Just to clear some things up, I imagine this fic taking place in the Fantasy AU like setting, but mix it in with the fact it's the 1700's. Because of such, things will not be historically accurate to the 18th century. Since everything is kinda messed up. With that said, the clothes Midoriya is daunting is the outfit from the Fantasy AU.
By the way, the fic that inspired me to write this does have NSFW content in it. I didn't realize it would have that when I first read it. Then it got an update and I was like, 'oH'. I should have analyzed the tags better. XD SMH. I'm dumb. Luckily the author does warn you beforehand in the beginning of the chapter. So you can just skip that section like I did! It's still a really good fic despite that, I think you should read it. ^^
When Midoriya woke up, he was underwater and he remembers . He remembers the harshly cold wind whipping onto his face and exposed skin. The rain that berated him from the sky and storm that was there. Causing all of it. He remembers the guttural screams of men who knew they were about to meet their maker. He remembers the immediate volatile shift of the ship at it jerked to the side. He remembers crashing into the water like the others. He remembers a burning without fire. A burning that resonated from within him. His chest was burning from the influx of water and air bubbles leaving his mouth. Betraying him and leaving him to drown. He remembers…nothing after that. Nothing.
Midoriya promptly freaks out. He's underwater! He's underwater! The boy struggles to swim upwards, to get sweet air. He's in such a frenzy that he doesn't question how he's alive at this moment. He break surface quickly enough; being so close to it in the first place, and he stays afloat. He struggles. There is water as far as his eyes can see. "What-" His voice is so hoarse and rough. While the boy has a coughing fit, he realizes that he can't feel his legs. He rubbernecks when looking downwards instinctively. The water refracts light in ways that can trick the eyes, but Midoriya is dead certain that his lower half seems to be green. That can't be right, seeing as he was wearing earthy brown pants earlier. His shirt and over shirt is clinging onto him however. His gloves were discolored and torn from having to hold so hard onto that rope , but otherwise they're there still. The boy tips over, splashing back into the water. He freaks out again. Trying to balance himself only to find that it's so freaking hard now! He attributes it to not being able to feel his legs for whatever reason. In the end, he swims sideways, much to his displeasure. "Damn it!" He stops, floats upright again and concludes that there might be seaweed or something wrapped around his legs. He reaches with one hand to touch it, to make sure. To get more information.
He screams and no one can hear him.
Midoriya submerges himself on purpose to get a better look. Underwater he opens his eyes to peek and oh God, oh God. He has a tail. Not the tail of a mammal, but of sea life. He can't tell which one. When he holds his head above water again he feels cold tears stinging the corners of his eyes. Cold tears, not warm. They wash down the sides of his cheeks and his breaths are more panicked. It starts to sting his lungs and his brain is working overtime just to try to take in the information. To test things one more time, he braces himself and dips his head back in. He takes a breath.
He can breathe.
And sure as Hell his lower half is well, for a better lack of terms, is a tail. It's not like the mermaid tails he's always envisioned. The mermaid tails he thought of were forwards facing, a fish body sideways. His? His was much like a fish not akin to the usual scaly body with a single fin. The big fish—sharks, orcas, whales, dolphins, and porpoises. It looks as if the head of one had been cut off and the leftover body has replaced his legs. For the third time in an hour, Midoriya promptly freaks out.
Needless to say he wasn't dead, but he wasn't good by any means.
He's a mermaid. A freaking mermaid. What the actual hell!? Wait, should it be merman? What even happened?! "Ugh." His throat still feels weird and with the back of his hand, he wipes the tears away. The other is used to rub his throat. As his hand wipes the tears off; and by that constitute the water dripping on his face as well, he feels it before he sees it. Looking down confirms that, yeah he has webbed fingers. He merely whimpers this time, the information sinking in instead. The whimper is queer in its sound of quality. It is one that came from his throat, a deep sound. Like an animal, not like one a human would produce. This only serves to freak him out further. He doesn't know what's going on, he doesn't understand, but most of all…he's scared.
Midoriya is scared, lonely, and confused. He didn't like it one bit.
The sun sets more towards the west, as told by the dimming of his surrounding. While he's not sure how many hours have passed, he's sure some have. There is one thing he does knows. He's hungry. Any articles of clothing have been removed and discarded by this point. He knows they'll just create water resistance and he doesn't need any of that. So the gloves had to go. He liked them for sure, normal plain white gloves. They had been a gift from the captain to him. From the captain who was probably long gone. He shivers underwater. It felt more like twitching muscle spasms if you will. His crewmates were dead. The vessel known as the Black BaBeesta had capsized, leading to the unfortunate faith of her crew. He lingers on the hope that maybe some had survived the initial falling. However by now they would've most likely have perished due to exposure by the elements or lack of food and clean water. With great doubts he looks around for any sea life he could, the thought of any of the others being reincarnated into mystical beasts of the sea fueled him. It is very slim that they also got the chance to reincarnate into such. Had he been lucky? Unfortunate? To be given a second chance as this? Like this? The boy wasn't sure if he was lucky or not. I guess it doesn't matter right now. I need to find food. So hungry. His tummy ached. When was the last time he ate? What can he eat? Can he eat people? Ah, this was a lot. Too much really.
Something swims by him. The boy twirls around to the best of his ability, but he was still getting used to his new form. Sure, he could properly swim now, but maneuvering in more complicated ways was still very difficult. He makes do though and he sets his sight on the multi-colored fish. It was blue? Purple? Violet? Whatever. Some color in that family tree. With yellow stripe going vertical. Midoriya swam towards it with vigor and determination. He couldn't get close enough to get to it before it felt the disturbance in the water. The colorful looking fish quickly maneuvered away from him. And Midoriya still pursued. He made this high pitch squeal that he realized must've been his laugh. He was giving chase. It was just a little amusing to him. Every time it seemed he was about to grab it, it slipped from his grasp. Or he overshot, sometimes undershot. When he huffed, it was weird. Huffing underwater is…peculiar. If he has to put a word to it. Still, he persist. Eventually, he spots something in the distance that the fish has been swimming over to. This must've been it's destination or maybe it feels safe over there. Knew it could hide there. Finally! Midoriya nearly lost interest in the fish as the area came into view. Becoming clearer and clearer to him. He had seen nothing for such a long time. The open ocean was scary, and barren, and empty. Painfully empty. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere was distressing enough, and that was on land! Imagine that, but underwater. There is nothing. Absolutely nothing. Even on land you can locate a couple objects. Not underwater. Just water. The boy; being ecstatic, continues to follow what was going to be his meal. The fish had led him right to a niche in an area of underwater rock formations. Not exactly a beautiful coral reef, but something to start with. He looks back. "Thank you!" He squeals to the fish. Once again the sound he produces wasn't human speech, like he did briefly above water in his earlier escapade. Rather this was a shrill noise, not exactly like his laugh, but an odd noise nonetheless. He knows what he said, even if it sounded nothing at all like what his brain wanted him to say. The strangest thing yet, the fish he was following seemed to stop…and stare at him. Midoriya paused as well (as much as he could stop while swimming) in surprise. The fish continues to look at him, the other swore he could recognize wonder and surprise in its eyes. Like it wasn't expecting him to say 'thank you'. Midoriya felt uncomfortable with this suddenly. As he tried to reel back something hit the sides of his face. It wasn't hard but, it startles him. His hand shoots up to touch the affected area, to investigate.
His hand was met with a silky-almost slimy texture. He recoils. "What-" Again his word comes out as a squeal. In the midst Midoriya agitatedly decides that you couldn't talk underwater and the noises he was making was how magical things communicate or something! He gingerly goes back to touching whatever that thing was. His eyes wander back to where the fish was.
It had swam off already.
Oh.
That was fine by him though, he could bluntly see the rocky area with other creatures crawling all around.
Where the fuck are his ears though?
He feels around where his left ear should be with both hands. It wasn't there, instead this odd fin-like thing was producing where his ear should be. Oh. He thinks. This is new. His ears have been replaced with fin thingys. Great. That's just lovely. They must've been the things that smacked against his face. That means I can move them? Thought he probably wouldn't admit it, he spent a good few minutes attempting to move his ear-fins to various degrees of success. All the while swimming over to he rocks and resting on this plateau looking formation. The rock was a dark gray; almost black, covered in this sea moss. There are barnacles and clusters of oysters/mussels! He observes small crabs walking along inner crevices of rock. This place…it's nice. And though the thought of sight seeing was quite appealing to him, he still was famished.
He needs to find food. ASAP.
Of course, the easiest solution is to start on the oysters…mussels… Was there a difference between them? He can't remember. Whatever, he'll call them clams. He observes two up against one another, and reaches out to the darker pigmented one. It was closed shut to begin with. And the boy is certain he has to hit it against a rock to get it to break. Otters do this to get to the fleshy part inside! He's seen it before. He simply mimics their behavior by firming holding the sea animal with both hands and hitting it against a flat surface. That being a rock's top he was floating above. He accidentally hits his finger in the process and hisses out in pain. It takes another few minutes before he tries again. This time he is more successful, but still manages to nick himself. "Fu-" He partially swears to himself and cradles his hand back to his chest. There is nothing he can do to ease the pain but shake his hand furiously like a bottle of whiskey. Things go like this for the remainder of his meal time. He ends up eating 3 clams and a lobster n' a half. The lobsters were much easier, since he simply ripped them limb from limb by hand. By the time he's sucking out the soft yummy flesh from the second lobster's arm (he can't believe he's eating the cockroach of the sea, as if he hasn't eaten that plenty of times before on land) he realizes he's had his full. He's not the type to over stuff himself. For a working lad like himself, that is a big no-no. Besides, he's scared to think about the repercussions there would be by over stuffing himself now. He is in the sea after all. Open waters… Susceptible to any would be predators. It was scary to think about, very scary.
Midoriya turns around and drops the carcass without thinking.
There is a voice somewhere off in the distance. He can't quite make out what's being said, but he can hear the fact that it's a stringed line of squeals and chirps. Noises that he's been making. So I was right! That is how they communicate. So I can speak it. He reiterates with himself. But will I be able to understand it? He wonders. He follows the sounds. At first in a fast pace. He hasn't seen intellectual life in…! Well…however long it's been. He's unsure if that fish counts…it's unsettling. The closer he gets, the slower he goes. A spiral of thoughts occur to him. Should he really be getting this close so soon? He doesn't know what he will find. It could be a trap. Somehow, someway. What if whatever's there will try to eat him? It's very possible that it might be trying to lure something in by- No, that doesn't make sense. He argues with himself. If the legends are true, then wouldn't mermaids and such be overly cautious of other things? It wouldn't blindly head towards noise like that underwater- Before it appeared that he was too far away to be able to discern what was being say, but…
"Help!"
Midoriya found himself shuttering again. He heard it this time, loud and clear. He understood the odd form of speech. It was a cry for help. Someone was in danger . He couldn't go on and ignore them now. He had to help them, whatever it was. Midoriya just wasn't that type of person to ignore stuff like that, ya know? He just wasn't.
When he arrived to the approximate location of the voice, he slows his pace. Still, he is cautious. The voice seemed to be losing hope that anyone would come and save them. The green haired boy peeks through a hole in a rather unstable rock piled onto one another. Through it, he can see something. He isn't sure what. Or who for that fact. But there is definitely a wiggling body stuck in a crack or space between more rock. "Oh…" the voice calls out to nothing. It would seem that the voice was talking to themself. As Midoriya had to strain his ears to pick up the words. "No one is coming…I will die here." They talked about little more, but Midoriya couldn't make it out anymore. He did manage to hear a strange sound. It made his stomach drop. For some reason, he knew it was crying. He didn't hesitate this time. This time he was filled with determination. The boy swam high above where the person appears to be trapped. The strong muscles in his tail swooshed up and down. Mimicking the movement of a dolphin or whale. He raced over to the person, fear still coursing through him. God, this was a bad idea wasn't it? Oh God, this was a bad idea-
A shrill noise emitted from the stranger that Midoriya can tell is screaming. The mermaid is also scared. Half to death it seems. It is struggling furiously to unwedge itself of its imprisonment, to no avail. "Hey hey hey, I'm not gonna hurt you." Midoriya all but tries to placate the poor thing whose eyes dart around to look for any savior from this predicament. None come because well, Midoriya is the savior. In this case anyway. There are these awkward few moments where Midoriya is trying to figure out how he was going to get him out of there. He also is being cautious of the fact the stranger has literally no trust in him and might up up hurting him if he does this wrong. Eventually the boy opts for grabbing the other from under the armpit and pull. It seems to wiggles the stuck mermaid a bit, but not much else. The other screams. "Hush!" He doesn't know what else to respond with and he thinks all this noise is hurting his head. "Just…" He pauses for a moment. "Stay still! I'm going to try something." The other curls in on itself (which isn't much considering) and whimpers. This gives him pause. He's confused. "You yelled for help didn't you?" He doesn't wait for a response. "Well, I'm helping you." And that was a statement. He lowers himself to the other's tail, which…he can't really make out the color of. Is it white? It almost seems…shiny. Just shiny. Whatever, that's not the problem. The next few minutes is Midoriya attempting to get a grasp on the tail to pull out himself. It obviously doesn't work since he can't get a good grip without being in fear of his claws digging into the other's skin. Eh, scales. He's not even sure if his claws could pierce the scales, however he's not too eager to find out. Not in this fashion anyhow. Ending with his attempts in vain, Midoriya ends up directly punching the rock where the crack was. A chuck gave way and the other sprung outta there so fast, it was reminiscent of a Jack in the box. Oh, how he missed his.
Midoriya's heart dropped though. He frowns. The mermaid who was trapped just mere seconds ago was swimming off in the opposite direction as if Mr. Splitfoot himself was hot on his heels-um, hot in pursuit. He didn't even bother- Why was he so scared-
The mermaid stops. There's still more than adequate space between them, but the mermaid halts and a spark of hope lights in Midoriya's heart. They turn back to look. Periwinkle eyes stare wearily into green ones. Midoriya smiles.
"What's your name?" He can't help but inquire.
There is a pause of hesitation from the receiving end. The mermaid narrows their eyes at him. "Aoyama Yuuga. Yours?"
"Midoriya Izuku."
To say that Midoriya is ecstatic is an understatement. He's currently over the moon and back. There is so many things he wants to say, so many things he wants to ask. He doesn't know where to start. He also doesn't want to startle the mermaid anymore than he already has. "Can I ask you something?"
"Yes, but may I ask you something first?"
He's taken aback by the other's quick and abrupt response. There was no delay there. "Ummm, yeah?"
"Why did you help me?" Midoriya isn't expecting this type of question and he freezes up. His fin ears flatten themselves against his face again, making themselves known. His stomach drops. It churns, goes sour even. Not a good combination with the food he recently eaten.
Oof, finally I'm done. It took me such a long time to finish writing this. n Now, iT's FiNaLlY dOnE. Man, I have so much planned for this fic. You have no idea.
Sorry that this first chapter is kinda crappy. I'm not sure why I was struggling at writing this so much. I hope the next chapter will be much better. ^u^ Thank you for reading!
You can find my shitty drawn reference of Midoriya and Aoyama over on my dA! I have the same username as I do here.