A/N: I rewatched Nagi no Asukara recently and had to transfer my leftover feelings into a multichapter AU. A few notes: 1) The Shioshishio kids and Tsumugu are all fourteen in the first few chapters, though there will be a timeskip sooner or later. 2) I'm changing Sayu and Miuna's ages to two years younger instead of five years. 3) This is a work-in-progress, and I would appreciate feedback!
Around and Around
Chapter One
A bitter wind hails from the west, stirring sand in Tsumugu's eyes as he pulls water from the village well. He adjusts the veil to cover his face more securely before he quickly pours the bucket into the last pitcher and tucks the lid tightly over the jar. Then, he hauls all the filled pitchers into his wagon and stretches his arms and legs in preparation for the tedious journey home.
This morning, his grandfather scrutinized the dunes from the kitchen window and mentioned how strange the weather was lately, in ways that he hadn't seen in over forty years. The air is humid and still, with occasional bouts of howling wind. Tsumugu hates the way his heavy clothes, which usually protect him from the blazing sun, stick to his skin. It's hot, and the thickening clouds above are threatening something more menacing than the occasional thunderstorm.
His sandals crunch in gravel where the dunes stop and the badlands begin. He passes a few tents of some nomads, warily noting the insignias emblazoned on their clothes that signify their alliances before he makes his way through. A few men on guard nod at him, and he nods back. The wagon wheels creak louder and louder as the ground grows rockier and rockier. The donkey sneezes.
The slope of the hill steepens, and the balcony of rock shrinks so that Tsumugu must walk closer to the donkey to avoid slipping down the side. He is accustomed to the narrow path; there are many days when his grandfather is too tired to make the journey to the well and back, even though he is too proud to admit it sometimes. Tsumugu makes the trip instead, and his grandfather, in what occasionally seems like grudging apology, tells him more stories about his days living in the sea.
Tsumugu has never seen the ocean before. He has only known sand dunes and tough plateaus all his life. Just the thought of a body of water big enough to stretch for miles and miles is incredible. His grandfather once took a bowl of water and dropped a stone in it and told Tsumugu to imagine millions of ripples like that in the bowl overlapping each other, pushing and pulling with a life of its own. The sea, his grandfather had said, was a passionate thing, no matter how deceptively calm it may seem. The ripples of the fountains in the big city could not even compare. It was then that Tsumugu promised himself that he would see the ocean one day, through any means possible.
The donkey brays uncertainly as they approach the bazaar, breaking Tsumuguu's train of thought. A crowd is huddled over something on the ground. A body, Tsumugu realizes belatedly. Some of the villagers are arguing.
As he approaches the scene, he makes out deep indigo hair and pale skin. Too pale to be from around here. And with such a slight form, it is hard to tell if it is either a young boy or girl. The body is lying on its stomach, face turned so that Tsumugu can only see the back of its head, and it is clad in a tattered robe. There's no mark to be found anywhere visibly on the cloth. Someone has drawn an alchemic circle near her feet. A demon ward.
"I can't take her," says the village doctor. "I have enough patients in my house as it is."
"Well, none of us can take her," barks one of the wives of the village elders. "She's a foreigner, that's for sure. None of them can be trusted."
"And since when am I in charge of foreigners?" the doctor shots back.
"What's going on?" Tsumugu asks Takeshi, who is watching the scene with a look of mild amusement.
"The adults are going nuts over some girl they found lying on the ground here," says Takeshi, crossing his arms. "She must have gotten into the village at around noon because they've been arguing for a while."
"I'll take her," says a voice Tsumugu knows well. Isamu Kihara pushes his way into the center of the crowd. "She's one of my own."
"You don't have any other relatives other than your grandson," says the apothecary with a frown. She gasps. "You don't mean— merfolk?"
A hushed murmur runs through the crowd.
"So she's a mermaid?" Takeshi looks skeptical. "That's… weird. What is she doing out here?"
Tsumugu doesn't reply and pushes his way to his grandfather's side. Isamu stoops over and tries to haul the girl on his back, but Tsumugu can tell by his painful grimace that her weight is too much for his old body to handle. The boy takes her instead, wrapping her arms around his neck and linking his arms under her knees.
"Quickly, boy," says his grandfather. "Her ena needs to be replenished. I'll take care of the cart."
He has seen his grandfather soaking in salt water enough to know what must be done. Tsumugu hurries through the crowd, down the street, to the last house overlooking the edge of the plateau, and quickly rummages through the cupboard for their supply of salt. He can hear her ena crackling away. He pours the remaining water in the house into the small tub and scoops two cups of salt into the water. Then, he lifts her into the tub and watches her skin gradually regain some of its former glimmer.
He wipes his forehead with a towel and sighs.
On closer inspection, her facial features are soft and alarmingly delicate. Her nose is small and fragile, and her lips are thin and pale pink. Her eyelashes are long and soft and slightly curved. She looks nothing like his grandfather.
Suddenly, her eyes open. Tsumugu doesn't flinch, just stares back, but he is electrified. He has never seen such a vibrant deep blue color before, not even in the sky. There's a dark depth in the rims of her irises that pin him to the spot and renders him unable to muster a word. Is this the color of the sea? he wonders, and he finds himself drawing closer to get a better glimpse.
The girl shrinks back, face flushing. Ah, right. She probably has no idea what's going on.
"I'm Tsumugu Kihara," he says, leaning back. "The villagers found you collapsed near the bazaar, and my grandfather offered to take you in. He's merfolk too."
The girl looks terrified and nods. She tries to speak, pauses to clear her throat, and tries again.
"My name is Chisaki Hiradaira," she says. "Where is your grandfather?"
"He'll be here soon," Tsumugu responds. "Are you hungry?"
Chisaki nods. Tsumugu busies himself with taking some bread from the pantry and slicing it into a few generous slices before dipping the crusts in honey and offering them to her on a plate to eat. She murmurs her thanks and begins chewing rapidly, avoiding all eye contact and staring profusely at her plate.
The sound of the donkey's hooves and the creaking of wagon wheels alert Tsumugu to his grandfather's return. After the donkey is ushered into the stable and the water jugs are lined on a shelf, Isamu Kihara finally approaches Chisaki.
"I trust that my grandson has explained what happened to you," he says sternly, and Chisaki nods. "Good. You can take his room. He'll be sleeping in mine from now on. I talked to some of the neighbors, and they have a few clothes that you can wear for the time being."
Chisaki nods again and stutters, "T – thank you."
Isamu Kihara grunts in response. He pulls out some bread from the pantry and goes about his routine sprinkling of herbs over his plate so nonchalantly that Chisaki looks startled by his behavior.
Tsumugu looks away, disappointed. He hoped that his grandfather would require some explanations from the girl – what is she doing out here? How did she survive for so long? Where did she come from exactly? But, of course, his grandfather isn't the type of man to demand that from his guests. Isamu Kihara is stoic but open-minded and will respect her boundaries. He won't ask anything of her until she is ready to tell. It frustrates Tsumugu that his grandfather can bite his curiosity down for so long; the younger boy is about ready to burst with questions.
As if reading his mind, Isamu Kihara shoots Tsumugu a severe glance. Tsumugu gets the point. No asking questions behind his grandfather's back. Not until she's comfortable.
He sighs and takes Chisaki's empty plate.
"Do you want some more?"
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Chisaki wakes up the next morning in her new clothes, a simple tunic and plain robe. The tunic has a strange symbol over her left breast. It resembles a bird somehow, but there are jagged lines over the shape that seem to give the symbol a different meaning. Chisaki pushes this out of her mind as she pulls on a pair of hand-me-down sandals, concentrating on looping the clasps into the right buckles.
This is insane, she tells herself. Surreal. She can't remember how many days it has been since she last saw her friends, and every time she tries to count, a deep sadness fills her chest and squeezes her heart tightly. The fact that she's still alive and out in the middle of a desert, adopted miraculously by someone who also happens to be merfolk – she wonders if she'll ever see them again and see their incredulous faces if she told them this story. Manaka's eyes would go round and shiny. Her mouth would pucker up in a little 'o'. Kaname would look stunned for only a few seconds – then his characteristic mysterious smile would cover that up before anyone fully processed it was there. Hikari would furrow his eyebrows or snort and say something like, "What? No way! Stop joking around!"
Ah. It's been so long. Or maybe not? Has it been a week or a month? No, no. There's no use in trying to figure it out. What really matters is if they're still alive. Chisaki hopes with all her heart that they've found a refuge of their own somewhere out there. She hopes she'll see them again at least once more.
The tears bubble over again. Oh no. She's been like this all night too. The walls in the small house are thin, and she probably kept up the old man and his grandson for a long time. They were so kind to her. They didn't ask her anything and just accepted her for who she is. But she can't help it. She covers her mouth with her sleeve and gives in to the large, racking sobs that shake her entire frame. She misses her parents. She misses Shioshishio. She misses the schools of fish whose scales glinted in the underwater sunlight every morning. She misses the taste of high salinity ocean water.
A knock on the door.
"Breakfast," calls Tsumugu. "And Grandfather says I have to give you a tour of the village."
Chisaki wipes her face hurriedly. She says shakily, "Be right there."
When she finally emerges, a plate of eggs and honeyed bread is ready for her on the small sturdy oak table.
"Grandfather's out feeding the chickens and mule," Tsumugu says. "After you eat, we'll go. And before I forget—" He tosses her a piece of brownish-gray fabric. "That's your veil. All the villagers wear it when they go out for a while. It keeps the sand out of our eyes and it might help your ena from drying out too quickly."
"Thank you," Chisaki says quietly, mentally kicking herself. All day yesterday and today, she's repeating thankyouthankyouthankyou – she's tremendously grateful, but she feels like her words are uselessly bouncing off of the boy's ears.
When she's finished with her meal, she follows Tsumugu's instructions on how to properly wrap the veil around her head. Then, they head out.
Tsumugu shows her the outhouses, the school, the different stalls in the bazaar, the doctor's house in case of emergencies, the apothecary, the alchemist association lodge, and a variety of other places that make Chisaki's head spin. The entire time, his voice is calm and his face – or at least, what Chisaki can make of it through the veil – is cool. Kaname was – is, she corrects herself with a mental shake, like that too. Except Kaname is more of a charming kind of cool, while the boy in front of her borders on apathetic. Chisaki wonders if anything actually excites him.
"I got enough water yesterday to last for a few days," Tsumugu says, interrupting her thoughts, "but I think I should still show you the well while we're out and about. It's not exactly in the village perimeters though. Are you okay with that?"
Chisaki offers a wan smile. "Sure."
They pass the village's stone-paved entrance, where some of the villagers are returning with their own carts of filled pitchers. They give Chisaki curious looks but don't say anything other than a simple greeting. She wonders if Tsumugu's grandfather asked them to leave her alone. She knows she has too many things already to be grateful for, even though a huge part of her wants to wallow in her wretchedness.
The narrow path they take down the side of the plateau is painfully familiar. Chisaki crawled up this path yesterday, trying to fight the dizziness caused by her cracking ena.
They walk in silence down the side of the tableland. When they reach the bottom, they see the cluster of tents from yesterday. One of the men recognizes Chisaki as they walk past and says with a splitting grin, "You're alive!"
Tsumugu gives her a curious look. Chisaki stares down at her sandals and pretends she didn't hear.
The rest of the walk to the well is highly uncomfortable. Though she's been traveling in the desert for a while, she still hasn't gotten used to the feeling of dry sand between her toes. Every step is raw, almost painful. The veil, at least, helps prevent the sand from getting in her eyes.
"We're here," says Tsumugu, and he points to the shape of a small bump in the ground in the distance. There's a pair of wooden stilts, a rope, and a few buckets lying to the side of the well. It's homely, to say the least. "Do you need to replenish your ena?"
"Yes," Chisaki admits, and she wants to thank him for being so considerate, but she holds her tongue.
They approach the well. Tsumugu takes a bucket and dips it into the well. When he pulls it back up, he pours salt from a burlap sack and offers the bucket to her. Chisaki takes it and sits on the ground beside the well. She dips her hands into the water and feels instant relief. Tsumugu watches her as she sprinkles some drops on her face, her neck, her arms, and her feet. She flushes.
"Do you mind?" she finally asks, trying to make out the expression on his face through his veil.
"Sorry," he says quietly and averts his gaze. He looks like he's torn between asking a question and staying silent. He opens his mouth, closes it, then opens it again.
"What is it?" she asks.
"If you don't mind me asking, what is it like to live under the sea?" There's a hint of apprehension in his voice, as if he's expecting her to shoot his question down or burst into tears or something. Chisaki purses her lips in amusement.
"It's wonderful," she says, and he looks at her, startled. "Every morning, the village shines with dappled sunlight, and the butterfly fish nibble the coral polyps in great schools around the roads, and the underwater willows loom over the village like giant guardians…"
Her eyes glaze over. Tsumugu feels something flicker inside. He probes, "What is the sea like?"
Chisaki blinks and frowns. "What do you mean?"
"If you could describe what the sea is like to someone who has never seen it before…"
"What it looks like?"
"Anything. What it's like."
He sounds unusually determined to extract an answer out of her. Chisaki regards him again. She can see the intense glint in his gray eyes even through the veil. She wonders…
"Hm. Well," Chisaki is about to describe the color of the ocean and the hypnotic pattern of waves but decides against it. Something inside her tells her that's not what he's asking about. She tries again. "Imagine something so powerful that it can leap to the earth and sweep away entire civilizations, yet something so gentle that it yields to the push and pull of the moon. It opens its tides to our emotions and guards them like a mother for her baby. It's quieter than the surface, but it makes up for the silence with an inaudible song carried by the currents." Chisaki closes her eyes. "It may seem like it's brimming with mysteries, but actually, it's the most understandable thing I know."
She doesn't know if she was able to capture everything in the right words, but she tried her best. Manaka would have done a better job. Her sincerity always managed to shine right through.
When she opens her eyes, Tsumugu's face is indecipherable. Chisaki sighs.
"I'm finished," she says, gesturing to the bucket. "Thank you."
He doesn't say anything. He stands, looking at the horizon, which is turning from blue to soft gold and creamy lavender. Chisaki stares at the sky too from her sitting position in the sand. It's much easier to appreciate it now that she's not on the run.
"A few months ago," says Tsumugu suddenly, "a passing traveler told me that desert sunsets are the most beautiful, more than ocean sunsets or tundra sunsets or cityscape sunsets, because of the way they light up the sand and create lonely silhouettes out of the cacti."
He doesn't say anything more and tosses the rest of the water in the bucket into the sand. Chisaki gets on her feet, dusting the sand off of her lap.
"Do you think that traveler is right?" she asks.
"I don't know," he replies. "I've never been anywhere but the desert." He stuffs the burlap sack in a pocket.
Ah. She understands now. It's something she should have picked up from the beginning. The boy is far from apathetic or emotionless. He's a little bit like her, actually; they're both searching for home. Chisaki wishes she could say something more, but she knows there's nothing that can soothe the flare of an unfulfilled dream.
"Thank you," he says. He is silent for the rest of the journey back to the house.
ch1 fin.
A/N: Hoped you enjoyed! There are some liberties I had to take with desert civilizations in my story because I wanted to avoid mixing up religiously significant cultural items in a fantasy AU fanfiction. Please review!