rabbit staring out of its kangaroo bag (Wait, wasn’t there one earlier?) when suddenly a small hand grabbed his trouser leg. Being jolted out of his thoughts, he faced a little girl.
“You Prince Sho?” The girl asked with big wide eyes.
Sho answered her with a shy nodding intimating her to follow the ceremony again.
Being totally overwhelmed by her luck, the girl decided to tell the prince one last thing before she kept quiet: “You the nicest, prince. We admire you!” Even though he did not show it, Sho felt deeply affected by the girl’s words. Those indicated that he was tracing the right path. In these moments, Sho truly enjoyed it to be a prince.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony went on without any disturbance and the cold buffet was opened. Aiba was about to throw himself into it when a loud helicopter sound stirred from above. The caused gust it brought with it whirled around paper plates, cups and several food and drinks through the air. Some lettuce leaves were flying straight into Sho’s face despite his attempt to dodge them. Sho cursed himself for having skipped his soccer training.
Wiping the stranded lettuce out of his face, he recognized the far too familiar, black helicopter. Sho sighed deeply disappointed. But before he could run, 2m tall hulks of bodyguards in black suits and sunglasses jumped out of the helicopter and before they could even protest, Sho and Aiba were caught in a firm grip, being dragged into the helicopter and back home.
Sho was forced guided by a bodyguard to his mother’s chamber. Being arrived, he tried to throw a death glare at her, but either she really didn’t notice it or she simply ignored it.
“Ah? Honey, where have you been? You didn’t go to your Kabaddi practice, did you?”
“You might excuse my disappearing mother, but I deem the rescue centre for tortoises more important than being beaten up by five men in slips.” Sho tried to stay respectful.
“Hahaha, Honey, turtles are too slow for Kabaddi. But I forgive you. I actually called for you to show you the new painting I bought in Paris. It is so pretty, neh?” She pointed to a huge painting on the wall, showing random strokes and uneven circles in a colorful manner. Sho was deeply convinced he’d draw better.
“May I remind you that you did not ‘call’ me? You kidnapped me to show up something which looks actually like the work of a 3-year-old having eaten too many candies. Furthermore, you demolished a zoological and political important party!”
“You’re right, Sweetheart, I should get a golden frame for it.”
Sho decided it was useless to continue talking to her.
“Honey, just do me the favor and go at least to your Kin-Ball course starting in 25 minutes, yes?”
“Yes, mother”, he turned on his heel, walking away.
At least the teacher for Kin-Ball knew that Sho was rather made for literature and politics, letting him read several newspaper-articles or teaching him some rhetoric (thanks to him Sho could express himself very well by writing secretly the speeches of his father and by now he was able to spell ‘floccinaucinihilipilification’ out loud in super speed).
But his parents have always been superficial like that, spending money on useless stuff. Just like this wonderful suit they bought for Sho’s birthday. It was vertically striped in red, white and black. Sho thought he looked rather funny than respectable. He protested hardly, reasoning that the suit he got last year would still fit fine. Aiba snogged Sho on his cheek, saying that he looked like a huge, tasty candy-cane. Sho wasn’t laughing at all. The incontestable highlight of his birthday was a tiny sailboat. Not to mention that Sho didn’t liked sailing at all, he got seasick just seeing a boat.
Unable to get his parents’ proper attention, he was forced to sail out, proving that he was a man (which he couldn’t prove with alcohol, as –Aiba told him, and he was rather comfortable without the memory- he started to dance swan lake with a very tired swan after 2 shots of Tequila) and showing what he learned during his sailing lessons (which he actually used mostly for looking up political Terminologies in English. On land.)
It was predictable that it would become a disaster and the fact that Aiba was assuring him he would pray for him didn’t ease Sho’s mind at all. He closed his eyes and hoped that everything would simply go fine. Admittedly, he often failed at things –especially stuff somehow connected with ‘sports’- but his Fortuna was (almost) always on his side.
The prince sighed in relief when a warm breeze blew tenderly into his sails, bestowing him with what looked like a nice start into the open sea. He looked back at his family and friend, waving happily at him as he followed where the wind took him (after all he had not really a choice).
The little sailboat was taking him further outside the sea until he was only surrounded by water. It looked all the same, no matter where he turned to. Slowly, he really didn’t know where he came from and when the panic kicked in, he suddenly felt the well ousted nausea coming up. Sho got sucked by his earlier luck.
Not helping his seasickness at all, fortune decided to leave him for good when a strong wind blew into his sails, driving him further outside. The silent ocean started to roar up, bringing the little ship into a heavy sway. Sho fought the urge to vomit and tried to get his boat into his grip again (well, he never had from the start though), too bad he had no idea how. He fumbled with some strings and instruments that were placed in there next to the ridiculous huge birthday cake (Sho hated cakes in general, but that one in particular made him feeling totally pissed). His panic increased when nothing seem to work and his little sickening boat was still rocking into the unknowns of the wide ocean (or maybe he was already there, he didn’t know). At the sight of a huge wave coming directly in his direction, he felt his nausea overpower him and with a heavy crush of the said wave on his boat, resulting in things being thrown wildly around. With all of a sudden, Sho felt an stingy pain in his left leg. Like fortune was totally mocking at him, he recognized that his left leg was cut by the cake-slice. With the attack of another huge wave, the boat was finally turned over like a nutshell and he got knocked off hardly.
Like a dream he felt his heavy body sinking down. Sensing that he was close to death, he remembered that Aiba still hadn’t paid him the shirt the tall man spilled all his hot chocolate over. But this was really nothing he should reflect about in that situation. Sho was following his messy thoughts, when he felt being pulled up and having reached the surface, he noticed his lack of oxygen. Sho breathed desperately. He was totally dizzy, and he still couldn’t order his messy mind. As soon, as he opened his eyes he saw the profile of a woman. ‘Damn, another potential wife my parents want me to meet!’ But taking a second look, he felt the face quite unique. Well, saying she was beautiful would be far too exaggerated, but somehow, Sho was fascinated by her cute charm. Sho would have liked to look a bit longer at her, but his eyelids became heavy and unconsciousness was overrunning him.
When he woke up later at the beach, he couldn’t remember anything. He was at a daze that he was still alive, to that on his well-known beach where he used to play with Aiba in his childhood. Still too much in awe, he clearly could feel that his body was strange. His left leg stopped bleeding. Sho traced softly with his fingers along his collarbone and neck, trailing finally to his mouth. He couldn’t pin-point it; he didn’t know what it was. Something he didn’t remember clearly, but his mind seemed to do anyway.
Sho noticed that bulge under his trousers. It took him two minutes to get that it was actually moving. With all of a sudden, he jumped up. Warily, he fumbled into his trousers until he reached something hard. He kept poking it until he got pinched. Pulling a grimace he fetched a small turtle dangling stubbornly on his finger out of his pants.
–Love doesn’t knock on doors.-
Back in the Ocean, a deep sigh heaved through the whole undersea castle.
“Majesty, what’s wrong? You seem troubled” the little crab spoke.
“Ah~ Ohno-san~” the king sighed with his curly hair swinging softly in the streaming.
King Matsumoto felt that there was definitely something wrong with his daughter. He was used to her grumbling about how much the life undersea sucks and how awesome it must be to be able to walk and to live on land. As much as he loved to see his daughter smiling, it was unusual for her to be that dreamy all day long and to grin to herself in the manner she recently does. She didn’t even play her famous pranks on him, which was actually most suspicious.
“You know, Ohno-san, I think she’s in love.”
“EEEEEEH?!” Ohno had a queasy feeling about this.
“I wonder who he might be.” King Matsumoto said. The fact that his little, lovely daughter was grown up with all of a sudden, overwhelmed him with lots of bad feelings. Did he fail as a father? He remembered when she had been little and had that small coughing fit. Oh, how he had worried she was deadly sick and brought her straight to the emergency room, but fortunately, it had turned out to be just a small cold. He had watched after her when she had met up with boys of her class (no, he wasn’t ‘stalking’, he was ‘caring’) and had ended up hitting them up when they talked bad about his daughter.
Ohno didn’t want to know at all. Instead he thought of preparing the symphony for his own funeral if the king would really find out.
“I don’t think it is love.” Matsuken smirked (as much as a fish can smirk),”They say that girls become prettier when they really fall for someone. You’re still as plain as ever.”
“Uhun.” Was Nino’s only reply, not even turning at him and continuing to look out, fumbling dreamily with the anemones on the window sill.
“Matsuken, what do you think he might be doing right now?”
“Probably he rescues little tortoises in his pants.” Matsuken joked.
“Maybe he’s thinking about the sexy, mysterious lady who saved him. Hehehe”
“Which lady are you talking about? There was just you. C’mon, he doesn’t care as long as he’s alive.”
“I wonder which color his eyes might have.”
“Piercing green.”
“Ah, stop fooling around, fishy. His face was too pretty for having ugly eyes like that. I wonder if his injured leg is okay by now.”
“LEEGG??!!!”
Suddenly the door sprang open and the King fall headlong right into Nino’s room. Ohno behind him tried desperately to hide.
“DAD?!” Nino was furious and scared “Did you eavesdrop?”
Matsumoto hastily hid the spy snail under his brown hat he was wearing for (rather ineffective) disguise.
“No, I didn’t.” Her father said straight out.
“Of course you did or else you wouldn’t have barked in. Why do you always sneak around behind my back? Ever heard of the word ‘privacy’?”
“Nino-chan~ There’s no need to get mad of me. I do accept your privacy, you know, I even stopped reading your diary. You’re daddy’s only girl and I’m just worried about you!”
“You don’t need to! I can care about myself very well.”
The king was heavily hurt by the rejection of his beloved daughter. Deeply disappointed he started to poke Ohno. But then he seemed to remember something.
“Ah! Revisiting the topic again, what were you actually saying about ‘legs’?” Matsumoto stared at her, and oh, how he could stare! Those dark, sparkling eyes under the neatly plucked eyebrows were seriously no joke.
“Did I say ‘legs’? I, uhm, mean ‘hag’! Yes, hag! Those hags are pinching my cheeks too much! But it could also have been bags. I actually thought of getting a new one for Matsuken. What do you think about getting a new bag, Matsuken?” Nino tried to escape.
“No, you surely said ‘I wonder if his injured leg is okay by now.’” The king glanced at her furiously.
“So you DID eavesdrop! YOU’RE A LIAR, DADDY!”
“That’s not the point of our conversation! You went to the surface again, didn’t you?” He raised his voice in anger.
Nino didn’t see a chance to come out of this or redirect the talk on her father’s stalking.
“If I weren’t there, he would be dead by now!”
“Great! More food for my sharks and less die-offs of fish!”
That was just too cruel!
“How can you be so evil! I love him and I won’t give up on him, no matter what you say! I’ll go up and see him as much as I want to! I hate you, daddy! Being a princess sucks!” Nino snapped.
She grabbed the fish on his fins and stormed out of the room (“Hey, you- OUCH!”).
“NINORIELLE!!” Her father yelled in rage, but he only saw how his little, rebellious daughter went off without looking back. When his anger slowly sunk down he sighed tiredly “Oh, Ohno, what did I do wrong for her to grow up like this. She doesn’t know how dangerous the world up there really is. I’m worrie- Ohno?”
But the crab was gone.
Nino came up to the surface. She was at her favorite place from which she watched that handsome man sinking. The sun was shining. Normally Nino liked to be in the sun, enjoying the lights running into her body. It made her feel alive. But by now, she felt exhausted by the fight with her father, totally pissed and sad.
“Are you crazy, you stupid girl? You totally kinked my awesomely styled fins! That was hurting… Huh? What’s up with you? There’s water coming out of your eyes!“
Matsuken stopped his complaining when he saw that Nino was actually crying.
“I… stupid dad! I know that I will never meet him like that, but he doesn’t need to get that angry and keep on saying such vicious stuff! Ah, fishy~ I wish I were born as a human then I could walk on land and meet him.” She squeezed the fish to her chest.
Matsuken stopped complaining about his lack of breath, feeling pity for his best friend. Even though he knew he should better not tell her of the idea he had, he felt too miserable for her.
“I … I knew someone who might… be able to turn you into a human.” He said cautiously.
“Eeh?” Nino loosed the embrace and stared at him.
“He… She…. It’s a witch. Transsexual Johnny.”
“Transsexual? What was it before and what is it now?” She asked curiously.
“He’s female now. And you rather should react to that ‘witch’ part, not the ‘transsexual’ one.” Matsuken answered dryly. “However, I don’t think it would be a good idea to take you there. He.. she’s dangerous. Who knows what she will ask for her price. You should ask your father-“
“Nah, don’t talk, let’s go there! GO GO GO!” Nino pushed the little fish and despite his worries (and the regret that he started talking) he lead Nino to the witch’s cave.
The cave looked scary; the entrance was painted in a flashy pink and sparkling lamps in purple, rose and pink were put around it. The alley to the inside was embroidered with pink and pinker lights, throwing the purple wall in terrifying Hello Kitty-like formed shadows. On the side walls, there hung jardinières with even pinker anemones in them, and a smell of incense sticks mixed with aromatic candle crept to the outside.
Nino was indeed scared, but with the thought of being able to meet Sho, she swallowed her fear and swam into the transsexual cave, ignoring the protests of the little fish.
Nino went until the way ended in a huge hall. Its walls were covered by tall cupboards, each filled to the brim with bottles and boxes in various sizes and colors. In the middle of the hall, there was a table with an unusual ugly mermaid sitting behind it.
Johnny was scribbling something on some papers, when he looked up.
“Oh~ Welcome my Darling! I already expected you.”
Matsuken hid out of fear behind Nino’s back, who got rather suspicious at that, but maybe this person could really help him.
“You want to become human? Guess what! I’m able to make one of you. All you have to do is a small Audition.”
“Audition?”
“Yes. All you need to do for Johnny is to sing a little song and to do a back-flip.”
Nino beamed. If there was something she had confidence in, it were those two things. As soon Nino begun to sing, Johnny smirked and started to scribble again on a paper.
“You have a good singing voice” he remarked, “and you hit the notes perfectly. Johnny likes what he’s heard.”
The little mermaid knew that she was (awesomely) good at it but still took the praise smiling proudly.
“Here is my deal, Honey. I will make you a human. But you will only stay human if you get a kiss of true love before the sun sets at the evening of the 3rd day. Should you not be able to get the kiss, you’ll be transformed back into a mermaid. You’ll have to sing, dance and act for Johnny for…let’s say… the rest of your life. You’ll also probably be thrown into iced water from time to time. Johnny is a little masochist; I like torture people from time to time for my personal amusement.”
Nino narrowed his eyes, looking at the mermaid/man warily.
“Mh~ I don’t know. Risking my whole life for only 3 days being human... C’mon, Johnny-boy! You know that my voice is far more worth than that. Isn’t there something…”
Matsuken couldn’t believe that she actually tried bargain about it. She always has been stingy, but he thought there was a limit.
“Hun Hun. You try to go for it Sweetie-pie, huh?” the witch smirked.
“Of course, I have to take out all I can get.” Nino smirked back.
“Haha, Johnny likes your power. But hypnosis act is all I can give you extra.”
“I call it a deal.”
Johnny started again to scribble on the paper and shoved it with the pen to Nino.
“Just sign and you’ll become a human.”
Even though Nino seemed rather confident, she was scared. She wondered, if it was right to trust the witch. The little mermaid took the pen with slightly shaking hands, gulped once and holding her breath, she wrote her name in scrawly fonts under the contract.
As soon as she finished the last stroke, the contact flashed in a horrible pink and divided into two. “One copy for me and one copy for you. That you don’t forget.”
Nino took the magically self-folding contract into her hands. Johnny reached her a little bright pink bottle, a heart formed on the cork of it.
“Swim to land and drink this.” He instructed, “You will become a human then. But hurry, the first day dawned already.”
The little mermaid pressed the bottle in her hand and swam out of the cave as fast as she could. Her thoughts were all about her becoming finally human, that she didn’t hear Johnny’s evil laughter echoing from the Hello-Kitty decorated walls of the cave.
Arriving at the beach where she brought her beloved one to, she stared at the little bottle and gathered all her courage to drink the content.
“Nino, I’m begging you: Don’t do it! You don’t know what will happen! What if the witch tricked you?” Matsuken warned her.
“I have no choice, fish! I already signed the contract and if I don’t do it I’ll probably be a mermaid for the rest of my life!” Nino opened the bottle. She closed her eyes and gulped the drink down.
“Buah~ Tastes awful!” she complained.
Suddenly, she felt her throat burning, a fire running down into her stomach. A felling of vomit came over her, when she started feeling dizzy. Nino started to cry in ache when a pain spread in all her limbs and it felt as if her body was about to be ripped into pieces. It went white in front of her shut squeezed eyes before she lost her conscience.
Nino felt her conscience coming back slowly to Matsuken’s desperate call of her name. So she was not dead, but her conscience still refused to come back fully until she heard a familiar voice that she allocated to be Ohno’s.
“So here you are, I sear- OH MY- !”
–Brave New World-
Nino finally opened her eyes.
“What- what have you done fish?!” Ohno nearly screamed.
“Well,… errrh, actually… It didn’t go as we thought, huh?” Matsuken said.
Nino sat up and watched down at herself to see what actually happened. She was rather disappointed with the result; her chest got even flatter, her shoulders went slightly broader and she was even growing some armpit hair (urrrgh). But her face lighted up when she saw that she really had legs. Still, something was weird.
“Oh? I didn’t think human would have a small 3rd leg? How do they walk on that?”
She tried to stand up carefully, scared she might fall over, as she was unskilled with the new limbs. However, Nino was surprised when it felt like she had been walking on those two legs her whole life. (The ‘3rd leg’ was still dangling uselessly in air though.)
Ohno and Matsuken simply gaped at her. The mermaid turned human was still confused about the ‘3rd leg’ between her two longer ones and touched it curiously. And touched it again. And made it swing. And poked it. And squeezed it. And…
“STOP TO TICKLE YOUR PICKLE, GIRL!!” Ohno exclaimed, face bright red.
Nino and Matsuken stared at him in surprise.
“Oh-chan? Shouldn’t you rather say ‘boy’ by scolding her now?”
The face of the crab turned almost purple.”QUIET FISH OR I’LL MAKE YOU SASHIMI! Beside the fact that Ninorielle is human… Why the heck did she become a male?! What in the world has happened?”
Having told Ohno the whole story, he skimmed through the copy of the contract.
“Ah, here it is, in very small fonts. ‘The lovely person signing this contract with sexy Johnny will, no matter of her original form, be transformed into a sexy, young, male human for only 3 days, unless…’ etc.”
Ohno stared worried at the contract and sighed. “Nino-chan, do you just know in what you got into there? There were a lot of people Johnny got with such deals. Just one person ever managed to get this required kiss of true love. That was actually your-“
Ohno stopped when suddenly footsteps were hearable. Someone was approaching and Ohno and Matsuken hid in the water.
Nino stiffened when the person coming up behind the rocks and walking straight into the direction of the sea was no other than the human he fell in love with.
Sho wasn’t aware of him, so Nino took the chance to watch him quietly. His hazel eyes were beautiful and the way the wind brushed lightly through his brown hair looked amazing. Nino held his breath at the image, trying to take it all in.
When Sho felt the gaze on him, he turned and jumped with a “UWAH!” at the still naked Nino standing there totally nonchalantly.
“Oh my God! Are you okay? Have you been robbed? Why do you not have any clothes?” Sho hoped strongly the young man standing in front of him was not a pervert.
“Ah- I’m sorry! I have no clothes yet, I just turned human. Hahaha” Nino scratched his back-head in embarrassment and smiled apologetically.
Sho wasn’t someone who’d judge a stranger from the first impression, but that innocent smile washed away every trace of distrust or suspicions. (And he wondered if his heart really should beat so fast.)
“You… Did you just say ‘turned human’?” he asked confused. “What exactly are you then?”
“I came out of the sea. I actually have a fishtail.” Nino said cutely and not convincing at all.
Sho believed that the poor person in front of him lost his sanity; he couldn’t let him stay there just like that without clothes. (His sense of duty being a prince prohibited to leave the guy all alone. Furthermore, he was worried a bad man could take that somewhat cute boy away.)
“Even though it might be totally ridiculous to take a strange, and naked, and probably lunatic man to my resting place… I cannot respond it to leave you out here all alone. I consider it as my duty to help you, so just come with my, we need to dress you first.” Sho took off one of his parkers (fortunately, he decided to wear the double-parker today), threw it over Nino’s shoulders (though it barely covered anything, even less the important body parts) and they went off the beach, Ohno and Matsuken watching their disappearing backs.
Nino gaped at the huge villa in front of him. From an old framed photo he found in a sunken boat, he knew that the houses of humans looked different, but he didn’t think they’d be as large as the castle undersea. From far away, they had always looked small. So humans had actually really enormous houses. Nino was amazed by the human world for another time.
“Ah, you have probably never seen such a huge house. I am sorry; my parents tend to exaggerate in every occasion. If we find some time later on, I can show you around.”
Oh. But Nino was still amazed by his house.
Sho guided him into the enormous building through a labyrinth of alleys and finally into a room with immense, white doors. The little furniture inside -a large bed, a chair, a desk with a small tortoise in her aquarium on it and a huge wardrobe- was white with golden ornaments.
“This is my room.” Sho scratched his back-head. “Actually, I do not stay here as often as I would like to, so there are rather few pieces of furniture in here- just as many as I need.”
He went to the wardrobe, opened it and stepped into it. (So humans’ wardrobes are deeper than they look from the outside, Nino noticed.) After some time, Sho came out again with several clothes in his hands. “It is so ridiculously huge in there, I have to admit that I get lost in there regularly, but here you go,” he reached Nino the clothes without looking at Nino directly, “try these on and see if they fit you.”
“Thank you.” Nino smiled shyly. He has never worn clothes before; he didn’t know how to put them on. So the naked man simply took the first piece of fabric out of the stack Sho was holding, and the underwear went experimentally right on his head. Nino thought that it kind of fitted but it was still weird. Sho instead blushed but immediately began to laugh loudly at him, holding his stomach.
“Oh right, I forgot. You just ‘turned’ human.” He tried to get his breath back and dressed up the other man, still giggling. “Do you have at least a name?”
“I’m Ninorielle, but friends call me simply Nino.”
“Oh, that is a difficult name indeed. Would you be okay if I called you Nino too?”
“Su- Sure.”
“Great, Nino then. I hope that we become good friends!” Sho smiled.
Nino blushed slightly at the call of his name. He thought he liked his name far more if Sho was the one saying it…Wait, did he just say ‘friends’!?
“My name is Sho. It is a huge pleasure to meet you.” He held out a hand.
The now (casual but attractive) clothed man stared curiously at the hand, wondering what would happen now. But nothing happened and Sho just took it back again, looking embarrassed. “You know, you just could have asked if you wanted to touch my belly, I don’t mind that!” Sho blushed from ear to ear. That boy was far too lovely naive.
“Uhm, well… What exactly were you again?” Sho asked, even though he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know. But he needed to get distracted.
“I was a mermaid.” Nino said straight out.
The prince looked at him dumbfounded.
“A mermaid? What is that? Is that- Oh, wait.”
He went back into the wardrobe, shuffling around and finally coming out again, wearing a short, black maid-dress with white laces.
“Something like that?” he stepped in front of Nino gracefully, making a few turns.
“Eh… No, that’s not right.”
“Oh. But… but I look cute spotting a dress, do I not?” Sho made some more turns.
“Actually,… not. It looks rather weird. Do you like humiliating yourself?”
Nino loughed hardly at the pouting face Sho was making, it was cute.
Sho smiled at the chuckling man; when he laughed like that, he didn’t seem like a stranger at all. The ‘maid’ made more turns, which made Nino laughing even louder and Sho laughing with him.
“Can I… could I maybe stay here?” Nino asked when the laughter stopped.
He looked at Sho pleadingly. The other man reluctantly nodded “Sure.”
It’s risky to take a stranger into your own house, but the prince longed to find out more about his visitor whom was weird but still captivating him. The house was huge enough, his cold room could need a comrade and no one would become aware of him anyway.
Sho just had changed back into his normal clothing, when suddenly a loud rattle was heard outside and with a “pang” someone seemed to have crashed into the doors. After a short moment of silence the doors finally opened and Aiba peeked in cautiously. A pink rabbit hold tightly on his ankle. Sho started to feel deeply afraid of that pet.
“Sho-chan? Are you in here?” he asked.
“Well, it does seem so. What are you doing there?”
“Sho, Sho-chan” Aiba jumped into the room, “there is a new rescue petition for little tortoises, and…OOOOH, who’s that?”
“This is, uhm, Nino, he will stay here for some time.”
“Oh hi, Nino-chan. I’m Aiba. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too. Are you hurt? I think you just …”
“No, I’m fine, thanks. Nothing can bust my strong head. I’m far too smart for that. Haha”
“Ah, okay then. But if you had brain in there, wouldn’t you be able to not run against doors in first place?”
“That, uhm, was an experiment to see how stable the door is. By now, I can tell you that it is really heavy. Oh, uhm, you have pretty hair Nino-chan!”
“Really? I think it’s plain and stupid.”
“Don’t say these things Nino-chan, it looks beautiful. It seems easy to bend. Do you know that situation when you wake up and there are all those strands standing randomly in the air?”
“Oh, yeah, believe me, I have that too! And it’s so hard to get them back to their right place again! I could spend the whole day in front of the mirror then!”
“Yeah! You know, I tried some experiments to gain control about that problem… well, some went not as thought, once a bottle exploded and my hair turned green, but…”
Sho watched them both absorbed in their conversation, talking as if they knew each other for years. He knew that Aiba was good at making friends easily, but he and Nino seemed somehow to be on one wavelength. (He tried to not remind Aiba that most of those experiments proceeded in Sho’s kitchen which got useless after that.)
The flow of the conversation was lost when a loud growl echoed through the room. The both childhood friends looked at each other, then at Nino, who was scratching his back-head embarrassedly.
“Ah, I haven’t eaten for quite a while…”
“It is okay, I will make you up something to eat.” Sho said grinning when a second growl was heard.
“My stomach approves.” Aiba said sheepishly.
That far, Sho has never understood his parents’ need to employ maids; they wouldn’t be needed if the house was small one (which would have been by far enough). But for once, he was glad that he didn’t had to use cooking utensils all by himself; the clumsy site of him wasn’t what he wanted to show Nino the very first. Furthermore, his nanny was pleased that she could prepare more than just one plate. While they ate, Aiba told Nino about the experiments he already did (the food in his mouth flying all over the table), Nino listened attentive (trying to dodge the flying food) and Sho pointed out which items (mostly Sho’s) went broke or afire through that.
“Well Aiba…I am sure you did not show up for Iku-chan’s food, did you?” The prince asked.
“Oh, yeah! I almost forgot! There’s a new petition for rescuing little tortoises in the neighbor town. Do you remember the fishers there? They catch those little cuties and sell them on the street market. The petition is to forbid such a business. Can you believe it? There’s still no law against catching these helpless sweetie-pies!!”
“Yes, that is in fact incredible. Let us go as soon as possible. Nino, would you like to come with us?”
Nino nodded. He didn’t really want to, but he didn’t know where to go else and as long as his Sho was there, he would follow.
After all, Nino was glad that he came with those two. Sho looked really handsome, trying to rescue the little tortoises and Nino simply joined it for the fun. (Even though, as a future reign of the undersea world, he should worry about those things too.) He enjoyed the company of Aiba he really got along with well and Sho would smile at him from time to time and Nino just would smile back. It was obvious that Sho still didn’t believe his mermaid story, but he would still take his time explaining ‘human stuff’ to Nino with divine patience.
Spending his day by Sho’s side, the time went far too fast and it was evening already. They went back home and Aiba could easily persuade Sho for him to sleep over in the huge villa (even though the pink rabbit was still sneaking around).
After Nino took a bath (Sho explained him how to do) he went back into the room. But Aiba was the only one in there.
“Where is Sho?” he asked, hoping to sound not too disappointed.
“I guess he’s at the beach. He always goes there.”
“The beach?”
“Yeah, some days ago he was rescued by a mysterious woman from drowning. I think he goes there in hope he meets her again.”
“I see.”
“Do you know that the mole on your chin makes you somewhat cute? If you had boobs I would surely mistake you for a girl!”
Right that moment the prince came back into the room and Nino wanted to scream at him that the person he searches for is right in front of his eyes, but he couldn’t. He didn’t have any evidence anyway.
Sho came up to Nino and ruffled his hair.
“Don’t look so sad. You can sleep in my bed, it’s huge enough.”
“And me?” Aiba jumped happily, hoping for a cuddle-battle.
“You sleep in the guest-futon on the floor.” Sho said dryly.
“Ye~s.” Aiba answered disappointed, all his energy gone.
Sho turned back to Nino.
“Let’s go to sleep. It is late and tomorrow, I’ll show you around town.”
Sho climbed into the bed on one side, Nino on the other.
While Nino and Aiba fell asleep immediately (with Aiba snoring terribly), Sho kept awake until sunrise. He couldn’t stop watching his new friend. Before he finally fell asleep, he grabbed Nino’s hand and mumbled: “I cannot escape the feeling that we already met…Your presence seems so familiar to me… Tell me why I long so strongly for kissing the mole on your chin…”
–Turtle-sponge-
Slowly, the night turned into morning. The sun shone through the window and landed softly on Nino’s face, immersing it in a gentle glow.
Nino stirred, he wasn’t used to such brightness. Normally, the sun was barely reaching the top of the castle. He wondered when the sun got so strong, breaking through kilometers of water like that. After sleepy thinking (he was too lazy to open his eyes) he came to the conclusion that it had probably to be that damn fishie Matsuken teasing him again.
When he tried to get out of the blending light, he recognized that his hand was being held tightly by a stronger one. Nino finally opened his eyes, and blushed, when he faced the peacefully sleeping Sho.
The events of yesterday passed in front of Nino’s eyes like an inner cinema and he sighed happily.
“So I didn’t just dream that. I’m really close to my beloved Sho… Whohooo!”
Seeing that Sho was deep asleep, Nino turned around to look out for Aiba. He finally found him next to his futon – still snoring and hugging the pink rabbit (he had rolled out in the night, calling out loud “Danger! Very danger!”). Happily Nino used the chance and shifted closer to his beloved human, still holding his hand, until he could feel the warm breath tickling his forehead.
Nino sighed again. He was satisfied, being able to be close to the one person he loved, and wished that this moment would never end. Sadly, the alarm clock wasn’t on Nino’s side. It decided to put a spoke in his wheel and rung out loud.
The ex-mermaid startled at the abrupt disturbance, but he jolted even more when Aiba suddenly sat up and shouted a loud “GOOD MORNING”. With wide eyes he watched Aiba getting up, trotting to the desk to put the alarm off (not without greeting Sho’s little tortoise) and trotting back into his futon. By time, Aiba started snoring again. Nino’s brain transmitted the message to him that he should stop wondering about that guy.
He turned back again to the more sane Sho, who opened his eyes reluctantly (‘A bit late, don’t you think?’ Nino noticed laughingly). Sho blinked at the guy in front of him and Nino could practically see the mental cinema passing in front of these warm, hazel eyes. When the mind-cinema was over, Sho smiled at him.
“Good morning. Did you sleep well?” Sho still held Nino’s hand.
“Yes.” Nino answered shyly. ”You too?”
“Yes, I slept amazingly well.” Sho lied, he didn’t want to admit that he has been staring at Nino for the whole night (it might have scared that cute boy).
Even though the night was way too short for him, Sho didn’t feel tired at all; it seemed like he regained his strength just by looking at him.
But now, Nino was looking squarely into his eyes in his cute, bright and innocent manner. Sho felt the heat rising up in his face and hurried to stand up, before the other could see his blushing cheeks.
Swinging his feet out of bed, Sho registered far too late that they were still tangled in the bed sheets. He tried to prevent his fall by grabbing the covers (alias last life-line), but they were too light, not even the new-human, who was still wrapped into them, were able to hold him up.
With a loud “bang” Sho crashed onto the floor (he knew the feeling of falling onto it, he did it at almost every sport exercise) and with a “buff” Nino landed on him (he experienced that for the first time though).
Startled for the already 3rd time this day, Nino brought himself up, half-heartedly supporting himself on his elbows and looking Sho in the face.
“Sho~ what are you doing?” Nino said in an annoyed voice.
Sho knew he should say something to his defense, but with Nino’s body pressed against his and his face just centimeters away (as Nino still refused to stand up properly) his brain didn’t work at all (besides, “I staggered because you are actually turning me on” is at first a rather crappy excuse and at second an even worse pick-up line. Not to mention that a prince shouldn’t express his affection that way). While he was still searching for an answer in his broke-down-motor-like brain, Nino still being on top, used the time instead watching his face with fascinated eyes. The soft brown hair, strands of it covering the (now thoughtfully frowning) eyebrows and eyes, the fine nose and these adorable plushy lips. These lips, he almost had touched before (if Ohno hadn’t come amiss, he noticed angrily) and without thinking, Nino leaned down, wanting to feel these lips for real this time. There was neither an angry crab, nor an annoying fish- anyone to stop him; Sho didn’t push him away either, so he moved his lips above Sho’s, and….
“Wheee~ How far did you guys go while I was asleep?” Aiba cheered.
Sho awoke as if he had been in trance and finally his brain-motor seemed to start, clattering in his head. He hastily pushed Nino away.
“NOTHING HAPPENED! Haha, I just fell out of bed and unfortunately, I pulled Nino-chan with me, haha…Beg your pardon, ‘Nino’! ” Sho tried to laugh it off innocently.
“I see. I see.” Aiba smirked. (There were a lot of things Aiba failed to see, but Sho’s blushing face was impossible to ignore.)
The prince grabbed his clothes -in a hopefully not too hurried manner- and went out to the bathroom. He needed to calm down his frantic beating heart. What he definitely wanted now was a cooling morning shower. Sho stepped out of his sleeping clothes and folded them neatly. With his favorite turtle-formed sponge in the hand, he got into the shower and let the cool water run down his body. His left hand found the soap and he spread it over his body; the muscular legs, the attractive abdomen, the strong arms, and he cursed when he cricked his arm to reach his (sexy) back.
“Shall I scrub your back?” the sponge was taken out of his hand.
“Oh, thank y- Eh!?” Sho jumped around (and knocked off his head in process) to find Nino standing behind him in the shower.
“What are you doing here? Please shower when I have finished! Did Aiba not show you the guest bathroom?”
“I thought I may help you showering” Nino smiled.
“Right at the moment, I am not in need of any help, thank you! Please leave immediately and wait in the room until I get back!”
“But I-“
“Please GO!” Sho shouted, his face turned bright red once more.
“Okay~” Nino pouted. Tears flooded his eyes (Sho had hardly to resist to squeeze him). Sadly, he left the bathroom.
Sho was sure that he would get a heart attack sooner or later if the day was to continue like this. He was about to resume his showering when he recognized that Nino had actually taken his precious turtle-sponge with him. Oh, well.
Back in the room, Nino sat defeated down on the bed (poking the turtle-sponge sulkily). Aiba grinned from ear to ear (even though he felt hurtfully ignored when Nino had suddenly run off without even glancing at him) and took a place next to him. He squeezed Nino and snogged him.
“Nino-chan~ You’re so smooch when you’re pouting. But don’t cry… You like Sho, don’t you?” Aiba beamed one of his famous sparkle-sparkle smiles towards Nino.
“Eh?”
“You’re sooooo cute~ I’ll help you! Don’t worry! Matchmaker Aiba’s here!” he gave him a thumb-up.
Nino was sure that he should be worried now all the more.
