A/N: About two weeks ago, I played Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea and promptly fell in love. This is based on what I think might have happened after Normal Ending 2.
Like I said, trigger warnings for self-harm and suicide.
When Samekichi wakes up, the room's too quiet.
The smell of blood is heavy in his nose but he can't hear anything aside from his own heart beat and breathing. Where's Sal? More importantly, where's Wadanohara?
He forces himself upright even though his torso throbs dully. His mind is spinning, trying to piece together what happened before he…blacked out?
He remembers that filth, Sal, telling Wadanohara that the only way to save the sea and him was to trust him, and he remembers her telling the white shark that she couldn't do that. Then things got a little fuzzy. He remembers Sal saying that he would deal with that, but then he remembers Sal suddenly appearing in front of him.
And then pain.
And then nothing.
So what happened? Did Sal…?
No, the water around him feels better, warmer, more welcoming. It no longer feels tainted by the Sea of Death, that force of pain and darkness and cold.
Samekichi stands and looks around. His eye hurts and he distantly knows he needs to get it treated but all he can think about is Wadanohara, his beloved Sea Witch. Where is she? Something feels off, even when he had forced himself to be away from her he had still felt her, if it could be called a feeling. More of an intuition that she was OK, that she was safe.
Now that intuition is telling him that something is wrong, very wrong and it's putting him on edge.
Before he's fully figured out what to do, he's running, out of those damned caves and into the open waters of the Old Sea. He's in shark form without thinking, streaking off to the Castle, hoping, praying that Wadanohara's there, that she's safe. But if she is, she wouldn't have left him bloody and bruised in the Old Sea caves. She isn't like that.
He's at the Castle bridge and humanoid again and can see people standing in front the castle building, looking up at the pearl hanging over the roof. He doesn't understand why they're gawking, it's just the pearl, it's always—
Then it hits him and suddenly he thinks he knows what drowning is like.
Sal destroyed the pearl, that's what let the Sea of Death in. Only one person has the power to create another pearl and that is…
He can't breathe, his heart's beating too fast and his legs have turned to jelly. His knees ache as they hit the ground but it feels so dull compared to the pain in his chest. He scrunches his eyes shut, well, eye, the other won't even open, and clenches fistfuls of his hair in his hands, claws digging into his scalp.
It can't be, she wouldn't—but she would. She cared so much about everything, about everyone that she fucking would give her life to save the Sea, wouldn't she?
It hurts so much and he wants it to stop, all of it, he wants it to just stop. He wants Wadanohara to pop out somewhere with a sheepish grin saying it was a joke, he wants to see her other familiars laugh at him for being so easily duped because while it would be humiliating and embarrassing it would be so much better than this cursed reality.
He's sobbing and his shoulders are shaking and his heart is breaking and he just wants to die.
He couldn't protect her, everything he did was so futile. Stupidly, foolishly, he thought that once Wadanohara remembered what had happened before, they could beat Sal and the Sea of Death and be together again. He thought that maybe he'd been given a second chance at telling her how he felt. But he'd been stupid and naïve, like a pup. And now he has to live with the consequences of his own inadequacies.
Sound is ringing in his ears and he doesn't register people coming up to him and trying to offer some sort of comfort. He can't breathe, can't speak, can't feel anything aside from all this pain.
Mercifully, he supposes, he blacks out.
It takes a while to sink in. Even three weeks after the Sea of Death had been sealed away again, it still doesn't quite feel real.
It still hits him hard every time he wakes up. Nowadays he just tries not to sleep. The nightmares aren't worth it.
Most of the time he dreams of Sal hurting her instead of him and that he is still just as powerless to stop it. But sometimes he dreams of memories with Wa—her, back before Sal fucked up her memories. Back when it was just them two, together, running stupid errands and having fun. Those dreams are the worst, because they hurt so much more.
They remind him of what he has lost and what he can never have again.
He spends most of his time in solitude. At first it was hard to get out of bed, but staying in bed meant people would come be with him and he couldn't bear it. So he forces himself out of bed and forces himself to swim somewhere remote where he can lie down and blank his mind.
Sometimes he just lies down and cries till he passes out, other times he will think about all the ways he can kill Sal, could've killed Sal before he fucked everything up. Occasionally he would think about how he can kill himself.
He finds some jagged rocks he could cut himself with or impale himself on. He finds some strong seaweed that he could wrap around his throat and squeeze the breath out of him. It's cowardly, he knows, but it is all he can think to do. It is all he can think he deserved.
Obviously, Wadanohara (her name makes his heart ache horribly every time he thinks it) would've hated him for it, would've been angry at him for throwing his life away but goddamnit, he can't find it in himself to care.
He loves her and he's the reason she was gone and he can't take it.
It's at that point he thinks it would be best if he got out of the sea for a little bit.
So then he spends most of his time curled up on top of a large rock in his humanoid form, watching the water move below him. Like this, he can almost pretend it's that wretched time after Sal messed with her memories but before he truly fucked shit up. He can pretend she's in the witches' world with her other familiars and that he's just waiting for her to come back so that he can apologize.
Then that pesky octopus finds him and reminds him that his loss is all too real.
Deep down, under all the hurt, he knows Tarako is just trying to help, trying to bring him back to reality but it hurts too much.
Without Wadanohara in the sea, there seems to be little point in staying there, little point in the staying in the whole goddamn world.
That's what pushes him over the edge in the end.
He knows that if he had sacrificed himself for her, she would've carried on, gotten stronger to protect all those around her. But he can't do that. He isn't that good, that selfless. The fact that she sacrificed herself to not only save the sea, but him as well, hurts all the more and just gives him another reason.
He decides to go with impaling in the end. Quick, easy and the blood is an incentive for other predators to get rid of his carcass. He wants to join his witch in the spirit of the sea.
When he comes to, he's surrounded by blue.
One of the first things he notices is that he can see with both eyes again. The second thing he notices is that there is a girl dressed in shining blue just ahead of him.
She has medium length brown braids in her hair and a floppy hat over her head with stars and ribbons decorating it.
He takes a tentative step forward and she turns around to smile at him. It's almost enough to reduce him to tears again.
"Hello Samekichi," Wadanohara says happily, tilting her head to side slightly as she beams at him, clutching her staff with both hands. "I didn't expect to see you so soon."
"I didn't want to keep you waiting," he says with a shrug and he can't help but laugh when she scowls.
"You're too early," she scolds. "You were supposed to have a full and happy life."
It breaks his heart. He steps towards her, mask leaving his face completely for once. She looks up in surprise as he looks down at her, expression a mixture of pain and frustration.
"How, in the name of the Great Sea God, did you think I could be in any way happy without you?" he murmurs, cupping her cheeks with his gloved hands. "Wadanohara, you're so stupid sometimes."
She blinks up at him, gaping slightly, before tears form in her eyes and she starts to smile again. "I forgot again," she whispers. "But I remember now."
"Good."
Then he pulls her into a tight hug, knocking her hat off and forcing her to let go of her staff, but neither of them care. She starts mumbling into his jacket and at first he can't make out what she's saying but after a while he can.
"I love you too, Samekichi," she says. "More than anyone."
He's so unbelievably happy.
Fukami knows about an hour before Memoca and Dolphi would come up to him, escorting a traumatised Tarako, wailing about blood and sharks and the Lonely Isle.
He's taken to watching the new pearl and he sees it. For a moment, it pulses and shines brighter before returning to its normal glow. That is when he knows.
Samekichi had taken Wadanohara's death harder than the rest of them had, except for perhaps Tatsumiya, himself, and the other familiars. The shark had clearly been falling apart.
On one tentacle, Fukami is glad the shark familiar found peace. On another, he's angry he'd taken his life, it meant they were left to clear up after him and deal with the aftermath his death caused.
But Fukami knows Wadanohara wouldn't have liked him to hold onto old resentments and so he merely sighs and, when the other familiars arrive, he follows them into the castle to speak to the princess and help Tarako.