The nasty man drank alcohol from a stinking, half empty bottle, sitting on a rock with his feet submerged on the seashore.
-today…. * Hic ... is sure to come down ... I'm going to have a lot of fun with the ... hic * -
There was a child who used to go down alone at this dangerous risk, liked to look for trinkets in the sand as he watched the sun reflect in the waves and splash in the water.
Perfect ... nobody who had three neurons in the coconut, would go down to that place.
No one would notice if the child did not come home after playing.
He heard a whispering voice approaching and he turned his head with a smile, had it already arrived? He show a smile of yellow teeth, which changed with a grimace of terror.
- W-What?-
Then everything was a blur of claws and teeth.
A red spot floated and was quickly undone by the infinite water of the sea.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Ace was about ten years old when he first saw him.
He was not a very sociable boy and he liked to walk alone on the beach, collecting snail shells to sell and occasionally splashing under the pier where people's eyes could not reach him.
One day as normal as any other decided it would be a good idea to go down the cliff in the northern part of his island now that the tide was low. Sometimes when he had ventured to that rocky ledge from which the adults warned him to stay away, he would find marine treasures that could not be seen anywhere else on the island.
He came down the ledge, clinging to the rocks and edges of the precipice, aware that he had at least three hours before the tide began to rise and killed him flattened against the sharp tips of the wall.
Once he got to the end of his tour he began to dig in the sand in search of trinkets until he heard a splash.
I lift my head and look around, confused because no one else was with him, and there was no one so stupid as to go down the cliff.
He did not count, because he was not stupid, he was very brave, that is something else.
Before I could lower my head again the kid hear the noise again.
This time he got up, invaded by curiosity, and began to walk farther in, where there was a cave made by the waves that was a deadly trap when the tide was high, because it was full of pikes and bumps.
He came to where the standing water rose a little above his knees, not ready to go further because even if he knew how to swim, he was not going to enter a potentially deadly place just out of curiosity.
About twenty or twenty-five meters he saw the cause of the noise. He could not make out the figure but he looked like a man, a man holding a lump in his arms that he could not make out either. What he did know was that the other seemed to be eating.
"H-hello?" Ace stammered and saw the person looking in his direction.
He stepped back instinctively until he was back in dry sand and saw the man sinking into the water in his direction, leaving the lump in the water that sank like a stone.
The boy felt a chill run down his spine and a warning from his mind that shouted to him that he ran and climbed the abyss without looking back.
Before he could do that, a head with blond hair looked out over the water and looked at it
His eyes were dull and blue-sky eyes bright. When he started to leave the water, Ace saw that there was a blue glow beneath the man and he could not help but lean a little to look more closely.
A tail.
"Hey?" The little boy was entranced looking at the end that ended in the adult man's hip. He did not notice the other examining him in the same way.
Finally he came to his senses and began to retreat without ceasing to look at the grown man who sat on the sand with his tail submerged and looked at him very curiously.
Slowly the fish-tailed man extended his right arm toward him and curved his fingers inward again and again, calling him back.
But Ace was not so stupid as to fulfill that request and turning around he ran all the way until he started climbing and disappeared from sight very soon running to his house, his treasures left behind in the race.
The Merman watched the boy disappear and crawled into the cave smiled darkly as he began to swim back to his recently abandoned meal.
He would not eat human children because they were too skinny. Adult men or women were better, with large amounts of fat and muscle.
Like the one I was eating at the time.
Of course the story that Ace told his family was not believed.
They mocked the child by saying that he had a vivid imagination and that such things did not exist.
No one told him that there was a missing person from the neighboring colony.
Do not care how much he insisted, it was always the same answer.
Maybe that's why the kid ended up believing that what had seen was not real and I consider it safe to go back to risk.
The next few weeks nothing happened and so Ace completely lowered his guard and his routine returned to normal, collecting conch shells and lost things that he considered treasures.
One day while he slept in the shade of a palm tree, he felt someone splashing again, opened his eyes, imagining that he was one of the children in the village trying to annoy him and had to blink several times at the sight.
A little beyond the beach, above the waves could see the floating shape of the newt that watched from a distance.
He rubbed his eyes and narrowed them to make his vision clearer.
The same blond hair, fair skin and that bright blue tail that looked like flames dancing under the water.
He approached the shore of the sea to observe it better.
He was too young to understand such concepts as beauty and attractiveness but he could say that it was a strangely beautiful sight.
He sat on the edge of the sea where the water rose to his feet and he did not realize the quick and decisive way in which the other was approaching.
He was watching a crab walk when the water splashed it and raised its head again.
It was there, next to him.
Ace was surprised and yes no shouting was because he was too confused to do it.
I leap backwards stumbling over his own feet and falling on his butt.
Many affirmations and responses came at the same time.
Yes, he was a mermaid.
No, I was not hallucinating.
Run damn!
He could not do it and he was paralyzed watching as he dragged himself a little through the sand in his direction.
He could hear her voice, which seemed very strange because the other did not open his mouth once.
He was asking her to come closer, he called softly.
Nope.
The voice that was thick but gentle in tone and it was supposed that a tone like that usually caused Ace some tranquility, but instead, his whole body shouted danger.
Damn his cowardly legs that did not work.
Just as the other's webbed hand extended to his face, inches away from touching him, a voice broke the spell.
"Ace!" Was the neighbor's boy who followed Ace around, begging for friendship.
Luffy, he remembered his name.
The fish-man stepped back instinctively and plunged into the waves, giving him one last look.
"Luffy!" Ace felt a terrible weight leave his heart. "What are you doing here?"
- came to get you, Makino made lunch and you are invited - the boy smiled innocently and Ace instinctively knew that he had not seen the other.
"ok" got up and shook his clothes, following the boy.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
From that moment forward, his sense of self-preservation that he never knew he had until now, I urge you not to go alone to the beach, and by no means to immerse yourself in the sea.
He had more encounters, but they were far away, staring at each other from a distance, though the soft voice of the other tried to draw him toward the sea.
When he was fifteen and had the age and the necessary permission to look for a job, he opted for the fisherman's.
His island survived from fishing and other minor tasks, but the most profitable was to fish, since in other jobs had to be killed as an animal to get food daily.
Ace never again mentioned the history of his encounters with the sea monster, to avoid rumors about freaking out or smoking who knows what.
As he entered the sea for his first voyage, he realized at last, the way he was in the land of the newt.
Fuck.
No one seemed to notice that the blond was swimming near the boat, the boy could only relate it to a shark, the way it moved and seemed to surround the ship.
He strangely began to receive gifts.
Hecould not prove it but was sure it was the other one who gave it to them.
In addition to the good fishing they had whenever he could see the blond swimming around his boat, were obviously objects from the bottom of the sea, that were entangled in the nets that Ace was in charge. Pearls, occasionally some gold object, things probably sunk long ago.
He was sixteen when something happened that changed his perspective of the newt for good.
He had been hired by a new fishing vessel under the command of a man who called himself a black beard.
He was a man already in his forties, obese but strong and who offered the young men of the port a lucrative job in a short time.
Needless to say, more than one was attracted to the proposal and Ace himself enlisted in the man's crew.
They set out from the port with incredible speed and in a few days found themselves in the open sea, following the instructions of the captain who was looking for a shoal of strange and valuable fish.
But once they were far from the harbor, everything had become much darker for the young helpers.
The man had changed his way of acting and had revealed himself as a slave merchadist.
Ace and the other boys resisted forcefully, but were outnumbered and armored by being cornered on deck and chained.
As the men celebrated their new "cargo" Ace worked with a small pickup that Luffy had given him, trying to get the chains safe and do something to avoid his fate.
That's when he saw it.
Looking at him from the waves as always.
Just as the sound of the wrist closure was activated and his hands were released, just as the black beard and his companions realized that Ace was free and pounced on him ...
Just at that moment the mermay sing.
It was not a familiar language, it was the only thing Ace could think of.
If anything in the world could be compared to that moment, then it would have to be ecstasy.
The song was heard all over the ship. It was beautiful, perfect, heard from every corner, every vent, as if it were everywhere and nowhere.
Then the young man realized the effect this had on the other crew.
They were enthralled, staring out at the sea where the blond-haired mermay kept singing. Ace walked over to the railing, and looked at the water.
"God ..." He covered his mouth, looking at the water around him.
It was full of them.
Yellow, green, black, pink ... could see fins of all colors moving under the water and around the boat.
He looked at the crew of the slaver and saw that they were walking very slowly, with faces of idiots, almost drooling, towards the edge of the boat.
His friends were in the same state and thanked mentally because they were chained and could not move.
Looked back at the water where the most beautiful men and women he had seen began to come out one by one.
They looked at the crew and held out their arms to them, smiling, kind, almost loving.
It was not many seconds before the first one leapt into the air into the arms of one of the most beautiful creatures.
As soon as touched the mermaid's arm, it immersed itself along with it into the depths.
Then another and another, until there was only a black beard in the sea.
And her newt.
The voice did not stop as it swam toward the captain of the ship.
Ace watched with curiosity as he reached the man and stopped his singing.
Black beard seemed confused for a second, before realizing his situation and staring with terror at the creature at his side and screaming for help.
The newton took the nasty man in his arms and Ace felt strangely confused.
Then the fish man smiled.
he had never seen him smile before, it was just a twist of lips that let him see ... now he knew it was probably to give him some security. Because what was hidden in his mouth was a row of sharp, shiny teeth.
Which the fish-man nail on the man's neck with fury
Ace fell silent on his knees before the scene, his jaw inevitably down, at the sight of the carnage.
So far, he had seen the merman as a harmless inhabitant of the sea, who followed him everywhere and gave him gifts from time to time.
And now he was looking at that same being, devouring the black bearded captain, tearing the flesh, tearing away the muscles and bones as if they were paper.
He looked out over the sea, looking for some comfort in the blue waters, and found only something more horrible.
All the water around the ship was red ...
The other sirens ...
He tried to vomit but his stomach refused, and although the scent of blood invaded his nose, and could hear the beating of his heart in his ears, he could not get away.
In the end, the newt released the shattered remains and let them sink into the sea.
Then he looked back.
And he smiled.
No curfew, just like the predator he was.
With jaw and teeth stained red.
Like the mortal creature he always was.
The worst part was that he loved him, as she made him understand as he stretched out his arms toward him and called out softly.
He threw something into the boat, and Ace heard the clank of the keys fall.
Come on, follow me…
No, no, no, no.
Jump in the water ...
Ace recoiled at every word.
His body burned in disgust.
He should not want to jump.
And yet the boy wanted to.
He was terrified and still wanted to move and join the man in the water.
The temptation of a demon.
The cries of his companions crying for help drew him out of his hypnosis and ran towards them without looking back, where the newt was submerged in the water with a mischievous smile, leaving behind only a red stain