Disclaimer: Ponyo belongs to the most excellent Studio Ghibli. I love you guys.
Author's Note: How much do you remember, from when you were five?
Takes place eleven years post-movie.
Seafoam
She swam and swam through endless blue, wriggling her body and pushing through the cool water without any resistance at all.
There, below her, was the octopus, his tentacles curling hypnotically. There, above her, was the tuna, her strong steely body like quicksilver, how she moved! There, to her sides, were her sisters, so happy to see her, so glad just to be in her company. A warm contentment ballooned inside her.
In front of her was the bubble, shimmering in all the colors she knew and more besides. She swam down through the embrace of mother ocean, the words of greeting already on her lips…
~BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ~
Ponyo jerked awake with a start, and groaned. That stupid alarm! She had been having such a nice dream too, though she couldn't quite remember what about.
She flung her arm out and smacked the alarm clock. Moving slowly, she dragged herself out of bed and grabbed some clothes out of the dresser. Yawning and rubbing her squinting eyes, she pulled on her school uniform.
Still bleary, the fifteen-year-old clomped downstairs and spooned herself some yogurt with fruit. As she ate her breakfast, a teenage boy with a mop of dark hair came down and reached for the yogurt. "Get y'r own, Sos'ke," she mumbled, her mouth full.
"What? You're gonna eat all that?"
Ponyo rolled her eyes and swallowed. "There's not much left."
"Oh. Okay, guess I'll make toast."
They ate quietly, brushed their teeth, and got in the car, where Lisa drove the two teenagers to the train station.
On the train, Ponyo felt as though she was alone, though she and Sosuke were crowded by strangers on all sides. Everything on the train was bright, everything outside grey with the dawn. It was like being in a fish tank. She sighed, and leaned her head against the window. Soon, she had fallen asleep.
"So then, Hitomi was all, 'Oh, well, if he liked you so much, why didn't he invite you to see 'Ringu' with him?' And I said, 'Well, he knows I don't like scary movies!' So she went on and on and on about how it was the principle of the thing, and if he cared, he would have at least asked, and now I don't know what to think!"
Silence.
"Ponyo? Ponyo, aren't you listening?"
Ponyo looked up from her homework, frowning. "Huh?"
"Ponyo! Seriously! Isamu might not like me! I thought he did, but what if Hitomi is right and he doesn't? Maybe I should just forget about him."
Ponyo shrugged at her study partner. "I don't know, Tomomi. It was just one movie. And you don't even like scary movies."
"That's what I said."
Tomomi nodded, reassured of her position, and went back to her chemistry. "How many electrons are in oxygen, again?"
"Six, I think," said Ponyo absently.
Tomomi nodded and wrote something, then looked at Ponyo with her brow furrowed. "You're not doing your chemistry, are you?"
"Sure I am-"
Tomomi grabbed the redhead's paper, despite her protests. And indeed, none of the problems had been completed. Rather, Ponyo had made detailed drawings of squid, lobsters, and sharks all over the margins. Tomomi frowned.
"You're so gross. Why don't you ever draw something nice?"
Ponyo shrugged. "I draw whatever comes to mind."
"Well, your mind is somewhere at the bottom of the Mariana Trench!"
Ponyo forced a laugh. "I'll do my work. Just give it back, okay?"
"I don't think Nakamura Sensei will take this," commented Tomomi, but she handed it back.
When the study session was over, Tomomi left, and Ponyo went back to her drawings. Art was her favorite subject, though she didn't think she was good enough to be a professional artist.
Sosuke opened the door and looked around. "Oh! Did Tomomi leave already?"
"Yeah. You just missed her."
"Oh." Sosuke looked somewhat crestfallen. "I wanted to say hi."
Ponyo shrugged. "You can say hi tomorrow at school. She's in your social studies class, right?"
"I guess."
Sosuke walked over and peered over Ponyo's shoulder, at her drawings. "Nice fish."
"Oh?" Ponyo looked startled and tried to cover the drawing with her arm. "Um, thanks?"
"Don't cover it. What's it doing?"
"It's a remora. I'm going to add the shark later."
Sosuke smiled. "It's nice. It reminds me of that game we used to play, back when we were really little."
"Game?"
"You remember! Back when we first adopted you. It was the one where you were my pet fish, and we would, oh I can't remember, go on adventures or something?"
Ponyo smiled. "Oh yeah… I remember. I was like, the sea princess of fish, or something?"
Sosuke laughed. "That's right! Man, we were crazy!"
Ponyo looked up at Sosuke's grinning face, and was suddenly grabbed by the strange urge to kiss him. She blinked and looked away, gulping. Where had that come from? Sosuke was practically her brother, for goodness sakes!
Sensing her discomfort, Sosuke asked his sister what was wrong, but she just mumbled something about having to get back to her work, and pushed away her unfinished drawing of the remora.
Sosuke shrugged, and walked away.
She floated silently in perfect blue, clear as crystal and more vivid than air. She twisted her body from side to side and propelled forward, water about her, around her, in her.
The jellyfish rose in a soft, undulating column. The eels entwined through seaweeds, the tiny mysid shrimp swarmed like animate specks of dust, the squid jetted past, moving eerily without any visible means of propulsion. Her sisters swam up to greet her.
There was the bubble, reflective like glass, shimmering, and she swam towards it, opening her mouth to say-
There was a short transition break between social studies and math, and Ponyo looked up and waved to Sosuke as he came in. But he didn't wave back, and she saw with surprise that he was apparently engrossed in conversation with Tomomi. And instead of sitting next to his sister, Sosuke sat with Tomomi, a big silly grin on his face. Ponyo felt an odd twinge in her chest, and her hands felt clammy. What was going on? Sosuke had always sat with her in every class they shared since they were in kindergarten. Ponyo bit her lip. Maybe he just wanted a change, wanted to try something different. It didn't mean anything. She was just overreacting.
When Ponyo got home, she decided to take a quick dip in the water before Tomomi arrived for their study session. She changed into a bathing suit, walked down the steps to the base of the cliff, and jumped in.
"Cold!" she gasped. "Cold!"
But she stayed despite the chill and swam about, letting the salt water wash over her. She loved living by the sea. The air was just better here than inland, where her school was, and life here was certainly never boring! She buried her toes in the sand and let the waves massage her feet, she peered under rocks for crabs and brittle stars, and she floated on her back, just relaxing. When Ponyo finally climbed out of the water, her fingers were pruney and she was shivering. Still, it had been worth it.
Climbing the stairs to the house, Ponyo noticed that Tomomi's bicycle was parked by the house. Oh, she was here already? Ponyo supposed she must have spent too much time swimming. She hoped Tomomi wouldn't be mad.
"Tomomi!" she called, rubbing her self down with a towel. "Are you here? I'm sorry I'm late!"
When she got no answer, she frowned. Where was Tomomi? Ponyo looked in the kitchen, in her room, knocked on the bathroom door, and even checked in her mother's room. Finally, she checked in Sosuke's room.
"Sosuke, have you seen To-"
Ponyo stopped, her breath caught somewhere between her lungs and her mouth. Sosuke was there, and so was Tomomi. Their arms were around each other, and their lips were locked in a deep kiss. Ponyo's chest began to hurt, but she was held fast to the spot. She couldn't move.
Sosuke broke the kiss very suddenly, and looked at Ponyo in surprise. "Ponyo! I thought you weren't here…"
"I… I was swimming," she managed. She swallowed heavily, her stomach twisting in knots and her eyes burning. Why did she feel this way? Sosuke was like a brother, she'd known him since she was four, he should be able to do what he wanted…
Tomomi smiled shyly. "Sorry, Ponyo. Should we find someplace more private?"
Ponyo said nothing, just turned and ran so Sosuke wouldn't see her tears. Sosuke started to go after her, but Tomomi held out a hand to stop him.
"She's… shy…" stammered Sosuke. "And I want to make sure she's okay."
"Sosuke, come on, she'll be fine. She's your sister, not your girlfriend."
"I don't know…"
Tomomi stopped him talking with a light kiss, murmuring, "Forget it, Sosuke. Now, let's try this again…"
Ponyo didn't know what was happening to her. She was shivering, and though it was quite warm she felt terribly cold. She was crying uncontrollably, lying on her bed, a terrible grief she couldn't place overwhelming her. More tears, salt tears, seemed to be pouring from her eyes than she thought was humanly possible, and they kept coming. Something wild and rushing and white-capped was roiling inside her, heaving up and down, pounding on the shore and roaring in storm. Her hands grasped desperately at the covers as her insides churned and splashed, and she didn't know which way was up. She moaned and cried, and where were all these tears coming from?
The typhoon roared, and she was lost.
Sosuke bid Tomomi farewell, and she left having done absolutely no studying. The young man grinned and adjusted his shirt. That had been interesting to say the least. But not bad. Not bad at all.
He walked into the kitchen, thinking to get himself a snack, when he unexpectedly stepped into a puddle on the floor. He looked at it in surprise, then looked up. The ceiling was dripping water from a damp patch. Sosuke frowned. It wasn't raining, so what could be causing that? This part of the ceiling wasn't even under the roof! It was under Ponyo's room…
Suddenly seized with dread, Sosuke ran upstairs, panting. The carpet upstairs was wet, and his feet splashed through the water seeping from under Ponyo's door. Heart pounding, he opened the door, and more water poured out, soaking him. Sosuke stared in shock at the miniature ocean that filled the bedroom, flecked with foam and rocking from side to side.
"Ponyo!" screamed Sosuke, and he waded in, searching for his sister. But she was nowhere to be found. He ran down the stairs, following the flow of the water as it rushed out the front door. He leaned over the railing of the cliff and yelled Ponyo's name as the water crashed around him and flowed out to sea. There was no reply. She was gone.
The waves. The water, The blue. It was her dream, but she no longer had a body, no longer had to swim. Rather, she was the water, and all the movement that mattered was that of the earth, of the wind, of the moon, of the sea creatures that swam through her and lived in her.
"Mother?" she said. "Mother?" And she was answered with the most beautiful laughter and the most golden light. She swept without effort through the waters, and about her were her sisters, and oh! how they had grown! Such powerful, beautiful fish!
There was the bubble, surrounded with light and life, bursting, thrumming, vibrant life, and she laughed, because she knew where she was now.
"Father!" she cried. "Father, I'm home!"