Dark Waters
Chapter 1
The boat rocked beneath Hiei's feet, the waves sloshing against the sides. The full moon was a white queen, bestowing her blessing of light on the world below. A world in which Hiei might as well have been the only inhabitant. He was entirely alone out here, surrounded by dark, shifting waters.
Hiei panted as he pulled on the net. His arms ached and his fingers bled, smears of his blood soaking into the rough fibres of the ropes. He knew he should have probably worn gloves, but he'd forgotten them. Not for the first time that night, he wished that he'd swallowed his pride and asked one of his friends to come out with him. As much as he disliked his new brother-in-law Kuwabara, his muscular arms would really come in handy right now. Even Yusuke's cheerful insults about how scrawny he was would be welcome now.
But it was too late. His friends were probably back in their warm, cosy beds, lost in the realm of sleep. A realm as dark and mysterious as the depths of the ocean below the boat.
Hiei dragged determinedly on the net. He was sure that he wasn't imagining it. The net was heavier than it should be. Something large must be caught in it.
Please don't let it be a shark, Hiei thought. The net would probably be ruined.
Hiei finally succeeded in getting the net aboard and took a moment to catch his breath. Whatever had been caught in the net didn't seem to be moving, though Hiei could hear the small slap of fish tails on the deck as the doomed creatures fought for survival.
Hiei began to clear off the fish, freeing them from the net and dropping them into a large, water-filled esky. In the illumination of his torch, something unsettling began to reveal itself.
Hiei began to slowly uncover what seemed to be a fish's tail, though it was the largest fish Hiei had ever seen. It had to be a meter long. It couldn't be a shark or even a dolphin. They didn't have scales like that.
The scales were slick and left Hiei's fingers coated in some kind of oil. In the light of his torch, they sparkled like a prism, different shades of red showing, depending on what angle the light hit them.
Another fish splashed into the esky. Hiei moved back to get the next one. As he was picking it up, he felt something odd catch in his fingers. Hiei shoved the fish aside. His fingers were caught in what seemed to be hair. Hiei swallowed. Was there a person somewhere under there?
Hiei didn't bother putting the rest of the fish in the esky. He just shoved them aside, his heart pounding like a drumbeat in his chest.
It was definitely hair. Long, dark hair, sopping wet and tangled. And beneath the hair, soft, pale skin.
Had he caught both a large fish and a person? Had someone been attacked and killed?
And then, the tail flapped. It thumped hard into the deck, sending vibrations through Hiei's feet.
Hiei freaked, jumping back. He was suddenly glad that his friends weren't there to hear the rather unmanly squawk he'd just let out. They would never let him live it down.
The tail gave another strong flap. Hiei began to feel sick as he moved the torch over the deck. He hadn't caught a fish, he realised. And he hadn't caught a person, either.
Hiei swept the light up and down the figure, barely able to believe his eyes. Slender, naked arms with strings of seaweed dangling from them struggled to lift the creature's torso. Long hair shifted along it's back, long enough to brush the beginning of the tail. It's tail.
The smooth human skin of the creature's back seamlessly blended into those strange scales. Where it's backside and legs should have been was a long fish's tail, ending in wide fins instead of feet.
Hiei had heard stories about this sort of thing. Fishermen coming into the bar his friend Yusuke owned and bragging about the strange sea creature they'd seen. A creature out of legend and myth. But no one had ever provided any evidence of the encounter. No videos. No photos. Hiei had always assumed that they were making up fantastic stories to get free drinks.
But now, he wasn't so sure.
He'd caught a mermaid. A fucking mermaid.
A/N:
Chapters for this story will be short. I have some pre-written but they still need some work so I can't give a timeframe on updates.
