Tear Pearls
A Sailor Moon Fanfic by LadyPrin. Some of you may have known me as RoseWomen awhile back.
Disclaimer applies.
Chapter One (To Become a Human)
She sat patiently there in the shallow pool of water at the front of the large cave. The tide from the ocean was making the water rise up and down as it rushed in and out.
She wasn't worried about the water filling up the cave. Even at high tide, which wasn't for another two hours yet, the water never filled the cave, it just made an ankle deep pool over the rock floor of it.
She sat there, and watched the older man who was sitting further up in the cave work on finding certain ingredients for the potion he was about to make her.
As it floated upon the surface of the water, her long flowing silvery hair sparkled in the faint light of the crescent moon above.
"Are you sure about this Serenity?" The man asked her anxiously, pausing in his work to brush his short brown hair from his eyes.
"I am, Professor Kenji." Serenity assured him with a bright smile.
He nodded, and started putting ingredients together in a big clamshell that was his substitute for a bowl.
"You'll need to be careful after you use this." Kenji cautioned as he started grinding the ingredients with a dull piece of coral.
"I know. I'll need to stay out of the rain, and away from water at all costs." Serenity recited from her memories of all the legends of girls that had come before her.
Kenji smiled at her.
"This potion I'm making for you will not have that kind of water problem." He assured her. "This is a new century; new spells make better the old ones. It'll have a different problem, but I don't think it's one to really worry about. Instead of having to stay away from water, you'll have to stay very near it. You will be human for a few hours at a time, but after a few hours you will start to feel the urge to become a mermaid again. When you feel this urge, go to a private place where there is plenty of water. Let your legs become a fin again, and wash your fin in the water. You will know how long to do this for, and then you can turn it back into legs. You will be human for a few more hours to come, and you need not fear water on your human skin."
"Okay, I think I can do that." Serenity replied, and then added confused. "But why do I need to wash my fin?"
Kenji sighed.
"Serenity, I see you haven't learned your lessons about our own species." He said looking stern, as he threw in another ingredient. "We merpeople are half human, and half fish. How do you think we breath under water? How do you think we can talk under water?"
Serenity thought for a couple moments, and then her face brightened as the answer finally came to her.
"Our gills!" She cried happily, splashing her silvery gray tail in what little water was in the pool.
"Yes, our gills." Kenji confirmed. "The little gills we have underneath our upper scales, by our waist. That's how we breathe. Our gills pull out the oxygen in the water and give us breath. Now, if you take a fish out of water and set it in the sun, what will happen?"
"It'll die." Serenity replied solemnly.
"Yes. Why?"
"Because of no air from the water?" Serenity asked, not sure if that was the correct answer.
"That and the fact that the sun dried it up." Kenji continued. "It needs water not only to breathe, but to be . . .?"
"Hy--, hydr-- . . ." Serenity tried to say the word, but the rest of the word just wouldn't come.
"Hydrated." Kenji provided. "Yes. Just as your human part needs air, your fish part needs water. Keep it well watered, and you'll be fine."
He paused.
"For a time." He added.
"Let me guess, a time limit?" Serenity asked, not sounding the least bit surprised.
"Yes, I see you were expecting that part." Kenji admitted, smiling slightly.
Then his expression became serious.
"A time limit and one other thing." He added.
Kenji swam over to Serenity, and took her hands gently in his own. His hands were so much bigger than her delicate ones, that they covered hers completely.
"Serenity, I must ask you for something." He started to say.
"Anything!" Serenity replied enthusiastically.
"Serenity, you've been with me for fourteen years, ever since you were born, right?" Kenji asked quietly.
"Yes. You took care of me since I didn't have a mother or father." Serenity answered, with a smile on her face.
"Well, in ways you might not understand yet, I consider you as a daughter to me." Kenji explained. "And it pains me to have to ask you for something so big, but I wouldn't be asking if I didn't need it for something really special."
Serenity's face became serious for a moment.
"You didn't lose another sixty clams at the seahorse races did you?" She asked worriedly.
Kenji smiled and chuckled.
"No, that ain't special, and I haven't been to a seahorse race for the last three years." He assured her. "No, what I need is for something really special, and precious. Something that would bring great joy to both of us if I manage to succeed."
"Then ask what you need and I will give it to you before I go!" Serenity announced happily.
"Sadly it's not that simple." Kenji replied, looking tired. "Serenity, you know you're a special mermaid right?"
"Well, I know I don't have a normal hair or fin color, even for merpeople." Serenity replied thoughtfully.
"Yes, and what's more special about you is your ability to turn tears into pearls." Kenji explained. "If a tear from anyone should touch your skin, even if it's already in water, it'll change into a pearl."
"Yes, I know." Serenity prompted him to continue.
"Well, what I need from you is a thousand Tear Pearls, but not just any Tear Pearls." Kenji explained. "I know you have over a thousand Tear Pearls that you have collected over your fourteen years of life, but those Tear Pearls came from people you barely knew or didn't know at all. Aside from the fact that they're pretty and worth collecting they mean nothing to you. The Tear Pearls I need, will have to come from those you care about."
"Oh." Serenity replied softly as his words sank in.
"I know that you have fallen in love with a human man." Kenji continued. "I'm fine with that, in fact, I'm happy for you! I know it's the reason you want this potion, so that you can let him know you exist and maybe he'll love you too. I know it will be hard, but while you're up there trying to win his love, I need you to make friends with other humans. I need you to come to care for them. Once you do, you need to be there for them when they are crying, for whatever reason. Above all, comfort them, but please try to collect as many Tear Pearls as you can while you do."
"Okay." Serenity agreed, though uneasily.
"You've always been too shy, it's why you've never made friends down there in the ocean." Kenji observed softly, as Serenity looked up at him with her bright blue eyes. "But you need to overcome it, especially if you're going to win the love of this man. You're going to have to meet him if you're going to let him know you exist."
"I hadn't thought about how to do that yet." Serenity admitted.
"Well, think about it." Kenji told her as he went back to grinding the potion. "Ready yourself, Serenity. It's almost done."
Serenity nodded, swishing her tail about nervously.
She fingered the one bright blue pearl that hung around her neck on a piece of thin string that she had taken from a fishing net she had once found.
It was as small as the fingernail of her pinky finger, but more precious to her than any of the other Tear Pearls that she had.
For this Tear Pearl was from the human man she had fallen in love with two months ago.
She closed her eyes and remembered that day.
Above the water it had been bright and sunny. The beach had been crowded with humans having fun, and the water was crowded too.
Serenity had been playing secretly with them. Dodging the humans who rode big pieces of wood across the oceans waves, and splashing unsuspecting humans, anonymously starting splash fights among some of the younger ones.
Then she had gotten tired, and had swum to the rocky outcroppings further down the beach so as to rest but avoid detection.
She had been sitting on one of the big rocks just a few yards below the surface, when she heard a muffled sound above her.
She looked up, and something cool landed on her right cheek.
The tear instantly turned into a perfect tiny blue pearl that floated down to land in her outstretched palm.
She stared at it, and something unexpected happened.
A picture formed in it, so small and yet, Serenity could see every detail.
It was a picture of the ocean. It must have been a picture of the sea from above the water. It must have been the view one would see from standing on one of the ledges above her.
She stared even harder, and soon she could hear words being spoken.
A man's voice spoke them, and he spoke them in sorrow.
"I don't . . . understand." The man's voice said hesitantly.
Then the view changed from the horizon, to the face of a young woman.
Her hair was full, long and red. Her eyes were brown, almost with a reddish tinge to them.
"Darien, I know we've been dating for almost five years now." The woman replied in a flat tone. "But my feelings for you haven't grown past friendship over those years. I can't marry you. I'm sorry."
With that she turned and walked away from him, on her way to the beach parking lot.
Darien stood watching her retreating back, and just before he turned around, he whispered her name.
"Beryl."
As he looked back to the horizon, Serenity felt the sorrow and ache that filled his heart.
Then he looked down over the edge of the cliff, and the tear slid out of his eye and fell.
Serenity understood that what she was seeing and hearing was what she would see and hear if she was inside the tear itself.
As such, the last thing she saw before the tear hit the water was his face.
He had short black hair whose bangs fell into his face like it wanted to cover the eyes that were shedding tears, but they fell too short to reach that goal. Tears continued to well up in those deep blue eyes of his, but before they could fall too, he wiped them away with the sleeve of his deep green jacket.
The tear hit the water and the images were gone.
Serenity was back to sitting on the rocky bottom of the shoreline.
That man's sorrowful expression and aching heart had pulled at Serenity's heart as nothing ever had before.
Later on she had strung the pearl on a piece of string from a fishing net she had once found. It seemed each Tear Pearl she ever made always had a little hole that she could thread a line through.
Since then, she has always worn that one Tear Pearl around her neck.
She had started swimming just close enough to that ledge everyday, so that she could bob above the surface and watch.
He always came to that ledge, to sit and stare out at the horizon.
Sometimes it looked like he might be crying, but any tears he may have shed were never permitted to fall much further than his chin.
If they had been permitted, or if one had escaped, Serenity would've been right there to catch it, turn it into a Tear Pearl and string it up beside the first one.
Every time she watched him she felt the urge, the want, the need to be the one to wipe away his tears, but so long as she was a mermaid she never would be able to touch him.
Then the last time she had seen him upon that ledge, she felt so desperate to be there with him that she decided she would be.
After he had gone, she had swum as fast as she could back home. Her home was a little coral house that Professor Kenji had built long ago.
She had told him everything, and had begged him to make her a potion to turn her human.
Kenji was a Professor among the merpeople. He knew things that most merpeople did not, some about merpeople, but mostly about humans.
Being a Professor meant he also was skilled in making potions and such, and he loved doing experiments too, whether they worked out or not.
Kenji had been reluctant at first; after all, his only companion for the last fourteen years wanted to leave the ocean completely and had a good chance of never returning.
After a whole two days of thinking, and a lot of begging from Serenity, he had finally agreed.
They had started gathering things that would be needed, certain plants and other materials.
Serenity had gotten a couple of nice crabs to go up onto the beach and drag away an outfit that someone had left on a blanket. Serenity knew that she would need it after she transformed.
Now, tonight was the night she had awaited for weeks.
They were in the old cave that Kenji often used for his experiments and storage of potion ingredients.
And the time for trading a fin for legs was so near.
Serenity's heart was pounding fast with excitement, and her pulse was rapid in anticipation.
"It's ready." Kenji announced softly, breaking through Serenity's silent reverie.
Serenity dragged herself a little ways up onto the rocky floor, and tried to calm her heart as Kenji slipped over to her.
"Remember what I told you about your fin needing to be washed every few hours." Kenji reminded her as she stared at the little seashell cup he held in his hands. "And remember this too."
Serenity raised her head to look at him questioningly.
"Your time limit is three weeks." Kenji explained. "If you want to stay human longer, you'll need to do one of two things. Either come back and I'll make you another potion for an extra three weeks, or get this man to love you back and give you your first kiss. That's the only way to make the spell permanent."
"Just like the old tales." Serenity replied with a soft smile.
"Just like the old tales." Kenji repeated with a nod.
He handed the bowl to Serenity, who gently took it and was careful not to slosh and spill the two mouthfuls of purplish liquid inside.
"How will I get the Tear Pearls that I'll collect to you?" Serenity asked, looking up at Kenji for a moment.
"I'll have the dolphin stay by the shoreline." Kenji replied. "He'll wait for you to call him, and he'll come. Have the Tear Pearls in something he can carry in his mouth, and he'll bring them to me."
Serenity nodded, and started to slowly raise the cup to her lips.
"Are you really sure about this?" Kenji asked one final time.
Serenity paused with the cup less than an inch away from her full pink lips.
She looked at him over the side of the cup, and she smiled.
Her eyes were as calm and clear as Kenji had ever seen them, and he knew that when she raised the cup to her lips, tilted her head back and drank, he knew that she was as sure as the water was deep.
When the last of the liquid passed her lips, the shell dropped from her hands and fell with a splash into the pool under her.
Her eyes closed, and she gently fell back against the rock floor.
From her waist down her silvery gray tail started to change.
The scales receded into her skin and her skin turned a soft peach like her arms and face. The skin split into two parts, and thinned out to shape two long slender legs.
Her fin wasn't the only thing to change. Her hair had changed too.
Kenji knew that no one but the old had silver hair like Serenity's, and so he knew she would stand out to everyone. He also knew that there were those who he didn't want to notice his precious Serenity. So he had changed her hair from silver, to a golden blond.
However, he had kept the hair at its ankle length. He knew it was one of Serenity's best features.
The transformation was over, and Serenity was now a young human woman.
She was also out cold for the time being. It was time for Kenji to do the rest.
He quickly dressed her in the hot pink, short sleeved, knee length dress they had taken from the shore.
After that he cradled her in his arms and swam with her out of the cave.
He swam up to the beach and wriggled his way further up than he had ever gone before.
The beach was deserted at this time of night, and closed off to people for the next few hours.
He hoped Serenity would be awake before the beach started to fill up.
He laid her upon the sand, and stared at her for a moment.
She was sleeping peacefully and breathing normally. As far as Kenji could tell she was fine.
He just hoped she would stay that way.
"Take care, sweet one." He whispered to her, kissing her gently on the forehead before wriggling his way back into the water and away from shore.
Serenity woke up for just a brief moment then.
Her eyes half opened, and her left hand moved just a few inches away from her head. She felt the sand and knew where she was and that she would not have been there had the transformation not gone right.
She smiled, and sighed, and her last thought before her eyes fluttered shut again was, 'It worked.'