M.A.R.

“Once upon a time…” Dally started, using a tone that most would use on a five year old, “There was a peaceful, little island much like this one. It was a tiny island, sure, but everyone knew and liked one another.

“One day a new family arrived on the island hoping to settle down there. The parents had a young daughter with long, red hair that you could spot from anywhere. Even though the village people thought the little girl’s hair was a little odd, they welcomed the family non-the-less. Ever since the family had moved to the island the tropical weather because extremely bipolar: from thundering storms one day to complete sunshine the next. Though this did make simple living quite a chore for the peaceful island people, they did not panic.

“They all noticed that the little girl with the red hair made friends quickly and easily and was as sweet as could be, so they disregarded any negative thoughts they previously held about her until one day when all of the children she played with went missing. Their families went crazy looking for them and they found the children two days later in a sea cave. All of them had drowned.”

Rebecca gasped, her eyes widened in surprise. Dally smiled, obviously please with her reaction.

“Though they were devastated, the families merely thought they had drowned while playing at the beach. The little red haired girl seemed unaffected by the tragedy because, when the next day rolled around, she was surrounded by all new friends. The island children seemed spooked by the tragedy, but the little girl didn’t seem to mind.

“Now, these parents did keep an eye on their children, but the moment they averted their eyes, even for a split second, all of the children were missing except for the red haired girl. The frightened parents searched everywhere, even the cave where the other children were found, but came up with nothing. It wasn’t until two days later when two fishermen had pulled up a heavy load to find it filled with the missing child. They had all drowned once again…

“Fear stricken, no parent would let their child play with the social, red haired girl. She was shunned and left alone, disliked for the rest of her life. This made the girl very sad. Even when she grew up into an adult, she was very sad.

“One day she had disappeared off the island along with her family’s boat. The town’s people celebrated and rejoiced at her removal, feeling as if it were a burden lifted from their shoulders. But their happiness was short lived for, when the next morning came, a freak hurricane hit the small island blowing away the peaceful people’s homes and jobs, and everything else in their little village. The hurricane went on for what seemed to be an eternity, only to end when a mega tsunami swallowed the island whole, sinking it to the deepest part of the ocean… The end.”

Rebecca stared at the young man, her eye twitching in irritation. “And…this is why no one likes Ami?”

Dally gave her a single nod in response, his purple eyes still serious.

“That is completely ridiculous!” Rebecca shouted, setting her mug of coffee down and getting to her feet. She glared at Dally who still looked at her emotionlessly. She was so tired of his tough guy act that she couldn’t stand it anymore. She walked up to Dally, her hands on her hips, as she glowered at him. “I cannot believe the whole village-the whole world, actually!-bought all of that garbage! You should be ashamed of yourself for spreading such horrible rumors about an innocent little girl! Don’t you know that your son and my Ami are best friends? Why isn’t Ritsuka dead if this is all true?!”

“It isn’t a rumor; this is all true. And Ritsuka and that red haired girl will not be friends for long…” Dally promised, an evil smirk painted on his face. ~~~

“Let me tell you a story…” Mitsukuni mimicked his mother’s wise voice from his memories.

“A story?” Ami asked him, wondering what they had to do with anything.

“Yes. A story about a cold, distant merprince who had no feelings for his people what-so-ever.” Mitsukuni shot her another warm smile as he held her hand underwater. Ami tightened her grip around his in response.

Mitsukuni continued with a light, wise tone. “This prince never cared if he hurt someone or if someone got hurt. When it came time to listen to the needs of his people he just sat there and ignored all of them, never really paying any attention or caring about what they had to say. This got him into a lot of fights with other mermen who stated they could run the country better than he ever could, but his father-the king-would always protect him even when he was old enough to protect himself. And his mother-the queen- would always please the angered merpeople, even when the boy was old enough to talk to them himself.

“But one day his mother told him a tale of different merpeople. Merpeople who lived on land without tails and two long things called legs instead. These legs gave the people the abilities to ‘walk’ on land instead of swimming in the water. These creatures enchanted the prince, breaking into his mind and invading his dreams every day and night. He wondered if these weird merpeople with legs were real, so one night he went against all of merman laws and looked above the surface.

“What the merprince saw was a giant metal beast floating on top of the water just a bit farther from where he was. He could hear strange noises and there were strange lights on the metal beast, so he curiously swam closer in hopes of finding out what it was. When he came closer he found the weird merpeople with the ‘legs’ his mother described. Dozens of them were on the metal beast and they were all wiggling and moving to the beat of the weird noises. They all had weird expressions on their faces. Their lips were pulled upwards and their teeth were showing. Some of them were even making weird noises themselves; almost like a dolphin crying out. The young prince couldn’t believe his eyes. The atmosphere was so light and joyful, even the prince’s lips pulled up the way theirs did.

“But then he noticed one of them fall off the metal beast and into the sea. He looked up to where they had fallen, but no one seemed to notice. Rushing underwater to look for the person, he found them easily thanks to their bright, red hair. He saved the person and swam them to a nearby island. Even though he was already breaking one rule, the prince figured waiting for the person to wake up while breaking another rule-the rule to never be on land-was not big deal anymore. The prince just had to wait for this person to open their eyes; he felt a compelling need to stay by their side.

“He gazed at the soft face of the person he had saved. She looked just like any mermaid down at his kingdom, but instead of a tail she had legs. Wonderful, lovely long legs that the merprince enjoyed touching and examining, especially the end of her legs where she had five little tiny legs poking out. He thought they were…beautiful.

“Suddenly, the legs were pulled away from him and the prince looked over at the person, surprised that they had awoken. The person looked afraid and shocked as they tried to get up and leave, but the prince had caught them and held on to their hand. She looked back at the prince questioning him as water began falling down her eyes. Noticing the droplets and completely enchanted by the weird action, the prince pulled her down and she sat on the beach so be could catch one of these things that were forming from within her. He inspected the droplet that clung to the edge of his finger before plopping it into his mouth, tasting it. He was surprised by how it tasted. It was just like the ocean.

“The prince then looked back at the red haired girl with golden eyes as she said something to him in a language he did not know of. Because of this he leaned against her and did a language transfer. He liked the way her warm lips felt against his cold ones. It felt completely different than any other language transfer he had ever done.

“When he pulled away the girl looked at him and asked ‘Why did you do that?’

“‘So that I may speak your language.’ The prince answered. The girl’s golden eyes sparkled as her lips pulled up, too.

“Ever since then the merman and the girl became best friends. He would call her princess and she would call him prince. The girl taught him many things like how the wiggling thing was called a dance and that the noise was called music. She taught him that the lip thing was called a smile and the dolphin noise was a laugh. She told him that the action of water falling from your eyes was called crying and that the water was called tears.

“But what the merprince learned the most were emotions. He learned about sadness, joy, anxiety, anger and love just by being friends with this human girl. Though he did not know how to name his own feelings, the princess always did. And whenever the merprince would return home his parents would notice how much more involved and alive he seemed. They enjoyed the new prince who demonstrated such weird things as laughter and anger. When they brought this up, the prince knew he was changing because of the princess. So the next day, when he met his princess again, he was surprised by her confessing her love for him. Soon he realized that he loved her as well and he asked her to come down to his kingdom to teach his people everything she had taught them so that they may be together forever. The princess agreed and was brought down to enlighten the prince’s mother and father and all of his merpeople. The merman society had never been the same since. Fin.”
Mitsukuni smiled at Ami who seemed bewitched by the fairytale just as he was when he was younger.

“Wow…” Ami whispered in amazement. She was 100% enchanted. “Is that why you’re here?”

“Huh?” Mitsukuni asked, not understanding what she had meant.

“You’re here to find the princess, right? To change all of merman society?!” She asked chipperly, her eyes sparkling.

Mitsukuni looked at her in surprise. She figured it out so quickly! He smiled back at her as he nodded.

“Awe! How adorable!” Ami approved, though a green monster poked its ugly head around her mind, spreading an unsightly dose of jealousy around. She pretended it wasn’t there and asked, “Well, who do you think it could be?”

Mitsukuni slapped his forehead. ‘She is so clueless!!’ he thought to himself in despair.

“Hmm? Mitsukuni? What’s wrong?” Ami asked once she noticed the desperate look on his face.

Suddenly Mitsukuni looked behind him, feeling the presence of people close by on the beach. “I have got to go, Ami. I will tell you later, okay?” he promised, quickly locking lips with her and taking her breath away before dropping into the water and out of sight.

“W-wow…” Ami stuttered as her face flushed red. All of a sudden she heard voices walking closer to where she was in the water. To save her from embarrassment (because she was only sitting in the ocean with jeans and a tank top), she rushed out of the ocean and attempted to hide in the forest beyond the beach as swiftly as she could without getting caught. But, unfortunately, she was too slow… ~~~