"Prince Tezuka, please put on your coat. You might catch your death of a cold on the ship," Oishi, faithful servant of the Tezuka family and the person closest to the prince, urged, worried as usual.

"Oishi, I'm already in seven layers of clothing. It is highly unlikely that I will catch a cold in this," Prince Tezuka replied expressionlessly.

"But the wind will be very strong on the ocean. We do not want you to—"

Prince Tezuka sighed. "Oishi, if I put on anymore clothes I will look like a bear. Why don't you go and prepare your own outfit?"

"Um… yes, prince!" Oishi cried nervously and disappeared.

"You don't have to call me prince," Prince Tezuka sighed again, but he doubted that his comment would be of any use.

"Prince, the wound on your shoulder—" All of a sudden, Oishi came dashing back into the room, looking even more concerned.

"I'm fine, Oishi," Prince Tezuka took a deep breath and spoke. "I'm seventeen, you know."

"I… I'm sorry, prince," Oishi stammered, and was out of sight in a flash again.

Prince Tezuka sighed to himself. He hated the fact that he was a prince. Because he was a prince, everyone was somehow in awe of him and constantly worried that they would offend him. Sometimes he would rather be born a normal person, with friends and schoolmates and maybe ordinary hobbies, like tennis. How could he not let his guard down with all these people pampering him? It took him all his determination and self-control to stay constantly on guard just like a good prince should.

"Prince Tezuka, it's time to board." Kaidoh, another attendant of Tezuka's, came to remind him. Kaidoh, who wore a bandanna even when he was working in the palace, was a diligent and hardworking person. Tezuka liked Kaidoh's company better than Oishi's, mainly because he didn't chatter so much and rarely fussed over Tezuka at all.

"Kaidoh, did you go to that game show Sasuke again today?" Tezuka attempted to make small talk, seeing that Kaidoh looked visibly tired.

"Fshuu… yes. I am sorry, Prince Tezuka." Kaidoh blushed.

"I never said you shouldn't go." Tezuka sighed. He hated it that everyone was apologizing to him all the time, even if there was nothing to apologize about.

"Thank you, Prince Tezuka," Kaidoh murmured shamefacedly, gesturing at the ship. "Please board the ship this way, Prince Tezuka."

"Did you win in that game show?" Tezuka asked.

"Fshuu… no, I've lost again." Kaidoh hung his head in shame.

"Don't worry, as long as you don't let your guard down, you are sure to succeed," Tezuka assured.

"Thank you, Prince Tezuka."

Having finished his conversation with Kaidoh, Tezuka headed towards the large ship, nodding at all the people who were waving or bowing at him. It was indeed a cold day. The sun had already set, and a few stars were twinkling in the night sky. Tezuka hoped to himself that the fireworks, later, would not scare the stars away.

Ten years ago, when Tezuka was seven, there had been another fireworks display, though Tezuka did not remember much of it. Now, ten years had passed and Tezuka had become old enough to host this grand event in place of his elderly parents. Quite a lot had changed.

Tezuka stood at the head of the ship, leaning against the sidebars and watching the sky.

The night was beautiful. As Tezuka looked up at the sky, he vaguely felt the ship lurching to a start. The slow, rocking motion of the ship was soothing and felt rather nice.

But Oishi will probably throw up, Tezuka noted to himself.

He was right. Oishi, who had been hanging around the prince waiting for any orders, suddenly muttered a quick "sorry Prince Tezuka I… I &(#" and disappeared from the deck.

"Useless sissy," Akutsu, the captain of the ship, commented. Besides being the captain of one of the royal family's ships, Akutsu had been a slave of the royal family since Tezuka was very young. Akutsu did the laundry, swept the floors and even planted cabbage in the castle garden. Having always been such an irreplaceable person in the palace, Akutsu had high expectations of himself and others. Sometimes, when he was not busy working, he would find a quiet place to ponder on the true meaning of life.

"Akutsu, you can't blame Oishi for being easily seasick," Tezuka reproached sternly. Oishi was his closest friend, after all.

"Sorry, Prince Tezuka," Akutsu scowled, and concentrated on steering the ship.

"Prince Tezuka!" Momo, another attendant of the prince's, came charging at them all of a sudden, smacking Tezuka on the back happily. "The fireworks display is starting right now. You can't see it all from here. Let's go to the starboard side."

"My… my back," Tezuka groaned, but was dragged away anyway. There was nothing he could do to teach Momo to be quieter or less violent, and had already given up trying. Momo was one of the only two in the palace who dared to act this impolitely towards the prince. The other one was Hiyoshi Wakashi who worked in the kitchen and made his living breeding cats and catching mice. Hiyoshi had often declared that he wanted to gekokujou Tezuka, and was usually severely beaten by the other people in the palace because of course they loved their prince. This story has nothing to do with Hiyoshi Wakashi though, so we might as well forget about him.

--

The fireworks were certainly an amazing sight. Everyone stared in awe at the colorful spectacle in the velvety black sky. Momo actually forgot to eat. Akutsu, watching such a beautiful scene, started to ponder on the true meaning of life again.

As he was pondering on the true meaning of life, Akutsu came across a weird sight in the ocean. Since everyone was busy gazing at the fireworks, as the captain who had to pay attention to the ocean no matter what, he was the only one who noticed this at all.

Not far away from the ship, a fish tail stood above the surface.

"That can't be. Something must be wrong with my eyes," Akutsu decided out loud. He had always been confident in his eyesight, but that was just plain impossible. How could there be a fish tail standing there vertically above the surface?

"I need a checkup at the optometrist," Akutsu thought, rubbing his eyes. After all, the last time he had a checkup on his eyes was before he got his driver's license, and that was quite a long time ago.

To Akutsu's surprise, his wish was immediately granted. Many "E" shaped symbols were blatantly painted on the large fish tail. They opened towards different directions; the higher ones were larger, while the symbols at a lower position gradually decreased in size.

"Must be that God heard my wish." Akutsu nodded and started taking this eyesight test. "Left. Right. Up. Left. Can't see. Uh…right? Left. Down. Can't see. Don't know. Right. Right."

The following words appeared on the tail right away. "Akutsu-san, you got only half of the answers correct on your eyesight test. You need glasses."

"W-wait! Who are you? How do you know my name?" Akutsu screamed, suddenly noticing that while he was so busy taking his eyesight test, the ship had veered itself into the area that all smart fishermen avoided. The weather changed drastically, and the ship spun out of control from the strong gust. Akutsu, realizing his mistake, tried to steer the ship back on course, but could hardly grab hold of the steering wheel. All he could do before he went toppling into the water was to shout towards the royal family whom he had loyally served his whole life. "Hold on! Put on your lifejackets! Tie yourself to the—" Then he disappeared.

"Akutsu!" Tezuka called out the name of this loyal slave, but Akutsu could hear no more.

Having been a slave since forever, Akutsu had never got a chance to learn to swim. As soon as he fell into the raging ocean, his chances of survival were as nonexistent as the chances of survival for cabbage inside cabbage soup.

Struggling against the menacing waters, Akutsu pondered on the true meaning of his short life for the last time. As everything turned to darkness, he could only pray that his carelessness would not cause the people on the ship to suffer. He was, after all, a very loyal slave.

--

Akutsu's prayers went unanswered. The ship, without a reliable captain, bumped into several jagged rocks and was soon in great trouble. The area that all smart fishermen stayed away from was certainly notorious for a reason. It suddenly began pouring, and the waves had become so large, the wind so strong, that the ship could hardly stay upright. Hotheaded Momo tried to control the ship, but never having been properly trained on steering ships, could hardly keep a grip on the steering wheel and was thrown out, hitting his head on the safety bars of the ship and started bleeding madly.

"Fshuu… idiot," Kaidoh hissed, handing Momo his bandanna to stop his bleeding.

"Well, at least I'm not stupid enough to fall into the ocean," Momo commented as he thankfully accepted the bandanna. As he was doing so, the ship took another dangerous dip and the two watched with open mouths as their prince went crashing into the ocean.

"Uh, I'll take back my last comment," Momo said.

"Damn," Kaidoh cursed under his breath and went after their prince.

"Wait, I wanna go too," Momo, who loved to tag along at all times, cried.

"Stop your bleeding first, idiot," Kaidoh yelled, scanning the surface worriedly for any sign of his prince. Not finding any, he clambered over the guarding rails and threw himself into the water.


TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome.

To saya: Thanks for the review:) Glad you liked it.

To Elyon: Thanks for the review:D I'll update every week, I hope...

To kalista jia: Thanks for the review:D I'm sure Tezuka will be attractive in any color.