The Mermaid and the Giant Sea-Naga.
Author's Note: Once again, I'm on a writer's block and this idea has been bugging me since last week. I've been wanting to start, but I've been busy for the last three and a half weeks with very little time to even write as much. So this is a new AU Kingdom Hearts story where humans, highly anthropomorphic animals, giant nagas and mermaids exist.
Warning: This story is possibly one of the darkest stories I've ever written so um...if you don't want to read, that's okay. You don't have to.
Other than that to those who do want to try this out, please enjoy and I'll try my best with it.
I own nothing here.
Chapter 1: Feelings, Meetings and Changes.
It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and warm, the sky was clear blue with fluffy white clouds, the sea glittered like stars under the sunlight, the winds were nice and soft. It was a perfect day for everyone on the land...and even under the sea.
All except for two certain ones, yet neither knew of each other's existance as of yet.
On the wooden docks of the mainland at the beach near a half-modern, half medival kingdom, sat a human boy named Sora, who was sixteen years old who would've been happy for a nice day like today, except that he was not. He sat on the edge of the platform, legs dangling just above the crystal clear blue water, gazing distractedly across the horizon, chin under the palm of his hands, sighing miserbly.
"...Two years and still no way to reverse this." Sora sighed to himself, glancing down at his left hand which was mostly covered in his black fingerless glove before he slid it off and gazed at the scar that was imprinted with a couple of scales of a snake on his skin.
Sighing again, Sora replaced it to cover it up again before groaning and made to lay on his back...only for a girl's face to suddenly appear hovering over him.
"Whoa!" Sora yelped, quickly sitting back up before grumbling as the short-black haired girl Xion, who was a year younger than him, giggled. "Gimme a break, Xion."
"Sora, you distracted bum." Xion scolded with a smirk. "One of these days someone who isn't me or Mickey is gonna find out your secret."
"Oh, sorry." Sora sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, while Xion took a seat next to him. "Xion...will I ever be fully human again?"
"Well, the only way to do that is that you either eat a human or a 'mermaid' to be able to break the spell. Unless we look for an alternative which we haven't found yet." Xion answered, which was the same answer Sora heard from his friend for the past two years.
The teenage boy sighed and looked out at the ocean again. "Or fall in love and get a true loves kiss. Which is next to impossible since you and me are too much like siblings. Plus, I can't eat anyone innocent and I especially haven't gone and eaten mermaids yet. Plus, they're myth so that's out of question."
Rolling her eyes, Xion replied, "Nagas were myths too until you were scratched by one after nearly being eaten by that same Naga. So if Nagas are real, then Mermaids are real too."
"Yeah, I guess. But...I can't bring myself to be like the other Nagas. At least eating seaweed during the night keeps the Naga-cravings down and you know how much I love cheeseburgers and pies and fruit." Sora shrugged hopelessly.
"How about falling in love?" Xion suggested.
"Yeah, well...who's gonna fall in love with a guy who turns into a dangerous Naga anyway? I might as well marry a starfish or a seagull who doesn't identify human stuff right."
Meanwhile, at the very same time across the ocean on a rock, was a beautiful young mermaid gazing at the sky and occasionally the water, named Kairi, who was sixteen years old in her pink shell-bra and near-matching pink tail. She would've been a happy mermaid, but she wasn't. She sat sat on the edge of the platform, legs dangling just above the crystal clear blue water, gazing distractedly and sighing miserbly.
"...Two years and still an out-cast." Kairi sighed to herself, gently touching her pearl necklace she got from her late mother when she was very young.
Sighing again, Kairi had her hands behind her and groaned when the seagull behind her, surrounded by human 'junk' she'd taken to call as most of them were useless, humming to himself and fiddling with a telescope which he and another mermaid called a 'Biggermijiger' since neither of them knew what it was actually called.
"Scuttle, please. I'm not in the mood today." Kairi sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Ah, don't be grumpy, Kairi. It's a beautiful today!" Scuttle replied cheerfully, placing the telescope on his head like a hat and continued to play with it. "Just think, it's a perfect day for humans to go sailing and swimming and all things like that. Heck, it's a nice day for everybody under the sea too!"
The young mermaid shook her head. "It would be perfect if I wasn't such an outcast after the sea-witch killed my parents and no one believed me and instead insisted it was the Nagas or humans that did that. I've been on my own since then and moved all the way out here thinking I could find a place to belong. But no matter where I go, word had already spread across the ocean. In fact the whole world probably knows by now!"
"Well, at least you have me, that human guy Axel-or was it Lea?-, Ariel, Flounder and-"
"Scuttle!" A new voice called, cutting him off.
Startled and looking, Scuttle used the telescope...only to end up having it backwards which made him think Ariel and Flounder, both young in their teenage years, with Ariel being the same age as Kairi, were in the distance whereas they were actually right up at him.
"Whoa! Mermaid off the port bow!" Scuttle hollared, and for once all day, Kairi giggled which she tried to hide at the bird's silly moment. "Ariel, how you doin' kid?"
But when he lowered it, he realized she was right in front of him, and muttered, "Whoa, what a swim!"
"Oh, Scuttle." Kairi shook her head, slipping into the water and glided towards two of her other only friends. "Have you been looking through sunken ships again?"
"Sure have, Kairi. Look what we found!" Ariel replied, holding out her bag and placing it onto the rock for Kairi and Scuttle to identify.
"Yeah - we were in this sunken ship - it was really creepy." Flounder nodded.
"Human stuff, huh? Hey, lemme see." Scuttle made to use a small anchor to slid down, but had it stuck to his foot and ended up dropping clumsily down in a small crash. Recovering, he went over to the bag and pulled out what Kairi knew was a fork, but neither of her three friends knew that...well, Scuttle thought he did. "Look at this. Wow - this is special - this is very, very unusual."
"What? What is it?" Ariel asked, eagerly.
'Here we go...' Kairi thought, mentally shaking her head.
"It's a dinglehopper! Humans use these little babies... to straighten their hair out." Scuttle answered, before twirling it onto the top of his head to make it like he had hair, messing up his feathers, pulled hard while saying, "See - just a little twirl here an' a yank there and - voiolay!"
He yanked hard which made his 'hair' all messy and spring out. "You got an aesthetically pleasing configuration of hair that humans go nuts over!" He concluded, handing hte 'dingle hopper' back to Ariel who was fasinated.
'It's a fork, guys. Humans use that to eat their meals. Those are no different than what we use to eat our seaweed food in the ocean.' Kairi thought, but kept it to herself. Really there was no point in correcting them since Scuttle was close friends with Ariel and Flounder.
Scuttle then misidentified a holding smoke pipe as a 'snarfblat' to make fine music and tried to make music by blowing it, only to end up blowing out seaweed. But when he said music, Ariel strained as a memory hit her hard and boy did it hit her hard.
"What it is?" Kairi asked, quickly concerned as she noticed her fellow mermaid's dismayed expression.
"Oh, the concert! Oh my gosh, my father's gonna kill me!" Ariel cried out, quickly packing her collection back into her bag.
"The concert was today?" Flounder cried out, shocked.
"Uh oh...You'd better get home, quickly!" Kairi quickly told Ariel who nodded and took the 'snarfblat' from Scuttle.
"Um, I'm sorry! I gotta go! Bye, Kairi! Thank you, Scuttle!" Ariel waved before she and Flounder back into the ocean to swim back home.
"Anytime, sweetie! Anytime." Scuttle waved back.
"Bye, guys!" Kairi waved, before sighing and muttered, "Ariel's right; King Triton is going to kill her."
"Not kill her...he'll probably just be...a tad angry." Scuttle tried to say optimistically. "Don't know why you're not living in Atlantica since you're a mermaid."
Kairi sighed while leaning against the rock. "But he probably knows about me being an outcast by now. No parents, and everything thanks I was lying when I've been telling the truth the whole time. Not only that, since I know much about the human world too, the worst thing that will happen is I'll be thrown out of the entire ocean or sentenced to death or imprisoned at the very least."
"Well, I didn't know about what happened 'til we met two years ago." Scuttle pointed out.
"Still...even if I did find a place to belong, even if fall in love, who would want to fall in love with an outcasted mermaid anyway? I might as well marry a anthropomorphic mouse who hangs out with two humans, one of them turning into a Naga who eats merpeople and humans." Kairi shook her head.
Back with Sora...
"...Ever since that Naga named Vanitas scratched me, I've been living in this nightmare and it's like Mr. 'Fancy-Tail' Marluxia said; unless I either fall in love or eat a human and a mermaid soon, I'm stuck like this and come by the end of a certain week if that sea-witch Ursula makes a deal with someone for three days, I'll be stuck as a Naga forever." Sora continued.
"I'm sure we'll figure something out. I got a feeling you're gonna find someone that will fix things up and you'll fall in love with." Xion said optimistically. "Besides, the only ones who know about your secret is me and Mickey."
"And Riku, Roxas and Goofy." Sora sighed, standing up as he kept an eye on the sun. "The sun's gonna set in a few hours. I'd better get going or I'll end up turning into a snake. Later, Xion."
He waved his friend a goodbye before walking away to find a deserted spot to head back into the ocean come sunset. Xion sighed before she gazed at the ocean herself.
'...I really wish I could help, Sora. I really do. We could fall in love, but it's like you said; we're too much like siblings and...and I'm in love with Roxas.' Xion thought to herself.
Back with Kairi...
"...I'm gonna go and talk to Axel and see what he says. Bye, Scuttle." Kairi waved before diving into the ocean and swam away.
"Uh, yeah...Bye, Kairi." Scuttle waved, awkwardly.
But as Kairi was swimming away, and Sora was talking to a deserted beach, both of them were fully unaware that, watching each of them in a magical orb like a double video camera, was Marluxia, a pink-haired Naga who could use dark magic to do what he would want with himself and those he loved to torture.
"Well, well...Quite a coincidence. An orphaned mermaid who lost her mother and father to the Seawitch Ursula and yet despite that octopus being wicked, no one believes the little girl. Except her friends." Marluxia scoffed. "Yet this is troublesome. If my new sea-servant falls in love with her, he could be restored to his human form and turn her into a human as well. But if he swallows her and Ursula turns another mermaid into a human for three days, they will become human for three days and unless they have their true love's kiss, Sora will become a Naga, and all I have to do, is go inside him and take over."
He smirked, "Then I would take care of the mermaid myself and have her as my next meal." while reaching into a cage nearby where captured mermaids were shivering in fear before picking a helpless one up and gulped her down. "But then again, unless chewed, that still makes them both human briefly for three days. In order for Sora to become a permament Naga, he must chew and swallow either a mermaid or a human."
Marluxia frowned before using his magic to switch over to watching Ariel getting an angry lecture from her father, King Triton who hates humans because of a tragedy twelve years earlier. "Then again, this mermaid will inadvertedly ruin everything. I need to keep a close eye on this one as well. She will very likely become the key to Ursula's goals and my downfall."
Well, he would make sure it wouldn't come to that.
"Demyx!" He sharply ordered.
"Ow!" A yelping voice cried out after a young late-teened Naga bonked his head against a rock ceiling above him from another area where he was sleeping, until Marluxia's voice snapped in his head.
"I want you to keep an eye on that little mermaid in pink and an extra close watch on Sora." Marluxia ordered.
Groaning, Demyx began to swim off from his resting place while asking, "Do I get to eat the mermaid if I spot her alone? Picking off humans who end up sinking after being capsized is lame and they taste gross...especially since you lied about eating a human would turn me back into one, but it turned out the opposite."
"No. She is to be Sora's meal. If both figure out the truth, then we just lost a potential key to our survival." Marluxia said coldly.
"Awwww! But I've been feeding off humans and everytime I go for fish, they swim away before I can catch them! Same thing with the mershrimp. Though I wouldn't mind trying that little mouse guy Sora hangs out with. He has to be less furry than the dog I spat out last week when it tried to escape cannibals." Demyx whined.
"JUST FOLLOW THE GIRL AND SORA!" Marluxia snapped, which made Demyx shriek like a girl before swimming off to do as he is told.
Back in his cave, Marluxia signed in exasperation before facepalming himself.
"...Why did I ever pick him to be a Naga? I could've just eaten him myself to avoid his stupidity." He grumbled. "At least Xigbar and Vanitas were better servants. I lothe the humans who killed them both just after Sora was scratched."
Shaking his head, he continued. "No matter. Sora is our key to survival. Then all of the world will be a generation of future Nagas and soon those who survive the curse will be our feast." Marluxia grinned evilly at this thought.
Sora sat on the sandy beach as he waited for the sun to set so that he could get this nightmare over and done with. He thought back to the time when he'd been forced into this mess.
How when he was fourteen and he'd been out playing with his friends on the beach, there was an attack by two giant Sea-Nagas who began feasting on those who couldn't escape as everyone made a run for it. Sora had pushed Xion out of the way when the Naga, he later learned to be named Vanitas, attempted to grab her but went for him instead. But Sora had bitten hard on the hand and was tossed back onto land, before being whacked and scratched on the hand which made him go berserk and ended up in the water.
It was then that Sora slowly transformed into a Naga himself while Vanitas and the other Naga were brutally killed by soldiers. Sora himself nearly sank until he was found by Marluxia who offered him a place with their kind. When Sora refused and instead wished to become a human again, Marluxia told him there were only three ways to turn back into a permament human.
"If you want to become a full human again, Sora, you must either eat a human, a mermaid, or full in love with either one. However, should Ursula, our ocean world's seawitch, make a deal with someone with three days, you will turn into a human full time until those three days are up and you remain a Naga permamently."
By the time the sun had rose and Sora returned to land before he drowned, he was saved by Xion, Mickey, Riku and Roxas who saw what happened and as they were the only ones who saw Sora being scratched and that Sora told them everything he'd been told and that he didn't want to eat humans and didn't believe mermaids were real, all five of them agreed it was best kept secret and covered both Sora's hands with gloves before running away and moving into this continant where the beaches were close and they lived in the same house near the kingdom of Prince Eric, hoping to help Sora find someone to fall in love while he kept eating seaweed and normal human food to keep the cravings for mermaids and humans at bay.
"I really don't want to eat people, and even if mermaids were real, I wouldn't wanna eat them either. But I really don't want to be a Naga forever. But who am I gonna fall in love with?" Sora said to himself.
He was about to step into the water to get a headstart on his cursed transformation when something caught his eye; something swimming in the water and occasionally splashing and diving. Sora's eyes widened as he a girl's hair...and a pink tail that came with her, not knowing that it was Kairi who was unaware of him noticing her.
Shaking his head and rubbing his eyes, Sora blinked and she was still there, rapidly vanishing to the side of the docks which were the oldest and the most abandoned; her dark red hair that touched just over her shoulders, her blue eyes and her figure...Sora couldn't believe it. It was a mermaid; a real mermaid!
More than anything, Sora just couldn't stop staring in amazement. He'd never seen such a beautiful figure in his entire life. That mermaid...
"...So beautiful." Sora whispered to himself. He felt his heart hammer, his face feeling warm, and he felt a bit giddy and ticklish. To his dismay, the mermaid vanished around the corner. "Hey, wait!" He called out, but stopped when the sky grew a bit darker and when he looked to see, his eyes widened when the sun was almost gone.
"Ah, no! The sunset!" Sora cried out, and, suddenly growing fearful for the Naga cravings despite having chowed down on a double cheeseburger earlier for lunch, went into the opposite direction while diving underwater and shut his eyes.
The transformation was always painful and terrible and Sora always worried he'd pass out. So as fast as he could in hopes to prevent himself from going after the mermaid and end up eating her, Sora dived as he transformed and his body grew, his clothes disappeared and the lower part of his body transformed into that of a giant snake. As soon as he fully transformed into the giant Sea-Naga, Sora grabbed a large giant handful of seaweed-and narrowly avoiding in grabbing local fish who shrieked in fear before swimming away to avoid in getting eaten-and shoved the plants into his mouth, chewing and swallowing before sighing in relief.
"That was close." Sora said to himself, thankful that the bright side of being a Naga is that he could breath underwater. Though in retrospect, he always wanted to be a merman to breath underwater when he was a little boy just to make friends with the local sea-life. Not eat them.
Still, Sora turned back to where he'd seen the mermaid swim off and smiled. If only he could see her again and meet her without scaring and eating her.
Maybe he might have a chance to meet her tomorrow during the day.
Unaware that she'd been seen by a human cursed boy, Kairi resurfaced and found another human she was looking for. Lea, who prefered to be called Axel, layed on his back in a dingy which was tied up so that he didn't end up drifted away and stared at the early evening sky, his hands behind his head.
Until Kairi's face suddenly appeared above him.
"Hey, Axel." Kairi greeted.
"Whoa!" Axel sat up in fright as Kairi leaned against the side of the boat, before he realised who it was and asked in surprise, not having heard her. "Where'd you come from?"
The mermaid laughed at her 26 year old human friend, before asking, "How was your day?"
"You know, I sure wish the chickens would hold still once in a while. I fell right on my butt chasin' them around." Axel grumbled, telling him his brief story of his usual day of trying to catch kitchens to get them to lay their eggs.
"I thought you said you and Reno were the runners of town." Kairi teasingly pouted.
The redhead human man looked at her, before gazing ahead of him and said dismissively while pouting a little, "Yeah, whatever. That's got nothin' to do with it." before changing the subject and asked, "So, how'd your day go?"
Kairi sighed, before shrugging. "Same as always. Just wondering around, visiting Scuttle, Ariel and Flounder come over bringing human items and as usual Scuttle gets them wrong."
"Oh yeah? What'd he get wrong this time?" Axel asked, curiously.
"Well, first he called a fork a 'dinglehopper' and said that it was used to straighten people's hair out, and then called a holding hope a 'snarfblat' to make fine music." Kairi answered.
A pause.
Axel bursted out laughing. "A fork to use as a hair-brush and a smoking pipe as an instument? He asked incredulously while wiping away tears of laughter. "Seriously, that bird needs to pay more attention to our activities!"
"Well, that's how Scuttle is, and Ariel and Flounder always believe him." Kairi giggled, before rememdering, "Speaking of which, poor Ariel forgot that today was a concert she was supposed to attend and now her father's going to be angry."
"Ouch." Axel winced after calming down. "I'd hate to be in her place when he finds that out."
"If my parents were here, they'd probably lock me up if they knew I was visiting you. You know, before Ursula killed them." Kairi agreed, sobering as she brought that up.
Axel noticed, because he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Wish there was somethin' I could do to help ya get through this tough time. If you were human or I was a merguy or whatever, I'd probably make you my little sister or something."
Ever since he met Kairi two years ago, at first he'd been shocked to see a real mermaid, but when he discovered she'd been crying and gently comforted her as he was first human she'd ever met, the two became friends and Axel had decided to keep this knowlage a secret.
He'd since then taken on a role as an adoptive brother-figure to her.
Kairi smiled a little. "Thanks, Axel. You're sweet."
"Oh, c'mon. You're embarrassing me here, Kai'." Axel blushed, before sighing. "Anyway, I think you should get going. There's a big hurricane coming tonight and it's gonna be dangerous. Just hope Prince Eric and Grimsby get back before then."
"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow then, right?"
"You can count on that."
The two shared a goodbye before Kairi dove back into the ocean while Axel got up from the boat and onto the beach to head back home before the storm really hit hard and he really didn't want to end up being caught in it. Though he was worried that Kairi might, if she didn't stay underwater until the hurricane passed.
Sora was growing tired of eating seaweed, but at least it kept the Naga-cravings for humans and/or mermaids at bay. But his mind was still on the mermaid he saw earlier on the surface. He wanted to see her, badly, but he knew that if he saw her now, who knew what would happen. Groaning, Sora layed on his back on the ocean floor and gazed above him.
'Man...I wish I had a pizza right now. Or spagetti and meatballs with garlic bread.' Sora thought to himself.
Suddenly his senses started to go all funny, his scent of smell catching something...delicious. His vision going all hazy and his stomach growled, demanding for something he never felt before, and it was quickly starting to scare him.
Sitting up and wondering what was happening, Sora's eyes widened as, while his vision was going all blank, he spotted a familiar figure swimming in front of him to the side. The mermaid he saw earlier.
'It's her...' Sora thought, before realising that his greatest fear has come true and to his horror, the seaweed never helped if he ever spotted a mermaid. It only stopped him from going on a hunt and now...now the Naga side of him was quickly catching up.
'No...! No! I don't...want to...eat her!' Sora desperately tried to look away, holding his head as he shut his eyes. But in the end, the naga-side of him made him slumping forward and his arms dropped.
Only when he straightened himself and opened his eyes, they were glowing and he let out a soft hiss like a snake, eying the mermaid in hunger.
The naga side of Sora had taken over briefly.
Kairi was making her way to her cave where she lived for quite a while when she stopped, getting a distant feeling that she was being...preyed on. Her stomach was churning and the feeling of being told to swim for her life was strong. She slowly turned as a shadow began to loom over her and she gasped at the sight before her.
A giant Naga was looming her the mermaid with the look of pure hunger. It was Sora.
"A N-naga!" Kairi gasped, terrified. She screamed as Sora made to clasp her with both hands, but she managed to swim up and quickly swam for her life, with the possessed Sora hissing in anger before swimming to catch up to her and eat her.
She swam as fast as she could, going around boulders and into the corel mess forest and hoped that Kairi would lose the giant Naga. But Sora smashed his way through the corel and continued to chase after her, while his subconsciousness could only watch on in horror as the Naga-side of his body had taken over.
While this was going on, the Hurricane had hit and causing it's own chaos above.
Meanwhile, Demyx was still searching for Sora and the mermaid Marluxia was talking about before slumping against a rock and groaned.
"Man...I wish Xigbar and Vanitas were still here. This kind of recon job is more their style..." He whined, before his stomach growled. "And I'm getting hungry."
"Aaaaahhh!" Kairi's voice yelled, as she unknowingly swam over Demyx who looked up to see a pink mermaid swim away.
"Huh-wha?" Demyx blinked, before he was unexpectedly shoved down into the soil by the possessed Sora who shoved his head into the sand and continued on chasing Kairi as though he was possessed.
Finding himself stuck, and unfortunately missing both Sora and Kairi who both vanished into the distance, Demyx struggled to pull his head out of the sand until finally he succeeded. Shaking it and spitting out the sand that got into his mouth, Demyx grumbled.
"Blegh. Okay, I'm not that desperate to try something new to eat." Demyx muttered to himself. Rubbing his sore head, he added, "And what the heck shoved me down anyway? A humpback whale?"
Once again, his stupidity got him to fail his mission.
Kairi continued on fleeing while Sora continued on chasing and the former looked back and saw that the latter was catching up. If she didn't find a place to hide where he couldn't find and eat her soon, Kairi was going to join her parents in the afterlife.
Spotting another cliff, Kairi quickly went for a dive and swam down into the canyon where she spotted a hole in the wall, and quickly went in there where it was a small cave the size of the Naga's head. The young mermaid leaned against it out of sight of the hole and dared not to breathe or make any noise.
Sora passed the hole, seemingly unaware that his prey was now behind him. But he paused as his caught the scent of her and looked back. There the possessed Naga smirked.
Not hearing anything, Kairi sighed in relief and panted, placing a hand to where she felt her heart beat too quickly for having to swim so fast and so long.
"That was close." She whispered to herself, only to scream when a giant hand suddenly appeared and clasped before pulling her out of the cave. To Kairi's horror, the Naga had found and caught her.
"I got you, my little prey." Sora spoke, and his voice had taken on an echo due to him being possessed by his Naga-side, yet Kairi didn't know this yet.
"Let me go! Let go!" Kairi screamed while futilessly trying to pull herself free, pounding against Sora's fingers. She then gasped as Sora began to draw her towards his opened mouth. "No, please! Don't eat me!" She pleaded.
And inside his head, Sora was pleading his Naga-side to stop and even fought to regain control to save the mermaid. But both pleads fell to deaf ears. Kairi screamed and covered her face, unable to look as she was about to meet her end.
'NO!' Sora's subconsciousness screamed while his possessed body was about to shove the helpless mermaid into his mouth, when an orangy pink glow from the surface began to shine down into the sea and up in the land.
The moment the sun hit him, Sora winced and let out a scream which quickly became gurgled. In the progress, he lets go of Kairi who looked to see that not only she was freed, but also that the Naga who attempted to eat her alive was now clutching at his throat.
"W-what?" The teenage mermaid stuttered.
"T-the sun!" Sora yelled, before somehow managing to tell Kairi, "Run! Or s-swim! Before the N-Naga side...takes over-"
He was unable to finish as Sora quickly lost his Naga-air and was covered in light, before he ended up shrinking and right before Kairi's eyes, he turned back into his human form, his clothes reappearing and all. But During the process, Sora lost consciousness as the water slowly went into his lungs and began sinking.
Kairi couldn't believe what she saw; it was a human that turned into a Naga at night and a human at day. And he just told her that the Naga side possessed him to eat her? She should swim away and let him drown just for trying to gobble her up.
But she couldn't. Her heart was telling her to save him; he was just a victum put under a spell.
So she did. Kairi hesitated a moment before quickly swimming and grabbed him around his body and swam up to the surface, managing to make it to air before she swam towards the nearby shore, where at the same time unknown to her Ariel, who'd curiously went up close to a ship, was doing to same to a human named Eric after he passed out when the ship exploded and sank during the hurricane which had long passed.
It took a good five minutes, but Kairi finally dragged the unconscious human Sora onto dry land and layed next to him. At his unmoving form, she feared that he was dead, and it confused her. She had heard of a warning that when Nagas scratch a human, the human would be cursed to turn into a Naga by sunset and return to human form by sunrise, but it was very risky.
Remembering what Axel told her about 'CPR' or whatever it was called, and seeing him demostrate it once, Kairi awkwardly placed both hands on Sora's chest and pushed hard ten times before blushing and pressed her lips onto Sora's, blowing air into his mouth and his lungs and repeated the process two more times before finally things changed.
Sora coughed and spluttered sea-water out of his lungs while Kairi leaned back a little until the poor boy stopped coughing and moaned, lying back on the sand. Kairi was relieved and, now that the danger had passed, seeing him this close as a human made her feel...quite warm in the face. He looked...so handsome. Briefly she'd forgotten that this was the boy who was cursed to become a Naga and had almost eaten her up. His spiky hair, his cute face, and his blue eyes, which slowly blinked open as Sora's world came back to focus.
But as soon as Sora caught sight of Kairi smiling warmly at him, she gasped softly as her head jerked up, suddenly seeing Xion and an anthropomorphic mouse named Mickey, rush over. Realising she couldn't stay, Kairi hurried back into the ocean and dove just in time and out of sight.
"Sora!" Xion cried out as she and Mickey hurried over to help the still slightly dazed Sora to sit up.
"Sora! Thank goodness. Gosh, we were worried that the hurricane got to ya!" Mickey said in huge relief.
Xion on the other hand, scowled, "Were you trying to give us heart attacks!? Riku and Roxas were attempting to go out and find you before the storm hit!"
But Sora didn't pay attention to either of his friends. Instead, dazed as he stood up, he dreamily said, "That girl...the mermaid-she saved me. Even after...whoa, she was more beautiful up close."
"Uh, Sora? I think you had a bit of a dream." Mickey said, suddenly awkwardly. "I mean, maybe that Naga curse finally got to your head."
"Let's get you home so you can rest for a bit." Xion suggested, placing Sora's arm around her shoulder and helped him walk up to the mainland, with Mickey following. Though both wondered what Sora had been up to and hoped that the curse wasn't getting as bad as they feared.
Watching the three of them leave as she risked peeking from underwater, Kairi could only gaze at Sora's retreating form and upon seeing another human and a mouse being close to him increased her belief that the Naga curse had taken over, because Sora had seen her. She felt guilty for having caused that and was still a nervous-wreck for almost being eaten...
But she couldn't stop thinking about Sora.
However, unaware to both Kairi and Sora, Marluxia had seen it all and while he was grumbling that Demyx failed to even think about following them.
"Ugh. Dang that nincompoop, Demyx. What's the point of sending him to follow both Sora and that mermaid if he couldn't even pay attention to seeing both of them properly?" Marluxia groaned in exasperation.
He then smiled thinly, "On the other hand, Sora's Naga side is finally catching up. He was close in becoming a permament Naga and in eating that girl. Now, if he could just chew her up, then things would be alright. But first, he has to let his Naga side take full control." and laughed evilly.
Sora seemed to be hypnotized today. At least that's what his friends thought. In the passing four days, while Sora had yet to see the mermaid whom-as he still felt guilty for nearly eating her up and being unable to stop his Naga-side from doing so-had saved his life when he nearly drowned, and when he had told his friends what happened, at first they were shocked, but they'd forgiven him.
Now he was acting...all ga-ga. He'd been gazing and buying things in red, blue and especially pink. Today in the morning, Mickey, Xion, and their friends Riku and Roxas were in the field woods resting under a tree.
Goofy was working at the cheeseburger joint so he couldn't join them today.
"Do you really think Sora did see a mermaid?" Xion asked, half worried and half excitedly. Worried because Sora could risk in losing all of his humanity and feast on mermaids. Excited because mermaids were very possibly confirmed facts and that she wanted to meet this ocean rescuer.
"I don't think so." Riku shook his head, doubtful. "Sora had to have been hallucinating."
"Yeah, it was probably a girl who doesn't like being in the public." Roxas shrugged in agreement.
Mickey on the other hand said, "Well, I think Sora did see a real mermaid and that she saved him from drowin'. Besides, if she did that, then she must be really nice. I wanna meet her."
"Me too. She really deserves our thanks for saving him." Xion added, only for a flower petal to gently fall onto her head. Blinking, she looked up as did the others when they noticed...Sora sitting on a branch above them, with a flower crown around his head and humming randomly to himself. As usual, the flowers were pink.
"Sora, what on earth are you doing?" Riku asked, exasperated. Roxas looked dumbfounded, Mickey looked confused and Xion tried to hide her giggling behind her hand. She was the only one who knew what Sora was doing.
"Oh, just feeling a little special today." Sora replied, almost dismissively.
A slight pause.
"...It wouldn't happen to be a stirring of special feelings within you, would it?" Mickey asked, starting to slowly get the picture. A nod from Sora confirmed that.
"...Oh boy." Roxas muttered.
Meanwhile, Axel, who'd been told what happened by Kairi and that he'd been scared so hard he'd nearly had a heart-attack, was finishing up work and began to trek towards the beach where he usually met up with his friend. He wasn't happy with that fact that Kairi almost lost her life by being devored, but when he got the full story and that the Naga was a poor boy who'd fallen victum to a curse and that he had tried to fight the Naga side off, the redhead cooled.
Still, he was concerned that it might happen again. Axel had no love for Nagas, as they were known to be meat-eating giant monsters who feasted on both humans and merpeople, but he couldn't fault the poor kid. If Sora had told Kairi to run, and he only knows the name since Kairi heard Sora's two friends call him that, then even the kid hadn't wanted to eat her.
"...Okay. So far, so good. I don't think this Sora kid lost control yet. But finding him and talkin' to him is easier said than done and how am I supposed to say anything without breaking the secret?" Axel was whispering to himself.
It wasn't until he noticed his friend laying on the beach, half in water, half on land, and she was dreamingly drawing a love heart on the sand, humming to herself. From where Axel was standing, Kairi looked to be all ga-ga.
"Nice picture. Thinkin' of doing sea-art or something?" Axel spoke as he approached and sat next to her to avoid in ruining her work.
"Oh, don't mind me, Axel. I'm just feeling a little special today." Kairi said, half-dreamingly.
"...Uh, this wouldn't happen to be a stirrin' of special feelings, would it?" The older redhead asked, a bit worriedly but knowingly. Kairi's nod confirmed it.
A bit of a pause.
"...Oh."
"I mean, I just can't stop thinking about the mermaid." Sora continued. "Who knew that they could be so amazing?"
"Are they better than in the made up pictures?" Mickey asked, curiously as Xion's smile widened while both Roxas and Riku rolled their eyes.
Sora's smile grew. "Much better."
"Who knew I would see someone who would look so dashing? I've met you and you're one of my close friends, and I've seen other humans before. But with Sora...he's different, and not because he's cursed to turn into a Naga at night." Kairi continued.
"Yeah, I'm worried about the Naga part. I just don't want you to end up seeing him and then he eats you up and you end up crushed when you're dead." Axel pointed out.
Kairi giggled. "Oh, of course I'm not going to see him in his Naga form. I want to him again as a human so I wouldn't have to worry. And maybe figure out how to break the spell."
"If it wasn't for the fact that I turn into a Naga and that side of me almost eaten her up, I could just see her day and night whenever I wanted." Sora added.
"That's what I'm worried about if the Seaweed didn't hold that back." Riku muttered, frowning.
"Oh, I'm sure we'll figure somethin' out. I mean, we know for sure that Sora won't be a Naga forever-not if we can help it." Mickey said optimistically.
"Plus, she did save Sora's life. If she understood what Sora's going through, maybe she wants to help in turning him back to normal." Xion added.
"Not sure about that." Roxas said.
"You know, I still haven't found that Sora kid you were talkin' about. Plus, you and I both know we can't reveal our secret meetings." Axel pointed out.
"True, but that doesn't change anything. I've never felt this way before." Kairi said.
"...Seeing her is the most amazing thing that happened in my life." Sora continued.
"...The way how he looks and how he smiles..."
"...The way how she moves gracefully..."
"I think...I'm in love."
In both meetings, Sora's friends and Axel were greatly surprised when Sora and Kairi revealed this.
Yet neither of them knew yet that Sora and Kairi were in love with each other and now they worried one the other didn't love the other in return.
"Well...at least Sora finally found somebody he fell in love with." Mickey said once Sora walked away as the sun began to set and he had to leave or he'd be toast.
"Guess it's a matter of the true love's kiss now. That means Sora won't be a Naga anymore!" Xion said excitedly.
"I don't think we should jump to conclusions just yet." Riku pointed out, and when the others looked at him, he looked firm. "Remember, this is a mermaid-if she is real-we're talking about here. What if she doesn't love him in return? Or he was only hallucinating and when he finds that out, he'll be heart-broken."
"Riku's right. Besides, we don't know if Sora was dreaming or not." Roxas agreed.
Mickey and Xion both gasped, then realised that Riku and Roxas had a point. The two shared a concerned look before gazing to where Sora had walked off. Maybe they were over-reacting and it wasn't time yet.
They suddenly realised that Sora shouldn't get his hopes up.
Kairi was about to leave when Axel called her back, and he told her with great concern, "Please be careful. If anything happened to you, I'd never forgive myself."
"I promise." Kairi promised, before diving back underwater and leaving the very worried Axel behind.
While he was somewhat happy for his friend, it was very complicated. Not only that Sora was a human, but he was a human during the day and a giant flesh-eating Naga during the night, and unless Kairi suddenly turned either one, there was no way either of the two teenagers could be together.
And what if Sora didn't love her back?
"...Wish I could breathe underwater." Axel whispered to himself.
Hours later, Kairi was laying on the rock on the sea-floor, and while she was still looking out for any signs of danger in case Sora lost control in his Naga form again, she couldn't stop thinking about him in general. She told Scuttle the moment she left Axel and the seagull was delighted and wished her luck to meet Sora in his human form again.
Right now, she was happily lying on her front, plucking the petals from the sea-flower, wondering if Sora loved her back.
"...He loves me...he loves me not...he loves me...he loves me not...He loves me!" Kairi giggled happily and hugged the last petal. "I knew it! I knew it, I knew it!"
Immediately knowing what she had to do and knowing where Ariel and Flounder would be as they had shown her Ariel's collection in the cave she used earlier, Kairi said to herself, "Wait 'till I tell the others!"
It was late, and Axel was home right now. So Ariel and Flounder were Kairi's next bet.
Unfortunately, as she made to enter the cave when she got there, Kairi froze stiff just outside the entrance and stopped herself from gasping aloud. While two of her friends were inside the cave...so was Ariel's father, the aging ruler of merpeople; King Triton, and Sebastian the red Crab who was the King's advisor and composer. Also in the cave was a statue of a human prince, which Kairi quickly realised was quite possibly Prince Eric, and that...like Kairi, Ariel was in love with a human.
And Triton was shocked, dismayed and furious.
"...Have you lost your senses completely? He's a human, you're a mermaid!" Triton demanded.
"I don't care!" Ariel stubbornly replied, hiding behind the statue.
Even though she felt guilty for seeming abandoning her friends, Kairi quickly hid herself from and, hearing Triton use his magical Trident to destroy everything Ariel collected, the pink-finned mermaid, tears forming and unable to stand by, quickly swam away. Feeling like she was betraying Ariel by escaping, Kairi couldn't risk in suffering the same punishment and knowing that her friend is to be shunned and heartbroken for the rest of her life, it made her feel twice of an outcast now more than ever because Kairi herself was in love with a human, just like Ariel.
Unaware that once Triton was done and seeing his youngest daughter breakdown crying, he immediately felt guilty for losing his temper and ashamed, regretting what he had done. So he silently left, unable to look at Ariel in the eye.
Once in a safe distance and out of the sight of the King, Kairi sat on the ocean floor, leaning against the rock behind her and then buried her face in her arms and began crying herself.
What had she been thinking? Kairi couldn't meet Sora now, let alone be with him even if she wanted to. He was a human cursed to be a Naga at night, and she was just an orphaned mermaid, looked down by everyone except for her four only friends...
Well, one now. Kairi couldn't be near Ariel and Flounder, and Scuttle's life was probably at risk if Triton ever met him. So Axel was really the only friend she had left.
Even then, what if Triton discovered she had been breaking the rules that humans and merpeople should never be made contact?
This was all Ursula's fault! If that monster of a witch hadn't killed her parents, Kairi wouldn't be in this situation right now. She found herself very much alone all over again and she'd just been stripped from her friends without anything happening to them.
So lost in her thoughts and crying, Kairi didn't even notice that Ariel was being lead by two eels towards a nearby monster caven, followed secretly by Flounder and Sebastian, where Ursula resides.
Calming down a little after another five minutes, Kairi fingered her necklace and clutched it gently.
"Mother...I wish you were here. Why did you and Father had to be taken away from me? What can I do now?" Kairi whispered.
Meanwhile, Sora had been feeding on Seaweed again, and sighed. Despite that he really wanted to meet the mermaid again, he was afraid that he would end up losing control again and this time he would end up eating her up. He couldn't bear to handle it. Yes he was in love with her, but she was a mermaid.
Unless she turned into a human or Sora turned into a merman, he was stuck.
"Great. I finally found someone I'm in love with, and she's a whole different species! How can I live with that?" Sora groaned, wanting to smack himself for not thinking this through.
Sighing, Sora slumped. How was he going to make this less complicated?
Unfortunately, the familiar scent was caught and Sora quickly felt the familiar feeling he felt nearly five days ago and held his head, trying to mentally fight the Naga-side of him attempting to control him.
"No...! No! I won't...let you use me!...Ugh!" Sora grunted and hissed...and lost the fight once more.
Kairi was so absorbed in her newest problem and loniness, when she gasped as the familiar giant shadow loomed over her and before she could look behind her, Sora, once again possessed by his Naga-half, clasped her with his hand and began drawing her towards his face.
While inside his mind, Sora found himself suddenly restrained by a mental tail of a giant Naga.
'No! Let her go!' Sora pleaded, but he was trapped, and this time he was powerless as the mermaid he'd fallen in love with was going to be eaten and trapped inside his stomach. What would the others say about this? How could Sora live with himself like this?
"Let go of me!" Kairi cried out, but like before, she was powerless and helpless. This time the sun wouldn't rise on time and Sora was going to eat her for real. She shuddered, frightened as the Naga began to gobble her up and Kairi screamed while shutting her eyes.
Not that it mattered, because she lost everything and it was not only Ursula's fault, it was her own fault as well.
Sora gobbled the mermaid whole while possessed.
'Nooooooooo!' Sora screamed in horrified dismay as the Naga-side of him had gobbled up the girl of his dreams. Struggling to break free from the restrains, Sora pulled hard before he pulled himself out and without really thinking, punching the air in front of him.
This made him regain control of his own body and stopped himself from chewing the mermaid inside his mouth into pieces, but unfortunately inadvertedly swallowed hard and when he felt something lumpy and long slid down into his stomach, Sora gasped in horror at what'd just done.
"No...How did I...No!" Sora whispered, dismayed, guilt-ridden and heart-broken. He'd just swallowed the mermaid he loved whole, and now she was trapped inside his stomach. She was gone.
"...This wasn't what I wanted..." Sora choaked a sob, before breaking down crying, unaware of what was happening in Ursula's hovel behind him, until lights were flashing and soon Sora felt himself suddenly transform, and it didn't help that the sun was rising.
Quickly feeling the jolting pain, and clutching his stomach as he felt as though he was going to be sick, Sora knew that he had to resurface and fast despite knowing that he'd eaten an innocent mermaid who'd saved his life up. None the less, Sora quickly swam up towards the surface, but as his did, his body was going into full transformation and the rising inside him quickly grew.
Just as he neared the surface and his body was shrinking, Sora couldn't hold back anymore and unexpectedly spat out the still alive Kairi who was glowing herself unexpectedly and was holding the lower part of her body in agony, as she suddenly realised, upon being brought back out when she thought she would be trapped inside the terrifying giant stomach for the rest of her life, that she couldn't breathe. Water was getting uncomfortably into her body which never happened before.
Sora, almost fully human and briefly seeing Kairi, alive but in pain, gasped even when he was running out of air himself and without thinking, he reached and grabbed her wrist as he was back in normal side before they both quickly resurfaced, breathing in the early morning air, as did Ariel nearby them as Flounder and Sebastian carried her to shore.
Panting and losing consciousness, Sora carried the unconscious Kairi, holding her to his chest in one arm. Eventually the two crawled onto shore and collasped onto the sand on the beach. Sora by then passed out, unaware that the scar on his left hand faded behind his glove.
Kairi on the other hand, barely gazed at the familiar figure of Sora, muttering his name, before passing out herself. Unaware that her fin had transformed into a pair of legs.
She had become a human.
A/N: I think this story will be only three chapters because I didn't want to make it several chapters. Hopefully I'll be able to post the next chapter tomorrow.
See you then!