Kurogane glared, staring at the sights around him. It looked and smelled like a place by the water, he thought. That would explain all the boat and fish shops after all. He began to walk forward, wanting to find a place to eat. A strange sound came from behind him, followed by the kids and the pork buns noises of shock and surprise. Damn, the mage was being stupid. Again.
"What the hell are you doing now-?" he began, turning and glaring at the blond man. Fai stood, bent over slightly, hands grasping his throat. He made small squeaking noises, then no noises at all.
"Fai-san!" Mokona cried from Sakura's shoulder, panicking as the man's throat began to glow softly.
"What the hell are you doing, mage?" Kurogane demanded, stomping over, Syaoran following. Fai, still clutching his neck, looked up to them, eye wide with confusion. He shuffled back, away from the group.
Suddenly, a small orb of light seeped out of his throat and between his fingers, and began to fly away. The man jumped after it, clawing the air as he tried to catch his voice. It began to fly away even faster, and Fai began sprinting after it under the moonlight, shrugging off his fluffy white coat as he went.
"Hey!" Kurogane yelled. He and the others began chasing after him, Syaoran scooping up the coat along the way.
Up ahead, Fai tried to yell, tell the strange light to come back. He only mouthed the words.
My…Voice! That's my voice!!
The orb raced along, approaching a shoreline. It raced over the water, hovering on the surface and taunting the wizard. The man's gaze hardened and he tore off his blue coat, and dove into the water. He began swimming out, determined to reclaim what was his.
The rest of the group had arrived, yelling for Fai to come back. He ignored them, and kept going. Suddenly, a shimmering hand shot out of the water, catching the voice. Fai tried to yell, grabbing the hand. He quickly recoiled, realizing that it was webbed.
What?
A woman's head broke the surface, gazing at him with curious purple eyes. Sakura gasped. The woman smiled acidly at Fai, kissing him quickly.
"This is mine now." She waved the small glowing orb in his face, smiling.
She then dove back under the surface, tail fin flicking against Fai's shin.
Fai floated there in the water, dumbfounded.
A fish- woman has just stolen my voice…
He turned to face the group. They stared back, mouths agape. None of them really had anything to say.
"Hey! Get out of the water, idiot!" a voice yelled from behind. A fisherman rushed up, yelling and spraying spit everywhere. Fai stared at him like he was a madman.
"Did you hear me? Get out, or the merpeople will claim you!" Fai began madly stroking back to the shore. He didn't seem to be making any progress. He felt the pull and tighten of a rope around his ankles, and his eye widened in fright. He had only the briefest second to take in air, before being dragged down.
F%**)&*$%#$*(&#&+)_&*_$#%&&((_#$#%**)&*)()_%$^^#&#*
Panic welled inside of the wizard's chest.
I'm going to drown! I need air!!
He clawed uselessly at the water, trying to swim back to the top. He was only pulled down faster. The pressure made his ears hurt.
Quickly coming to a decision, he twisted around, and began to try and free his feet. Surprising himself, he actually did, and began to madly swim back to the surface. A scream, much like his own, exactly like his in fact, met his ears, and he knew that whatever had caught him was coming back for him.
A black figure appeared out of nowhere, a glint of something long and sharp in its hands. Bubbles of silent terror erupted from Fai's mouth, and he spun to avoid its attack. The thing kept going, bringing its blade down on the strange fish chasing him. Fai could sense strongly what he knew was blood, and tried to not retch. He kept swimming, trying to get to the surface and fresh air.
Hands wrapped around his chest, pulling him up, and he began to struggle. It was so dark in the water, he could barely see anything! What if this was the merperson?
Why is it pulling me to the surface?
His lungs were burning; he only had so much air left…
The merperson screamed again, yelling in Fai's voice
"Mine! He's my human!"
Fai looked down and was barely able to make out the fish-woman, who was quickly getting closer, even through the veil of blood from across her cheekbones. Kurogane had clearly sliced her face open. With a burst of paranormal speed, the creature shot up towards them, latching on to Fai's ankle. The mage kicked out with the other foot, smacking her hard in the nose. The merperson shrieked one last time, and sped off.
The world suddenly went dark, and Fai went limp.
F%**)&*$%#$*(&#&+)_&*_$#%&&((_#$#%**)&*)()_%$^^#&#*
Kurogane strained with the effort. It was hard enough dragging a struggling idiot back up to the surface, but now that idiot had gone and passed out, making his job even harder. He began running out of precious air, and just when he was about to ditch the mage and swim up for air alone, his head broke the surface.
"Gak! Here! I got him!" he yelled over to the fisherman and the kids on the shore. Another person had appeared, a woman, the fisherman's wife, perhaps?
The ninja drug the mage ashore, laying him in the sand. Sakura and Mokona rushed forward, crying.
"Fai-san!" The woman quickly moved her out of the way, kneeling in front of Fai. She placed both of her hands on his chest, where his lungs were located, and swept them up, to and past his neck. A stream of water raced out between his lips, and the man began silently hacking and coughing.
"Fai-san!" Sakura cried, appearing on his other side. "Fai-san! Say something!"
The man's eye opened, and he tried to speak. Nothing came out except for a rush of air.
"I'm sorry."
Sakura read his lips, and then frowned sadly.
"What for, Fai-san?"
"I can't speak. The creature stole my voice."
Sakura looked over to Syaoran, tears in her eyes. He rushed over, eyes full of concern. Fai had fallen asleep by then, exhausted from his dive. Kurogane growled, picking up his cloak and headpiece up from the sand where he had dropped them earlier. The fisherman walked up to him, staring into his red eyes.
"Not many have ever dared to dive in and save someone from a merperson like that, boy."
Kurogane just shook water out of his hair. The man chuckled.
"Strong silent type, eh?" Syaoran rose and walked over to him.
"Sorry for disturbing you, sir. My name is Syaoran, that is Kurogane, Sakura, Mokona, and Fai." He said, pointing to each person as he said their name. The man shook his hand.
"Name's Hans. And this," he walked over and wrapped an arm around the woman's shoulders "Is my beautiful wife, Ariel."
"Pleasure to meet you all, even under these…strange circumstances." She said, smiling.
"You guys look like you could use a place to stay." Hans said
"How's about you come with us back to our place? We have spare rooms, food, all that stuff."
"Thank you, we would like that very much." Syaoran said.