Darkness was the first thing he remembered. Always before his very existence, before everything, there was the darkness. Cloying, clutching, grabbing, consuming darkness. There was no thought, only the darkness. Then there was light. The brilliant sun streaming down on the greenish blue of the water was the first clear memory after the dark that he had. He had no memory of anything before the darkness, so he wasn't even sure if there was such a thing as before the darkness. Instead, he focused on what he knew now: the light and the water. He knew his name, and that was all, but even that thought had no form to it because he had no words with which to speak it yet. He was new, and the world was his now.
He learned quickly that he was alone; there were no other creatures like him in the sea. There were many, many different things living in the waters that surrounded him, but nothing like him. The first time he saw what he later would find out was a human, he was surprised because these creatures that walked upon floating things made of something that didn't come from the sea were like him. At least, they were from the waist up.
He found that the humans called themselves pirates or sailors, depending on the floating thing he later learned was called a ship. He would swim near these ships and listen as these humans spoke and he would watch what they would do. He learned over a long time the things that they would say and do, and he found himself wanting to get closer and closer to them to learn more.
Of course, the closer he came to the humans, the more they spotted him. He didn't mind at first, but then it seemed that some started to try and capture him. The first time he was trapped in a net, he panicked and used something to get out in his frustration. He didn't know how he did it, he only knew that he was out, and the ship sank behind him that had netted him. That scared him, and he avoided humans for a while, but he yearned to see them again. He wanted to talk to a human, be with a human, touch them. He wanted to see if they felt like him, and he wanted to know what they did in the dry world.
Then, he found a drowning sailor one night. He was a thin creature, with hair of brown. He remembered his eyes were also brown and that he didn't seem to be fighting the water as much as he should have. He had captured the human as he sunk beneath the storm-tossed waves and for a moment, he touched him and stared into his eyes. He pulled him to the surface because he had learned that humans couldn't live below the water like he did. They only breathed air, while he could breath in the water or in the air. He had tossed the human onto a drifting piece of wood from the ship he had been on that the storm had crashed into small pieces.
The sailor was the only one left from his ship, and at night, while he slept, he would push the human toward the dry world. He didn't want to be caught or seen so he didn't help the sailor during the day. At night, though, he'd leave things he found for him. They were things of the world above the sea, and he didn't know if they would help the human or not. For three days, he pushed the human toward the dry world and finally got him nearly there when another ship came close by.
He had swum away, hiding from the ship, but he thought the human he'd saved had seen him. He wasn't sure, but even if one human saw him, it wouldn't mean more would come. He watched from the shallows as the human was saved by a group of rough men who spoke harsh words and yelled a lot. He heard them call themselves privateers, but they acted like pirates, he thought. Still, the human was saved, and he'd helped save him. So, he'd swam back into the sea, intent on leaving humans alone for a good long while.
His curiosity would be his undoing, though. He couldn't resist trying to see what happened on the ships and would come nearer to them. More than once, he accidently drew a ship's attention and they would bash themselves on the rocks he was hiding in. He couldn't stop them from trying to chase him when they did that. He had to wonder what they were so interested in him for. He hid, though, and he tried his very best not to go up to see the ships. He found himself drawn to them anyway, and he continued despite the danger of being spotted. He could speak, he found, when he was above the water, and when there were no ships, he would often practice speaking like they did, repeating words and phrases that the humans said on the ships.
His grasp of the language was rough, at best, since he had no interaction with those he was mimicking. He learned crude words and gestures that these humans often used, and he would sometimes practice for hours on end. He found his words to be somewhat comforting when he spoke them, so even if no one heard him save the ocean, he continued.
Still, there would be ships that came in the water that seemed to be looking for him. He would hear them yell words that were new, calling him some name that he didn't understand. A mermaid? What was this thing they were looking for now? Was that what he was to them? He didn't know enough of the language to know for sure how to call himself. He only knew that he did have a name, and that wasn't what it was. So, was a mermaid like a fish, he wondered? Could they be looking for him because he was different from them? He wasn't sure, but he learned to recognize the small, fast ships that came into the sea just to hunt. They were the dangerous ones and he would stay away from them. His curiosity wasn't enough to chance being put inside one of their nets again.
Of course, he had no way of knowing how things would turn out given a little more time. He was staying near the shallows more often. He would often hide among the rocks near a cliff and watch the fishing ships go out into the sea. He got used to seeing certain fishermen. He let them alone, though, and tried to avoid being seen by them. He was well under water when he felt as though he should get away for some reason. He didn't understand it, but he headed for deeper water when he was netted again. He knew what would happen if he was forced to defend himself. He fought with the net for a minute, thrashing in the confines until he felt something prick his tail. He turned in the nets to see a human with a mask on his face and something glinting in his hand. He struggled and then everything started to go dark.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
"Dazai, stop being lazy," Kunikida said as he kicked the prone form on the deck. "We're putting into port."
Dazai, who was not in the mood to get up, rolled onto his back and looked at the sky. "What port is this?"
"Home port," Kunikida told him as he looked back on the ship. The captain was in his cabin still and the rest of the crew was getting ready to pull into the port.
Their ship, a galleon called the Ada, was an independent ship that often patrolled the area around the port of Yokohama. They were loosely under the purview of the navy, but they were mostly autonomous. Their captain was Yukichi Fukuzawa, a serious-minded man with a great love of the ocean. The first mate was Doppo Kunikida, and he was constantly trying to get Osamu Dazai to work and stop being lazy. He carried a notebook of ideals that he often made notes in.
The rest of their crew were likewise colorful, including one of the few female sailors on the sea, a woman named Akiko Yosano. Yosano was their medic and constantly wanted to find patients to hone her skills on. Also on the ship was a young man named Ranpo Edogawa. He was not very proficient in sailing, but he had an astute mind and caught things that the others missed. He was a self-described detective and so far, was never wrong when he came up with how things happened during a mystery. Their cabin boy was a young country kid named Kenji Miyazawa. He was exceedingly strong and a very hard worker on the ship. Finally, their last member was a young man named Junichirou Tanizaki. Tanizaki sailed in hopes to make his sister Naomi proud of him.
They actually had added a new member to the crew before they set out for this trip, a boy named Atsushi Nakajima. Atsushi was new to sailing, so had spent much of their trip rather ill from the motion of the ship. He was a good kid, though, and willing to work hard. He just needed time to adjust to the life of a sailor.
Dazai sat up finally and stretched his arms over his head before he stood. "It will be good to sleep in a bed that isn't moving again!" he stated as he walked to the side of the ship to watch as they put in to port under Tanizaki's guidance. He was learning quickly how to be an efficient helmsman and navigator for the ship.
As soon as they set into port, Dazai noticed that the Port Mafia, a group of privateers, had also pulled into port. He wrinkled his nose and hoped he didn't run across any of them. He had actually served on their ship for a while after he survived a shipwreck and was rescued by them. They were officially sanctioned by the navy but in reality they were simply pirates with paperwork. He honestly just wanted to find himself a room and relax for a day or two before they put out to sea once again.
"Will you be staying at the Agency Inn?" Kunikida asked as the both walked down the gangplank to the dock.
"Yes, I think so. They have nice rooms and big bathtubs. I'm looking forward to a long soak after this last trip," Dazai said as he adjusted the bandages on his right wrist. They were coming a bit loose already and he would need to straighten them soon.
Kunikida nodded. "I think I'll stay there as well. They seemed quite reasonable last time we were in port."
Their captain would stay with the ship as usual, they knew, while the rest of the crew enjoyed a few days in port. Dazai walked with Kunikida to the Inn and both secured a room for the next couple nights. Dazai bid Kunikida good night and left to find dinner somewhere. He found a nice open café to have dinner at and ate alone. He saw something that caught his attention, though, and that was a guarded door nearby. He had to wonder what was going on in that place to warrant a door guard. He watched for a bit longer and the guard let out a man in a lab coat. He proceeded to lock the door behind him and the guard and him left. Now, Dazai was curious as to what was going on in that building.
Dazai caught the waiter. "What's in that warehouse there?" he asked.
The waiter glanced over at the looming building and shrugged. "I don't know, but there have been an awful lot of people going in and out of the place lately. They're all cheap though and never stop to have anything."
Dazai thanked him and stared at the doorway, wondering what could be hidden inside. He figured he might never know as he got up and went back to the Inn for the night. Once there, he took his much-anticipated bath and soaked a good long while before going to bed for the night. While their baths were nice, their beds were mediocre. However, it was at least not a hammock that swayed with the ocean. He slept well into the next morning before he set out to wander the port city and see what there was to find. He knew that Kunikida would be worried about supplies for the ship, and Yosano would be restocking her medical kit. He wasn't sure if Atsushi would come back to the ship or not considering how ill the sea had made him.
That evening, once again, Dazai found himself at the small café outside the warehouse that was guarded. Again, a man in a lab coat came out and left with the guard. He frowned and got up, walking around to the back of the warehouse where he found another locked door. He pulled out his tools from his pocket and quickly picked the lock to let himself in. Curiosity would be his undoing, he knew, but he wanted to know what was being kept such a guarded secret.
As he came into the back of the building, he saw seals for the government's research division. That explained the lab coats. He came into the main part of the warehouse to see a massive tank of water in the middle of the room. On one side, there was a platform with stairs leading up to it. He came closer to the tank and looked through the murky depths.
Dazai's eyes were wide as he stared into the tank. Something was in there. Something alive. He caught a glimpse of tanned flesh and red hair. Was it a person? Why would they have a person in a closed water tank like this? He put his hands against the glass and waited to see something else in the murky water. He nearly jumped when a pair of slightly webbed hands appeared on the other side and spread out flat against it. Then, it moved closer and Dazai could see clearly what was being kept in such a large tank of water.
He had a wild crop of wavy red hair on his head and a pair of clear gray eyes that were covered in a film that made them look hazy. On either side of his neck were three gills that moved as he breathed in the water. From the waist up, he resembled a fit young man of around twenty or so years of age. However, at the waist, he had what looked like the tail of a fish. It was scintillating colors of blues and greens. The end flared out like a fish tail with nearly translucent frills of the same blue-green tones that made up the rest of the tail. Despite the dim light, and murky water, it was still stunning and reflected what little light was around in a beautiful way. His breath caught as he stood there.
The creature in the tank just stared at Dazai, and Dazai wondered what he was thinking as he looked through the glass at him. His eyes looked to be intelligent and quick as he observed him. He moved his hands to meet the creature's hands and there was a moment that Dazai swore there was something familiar about this creature.
He realized that the creature in the tank had bruises and marks down his arms. Dazai frowned and wondered what they were doing to him here. He looked around and saw that there was a ladder on one end of the tank. Maybe there was an opening? He climbed up the ladder and found that there was a hatch that could be opened from the outside. He opened the hatch and a few seconds later, the creature had swum up to the opening and stuck his head out of the water to stare at Dazai.
"Hello," Dazai said simply as he stared at the no emerged creature. A mermaid? Perhaps.
He stared at him for a second before cocking his head to the side and speaking, "Hello?"
"You can speak our language?" Dazai asked with a grin. This was going better than he expected.
"Some. I have learned some from listening to men on ships," he said and ran a hand over his red hair.
Dazai nodded. "What are they doing to you here? And why are you here?"
"Stupid human, I'm not here because I want to be," he growled, frowning and brows knitting in scowl.
Dazai smiled, liking the spunk this creature had. "Do you have a name?"
He was quiet for a moment and shook his head. "Not in the human tongue."
"Hmm, well, what should we call you? How about Chūya?" Dazai asked with a grin. "I like that name for you."
The creature stared at him for a minute. "Chūya?" he repeated, and Dazai noted that he was repeating words in the same way he said them to him. So, he was still learning the language of humans.
"Chūya," Dazai repeated and smiled. "Now that you have a name, we need to figure out how to get you out of here if you do not wish to be here."
"You will help me?" he said, face twisting into confusion. "You do not wish to steal my body from me?"
"Steal your body from you?" Dazai asked, confused by the strange turn of phrase.
"These men, they stick things into me and pull out pieces of me to take. I heal quickly, though. Still. It fucking hurts." Chūya frowned again.
Dazai smirked. He supposed the language he had picked up was rough. "I see, they are investigating what you are. I can understand their curiosity, but this still isn't right to confine a living creature like this. You want to leave here, right?"
"I want to leave!" Chūya said with emphasis. "But how can I?"
Dazai frowned and looked around. "You can be out of the water for a while?"
"I dunno," he said and narrowed his eyes at Dazai. "I've never been out of the water."
After a second of thinking, Dazai decided. He couldn't leave him here. He had to get him out, but he would obviously have to carry him since he didn't have legs. If he just took him to the water and released him, he would probably be captured again easily. No, he needed to be hidden for a while until these people were on to another project.
"Well, I can take you to my room for now." Hopefully the bathtub was big enough to put him in enough water.
Chūya tilted his head to the side. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"I'll be fine, here, can you lift yourself out of the tank?" he asked as he stepped back on the platform.
He reached up with his arms and used his tail to push himself up and almost over the edge. Dazai reached out and grabbed him under the arms and pulled him the rest of the way out of the tank and onto the platform. He landed with a thud as he pushed himself up with his arms. Dazai was impressed with how strong his arms were considering how thin he appeared. The area around them was covered in water from it sloshing up and over the side. Dazai knelt and got a grip under Chūya's body and lifted him with a little effort. He wasn't terribly heavy, but he was still a significant weight.
"Well, let's go get you in hiding," he said with a smirk as he carefully navigated the steps down from the platform to the floor.
He hoped that he could get out the back door with him. Dazai managed to get the door open from the inside with a little effort on his part and came out into the darkness of the night. He found that no one was around as he made his way back to the Inn. He felt Chūya clutching him tightly as they moved and before long, they had managed to get into the small room.
"Here, let's put you in the bathtub," he said as he lowered Chūya into the empty bath and turned on the water for him.
"Oh, too hot," he gasped as the warmer water began to fill the tub.
Dazai adjusted it so it was colder for him. Soon enough, the tub was as full as it could be without sloshing over onto the floor when Chūya moved. Dazai smiled at him and shook his head.
"The things I find myself involved with," he muttered as he watched this strange creature situate himself in the water to cover most of his tail.
"Well, you didn't have to take me," Chūya snapped, frowning at him. Dazai only smiled.
"Will you be okay in here alone?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Cramped, but fine. Better than being poked and prodded by those other humans," he grumbled.
Dazai smirked and wondered why this creature looked vaguely familiar to him. Could it have been, all those years ago…? No, there was no way that what he had seen had been real then. Still, he was convinced there was some connection between him and this strange being he'd found. He left him and decided to go see what Kunikida thought about what he'd done. He might be angry, but he might support saving an innocent creature of the sea.
He went to the nearby room and knocked. He had to knock a second time before he heard someone moving around inside the room.
"What is it?" Kunikida said, obviously half asleep.
"Kunikida, I need your help with something," he explained with a broad smile.
"At this time of night?" he groused but followed Dazai as he turned and walked back to his room.
Dazai let him into the room before speaking again. Once inside he smiled. "I seem to have come into possession of a sea creature that needs to be helped."
"Sea creature?" Kunikida asked and frowned. "How in the world did you come into possession of such a thing and why?"
"It was by accident that I broke into this warehouse and found him inside being subjected to experimentation. Here, I'll show you," he said with a grin as he opened the door to the bathroom. "I named him Chūya because he didn't have a name."
Kunikida blinked in surprise as he stared into the bathtub at the reclined creature. Chūya had the end of his tail hanging out of the tub on the side and was laying back against the end of it with his eyes closed. His head popped up and he glared at Dazai first then the newcomer.
"The fuck is this?" Chūya growled, unable to go anywhere.
"This is my friend and shipmate Kunikida. Kunikida, this is Chūya," Dazai said with a sly grin.
Kunikida stared for a minute. "Dazai. You have a mermaid in your bathtub and you stole him from someone."
"Yes, it would seem so," Dazai confirmed as he knelt beside the bathtub and ran a hand over Chūya's red hair. "He was suffering. I couldn't leave him there."
"Since when do you do something so magnanimous as rescuing a suffering creature?" Kunikida said with a sigh. "But you did. So now what do we do with him? You can't keep him in a bathtub."
"I want to go home," Chūya said but turned his head slightly into Dazai's hand.
"Well, we can't just walk him through the middle of the port like this," Kunikida said as he stared at the scintillating scales that covered the tail. "I heard this old story once that mermaids became human on dry land. Maybe you should dry him off?"
"Is that true?" Dazai asked Chūya with a wide grin.
"I don't fucking know," Chūya growled. "I've never been out of the water on the Dry World."
"Well, no time like the present. Kunikida, help me get him out and on the bed and we'll see what happens," Dazai said as he went around to grab Chūya under his arms while Kunikida reached under the tail to lift him.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Chūya protested but had no choice but to go along as he was lifted up from the water and quickly moved by the two men to the other room.
Dazai went and got a towel while Kunikida positioned Chūya's tail on the bed. It was long enough that the end hung off the edge of the bed. Chūya pushed himself to sit up and watched as Dazai began toweling off his tail. He moved every now and then, the powerful tail moving easily despite being out of the water.
"I don't think I like this," Chūya said, tail flicking. "It feels weird, like it's getting tight," he muttered, reaching down and running a hand over the now dry scales.
"How long do we have to wait?" Dazai said, turning to stare at Kunikida.
"I have no idea; it's just an old seaman's story that I've heard over the years," Kunikida said with a shrug. "But if he does turn human, you're gonna need clothes for him."
Dazai put a hand on his chin and stared down at Chūya. "He looks rather small."
"I'm not small!" Chūya snapped, glaring at Dazai.
"You are smaller than me. If you were human, I bet you wouldn't be very tall. Your tail is much longer than legs would be," Dazai observed, running a hand down the dried scales of his tail.
"Humph," Chūya grumped and crossed his arms over his chest. "How would you know anything you stupid…stupid…mackerel!"
Dazai snorted. "Mackerel?" he asked with a grin.
Kunikida sighed and shook his head. "I'll go see if I can borrow some clothes from someone closer to his size."
He turned and left them alone in the room. Dazai smiled and sat down in the chair sitting near the bed.
"Do you know any others like you?" he asked, trying to seem interested in his answers. He was interested, but also worried because of the people from that lab.
Chūya shook his head. "I've always been alone. That's how I got caught in human nets, because of being interested in what they were doing. I knew I should have stayed further out to sea."
Dazai felt a bit sorry for him if that was the case. Being alone completely would be hard. "Well, you managed to get away from those humans."
Chūya leaned back and laid down on the bed. "I'm tired. I wonder if this will work…"
"If it does work, you can walk among humans with no one knowing the difference," Dazai said and reached out to touch his hair as it dried. "Then you can just put out to sea with our ship and we can let you go further out."
A long silence stretched out for a while until Chūya spoke again. "But then I'll be alone again."
"That's true. You could stay with us?" Dazai said before he thought about it. He blinked, not sure why he just said that. Why did he want him to stay with them? He shouldn't care about it, but for some reason, he felt a connection with this strange creature before him. "Um, how do you feel?"
Chūya shifted on the bed and wriggled his tail. "I'm not sure. I don't feel right, but I don't feel bad either…"
After a few minutes there was a knock at the door and Dazai got up to answer it. Kunikida had come back with some clothes. "This was all I could scavenge from the crew. They were curious, but I told them that we'd explain tomorrow."
Dazai took them and saw it was a white shirt and a pair of black pants. "I hope your old seaman's tale is right, otherwise we're going to have a hard time getting him back to the sea."
Kunikida nodded. "There are a couple navy ships in to port right now, so getting him anywhere like this is going to be impossible."
"Alright, I'll just hope that something happens, and he looks at least human enough to take him to our ship," he said and bid Kunikida good night.
He came back into the room to see that Chūya had fallen asleep. He smiled a bit and found a blanket in the linens to cover him up with. His tail still stuck out from the end of it a little. He sat down in the chair to wait and see how things would turn out. Hopefully, by morning, his redheaded mermaid would transform.